001e e e call the meeting of March 17 2025 to order secretary Colo Hubert here cesi here Johnson here here sees here Olivas here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance St America the rep Nation godice okay so we only have one public comment tonight but I'm going to hold that until after our festivities so uh I am going to go ahead and put a motion on the floor to appoint our new school board member so move second secretary Colo lesie yes yes Johnson yesu yes sees Olivas yes okay member of new member of oath yeah Brian Moreno would you step forward okay he's going to get you one we got a hand it's on okay H yeah so I'm going to read sections of the board member oath and then if
002you affirm those I'm going to ask when I pause just say I do okay so there's nothing to memorize um so let's begin um I Brian Moreno do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of Board of Education of EAS or School District 131 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability I further swear or affirm that I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees and I shall
003recognize that a board member has no legal Authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting I shall abide by a majority decision of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels as a part of the Board of Education I shall accept the responsibility of my role in the Equitable and quality education of every student in the school district I shall Foster the board ex uh extensive participation of the community formulate goals toine outcomes and set the course for Easter or School District 131 I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the ability to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework I shall strive to
004ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law I Shall Serve as an education's key Advocate on behalf of students and our community school or schools to advance the vision of Easter School District 131 and I shall strike to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision of the board has created fostering Excellence for every student in areas of academic skills knowledge citizenship and personal development welcome to the EAS Board of okay so with that we are going to move on to the community relations report this evening we have our student board member and I know I saw her yet yes she there she is all dressed in green right after good evening board members as
005March begins I am excited to share the incredible achievements that have shaped our school community over the past month from spreading positivity to making an impact through service and Athletics to foster a culture of encouragement student council created a hall of gratitude where students wrote positive me messages that are now displayed on sticky notes to uplift one another this initiative served as a reminder that even in challenging times there's always something positive to hold on to in addition to spreading positivity within our school students have also been making a difference in the community National Honor Society demonstrated their commitment to service by packing 60 meals for aora Citizens experiencing homelessness ensuring that those in need receive support their efforts extend beyond our city as well with members creating over 100 Valentine's cards for patients at
006Shriner Children's Hospital in Chicago these acts of kindness represent the dedication of easo students to make a meaningful impact on the lives of others Athletics have also been a source of achievement this past month the girls indoor track team had a bowling book invite on March 8th the team delivered record-breaking performances Alysa ariori set new indoor school records in both the 200 meter and 400 meter dash additionally di Nara UT utua improved her top five indoor 3002 two mile meter times moving up to second place of EAS top indoor times on the boys's indoor track team athletes also made history at the glenor north invite where Easter World finished in the top five in 11 different events a huge con congratulations to Jeremy Perez who set a new indoor School record for the one mile
007run congratulations to all athletes and the entire track team for dedication and success we can't wait to see what more you will achieve and then for this month I would also like to recognize an outstanding student Luis Ortiz for his academic excellence and Leadership Lise has achieved numerous Awards including the AP scholar with distinction award AP Capstone diploma and National Hispanic recognition his academic achievements include AP scores of five in human Geo English language seminar and pre-calculus Beyond his academics Lewis is an active leader in the school Community serving as the secretary of the National Honor Society founder and co-president president of the national English Honor Society and a student ambassador his dedication to both academics and extracurriculars reflect the drive and ambition that Easter students continue to embody as March continues I look forward
008to seeing more students rise to new challenges and straighten our school Community thank you to all of our teachers staff and administrators for their ongoing dedication to Student Success thank you for your time consent agenda is listed so moved second any questions secretary Colbert yes sentes yes gespi yes yes Olivas yes Moreno I abstain Johnson yes okay on to finance so tonight we will just uh read our action items to move our celebrator evening along so anyways on to finance so motion to approve the 2024 2025 independent audit engagement letter so move second secretary col roll tubert yes gesy yes Johnson yes Moreno abin Olivas yes yes yes motion to approve the following band instrument bids uh Midwest musical in the amount of 32,670 quinland and Fabish in the amount of 124 uh 21391 and
009elman's music in the amount of 10,661 98 one more oh we got one more PM Music in the amount of 4 $159.90 sove second secretary Colo lesby yes sees yes Johnson yes Olivas yes yes Hubert yes Moreno yes okay motion to approve the resolution authorizing the notice of non-renewal for first and third year probationary teachers Brock badic and uh Anna Ramos second secretary Colo sentes yes gespi yes Olivas yes L yes Moreno abstain Johnson yes chubert yes okay curriculum and programs with Mr sentus we met tonight and we don't have any action items on that so moving right along to buildings and grounds with Mr Schubert oh we do have some action items uh this evening uh the first 9b1 a motion to award the 2025 tuck pointing project for base bid plus alternate one
010to April building Incorporated in the amount of $39,375 shert yes all right uh second item 9b2 a motion to award the 2025 Waldo El elevator modernization project to Total elevator service in the amount of $133,200 so move second any questions secretary Colo yes Shubert yes Olivas yes Johnson yes Moreno yes sentes yes kesi yes uh action item 9b3 motion to purchase Lenova Chromebooks with three-year Advance device protection for students entering grades 2 and nine from chromebookparts.com in the amount of $649,000 so move second secretary col dubert yes sentes yes Moreno yes Olivas yes gesp yes Johnson yes yes and action item 9 B4 motion to approve the five-year agreement with kanuka Manola Incorporated for multi-function copier service and reproduction print plant operations so moved second secretary col roll SES yes stubert yes Olivas yes Moreno
011yes Johnson yes cesie yes yes so Communications from the superintendent Dr Nome okay good evening Board of Education and community members this evening our first item we have is we're bringing back the um motion for the data sharing agreement between Operation HOPE the city of Aurora and um East a school district for the mayor's child savings account and we did take this back we had a conversation and and as you saw in your board packet um this is an agreement that is opt in for our families which we thank them so much for listening to the board of education's concerns and making that change that was huge it's also a one-year agreement and so it is set to end June 30th of 2026 and hopefully before that we'll be able to make sure that our
012families are signed up and that they're enjoying it and they really see the benefit and so at that point in time we would do another agreement and come back to the board to hopefully continue that huge opportunity for our families and our children um and then the other thing is that this is the identical same agreement as our partners across the river West Dora has signed and agreed to this uh same agreement so um if there are no additional questions um Madame President you can call the motion okay motion to approve the data sharing agreement in child savings account with the city of Aurora some move second secretary call the roll yes leie yes Johnson yes yeses yes Olivas yes Moreno yes the next item um before um I have Andy bring that up I
013just want to say a couple of words of gratitude because this particular item is my last item I will seek board consensus on um out of my seven years here um it is Bittersweet but this week I will be moving to the community where I will be taking my new superintendent role in continuing my transition activities and so with that I just want to say thank you so much to first of all the Board of Education who's been hugely supportive um as I Look to pass the torch um to my successor I want to just reiterate to this board keep doing what you're doing and being supportive because a superintendent can only be successful with a supportive board behind them and so I thank you for seven years of support and I just urge you
014to continue in that vein so that the next person can continue to step in do even greater things with you um for the next few years I also want to say thank you to our staff um and our leadership um and the Community Partners it's been wonderful in the city of Aurora and I had an opportunity to sit with Dr Craig Friday for um our last aec activity where we did a podcast video and he's always he always keeps you laughing but one of the things that we just shared is how we enjoyed our partnership so much with all of the community um and the city of Aurora and so I just want to say it's been a wonderful seven years and thank you all so much and I will leave you with a quite
015a treat before this launches publicly um tomorrow or they may launch it tonight this is going to be blasted all across the nation because it's part of our wonderful HR team um Dr Dave Ballard and Amanda Sanderson helped to um lead this effort this is really our Recruitment and in a time in a day and age where teacher shortage administrator shortage is a very real thing they have done an exceptional job of allowing our staff F to be our biggest recruitment feature and really sharing some of these so we've got the shortened version so it's only a couple of minutes but I do want to share because some of the stars of this effort um are are in this room so with this I'll share the video Andy if you can pull that up and
016if the board gives consensus we will launch this Nationwide across social media and all of our efforts for recruitment so Andy take it away cool in the state of going we're the first high school in America that had an orchestra or East West football traditions and things like that we are historic our new facilties groundbreaking ra your full potential it's just a wonderful place students staff just amazing to work with I knew that this was a place that really believed in supporting their own and growing their own there are a lot of opportunities for growth you are going to find yourself working with people that care can support you reach your full potential Maxim new hire who comes to us has never had teaching experience they're given a onetoone mentor someone who meets with them
017weekly and helps them through every step of their first two years it's purely a family that's what may you stay here for 15 years now reach your full potential we know that being by or multilingual is a huge benefit for our students because it can benefit that to be Multicultural beings um culturally competent individuals as they are you know members of society for me it's a dream come true to see the new generations acquiring a second language we are welcoming kids from everywhere in the world we are embracing their cultures we are embracing their uh languages this is where my community needs me this is where I am getting all that energy from my community every single School I've been to I have just had Wonder relationships I learned so much and I do think
018that anytime I do something the district is very supportive an opportunity to grow they have never said no you can't there's no I love it here and I will continue to be here distri 131 is definitely a place where you are going to grow where you are going to be happy where you are going to be able to reach your potential Max some of my Fondest Memories of course have to be East West games you know back then whether it was football or basketball they were definitely the hottest ticket in time everybody had to get their outfits they were getting ready they got in line and got their tickets uh they would parked miles away to get to the East West basketball that was the biggest thing in the community East is East West is
019West was something always to be proud of you know family friends a lot of amazing people along the way I love what I do I love my kids I love the community I love the opportunities I have to come each day and make a difference being here in the district it allows me to you know have those holidays weekends off and some of the days that the students have all East the competitive salary you know amazing healthare benefits we have children from over 30 countries so if you want to travel the world and never leave your home your full poal ma any questions AB boards I'm sure in consensus to release this and so Marissa we're going to release our new recruitment videos thank you so much Board of Education and Community okay so at
020this time um I'm going to move to board comments so the board will have a chance to make a few comments about this evening and then we'll obviously get on to voting for our superintendent contract so anyways any board members who want to weigh in um please feel free yes I I will start um okay it has been a great honor Dr nurel to have worked with you as a community partner and also in the last few months as a board member um this earlier this evening we were getting data that showed about the progress within the district and that shows your leadership and your creativity and working with your staff to really make a h huge difference in the impact that we have on our children at District 131 I want to uh just
021kind of highlight a statement that you had in the um inliner um when you talked about this has been um filled with growth and challenges and countless moments of pride in the strength and spirit of our community and it takes everyone to make this work and so um that shows how you are willing to just open your arms and heart to make a a difference for our children which is the first the the foremost what we need to do for our U any schools and so I thank you for that you know you would be truly miss um to see the graduation rate to see the Improvement in the achievement gaps of our students there was one school that had like 11% growth from fall to winter that's tremendous and that shows leadership and empowering
022your staff to really be there for the the children every day and we thank you for that we cannot be so proud I had a child who graduated from Easter Ro school district and know one thing she used to tell me is that Mom you know we need to have the spirit and that's what I see and when you that statement was made that's what we need in our community that Easter Roy spirit that I've known that's been there for many many years so thank you you would be missed and I'm sure we'll good chance to see you again around but um I just want the community to know that we are really missing a great individual who's provided so much to our community and then I'm excited for our new uh superintendent who's coming
023into the district who is a homegrown of Easter Ro so we're excited about this opportunity and thank you Dr Nell thanks so much I'll just continue on um so Dr nurel myself Miss Johnson uh go way back right so Miss Johnson and myself and then I know Mr Royal's here um and any other I don't know if Mr Darby's here or Miss Hatchet or Mr barrero we all were all part of the board that actually hired you and interviewed you and went through that process and I remember wondering who this super or superintendent hopeful was from Chicago Heights and how that person would fit in here in the city of Aurora especially on the east side of Aurora um with its Deep Roots um and and Pride um and so you as U Miss gpie
024have said has really done an outstanding job Dr Nell um when you came in you uh put us on a path for success by really one of the very first things you did was um round us up and get us focused on a strategic plan and that really has built our success and success that the next superintendent will be able to build on on you know uh from here but if you look at this enlightener I mean it please everyone take a look at this the successes the Milestones that have been made since your arrival the invest the millions invested in our buildings we now have buildings that are just like neighbors to our East um some of our facilities are even exceed those of surrounding districts now so something we have great pride in
025um and also conducive learning environments that were just not there before so you really have done an outstanding job and really working with the board collaboratively to maintain the strong financial position we have um and really setting goals together you know and and that's really key really really key um one of the things I think EAS aora has really struggled with for a long time is its image and I think we still struggle with that when the realities today are just perceptions of yesterday and you know you have really changed that for us um in so many ways your professionalism your knowledge your expertise um the way you um conduct yourself um uh not only here in the boardroom but just in the community really just something to be proud of um and your accomplishments
026and for our students from the AP classes to now a a Career and Technical Center we have really address the spectrum of what we our mission is Right fulfilling every student's full potential so so thank you for that Dr Nell um there's certainly much more work to ahead and I work I know the board looks forward to working with um Dr helverson um but you really have um put us on a directory of success so thank you yeah yeah well together collaboratively you know so so thank you Dr Nell for your service all righty okay so I'll just jump in and and uh talk about a few things so so tonight there's some there's some sadness in the air and there's some excitement in the air but you know Dr Nell obviously I think Bruce
027and theoda did a good job of stating all the accomplishments that have been done in the district you know the Innovation the image building that has been important for Easter or the student growth in graduation rates and just being open-minded enough to take those out of the box programs like my favorite the EA pause program so so you know so I thank you for embracing those programs and and helping um our students along the way but tonight you know it's it's an interesting night tonight so as we're naming Dr helverson our new superintendent it's it's kind of yes there's some there's some sadness there's some excitement in the air but you know what it's really about everybody coming home tonight so to Dr nurel she gets to go home to uh to Bob he gets
028to come home and and it's um and then to Brian he has this full circle moment of of Dr halberton being his teacher and his wife being his first grade teacher so so talk about a full full circle moment you got to admit this is a full circle EAS aora moment right and you know it's funny because you know myself I've I've recently I've always worked out of town but I got a chance to come home to Aurora recently with with my position and Aurora is really a special place and you know I know you'll miss Aurora Dr Dell but but Dr helverson the excitement of coming back home so tonight is really about coming home so congratulations to everyone and thank you very much Dr Nell for your service and I look forward to
029working with you Dr helverson thank you anyways okay so couple of uh little maintenance issue so motion to approve the appointment of the new superintendent for the EAS Ora School District 131 second secretary col roll tubert yes centes yes gpie yes L yes Olivas yes Moreno yes Johnson yes okay motion to approve the me Amendment of the current superintendent contract so move second secretary call the rooll Shubert yes gpie yes Johnson yes Moreno abinas yeses yes yes Al righty so at this time we have a little video to to play so I actually began my career in East Aurora at ell Elementary School where I was a physical education teacher and fourth grade teacher after 5 years of teaching there um I took the opportunity to go work in Valley View School District which is
030out in the bowling BR and rville area and I taught kindergarten for two years at the conclusion of those two years I began applying for administrative jobs and got my first job as an assistant principal at RC Hill Elementary School out in Valley I was there for a year and it was a large building of about 900 students at the conclusion of that year we were getting ready to have our second son and I was looking to be a little closer Home CU I was Drive about 45 minutes each way and I took a job in Wester where I was an assistant principal for 2 years I was promoted to principal where I had the opportunity to serve for six years um during that time one of the best things that happened one of the
031most exciting things in my career was we were recognized as an exemplary school by the State Board of Education for three years in a row um it was due to a lot of collaborative efforts with our team there working with the school leadership team to establish our mission vision and Collective commitments um it was a great six years of service and actually right around the time that Co hit um I was promoted to the assistant director of Grants and accountability in West Aurora School District so after serving in that role for four years I had the opportunity to come over to Easter War where I've now been for eight months and I've been the Executive Director of Finance and grants there and really enjoyed that opportunity to get back to the community that I began
032my career in to the school district that I started my educational career as a student and way back in first grade at KW school when you look at the past of Easter War School District we have to remember that Easter war is the oldest school District in the state of Illinois it's been around since mid 1800s uh that tradition is Rich with history rich with opportunities successes that we can celebrate our graduates but it's also personal to me my mother graduated from East aora my grandparents were graduates in the 50s um and my great uncle was actually a member of the school board for 14 years and was a president of the school board way back in the 70s are year when we talk about the present we've gotten a lot of great growth for
033our students we've been fiscally responsible uh We've improved our graduation rates to the point we're at 90% now we've also looked to increase the seal by Literacy for our students and provide numerous opportunities for our students when you look at Alan careers so I'm really excited about the present and where we're currently at but then I'm also very excited about the future when you look at the future of EAS War I think we have the opportunity to continue to Mel a district where we have a collective commitment of trust collaboration Community involvement um our Career and Technical education center that we're in the midst of beginning to build right now is a great opportunity not only for our students but for our community as a whole so like I said it's really about the past
034the rich history we have the present all the things that we've achieved as an administrative team with the support of the school aard and in the future the great expanded opportunities we can provide for all of our students and opportunities to prepare students to be either College ready or career ready when they come out of our system in East St our school district my top three goals the first one would be continued academic achievement for our students and continued growth uh when we look at it we know we had had some great growth over the past few years we've had some buildings recognized these exemplary but we really need to drill down and look at how we support each and every student whether that's a student who needs enrichment or a student who might be
035operating behind grade level secondly I would look to make sure that we are building a culture and climate that's built on collaboration trust a respect to the poor for one another not that we won't have difficult conversations but when we have those we always treat each other with a sense of dignity and respect the third thing I would love to do is make sure that we have e e and here's a little little something welcome I from the board and we put your put bwell in there go bwell family yes you want bring your oh sure accident tonight B [Music] okay so I just want to say first Marissa told me I looked fine in that video she said my makeup was good as I sat there and looked at I don't think my makeup
036was great so I apologize no in all serious no seriousness uh seriousness though I want to thank the school board for the opportunity um board President Johnson thank you very much for the opportunity executive cabinet thank you for the opportunity I prepared something normally I'm more of an off-the-cuff guy and would just kind of stand up here and talk but with it being such a big event I'm going to read from this just uh it still comes from the heart um and I just want to read it directly to the school board here in the community as well so thank you again for the opportunity good evening members of the EAS War school board and thank you for the incredible opportunity to serve as the next superintendent of EAS aora District 131 with over 22
037years of experience in education much of which has been dedicated to supporting our community I am truly honored to step into this role growing up in Aurora and having engaged with our schools as both a student and an educator I have seen firsthand the rich Traditions that Define our district I'm excited to build upon the impressive achievements of the past decade fostering continued academic growth for our students and establishing a culture of trust and collaboration among all stakeholders together we will create vibrant and meaningful Pathways for every student in our district ensuring that East aora continues to shine as a leader in educational Excellence for years to come thank you once again for your trust I look forward to working together to create a brighter future for our students and our community thank you once
038again for the opportunity I'm truly honored um I've shared this during the interview process if I could pick any spot in the state of Illinois with the pin any spot in the entire country with the and put it on the map to become a superintendent it would be an East Aurora um it truly is an opportunity to come home I'm proud of the rich traditions I know that Drell has done a ton over the past seven years to improve the image of our district to improve the academic achievement of our district and there's big shoes to fill and I'm willing to step in and take the next step forward to continue to lead us and I'm excited for that opportunity um I would be remiss if I didn't thank my wonderful wife Ruby for always
039being the support system for me and my three boys um you know I enjoy coaching them I enjoy being around them we've had conversations already about how Dad's life might change a little bit and there might be more uh evening work for me Etc but I've committed to them that I will still be there uh to support them raise them and turn them into the fine young men's that can young men that can also support our community uh so once again um from the bottom of my heart I just want to thank you for the opportunity and if I could have Mr Tom Hartman stand up real quick please Tom Hartman was uh my principal at Bardwell um and he took the chance on me as an educator um I had a PE background a
040classroom background it was back in 2003 when education the jobs weren't so easy to come by um and Tom hired me as a PE teacher he took a chance at it I was a young 23 24 year old kid probably a little arrogant uh he had that bit um but I had the opportunity to grow under his leadership um and it was because of Tom he's the one who encouraged me and said Bob you got some great leadership potential you should Pur pursue your type 75 degrees become an administrator if it wasn't for that I never would have done that so Ed to Tom for his guidance his leadership back then what a support structure he was for me numerous other students throughout students and teachers throughout this work so thank you so much Tom
041I really apprciate once again board thank you for the opportunity I appreciate it um any questions for me or anything that we would need to answer right now while I'm in the hot seat I know I know it's coming y thank you very much I appr appreciate it time I'd like to call our Union president Becky ryro up good evening Becky ryro Union president for Easter Roy Council um first of all thank you Dr for your service uh Board of Education thank you thank you thank you for listening and also thank you for all the different perspectives you uh bring I could just name each of the things that's so unique about each of you and it's all necessary for us to run a district um superintendent haverson uh welcome aboard we are so excited
042to get working um we are um here to help you um we I said it the first time I came up to this Podium and I meet it we're all here for the kids we all have the same Mission and there there should be a huge amount of C collaboration between the Union uh the Board of Education and admin and we're here to work so let's get to work sojourn and then we can party oh we had the board comments do would you like we did not have public comments to yeah okay don't wor got the agenda okay all right so move okay all righty secretary Colo yes yes Johnson yes yeses yes Moreno yes congrats again I