001Good evening everyone. We're going to start the March 2nd, 2026 7:00 p.m. regular board meeting to order. Secretary, call the roll, please. Valencia Here. Cifuentes Here. Reyes Here. Lovshe Here. Olivas Here. Moreno Here. Johnson Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Moving on to the next item. There's no public comment tonight, so we will move on to section four, communications from the superintendent. Thank you so much, Board President Cifuentes. Tonight, we're happy to have Zian Lalawali with us for our student board member report. So, Zian, if you want to come up for us, please, that'd be great. >> Thank you. Good
002afternoon. Last week, East Aurora High School hosted a D231 Black History Month celebration featuring student-led performances and a keynote speaker. Students showcased their skills from music to poetry, and our all-new step team performed for the first time. The Leo High School Choir, who were America's Got Talent finalists, also performed. Finally, our keynote speaker, Dr. Julian Wright, who focuses on uplifting communities and challenging injustice. In addition, our students have been very involved in service projects and expanding outreach and support. The National Honor Society is planning to create hospice blankets and is also rolling out a new program called Tomcat Connections. Where a member is paired with an underclassman to provide support through academics, extracurricular activities, alongside college applications. Our Science National Honor Society will be helping run experiments and speak on different STEM careers at multiple
003STEM nights this year. Sharing their experiences and future plans through their STEM peers. We've had many other events such as the annual elementary school cheer competition where students showcase their pride and their hard work they have put in throughout the year. And tomorrow, East and West will have their crosstown concert to celebrate East Aurora's to celebrate Aurora's historic program. This week, Allen Elementary is having a launch party for the Watch Dogs program, a national program that provides positive male role models to students, strengthening family and school partnerships, and supporting school engagement. Finally, the EA PRIDE program is now fully active in all D131 schools, providing students with support as we approach the fourth quarter and the end of the school year. Thank you. Thank you, Zian. Um, and as Zian talked Zian talked about briefly
004there, um, we did have our Black History Month recap, and Miss Brittany Walker has put together a tremendous video, but before we get to that, I just want to highlight our Black History Month celebration that we had on Thursday evening. Uh, the evening was filled with energy and joy as families enjoyed meaningful performances, raffles, and sweet treats, including cookies and cake pops. Zian took a little bit of my thunder already cuz he talked about the Leo Choir, and he also talked a little bit about Dr. Julian Wright, who was our guest speaker, as well as our wonderful students from Waldo, Cowherd, and East Aurora High School and their performances and how they contributed as well. Um, but most importantly, the celebration created a space where our school community could come together to honor history, recognize
005achievement, and uplift uplift the voices and contributions of Black leaders past and present. I wanted to extend a special thank you to staff members Miss Beritza Martinez and Miss Melissa Diaz, and community leader Miss Mary Fults for helping to organize the evening. In addition, I wanted to give a resounding EA to our MCs for the evening, Miss Nakita Stewart and Miss Mary Fults. They brought a great energy throughout the evening. It was a tremendous event. At the end of the event, we had the opportunity to have our students come up on stage and just talk about how we're all here for our students as one community. It was a great event. Um, and once again, thank you so much to those leaders for leading the charge that evening. It was a tremendous event for everybody
006there. I know we had some board members there. I know that, um, Board President Cifuentes was there. Board Vice President Olivas was there before he had to leave for another event. And then Miss Myra Reyes was there as well. So, thank you so much for attending that evening. And with that being said, I'm going to turn it over to the PR department so we can take a look at our recap video. Thank you, Miss Walker, for putting that together, and thank you to all of our schools, the principals, uh, administrators, teachers for their participation this month as well. I thought we did a tremendous job celebrating uh, Black excellence throughout the month of February. So, thank you so much for that. Can we get a Can we get a link to that to post it?
007Is that possible? Yeah? Okay, thanks. Thank you for sharing that, Miss Walker. Appreciate it. Um, next, moving on to our county-wide Institute Day recap. Um, this last Friday on 2/27, we had our county-wide Institute Day, and this is an opportunity that we provide for professional development internally for our staff, but we also encourage our staff to go out, uh, externally as well. Kane County as well as DuPage County has some different items. Um, but I wanted to highlight that we had almost 400 employees register for our in-house professional development last Friday. Sessions focused on academic success, technological skills, and wellness. Feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive. Staff appreciated having choice and relevant topics. Being a Being able to select sessions that matched their roles and interests made the day more meaningful. Many felt the
008content was directly applicable to their work and something they could use right away. Staff preferred the hands-on and interactive sessions. The most positive feedback centered on sessions that included discussion, collaboration, and time to practice. Participants clearly favored active learning over lecture-style presentations, and we're going to continue to use this feedback as we plan for future professional development opportunities. So, a big thank you to Dr. Amy Engel for organizing that, as well as the other individuals who assisted with that. I know we had some wellness things that we went to this year as well. Dr. Engel, do you have anything you wanted to say about the day there? Not to put you on the spot cuz I know I didn't tell you I was going to do this. No, I just want to say it was
009so wonderful to see the people who all showed up to celebrate learning together, and so many people came up to me after their sessions had ended, and we had talked in the keynote a little bit about how to make that day most meaningful to yourself is to apply it and and come up with plans for application, and they were all coming up afterwards to tell me what their plan was for application. So, it was just so affirming. It was a great day. Thank you once again for organizing that and for everybody else that took place in that or took part in that. I appreciate the planning side of that. Uh, next, we got something very exciting. We are honored to present special scholarships to our outstanding student board members, Zian Lalawali Lalawala and Elizabeth Corral
010Moreno. These awards will be presented by Dr. Rob Grossi, and they recognize Zian and Elizabeth for their exemplary leadership, unwavering advocacy for the high school in the district, dedicated volunteerism, and impressive academic achievements. Their commitment and contributions have made a lasting impact on our school community. So, with that being said, I'd like to welcome Dr. Rob Grossi to the microphone from Illuminate so he can share the scholarship opportunity with our student board members. Thank you. Thank you. Do I need the Do I need the microphone? >> Yeah, you probably yes. It's hard to be still and be Italian at the same time. I'll do this. So, um, one of the, uh, as I'm getting older, uh, one of the things I'm really passionate about, I go to a lot of school board meetings, and and
011I see student recognitions, and the one that that I think is, in my mind, the most important is the role model. I think the role model, um, I think students I I students that are academically bright deservingly get recognized. Athletes that are that are, uh, successful deservingly get recognized, but the role model is the most overlooked one. And and I think it's so important, especially today. So, one of the things that that we do is we recognize two students in the schools that we work with uh, with this award. Um So, we asked your school district collectively to pick two students and these you were the two students that they chose. So, I think that's quite an honor. Um The role model and and the award is called the light your light shine award. And
012the role model shines the role model you shine a light by living authentic authentically positive and positively serving as a beacon that guides, inspires, and elevates those around them. The let your light shine award celebrates these role models who embody the spirit of hope, kindness, and positive influence in their school and communities. Their light inspires others to follow their example. This year's let your light shine awards, Elizabeth and Zion, um on behalf of illuminate and the board of education, thank you for all you do for your school and for your community. Congratulations on this well-earned award. May your light continue to inspire and uplift others. So, what we have for you tonight is uh certificate and each of you will get a check for $500. Yeah, we want you to spend on something fun. Not
013later. Books don't work that way. I like fancy socks. Get yourself a No, he deserves socks. Congratulations to both. Thank you again, Dr. Grosse. We truly appreciate you recognizing our students. Congratulations again, student board members. So proud of you guys and know that you guys are going to continue continue to do great things for East Aurora and the community beyond. So, thank you both for your leadership. Um next, we're going to talk a little bit about March 11th. So, March 11th is an exciting night for our students and parents. So, we've got a few things going on that evening. I just wanted to highlight. We have our EA dads, which will be meeting at the Resilient Education Center. And we've recently had our Watch Dogs program take off both at Oak Park and Allen. Um
014and so, it's a great opportunity to get dads a little bit more involved to be there at the recess time to support students. Um but our EA dads is growing, so we have that that evening. We also have our special education parent group, which will be meeting at the district office that evening as well. And then we also um if you think back, Dr. Smith and I, the superintendent from West Aurora, um during our joint message where we talked about the student walkouts and we were talking about finding your voice, we both promised that we'd provide opportunities for our students in both East and West Aurora to be able to advocate with their voice um outside of the school day. So, we wanted to find a time where we could bring them together in a
015controlled setting to continue to advocate. So, I'm happy to report that I believe West Aurora is doing theirs on March 10th. We're going to be doing our event at East Aurora High School on March 11th and it's called Voices of Tomorrow, Reflection and Connection. Um it'll be hosted at East Aurora High School. This event is to meet the needs of the student body um as we outlined in that message. We both found time to make sure we could have this happen during the school day. There'll be various sessions there. We have some aldermen coming. We have some of our SROs coming. We have some of our very own district leadership coming. And there's different events, different topics of conversation. It'll be an hour and a half. We're going to have students come in and they
016can rotate through um about finding their voice. We have mental health during crisis. We have how to sign up and vote. So, there's all kinds of opportunities for our students to come out um and continue to figure out how to advocate and find their voice um both with the potential for when you're doing um events, but also other ways they can find their voice as well. So, we're really excited about that evening and that'll be on March 11th and it'll be from 4:00 to 5:30 at the high school and it'll be for high school students and middle school students as well. So, we're excited about that. And then finally, um this Saturday, we have another opportunity. We have our mental health symposium um on Saturday, March 7th beginning at 8:00 a.m. our district will participate
017in a regional mental health symposium hosted at Metea Valley High School. This event is a collaborative effort amongst East Aurora schools, Naperville Community Naperville Community Unit School District 203, Indian Prairie School District 204, and Oswego Community Unit School District 308. The symposium is a free community event designed to provide families and staff with education, access to resources, and meaningful connections related to mental health and wellness. This event aims to reduce barriers to information and support while strengthening partnerships between schools and broader community. To support uh participation, free transportation and child care will be provided for registered East Aurora District 131 families and staff departing from East Aurora High School. So, we're excited about that opportunity. And then the final thing that I had the opportunity to highlight during our um buildings and grounds committee meeting
018is that we've been recently applying for different types of grants that are out there. We had a grant that was presented to us by Senator Karina Villa and I'm happy to report that we received a $500,000 grant that'll go go towards our roofing project at East Aurora High School that's upcoming. Um so, I just wanted to note that we're continuing to look for alternate means to be able to find resources to meet the needs of our buildings. And then in addition, we just had one from State Representative Barbara Hernandez come out for another $500,000 grant um that Mr. Daniel Olrog will be working on applying uh for with the support of Andy Allen and the finance department. So, I just wanted to note that we're continuing to look for ways that we can fund uh
019via alternate means as well. And that concludes my superintendent report. All right, thank you for that update, Dr. Halverson. Um moving on to motion to approve the following consent agenda as listed. So Second. Any questions? Secretary Caldero, please. >> Valencia Yes. Cifuentes Yes. >> Johnson Yes. Olivas Yes. Lauche >> Yes. Reyes Yes. Moreno Yes. All right, moving on to finance and personnel with Ms. Reyes. Good evening, everyone. Buenas noches a todos. Um the finance and personnel committee um met earlier today at 5:30 here at the admin center. And I will have a full report at the next meeting on Tuesday, April 7th at 5:30 here at the admin center. And we do have one motion item. Uh 6.b.1 motion to approve 5.16 FTE overloads at Waldo Middle School. So moved. Second. Any questions? Secretary Caldero,
020please. >> Reyes Yes. Lauche Yes. Johnson Yes. Valencia Yes. Cifuentes Yes. >> Moreno Yes. Olivas Yes. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Ms. Reyes. Moving on to curriculum and programs committee with Mr. Olivas. Thank you. We had our curriculum and committee meeting uh back in February 17th. Uh we had two school improvements, one from Red Rogers Magnet Academy. Uh current performance with their MAP fall 2025, uh math was at 64.3. Uh literacy was at 67.4. Their IAR, Illinois Assessment of Readiness, uh for the spring of 2020 25 was at math was at 49.1. Literacy was at 86.1. Their attendance was at 95.2. Um 94.7 of students reported having a trusted adult at the school and 92.7 reported being treated with respect. Some of their 25-26 goals include uh increasing literacy proficiency by 5%, increase
021math proficiency by 5%, and increase school climate percentile by 5% based on the Illinois 5 Essentials. Uh we also have Simmons Middle School presenter um school improvement plan. Uh current performance with MAP uh fall 2025, math was at 16.82. Literacy was at 25.5. IAR spring 2025 was math 11%. Uh literacy 25.5. Attendance was at 91.4%. Uh some of their goals for 25-26 school year includes increasing literacy proficiency by 5%, um increase math proficiency by 5%, and reduce chronic absenteeism um below 30%. We also have presentation for the 2026 magnet lottery. Uh the Johnson Magnet third grade has um 100 open seats. Uh Fred Rogers Magnet Academy sixth grade has 14 open seats. Um some of the timelines, application is already open, February 26th. Deadline is March 25th. Uh the lottery will be on April 23rd
022uh 23rd online. Uh parents will receive notification on May 1st. And acceptance deadline will be May 14th. Uh communication plans include press release, family outreach, and presentations. Uh we also had a parent advisory committee presentation um that requires parent advisory committee um by uh 105 ILCS 5-10-20.4 that we are not um it's not formally um established here. Uh we'll provide the opportunity for parents' input on several topics. Um, and recommendations include uh formally establishing the committee uh combined with the behavioral intervention committee to ensure compliance and streamline um streamline um engagement. And administration will return with a proposal, and that was for the parent advisory committee. Uh, we also had the middle school uh social study curriculum recommendation. Uh, there were two curriculums piloted. Uh, the one that is being recommended is Teachers' Curriculum Institute,
023TCI. Uh, this is for grades 6 through 8. Uh, some of the why strong alignment to the Illinois standards, better inquiry-based instruction, um more engaging for students, clear visuals, and interactive tools. Uh, the cost for this will be 200 uh $78,471.60 and 60 cents over 6 years. Um, there will be a vote on March 16th, which is our next curriculum meeting. We also had a presentation on AI responsible use guideline. Um, we currently don't have one that is addresses the AI. Uh, so there was a recommendation put out for staff as well. Uh, we also had a presentation for summer school uh 2026. The dates will include June 8th through July uh 2nd, Monday through Thursday. The schools that will be hosting are Dieterich, Hermes, Gonzalez Self-Center, Cowherd Middle School Extension Campus, and East Aurora
024High School. Uh, the focus will be in literacy and math, enrichment, SEL, and credit recovery and original credit at the high school. Uh, some of the additional programs include sport camps, uh STEM Ignition camps, uh partnership with City of Aurora and Boys and Girls Club, and then we'll have a also a summer university experience. Uh, we concluded with district enrollment and attendance. Enrollment was at 11,727 students. The average attendance was at 89.23. We adjourned the meeting at 6:41 p.m. Our next curriculum meeting will be March 16th, uh 2026 here at the admin center at 6:00 p.m. And that is all. No action items, and back to you, Mr. Sifuentes. Thank you, Mr. Olivas. Uh moving on to building and grounds with uh Mr. Lovshe. Thank you. Um, we had a meeting tonight, and our next
025meeting is uh Monday, April 7th at 6:00 p.m. We have two action items. I'll have a full report at the next meeting. Um, two action items. The first, uh we need a motion to award base bid number one to Elens and Machen Roofing and Sheet Metal Inc. for the Oak Park gutter replacement in the amount of 112,670, and this was unanimously recommended by our committee. So moved. Second. Any questions? Secretary Caldero, please. Lovshe? Yes. >> Reyes? Yes. Olivas? Yes. Johnson? Yes. Moreno? Yes. Sifuentes? Yes. Valencia? Yes. And I will add to that that um that uh Mr. Allen has uh done a really good job getting more bids. In fact, um I looked at some of them. There were 100 um potential bidders that were sent information on a lot of those things that we're
026bidding on. So, even though sometimes you only get two, three, four, sometimes we get 10 or 15. So, it's just you never know, but we are definitely working on that. So, thank you. Um, second mo- action item is we need a motion to authorize the purchase of 2,500 Lenovo Chromebooks with a 3-year North Guard protection for students from North Star K12 Inc. in the amount of 1,152,500. So moved. Second. Any questions? Secretary Caldero, please. >> Valencia? Yes. Sifuentes? Yes. Moreno? Yes. Olivas? Yes. Reyes? Yes. Johnson? Yes. Lovshe? Yes. That concludes my report. Back to you. Thank you, Mr. Lovshe. All right, we're going into executive session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation, negotiations, student discipline, land acquisition, and the appointment, employment, performance, compensation, and dismissal of a specific employee. So moved. Second. Secretary Caldero,
027please. Sifuentes? Yes. Valencia? Yes. Olivas? Yes. Moreno? Yes. Johnson? Yes. Reyes? Yes. Lovshe? Yes. And we will have action. Thank you. Okay. We're almost there. Yeah. Any classes? Yes. All right, motion to reconvene from executive session. So moved. Second. Secretary Caldero, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, moving on to the first motion. Motion to approve the dismissal of Judson Vitton. So moved. Second. Any questions? Secretary Caldero, please. No. Yes. No. All right, motion passes. Next motion. A motion to approve the resignation agreement for Beaupre assistant principal. So moved. Second. Any questions? Secretary Caldero, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, uh motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Secretary Caldero, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Adjourned.