001Good evening everyone. We're going to get the February 2nd 7 p.m. regular board meeting to order. Secretary, call the role, please. >> Valencia >> here. >> Tuentes >> here. >> Reyes >> here. L >> here. >> Olivas >> here. >> Moreno >> here. >> Johnson >> here. >> All right. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Right, moving on to the agenda with public comment. All right, we do have one public comment. Uh, just remember in order to sign uh to speak at the board meeting, you would have had to sign up before 7 p.m. Respect the 3minut time limit, respect the confidentiality of students and
002staff and keep comments appropriate. First is tomorrow o day. All right. Good evening, board president Fuentes, superintendent, and members on the board. I am Tamar OJ and I am standing here as the chair of the NAACP DuPage County which services can dupage Kain Kendall will and North counties. In many African cultures the most important greeting amongst the elders is casier ina and that means how are the children? They don't ask about the weather or the economy, but they ask about children because if they know that the children are not well, the future is in jeopardy. And tonight, the NAACP, we have reviewed the school improvement plan that was presented on January 20th, 2026. And so when we ask how are our children, our data gives a heartbreaking answer that the children are not well. When
003we look at in at the environment, there were 436 referrals at the high school. And although our African-American children make up 8% of the population, they carry 18% of the referrals. That means that we are policing our ch our children at double the rate of their peers. 47 according to s the school improvement plan 47% of the children were chronically absent African-American children and they are telling us something. they are communicating something to us and it could be that they do not feel welcomed and that they are staying away because of the um chronic the writeups that they are receiving. But beyond that is what's going on in the classroom as well. Although we have fantastic educators, um, African-American students have a 80% graduation rate, but their proficiency on the ACT scores, um, is is
004that they are receiving a diploma, but they also it's like a check that they have that they cannot cash when they graduate. In math, African-American students are at a 3.7%. And in literacy, they are at 11.11% on the ACT scores. When our freshman on track data says that 79% of the students are on track when they come into East Aurora High School, but by grade 12 they are not proficient. So, the NAACP is holding you accountable for the systemic changes that you promised in September of 2025. We do not want to hear that all of the children are well until the referral rates match enrollment and that that the proficiency rates of African-American students rise. Until then, the question remains, how are the children? Because right now with a 3% proficiency rate in math on
005the ACT score, it says that the children are not well and that is unacceptable. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to the communications from the superintendent, Dr. Hverson. >> Thank you, board president Suentes. Uh the first thing we have this evening this evening is our student board member report with Zeon Lalawali. Zeon, if you could come up with for the student board member report, we appreciate it. Thank you. >> Good afternoon. We have an exciting set of events planned for the coming week. All these students will have free admission to East West Games held on Thursday evening alongside free pizza served in the cafeteria from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. Students who sign up will also have a free t-shirt to commemorate the event. In other sports news, our state qualifying cheer
006team hosted a competition at East last week and also came fourth overall at the Upstate 8 cheer competition. Our girls wrestling team continued their amazing season, winning the Upstate 8 conference competition for the fourth consecutive year and the regular season West Conference as well going undefeated for the entire year. They'll be competing again this week to continue their historic season. Our girls wing team will also be competing at the regional tournament this Friday in Decal. And our chess team has played in the upstate conference competition and the IHSA sections competition over the past two weekends. Our girls track and field team also has their first meet next week or sorry this week and the boys track and field team will have has their first first meet next week. This is also our first year ever
007with the boys volleyball team whose season will be starting very soon. Students also had a talent show last week showcasing a wide range of performances from solos to a full band and we had a great turnout at the event. The science fair department. The science department is planning a health fair on March 12th to promote healthy to promote healthy living habits. A mental health symposium will also be held on March 7th to support our students. East students who sign up will have free transportation to the event. The five essential survey also open this week and students will be taking it tomorrow morning to provide the school with valuable feedback. As you can see, there's plenty going on at East and students have many opportunities to engage with and be involved with their school meeting. Thank
008you. Thank you, Zion. And next we have our community relations report with Miss Britney Walker. We're going to try this. Audio is good. Okay. All right. We're proud to recognize our top 10 students from the Great Reading Tournament. The winners are from across the district and their dedication and love for reading truly sets them apart. This fall, an incredible 7,170 students from 14 elementary and middle schools participated in the great reading tournament fall edition. Coming together for three weeks focused on reading and friendly competition. Collectively, our students across East Aurora read an astounding 128,443 minutes. That's more than 2,141 hours and a completion of 2,367 books. That's a lot of reading, right? More impressive, six of our top 10 students ranked amongst the top 100 participants nationwide. These outstanding readers exemplify perseverance, commitment, and the
009power of literacy, and we're thrilled to celebrate their achievements this evening. So, when I call your name, students, please step up. There are some that are not here. So, I will go through all the names and you'll come up. Students, again, stay here with your certificate and we'll take a group picture at the end. Okay. Francisco Gutierrez Olivia Walker, Alexander Martino De Lao, Angelina Rodriguez, Juan Takco, Claudia Espahel, Elena Roas, Monika Dala, Briana Carell, and our last student. I have to specify. Sorry. Our last student, which was our top reader, did an impressive 6,718 minutes from 15 books. Please give a round of applause for the number one reader who was also also going to receive a fourpack of tickets for an upcoming Kang County Cougars game, Masa Alhaj Ali. If we have any of
010their educators that are here in the room, we're going to have them take a group picture with the board of education, please. And the students represented here are from Simmons Middle School, Waldo Middle School. We also had readers from Oak Park Elementary, but I don't believe the students here. But I do think you can come and stand with the readers if you would like. Another round of applause while we get the group together. All stand over here in front of the board of education. Yes, that's perfect. Thank you. Everyone smile on a count of three. That's more pictures and minutes. All right. Thank you. You all may return to your seats. Another round. >> All right. And at this time, I would like to introduce our next speakers. We have um both the president and
011vice president of the Cats Club from East Aurora High School to tell you about their organization. Come on up. >> Hi, I'm Lea Graves. I'm the president of Cats Club. Um >> I'm Aaliyah. I'm the vice president of Cats Club at Easter High School. Cats was created to celebrate um different cultures and traditions and voices in our school. This year we've shared student made cultural videos in English, Spanish, and through QR codes and during lunch to help students learn more about one another. We were we are honored to receive the city of Aurora's MLK award for promoting unity and student leadership. For Black History Month, we are sponsoring a STEP team led by Miss Miss Mary Taylor with performing during school and on February 26 celebration. Looking ahead, Cats Cats will continue to create murals,
012hosting monthly highlights, and encouraging more students involvement as we will work towards connecting, celebrating, and uplifting uplifting our community. Thank you, Mr. Torres and Miss Taylor, could you guys stand for me as well, please? And then the rest of the Cats Club that's here with the students, if you guys could stand. I know we didn't get everybody here this evening, but I know we got some representation. Um, and the Cats Club so far has been a wonderful group for us to meet with. Um, we've had the opportunity to meet with them regularly. Um, and they also have regular meetings where they're taking a look at the different cultures at the high school under Mr. Torres and Miss Taylor's leadership. Uh, Nvea in particular when we were in one of our meetings um really rose to
013the top as far as her public speaking ability. Um, I let her know that she definitely has a, you know, a future in public speaking for sure. She did a phenomenal job with us. Um I look at Jordan over there. We've just had an awesome group. Um we are going to have the opportunity for the board as well as some constituents to meet with the Cats Club on February 10th and we're very excited about that. We'll get an opportunity to eat some lunch together and just talk about all their progress. So I just want to say thank you again to our students. Thank you to Mr. Torres and thank you for Miss Taylor for your leadership and also thank you to the high school for sponsoring the Cats Club and getting them up and going
014this year. We're truly grateful for it. Um how many students total have we had in there roughly, guys? run. >> Oh, nice. >> Yep. >> You guys want to tell them what CAT stands for? Anybody over there? Somebody who didn't get a chance to speak. Jordan, go ahead. Nice and Jane, go ahead. Nice and loud. What is it? Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you guys again for your leadership to the high school. We truly appreciate you. Next, moving on to additional communications from the superintendent. Um, as the members of our Cats Club kind of previewed there, we have our Black History Month celebration. Um, and that'll be at Easter High School. Um, it's going to be hosted on February 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. and it'll be in the main auditorium. Uh,
015this event is open to families, students, staff, and community members. We've got a purpose and vision for it and there's three different things we're really looking at when we're looking at our Black History Month celebration. An evening of reflection, inspiration, and community connection. Secondly, to honor black history, culture, and excellence while also celebrating the contributions of African-Americans locally and nationally. And third, finally, to strengthen school, family, and community partnerships through meaningful cultural engagement. So, we're really excited about it. Some of the overviews of featured highlights, our keynote keynote speaker is Dr. Julian Wright. He's a Chicagoland based educator, actor, and television personality known for uplift uplifting messages centered on black history, leadership, and community community empowerment. We also have a very special performance from the Leo High School Choir. That's Chicago's very own Leo High
016School choir and the 2025 America's Got Talent fourth place winners. In addition to, as we talked about a little bit there as well, we have a student performance. Easter High School step team will be showcasing student talent, pride, and cultural expression. So, thank you, Miss Taylor, for taking that on. We're very excited. And we'll have some additional programs um and performances for that program as well that evening. Audience again is for families and guardians across the district, student, students at all grade levels, staff, administrators, and community partners. And our goal once again is for strong community turnout and broad representation. Uh this celebration reflects East Aurora's dedication to honoring history while uplifting our students and community. We welcome the board's continued support and presence at this community important community event as well. So once again,
017that's for our Black History Month celebration. You'll see a flyer up there that's put together. There is a QR code there. So if you want to come, please make sure we scan the QR code. We want to make sure we can hold roughly 1500 individuals in the auditorium. We want to make sure we have enough seats. The QR code is live. Um we did start to get reservations throughout this weekend. So we're very excited for that opportunity. Next, we are going to give an overview of our elementary dual language program. And Dr. Amy Angel and Dr. Rita Guzman are going to assist me with this. This is an overview of all the steps we've taken so far this year to gather community feedback as we look to continue to strengthen our dual language program. Um,
018so we're going to kick it off with our first slide here where we talk about our commitments. East Aurora District 131 is absolutely committed to valuing learning in both English and Spanish, providing opportunities for students to become bilingual and able to read and write in both languages, supporting students at each grade level, and absolutely honoring family choice. During my listening tours, our January community town hall meetings, and feedback from uh staff and building leaders, they've reiterated the importance of these commitments throughout that process. Next slide, please. In 2020, our district moved to fully dual language model at elementary level. This means that all students participated in learning in both English and Spanish. We have been learning from our in our implementation over the years. For instance, the fully douly program presented a cha presented challenges
019for our families moving into the district. um as students came in without having prior knowledge or having exposure to Spanish if that was one of the struggles that we did face. If they had not participated in a dual language in their prior district or did not speak Spanish placement into the dual language program in upper elementary was difficult. In addition, opting out of dual language was not easy uh to do as transportation was a challenge for some of the families or for that to be available within their home school. Staffing has also proven to be more challenging as dual language expanded each year to the next grade level. The need for highly qualified Spanish-speaking staff increased. That was an additional need. We are proud of the program and ultimately responsible for refining it as we
020learn more about how it impacts our families, our students, and our district. >> I'm going to pause real quick with our presentation. I got ahead of myself a little bit. Students that are here, we know it's a school night. So, if you guys want to take off, you're more than welcome to. You're more than welcome to stay for the board meeting, but I'm going to pause for about 30 seconds real quick. So, if you guys want to leave, you're more than welcome to. Okay. Congratulations again. Thank you for being here. He likes your shirt. of the challenges that we have faced throughout uh implementation of the program. >> Next slide. Um our families now have choice related to the elementary language of instruction. We made decisions about the programming we were offering for next school
021year based upon the input that Dr. Halverson had talked about. The families will then make their programming choice during the registration process which will allow us to plan appropriately. In addition to family choice, we also have a legal requirement to meet the service needs of our ELEL students, which is why we have different programming options for our native Spanish speakers. When families select dual language, we take a closer look at the student data to provide program recommendations that align with the students instructional needs. These recommendations are intended to be supportive, not restrictive. We will continue to make decisions based on the data from registration uh and the we'll use the time focused on uh supporting at the building levels so that people understand what the programming options are. It's really important to note that choice
022does not mean families are left to figure this out on their own though. We are here to walk beside them provide guidance and support uh all throughout the process. >> Next slide please. So, a little overview of our community town hall meetings. We held five in-person community meetings to share what our plans were related to elementary dual language and hear what our families had to say about the considerations. We had 186 attendees consisting of families, community members, and staff. A recording of the town hall was made at the end so we could provide transparency for anyone who was unable to attend. We didn't go into these conversations expecting full agreement. We went in expecting honesty and partnership. The events were very collaborative with v with varied perspectives voiced. Some people expressed their desire for an
023opt-in model of duel and many provided personal stories and testimonials regarding the positive impact duel had on their student. Next slide, please. In addition, I want to highlight our elementary staff meetings. We held two staff meetings to share what our plans were related to elementary dual language and hear what our staff had to say about the considerations. We had 192 attendees. The events allowed for lots of questions and answer opportunities. In addition, we surveyed the ele the impacted elementary teachers to gather information from them regarding their instructional preference for next year. The survey included asking which program they would prefer and what was most important to them, either the program or the building placement. To date, we have received 92% of the responses and we'll use this information when it is time for staffing along
024with the feedback we get from our parents. It was great to hear different viewpoints and we appreciate appreciate the feedback from our families and our staff. Next slide, please. >> Registering our families and gathering data from the registration is one of the biggest priorities that we have right now. Registration just opened yesterday and uh as of 3:15 p.m. today, we already had 836 registrants. uh this morning at 10:15 we had 620. So the number jumped by 200 just in a short few hours. So this is really encouraging. >> Just a quick interjection. We did have a member of our technology team who shall rename anonymous who was up at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning looking to see at the registration. They said it was like almost Christmas to them or uh the anticipation of it.
025So >> yeah, I think they were placing like uh guesses on how many registrants there would be at different times. So very fun. I want to just uh give a big shout out to our registration team. They've done an incredible job collaborating with all the other district departments to ensure that we can provide registration support to our families and make this process as easy and streamlined as possible. We have schools hosting evening registration hours. We have office staff and parent family liaison who are trained and ready to support anytime a family needs assistance. Um our teams have met to review the registration plans and provide support across the system. In addition, we have created a registration schedule that helps to reduce barriers and should allow families to receive the support they need to register which
026will in turn help us to plan for success. Uh we have real-time registration monitoring so we can address concerns and the data like I said already shows that our families are engaging successfully. all came together to be able to make this happen. Uh all stakeholders working towards one common goal and here are the next steps um in the next few months. Registration's now open as we shared and we're supporting each other to make sure that we're oper we're offering multiple opportunities for parents to be able to register evenings and weekends. District departments are reviewing the implementation of the impact of elementary programming, shifting planning for next steps, ensuring that a smooth start to the school year. March 25th is a deadline for guaranteed program placement throughout registration. In April, the registration data will be reviewed
027and programming decisions will be made even maybe sooner as we have been seeing that registrations have been coming in a lot quicker than we expected. Families will be informed of their students elementary program and school for the upcoming school year and we will have the window of time to make any changes to prior through the prior to their program selection. Once the program is solified, elementary staffing will be finalized and communication can occur to them. I know that they're eagerly waiting for that as well. This is this has been very careful, very thoughtful collaboration, ongoing work from all departments and we are confident in our process and in our people. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have any uh questions from the board at all regarding the dual language uh continuation at the elementary
028level and the registration process? And I'm looking over I see Mr. Levis leaving in leaning in. So I think he's going to go first. I guess um I I know this is just an overview for me personally thinking as a dual language teacher. What are the options that parents have? Um what models are we using? Are we using a 50/50 or we using a 8020 and that means language allocation? Are we using a two-way meaning English and Spanish speakers? Are we using just a one-way Spanish classrooms only? There's just a lot in my mind going through right now as we are now in February going into March and placing all this stuff. Um, I know we heard transportation was an issue, staffing was an issue. Um, so again before, but again, how are we going
029to make sure that everything's in place in this few months and I guess it's just a timeline, right? But I guess I need more details on how this is going to work out and what programs are we going to be offering for parents. >> Perfect. Dr. Guzman or Dr. You, you want to talk about the programming specifically? You guys can go back and forth and then I'll talk about our improvement process and our structured process that we're going through. >> Perfect. I'll start. Rita, you fill in the gaps for me. >> Thanks for Dr. Guzman is a little sick as you can tell too. Thank you Dr. Guzman for braving it. We appreciate it. >> For our native English speakers and our uh e and uh native Spanish speakers who are higher performing in terms
030of English language proficiency, they would be moving into our two-way dual model. It's a 50-50 model where there is a teacher who provides instruction in English, a teacher who provides instruction in Spanish, and they flip-flop classes during the day to our students who are um at requiring EL supports and have a lower level of English proficiency. That's where we have the one-way uh dual model where they it's all native Spanish speakers in that room and the teach there's one teacher who provides instruction in English and Spanish and flip-flops content depending on the day. In kindergarten they start out at 8020 and 8020 80 Spanish 20 English and then slowly um move to the 50/50 model in the second half of elementary school. So it's a model that we already currently use. Uh and then we
031would have our English general program of instruction, sheltered instruction provided as well to students who um opt into an Englishonly program. >> And those students will be receiving part-time services as the teacher would have an ESL endorsement to provide sheltered instructional practices within the classroom. With the 5050 program, we Sorry. With the 50/50 program, are we staying the way it is now >> or are we changing it? >> Very similar to staying the same. >> Okay. Yeah, we're not anticipating changes. We'll look at what the data says. If there's a reason that we need to do something different, we can look at that. But right now, it's looking that it would remain consist. we're re-evaluating is really trying to reduce the transitional um times of school. >> That's what I was referring to because I
032know with the 5050 model, there's a lot of transition happening and there's a lot of instructional time that we're losing. So, I just want to make sure that that is looked at very carefully. Um and then as we're moving on, I just want to make sure are we thinking about TBE, transitional bilingual education? >> No. Right now, no. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. just wanted to clarify. >> Yeah, real quick with that, too. As far as um the model of instruction there and what we're taking a look at, the way we want to make sure we're looking at this is through our joint committee for dual language. So, we're going to involve our teachers and our stakeholders to gather feedback when it looks at any programmatic changes as far as transitions, curricular needs, etc.
033And our yeah, instructional minutes and our joint committee, joint curriculum committee as well, curriculum council is the avenue we're going through with that. We've been very upfront um with the educators as well as the union leadership on that we're going to use both of those committees to help hear the voices further from the teachers and facilitate anything changes as far as instructional minutes with that. >> Thank you. And then the other thing I wanted to highlight as part of your question there was as far as making sure that we have a strategic plan in place for this or what our plans are. Um we have a as you've seen our departmental improvement plans that we have. We have a strategic plan specifically for dual language where it's laid out by department. They're all smart goals.
034are all timestamped. We're checking them off as we're going through, we've dedicated time during our executive cabinet meetings to have these conversations. And then in addition to that, right after executive cabinet for now until the work gets done, we've got an additional 90 minutes allocated for a team that comes together to look at the dual language model to make sure that we dot all our eyes and cross our tees when it comes to this. So yes, there's a lot of things to work through still, but this is a big priority for us. we are allocating a ton of resources and time and that's already built into our schedule all the way through the beginning of April as of right now and then we'll modify as needed with that. Um and as Dr. Angel and Dr.
035Guzman talked about, it has truly been a collaborative effort that I'm proud of. Um we've had numerous departments meeting continuously uh to make sure that we are asking the right questions to help move this forward. Now, can I guarantee that we're not going to stub our toes through the process? No. That'd be foolish on my part. But we are taking all the steps we can to make sure we're as proactive as possible and making sure that our roll out is as smooth as possible as well. >> And I think that's my point that I want to make sure that this roll out is as smooth as possible. Um I want to make sure that everything is ready to go and and if we need to take our time, I think we need to take our
036time and we owe that to the students and the families and the and the teachers. Um so again, look forward to continuing with um hearing with more updates. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the great questions. Any other questions? >> The, you know, when is the staff going to know and the students going to know what buildings that they're going to end up in? >> Great question. Uh, board our board member Johnson. We have the timeline for staff for students to register by is March 25th. So, when their parents get them registered, that's that guaranteed date of placement. And then they would be guaranteed the program that they're looking for. Either if it was a dual language program in their closest building and that's what they requested, they would be guaranteed that. If dual
037language wasn't available, and this is just I'm just throwing out a building. If dual language wasn't available at building A, but building B was the closest one, we would place them there. And then our promise to parents was because let's say that myself as a father, I wanted my child in dual language, but then it was determined that my child has to go to building B instead of building A. We're going to have 10 days to revisit those conversations with parents. So, I would anticipate right around April 5th or so, we should have that finalized. Staffing wise, we have CB the CBA. We have until 5 days before the contractual end date, and that's historically what we've done. We're going to try and move that up because we know there will be things in place
038as far as having to relocate classrooms. The good thing so far, a lot of the feedback that we've gotten from staff is that they're more concerned with staying in their building than they are programmatically. So, it may be less moves for us when we're looking at it, but we're going to take those two data points and bring them together to make that intersection. So, did that answer your question or did you have >> that? No, that answered my question. And then um just out of curiosity overall how many parents did attend all these? >> So the total parents we had I want to say it was 200 give me one second 186 is what we had in person but then we also had that video out there um to make sure that we're getting that.
039And then there is one of the things that we didn't add in there is there is a a video in English and a video in Spanish that's actually embedded into the registration link that parents can watch beforehand so they can learn about all our programs and get further details. So, we've truly tried to make sure that we've provided as many avenues as we can. And then we've committed to the fact that we have our language acquisition department available for assistance if parents have questions. If we have a student with an IEP, we have our staff services or student services department available to help guide those as well. >> Thank you for the questions. Any other questions from the board? These are great questions. I appreciate it. >> I have one quick one. So, so for
040the board to be able to speak about it, so we're transitioning from an opt out to an opt in, right? >> Yes, that's correct, Mr. Leper. And then you said that the high functioning so if they register that like who decides >> we actually have explicit levels based on their access scores. All of our EL students must take access. So if they're a 4.0 or above, they would be in our higher performing group. Then we have the 3.3 to 3.9 group. Um so it's based on the same um cut scores that we've been using all along. So when they go to register, they're either they're in the >> when they register, they'll say that they want um instruction in English and Spanish dual language, or they'll say they want English instruction in the general program
041of study, sheltered instruction, and then we will when we communicate with them in April saying, "Here's the placement based on your request." We will tell them the program that that we recommend them for based on their um uh access score. You said staffing it, you'll because we have enough time, you'll be able to staff it. >> We already currently staff all uh K through five. And if we know that our families want this, then that is the priority and we have put some structures into place so that we can be present at the appropriate job fairs and really be very aggressive at that. >> I just worry when you say you guarantee them that that word I don't know what per great point Mr. Lofty. we guarantee the placement by March 25th. So that's one
042of the parameters we put in place and full transparency when we look at it. We have sometimes where maybe the L1 is English in a building and we have class sizes of 12 to 15 kids or maybe the L1 is Spanish in a building and we have class sizes of 12 to 15. So this will help us make sure that we're staffing appropriately and we're using our resources to the best of our ability while honoring the parent choice at the same time. So that's why we put that timeline in place that we will guarantee if you register by this date. Now, if that means that I have to open another section, then we're going to be upfront with that and then that's where the transportation um issues could come in where we're providing transportation for
043students coming from another building. It's very sim if you think of it, it's very similar to what we've done right now at Bardwell where it was an opt out um but it was that was met with a lot of challenges for our parents when we were looking at it because of transportation etc at that point in time. So, that's part of the reason we have the timelines in place now um to get ahead of this and that's why we were very excited today when we heard 600 or I think it was 500 this morning at 10:15 and then 850 because we are going to put a big onus on registration so we can make sure that we're making the best informed decisions to meet the community's needs. >> Sounds good. Thank you. One last clarification
044if we could just uh define what a general education shelter means. >> So, general program of instruction is English instruction. sheltered instruction is English instruction with a teacher that has an ESL endorsement. And just to add a little uh plus also, that video that Dr. Halverson referred to is also going to be in the top five languages subtitles. Um our our PR department really did a nice job on making sure that we met all of our multilingual families languages throughout the district. >> Thank you, Dr. Guzman. Thank you, Dr. Angel. I really appreciate it. And thank you once again to all of our departments for working hard at this and coming together. We truly appreciate it. And that concludes my Actually, before that concludes, I apologize. We I did want to highlight uh Thursday night
045is the East West basketball game. Our girls play at 5:00 p.m. varsity girls, boys play at 700 p.m. at East High School. It typically would have been on Friday, but we had the opportunity this year to host girls regional wrestling. Um so we have the boys and girls basketball on Thursday night. Then we have girls regional wrestling on Friday and Saturday. Um so I'd encourage the community to come out and check out our student athletes as well. And that concludes my report. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Halverson. So, moving on to the consent agenda. Motion to approve the following consent agenda as listed. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Any questions? Secretary, call the role, please. >> Quentes, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Olivas, >> yes. >> L, yes. >> Moreno, >>
046yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. Reyes, >> yes. >> All right, moving on to finance and personnel with Miss Reyes. Good evening everyone. Buos. Uh the finance and personnel committee met earlier today at 5:30 here at the administration center and I will have a full report at the next meeting um which will take place Monday, March 2nd, 2026 at 5:30 here at the administration center. And we do have one action item um so 6.B.1 B.1 motion to approve 14.1 second semester overloads for East High School. >> So second any question? >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Yes. L >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Moreno, >> yes. >> Olivas, >> yes. >> And that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Miss Reyes. Moving on to curriculum and programs with Mr.
047Olivas, I'm going to go ahead and yield my time to Miss Valencia. >> Thank you. Um, good evening everyone. Buenos toos. Um, the curriculum committee met on January 20th at 6 p.m. Uh, during the meeting, East Aurora High School and the extension campus presented their school improvement plans. East Aurora High School principal, Mrs. Mitchell, uh, along with her administrative team shared their vision and mission for students. They outlined plans to increase the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations in literacy and mathematics by 5% across all reported groups and demographics as measured by the spring 2026 act compared to the spring 2025 results. The East Aurora High School team also discussed key actions to foster a culture of belonging with a goal of increasing average daily attendance by 3% for all students. Mr.
048Crump, principal of the extension campus, presented the challenges his school faces and explained how the school's mission and vision will guide efforts to address them. Along with his team, he shared similar goals as the main campus for improving literacy and mathematics and clarified expectations for both teachers and students to achieve these goals. The team also presented strategies to promote a culture of belonging, including a targeted 5% decrease in referrals for disobeying directives for all students compared to June 2025 data. In addition, they also shared informative information about their positive behavior incentive programs. I love positive reinforcement. East Aurora High School assistant principal of athletics and activities, Mr. De Lamad provided an overview of the athletic department and its areas of focus for the year. He highlighted several accomplishments including efforts to build a positive and
049inclusive culture, increased visibility and stakeholder engagement, title 9 compliance through the girls flag football team and the introduction of a boys volleyball team. He also discussed ongoing improvements in communication and organization, coach evaluations, and expectations for the department moving forward. Mr. Simpson presented information on the regional safe schools program and its alignment with board policy, past practices, and the district's strategic plan and supporting data. Um, Mrs. Cardona shared initiatives related to registration for the 2026 to 2027 school year. U, these include marketing and advertising plans for registration opening dates, strategies to engage the community, and support for families who have not registered by April. She also discussed additional incentives and provided the board with a cost proposal. Lastly, the committee received the attendance and enrollment report. The next curriculum committee meeting is scheduled for February
05016 at 6 p.m. >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to building and grounds committee with Mr. Loft. The buildings and grounds committee met on January 20th and first thing which is exciting is Mark Michelini of the Eastora Foundation presented his proposal to bring forth um to the foundation's board a request to donate 125,000 to East High School Stadium Improvements. So, we'll see what happens with that. Next, um Mr. Allen talked about the uh our Andy Allen talked about the Brady fire panel that we need to upgrade it and we've gone out to bid and unfortunately we only got one bid. Um the good news is it's the company that's done it the last or the last three fire panels for our schools that have been replaced. They have been the low bidder. So that
051is going to be an action item tonight. Um, we talked about going out to um an on -ate for IT licensing. Then we talked about project maintenance grant application that we applied to receive $50,000 of reimbursement from the state of Illinois towards the Oak Park window project. And I'm happy to say that um we received that. We got that confirmed since our meeting. So that's great. Uh postage machine we uh discussed Dr. Angel presented how we need to get a new postage machine. We did go out for bid and that will be an action item tonight. Talked about the Mastenon Lake improvements which we talked about um tonight at our meeting. We had a meeting and we'll be coming back with more more information on that. And we talked about the work order summary. So
052that is it for the last meeting. And as far as action items, um 8B1, we need a motion to award the Brady School fire panel replacement bid number one to Elite Technology System in the amount of $355,890. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> I have a question. Um so what happens when we only get one bid? So, we talked about it at length um today and the problem is that they have a hard time getting bids for a lot of things because apparently this group has got the last three bids. So, if you're bidding and you lose three times in a row, you may not want to submit it. But, um we did talk about I mean at the finance committee I believe talked about how we're going to try and be
053a little more proactive and trying to get bids. Um we're on the national list. Is it for the some of these trades? Andy, >> I don't know so much about the national list, but we have been trying to publicize it more and more on the website. Um, we're doing that right now with another bid coming up that just the information got posted today. Try to get as many people out there and as public as we can. >> So, we don't have to approve this tonight. We can try and get another bid, but >> I just want to make sure we're in compliance with our policy. I mean, if it says that we need three, um, we should try to get three possible. Um, >> no. The policy is three. If we're getting quotes for something
054under $25,000, the bid process remains the same as an RFP. Very similar process. We go out to bid and we accept the proposals or bids coming in and we make our best judgment to either not go forward or to go forward with generally the lowest reason, lowest uh responsible bidder. >> Thank you. There are a lot of state of Illinois um and and other advertising sites that do advertise these bids. Now, we have talked about this before and I do see other school districts on those sites. Easter is never on those sites. So, um, you know, perhaps we really need to to start advertising and casting a wider net because, you know, in this day and age that everybody's competing for business and I just find it odd that we're not getting that many bids
055then. So, we really got to look at those websites. It's it's just very easy to Google, but there's a bunch of them for the state of Illinois. So, I think we should look into that. And I only bring that up because I feel like we keep having the same conversation about bids and trying to find other places, but I don't know what those other places as, you know, as we continue to learn here as board members. Um, you know, I don't know where to look at. So, thank you, Miss Johnson, for those expertise. Um, so again, just trying to find out how to do that. So, >> and I think that we talked about having our architects give us some names and context. I think we've done that in some cases, but it takes a
056lot of work to do a bid. I know that. So, it may be that because they've won, they haven't won in a while, but I agree. I like >> Yeah, >> Miss Johnson's idea. That's we should definitely do that if that's a thing. That's great. >> And one of the things we talked about today during our BNG meeting was um when we do make those additional efforts to make sure that either Dr. Angel or Mr. Allen document those in the um board document that goes ahead, the proposal, the memo that goes ahead. So, we'll make sure to put some further detailed information because I know that we are attempting to get it. But I I agree in that it's or Miss Johnson, it is a good opportunity for us to use some of those advertising
057ways to do it, but I also think we need to go back and make sure that we're more specific in our memos so we can say, "Okay, we only got one bid in. This is what we reached out to in addition." So that way the board has all that information and the community at large can have that information as well. >> I had agreed. Any other questions? Secretary call the roll please. >> Yes. >> Tuentes. >> Yes. >> Moreno. >> Yes. >> Olivas. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. Okay. Second is 8B2. We need a motion to approve the purchase of a postage machine and a 5-year service contract through postal source in the amount of $31,841.17. >> So moved. Any questions? >> We did get two bids on this and they were very very
058close, but I guess it's there's not a lot of companies that do this anymore. >> No, actually there are a lot of but he's out there, trust me. >> Any other questions? All right, Secretary Karo, please. >> Yes. >> Reyes? >> Yes. >> Olivas? >> Yes. >> Johnson? >> Yes. >> Moreno? >> Yes. >> Valencia? >> Yes. That concludes our report. >> All right. Moving on to executive session for the purpose of discussing land acquisition, pending litigation, negotiations in the appointment, employment, performance, compensation, and dismissal of a specific employee. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Valencia. >> Yes. >> Sequentas. Yes. Vez, >> yes. Are they coming? Yes. Motion to reconvene from executive session. So move >> second. >> Secretary call the roll, please. >> Yes. Johnson. >> Yes.
059>> Motion to adjurnn. So move. >> Second. >> Secretary, call the role, please. Yes. >> Yes. >> We're still have to wait.