001Good evening everyone. We're going to get the uh regular board meeting of August 18th at 7 PM started. Secretary, please call role. >> Valencia. here. Tentes >> here. >> Reyes >> here. >> La >> 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. We're going to move on to public comment. In order to have sign uh in order to speak at the board meeting, you would have had to sign in before 7 p.m. Respect the 3minut time limit, respect confidentiality of students and staff, and keep comments appropriate. Adriana Bonitz Can I
002start? Uh, good evening members of the school board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak for you with to you tonight. I'm here as a parent, parent advocate, and advocate for the youngest starters. I want to bring attention to the growing concerns shared by many families and new families to the district regarding the preschool process. We need communication to be clear and in a timely manner. This will make the for smoother transition process for our families entering the preschool program. For many families, preschool is a very first experience in our district. Unfortunately, what should be an exciting and welcoming process often becomes confusing and stressful. Key information about registration timelines, required documents, placement status, classroom assignments, and frequently are frequently delayed, unclear, and scattered across multiple platforms. New families, especially those unfamiliar with the district,
003or who speak languages other than English, face added barriers when communication is inconsistent and comes too late. Families are left unsure of whether their child has a spot, how to prepare, or who to contact for help. This uncert uncertainty directly impacts child's readiness and families trust with the school system. For example, on Facebook groups, families all got communication on different days last week and all were very frustrated. I personally haven't had any of my questions answered and have been constantly told to wait for a call. I have never received a call or emails. I was the one reaching out and now my child might not start with his peers on Friday. Mind you, my child was screened on March 31st. Other stories like mine are frustrating and unfortunately will fall on secretaries, assistant principles, principles,
004and teachers and that is unfair for them. We needed to address it at a higher ground and that's why I'm here today. So, respectfully, I urge the board to consider three actionable improvements. centralized, accessible information. Create a clear, user-friendly page on the district website dedicated specifically to preschool registration. It should include step-by-step instructions, timelines, frequently asked questions, and contact info available in multiple languages. Two, earlier inconsistent communication. Implement a communication timeline with email, text and mail updates that go out at a key at key stages like application received, placement updates, classroom assignments and orientation information. Three, designated preschool family leaison. Appointed person at the district level to guide new families through process, answer questions and ensure no one falls through the cracks. By making the small but meaningful adjustments can can make and reduce confusion,
005build trust, and help support both families and staff this in this critical transition in school life. As a Tomcat alum, I am 131% dialed in and bought into my child's education. Please help me and other families achieve academic success by giving us these tools. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to improve the experience for all students starting with our youngest. Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to Dr. Halverson, communications from the superintendent. >> Thank you, board president. First, I'd like to welcome up Miss Britney Walker to provide an update on uh our earlier uh training that we provide. I'm sorry, our back to school. We were kind of going through this earlier. So, I do apologize. Our back to school fair and kind of the highlights of that. So, thank
006you so much, Miss Walker. >> No problem. Good evening. I just wanted to again recap our wonderful back to school fair which took place on Saturday, August 9th at the high school. over 3,000 students and their parents. Uh 3,000 students and parents participated in the event where they were first greeted, checked in, received tickets, and they were able to get um in contact with building administration, their direct building administration in order to claim their backpack and a supply kit that had everything that they probably will need for the school year. Um beyond checking in, students were able and their families were able to go to a resource fair. In that resource fair, we had all of our community partners that were able to assist families with things all the way from scouts to um there's
007a wide array of things and we'll see pictures of all the different opportunities that they were able to get information from. There were also free haircuts which was really nice to see students um just getting all nice and cleaned up before their first day of school. There was face painting. We also had a petting zoo and pony rides and all the fun things so that it could be a full family event. Um, and finally, they were able to get physicals by VNA. So, that's one less barrier, one less step in order to get them prepared for the school year. Um, what other things did we have? So, realistically, what you're going to see in this video is a little bit of the recap of that. Again, it was a great event, very well attended event.
008Once they left, there were food trucks um at the check-in process. Each family received a row of tickets that allowed them to get a free item from each food truck. So again, that was just something else. We were giving back to the community in those vendors and we were able to just give our families quick snacks and fun things to enjoy. So with that, you can see the video with what we had. Thank you, Miss Walker, for highlighting that. It was definitely a great uh Saturday. Had a great turnout. Uh little got a little hot. We had the doors open, so the humidity was definitely metriculating into the building a little bit, but it was still a great time had for all. Um and just a lot of smiling faces, a lot of uh smiling
009support for our students and families there. So, definitely uh thank you so much to everybody that worked so hard on that. Uh, next I'd like to provide an update on our all admin professional development. Um, on August 6th through the 8th, we held our a great three days of working together with district and building administrators to continue the preparations for the 2025 2026 school year. Some highlights included departmental and school improvement plan work aligned to more than typo growth and a sense of belonging for all, legal presentations and best practices in district 131, safety and security updates. And we also had a guest uh team building specialist Phil Bod come in to provide training in the morning on Friday the 8th. Um and then we also had some fun team building activities in the afternoon
010that day as well. Um so it was a great way for us to kick off our year and get us going for um the 2025 2026 school year um where we really centralized our focus together with all admin. And I heard through talking to various individuals that that was very um very relevant today as our building administrators started leading their buildings as well that it was very similar message out there. So, it was a lot of great work together and I got a little video to highlight that there. Uh once again, thank you to our administrators. Uh a lot of great uh just team bonding there, a lot of walls coming down and just us collaborating and working together. Um and Britney put the hashtags up there that are going to be highlighted throughout the
011year. So you'll see a lot of hashtags to go with uh this push throughout the year. So just once again, kudos to the team. Uh thank you to for everybody working through that. We had over a 100 admin throughout the district that were all together in this room and it held us just fine. and we weren't sure if we were going to have enough space, but we definitely did and it was a great event. So, um, next I'd like to move on to 4B2, the motion to approve the memorandum of understanding for the high school flag football stipen positions. Uh, but before we move forward with that with the, uh, secretary, I'd like to see if there are any questions about that specifically. >> No questions. Okay. All right. Do we have a motion to
012approve the memorandum of understanding for the high school flag football stipen positions? So moved. >> Second. >> So no question. Secretary, call the role, please. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And finally, under the superintendent report, I just wanted to talk about our first day of school. Um this is item 4 B3. Uh, school begins on Wednesday, August 20th, and we're so excited to see all of the smiling faces of our students. Uh, this year also starting at 7:30 in the morning, myself, Andy Allen's going to be our driver to drive us around, and members of the board will be coming out to the buildings to greet students, to greet parents, um, and to greet our staff as they begin the year there. So, we're very excited about this. Our goal is going to be to
013make it around the district from 7:30 to 12:30. So, we got five hours. No speeding tickets along the way is a goal with that. So, and that's all I have for the superintendent report. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Motion to approve the following consent agenda as listed. So move >> second. >> Any questions? >> Hearing none. Secretary, call the role, please. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Moreno, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Reyes, >> yes. >> I believe we do have an introduction. >> Yes, we do have some introductions this evening. if uh Julie Schwarzoff could come up to the front for us, please. >> All right. Thank you and good evening. We have two new administrators to introduce this evening. First, we would like to
014reintroduce to the board and community Miss Jodie Epenstein as an assistant principal at the Early Childhood Center. Miss Epenstein comes to this position from her role as a preschool instructional coach in East Aurora School District 131 where she has also served as a PFA PFA blended teacher and ECSE teacher. She has been with the district since 2007 and has led initiatives that include instructional coaching for teachers, facilitating professional learning communities, supporting curriculum implementation, and mentoring new educators. Miss Epenstein has also presented at state and national conferences and has been recognized with multiple awards including a District 131 PLC team award, Golden Apple nomination, and Kain County special educator of the year. Miss Epenstein received her bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Depal University, her master's degree in language and literacy from Walden University, and
015her master's degree in educational leadership from Aurora University. Congratulations and welcome. And second, we would like to introduce to the board and community, Mr. Thomas Scoble as division chair of English and fine arts for East Aurora High School. Mr. Scoville comes to our district from Lake Zurich High School where he has served since 2015 as a theater and English teacher. He also recently completed his educational leadership internship where he has supported curriculum evaluation, technology integration in the music program, and departmentwide policy development. In addition to his teaching, Mr. Scoble has also led innovative community- centered programs that bring students, staff, and families together, including directing the Illinois high school premiere of Frozen and producing the all-state production of Shrek. Mr. Scoville received his Bachelor of Arts in theater education from Illinois State University, his master
016of arts and theater directing from Roosevelt University and his master of science and educational leadership from Aurora University. Welcome to East Aurora. >> All right, we'll move on to finance and personnel with Miss Reyes. Good afternoon everyone. Buenos toos. Um so the finance and personnel committee met on August 4, 2025 here at the admin center at 5:30 and we went through um there were no public comments. Dr. Engel presented us with donations that were received by the district to which we all agreed that the donations were in order. Um, Dr. Engel also presented the uh, financial report for June 25. There were no questions and the committee agreed that all finances looked in order. Dr. Engel also presented the fiscal year budget update um, which consisted of the following. Um, it included the timeline with
017an 84 resolution to adopt the fiscal year 2026 tentative budget um, is budget and it was put on display. September 15th, the board of education meeting public hearing for the budget and the the approval of the budget. Um during the presentation, Dr. Engel discussed the remainder of the fiscal year 26 budget timeline. He followed the presentation by budgeting assumptions including categories such as changes to interest rates, salaries, funding, benefits, utility, and transportation costs. Dr. Halverson asked if Dr. Engel could elaborate on the programs that the district was exploring with utility companies to cut down on utility costs. Um and then the program will be administered through KMED to look at the efficiency of new HVAC equipment with the goal of saving energy usage by 20 to 25% on average. Um Dr. Engel ended his presentation
018by discussing the revenue assumptions by fund including the education fund operations and maintenance, debt service, transportation, IMRF, social security, capital projects, working cash, five prevention and health life safety. We then also reviewed IASB press policies presented by Dr. Ballard. Um the press policies only included minor language changes, formatting, or legal reference changes as part of the district's 5-year review. There were no questions and the committee agreed that the policies looked um in order. Dr. Ballard also presented us um with a position for the high school department manager that was previously brought to the curriculum board meeting for consensus and approval. The role related to the division chair of guidance role at the high school was created three years ago to provide administrative support for the counseling department which replaced a previous model where a counselor
019with a reduced case load served as the department manager. This person who last served in the role has since been promoted to the district's director of college and career readiness. As a district has not been able to obtain a replacement for the upcoming school year, he recommended that the district move forward to move back uh to the previous model to appoint a counseling department manager who would take on oversight responsibilities with a smaller case load with PRDM days and without administrative duties such as evaluations. And with that, the meeting was adjourned at 5:43 p.m. Our next uh committee meeting will be on Uh where is it? September 2nd here at the administrative center at 5:30. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Miss Reyes. >> Sorry. And we do have one action item. Um and
020that is 6B.1. Motion to approve the request for the high school department counseling manager. >> So move. Second. Any questions? >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. >> All right. We'll move on to curriculum and programs with Mr. Olivas. Good evening. We had our curriculum committee meeting uh this evening, August 18 at uh 6 p.m. here at the admin center. I will provide more details on the minutes on the on our next meeting uh September 2nd and our next curriculum meeting will be September 15 here at at 6 p.m. at the admin center. No actions. >> All right. Thank you. On to building and grounds committee with Mr. Lofty. >> Thank you. Um we met on August 4th, Monday at six o'clock. We talked about the Andy Allen gave a
021summer projects update and the status of all the projects. Um we talked about the career technical center update, how we're going to hopefully break ground in the fall of 26 and be open for the fall of 27. That's the goal. Um we talked about our five-year capital improvements plan trying to get ahead of that. Um facility assessment. We have not had a facility assessment in 10 years. So the committee is supportive of doing this but we asked for um to see the last one and a little more information before moving forward. Um we talked about under the alt mckin vento transportation rule um extending the contract with first alt to match the first student contract. Um but the committee asked for a little more pricing before we move forward with that. And the last thing
022was a work order summary talking about all the work orders, where they were at, and the status of all them. Our next meeting, as I said, is Tuesday, September 2nd, a Tuesday at 6, and there's no action items. Thank you. All right, moving on to executive session. Can I get a motion for the purpose of discussing negotiations, pending litigation, and the appointment, employment, performance, compensation, and dismissal of a specific employee? So >> second secretary call the role please. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. And there will be action. All right. Motion to reconvene from executive session. >> The move. >> Second. Secretary, call the role, please. >> Quinton, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Olivas, >> yes. >> Moreno, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Reyes, >> yes. >> L, >> yes. >>
023All right, read this one. Read this. All right, please. >> We've got a motion here. Motion to reject the proposed resignation of certified staff Melissa Williams Rivera. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Any questions? Hearing none. Secretary, call the role, please. >> Reyes, >> yes. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> L, >> Yes. Olivas, >> yes. >> Moreno, >> yes. >> Motion to adjurnn. Is that a move? >> Second. >> Secretary, call the role, please. >> Valencia, >> yes. >> Seuentes, yes. >> Reyes, >> yes. >> Lashe, >> yes. >> Olivas, >> yes. >> Moreno, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Let's go home. >> I don't want to go out there. Be safe, everybody. I'll just I'll