001Good. >> Good evening. We're going to start the October 25th, 2025 7 p.m. regular board meeting to order. Secretary, call the role, please. >> Names. Valencia >> here. >> Sephentes >> here. >> Dezes >> here. >> Lashe here. >> Olivas >> here. >> Moreno absent. 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. Be before we move on to public comment, I wanted to uh just take a few moments of silence uh for the passing of one of our own uh Brandon M. Okay, we'll move on to public comment. In order to have sign uh to speak at the board
002meeting, you would have had to sign in before 7 PM, respect the three-minute time limit, respect the confidentiality of students and staff, and keep comments appropriate, Dr. Vincent Gatis. Uh good evening. Uh over the last couple of months, we have been here at this uh board meeting uh dealing with the issue of board member Reyes and public comments that she had made or comments that became public. Uh the board responded with an open letter. Each member of the board spoke I don't you were here. You know that right? Uh at that last board meeting, uh uh a offer was made to meet with board member Reyes with several community leaders to discuss the issue at hand of her comments and ways to uh move forward. And so I am here tonight to report that that
003meeting did happen and um uh uh Juan was there or I'm sorry Mr. Suentes was there along with board member Reyes and several of the community leaders. Uh at that meeting a really important thing happened, right? We listened to each other and another important thing happened which is that we took a step forward and we probably did what is probably the most difficult part of the journey is not the first step because there's all the pressure all the you know to take the first step the the second step which was we're going to meet again, come up with priorities. Uh board member Reyes is coming to us with things that she wants to accomplish. And this is what we've all wanted all along is that we've got to find ways to not only communicate, but
004we've got to find pathways to cooperate. We've got to find pathways to bring communities together. And so I am cautiously optimistic. Test but verify. Trust but verify. But we are cautiously optimistic because it took courage for you to meet with us. It takes courage to say I apologize. I was wrong. Let's move forward. That takes courage. And so I'm here tonight to report to you, to everyone else, to the community that this was not just some we people came uh things were read and that's it and it goes away under some rug somewhere. There is real movement happening and we are grateful that you are willing to take these steps with us to make District 131 better for all students. So, thank you. All right, we'll move on to communications from the superintendent, Dr. Halverson.
005>> Sure. Thank you, Board President Sufetes. First this evening, we have in her first uh kind of speech to the board here and to the community, we have Elizabeth Carell, who's one of our student board members for the 2025 2026 school year. So, let's give Elizabeth a warm round of applause as she comes up to talk to us this evening. >> Good evening. Uh firstly, I'd like to thank the board for granting me the opportunity to speak for the East Aurora community. Uh today I'd like to shed light on the activities from the last two weeks. Uh we had parent teacher conferences on the 9th and the 10th. Uh attendance was lower than in other years but we also had virtual meetings so that may account for that. Um those meetings are available for those
006two days and for future dates. So overall it went great. Uh we even had uh student volunteers help with translating for non-English-speaking families uh at the high school and younger levels. Uh there was also cider and donuts available for purchase for the families. Um along with the two days off for conferences, uh we also had Monday off for Indigenous People's Day, uh which made it a 5-day weekend. Uh this time off allowed students to catch up on their work and or relax as our quarter comes to an end in two days. Uh last Wednesday we had our very successful um college fair. 81 colleges and universities were present and were helped out by our student volunteers with setting up and directed on where to go. The a thousand plus students who attended the fair, whether
007with the class or individually, had the chance to get to know their potential future schools and learn of new possibilities. Our seniors had the opportunity to learn more about the admissions process as application deadlines approach closer and closer. Uh last Thursday, our NHS program held an induction ceremony for its newest members. Uh about 45 students were welcomed along with their families and peers. They got to celebrate their accomplishment with a traditional candle lighting and a variety of refreshments. And last week's highlight has have got to be our rivalry with uh West Aurora. Along with our varsity football game on Friday, which was another pink out for breast cancer awareness, uh we also had a coat drive going on uh with the between the two schools uh to see who could donate the most. Uh the
008schools partnered up with Maddiey's Mitten March to provide the winter clothing for those in need. Our longtime rivalry with our sister school across the river will continue on in future sporting events and activities. Uh, it's an honor to be able to stand here as a representative of the Eastor student body. Thank you for your time. Next, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Britney Walker because we have a recognition this evening. So, Miss Walker, if you could come up. Thank you. >> Good evening, everyone. >> Good evening. Each year, the College Board recognizes students across the nation who demonstrate exceptional achievement in their advanced placement exams. These honors are awarded at several levels, beginning with the general AP Scholar designation, which is given to students who score a three or higher in three or
009more AP exams. The next level of recognition is AP Scholar with distinction. This is a highly selective honor awarded to students who not only take multiple AP exams, but who also earn an average score of at least 3.5 on all exams taken and scores of a three or higher on five or more exams. There's math in there somewhere. for the spring 2025 AP exams that just took place back in Mayish. East Aurora High School had an impressive 139 students recognized as AP scholars. Of those 139, 17 students earned an average score of 3.95 as AP Scholars with distinction. More math is coming. Out of those 17 students, eight were members of the class of 2025. The remaining nine are current seniors at Easter High School. Um, and they're very very busy uh students. So, we
010have three students that we're going to recognize here to this evening and then I'll mention the names of the others. Um, so here with us today we have who we just heard from, Elizabeth Carell Marino. Please come up. Next, Yuram Wortha and Jian Carlo Leesma. The additional students that could not be present today are Jasmine Pina, our other uh student member of the board, Zeon Laiwala, Jose Arando, Mateos Ramirez, Jazelle Zeruggoza, and Diego Gonzalez Tjo. So, please give all students a round of applause while we take our group picture with the board. Next for comments for the sup from the superintendent. I've got quite a few this evening, so I'll try and go through them pretty quickly here. We've got quite a few exciting events coming up. Uh we have our parent university on November
0118th. Um we are excited to have Victor Gomez, the 2025 Illinois teacher of the year as our keynote speaker for that event. In addition, we'll have sessions on financial literacy, special education processes, online safety, yoga, and mindfulness, and other sessions as well. Sessions will be provided in both English and Spanish. Child care is available. We're going to have it right there at the high school this year, so we won't have it at Gates. So, parents, please bring your children with. We'll have high high quality child care for you as well. And we also have breakfast and lunch provided for all attendees. So, we'll make sure to get more information out. Board of Education, if you're available, that's another great day to come out and see our community. It's November 8th on a Saturday. Um, pretty
012much all morning long there and it goes right till about 12:30 or so. Next, I wanted a quick uh plug for Skyward. Um, so we've moved to Skyward with our transition to Skyward uh due to our partnership with Bloom Township Trustees of Schools. We have a new financial platform. Um, we've been preparing for this transition for over 10 months. Even with all of this preparation, we did have 0.02% 02% of our staff who had issues with their a deposits due to processing errors with the platform. So, we put in a ton of work um had a lot of professional development ongoing. However, with the a deposits, we had 02% or roughly about 40 staff members um who we had some issues with payment there. Um and I just wanted to put that out there publicly,
013but also put out there publicly a big thank you to the finance and payroll team in collaboration with the union leadership. uh they developed and implemented a quick plan to make sure we got paper checks or a deposits to all stakeholders within 24 hours of the processing era. Um I'm thankful for the hard work of the team and for the problem solving approach uh specifically Becky Royo, the union president collaborated with our finance department there and Mr. Daniel Alrich drove himself all the way to the South Burbs uh to pick up a lot of those checks. So we're just thankful that we're able to get those out to our staff in real time. Uh we know that the current situation financially uh in the United States is we're we're up against it a little bit
014financially there and we wanted to make sure that we could get all of the financial resources to all of our hardworking staff in a uh period of time there. So I wanted to acknowledge that we did have a little bit of a misstep but we took some steps to correct that right away. Next we have our preac this week for our high school. So all of our students who are in grades 9 10 11 will be taking the preac this week at the high school. So I wanted to make sure that we are aware of that. Another exciting thing as it relates to our high school is we have the first annual city of Aurora City of Aurora illuminate career pathways event for 9th grade students from East and West Aurora high schools and Battavia
015and Keaneland high schools as well. It's this Friday, October 24th, 2025 at Wanti Community College at the Sugar Grove campus. It'll include community employer partners that are excited to speak to our young people about their career pathways within their industry and provide students with an interactive display or a hands-on demonstration. This is not the traditional college and career fair. There will be a lot of hands-on. I'm excited that all of our freshmen in East Aurora will be having an opportunity to attend this Friday. In addition, uh next Friday, October 31st, is our half day SIP day. Um that's our school improvement day for professional learning for all of our staff. We are excited to focus on strengthening our core instruction, building our knowledge of restorative practices and developing our skills to provide equitable learning environments
016for all students. One more thing is we have the great reading tournament. This is something we took place in last took part in last year. The great reading tournament is happening again this year from November 1st to November 23rd. It's a reading tournament with online books in English and Spanish. All kindergarten through 8th grade students are invited to participate. The competition is international and last year Waldo Middle School was recognized by 311 Literacy for their participation. Please encourage all of our students to read and take part in this event. And then finally, I have one more piece of information I'd like to discuss. I'd just like to um first of all say thank you to the leaders in the community for bringing forward the concern that was brought forward to us over the past months
017here. um not only with the comments made by board member Reyes, but also just uncovering some unconscious bias and potential um opportunities for us to improve as a district. We've taken your feedback and implemented steps to to address this from the district perspective. So, I know the board spoke to it last meeting. I wanted to make sure I had the opportunity to speak to it as superintendent today. Uh we've had ongoing meetings with community leaders. Um they've been invaluable in identifying areas for continued growth. We had some more of those meetings today with Miss Theodia Gillespie. uh uh Dr. Peggy Hicks, Miss Cynthia Latimore, Mr. Michael Childris, myself, John Simpson, and board president Suentes. Um and we had a really good meeting today to talk about our next steps, and I'm excited about the opportunity
018we have together to come together with this. And I want to be sure that it is not just something that is words, but is actions for sure. So, I want to talk a little bit about the steps we've taken so far and the things we're going to continue to do. Um we have developed a culture and climate core competency team to address this purpose for the district. And it wasn't just people on the executive cabinet. We looked for various individuals, various stakeholders throughout all departments. So we looked for office professionals, we looked for teachers, we looked for administrators that are all um races, ethnicities, um sexes to make sure we had representation to hear about the experiences we've had. The purpose of this group, and we've met three times so far, was to strengthen cultural
019sensitivity and inclusivity in our schools in order to improve our district climate. Our goal is to design a program that addresses the real needs of our students and staff while fostering a culture of respect, equity, and belonging. To date, this team has met three times, and a lot of the initial meetings were just us talking, talking about our experiences in district 131. Um, talking about some of the student experiences, and then we had homework. Um, any good educator always gives homework to the people they're working with. So, we had some homework to go out and talk with various stakeholders to gather feedback as well. Um, like I said, it's comprised of various stakeholders and this is something that's going to be ongoing for the remainder of this year and provide us opportunity to really assess
020access I'm sorry to assess where we're at and take the actionable steps to move forward with that as well. Over the three meetings so far, the team has worked to develop a common understanding of the complexity of culture and we use an iceberg comparison. The iceberg is not something new. Um, but actually, Miss Britney Walker kind of brought the iceberg together for us to talk about our current realities and what we can see above the water and also some of the things underneath the water that could be occurring with implicit or unconscious bias and some of those things as well. We the team has also discussed the district 131 history and lived experiences which contribute to the district's current climate. So, we wanted to make sure climate and culture. We wanted to make sure we
021could talk about the culture, talk about the lived experiences, look at some of the historical data as it pertains to student groups as a whole, um, different populations, different segments of the student group. So, we've started to dive into that. In addition, the team discussed the 131 student experience, both positive and negative, along with areas for continued improvement as a district. So, these are some of the initial steps we've taken so far. Moving forward, we've got some ongoing professional development focused on relationship building, cultural competency, and restorative practices. In addition, we've got administration who will continue to complete a three-part series in the fall and the winter to focus on some of these things as well, so we can be administrative leaders with that. We're going to have a series for staff to participate in.
022Um, and we also have some anti-racism training. This is required by the state board of education. It's required to be implemented by June 30th of 2025. We're going I'm sorry 2026. We're going to step that up and do it sooner to make sure we implement that in real time. It's through the global compliance network. Um but it is very uh it provides a full scope for us for sure. It's about 90 minutes. It has an assessment at the end of it so we can make sure those are some of our initial steps. We also have some increased uh DCFS reporter training that's occurred through our global compliance network. And we're also working with the high school to gather student input through their cats or culturally aware teens group. Um and this group of stakeholders that
023we've convened together with our core group will be meeting with the high school group in the weeks to come as well to talk about what the high school students are doing to raise the cultural awareness for all stakeholders there and how we can continue to work together with that. So these are some of just the initial steps. I view this as being something that will be a continuous school improvement process or departmental improvement process that'll be ongoing. We have some initial steps to make sure um that we are taking steps in the right direction initially but we will continue to progress with this. This is an issue in district 131 that we want to make sure that there is no racism embedded in district 131. What we can concern ourselves within with each and every
024day is what occurs within our four walls of our buildings and we're going to make sure that we take the steps to make sure that each and every one of our students and staff members feel safe in this environment. So, I just wanted to provide an update of where we're at. I'm thankful that the community leaders have come to talk to us. I'm thankful that we were able to uncover some things that we needed to address due to those conversations and I look forward to the continued partnership and working together at the table um to move the district forward. So, I just wanted to take a minute to address that. And that's all I have for superintendent comments this evening. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Motion to
025approve the following consent agenda as listed. >> Um could I uh have a point of order? One of the members had asked about an amendment to >> That's all right. >> You don't need that. >> Okay. You're no longer seeking that. Okay. >> Okay. >> Do we have a motion? >> Second. >> Any questions? >> I was just going to thank whoever the uh bill's report has gone down from over 100 pages to 50 pages. Looks like a new system. It's much better. Thank you. >> That's uh that's the Skyward system, so it should help out a little bit. But as we talked about uh board member Lofty, we've have had some issues with that. So it might go up a little bit in the month to come. So just a little preview for you
026there. >> Better. Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? Hearing none. Secretary call the role, please. >> Valencia Squentes. >> Yes. >> LE. >> Yes. >> Olivas. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> All right. Moving on to finance and personnel with Miss Reyes. >> Good evening everyone. The finance and personnel committee met um one second. And we met on Monday, October 6, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. here at the administrative center. Um at the meeting, Dr. Angel uh presented quite a few things. Um he started off with donations that were received by the district. Uh he presented the financial reports for August 2025. He also presented information information on bank signers um which approves principles, assistant principles and some administrators as authorized signers on student activity accounts for the district. Um he also presented two proposals
027for financial consulting services to support long-term projections and financial forecasting. Um he went over some information um to which he said that um the he would be presenting the recommendation for action during tonight's uh full board of education meeting. Um he also presented information on the tax levy timeline um bringing forth Miss Elizabeth Hennessy uh who went into um even more depth regarding the abatements and just uh the tax levy in general. Uh Dr. Bellard presented a request for an overload overload position at Simmons Middle School um citing scheduling challenges that affect students who frequently miss elective courses. Uh Dr. Ballard also presented a request for uh an emergency authorization to hire a teachers aid at Oak Park Elementary School for a student that requires one-on-one support. Um and lastly, he uh discussed the proposal
028to develop an administrative procedure manual with the Illinois Association of School Board tied directly to existing board policies. He said that this manual would provide detailed and practical procedures for administrators to effectively implement policy at the building level. Um he emphasized the importance of transitioning from broader policies to daily protocols, noting noting that the procedures would be available both digitally and in paper form to support school leaders in real time. Um and the meeting was adjourned at 6:07 p.m. that day. And we do have one action item. Section 6B.1 motion to approve the financial consultant agreement with Luminate Financial Consultant in the amount of $24,000. >> So moved. >> Any questions? Secretary, call the RO, please. >> Fuentes, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Olivas, >> yes. >> L, >> yes. >> Johnson, >>
029yes. today is yes. Okay. And the next FMP meeting will meet on November 3rd at 5:30 p.m. here in the administrative center. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you. All right. Moving on to curriculum and programs with Mr. Olivas. >> Thank you. Uh we had our curriculum meeting this evening. Um I will give a full report um of this minutes on the November 3rd meeting. Um, and our next work meeting will be November 17 at 6 PM here at the admin center. That completes my report. >> Thank you. Moving on to building and grounds with uh Mr. Loft. >> Thank you. Uh, we had a meeting uh here on October 6 at 6:00. Um, first thing we talked about was the serving lines at Waldo and East High School in Coward are inoperable and
030uh, Mr. Allen is uh, and the architects have figured out it'd be cheaper to replace them to than to repair them. Um, so they're going to go out to bid for that. Um, the city of Aurora notified us there may be some lead in our water and it's been a little while since we've tested it. So, Mr. Allen is going to come up with a schedule to test the water regularly with the um buildings and grounds people. Staff laptops. There are four to 5 year old laptops. So, we are going to um we went out to bid. They went out to bid for um laptops. We got three bids and that is that will be an action item um tonight. Waldo stage. Um we went out to bid for the Waldo stage to put build
031a new stage there. And that'll be another action item we can talk about. Um high school stadium scoreboard. The high school stadium scoreboard's broken. It's in a weird spot. So we're looking into fix that. We're going to use the net we that we have to kind of shield it. But Mr. Allen's going to look about see if what we can do to replace that. maybe get some sponsors and things like that to offset the costs. We need a new tractor and a new skid steer. They are in really bad shape. So, um the committee authorized them to go out to bid um for used ones. So, that's going to be action items as well for up to 25,000 for the tractor and 30,000 for the skid steer. And we talked about um disposal of personal
032property it and using that for parts and whatever we can't we would dispose of and same with the testing protocols. And then finally we talked about the work order summary which seems to be doing okay. So we have some action items. The first is um do we have a motion to approve the staff laptop replacement proposal from Dell Inc. in the amount of 625,928? >> So moved. Second. >> Any questions? >> Secretary, go ahead. >> Sorry, quick question. Um, who and I know I already know the answer, but what what um who is being replaced? What staff members are being replaced with these laptops? >> These laptops are slated to be uh middle school instructional staff administrators, high school instructional staff and administrators, and the any remaining from that will go through other administrators in
033the district. Next year around this time, we'll do the elementary version of it and uh do the same thing for the elementary. We'll start to get on a more a better schedule to be able to do this every couple years, half the fleet instead of all at one time. >> Was it 400 laptops? Is that the number? >> We currently have 1500 staff laptops. This is 800 units. >> 800. Okay, got it. >> Yes. And the remainders that we collect back this year will be able to keep the other uh existing ones alive for longer. It's become really costly to repair some of the repairs that do happen with age and time. So, this is a better use of those devices and they will not go unused. They'll go we'll get it we'll get another
034year or two out of the devices that we're collecting back, but they're starting to fall apart at a quicker rate than we can sustain effectively. >> Another quick question, Andy. Um, once we are replacing these and if they're no value to us, what happens to those laptops? How do we reuse them or what what do we do with them? So, the excuse me, [clears throat] the ones we're collecting back, we'll start collecting back as soon as we get the new ones. They'll be used for parts and replacements to keep the others alive until this time next year. Any of the remainders we take back, they a lot of them will still have some useful life to them. There are some special ed laptops that are even older. So, we'll probably filter out and filter out
035the special ed laptops, send them off to the recycler or resale, and use these laptops we're collecting to get another couple years out of them in those special ed contractor hands is generally what they are. >> Thank you. And and that's number five in our action items to dispose of laptops its >> All right. Any other questions? Secretary, call the role, please. >> Ve, >> yes. >> Reyes, >> yes. >> Olivas, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. Uh next is uh we need a motion to approve the Waldo stage audio visual and lighting proposal to a Sharp business to Sharp Business Systems in the amount of $157,900. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions? Secretary, call the RO, please. >> Yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >>
036Quentes, yes. Olivas, >> yes. Next, we need a motion to approve the director of buildings and grounds or designate to place a bid and or purchase a used tractor not to exceed 25,000. >> So move second. Any questions? Secretary of the RO, please. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. Next, we need a motion to approve the director of buildings and grounds or designate to place a bid and or purchase a used skid steer not to exceed $30,000. >> So, move >> second. >> Any questions? Secretary, please. >> Squentes. >> Yes. >> Valencia? >> Yes. >> Olivas? >> Yes. >> Johnson? >> Yes. >> Reyes? >> Yes. S? >> Yes. >> Next, we need a motion to approve the resolution for sale of personal property. Personal property technology. Second. Any questions? Secretary, call the
037role, please. >> Yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> L, >> yes. >> Quentes, yes. Olivas, >> yes. >> Finally, we need a motion to approve the resolution for disposal of personal property, student services, testing protocols. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions? Hearing none. Secretary to call the role, please. >> Yes. >> L. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. >> Reyes? Yes. Seees? >> Yes. Next meeting is Monday, November 3rd at 6 PM right here. That's conclusion report. Back to you. >> Thank you, Mr. L. Now, we are going to into executive session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation and the appointment employment performance and compensation and dismissal of a specific employee. >> So move. >> Second. >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Valencia, >> yes. Deentes, yes.
038Olivas, yes. >> Yes. Johnson, >> yes. L, >> yes. And there will be action. motion to reconvene from executive session. >> So moved. >> Second. Secretary call the role, please. >> Yes. >> All right. We've got a action item. Motion to approve the general release of claims. >> Lori Campbell as reviewed in close session and authorized board signatures. >> A move. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Yes. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. We are turn seven.