001everyone can I get a motion to reconvene to the regular meeting of the parisal Township High School Board of Education second J please call Mr Alexander Mrs mrone hi Miss [Music] panderson she's here uh Miss Grant hi Mr valz hi Miss barbam I motion carried we are in Open Session and 707 please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag United States of am liberty and justice for all can you please read the statement through expectations of excellence and by providing bless you Equitable educational opportunities to empower each student our graduates are prepared for college careers and to serve as contributing members of a dynamic Global Society at this time the Board of Education opens the floor for Public public comment the board will receive public comment from any individual present this evening have submitted a
002request to address the board for the established procedures comments will be limited to 3 minutes in accordance with v policy 2230 unless you requested 5 we believe that all participants in the meeting desire the best outcome for our students families and communities as a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and will be archived and available on the district website our first comment is John Lani hi everyone good evening evening good evening um good evening Board of Education thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today um I've come before you today as the president of uh Professor teachers union and of course a representative of local 571 um United in our commitment to the education wellbeing of all of our students um we youve noticed on March 4th we chose to
003wear blue and solidarity uh I am here to seek your support in our fight for full Federal funding for education and cause that is crucial for U the future of our students and of course our ch um our schools in 20124 the US Department of Education allocated $1.2 billion in Title One funds to Illinois These funds are essential for schools serving many children from low-income families additionally nearly 1 billion was provided to support the education of students with disabilities These funds of course are a Lifeline that ensures our schools can provide quality education and necessary resources to our most vulnerable students imagine the scenario where Illinois loses Federal funding the impact would be devastating schools would of course face significant budget cuts uh leading to of course changes in class sizes reducing uh support services
004and of course fewer educational resources programs that are vital to the academic and Social Development of students such as after school tutor special education services and mental health support would also be at risk our teachers and support staff who work carelessly to create a nurturing and effective learning environment would be stretched even thinner compromising the quality of Education our students receed the loss of federal funding would of course disproportionately affect schools and marginalized communities these are the schools that R heavily on Title One funds to bridge the gap created by economic disparities without the support the educational inequities that we have worked so hard to address would widen leaving our most vulnerable students further behind it is at least in my feeling um our ethical and moral duty to protect our students especially those marginalized
005in the community who deserve the same opportunities for success as any other child we must remember that education is not just a privilege but uh for a few but a fundamental right for all by ensuring full Federal funding for Education we are investing in the future of our children and our society we are giving every children re regardless of their background or circumstances the chance to reach the full potential we urge you as members of the school board to stand with us in this fight advocating for continuation and expansion of federal funding for Education using your voices our voices as the influence to ensure that our schools receive the support they need to provide high quality education for all students together we can make a difference and create a brighter future for our children in
006our community thank you for your time conserves thank you lcia Hi how are you all doing my name is rette Garcia I've been working in District 209 for 28 years uh in that time I uh signed up for voluntary deduction for uh savings with imrf so there was a rumble going around that the imrf had not received any of our account money so I made an appointment I saw and talked to a representative there and I asked her the question did you receive any concerned about my money did you receive any of my money for 2024 or the beginning of 2025 she said no she said that the district did not send any money for my for my account for the year of January to December 2024 and the beginning of 2025 up until the
007present I called my account there's nothing in it now I want to know if they're taking money out of my account every day here so you can see they're taking money out of my account every month okay sorry and I want to know where my money went to I spoke to the business office I spoke to Miss Watson Hill I spoke to Miss Watson Miss Jean Miss Turner and it seem like to me I'm getting to run around when I spoke to uh uh imrf representative she said they were waiting on the district to send the account money but when I talk to the district they said they're waiting on imrf so I don't know who to believe I got into this savings so for a rainy day I'd be able to get money out
008if my rainy day comes I won't be having I won't have the money so I'm trying to figure out what happened you taking the money every pay period for since 2016 what happened to my money why is there not deposit into my account I'm kind of baffled because somebody I know you don't know but I came here because I was dissatisfied with the answers that I was getting and when I was getting it was no answer that was satisfactory to me so I'm coming to you for help to see if you all can investigate to find out why the district 209 have not put money in any of their accounts and another thing is that starting in January 2025 federal state federal and state law says that on our checks we have have a detail
009of what's going on in our in our check account and on our checks that's not the case if you look there you will see that they got a lot of zeros but no no dollar signs to back it up and I'm trying to figure out why is that you want me to show you what I'm talking about about oh few minutes left so if you all could just please find out what's going on with my money can I please send my papers keep thank you you all have a great day thanks for listening great I guess uh first the best part of the evening is our recognition of students and staff so tonight we're honored to recognize an exceptional student from provisonal Math and Science Academy Josiah Davis Josiah's dedication to music earned him a
010well-deserved spot in the Illinois music education association's All State student Orchestra Josiah who play the violin perform at the ilmea convention in Poria earlier last month jiah's passion and perseverance along with his support of his teachers and family have propelled him to the to this remarkable achievement his commitment to his craft his drive to improve and his dream to become a professional violinist is truly inspiring please join us in celebrating Josiah for his outstanding accomplishment and to conclude this special recognition Josiah is going to Prov is going to uh please us with a brief Musical selection so you want to do it here if I may Josiah was actually selected for the honors Orchestra so there's the All State Orchestra and the honors Orchestra so he was a yeah I got to add that because
011and he's only a sophomore and he's only going up for from here um so got a lot of while he setting up he shared with me the name of the song he's playing is preludium and Allegro and the artist is Fritz kaisler and this particular song his teacher selected for him and he said between the two of them they often switch up who who picking the selection that for tonight his teacher selected this song [Music] the [Music] e for [Music] the [Music] a [Music] uh the [Music] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] best board ji we have the certificate for you congratulations that's pretty amazing what you're doing congratulations and we get to listen to you for two more [Applause] years okay we'll get one with just side and get one with
012this right this one two great family wants to come let give a round of applause for the [Applause] parents right this way one two three all right [Applause] I heard someone say this might be the best board meeting I think they might be right from our culinary students preparing a meal to having music from one of our students and we get to conclude by honoring one of our one of our most amazing teachers that we have here in the district um as a science teacher at pisal West for over 7 years Miss Daniel English um does not fail to surprise on a daily basis dis English has demonstrated her commitment to students success um her Innovative teaching methods passion for education and dedication to her students have not gone unnoticed this year she was recognized
013by the illino Illinois State Board of educations those who Excel program with the award of meritorious service a testament to the lasting impact she has had on her school Community please join me in congratulating Miss Daniel English on this album standing congratulations we got to get a picture of you will bring your husband up too two one two three perfect thank you guys next we have the reports and Communications from superintendent well good evening president valer as members of the board and our school Community as we begin this month of March uh I want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate women's History Month this is a time to honor the achievements resilience and contributions of women throughout history and in our own Community across our district we are committed to fostering an environment
014where Equity inclusive inclusivity and empowerment are Central to our mission ensuring that all students especially especially our young women see themselves as Leaders innovators and change makers I want to commend our teacher staff and students how are engaging in meaning meaningful discussions activities and lessons that highlight the impact of women past and present from the classroom to leadership roles the contribution of women have shaped education science politics business and the Arts and we are proud to recognize their role in shaping our society as a district we remain dedicated to inspiring supporting and providing opportunities for all students so they know that they can break barriers and Achieve greatness just as the incredible woman before as have done thank you for your continued support and I look forward to the ways to which we can celebrate
015women's History Month together at this point I'd like to bring up Dr Hill for our fiscal report good morning good good morning good evening everyone good evening board members um at this time we do have Nick Cavalier from bakerly and he will present our FY 24 audit [Music] presentation good evening board thank you for having me here this evening um everyone should have received copies of the audited financial statements themselves and then a uh require ired communication um that essentially summarizes the audit results it's two separate reports uh my presentation this evening is going to just provide a high level summary of the audit itself and that I'm here for any questions that you may have at this time so um The District's fiscal year um 2024 audit was completed and our reports on your
016financial statements were issued on February 26th of 2025 um the scope of our audit is fairly robust we render assurances on the district's financial statements the Illinois State Board of Education annual financial report form a Consolidated year end financial report which is required to be filed with the grant accountability and transparency unit state of Illinois a schedule of expenditures of federal Awards is a required document that has to be audited that lists out all the different Federal award expenditures for the fiscal year um because an audit is conducted in accordance of governmental auditing standards we have to render a reports over internal control for financial reporting and any other matters that may have been identified regarding compliance with laws and regulations and then we also conduct a single audit in the district's Federal Awards uh
017because you expend over $750,000 you're required to have compliance and internal control audits performed over your federal dollars so the results of all of our audit procedures is that we were able to render an unmodified audit opinion on your financial statements the Illinois State Board of Education annual report the Consolidated year-end financial report and the schedule of expenditures of federal Awards an unmodified audit opinion is the highest level of assurance that you can receive from your external auditor that these documents are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in addition to the regulatory reports and that we did not have any scope limitations or abilities to perform our audit procedures um excuse me two slides too fast so this slide here is a snippet of the balance sheet which is included in your financial
018statements um I would like to just pull a couple of documents together the financial statements can be a bit overwhelming there a large book of different documents that are required to be presented but this is essentially your balance sheet so you can see that you have your assets at the top the liabilities in the middle and then there's a category called deferred inflows of resources and this relates to uh property taxes that are owed to the school district but are not intended to finance operations for fiscal year 24 and then also any amounts that might be owed to the school district but are not yet available within a sure within a certain period of time after the end of the year so they can't be recognized as Revenue but they are earned necessarily in to
019the school district and then of course you have your fund balances um the various presentation categories are restricted assigned and unassigned and what you can see from the the face of the balance sheet is that all the district's funds are in a positive position at the end of the year um the next slide represents the district's income statement we have each fund presented in column format revenues at the top expenditures in the middle a category about 3/4 of the way from the top that says excess or parentheses deficiencies of revenues over expenditures and then there's the next category called other finan sources and uses um this category for this particular fiscal year is utilized to account for transfers between funds um what you can see is your general fund operated within its Financial Resources a
020surplus was generated of about 16.5 $16.5 million before the transfers out during the year the operations and maintenance fund had a surplus of approximately 7.5 7.6 million Transportation fund um had a ization of fund reserves of approximately $2.5 million Municipal Retirement Social Security fund had a increase in fund reserves of about $900,000 the debt service fund had a nominal increase of about $236,000 the capital projects fund had a utilization of expenditures in excessive revenues of 25.1 million and then the fire prevention and safety fund had a increase of about $344,000 so you know looking at this kind of holistically you can see that the district is for the most part on page nine operating within the operational resources that are available uh the transportation fund did have a decrease in fud Reserve something to keep
021your eye on for for next fiscal year but ultimately I think the big takeaway thing that I noticed most during this audit was the transfer of $50 million um into the capital projects fund if you look on the right side of the slide page 10 you can see the your capital projects fund ended fiscal year 23 with a deficit fund position of about $13.8 million um that that particular situation was remediated with the $50 million transfer that took place during the year and then was also utilized to support your current year expenditures in fiscal year 24 um couple of slides just to point out and I guess earmark some of the things that I spoke on was you know this this particular note talks about the transfers that were removed between the funds um and
022then there is a subsequent event note that I wanted to point out um during the year the district had the unfortunate circumstances of being subject to a a fraud regarding uh a wire and as a result of that um some of those dollars were recovered through the use of local authorities the district's Banks um other relationships uh they were able to recover some of those dollars but not all of those dollars subsequently an insurance claim was filed and was actually processed with the exception of the deductible amount and um about $1.9 million or so was paid back to the district on December uh I believe it was December 20th of 2024 those dollars were not available within 60 days of the fiscal year end so there's actually a receivable in the capital projects fund and
023a deferred inflow um those revenues will be recognized in fiscal year 25 so on one of the slides I had was the balance sheet if you look over to the right um in the capital projects fund column there is a receivable titled insurance proceeds for 1,877 and then down below you'll see unavailable insurance proceeds for 1,877 that's required under the accounting standards because it wasn't collected within 60 days of your fiscal year end but I wanted to point that out to the board and to the community that those are are recognized and your financial statements as are receivable and they were subsequently collected um so the results of the district's fiscal year 24 single audit was that you expended approximately $10.4 million in federal Awards two major programs were required to be audited as maor
024um those Collective values was approximately 52% um you're required to have a minimum 40% of your programs audited as major We performed compliance tests and internal control tests over compliance for the title one Grant and for the education stabilization fund please let the board know that we rendered an unmodified audit opinion is our compliance testing and then no deficiencies and internal controls are identified during those tests as well um this next slide kind of talks a little bit about the internal control report over external reporting um there were several risks that were identified some of these are consistent with prior years um one of them is new during this particular cycle um the one risk relates to material Cash basis audit adjustments um during the course of the audit we identified some adjustments to reclassify
025revenues between funds based on um some of our audit procedures and then uh identifying some expenditures that were be reclassed between funds one of the other matters that we've identified relates to um Student Activity fund bank reconciliations and the district's self-insurance bank account reconciliation um the district has has made some strong progress forward on the Student Activity funds front but ultimately at some point in time I think that the board and the administration are going to have to have a conversation about the value of the money that's in the bank and then the value that is being tracked by all the individual clubs right now you're in a position where your bank balance is significantly higher than all of the individual Club account balances I believe it soers along the lines of like $1.9 million
026in the bank and about 600 $70,000 being trct in the activity accounts um so so there's definitely some movement there to say okay well what are we going to do to remediate this matter have a system to track this and then every month do a bank reconciliation so that the amounts that are being tracked and the book can be aligned with the amounts that are managed in the bank accounts um the second manner relates to a self-insurance bank account that the district has maintained for many years as it relates to payments for health insurance um this this account is really kind of outside the scope of your treasurer's office system and the district deposits money into that bank account and then makes payments for claims stop loss Insurance many other factors that are associated with
027managing a self-insured um health insurance plan this activity is not managed in in a central accounting system essentially just runs through the bank account and we believe that a best practice be to manage that somehow in an accounting system and then the last matter relates to wire payments is spoke around earlier there was a a fraud that occurred against the district and as a result of that there were some some breakdowns and internal controls that you know could have potentially prevented or mitigated some of that loss that we've reported as a risk um there were no other instances of non-compliance or other matters that were required to be reported under governmental auditing standards um a few other findings just have noted the uh Illinois state board of education has a document in their AFR form
028that's called the audit aor questionnaire and in that questionnaire they ask the auditor certain questions if things came to our attention during the course of our audit that we check a box say hey we noticed this and um what was the specific matter so one of those matters relates to um the statement of economic interest filing um annually these you know various members of the board or administrators at the school district are registered to file a statement statement of economic interest with the county um as a procedure we pulled down the confirmation from the county through their website and look and see if there was any individuals that had not filed if so we make note of it um based on our procedures it was noted that six individuals who were listed to uh complete
029a filing did not have one provided based on the information in the website um and then the the other matter is is BL number two and it speaks to the fact that the district's significant amount of cash and Investments are in the custody of the Proviso Township School treasurer's office but there are certain cash and investment accounts that are not within that pool um the Student Activity accounts are not part of that pool in addition to your self Insurance um bank account is not part of that pool under the statutory requirements the district is required to have a city Bond um equal to 10% of the value of those bank accounts and at the time that we conducted our audit there was not a surity bond on hand outside of the one that the treasurer
030has so we've made some recommendations to go ahead and get a copy of that filed within appropriate you know insurance company and have that taken care of and that concludes my presentation I'm more than happy to take any questions from the board at this time I have one question would you recommend consolidating the Student Activity and the Insurance Fund to be pulled with the tto the township Treasures office um my general understanding is that the Township School treasurers do not manage the Student Activity accounts um generally you don't see that it's usually always managed at the district level and then as it relates to the Self Insurance account um it's my understanding that that was separated for the reasons of how that account operates with um you know your third party administrators necessarily pulling funds
031out of the bank account so I think when that process was um necessary it had to be in a separate account outside of their pooled account thank questions thank you next up we have Mr Sam Lewis from IGS and he will present our energy Supply review this a little bit here good evening um thank you for the opportunity to to come out here and and speak in front of you this evening um want to start by by thanking Dr Hill um as well as LT Taylor um for their time their attention and their insights um you know it's been several meetings uh and many more months um discussing some things going on within the energy markets um and specifically how it translates to the district's Supply um you know there's a lot of market trends
032out there um that are impacting costs both currently and will ultimately impact things in the future right so of of those costs right we're looking at the electrification of the grid system looking at expansion of of data centers AI elery exports and and and storage uh for natural gas these factors are leading to turbulent times in the electricity and natural gas markets and unknowns in volatility both currently and potentially in future um we've been discussing and reviewing um the accounts and the best way to get you guys in a a good position moving forward um we've been supplying electric and gas for the district here for six years um through that process we've done one fixed Supply contract um that one fixed Supply contract was a three-year term for electricity and natural gas that term
033was extremely beneficial for the district from a financial perspective when compared to the default utility rate um and the available options or Alternatives from comad and iore respectively um I believe in the agenda and in the board notes um those financial Figures were included um today I I had provided some recommendations for how you guys can approach this next contract um my suggestion based on the market trends that I had outlined before um I think sometimes in the energy space unfortunately it's a little bit complicated um there's certain components that maybe individuals don't understand or or don't take the time to fully understand um Dr Hill NLT have taken such time and given me the opportunity to present it for you guys today so um not going to go too far into the weeds or
034too much into the detail but we certainly can if you guys would like um but starting here um this is just the general recommendation um for the electricity Supply or potential PA path forward for the district um this goes into some of the things that are changing within the markets specifically on the reliability side um so I had mentioned some some things going on in the power markets um one of that one of those components is the component of reliability um also known as capacity and it's established by the grid operator which is pjm um they're responsible for electricity Supply here in the state of Illinois and 12 other states um they've increased the reliability charge in a significant way um the idea for um emphasis there is to uh incentivize new generators to put
035more money into the market space to increase their available uh Supply as demand Rises um so through this time period as investment in New Generation assets um goes into effect um I would say that the district is at significant risk to potentially being exposed to much higher electricity Supply costs for that reason I suggest a fixed position the electricity Supply the term of 28 months that contract would provide budget stability and uh risk mitigation against the changes within the electricity Market um and then on the natural gas front um I suggested a product that essentially would uh allow you to mitigate risk for 50% of your overall natural gas consumption um for all facilities um and it'll be 50% open to Market Rel Market um rates and fluctuations um with the idea or the hope
036to potentially secure another 50% when pricing is more favorable um so in terms of pricing options and numbers um I've listed here the costs per kilowatt hour um in the associated terms um and you can kind of find a sweet spot there in the 28 month term from a pricing perspective um that's why it was my suggestion to to to go and take advantage the best term length available on the market space um on the electricity Supply and my suggestion for the 28 month term and then to go further down on the natural gas supply side um this gives you an indication of where costs are at um in the associated terms um I'd recommended the 31-month term 5050 where you're securing 50% of your volume in a fixed position and 50% of the variable
037position oh oh sorry do you have a comparison with your competitors nro gas of those it just delivery that you yeah so if um if if you're looking at it from a cost perspective right um there's basically three components that make up your your invoice your bill youve got the supply the distribution and the taxes so the distribution and the taxes those are always going to be coming from from combat and from n right um the supply portion is what we're able to help you guys strategically purchase um so from a comparison perspective um I put the information about our previous fixed contract and comparing that alongside what the comat rate and the associated nightore rate um was throughout that three-year period um I do not have the exact comparables um today for uh electricity
038Supply is trading for the specific month in comat um but behind com behind n cor that rate and those costs change change every single month so it's difficult to to put a number to it unless you look uh in the rear or do a look back um which I had provided in the executive summary it kind of broke down um the reductions that the district saw so so the What's the total contract the contract terms contract terms for electricity Supply um our recommendation would be the 28 month term and that would be for um 24 million kilowatt hours of consumption over the course of that period and that's based on our consumption based on WE consum yep your annual consumption and then we take it and weather normalize it um to make sure that the
039recent trends of the recent years um aren't skewed based on weather models um so we get it as accurate as possible Dr here we using this six years under last six years to right and it had lapsed so that's why Mr Taylor and I start engaging in conversation with Mr Lewis so that he can lock Us in he tried um some time ago but he was unsuccessful and so he brought it back um to our attention and we jumped on it and besides we also have a phenomenal relationship with IGS we can always pick up the phone and call them regarding invoicing bills and things of that nature so you can tell in half of that time Market the market is trending the energy market so you you'll be able to know forast the following
040consumption for the next 208 months exactly yeah so it provides the budget stability from a pricing perspective to secure this the specific price per kilow hour for the allotted period so we're just pre purchasing it that way from now Ian in it's purchase right so a bunch of oil it goes cheap already purchased it so that's the only RIS correct y but we do have an opportunity um to basically it's it's called a blend and extend which is in essence like refinancing a mortgage um so raw commodity costs of electricity Supply decline um we can extend the contract by the cheaper values and blend it into the current term um so that is an option you're not wholeheartedly um solidified or fixed into that position okay thank absolutely any other questions fantastic wonderful really appreciate
041the time and the opportunity thank you next up we have the treasures report our proposed revenue for this year we have our already received 8,345 so we reive 66% of our proposed revenue for this year and in relation to our expenditures also at 66% as well so that's pretty balanced and from this Treasures report we have four more months to go so we are on track to ensure that we are staying within budget are there any questions regarding the ex the treasures report question okay thank you next up is the bill list are there any questions regarding the bill list question next up I want to discuss some items that were from the audit um first is our fy2 amended budget so Illinois school districts are subject to a rule stating that the administrative cost
042cannot increase by more than 5% compared to the prior fiscal year unless it's approved by the board of education so given these findings it is necessary for us to amend our fy2 budget so that we can stay in compliance uh but the reasoning for this is whenever you build a budget you're dealing with un audited numbers at that time so everything is an estimate and so in relation to our superintendent accounts we did add some cushion to that area at that time due to the uncertainties but now we have a superintendent in place we pretty much know what the budget will be um for this year and the cushion is the only dollars that we are moving from one line to the next so we're not sweeping the budget any other way we're just moving
043money from the cushion to another account and by doing so we'll be in compliance with the Illinois State Board of Education so when you do an amend a budget it still Falls in line as if you are doing a regular budget so this week we will post the amended budget in the newspaper it will stay on display for 30 days where community members can come in and see what remove the cushion to another line item and then during our May 11 board meeting we removed action to approve that amended budget and that will make us in compliance with the ISB next up for the audit were the Student Activity accounts this is a long extended process we started some of this work last year um but this year we should be making more gains so
044we are currently working with all Student Activity sponsors it is very important that if you have a club that you verify the balances that are in your account we don't want to guesstimate we want you to take a look at at your actual account take a look at your balances and if you approve with the amounts that's in your account then that would be the dollar amount that we will roll over into I visions that is our fiscal management system again it is important so our student um our head bookkeeper will be sending out reports and we need everybody to sign off on it the work started last year but we didn't hear from everyone so we rolling it back around again this year that if we don't hear from you we can't wait any
045longer we have to move on because we want to be uh have a better track of our accounts and we want to incorporate it into our I Vision system because we stated on many instances blue bear is very archaic we have been utilizing blue bear for quite some time and we want to make sure that we have a more upto-date um system to trct our expenses now as the auditor mentioned in cases where there is an overage then that matter will be brought along U to the Board of Education with options on how what would be the best appropriate use of those excess funds so stay tuned for that further conversation because that will be coming down a pipeline in a couple of months next up is our self Insurance bank accounts so right now
046when the auditor review our books they are only looking at our bank statements so what we have to do is create a separate accounting structure within a financial system so that when the Auditors come in it's like the checks and balances they can see the premiums that are collected from the employees they can see the claims that were paid and any Associated administrative cost that aligns with that so the purpose of that would be one we're going to maintain accurate transaction records but we're able to document all the funds that's coming in from employee and employer contributions but in this case it would be the employee contributions because this is a self-funded account where our employees are paying for their um medical benefits and so we want to ensure that there is an expense tracking
047in place where we can La all the claims that we are being paid out next up our dealing with our internal controls so some internal controls that we are continuing to incorporate um would be the following and I will read them One require um two separate individuals to be involved in the processing and approval of any a transactions and for the record and for the community we have not um utilized any transactions of this nature this fiscal year um the goal is also to perform any regular and and frequent reconciliations of any transactions of a status against the bank statements to really identify and address any discrepancies if they exist so that we can um move forward with those promptly restrict access to this system only to those employees who needed for their specified job
048functions and regularly review and update those access permissions um more importantly we want to make sure that we're verifying the legitimacy of all the new vendors before initiating such a transaction but as I stated we have not initiated any of those this fiscal year next is key we have been um an ongoing training to employees um this has happened several times this year recognizing um and preventing fraud including ficient and social engineering attacks we've been in communication with our technology team so earlier part of this year the tech team and the business office um and um HR we all set in on this training that took place and those trainings are continuing to be ongoing because it's things are being done such at a high sophisticated level it's very difficult for you to really see
049when it's actually happening so we want to make sure that our staff is well versed in those regards next up setting up alerts and monitoring transactions for any unusual or suspicious activity emails can come through the p peline staff members need to be um well versed in reference to when identifying um there is a suspicious activity or a fraudulent email so we can be made aware of that and ensuring that different employees are responsible for initiating and approving these um transactions and then reconciling as opposed to preventing one person to doing it that's giving too much control and then last but not least um conducting regular internal and external audits to ensure compliance with policies and then basically identify any potential vulnerabilities that we may have the next item that I want to bring up
050is our end of the year checklist believe it or not we're almost to June so we're in close out mode right now that is scary um so I do want to go over a few areas that we have already started implementing um this fiscal year as we begin to close out so one is under the area of financial close out and budgeting so one I already shared with you about preparing the final um budget amendments that is taking place this week we will vote on that in May next we want to finalize the current fiscal year and we would do this in such a way where we want to ensure that all expenditures align with the approved budget but more importantly we also want to review any outstanding encumbrances and close all open purchase orders
051so when July one just like we did last year we're starting on a clean slate and we're not carrying over any um pass through balances next up is our revenue and expense review and this is basically every area here that I'm mentioning is our all hands on that where we meet weekly to go over this checklist to make sure that individuals that are assigned to certain departments are handling their particular functions and they're doing it in a successful way so one we will verify all the revenue that has been received that's the treasures report that you have um that I that I share every month and that includes all the state and federal reimbursements so we want to ensure all the dollars that we are scheduled to receive we will receive them and so millions
052of dollars came in last month in reference to those federal and state resources and we want to make sure that we continue to do so until the end of the year that we receive everything that we are entitled to ensure that all of our expenditures are properly recorded and classified so that means we want to make sure that every expense is being charged to the right funding source so we don't have many journal entries this year so that's good news for us but we do have a few next up is Grant Management and compliance we want to make sure that we expand all Grant funds within a given time frame so we do have a schedule in place whereby April 15 is the last day for employees to submit any expenditures dealing with our local
053funds as it relates to the grants the last day to enter requisitions in the system is May 15th last year we was gracious we were kind but we won't be kind this year we are closing out early so I say that with Grace love and mercy you close it down yes Mr Hall get your invoices in now next up carryover and reallocation if there is a grant carryover uh we will adjust the budget accordingly and there is several other documents that we have to complete for Grant compliance for the year um to prepare for FY 26 that's our Consolidated District plan in addition to ensuring that all that R applications are complete before June 30th so those Grant applications start R they start rolling out in April but the Consolidated District plan is open for
054review right now so in the business office we are working on completing that document because you can't complete the other grants without an approval with this Consolidated District plan and that is our district plan on how we will expand all of our federal and state dollars next up are those GAA reports because the state is just not about giving us the money money they want to know what our plans are when we expend those dollars so that gther report gives the district gives the state and idea on what we expanded but we must have the evidence to support that as well then we have our payroll and benefits we verifying all payroll reports we're processing summer payroll early because we want to make sure that if summer school was included in the fy2 budget then
055we paying that out within the fy2 budget budget and we're now ruling it over to FY 26 budget because those funds will already be earmark and then next accounts payables and receivables we want to make sure that any outstanding payments will be closed out at year end and then our Student Activity already shared a BRI synopsis in reference to that about verifying all Student Activity balances so those in conferences report will be shared with the members some members already received it but we continue to send out to others and as I close as we prepare for next year's budget we have been sending out um preparing meetings we have met with several principles we have met with department heads just to go over to make sure that your budget is aligned to strategic plans and
056few funding projections um we just want to keep this process going all departments that manage dollars they will receive a a special email will go out by the end of the week and it will be their own budget sheet that they will have to complete this is real important because we want to make sure that we stay within budget but you only ask for what you need we do ask individuals and know things come up so I do have it broken down this year when they receive their budget request um their budget form is it an urgent need you know is it is it urgent is it a need or is it a want and we will prioritize that we do know we have to keep up you know with our facil ities so when
057they do meet with us there are special requests but we are prioritizing all of those special requests and then training staff on financial processes so we do we've been doing a lot of training this year with Excel fraud you name it um we're also sending individuals to a Tyler tech training um a Tyler Tech conference because we have been underutilizing um our fiscal management system and we want to maximize for what we're paying for so it's important that individual know how to utilize that system but then bring that knowledge back to the district and share with everyone else and then last but not least it's really important for us to have our own um standard operations of procedures so the business office staff have been working on each individual area for their department and we're
058constantly tweaking and adding on as situations arise and this year our head bookkeeper she met with our Student Activity facilitators at each building to go over a Student Activity manual so they will receive a Student Activity manual this year so that they will know how to operate within the guidelines of what we're expecting them to do and then as I close we do have a couple items for review um for action one is the bill list and then two is our IGS contract are there any questions any questions thank you you so moving along in the superintendent update U just wanted to call your attention to some procedures that have been updated I put these in the weeklys um and so these are just field trip guidelines and rules the biggest notables is that I've
059asking for a 1 to 10 ratio when we go on on field trips not a 1 to 20 and then just reminders of teachers for how they should engage and protect students while on field trips ensuring that students get there safely enjoy the event and make it back to the district um as planned also in regards to our Athletics we're looking at um again have provided these to you for review our athletic Cod coach of conduct and a student athlete quod of conduct so just looking to um we're not trying to do anything differently but just making get a little bit more clear for our coaches and for our students um what the expectations are as well as what happens when those expectations are not back um also we've updated the rental agreement just to
060provide a little bit more specifics around activities that will be allowed and and approved and disapproved so one of the bigger shifts is is conversations that we've had in the past uh around the use of um rental spaces for things like um funerals understanding that there are other available spaces in the community that could use and that doesn't necessarily align with the mission and vision of the school district to host these here at the um next I just want to walk through some of the information items that we've had like I did in the previous month I just wanted to give a quick preview to these information items all of these will be coming back next month for approvals and most of these almost all of these have been part of the weekly board updates
061that we've been sending um this past month uh the first few though I I just want to talk through because they have not provided information on and the first one is the Melos Melos Park Tiff rebate and so as you recall in December this board had approved an extension of two tips in the Melrose Park Community we've had ongoing conversations with the mayor of Melrose Park and he is um graciously willing to provide us some funding back so right now we're just working through uh the logistics of that and we we expect to have a an IGA to propose to you in April if that timeline gets changed we'll let you know um the other I just wanted to give an update on the progress for U the Essentials progress this year it was delayed
062from the state by about two or three weeks um and the deadline is now March 31st so it will be before the the next board update or sorry the next board meeting all schools are underway um I know that I've spoken with viso West she has a plan in place to um get this survey to students and teachers for viso East and pmsa um have already met the threshold for what we need to get um points for the school report C these are the easiest points to get but more importantly it really does provide the district with good Insight onto how we're doing ways we can improve and it's my intention to dive deeply into the 5es when we get these results um sometime this summer um in January I provided the policy press as
063a I believe that was just an an information item and then um board member Hixon had a committee meeting where we went in depth on these policies in February February we brought these back as a first reading um and again these are the second readings in April it will go for its final read and we can adopt these um these updates and so it's two pages of updates it's in your book if you have questions uh next is the Renaissance star renewal um we are going to be making some requests over the next this month and next month to do some renewals of contracts um I do want you to know that as we were going through all of our renewals some of the things we're looking at are the ROI right is is what
064we're spending are we getting what we what we hope for and then we're also looking at usage U for the star renewal usage is not as detrimental because it's something that we just it's something that's provided to all students um this is a test that we take three times per year um it provides type one uh for the SLO for the I'm sorry type one for Teacher evaluations and we also use this for IEP goals and benchmarks essentially this gives us an opportunity to check in with our students three times a year to see how well they're performing and how essentially how well we are instructing our students uh we are looking at a textbook a physics techbook textbook purchase we'll bring this to you in April again our current physics textbook is out of
065date or missing copies and at this point it's not possible to replace uh we have had our science teachers look at the options that are available that you've unanimously recommended experience physics we're looking at uh for the cost of this would be 50 a little over $57,000 that includes the books a three-year digital license the professional development and then shipping for all resources similarly we have a chemistry textbook purchase I don't know I missed it on here somehow yeah it's same you go to physics so the chemistry textbook purchase it's much the same as as the physics the cost is a little bit more because there are more students that take that chemistry textbook so the total investment is $985 uh again unanimously uh supported by the teachers thank you to Mr roin team uh
066working with those teachers to ensure that they had some input on uh that textbook next is the newella or newa contract renewal we look to see how students how how our Educators were using this and it seemed to be something that most of our Educators had um found to be a a great resource by looking at the usage reports for this um it's used for ELA social St science El Andel it provides teachers with the opportunity to find resources um and text that could used within their classrooms it's integrated with schoolagy and for the one year um includes six virtual PD sessions with a total investment of around $73,000 next is the Renaissance nearpod and this this this is um it works well with our Renaissance program um essentially takes the data and then creates
067um it creates individualized lessons and supports for students when we looked at usage we saw that been used with 250 sessions with 89 teachers it provid o East as leading usage with 51% of those sessions provid o West with 15% and pmsa with 29% the onee renewal for this program is $33,600 and again seems to be a program that our teachers appreciate and use um we also will be bringing forward in April uh the need for some instruments to be purchased for the Proviso West Van um we can provide a detailed list we will provide a detailed list of what these instruments are the cost of this is $567 uh we are also looking at um updating and renewing our cop year lease right now our current cop year lease is coming due at the
068end of July um we're looking at a 36-month lease U with a cost of about $11,000 per month this includes the cost of the devices as well as the cost for um for copies I'm not sure Mike will update us on what the per cost is um for copies we're also looking at other renewals um for zerox Business Solutions kulta and image image Tech sorry um so we're um right now we're evaluating those renewals to determine if we're going to continue with those companies or if we're going to look for Alternatives um imagine learning at genuity um this was something that we were originally looking at a three-year renewal um after having some conversations with teachers we're we're looking at just a one-year renewal so we can explore additional options um complaints that we've heard
069from uity from our teachers as regards to student um efficacy of the program we want to make sure that students are not cheating um while we think it's important to have a high graduation rate we don't want that to come at the cost of um of our programs right so we want to make sure that the degree earned for Proviso is a degree that needs something and so again as the teachers have concerned that there may have be some cheating we have put some things in place currently that will be kicked off in summer to to guard against that but we all we also at this point wanted to take an opportunity to review El is out there before um looking into a multi-year or multi-year contract with this company and that's that's what we
070will be um presenting to you in April at the next board meeting for Action at this point I would like to bring up members of the team to talk through our um action items for this month that will be in the consent agenda give you an opportunity one nice opportunity to hear from us and then U also provide an opportunity to ask questions before we go to the consent agenda for approval so at first I'd like to bring up Mr ceris we'll talk about flashlight 36 good evening board good evening so flashlight 360 is a program that is a benchmark system for our English language Learners it also is a formative assessment ment um that gives our teachers valuable input on student learning uh of English proficiency over time so this in tandem with our
071Summit k12 and our elevation that we already purchased will be kind of a trio there that gives us really good information about how our students are are growing Benchmark wise and also progressing throughout the course of the year there's also a portion of it that is we're going to be focusing on our social studies um curriculum to have a scope and sequence that goes along with it to provide formative assessments and also some teaching tools to go along with it um that's going to be kind of a pilot to see if it's something that could increase over the years but um I truly believe this these three things working together are going to have a great impact on our eel um English proficiency growth throughout the next years any questions all right next this Angela
072Marino will talk to us about the summer curriculum writing good evening Bo even we know how important it is for us to have a guaranteed viable curriculum for every one of our course offerings for all of our students across the district part of that is making sure that we update the curriculum we have it viso a 5-year renewal process so every 5 years a new course or new courses are up for Renewal so what we listed here um and I think what's missing is the art foundations and the 3D sculpture on the slide but it is listed in your action item for tonight El foundations which is our new Commerce course for English strategic reading which is the corresponding literacy course for our newcomers it's kind of a literacy block for them culinary occupations 2
073career exploration which is our new entry level CTE course for our incoming freshmen and it gives them Exploration with different careers and they learn all the different Pathways that they could potentially follow for the rest of their High School career that will lead to jobs chemistry and physics at all levels IH Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 immersion this is for our native Heritage speakers here at pmsa and then art foundations and 3D sculpture these are courses where there is no curriculum on file right now or these are courses that have not been attended to since 2015 we know we have more curriculum work to do it's something that we're going to parse out every year to make sure we continue to keep our curriculum updated we want our teachers to be directly involved in writing
074that curriculum and when they work together they write a curriculum appap they design a scope and sequence both that are aligned to our Illinois learning standards they identify the power standards for those courses and then they develop unit plans within a gradual release of responsibility model so that any teacher that is teaching that course will have that those materials available to them that will have been written by Proviso teachers for Proviso students that is really important for us been moving forward so that is what we're bringing forward to you now for summer curriculum work if we're able to move forward with this we can post those positions and encourage our teachers and I know there's several that are in line right now anxious to be involved in writing this curriculum this summer and have it
075ready for the fall for our students any questions all right next M roach will come to talk about AP heess t [Music] oh I'm sorry I'm doing it over here good evening B how are you good evening all right so our current textbook that we're using is very outdated as you heard last month uh we're missing several copies and a lot of The Binding is broken and it's no longer in print so the three AP Calculus teachers each reviewed several different books we looked at with different Publishers looking at the AP college board standards for books and we actually recommended just a current updated version of our current textbook uh the current textbook is working quite well I mean math is math right um but we really need a newer version It's current for students
076so all the different word problems are relatable to now as well as the data uh the textbook was reviewed by college board and it's on its approved list uh for both Calculus AB and BC so one book does dual courses it ensures alignment with AP Calculus exam standards set by the college board and it bolsters students academic achievement mathematics uh it also provides consistent curriculum across the C uh the district so we started pre with like one or two classes here at pmsa we now have five sections of um pre-calc maybe next year six who knows uh we do have a BC section this year and then we're strong with one section at East and one section at West hoping in the years to grow to two and three so purchasing these textbooks for all
077three campuses and teachers additions would be much appreciated and if you'd like to know I'm very frugal for you guys I was able to get the online six-year versions by befriending our rep and so I have boxes of them sitting in my office office so we don't have to do the online we have them for six years so you're welcome thank you any questions next Michael Swanson will have the next three items good evening board evening first item is our uh e switch ether um renewal so it's a yearly renewal that we have there's uh We've approached one three and five year renewals because this is the end of the FCC eate current cycle um I decided to do a onee to keep it safe so we know that the fun is guaranteed I don't
078want to lock us into something when um a lot of funding changes are happening so we looked at just a one-year renewal to finish out year 28 ofv rate um we've reviewed the rfps and again would go with AT&T um for the best cost for the district it's $ 3900 per month and 42,000 of that give or take is reimbursed as we're category one for E rate so that's our usual monthly bill from AT&T for uh switched ethernet essentially what connects all three buildings any questions with that okay second item U Mr Mook spoke with about this uh last board meeting is our gagle K12 online safety management software um what that is is essentially a client that's installed on all student devices as well as embedded into their teams Outlook profile so it kind
079of follows them past the device in that sense and what it is 247 protection and rapid response monitoring for um student safety and mental health concerns um what that does is a team reviews the alerts that comes in determines if they're legitimate or not and how to escalate based on what the admin team and the district has decided is appropriate so we're looking um upon the approval tonight uh we're going to immediately start the implementation and then it would be rolled out um fully um we start the contract for 25 26 but um we into the terms to just start the uh implementation immediately um at no cost of the district and just uh start the terms on the 2526 school year any questions about GLE okay all right last item so this one I
080brought to you in January as an information item um as I'm sure you're aware pricing has been extremely volatile um I have updated in the board weekly um updates to you guys U due to ter and supply chain changes usually I can do it in January get the quotes work with the vendors but it's been you know a day they pulled the quote another day they pull the quote so it's been a lot of back and forth to get this locked in hence why um we had to take that month Gap and presenting this to you today um it's our yearly purchase of 150 staff laptops and 1,400 student laptops so last year we utiliz Esser funding for this that's no longer available so this would be back to local fund purchasing um and I
081for comparison um provided the costs so there's a slight uptic as expected but um nothing that wasn't budgeted for I need get enough Mr cier so I'm G to call him back up for this next so all know we use the Avant uh 4 sta 4S as our assessment towards the seal by SE in World languages and French and Spanish and actually last year we had a student who took it at Mandarin this year I think we have one in Japanese as well so that's exciting but we are also trying to do a study that correlates the vant 4S stamp assessment with our weda access scores so that we can see get some more in uh real time data to see how our students are are approaching how they're how they're um working towards their
082proficiency on the weeda access for Els so this does not cost us anything it actually will give us more stamp 4S licenses for free to do this um inter uh intergovernmental agreement I guess it would be [Music] called any questions questions all right well Alex will close us out sorry Mr good evening board thank you uh so next for you we have our linkage agreement with the provisor lien Council for Community Action uh this is a program that we've been involved with plcca now for a number of years uh this is called the Illinois youth investment program of the iip uh we did have plcca come at last meeting to speak speak uh with us about this so this opportunity is for our students so this is an opportunity for them to come uh to
083provis over the summer and work in various departments so those departments we're looking at maintenance and it the main office and the cafeteria uh those students are essentially our they are our employees um the students earn $15.80 an hour and the district is reimbursed through plcca at a rate of $17 uh we value these experiences we do enjoy having our students come and and kind of live that life with us uh during the summer and provide a lot of additional support and again a great partner with plcca so we're looking to continue uh this outside of that work experience students also receive additional support um with case management Transportation uniforms and those essential life skills training so again very happy to see that and continue that partnership any questions um I have a question so
084how do they like these 25 students oh great question uh so those 25 students we work closely with uh our school principls uh our School principles are are vital in kind of identifying and helping us identify those students uh those 25 students and then kind of just working through and referring them over to plcca and then the students will go over there uh to register or they will come to us and help uh kind of gaining that partnership that no yeah but whether they're coming to here or we're going over to there yeah we'll help they bridge that thank you and then one more yeah the robotics donation sorry that so we are looking for uh an in kind donation so this is in just not in the monetary value but in goods and services
085uh so we have a Proviso eum uh Chris Azog or zag I think is the uh students refer to him as had an opportunity to kind of speak with the students and uh Chris there about this and what he's providing for our students so it's valued it's the approximate values around $10,000 but these are in like kind of parts and services and just that mentorship aspect uh the donation itself strengthens uh those stem based career Pathways and again fostering that Community Partnership and again with an Alum uh very happy to see that and this kind of helps students compete at that high level in these Regional and National robotics competitions if you haven't had a chance to seen uh see this robot it is amazing uh at what the students are doing and how they're
086wiring everything and programming and catting it uh so it is wonderful to see and uh very appreciative uh of this and again trying to St stay very close with that uh school policy of 88 880 um with those donations again nothing is specified here but going to that entire Proviso Township robotics Club where again we have club that all students from all three schools participating uh in this how many students do we have from each school oh gosh I don't know that number the time don't know if Dr W is here if MOS knows that up from the top or her head I'm not sure there's there's a lot there's always an army we can provide it I'm just curious to make sure servicing all three one club for all three schools yeah we that
087we'll find out we'll put in the next update yeah also next Tuesday they're doing a grand unveiling of robot that's be comp open everybody yeah was I didn't okay and with that that concludes our the superintendent report great well thank you Alex um first of all I want to just wish other the women are you know on Facebook and YouTube here happy women's history month so some great women out here some great women here as well you know Dona in their time with their families to be here in the board today as well as all the administrative teachers and everybody here so happy National Women's history um I will also like to thank the uh board of education for my absence last February meeting thank you Miss for taking over um leading the the meeting
088I heard it went well and everything went was smooth so thank you everyone for that um I would also like to thank the culinary students for dinner tonight from Proviso East it was an amazing dinner and I would also like to thank the violinist tonight because we have dinner and music so it great I think it was the best meeting I ever had pretty much right yeah dinner and music U and not last but uh definitely not the least I want to thank Chris Mo for his hard work with his administration teaching staff you know as a board member as board members uh when there's not uh you know when Mr Asha was here and and and we're not we weren't clear what was going on with the superintendent uh did a great job but
089sometimes you know when we're not can I say it um we don't have somebody sitting as a superintendent you're you tend to work a little harder to make sure everything's right thanks to Mr as up everything was good and it's running smooth and now I really don't worry about anything right because you know I'm calling and emailing and what's going on and now I'm just a little more relaxed and as I see the progress of the work being done and the board members could agree that you know this undertaking is they're doing a great job Administration Chris with this team and everybody so thank you and thank you administrators you know that's everyone teachers everyone right don't feel left out um thank you everyone uh I think one of the reasons that you know I'm
090not running for election I don't want to talk about elections but one of the reasons that I think I not run for reelection or some of my fellow bers could agree you know we completed everything it's ever going to complete and not only that we want to spend more time with our families we invested eight years of Our Lives to improve you know these School um well we have a vested interest and I repeat it all the time you know my wife graduated from East I graduated from East in 1990 I know my age um my son in 2016 from me my son Mario my other son um Emanuel from here pmsa in 2018 my son hyro in 2021 from provis and I do have one more in a freshman his name is s Al
091same schol that provides he 14 a freshman so I'm very proud to serve this District it's been an honor and and it's not my last month I don't know why I'm speaking like this I promise to give you a speech on April or May turns out but yeah it's been an honor to serve the community and you know the best opportunity to make a change is the Board of Education uh in unity you know you guys saw in the beginning how United reward how much we got accomplish and I believe what they're now again so I hope to keep this between the board members the ones that come new and love on each other yeah we could argue you know Sandra melted my heart today she gave me a card and we argue sometimes and
092and I just I love her you know it's it's one of those things where you learn to to make these fellow Bard members like your family you know we've been together the good and bad for the last 8 years with Amanda and Rodney and and with this new board members that you know it's great to be here with them so with that said you know it's it's about one team one goal and one provisor and honestly I think that you know working together no matter who sits here is the key to a successful District that's the key you know I'm thinking about those students those you know those young lives that are we're going to impact and Mark for the rest of our lives so thank you everyone and I'm still here for one more
093meeting so don't miss me yet but uh yeah that's true two more meetings right right more I'll be two more meetings so yeah I'm smiling I can spend more time with my granddaughters I have five boys now I got two girls so with that being said I guess uh we move on to the next step here the next line item which is proving all these action items great all right may I have a motion to approve the minutes of theary 11 2025 Board of Education meeting has presented some Mr Alexander absent Mrs Hixon Mr OKO hi M Pon absent M Grant I Mr harres M i motion carries thank you I have a motion to approve the March 11 2025 Bill list in the amount of 4,623 680 as presented second yeah it's presented so
094yes on the floorer absent Mrs Hixon hi Mr oo hi M Patterson absent Miss Graham hi Mr Belz hi m i motion Carri I have a motion to authorize the appointments employment resignations terminations and award set for inal report dated March 1125 discuss Mr Alexander ABS Mrs hion Mr oo hi Miss Patterson absent Miss Grant I Mr Belz I miss barban I motion carried I have a motion to approve the consent agenda to include the following agreements and expenditures flash a flashlight 360 English learner support B student fece for school year 2025 2026 c summer curriculum writing 202 five D AP Calculus textbooks purchase e e r switch internate one renewal F gagle K12 online safety management software G aan study contract H IGS Gas Electric electrical I staff and student laptop purchase J Illinois
095youth investment program linkage agreement with plcca and K in kind donation to this d29 robotics te second Mr Alexander absent Mrs Hixon hi Mr OKO hi M Patterson absent Miss Grant hi Mr Bel I missan I motion Carri can you read report provise the Township High School District 209 receive the following foyer request on February 26 2025 uh requested by Kathleen fra number one the number of students residing in each Community or municipality within the district district for the most recent school year and two the number of students from each Community or municipality enroll of each School in the district for the most recent school year and the status is provided that concludes fo any old business here not any new business yeah one one comment so next week is uh was a future pirate
096Panther in Python uh student night next Wednesday and I want to commend uh chrish MIP for reaching out and working with the foundational schools to get that information out to our future freshman so thank you thank you Christie she put all the pap awesome well uh any more you bus us here none I think this is our keep on setting yeah I have a motion tojn all right Mr Alexander Mrs Branch out of order to keep people right Mr hi Miss bar hi Mrs Hixon Mr oo hi Miss Pon ABS motion carry we are Jed at 8:40