001Hubert here. Gillespie here. Johnson here. L here. Sephuentes here. Olivas here. Moreno here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation under and justice for all. Okay. And okay, so we do not have any public comments tonight. So on to communications from the superintendent, Dr. Halverson, Board President Johnson, members of the school board, members of the Eastor community, thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you this evening. First, we have our student board member report. Good evening, board members. As April begins, I am honored to share the accomplishments and events that have shaped our school community over the past month. March was a month of student innovation, community feedback, and continued growth. To
002begin, I'd like to spotlight the launch of Tomcat News, a student-led broadcast created by our broadcasting class. From filming to editing, students led every step of the process with much of the production taking place at the Resilience Education Center. Their hard work paid off and we're excited to see future episodes as they continue to build their media skills. And now you can see some highlights playing What's the best part about wrestling at Easter High School? Um, definitely the coaches. They're amazing. They help you out is amazing. They help you out so much. Um, big shout out to my coach Mick. Honestly, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be where I'm at. He's the reason I made it so far this year and I really appreciate him. That's my big D right there. Now for
003our top spotlight. Let's turn the page and focus on our top librarian. Let's see how she's been up to history. A really important piece of the library for me and I think many librarians is to be diverse in your collection and not just focus on oh here's like one type of story and this is one type of person. Now it's time for some contact trivia. Take 10 seconds and test your knowledge on all things Eto and try. When was Easta School District 131 founded? The answer is a 1851. Eastto School District was actually the very first school district in the state. Tune in in our next episode for another chance to try. For today's adventure over at the Reg, we take a look at one of the many programs here down at the art studio.
004Miss Kinsner and her art students will tell us a bit about their creations. Can you tell us about like what you guys are doing right now? Yeah, right now we're doing like sort of like a sculpture of different faces. Like from from here you can see it's one face and once you turn it, it's sort of like a different illusion to another one. Two in one. and we're like doing designs like uh I think it's the cash that How do you feel about taking classes here at the rec center? Oh, I like the wreck. It's like very peaceful and I don't know. I like quietness and um the classes are fun. You can't lie. They're fun. Be sure to tune in next time. And until then, stay curious and stay tuned. Remember, once a tomat,
005always a Tom Cat. Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours. This production has been brought to you by the Tomcat Network. Another important highlight from this past month was the five essential survey. This valuable tool gave our school community a chance to voice their feedback. We received responses from 91% of our teachers, 88% of our students, and over 20% of our parents. Because we met that parent participation threshold, we will now be able to view their feedback directly through the official website, giving us more insight into how we can continue to grow as a district. In addition to upcoming events, I've been working closely with our student ambassadors on a new initiative focused on student well-being and connection. We are in the planning stages of creating a safe space during lunch.
006A room where students, especially newcomers, can go to make new friends, feel supported, and form meaningful connections. At such a large school, it can be difficult for new students to adjust and find their place. and we hope this space will provide a backbone of support building networking skills and foster a great sense of belonging. While we are still in the development process, we hope to launch this initiative by the end of the school year and carry it onto the next. In terms of athletics, spring sports have officially started. A special congratulations to our girls soccer team who have started strong with six wins. We secured a dominant dominant victories against Rosary and Richwood, winning nine to zero in both matches. Great job to our girls soccer team. We look forward to see what's coming next.
007For my student shout out this month, I would like to recognize Jeremy Perez for his outstanding accomplishments. He has earned the seal by literacy, demonstrated leadership and reviewed received multiple awards in the cross country including most valuable racer and the Ruby Vera Altruist uh team weight award. She broke the indoor 1600 meter school record and qualified for state chess for three consecutive years. Jeremy is an example of excellence in both academics and extracurriculars. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to our teachers, supporting staff, and administrators for their unwavering commitment to our students. Your support is what makes Easter such a special place to learn and grow. Thank you all for your time. Thank you very much. And next, we have our community relations report. Hello everyone. Today I'm excited and extremely proud to recognize
008our very own student board member Kevin Martinez. Here you can help. So, and the reason why is because he was recently awarded the Coca-Cola scholarship in which only 150 Coca-Cola scholars across the nation from a pool of 105,000 plus applicants were selected this year to receive a $20,000 scholarship. So, I'm going to tell you a little bit more and then we're going to do a group picture with them. Okay. Um, these scholars were selected for creating positive change in their communities and around the world and recognized for their capacity to lead and serve as well as their commitment to making a significant significant impact on their schools and community. Kevin was also a guest of honor at the 37th annual Coca-Cola Scholars Banquet and participated in the Coca-Cola Scholars Leadership Development Institute this week past
009weekend in Atlanta. He just returned last night just to be here for us. Kevin is an ambitious senior at Isora High School and his resilient mindset has earned him a position of validictorian. He is also an AP scholar, participates in many extracurricular activities, including varsity jazz band, student council, varsity basketball, and so much more. Kevin has also expressed his leadership abilities on the Aurora Youth Council and as a dedicated youth soccer coach and referee. His involvement in the Lita Scholars program, Disney Dreamers Academy, and TRIO Upwardbound highlights his commitment to empowering underrepresented communities. And he was also accepted to Harvard University this fall. That's so cool. and where he wants to go to explore the intersection of law and finance to drive equitable change with the ultimate goal of inspiring others to embrace the belief
010that ceue congratulations Kevin very proud of you now we can all take a All right, Bob. There's your big chance. Okay. I'm the one under pressure here. I'll take a couple. All right. Ready? One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Misski, for presenting that. And congratulations, Kevin. That's that's amazing. Awesome job. So, on to reports from the superintendent. Um, first I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the fine arts festival. Our fine arts festival is April 26th and this is a return to something we did pre-COVID. So prior to CO we always had our fine arts festival up and going. Um, and this is an annual occurrence that we want to continue with uh now into the future as well. It'll give us the opportunity to showcase our students amazing
011talents. Um, it'll be from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Easter High School. Some of the specifics are that we'll have art will be on display throughout the building from our elementary, middle, and high school students. We also will have the band performing at 9:00 a.m. The choir will perform at 10:30. There's a possibility of a theater performance at 12:00. We're still determining that. And then there will be face painting and uh make and take art available throughout in the cafeteria for well as well for all in attendance. So, we're hopeful uh to see a lot of you there. Um we're hopeful we can have some board members join us as well as administration there. So, a good opportunity to celebrate the arts uh with our students. So, that's our first one. The second is
012superintendent meet and greets. So, as part of as part of my process in taking over as a superintendent, one of the things I committed to the board is I really wanted to get out and hear our community um from the teacher ranks, administrative ranks, uh principles, uh community members, parents, etc. And I had three questions I wanted to ask and we've begun these meet and greets. So, on the first through the first 13 days, um it's been a busy time, but I've had the opportunity to take part in a lot of these so far. And the three questions I asked are what are you most proud of in district 131? So, to help us celebrate our success. What are some opportunities for us to improve as a team? Um so, just an opportunity for us
013to look at perceived areas for improvement and areas for growth. And then if you could if you had the opportunity to make one thing happen in district 131, what would you want to make happen? And we really wanted to get the visionary thinking there. Um, so I've had the opportunity so far to meet with the bilingual parent association. Um, on the Dr. Nurell and I both had the opportunity to attend that together. Uh, amazing group of parents there. Had the opportunity to talk a little bit about my vision for the district as well as answer questions and they did not take it easy on me. They hit me with some tough questions right out of the gate. So, I enjoyed that one. It was amazing. Um, then I also had the opportunity to attend the
014African-American Parent Association uh, evening event where there was a carnival in play and it was a little bit more of just a low-key event, but it gave me the opportunity to meet some parents there as well that was hosted at Allen. Uh Mr. Simpson was there to support that as well. Finally, I had the opportunity to attend the EA Dads event last Thursday. Um and it was an amazing opportunity. We had dads and moms there. Just a great opportunity to hear from our dads. We had a guest speaker who really talked about adolescence and how to create buyin with your children early. Um an amazing event there. And actually later on the next day, I had the opportunity to connect with a parent who recognized me and said, "Hey, do you remember remember me from
015the EA Dads event?" And 100% I did. Um had the opportunity to touch base with him as well. the cabinet meeting. So, we have 19 cabinet members, 20 including myself. I've had the opportunity to sit and talk with 14 of our cabinet members so far, and just gather some insight as from their perspective, their various departments on what we're doing well, what we can improve on. I've got five cabinet meetings remaining, so my objective will be to continue to build relationships there and build a collective commitment. We're really focusing on servant leadership with our cabinet and doing some studies on that as well. I also had the opportunity to meet with our wonderful union leadership and discuss uh some of our uh abilities to collaborate and work together there. And we've got that follow-up meeting
016scheduled for this Thursday. Then we've also done East Aurora High School. We started with the magnet ship and started there. Um Principal Mitchell was with me as well. We had the opportunity to just kind of present about my vision, some of my background in East Aurora, and then hear from the staff on what we're doing well and what we can improve on. We'll also look to replicate that with the middle schools. There'll be two hosted for our middle school sites as well as three hosted for our elementary sites. So, just an opportunity for us to gather further insight into what we're doing and how we can continue to work together there. Uh, finally, I'm going to be meeting with all of our building principles. So, the opportunity to just go out and meet with them,
017uh, to talk about what their vision is for their building. We really want to continue to work with our principles to continue to guide them through instructional leadership and just provide resources for them as well. So, that'll be forthcoming. And then finally, in May, there's parent meet and greets and those will run into the middle of May. Um, so the first 13 days I was able to knock out about 14 of those. And I don't say knock out lightly because it was great conversations. Um, we'll look to continue to finish up with cabinet and then continue to finish those listening tours at which point I'll have an executive summary to kind of share back with the board there and share with our community to shape our next steps. So, I just wanted to share a
018little bit about the meet and greets. Uh, Lisa is a calendar wiz. She's been doing an awesome job moving stuff around for me. So, I truly appreciate that. And Marissa has helped advertise that for us as well. So, that's been a great opportunity uh so far, and I look forward to those continued opportunities with all of our staff, students, um and parents as well. Um while I'm touching on that, one amazing thing I saw the other night at Friday night, Furma was doing a kind of like a poetry slam. It was a poetry of who I am. Um and they were presenting at the Royal Library. It was very well attended. A lot of um adults in the room had tears in their eyes as the children were sharing with them their experiences there. Um
019was a great opportunity to be there as well. Uh Miss Martinez was there as well. We just, you know, saw some really amazing things when it came to our students and their ability to public speak. Um, their cadence, their tone, the way they that the way they were, as I can't articulate, the way they were able to articulate in such a concise manner was amazing there. So, truly got an opportunity to do that. And then we also had the opportunity, the boys basketball program had their end of the year banquet and I had the opportunity to go and talk with some of the individuals at the boys basketball banquet there, some of the coaches as well, and just speak to the young men. It was a great opportunity to hear about their experiences, what got
020them bought into our school system, and just kind of a tease into the future. We'll be looking at forums to also articulate what we can get our students bought in at as a young age when it comes to athletics, academics, and artistic abilities as well. So, that'll be something that'll be forthcoming this summer. We'll partner with local uh local individuals, our uh athletic director, coaches, etc. to really dive into what gets our kids bought into the school system. So, that's just a little bit of the update as far as the meet and greets. It's been going very very well. Um, calendar is extremely booked right now, but I'm truly enjoying it. Every night when I go home, I go to bed, I'm extremely tired, but it's great conversations at this point. I'm truly enjoying that
021and that was part of my commitment to the board during the interview process. So, I want to make sure we continually update it update you on that information as well. Um, any questions about the meet and greet from the board so far or anybody in the community there? Okay. Okay. And then my final uh item tonight is the motion to approve the IHSA membership renewal for the 2025 2026 school year. And this just is an ongoing renewal that we have at the IHSA every year for our sports at the high school level. Second. Any questions? Secretary, call the roll. Yes. LE. Yes. Johnson, yes. Dubert, yes. Moreno, yes. Quentes, yes. Olivas, yes. Okay. All righty. So, that concludes that. So, on to motion to approve the following consent agenda as listed. So moved. Second. Any
022questions? Secretary, call the role. Schubert. Yes. Squentes? Yes. Gillespie? Yes. L? Yes. Olivas? Yes. Yes. Johnson? Yes. Okay. Righty. Okay. So, on to finance and personnel. That would be myself. So we met today on um today here at the service center and uh we did um we do have a couple action items that we have to bring forward this evening. Um basically they have this time of the year all the schedules start coming in and they plan for next year. So we do need to get some staffing positions posted. So uh so without further ado I will read those. So motion to approve the request for 4.16 overloads at Cow Herd Middle School. So move second. Any questions? Secretary, call the roll. Suentes, yes. Gillespie, yes. Johnson, yes. Olivas, yes. La, yes. Hubert, yes. Bueno,
023yes. Motion to approve the following staff requests for the 2526 school year. Three FTE special education teachers at East High. Two FTE bilingual teachers at East High, one NJOTC teacher at East High, one FTE art teacher at East High, one FTE driver's education teacher at East Tai, one FTE world language teacher at East High, two FTE teachers at the newcomers center at Bardwell School, three social workers at Cowhurd Middle School, Bard Hardwell and Hermus and Brady will split one. So moved. Second. Any questions? Secretary, call the role. Squentes? Yes. Gillespie? Yes. Olivas? Yes. Lier? Yes. Boreno? Yes. Johnson? Yes. Schubert? Yes. Okay. On to curriculum with Mr. Slantes. Good evening everyone. The curriculum and programs committee met on Monday, March 17th here at the administrative center. We did have two schools that presented their school
024improvement plans. The first was Bulpri Elementary School and that was presented by principal Lio Ramirez and assistant principal David onto. They went over the 2023 2024 summary which included daily average attendance of 93.7 58% of uh K4 students that met their expected growth in math on MAP and 39% that met their expected growth in uh reading. They also mentioned that 75% of EL students made overall growth in their composite proficiency level. goals that they are focusing on for the current school year are to decrease the office discipline referrals by 10% from the previous year, maintain a 95% daily average attendance, and have students um 60% or more of K5 students meet their expected growth in reading as measured by NWA MAP and in um math and reading. Sorry. The second uh presentation was by principal
025Tavveris uh Crump regarding the East Aurora Extension Campus. He also reviewed the 2023 summary uh which included that 28 students graduated in the class of 2024. 50% uh 54% of students met or exceeded their growth target in math and that they had a 9% reduction in students receiving multiple behavioral referrals. Goals for the current school year are to have 60% of students meet or exceed their expected growths in uh reading and math, maintain a daily average attendance of 75% or higher, and reduce grades um D's and Fs by 5% from the previous school year, and to have um SC high school students that will gain one or more credit during the current school year. Delitz Martinez also went over the proposal on West Ed. Weststead will provide a customized evidence-based solutions to support continuous improvement
026in the district from May 1st through August 31st. ISBE did uh provide additional funding for us to extend these services. So the total cost is 386,500 which will be funded by title one part A section 10003. Mr. uh Luis Gonzalez also presented on the city of Aurora portable soccer field agreement and that's scheduled uh between May 16th through June 2nd at Rollins and then Dietrich between September 1st through September 15th and that will be funded by the city of Aurora and no cost to the district. Dr. Um Amy Engel also presented on the map data from fall to winter and there was quite a bit of data that we actually went over and presented. Um so it's kind of hard to kind of go over that on a summary here but that information is available
027for um anyone to review and then Dr. Angel also presented on the summer school 2025. Summer school will start um with teacher training on June 3rd and June 4th. And then we'll start with students on June 9th through July 3rd. The city of Aurora will also offer full day summer camps for grades 1 through 5 that will be hosted at Allen, I believe. Um and then District 131 will also offer afternoon sport camps for grades K through 8, and those include basketball and soccer. Then we also reviewed a memo for disposal of outdated elementary literacy materials along with attendance and enrollment. And then we do have two action items. And the action items are for the Wested learning partner proposal and the summer school um curriculum and instructional support. So I'll move on to those.
0287.B.1 Motion to approve the West Ed learning partner proposal for continuous school improvement planning and implementation for year 2025 in the amount of $386,500. Grant funded. Second. Secretary call the roll. Love. Yes. Gillespie. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Schubert. Yes. Seees. Yes. Moreno. Yes. Yes. And the second uh last item uh for action item is 7B.2 motion to approve the summer school 2025 curriculum and instructional support student supplies and professional development vendors not to exceed $130,300. So move. Second. Secretary call the roll. LE. Yes. Schubert. Yes. Olivas. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Moreno. Yes. Quentuentes. Gillespie. Yes. All right. Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 21st here at the uh administrative center. And that concludes my report. Okay. Building isn't question. I see another motion. Oh, yeah. There were a couple more motions here for the portable
029miss. Yeah. Yeah. The portable soccer field. Sorry about that. I'd already moved buildings and grows. Great. All right. Let's see here. All right. I guess we have two more. Code 7.B.3 Motion to approve the following portable soccer fields for two school sites as well as the proposed dates. 7.B.3 Rollins School from May 16th through June 2nd, 2025. 7B.3B Dietrich School from September 1st through the 15th, 2025. So moved. Second. Secretary caller. Dubert. Yes. Sequentes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Gillespie, yes. Johnson, yes. Yes. All right. Last one. 7B.4. Motion to approve the resolution for disposal of outdated elementary literacy materials. So move. Second. Secretary call. Quentes. Yes. Yes. Olivas. Yes. Moreno. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Gillespie. Yes. Les. Yes. All right. This time I'm done. Okay. All right. And on to buildings and grounds, Mr. Shriber. Uh, good
030evening everyone. Uh, good evening, Board of Education. Uh, we did have our meeting uh, this evening. Uh, the next meeting will be May 5th at 6 PM here at the administrative center. There are three action items uh, this evening. I'll get right into those. Uh, the first is action item 8B1. Need a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the disposal and recycle of personal property uh which includes old equipment and portable bleachers. So move second question. So is there no way we can give this to some school or country it's just that bad or something or it's dangerous or it's for sake of argument. Mr. for magazine for which item um disposing of the personal bleacher bleachers the bleachers. No, I mean they're they're beyond repair and they would be a hazard for for Yeah.
031Okay. Uh action item 8B2. I need a motion to award the door replacement project base bid number one, base bid number two, base bid number three to Light Construction Incorporated in the amount of $297,000. So move second. Any questions? Secretary call the role. Yes. Schubert. Yes. Olivas. Yes. Johnson. Yes. Moreno. Yes. Yes. Gillespie. Yes. Action item 8B3. I need a motion to award the 2025 floor replacement base bid number one and alternative number one to Douglas Flooring uh covering in the amount of $228,311. Second. Any questions? Secretary call the roll. Schubert. Yes. Yes. Veno. Yes. Oliv. Yes. Yes. Johnson. Did we vote on the first? No, we didn't. Okay. Do I need to recall the motion? Bernie. Okay. Are we okay? Johnson. Yes. Lit. Yes. We had to go back and just call. Yeah. Let's
032go back. Let's go back to this other one. The first one. Okay. You're on the Which one? The bleachers. The bleachers. Motion to approve the resolution authorizing the disposal and recycle of personal property, old equipment, and portable bleachers. There's a motion. Call the RO. Call. We did a motion in a second. We just need to call the RO because I interrupt the ro. Okay. So, call the role. Gillespie, yes. La, yes. Johnson, yes. Schubert, yes. Sephuentes. Moreno, yes. Yes. All righty. Okay. All righty. Motion to own an executive session for the purpose of discussing student discipline, workers compensation and the appointment, employment, performance, compensation, and dismissal of a specific employee uh as well as pending litigation. The move second. Secretary call the role. Gillespie, yes. La, yes. Johnson, yes. Olivas, yes. Schubert, yes. Seentes, yes.
033Moreno, yes. Okay. And we will not have action. from executive session. The move. Secretary, call the roll. Hubert Dleski. Oh my gosh. Did she leave? Oh, you can move along. Okay, you can keep going. Johnson, yes. Moreno, yes. Yes. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Secretary, call the role. Gillespie. Johnson. Yes. L. Yes. Yes. Olivia. Yes. Yes. This should be she's