001of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all >> here. Jackson >> Mason >> present. >> Mora >> here. Walker Nelson >> here. Okay. Yes. Uh we have uh a few uh guests today and brief presentations as well as Mr. Lightcap. So we have a lot going on in the last board meeting of 2025. And uh Mrs. Travis, could you start us off with some wonderful future educators that we have here today? >> Absolutely. >> So, tonight we have here with you, I just wanted to share with the board are our Bloom Board teacher pathway scholars. They are seven teachers assistants who are currently teacher assistants who are on the trajectory of being teachers and so they are in
002our blue board scholar program. And so when I call your name, can you please stand? And they've just completed their first semester of coursework. Uh some of them have a two-year program that they'll be in and some of them are in a three-year program. But as they finish their first semester to encourage them, to motivate them, to let them know we're proud of them. I thought it would be great to invite them to dinner tonight and also to invite them to the school board meeting so that we can tell them how proud we are that they finished their first semester and we look forward to them finishing all their semesters and becoming Berkeley School District 87 teachers. We'll call their name and just have them stand up real quickly. Okay. >> Okay. We have um
003Sonia Falco, we have our Aar Cruz. We have Claudia Garcia. We have Maria Martinez Melis. We have Marisol Fernandez. We have Raina Ailla. And let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six. And then we have one person who isn't with us which is Ivalis Rivera but these are our Bloomberg scholars and I am so proud of them. a team here. So, welcome. >> Thank you. >> And we thank them for taking time out of their evening to come and visit with us, to have dinner with us. And we just want to cheer them on as they prepare for their next semester, January 12th. But I told them we believe in them. And um I want to thank their mentors. They have mentors and also their school principles and assistant principles also cheered them on to
004motivate them as well. So, they have a a big cheering squad here and uh we look forward to working with them as they continue their work to become teachers. >> Thank you, Mr. Travis. >> Thank you. Thank you and the district for this opportunity and for the program and thank you uh Dr. Sullivan because it was a part of the teacher vacancy grant that we were able to help support them in their education and to become teachers. >> Right. And just a quick commercial for Bloom, Mr. Jackson, you know something about Bloomberg and Mr. Jackson is teaching now through the work he's done with Bloomberg. >> So, it's uh it's been a great opportunity for us to grow our own. So, thank you. Thank you to the board and Mr. Lightcap to see how a
005grant is being played out with people because that's what it's all about. So, how exciting. So, thank you very much for coming tonight. Dr. May, what's going on with student achievement at Jefferson? Could you give us an update? >> Yes. >> I'm calling up. You know, you're up. It took you so long. Let's go. >> We have a team from Jefferson tonight. >> 18. >> Oh, yes. >> Hi. >> So, they can leave or stay. Yeah. So our scholars, you can stand if you would like to for the Jefferson presentation. The board you may leave at this time. Glenn, >> thank you for coming tonight. >> Hello everyone. I am here back as well and we have our late some portion of it. So they are very aware of what we are presenting. They just
006were unable to >> I am Jar the assistant principal. Thanks so much for having us today. Susan Lee, instructional coach, second grade teacher. Julie, special teacher. So this is our presentation about student improvement. We just saw the pictures that come off the page bring us so much joy of the activities that we do at Jefferson learning the joy. That is all we are about at Jefferson. These pictures are like the perfect example of things that you see today. All right. So, we're going to start off with reading. I say reading four to take a look at their goal. 7% of students who are grading will achieve proficiency as measured by MAP for reading for foundational skills. We particularly look at the foundational skills because that is the building base of everything that we do especially
007at the primary level. When it comes to art, our reading program, we uh stated 75% of scholars will increase their emotional reading level by one year. We were really close to that uh last school year. So, we made some adjustments and changes as a team, as a school team to decide where did we miss the mark last school year, where can we improve and what we were already doing well, where do we want to stay and do that. So, we're offering the strategy. Thank you so much. We're going to first take a look at fall data for Matt. We take a look at those students that are 60 60 61st percentile and above. If you take a look at kindergarten, the very top portion is for reading and English. Kindergarten for those that are 60%
008and above are our 42%. First grade is 39% total. Second grade is 38%. For those that took it in Spanish, kindergarten is 53%. First grade 67% and second grade is at 42%. So we not only look at those students that are below, but we also look at those students that are above to see how else they also challenge. That was one thing that we made some adjustments maybe about three or four years ago. We found ourselves always looking at the grid and saying, "Okay, where are they?" We kind of just reversing our thinking and saying what what do they need to work on, but also taking a look at what are the child's strengths and we noticed that there are strengths not only in school, there are strengths that are at home. So, we talked
009to a parent, what are you doing at home that maybe we could implement inside the school building to emulate exactly what was done at home to strengthen that bridge. So, that's how we started looking at data. Not always looking at what was weak but horning in on what are those strengths. If you take specifically and look at the foundational skills when you look at kindergarten it goes those that are from average to high are at 43% total first grade 53% second grade 66%. Again we want to get to 75%. That is our goal. We take math again in January. We received a lot of incoming um students who have registered recently within these past three months like this with high influx. A portion of them uh came in below level. But again, we automatically start
010setting up meetings with those parents. Once we started, if they were low level teacher met with them and some of them have also not just been with the teacher, but myself and spar as well and anyone that they might work with like the reading improvement teacher or the math improvement teacher. again looking at what are the skills that this child already has um mastered and how can we add to that. This is our dashboard. The very top portion is where we were last year when we presented here at the board. The bottom portion is where we are now. On target last year around this time uh for early we were at 67%. We are now at 75.8. We are for ENL it was at 64.4 before they are 66.7 now they are steady steady steady
011climbing and going to get there again uh working with those students we are just making sure that we are giving them the best support that we can but they are almost past that 70% mark reading practice this is where we struggled a lot um when we first had AR and a lot of it would not be that the students were not reading just making sure that we are entering the data one time on the dashboard so that it is very current last year was at 61.7 this year. The screenshot today is 66.7. We have a numerous amount of activities to try to boost around to get reading practice done, but what we do at a school not always just rely at night and we understand that where we try to where can we fill in
012the gaps and we use myself bar and some of the support staff like um Miss Lee, Miss uh Pa who is our multilingual uh resource teacher as well as two key teachers who a little bit more prep time. So, we attach ourselves to individual students of students who have low box stores. Once we meet with that parent, we kind of find out, hey, I'm doing my best, but when they get home, I got this, this, and this. Well, don't worry. We're going to assign them instead of the home coach. We assign a school coach so that child can also take their steps. That's what we do uh during the school day. So you can offer W Jefferson and see one of us on the floor with one of those cushions that were bought when you
013go like maybe two years ago or you see that at a table working with students. That's what you'll see us doing reading with them working on power words and sometimes teacher will give us their power their power goal and ask us to work on that as well to whatever lesson that we are. That is truly the time where it allows us to be able to go back to what we got into education for and then to sit down and use our expertise to work into it. This is the project summit. Again, if you look, we talked about the on level target. Let's take a look at conferencing. When we first started with art, it was a little bit difficult trying to get in a conference schedule with everyone, but we have pretty much got to
014our groove with that. We were at last time around the time 93.5. You can see now we are pretty much to 100% of all scholars being on track for having oxygen there. But earlier they're at 98.5. That is where we want it. We always want to be in the 90% staff no matter what. Um the only thing that causes someone not to have a conference in our eyes is if they are absent for some reason and that's why we continuously not conver again when that happens. We'll talk a little later about attendance and what we do for that to try to show the parents of where they could be if they were in the seat because we only teach to the seat. This is for me. Last year they were at 91.21 one for compress
015and they are now at 97.9. So that again they're very very close to 100% as well. The numbers that directly affect the impact of us increasing has a lot to do with consistent conferencing and consistent um sessions daily with someone just oneonone. Here are ELA strategies. Our very first one is consistently analyzing data to drive instructional decisions. We do not just do this only during PLC time. Everybody has PLC once a week as a team as well as collaborative plan. Uh we also build in a day uh we do it three times a year for our own building data day. We do that on an early release day and what that is is with the teachers they have an opportunity to rotate to three sections. We did 50 minutes for these rotations for the last
016time that we had it. One rotation is with myself and Miss Bar and Miss Lee and in addition to the special teachers for music art and PE and what we do is we start off by asking questions such as what are the trends and patterns that you see within your data. Uh but this this particular time around we wanted to get more into what are the actual strategies that you are using for a whole group for an independent student that may not only be struggling but a child that he needs to be pushed and challenged. What are those strategies and if it's not working right now let's figure out what can you commit to within the six weeks not what can you realistically commit to in order to save this child. Um, we also with
017the special teachers, what we do for them in our group, they have the opportunity to listen to that grade level and there's a whole spreadsheet. What are you all teaching now? They go through all the different skills that they are teaching right on the spot. They create for PE, they'll automatically create games and things that go along that skill, STEM that aren't the same thing at library. They create lessons based off of exactly what is being taught in the classroom. So we can have false curriculum overall. Uh we started that last year is when we did that and we saw a dramatic increase in those just even with the simple games with power words taking it because a lot of times special teachers they wanted to be more involved in being part of student achievement
018and direct reflection the conversation came up if I am a part of student growth with evaluations I want to be fully a part of student growth what can we do to embed it inside of what we're doing here so that it can be across the school as a The second one is teachers will engage in meaningful discourse, increase student understanding, improve speaking and listening skills and enhance well-being and connections. Discourse has been at the forefront for the last couple of years. We do this what we uh a lot of times we we have walkthroughs. We have our walkthroughs that we that we have to do monthly but we do not do walkers meaning myself as far and miss Lee the teachers also do the exact same walk through tools and we've been doing that for
019this our third year doing it um each year we improve just mimic whatever we do they mimic it themselves they come out in the classroom they do one sorry two for their own grade level they also do they'll go look at the grade level above we switched it this school here. So for the first walk through, they went to the grade level above specifically to see what is my end goal at the end of the school year of where this child um where I want my children to be um by the end. So that like just came out of a conversation in PLC. We kind of felt like um hey I noticed that first grade was doing this. I don't think fully prepared. We want to make sure and the biggest thing that we did,
020we had second grade go over to Sunnyside because we feel like that's our weak point that we have when they go to Sunnyside. There's something about bridging over where we saw the skills and then all of a sudden and it doesn't just disappear all the time. We have to do a better job of bridging that from Jefferson to Sunnyside. So they went over at the beginning of the school year. It automatically came back. Second grade came back. They came back and said, "Oh, good. This is what we can do right now and change what we can do in the classroom." What they definitely at the end of school around this time, we have to do this because we didn't prepare for some of the things that they're using. Some things should be new experiences when
021you go to third grade. But there also should be a smooth transition, which is what we are really, really trying to do, especially when we are connected to that school when it comes to state test. Last but not least, teachers will provide daily writing practice across all content areas to ensure their writing aligns with their reading level. We do this again not only during PLC, we use these books like all the time to get strategies passing around these are during PLC during data day. So when we said let's take a look at some of the strategies that you are using currently saying that are not working. Let's go to these books. Let's just pick something. If you want to pick something as a brain level and say do this strategy all together or do the
022journal with the understanding that every child needed some child might need a totally different strategy than whatever everyone else is. We have started relying on our wisdom of already the research that has already been done and stop trying to pull things out of >> and part of analyzing our data. includes the data action plan. So for ELA, this is an opportunity for teachers to look at our classroom data for both math ELA, the state testing and our ARC classroom data. So this is when we make actionable steps to pinpoint and hone in on skills that scholars need support with. And like Dr. I may mention we have a day-to-day where all teachers all of us come together in those rotations to discuss the patterns we see think of some um new or different points to
023divide our scholars to keep them moving towards proficiency reading celebrations. So, um, at Jefferson, we have so much to celebrate and be proud of, um, when it comes to our scholars reading, um, their reading in school, the reading at home, and they're just so proud of their accomplishments and, um, reaching the reading goals that they have. Um, we do have some, um, classroom celebrations. Um, for example, the pajama party. If scholars reach a 100 steps, um they're able to do a flashlight be reading when they reach a 100 steps. Um one of our kindergarten teachers this year just did a site word challenge where if stu if scholars um were able to read a certain amount of site words, they were able to have a slide party which was really nice. Um and then we
024have um some grade level celebrations as well. um our publishing party, our job fair, bug museum. Um students uh learn songs about the bio program. Um and then kindergarten does an animal parade around school. Um and then we also have some schoolwide celebrations. Um grandparents read day where grandparents come in come in and read to classrooms. um our character reads day um which is usually on Halloween where um teachers or staff members dress up in in character and read to classrooms um real men read um day and then um new this year we have our house race to 100 steps um and then last but not least we have our all school King County Cougars incentive incentive for reading so scholars reach reach um their um reading goal, they're able to participate in our um
025our school um outing to go see the King County Cougars baseball game, which we had last year and we're doing again this year. Right. >> A lot of fun. >> Hey, my turn to talk about math. 70% of our students or greater will achieve proficiency as measured by the Iran diagnostics for numbers and operation. numbers and operation, the basis for the things that we do in mathematics, um, even through adulthood. Um, these are some of the strategies. I'm not going to read them verbatim for you, but we want to use data to drive our instruction and plan for tiered instruction so everybody's getting what they need. Um, we want to make sure that our teachers are collaboratively planning with all of the specialists, our special ed teachers, our math um, interventionists and any of the
026other team members that may have a voice that might be able to help with individual students or groups as a whole. Um, teachers will utilize discourse strategies to increase student engagement and agency. We want them talking. We want them problem solving. We want them figuring things out and having a little bit of productive struggle as they're doing it so they become problem solvers because that's really what this century's workplace is looking for people to problem solve and then teachers will build their grade level standards capacity for tier one instruction. Okay, this is our map um data and as Dr. was saying we wanted the students to be in that blue, green, and yellow area. And this is what our math um math scores were in the fall, but we are going to more importantly dive
027into the I Ready, which is our next slide. If you look at the the more bold, vibrant colors, that is our current diagnostic. We are just about done. I think we're at about 98 97% in all the grade levels. So, we did want to share this current data with you. Um, if you look underneath kind of the faded is what our fall numbers were. So, if you see for our kindergarteners, we had 9% of them coming to us at or a little bit above grade level. And now that we've taken this diagnostic again last week, if you look up there, it is 55% of our kindergarteners either or after. So that is an amazing celebration and we are so excited. And then if you look down at the bottom making similar and steady growth in
028number and operations. Then let's see how our first graders did. So our first graders started with 4% of uh 4% of them coming to us and right now we're at 18%. And what that tells our TEAM IS IS YES THEY'RE GROWING. They're doing some good things, but we're going to have to dig in after break and really figure out what is happening with first grade. Putting on some steady good news, little celebration there. So, a little golf class. And then if you go on to second grade, second grade has some really great results, too. Um, we had 15 15% of our kiddos coming to us a little bit above or at grade level. And now, at this point, what are we at? 36%. >> 36%. So, second grade 12. And then you can kind of
029see they just have steady growth going out with the number in operations. So, we're going to dig into that a little bit more after grade two. What's next? And then we also do math for our data action plan. So, this is us looking at our math math data and I ready. So, again, just picking in some actionable steps to target skills and supports to keep those scholars moving. And this is also included in our day-to-day. Okay. Action. Um, this is really important too because these are some things that we really have been drilling down. Um, we want the teachers to implement the strategy of three reads. So, you're not just reading a problem one time and then setting them off on their way. They're looking at the problems three different times. Sometimes for the same
030purpose, but usually each time to get a different layer of that problem off like an onion. So they're going deeper and deeper into the problem. We want them turning and talking and again talking about that productive struggle so that it's not just the teacher coming up there and talking to them. We want them to be active participants in their own learning and the teacher becomes the facilitator of their math experience. Uh some of the math celebrations that we've had this year um we are working on brag tags for those students who have gotten to 100 200 lesson um complete. Um we have lesson completion completion recognition. Um you can see the little chart down there is a chart that we have in each of the classrooms tracking how students are doing and then if we're
031noticing students are falling behind um lending support to those classrooms to make sure that they are catching up um and then doing incentives and shoutouts for the students who are reaching benchmarks with the different lessons that they are doing in the I Ready. And then this is one of the tools that we use to um facilitate meaningful discourse. Um we really want teachers to pose purposeful questions when they're um talking with their students during math. So um we also use this during PLC and then helping the grade levels to develop questions together utilized in each of their classrooms. And then uh like Dr. stated earlier. Um, our teachers do walkroughs themselves. Um, so we do monthly walkthroughs for ELA math. Um, she also stated that they go from different grade levels. So when they do
032go to different grade levels, they're up to potential, sorry, powerful moves and potential moves that are um shared with the teacher that they focus it. And then we also utilize that information to see if there's a certain skill or focus that one grade level needs or maybe we need some micro with just like a group of teachers. >> All right. Currently for regulation we are 88% self-management 88% and social awareness 75%. This is from our panoramic data the very last. Here are our goals for SEM. Teachers will use secondstep lessons. A lot of times they focus on big problems, uh growth mindset, things of that nature. We continue to monitor scholar absences utilizing attendance spreadsheet tracker that we show a little later about what attendance looks like and how we monitor attendance and what we
033did and how we started to be very strategic about how we monitor attendance. And then last but not least, gradually beginning to embed the story of just practice to create a sustained supportive and equal environment so scholar can thrive academically and socially and emotionally. This was more this school year. Last school year was more of adult modeling. A lot of times they are going to staff meetings and now only still modeling and bouncing in circles. I think we even done more meetings as well as other like the parent meetings. Um we do the same thing when they are in their staff meeting they are putting in their house. We'll talk a little bit more about that shortly. They'll be houses but as far as implementing into the classroom. This is the first school year doing
034it inside of the class. So getting well beyond the surface level of would you rather have ice cream or would you rather have um pizza going above that even at the kindergarten level because what we have learned is even though kindergarten babies prek babies trauma and we see it and it affects them academically and it affects them so deeply. So we have started much deeper topics uh even on the primary level or even if something happens in the classroom knowing when to be proactive with that let's talk about that in several level here is our current reality 89% self-management 88% social awareness 78% that is for studentity when it comes to staff culture when we talk about climate uh and belonging uh we have a very strong numbers. Uh 80% feel like they are that
035we have a very good school climate and those that feel that they belong. 74% that's from the teachers. The school staff are those that are those are not certified. Again, still I don't know. 78% feel like we have a very good school climate and 74% feel that they belong in each category for teachers. The fact that you notice we went up even higher than what it was last school year. Okay, these are some of the um things that we have going on with. When we ask students that need reminders, we have visuals. Um those can be put in place by the classroom teacher or with the support of our um SEAL team members. One of the things that we have been working on in the calming corners is helping students to learn how to breathe.
036And the figure eight visual is one of the things that um is pretty consistently used across the board. um our kindergarteners and some of our first grade classes are really working on the red and the green choices so that they know how to behave in school. Many of them haven't been taught that there are expectations and behaviors that we expect as scholars and so what does that look like and they need the practice and the visuals and so that's why we use those. Um some of the pictures that are there we do a huge red ribbon week um for the students and this year Mrs. Morales was able to find this BMX racer who talks about inspirational things and confidence building and it was really it was a wonderful assembly. Um and so we were
037able to get him in this year. Last year with the grant money um we had a family night um as well as an assembly and we had over 150 family members that came and joined us this evening that evening. Um so that was really uh successful. And then the house competitions. Um so the houses we have eight different groups of students and staff members that bond together. It's usually one of each grade level and then we have support staff and even the folks in the office are part of a house team. Um that picture down there was when we were starting out and they got to figure out who was part of their house family. Um we have had reading competitions. They help each other with practice for reading. Um they go to those teachers
038sometimes to do check-in checkout. Um when they're needing supports and ideas and problem solving, we encourage those teachers to work together. Um when we are having staff meetings, we'll do mini staff circles with our houses. Um and I know Mrs. Bay is going to talk a little bit more about specific um things with the houses as well. Just some more pictures and fun things. We do a Jefferson's Got Talent. Um we have there one of the days that students got to dress up for ABC Countdown. Um then we had our Hispanic Heritage Night. They got pictured down uh in the corner representing that. Community members are in all the time. They have a career day. Um the firefighters came in and read to and showed the kids their career. We had a star celebration for
039students who showed self-control, teamwork, accountability, and respect and kind of fly under the radar and don't maybe get that student of the month. But we wanted to make sure that each grade level we recognize them at the end of the year for their outstanding behavior and contributions to the school. There's a couple of pictures from our field trips up there as well, so you can see how much fun they're having in learning. And just a couple extra pictures. All right, these are our house teams. So, at the beginning of the school year, if you have not noticed already, some of the things in the background are travel. The reason we chose travel is for uh we wanted our scholars to realize the world is so much larger than what you see. So, we really really
040focus a lot on different countries. You might want to go to China. So, you'll see different countries all the ground. We the house competition picture that our show it was all about countries to the point that we're running with luggage and past the point unram words but we have really been trying to do more exposure of things around the world about how people celebrate and just different cultures overall as opposed to just waiting as you already know we do uh Hispanic heritage we do uh black history month we have a uh evening event as well as Asian-American Pacific to do something with that month as well with the whole engagement of activities and food. So we said we did not want to just keep doing just those three that we wanted to embed it throughout
041the entire school year. So here are our housings. We have the smart cookies, survivors, K-pop jaguar hunters, the graduates. And if you pay attention, the teachers are all mixed up. So, they each have someone from each grade level. This is not their grade level. And we actually spun the wheel to put people together. So when we say that they do things in houses for staff meetings when we're doing restorative justice and adult model they automatically assemble up their house team. We do competitions. We just have one last week that they're voting on. They had to do family holiday family house holiday promos last week and they are voting on who did the best ones. If you've seen those Christmas ones that's really what they were doing funny show. They'll be voting for that on Wednesday
042to earn a prize for that. Uh there's a other house team, the meeting team, the boat trotters, the whiz kids, and our youngest uh Jaguars, little Jaguar that is the prek team as well as the office staff that is part of that house. Uh they the kids and the staff chose their own name and their and their logos and at that assembly that picture was when we reveal everyone's logo to everyone. So they were all like this is it house name and this is all about. So these are some of our staff outings that we've had so far this year to um help with our sense of belonging and our school culture. Uh so the one at the bottom left that was a tribal race and our own Mr. one uh the one on the
043top uh left uh we had a painting and then the other ones we just recently went to the battle show our team one >> and then right one we are having a 80th holiday party at our kindergarten teacher Miss Kennedy's house so she so we love hanging out And then we had this incredible opportunity this summer to go to a conference in Las Vegas where we could hear from keynote speakers, hear new research strategies, meet teachers from all over. I met a teacher from Guam. I'm from Virginia, South Carolina. So it was a really amazing opportunity. All right. And it comes to back to attendance. Uh currently for chronic absences, we are at 9.4. We want to get it down lower. But Miss Barb had to remind me, we used to be at what 27
04427.8%. Look back to realize how far we've been for it so quickly. Um the previous year was 13% higher 13%. But if you look at the current state average is 19.8. So we are above the current state average. What we are really working on is prek uh with attendance because they are counting in our attendance and they often uh miss. So we are still working with that. We do phone calls, we do messages, but uh most importantly uh face to face to face works better just trying to figure out what that family needs from us to help support them to get to school. You find out a lot more when you have the meeting with the parents and realize, oh, I didn't know that all this was going on and I see why this baby
045is not making it to school. let's figure out how we can get them to school. We do attendance contracts and if they can't come to us, we get in our car and we go to them and we do home visits. So, we've done several of those uh that cannot come out, especially those that may instead of getting on a bus or getting on an Uber or anything of that nature, but we just try to figure out what And then last but not least, that was new, we got involved in our liaison to help us with attendance. uh she was very much in support with helping us uh contact families uh their leads were not being successful. >> Oh, last but not least, we are we have really really been working extremely hard to be very
046diligent and consistent about what we do. And again taking the opportunities to grow where we can grow but also celebrating when we are being a success and saying hey this is really working. Uh we still have some things that we want to work on but overall we did it. There's a lot of work to get there. And thank you in all different languages all different countries. >> Are there any questions for team Jefferson? >> No questions, but great job. >> Great job. Great job, >> team Jefferson. You just proved our point. >> District 87 is on the move. >> That's right. >> It's on the move. And uh you all have hit the ground running. So thank you. Thank you. Great job. >> Thank you. >> When you're next, you have another group in January
047and February, but >> but then of invite you back. >> And Dr. May earned her doctorate this year. Good job. So, Joe, top rep. Yes, >> thanks Lego. Appreciate you for our audit presentation. Mr. Lifecap of Baker. >> Well, thank you for having me tonight. Um, take letting you sit here the two great presentations. Always enjoyable learning more about the nonfinancial side of my my client. So I'm I'm here tonight to talk about the fiscal year in the office. Before I get going want to say thank you to Irene and her team for all that they do to help us through the audit. We have a lot of questions. We have a lot of information and a great partner to help us process help us get it done in time. The next slide will go
048a little bit about the agenda for tonight. talk about the 2025 audit deliverables which are the audit and highlighting the audit reporting type a little bit about the engagement and really that open discussion last question feel free to stop I'll be going over at a very high level you keep on feel free to have so Um once again the annual comprehensive financial report is the annual financial report statements format the reporting and insight from the 2025 audit which is our report the process the cell procedures insurance the report on federal awards and all these information this federal government didn't give us our products until like week before. So, we're on that. We we came out, we did a lot of the work that we thought they would want us to do, but we were pretty
049much right on that. So we really we'll get that out shortly after they'll be on the federal. So we we pay um we do we go through a risky setting process compiance changes. No, they just along with our audit. We also provide for non bought services. So we do annual comprehensive report. We might suggest suggesting and converting your entries to turn to our balances. We help the number of financial report and we also prepare annual federal while we help prepare the documents. They are also the district's information numbers and then as a service we go in now about the audit financial statement and on the next slide the financial highlights. We once again issue a clean unmodified opinion on the district's financial statements. This is the highest level you can get from your outside auditors.
050It states that the information is reasonable in all material related as mentioned. It is an annual comprehensive financial report which as the name suggests it's a comprehensive document. It's more comprehensive than what you're required to report on. It provides additional transparency in terms of a middle letter in the front that talks about more about the district and your operations and goals and also in the back there's some statistical information you can see how the district find the last 10 years a lot of different a lot these next three things I'll just go over kind of briefly there are page numbers if you want to dig deeper later credit questions the management discussion analysis on page five really management story. So we have all these financial numbers, all these schedules and statements. This is really a
051handful of pages that management tells the story how results of the prior year. What were some of the things big differences changes really English part of the document content information like technical terms a lot of support don't have 10 15 minutes to try to get a good understanding of the science these two bottom bullet points including page 14 and 15 is really the only time during the year where you see all of the district's funds and assets, liabilities, interests. This has capital assets that you have. So not only your general obligation bonds, net convention liabilities, your public employment benefit liabilities really longterm show how the districts can over time go up. So a good sign this year increased by about $6.7 million. So at the the controlled spending level, but also you when you look
052at the continued there was still good interest rates in fiscal year 25. So a lot of good interest was earned on the funds spend down payable. So you didn't issue new debt and you paid off bonds as a plan. So that will help that position and then also at the state level the the THIS on liability that that we've seen improvements for the last few years based on the change that the state but it's helping your position but it's one of the key factors. So overall enmywide long-term perspective to districts finances on the next slide. What's your typical what are you fund balances? So that's um kind of what we'll talk about right now. I think where you're at is probably pretty typical for for a school district at June 30th where traditionally you received
053your first property taxes some bills here on the summer pay. So they're kind of still sitting. >> Yeah, it still has the first installment. So it goes to March 1st. >> Okay. >> And then it doesn't it's not including that fiscal year 26. >> Yeah. No, that's great. Um because when we look at fund balance, it's a different perspective. It's more of a short-term cash inflow and outflow current bills that we have to pay those are included. certainly capital assets long-term debt long-term perspective. This is really a short-term perspective of your finances and this is pages including 19 and focusing on page 19. Your fund balance across all your companies increased by about $3.9 million during the year. The operating funds has lost $1.3 million. If you want go to the next slide a little
054bit about that we can kind of see it at the top to the left side of the screen is the operating funds general fund operations and maintenance transportation those funds increased by about $4.3 million and then capital projects went down about by a half million. So that brings you down in cost of all. So they increase fund balances and you you have about at June 30th you had about 13 months of savings. how you know that the county needs to pay property taxes into those you probably so you can avoid tax anticipation warrants and interest and things like that to get through and until the county pays the the second it's good to to have Understood. Um, so we're 167 million that 4 million changes fun. Yeah. So, so we look at the 20.5, right?
055That's where you can see that balances all the way at the bottom right. the left side. >> Yeah, the capital projects columns. You can also see that on the capital line just below it's 3/4 of the way down the page in 2024 it was 14 million looking at this it looks like 3.7 What would we encourage? >> I think a lot of that was the invested income which hasn't become very good last year. Then I was going to talk about the INB's annual financial report. They review your information. They provide you a profile score. They have certain metrics. They feel their importance. They provide the profile. You are at once again you're 3.7. we were at the prior year which has the highest status level that you can get from the score and really your
056only knock on that score. The only knock on that SC that score is the percent funds that were issued for the building that brought up your score. as you paid off the debt and without issuing new debt. That's all I had on audit financial statements. I'm going to go into kind of our results. >> Are there any questions? Um I don't know if it's now federal shortly after that that's related to the the federal government that's what they want >> it's not impact >> it's not due until 9 months after your March. We normally issue with financial statements at the end the smaller report that we provide it it just talks about our audit process. We're required to communicate with board and management a variety of a variety of auditors that we're here to comply
057with. We talk about our responsibil auditors about the opinion on financial statements considering internal controls over financial reporting that opinion. The next slide talks about management responsibility. So management management is responsible for both fair presentation of financial statements establishing effective and maintaining effective control reporting to the law regulations compliance with the types of requirements described supplement. That was the document that came up and then providing us with the audit which you can also see at the at the back end of that document bullet points things that we have for the provides. The next slide talks about the qualitative aspect practices really kind of the accounting practices in the district. There were no accounting policy changes during the year. the the estimates in your financial statements appreciation or your net pension liabilities they were all reasonable
058in relation to those financial statements as a whole the financial statements disclosures were were neutral clear and consistent we didn't have any difficulty performing the audit very beginning there were no material adments which is great there was one adment on the statement this has compared to in the past really nothing but they can do anything about kind of everyone's under the situation IMRF provides an actial report or a liability that's in your financial statements and then they get audited well the numbers in their act report don't match their audit the actual report out they're close so we don't they don't issue a new report we can't really update your liability so we just the actual audited number that you would have really it doesn't change much at the end of the day about they they
059got their money well return they also do a good job of our contribution contributions fluctuate too much. So really this doesn't impact anything that you're paying just there with management accounts. On the next slide is a couple of time announcements that'll be applicable for our next year's the one that will impact and all when I talk about manception being the document go to Gabby. So Gabby is the the overight body that helps us rules to follow. They're changing about the discussion analys if you were to compare your management analysis to somebody else somebody else be a lot more like language describes information to the user we're really good discussion analysis so you'll see you'll see improvements to the management discussion analysis next year. On the next slide, internal control matters. As I mentioned before, we
060look at internal control provide an opinion on financial payments. We don't provide an opinion on controls, but if it were something that we felt the board should know about, we would include that in letter. As we've had in the past, we do have a comprehensive reporting comprehensive report. You know, really finances, not necessarily CBS, how that impacts your financial statements. Obviously, everything finally um contact information. You see me a couple of times a year. Um or it's my phone number really here. Any final questions on >> have any questions? Early in the year questions to programs school districts have we seen any I've been alerted to a large I hear more things about the the tears potential for that. Nothing really federal. It's definitely something to keep an eye out to to lobby. >> And
061Joe, you mentioned EBF. So if there's a substantial cut in evidence-based funding, that will impact us and that's from the state. That's what you were just saying. >> Yeah. I think the state obviously of your knowing also cost side TRS they're supposed to pay a lotion they try to pay more in the long run as well they've been talk they made a tier two right outs we've talked about that back a little bit now they've just started to see savings from that >> and I think we're learning that's a big part of our teachers shortage has been the tier 2 because now I believe the minimum age for teachers to retire is what 67 I believe in the tier 2 minimum whereas with tier one which I happen to be in is any other tier
062ones in here it's everybody know the the number minimum >> 55 so it's 12 additional years and they're finding that that was one That has been a reason why people have chosen not to go into education because they people view that as a penalty. And those of us who are superintendent have been working with our uh wherever we have influence to try to get the state to reconsider that because even though there is savings like you said the long term it's hurt our pool of people who are considering to become teachers because to get to retirement it's it's longer than social security >> and we don't teachers don't get social security. So it's a Well, what is it? 9.89%. >> It's over the large. >> I know that's not why you're here, but Mr. Chavez
063was asking what are some things we're looking at? Those are things we're we're looking at because we have to think long term. >> Y the audience have any questions? Everyone is so engaged about the tier too. No questions from the audience. Jo, you did a good job. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> You get to give Joe a round of applause. >> And Irene for your leadership. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. >> As or you can stay if you want. I appreciate it. >> Okay, so moving right along. >> All right, so added presentation just completed and I do believe we have some action in um open session uh for um we ask the board to accept the public participation of the written correspondence as presented. We
064need a motion. >> A motion missa and Mr. Jackson. Roll call, please. >> Hi. I >> Jackson. >> Hi, >> Mason. >> Hi, >> Mora. >> I also >> Mr. Burn. Any public comment? >> Okay. Uh, consideration of old business. >> Okay. We ask that the board approve the minutes of the regular board meeting of November 17th, 2025, the close session minutes of October 27th, 2025, and the facilities committee minutes of November 17th, 2025 as presented. I get a motion. Miss Moore, Mr. Jackson, roll call, please. >> I morave Jackson >> and then for reports from the superintendent. Uh, no other business. >> Okay. motion is the board of education to approve the account as presented. There are no questions this month. >> Okay. Motion and Mr. Jackson roll call please. >> Hi Mora. >>
065Hi. Um, so the building will usually do what is provided for your information and there's no other >> job. No, I have a motion to go in close session. Hi Mr. Car, Mrs. Chz, and Mrs. Jackson. Roll call, please. >> Hi, >> Jackson. >> Hi, >> Mason. >> Hi, >> Mora. That's been awesome and from the current agend. So for the record, I just have the November. Okay, nothing else. All right, thank you. >> Mrs. Chavez, no. >> Uh, no facility meeting, so we're good there. Sex Nelson. >> No, no. Moving right along to superintendent. >> Okay, so um for the superintendent agenda, just have a few items. Uh, we ask that the board accept the fire administrator's leave of absence request as presented for Kelly Zimmerman. >> Get a motion. Mr. Jackson, respect. Roll
066call, please. >> Hi. How >> I >> Jackson? >> Hi. >> Mora. >> Hi. >> Nelson. Hi. >> Licensed personnel leave of absence. We ask that the board um approve the leaves of leaves of leaves of absence for the approved license personnel staff as presented for Daniel Barrett and Carolyn Frame. >> I get a motion. Miss Moore and Miss Espinosa. Roll call, please. >> I Mora i. Mason. >> Hi. >> Chavez. >> Hi. >> Educational support staff. Leave of absence. We ask that the board approve the educational support staff leave of absence requests as presented for Nancy Jones and Alejandra Turner. >> Get a motion. Mr. Jackson, >> Missa, roll call, please. >> Howard, >> hi. >> Mason, >> IA motion. >> Educational support staff employments. The administration has interviewed the personnel shown below and
067is recommending employment. We ask that the board employ the following personnel pending all employment paperwork. Roberto Deria, Chatavia Winston, Sophia Milani, and Robin Polmo as presented. >> Okay, I got a motion, Mr. Jackson. Roll call, please. >> Travis, >> hi. >> Mora, >> Hi. To >> Hi, >> Jackson. >> Hi, >> Mason. >> Hi. Educational support staff resignation. Uh, one of the members you just approved actually resigned. So, we ask that the board of education accept the resignation of the following personnel. Robin Polmo, teacher aid prek special education at Whittier effective 1120 2025 as presented. >> We got a motion. Miss Moore and Miss Espinosa. Roll call, please. >> Espanel. >> Hi. >> Mora. Hi. Mason. >> Hi. >> Tower. I >> we have a resolution authorizing an amendment to the intergovernmental agreement relating to
068the O'Hare nose compatibility commission. So with this resolution uh the city of Chicago operates O'Hare International Airport. We district 87 are part of the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, the ONCC. by um its terms, the intergovernmental agreement became effective in November of 1996 and that was extended to December 31st, 2025. So this December expires. So for us to continue it would be from December 31st, 2025 to December 31st, 2030. The ONCC uh desires to approve the extension of extension of this agreement. I regularly attend the meetings and I think it would be good for us to have a voice at that table for the noise commission and uh therefore be it resolved by the school board of Berkeley school district 87 that board president Mr. Calvin High Totower is authorized to execute and Secretary Rose Mason
069to attest to the approval of the attached intergovernmental agreement relating to the Alberta Norse Compatibility Commission. And then uh what we have to do is put the uh the votes uh the A's and the Naz and the absent. So unless there are any questions, we need a a motion, which is uh that the suggested motion is that we ask the board of education to approve the resolution renewal authorizing the execution of the extension of the intergovernmental agreement between Baker School District 87 and the O'Hare uh noise compatibility commission until I believe the date is 2030, which is what I just mentioned as presented. I got a motion. Miss, Miss Mason, and Miss Mo. >> Roll call, please. >> Hi. >> Cover. >> Hi. >> Jackson. >> Hi. >> Mason. >> Hi. >> Mora. >> I.
070>> So on our board required committees, one of our committees is the parent teacher advisory. when we adopted the the press policy plus for this school year. Uh one of the items is called a behavioral interventions committee. That information was in your packet. And basically what this motion is is that we combine the duties of the behavioral interventions committee which has to do with a committee to look at behavioral interventions for special education children. combine that with the parent teacher advisory committee which currently Mrs. Espinosa is the chairperson of that. So the motion is that the board of education approve as referenced by board policy 2150 that the current standing board of education parent teacher advisory committee perform the functions of the behavioral interventions committee as per the policy as presented. And I double checked
071this with our attorney. He's okay with us combining them because they're so um related to each other. So, we need a motion. >> A motion. Miss Moore and Mr. Jackson. Roll call, please. >> Mel, I motion here. >> And we have a fundraiser request. We ask that the board approve the fundraiser as presented for fundraisers as presented for North Lake Middle School. >> Get a motion. >> Mr. Jackson and Miss Moore. Roll call, please. >> I go. >> And then just two other things real quick. One is uh you have at your place a sheet that says high performing teams. And when I've been working and Mrs. Zimmerman have been working with Jimmy Casus who's our leadership coach this year, we gave a survey to our teams and one of our our central office team
072and we will also be giving this to the administrators throughout the district. But uh the survey was on high performing teams and the last few weeks I've been uh doing what I can to articulate what high performing teams do. So you have the sheet in front of you. I've been working with based on the results from our team survey and the feedback from our coach Jim Nicasus and then Kelly you feel free to jump in. We want to have high performing teams in district 87. So we are really excited about this because it's not just what high performing teams do. It's high performing teams in an educational setting. This is what research says they do well. So what are those things? Have trust and psychological safety for all the members of the team. Clear purpose
073and shared goals, open communication and constructive conflict, accountability and collective responsibility and commitment to results and continuous improvement. One of the things Mr. Kasus al also talked about is whenever you have a meeting to be very clear of what the purpose of that meeting is, but also if you have a team, what is the purpose of that team? So I'm in the habit now of doing that. So that's where I kind of put our purposes above. I just put it on here to provide local governance and establish the vision, goals, and policies for the school district, ensuring quality education for all students by overseeing budgets, hiring the superintendent, setting curriculum standards, and representing community values. So we work as an administrative team to make sure we keep those alive in our reports that we give
074here to the board every month so you can provide the local government governance and the vision. So uh this is just an example of what I'm trying to do to live the uh feedback we're getting from our from our coach. So unless there are any questions I want to share that with Thank you. It's a little commercial. The other one then is uh this last month we talked about this when we were discussing our overall student achievement and in general and then our special education achievement in particular and one of the things we talked about was that I was going to come back with a little more information on our recommendation as the administration team and one of the things I wanted to share with you. It's in front of you. It's in red. I
075put that on the top in case you don't have it. Let me make sure I have it out there. So, if you need one, let me know. I'll get it to you. But in red, it talks about recommended new position. And that would be introduced in November. So, we talked about it last month. Discussion in December. That's what I'd like to do now. And then we can have more discussion next month, but the idea would be we take action on it in January. So, our recommendation is to create a position which would be called the director of special education for teaching and learning. So the idea is the primary focus on this position is really what's going on in the classrooms. What do we need in the classrooms? So for example, our current reality and
076this came up in our discussion last month. We are experiencing consistent growth in each of our six schools with general education and multilingual learners. You saw that today with uh Jefferson as another example because like Mr. High Tower said, we have hit the ground running. We got a lot of great things going on, but for some reason our special education growth has not been as consistent. And so we need someone who is dedicated just to that to special education. So um our feedback, this is what we've been coming up with. We've been working as an administration team. We also had a consultant do an audit for us last year, Dr. King, and she made a recommendation. I started with the help of our administrators a special education focus group force we be excuse me began
077that in November and uh we have a lot of good ideas we have a lot of things that we're already implementing but some of the areas where we have need that's what I'm what I have on here so I just want to go over a few of them real quick so um we need to be more aware of what's happening in the classroom and what is needed in the classrooms for professional education because and uh Liz, I'm going to I'm going to call you out here. New Dr. Pikes, everyone, if you could say congratulations to Dr. >> Congratulations. >> Talk about learning out here. Yes. >> So, Dr. Pikes has been working with me and Kelly and others on our task force. And uh one of the things if you ask teachers in district 87
078who's responsible for safety, what do you think they'll say? >> They'll say everybody. Yeah. But if you say, "Hey, who's responsible for special education?" What will they say? >> They'll say, "Everybody." >> Correct. That's what they'll say. But then when Liz dug deeper with a survey that she put together, like what does that mean? And for our general education teachers that we found, so you talk about what did you learn? >> So we really found that Dr. Sullivan said the first surface level question it's hey we're all responsibilities but then when we started to look at well what are your responsibilities that's where our questions started to vary right and we we varied these questions based off of a general education teacher a gym teacher a library teacher support staff member right because everyone clearly
079said we're all responsible but then when we ask and this was enough but then when we asked what are your responsibilities we got a lot more I don't know right and that's okay because if we're looking at what do we need to do to move the district forward we need you to be honest and we need you to not say yeah I know everything because obviously we have we have a gap right and so if someone in the process is saying I don't know what my responsibil are then that gives us a foot of where to come in where to start to show where these responsibilities are. We started the survey at primary. This is part of the task force and we had um almost we had between an 85 and a 92% response rate
080for all of our different um uh focus groups. We did really service providers, we support staff and then we did our different areas of certified staff. So the survey vary a little bit for um inclusion teachers. Those are special education teachers that work with students that are in the gened setting. We had the survey vary a bit for crosscat teachers. Those are special education teachers that work with student special education students not in the gened stu in the gened setting. general education teachers and then like I said um general education teachers that are not classroom teachers. So like your gym teacher, your library teacher, your STEM teacher, and we also gave them the opportunity to have a few short response questions and they really gave us their responses. And that's amazing because usually people skip
081over those those those type of questions. And so that's the data that we're really going to delve into next month as well as a whole team. Um, so we have a lot to go off of and I'm excited to see where where where it's going to take us. >> And so we really digging deep to get feedback, a feedback loop with our practitioners. And we have people who care so much about our children, but when you ask them, what is it that you specifically need or or your children specifically need who are special education, that's where they're not assure. So, we need to really um like you said, drill down in that because we have people who want to do the best. Like you heard the team from Jefferson today, we're commendable how proud they
082are of that. Our entire district should be like that. And to be fair, Dr. Money, your your special ed team grew. Those those students grew, but throughout the whole district, we didn't. And that's an area we have to get better at. And so, I wanted you to know we're working on it. We have a plan. And one of the ideas for that is to have someone who can really be into what's happening in the classroom. A couple of areas that person could help with is as we've talked about our special education children approximately 50% of them are duly identified. They're also multilingual. So that that's different than it is in many districts. But here we have kids who have ESL l needs because uh English is not their first language. And when we're talking about
083language in uh public school, we're talking about academic language. And then you saw how all of our schools that gives up give updates on school improvement. They're talking about our art program. There's a lot that goes into our art program, but then you have kids in your class who are students with disabilities. They might be a year, two or three years behind. We have to make sure our special education children are getting the core instruction but then more on top of that. And so kind of the I think the way we've said it uh Kelly is core plus more but we don't have interventions to just focus on an intervention. They need the core plus more. That's what we're working on. But this is a big ask for our principles and assistant principles. We need
084someone who has expertise and the time to get into the classrooms to see how we are implementing ARC because I believe ARC has a lot of resources for special education as well. And uh we we want to use what we have and and be uh >> Yes. Thank you. A new position. It's not a reorganization. No, an added position, a new position. >> So, yeah, >> few years ago, we had a decision in my mind looking at this job description, if you will, and it was similar to what that person was doing that we were presented. We reorganized because of other needs that we had in the district and we added actually it was more. So, now we're going to add another decision. I want to understand what took place with that recommendation back then
085and why all of a sudden now that's changing to this. >> No, I think that was before me, right? >> Yes. >> As superintendent. Okay. So, what's changed for me in my time in this role is a couple more of these. So, the multilingual, we've had a huge increase in that. That's one area. Another is with our IEPs and our pathways. And Dr. Spatifer, you can maybe even talk a little bit more about that, but we have a lot of our children that are now in general education classrooms with a general education teacher and then a special education teacher who might come in to the classroom. We have to be committed to figuring out what is our program going to be. Are we going to be having co-eing taking place? How is that going to
086be in our in our current model in our current program? So, uh, Dr. Spataphor, anything to share about our inclusion program about how that's been changing? >> We have two, not to use the words intensive or not intensive, but classrooms that have students that would either need the teacher or the aid at all times. And then others that just need a little bit of minutes and support. So, their accommodations and their program. Both both those programs are in genetics. >> And another change that's come up is the need for and I'd like you to speak to this Nicole for behavior coach behavior assistant BCBARBT. Could you talk about how that need has increased in the last few years? >> So that was two summers ago. I presented um the kind of special education kind of
087report and we had that increase of um students with autism um and that we were starting to look at almost like 30% of our special needs students were in that on the spectrum and the need for any of those children and some other children especially with ADHD OI as their eligibility have a need for some behavior supports so they are ready to learn. And so with that behavior support, especially in the primary grades, a lot of schools are starting to look at programs where they have a behavior BCBA. That's a behavior coach that's specially trained in very specific tasks for students via behavior. And then they have what's called registered behavior technicians that work directly under them very very well programmed very supervised high certifications that go with that. And they are the ones that
088like leazison into the classroom. They're the ones that helped implement the program and to goals that the coach came up with to work with with the teachers and the staff. So, some districts are moving to that type of programming to have that type of support in the classroom, especially to support students on the autism spectrum. So our enrollment overall has gone down, but the needs of our children and their readiness to learn has also gone down. So we have kids who aren't as ready to learn. We have more kids now with, as Dr. Spataphor said, on the autism spectrum. And just to be clear, this is our home district. This is where our kids belong. But going back to that time five or six years ago when that recommendation was made, we did not have
089the number of autism children that we have now. Another thing that's changed and Kelly, you can help me with that because during COVID, our assessments were very different. We were getting judged on what was like how many kids were taking the test. Do you remember that? Just getting kids to come in to take the test, the A. Now, we're being disagregated by the special ed achievement of our special education children. We also went through in our district, so I'm not going to speak for every district, but for our district, we went through a severe chronic special education teacher shortage. We didn't have teachers here who were qualified to teach special ed. Now, Dr. Martin, you here. How's that been the last few years trying to find teachers for special ed? Then to each grade level
090we've been like that for the last I know the last two years ago when we first purchas Um when three years ago when our students our scholars who got our original designation after co um three of our schools were comprehensive and what that means and what will continue to happen should we not be in place where we shore up the gaps with our programming and our achievement with our children disabilities is that those schools will move to a status called intensive which is this next step further which is more state intervention and so um we've been working to since I moved into this position to um lay the groundwork to adopt core curriculum so we have those structures in place um that weren't in place when I came into this position and so that's been
091the first layer of supports and systems that we put in place and I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the updates of the task force pieces that I have have been working on but um that's one of the we haven't had consistent special education staff in very few of our schools I know the middle schools specifically both middle schools have not had staff and currently we still have open exam our um for special education staff. It's been um we have very few staff that regard special education that have been here longer than a couple of years. Um and those seem to be unfilled vacancies. And so just as we get kind of momentum regarding them, they they're not saying >> well reasons for that. This is another thing that's changed. Some districts
092poach our teachers because they'll give bonuses. >> So, so >> um one is I'd like to understand what we talked about position. >> Yeah. One one director position >> I'd like to understand. Does it have to be a record position? There's been a lot of information shared in generalities. So when we say you know autism has increased what does that mean 5% 10% and 20% of our assuming population they need to correlate that data information um and you know the issues we've had with um staff I don't think they're unique to this decision that that's going to solve that. I think that's other issues in rel in relation to uh special ed. So those are my thoughts and comments. >> Okay. And you can disagree with that which is okay. I just wanted to respond
093to your question which is what has changed and that is what's changed in the five years. So that that's my what my response is. So my recommendation next month is that we take a vote on this because we I should be really clear with this Mr. Chavez. I don't even know if we can find anybody to be honest with you. But I do know this. We have teachers, if you use the data that Liz came up with, who want to help our kids, they need help knowing what it is that they need to do because we know for sure our special education children can be with a good teacher. But will I be able to get them with a special education teacher? I don't know because there's still that shortage. But I want to make
094sure all of our GenEd teachers know everything they need to do to make sure that our special education children get their core. Because what's changed is the expectation. Now, look, we we brought this planning at us for our most vulnerable children, our special education kids. Now, I don't want to sit here as superintendent and say, "Well, oh, it's I want all our kids to learn, all of them, and our teachers do, too." But for some reason, we're not consistently growing in that area. We have pockets of it like Dr. Morty has this year. I want us to figure that out. So, we need more expertise. I'm thinking director, but I don't know. We can I I I know we need help. And so what came to mind was someone who would report directly uh to
095Mrs. Zimmerman because we do have a director of teaching and learning which is Jenned. We also have a director of multilingual teacher and learning which would be um Mrs. Henigan. It seems to me we would want somebody focused just on the special education. So a director of special education teaching and learning. That was my rationale for choosing that that title. >> Okay. But I'm just trying to correlate you know how does this position the resolve issue are teacher shortage in terms of special education and also or is that another issue that >> I think I may >> you may >> I think teacher shortage is an area that we still have to continue to work on but having render special education or having someone that is has an expertise and has a um a a
096focus specific focus on building the special education program and the continuum of services and needs that is specific to special education and that can collaborate with myself, Dr. Misanic and Mrs. spending on the continuum of services for all of our students and that that focus is solely on special education and those programs and services and how they are a continuation of general education and a partner portion of that to ensure that the programs we have are aligned and that they meet the needs of our students and that to work on the staffing piece with principles and with Miss Travis. I think would be made a more cohesive and aligned and coherent program to then give us traction regard to so part that concerns me is we're saying that we need to build part of special
097education program that concerns me because we've had special education children in district for many years not two years three years five years of us many years and we're trying to build a program that that's what's justifying this position. What if we've done all these other years with our special ed program for the first time? >> I was just going to say we had it but it's it's a little different. It's changed from being here for so many years like we've had special education. Then we switched and we became inclusion only and our crosscat kids went to PACE and then we brought a few of them back. This is over the years over the scope. Then we brought a few of them back from crosscat in and then here recently then we start bringing a little
098bit more back with more different needs. And now um autism autistic kids um in our schools that's that's new. So over the time it it's changed. So we you are right we've always had but it's required and especially I know we don't like to keep saying it but after the pandemic it requires us to do things differently. Dr. Pa Flores, director of special services. But as you know, we say it's a lot in special services right now. It's prek, it's homeless, it's DCFS, it's nurses, it's special land. We just really feel because this is the area that's in school improvement where we're not meeting the students need. We need some a real more more we need more focus on special education. And also our curriculum is very different too. We're two or three years out
099and like they said it's a lot to art and ready math. So we need someone to really specialize and focus on it. So it's here but we it's been here but we've gone through so many changes over the years here. Then they left now they came back and now they're coming back a little bit more and a little bit more. So that's what I think has changed. And as you probably remember a few years ago when we had all inherit all those students from I guess west 40 >> like 30 40 students that that group that that changed the whole dynamics of our diversity of these positions. >> I mean >> that's why we created a number of these positions. >> Yeah. But we we didn't focus on special ed that time. We did not.
100Well, we have a problem right now. We need to focus on >> and that she and I'm not if the resources needed >> I'm good with it. >> Okay. I'm not arguing with it. >> Okay. >> But I want to make sure that it is the right resource because I don't want three years from now we're sitting back here again. Now we're adding another position. >> Okay. Is this person needed? I would like to say that when it comes to the future, >> right, >> we have to be uh flexible and be able to pivot when the need is necessary. We're talking education here. It's ongoing. So, we just can't project and say we're going to see we know what the future holds based on what we're doing here and now. >> We're planning to
101tradition, >> but you have to be willing to pivot. be planning. That's why we have a fiveyear program that was requested. >> But that fiveyear program too can should always be adjusted as needed when necessary. >> And uh thank you everybody for your for your questions. And Mr. Chavez, the last thing real quick and I think Mrs. Espinosi, you're going to say something is uh on that sheet I gave about the high performing teams because I've given this a lot of thought. This is the commitment to results and continuous improvement. We are in status now. And as Kelly said, it's like important and urgent. We got to do something because what we're doing, it's not that it isn't working, like you're saying, like building the program. No, it's not like we're starting from scratch, but
102what's happening is what we're doing is not consistently giving us the results that we need. And we need expertise. And as we talked about, Dr. Spatif has expertise, but she also has everything that was just mentioned by Mrs. Travis, but also I didn't even get into this, the needs for school safety that we have now. And I don't when I say these, I don't mean as an as an excuse. I was saying like you were asking like what has changed for this need to come up. And what's happened is we have parents right now who are looking to us like what do we do? Now, Liz, I'm just going to call you out again. Doc, Dr. um Dr. Christ, you speak up. Okay. Some someday you you'll be in a board meeting. Here you are,
103right? Help help me communicate because the board is going to look at my res my recommendation, but they want to make sure that this is what we need. So you tell me. >> We taking this seriously. We're doing an open session. >> Yeah. >> With the audience watching it. >> This is important. >> So here we go. I think that ultimately it definitely our students because what we're looking for we need to look at both our gen ed teachers we need to look just as I said right and regardless of our staffing shortages if we have a special education or not we can equip our gen ed teachers with more students right but as Zimmerman said we need someone who can be in the classrooms teaching understanding empowered to do that, but you need the
104education background expertise to do that to understand who sit in front of you and to understand it's it's not one size fits all when it comes to special education. So, full disclosure, I'm a former special education teacher. Yeah, it's 18 years um both dealing with services and then prospecting. So, the range of behavior, but then also the academics. So you could have a student in front of you that needs 30 minutes of services a week. What they need in the classroom is going to look very different from what a student that needs 300 minutes a week. But both can be in a gened classroom. And a gened teacher can support them in different ways. But it's not the gened teacher's fault. They don't know how necessarily. and you do have special education teachers, but if
105they're stretched, so does it. You need someone that can come in and support and show this is what you can do in the meantime. That student that only needs 30 minutes of support, we can grow. We can move them over. They're two points away from making whatever growth it is that they need. We can push them over. And when we look at the data, so many of our students are this close. Then let's take it from a different step. We have students at the primary level that we might not even need in special education if we start providing our gendered teachers with the supports that they need. MTSS, but we need to have that foundation in place. And so that's kind of what this role is really looking. Um not sure how I'm answering. >>
106Understood. Okay, I understood. >> So you you you did good. Right. >> You did good. And then Mrs. Espinosa was going to say something. I'm sure. >> No, I just wanted to take advantage of being in the room, having Mrs. Zimmerman, two principles here. I wanted what they had to say. And we got two out of the three. >> We going there. We're going to back. >> What do you think of the goal? how we think about a bit. >> I'll try to make an analogy. So, one of my favorite shows under someone who's a CEO of a company >> goes and tries to figure out how they can better >> their company. And I think we really need someone to come in, work with us, hands on, get dirty, and figure out how to
107turn. >> We're not getting our targets on our state report card. We're not missing it by much. It's a percentage point, two percentage points here and there. And we really need someone to come in, work with us hand in hand, say, hey, you know what? Let's come up with a system that's really going to guide this shift. Not for this year, two years, three years, but continuously. I think we turned things around at North because you use the word focus, Mrs. Frank. >> Yeah. >> We were as an entire building focusing on what our shortcomings were. We work with our Westporting coaches saying, "Hey, you know what? We got to bring their shortcomings to life every single day. important us for in order for us to tackle the problem I think we have to tackle
108and I think that's where we need somebody to come into the building to say hey you know what I'm looking at some of the strengths we have but I'm noticing some of the challenges have the building levels in all six buildings to figure this thing out and I think we can do it and I know >> so hearing our team share that here's what I'm think you're hiring My expectations that director is going to be out in the field working closely not I am a director so I'm going to delegate that person I'm my expectation that person not not going to be sit behind a desk delegating people to go and do what we're hired that position for. So we need to take a look at that position as a director or another title. Just
109throwing that out. >> Thank you sir. Thank you. >> Yes. I see you over here. Okay, we allow this conversation to continue if you notice for the last 30 40 minutes because it's so important. >> Yes. >> Okay. It's very important. So, I think everyone got a chance to put their thoughts on the table. Are we ready to move along? Any other one? Dennis, you want to share anything? >> I see. >> You see everything? >> Need Okay. All right. But I think we have >> Well, she moving around. >> Yeah, she kind of she trying to stay in s. I think you got enough information. you can move forward and give us a good plan on how you going to hire this person and whatever title you give it that's going to leave it
110to the administration. >> Could I point out that we are a high performing team? >> Absolutely. >> Trust and psychological safety. So modeling this is what happens in our buildings. You have to have that in order to talk to a great >> clear purpose and shared goals. That's what we all we all have. We all want the same thing, but we have to be stewards of our resources. It's not our money. So that's >> that's open communication, constructive conflict, right? Constructive. We're going somewhere with this. We're not arguing just or just talking just to talk. We're trying to to get somewhere. >> Accountability, collective responsibility. We are all responsible. Don't encourage. Come on. Commit to results and continuous improvement. We are committed to that. And that and this is how it so Liz is I
111know I threw you under the bus a couple of times but this is literally democracy in action. This is how it's supposed to look. >> This is what we did. We allow Mr. Mr. Chavez to be out for a while. Come back in a change of ideas right so thank you callers. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Hey, we got you. >> That's why we're very organized board. Okay, >> you're out. >> Wonderful. So, I'm going to start writing with the district leadership team and school improvement team updates. So, both of our teams, we meet once a month and we have implemented that feedback loop. So our school improvement team that first week of the month and our focus is looking at our school improvement data, our achievement data. We look at our walkthrough data. So as
112you know we've implemented a district's walkthrough tool and we've heard Jefferson talk about that um today and how that aligns with our school improvement goals and strategies and that team then takes a look at what changes. So, one of the things that has been, you know, in years past, not the last couple, but prior to that, you know, school improvement plans would come to the board, they'd be voted on, and they weren't as fluid. So, our school improvement teams look at this data monthly and then make decisions and actions that they're going to change based on what's currently happening right now in their buildings as response to that data. And um one of the things that we have changed this year with our teams is the school improvement team will meet their building. Then we
113also looking at it from their sibling schools. So Vidier and Jefferson will come together and talk about what's happening in their buildings, what's happening, what their successes have, what challenges they're having. So their sibling schools will meet and then they'll meet vertically. So those feeder patterns will meet and talk about what's happening, what's successes they're having, what challenges, what trends we're seeing. Then that team will come to our district leadership team meeting. So then we can look at what are the trends and patterns across the district with regard to our data, our student achievement data, our walkthrough data. Um so for example on Wednesday, one of the things that we are going to be preparing for is taking a look at we've had two cycles of walkthroughs. So each month there's a different focus whether
114it's reading or whether it's math. So we've had two focuses around math and now we are finishing up our ready math. um second diagnostic. They shared a little bit about that. Um Jefferson did, but we're going to add another caveat or another layer of that. Not just looking at so did the efforts that we put in place and the changes being made as a result of those walkthrough data, did that show an impact on our readym diagnostic assessment that we just took? But then the second piece of that is as we look at our INR data from last spring and preparing for IR in March and disagregating our data around children with disabilities. So how did our inclusion students do looking at our spring data? we know were students that grew. And when I isolated
115the data last month and I looked at the cohort growth, we know that fourth, fifth, and sixth grade um children with disabilities did not grow in the area of mathematics. That was the group, those were the grade levels that showed the least amount of growth um in mathematics. So we're going to be looking at triangulating that data of where are those students with inclusion crosscad and then we um visited our pace um students. I also want to look at our those students and um see what's going on with those students as well. And so we'll be triangulating that data with regard to okay we've had these first couple of months of school where is those students children with disabilities data right now and how at those um strategies that we put in place are we
116seeing the educational impact based on our most recent data. So, that's some of the work that'll be taking place right now with our school district leadership team as we prepare for our school um leadership team meetings in January. So, just kind of wanted to keep you kind of that's the cycle of feedback that we do. And then when we look at that data and we see those trends, then I work with our instructional coaches to talk about is there district professional development coaching that needs to happen in the building as in response to those trends. So my friend Joe pull some data points together and separate them out so that they have some of that data um ready for them on Wednesday. So that's Wednesday and that's the cycle that we do every single month
117between school and district leadership team. Second piece I have is um we as you know MacArthur has um entered into targeted status for children with disabilities and so a our school improvement grant the 103A grant is has opened and I'll be working on completing that grant and submitting that so that we can start utilizing those funds. what I've been using to support Carver's school improvement efforts have been title one and title two. So now they will have their own funding source to support school improvement efforts. So we can reallocate some of the title two funds in another way. So I we'll look at that. Our multi-tered systems of support which is um a task force that I have will be coming together. We started this work two two years ago and we have a guide
118book for our our district with regard to intervention and supports. Our focus at this point is navigating a strong foundational core in place for both reading and math. We'll be looking at what additional supports and interventions do students need in addition to that core to support our striving um learners in the area of math and reading. That'll be our focus for this rest of the school year and then putting those in place in the fall. the early literacy screener legislation was passed. It's Senate Bill 1672 and it requires um districts to report to the state board of education information on early literacy screening starting in the fall of 2627. So I will be working with the curriculum council and probably the MTSS task force in reviewing early literacy screeners. And that is a screener that
119will be in roots from fire for all students in kindergarten through third grade. And that is to be given within the first 30 days of school. and it is looking at um determining and to um to screen and identify students who are at risk for reading difficulties. are currently um our ring program American company. They are have added components for assessment that we already utilize that would meet those requirements for this state mandate and they are awaiting um kind of response from the state to make sure that they state hasn't decided if they're going to give us a list of ones we can use or a required list or if uh we are as long as what we have actually meets the requirements. So I'll keep you posted but I'll be bringing a recommendation for
120the early learn literacy screener. I'm also have a gate or gifted and talented program. We put a task force together. We have been operating um with a current um current structure we have is where our gate teacher comes and pulls students out of the classroom and works with them once a week. So we are reviewing that program structure and looking at um what is the most effective and researchbased and effective programming for our gift and talented students. And so we will be um I will be bringing more recommendation toward the end of the school year on what that program design will look like for those students for the upcoming year because one of the things that we have sort of all agreed upon is that you're not just gifted for the 30 minutes that you
121are pulled out gifted teacher. So how do we better meet the gifted students um needs all through their days all through the day. select the K that you know the three through five students they just meet Mrs. Le once a week um which is really challenging for them and we want to make sure and they are being challenged in their classrooms but how can we be more deliberate more intentional and more focused and are there is there other ways that we can service those students needs um in a more intentional and focused way unless the current practices and research say that is um the best way to service those students. So, we'll be doing a program review and we'll be looking at that program this spring. And lastly, um access testing for our multil students
122is coming up. So, our buildings are busily preparing for that upcoming assessment and that starts January 14th. And our technology department has made sure everything is in Skyward so that we can get all of that assessment ready and prepared. And we're very thankful that they have diligently with this again all of our buildings to make sure everything is squared away and ready for that when we come back to break. >> Any questions for me? >> Any questions? >> Very much interested a little more about the task force. We have a lot of students with needs. >> Yes. >> U discussion the special needs area. >> Yes. Uh but I think that too. >> Yes. I'm sorry. Budget statement position activity report November 30th 1.5. The next item is a presentation Joe. It's a 13-094. So
123this act requires all districts except those receiving impact aid to calculate and report the combined annual expenditures in our operational funds for the previous three years and divide them by the annual fund balance. And then if the district's combined cash reserve the operating fund exceed 2.5 times the annual expenditures of its operating funds, the district must then adapt and file with ISD by December 31st but plan to reduce its reserves. So we did our calculation the three years of audited financial statements. We got the average and then we got the audited fund balance. When we calculated the fund balance divided by the annual expenditures did 103% which is far less than 250%. That would require us to do this. >> Yes. >> So this uh is just our financial statement. This is where I obtain
124the numbers from. So, this is my evidence of where those numbers came from for this year. This is our um levy. What we're going to be asking for this year, it's the allocation by fund. There were no changes in the tenative levy that we discussed at the November board meeting. So I just wanted to show you there's no changes and that'll be at 2.9% as our is our CPI. So our cap it's either 2.5 2.9% or um I'm sorry it's either 5% or CPI whichever is lower. And this is a history of our tax caps in Illinois. As you see the last couple years before us, they were at 5%. We were able to ask you because that was greater. >> What's the color orange? >> I'm sorry. think >> are you doing the decade?
125>> I'm doing this is >> yes. Okay. >> Okay. This just shows us that we um met the requirements for our tax levy. We approved yesterday levy on a certain day approved the tender levy adoption of the levy is tonight. It was approved and then we need to file the levy with cook before the last Tuesday of this month. That's the end of this. Any questions on this? >> Questions? >> Okay. Then one other requirement is that I need to um report the fund balances verbally. So excuse I'll go through that. Our education fund as of November 30th is 36,123,774. Our operation and maintenance fund is 4,412,571. Our debt service fund is 228,425. Our transportation fund is 1,14,171. IMRF fund is 918,433. Our capital project fund is 2,270,349. Our report fund is 22,260 and our
126fire prevention and life safety fund is 30,278. And those numbers are also in your packet under the statement position. So the suggested motion is that the board of education adopt the 2025 tax levy resolution as presented. >> Get a motion. >> Mrs. Chavez and Mr. Roll call, please. >> Hi. >> Howard. >> Hi. >> Jackson. >> Hi. >> Mason. >> Hi. >> Mora. >> I miss. Motion. The next next item is for the audit that Mr. D like presented earlier this evening and motion the board of education accept the fiscal year 25 as presided >> a motion M and Mr. Should they have floor please? >> I motion >> carried. And the next item was discussing close session. The suggested motion is that the board of education approve settlement of tax obeduction for 2021 and
127presented and discussion. >> Get a motion. Mora and Espinosa. Roll call, please. >> I esposion here. >> And for my monthly financial report, I just want to provide an update on county tax contributions that we recently learned that we probably will not receive our first distribution. Well, I'm sorry, our second distribution for fiscal year 2024 until February uh rather than December or January that we once thought. So, the delay is affecting all school districts and discounts and it creates a short-term cash flow challenge. So, we're watching our cash flow and we always do. uh some student some districts are choosing small investments and are also issue tax anticipation which are essential to be shortterm loans and the treasur's office could do that for us but they would still be some fees associated with that to
128cover the u >> we're not at risk right now so we should be okay we're going to be okay we're going to be Okay. >> We don't receive our funds by February, >> but up to February, we should be okay. >> And then we're also working with PMA to reduce potential scenarios just in case we're prepared. The office is also analyzing the timing of the region and we'll provide the district with their cash flow analysis as well. We are losing money on interest revenue at this point because we should have that those finances that money earning interest. So there's again lower this year than normal and a lot of districts are coming together to address this account that in the month of November our revenues total 1.8 million 1.5 million of that came from evidence
129based funding our expenditures were 8.8 8 million. The majority of that was our bond payments of 5.3 million. And we had pressure of 2.6 uh million in salaries and benefits. Uh I also pres prepared a spreadsheet for you to let you know what the comparison of fiscal year 2526 uh grants are. At this time this look at the December report I looked today they haven't changed so we are a decrease of 24 million from last year >> which are decrease >> um our school um amount significantly explain. So, our title one, last February, we were given an increase of about $750,000. >> Okay? >> And that was due to other districts across the state not spending all of their funds. So the state then distributed that to districts um that had certain percentage of their
130schools in status and so we received that influx of $750,000. Um I would not anticipate probably ever receiving that again. Maybe we will. I don't know. the the state, our school improvement coordinator was very shocked and surprised the amount of funds that we were um infused into our system >> and we had to spend it by August 31st. >> August 31st. So year over year we get anx year 24 to 25 get an influx of 750,000. >> Yeah. And then 25 26 we went back to the normal. >> Yes. >> So our our title one that's federal. >> Yes. No that's yes. Yes. That's federal. >> So that's that is provided to the state government. >> Um so historically our norms been around 17500. >> Yes. And so each year that you were in school
131we were in school improvement for four years. you have a planning year, >> okay, >> which is typically the most um largest funding and then each year you are in school improvement for four years that those funds decrease. So our funds in 25 were around 350 for the four uh preschools >> and then this year they were decreased to 174 but we had an infusion of 750,000 and then next year they'll decrease again our last year >> okay >> of a store improvement cycle >> and then the school the starter production grant >> that is grant is ends >> that was building stronger connections across the community and last week and restoative justice all the communities >> okay >> connections that was a threeear grant last year >> not impacting our children directly per se
132or the community >> no it is so social emotional learning That's where we brought in the additional sports programs. >> Okay. >> My director, all restorative justice, restoative practices training. >> So, it's been a lot for our staff and our and training and program. >> Okay. So, those programs that were implemented will be received at 245. Those programs have added or have continued. >> No, we continue. We just didn't get any additional funds. We'll get the yellow funds there last year. >> Okay. >> Unless we can figure out a way to use a grant, >> right? >> We didn't have this program, this grant became available to get started >> this program with these costs. >> Yes. Yeah. That would be like our our programing program. So we were able to get our uniforms equipment
133as equipment through this. >> So it's more of a um start the program. Yes. >> If you will jump started or started, >> right? >> Then once you're established, so the ongoing operating expenses that would expect to be >> helped us get it off the ground. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And we did a lot of training us our staff over the last two years so that we Thank you. >> Any questions? >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> Moving right along, Miss Travis. Go. >> Um, part of my presentation was uh forum report was our full board scholars. So, you didn't get a chance to meet them. Um, and then the vacancies for certified staff vacancies, we have eight uh vacancies. And for support staff will be on the left at this time. And
134any questions on that real quick? >> Yeah, we're good. >> You good? >> Yeah, we're good. >> And then we had a student from Illinois State from the fall career pair visit us last Friday and now this Friday to tour our schools. So, >> making progress. >> I love it. Love it. Any questions? conference. I know what happened. >> Yeah, we um have tapered on those duties here as a team. That right happeninated amongst >> I think it partly if if I recall back when Mrs. Vince was talking about it. It was couldn't find anybody and then we added to the business office the um what was it bookkeeper position >> and coordinator >> and accounts payable coordinator. Yeah. And then >> Yeah. And then we >> we've done it as a team here. So
135Mrs. Zimmerman's working on grants. Dr. Bad for works on grants, Dr. Misanic, Mrs. Henigan, >> business office, me. >> Do you think that is running effectively than opposed to having somebody that's just focusing on finding these funds, these grants for us? >> Well, that that would help to have somebody dedicated to that for the long-term planning and finding new funds. Yeah, that that would be helpful. And we can we can explore that. The challenge what we ran into, you might remember Mr. Chevz, we couldn't find anybody. >> Yeah. >> And then what we ran into is people who tend to go into that are trying to become >> um uh a a chief >> school business official. So, it became like a stepping stone, but I'm I'd be glad to look at it because I
136think long term someone out there actively looking at grants for our district would be a very good thing. >> The decision is about justify >> uh essentially. Yeah. We we worked on ways to have a percentage of the salary go to uh the person who was our coordinator. We we worked I can't remember what the percentages were but I know when I was doing it I think there was like some something but every little bit helps right every >> so report back on what we could do with that. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Okay. Anything else? No. No. Can move around. Let's go on this side. Dr. >> Paul, could you stand please so everybody can bring it? Um, so I wanted to say that for our health department, we have um anticipating two new nurses
137starting after a break between now and after tomorrow. >> Tomorrow. Yes. So, we're very excited um to have that staff be able to on boards um some who are residents here and alumni from school. So, that's just really exciting. Um in prek um we've had some new professional development opportunities mostly working with some consultants but also a lot with us 40 um and they've been providing some support for our staff and they've been doing um pair professional um professional development um so we have those half days um the pair professionals are getting um their own training on their specific needs and their specific goals. So that's been really nice for that's for not just prek aids that's for all the aids in their district. So that's been just really nice. A lot of good information.
138They really appreciate giving that kind of support so they can help our students as well. And also um we are very proud. Um we've been working really really close with PACE. Um they have some wonderful leadership now and principles at PACE and we've been working really closely with them and we are welcoming as of right now five students um to come out of therapeutic or you know their kind of settings and to start transitioning back to our district. Um so it's just a wonderful communication that we have with the new principles. Um they're very very warm, just really lovely to work with. So um that's just something I'm always very proud of um when our students um come back home. Sometimes they just get the support they needed, get that structure and then they're able
139to come back and because they're so close to us, we're able to do quarter days, half days, whatever works for the child um and have that partnership. So um that's just I've never had that many um such a short time period. So that is just wonderful work on all the coordinators that they're doing and the principles over at Case um for safety. John will probably talk about this a little bit more, but we're doing some reunification exercises just here with our district staff to give us kind of foundational here so that we can run it out to the entire district. And then nurse Lynn um once she gets everybody kind of onboarded with our new staff um she's gonna be partnering with Elris Hospital and doing stop the bleed training for all of our staff
140because the staff would like to get a little bit more hands-on training um with the information and things that are in their kits, their emergency kits. So, we're going to be start partnering with hospital and other partnerships in some of the private departments and things like that starting in spring um so we get some more training on that and um in the community there's just been some really lovely um support with the shop with the cop with the B police department. I know Berkeley had some things going on with working, you know, provides also the Westchester food ranch park for support, looking for some families to support. So, the community's just been really helpful, especially this time of year. >> Any questions? Give report. Yeah. Um, so in the past month we got our first,
141you know, handful of snowfalls, >> which little earlier than we would have had like anticipated. Uh, but our maintenance and custodial staff played a phenomenal job there parking lots and sidewalks and made sure it was safe for everybody to come to school on a daily basis. So that was great. Um, I recently attended the Berkeley meeting hall. It was nice to meet some of the other girls uh staff members there uh had mentioned that uh next couple of years u they're going to add an additional tiff train station uh first infrastructure um and uh some improvements they're like stages of planning for that but all they're trying to really off the side they're building how it looks that throughout so again with the snow. Um that also brought our first real cold snap of the
142winter season. Um we have had you know a handful of issues across the district with some temperature fluctuations. Um you know some being cold, some being too hot. Um but we've been working um really in with precision controls to try and make sure that our uh automation system is is functioning properly and um we have had a couple of issues with unit um and we've exhausted um what we can do with precision controls in regards to that and ultimately it's a determin to be a mechanical issue at this 3500. So, we're going to be moving forward with our mechanical company to try and address those problem. Really limited air flow some um there was one room last week that was in the low 60s, upper 50s. Um uh a couple of the temporary space here
143on the wall. Um and now that classroom is up in the upper 60s low 70s. uh so that class doesn't have to move is really big for just staff and scholar staff around the building. Uh so to be able to have them in the classroom was uh I would say you know in our in our world um right now as we're putting through the the issues that um something else that came up is next door the gym floor between the um the locker rooms is kind of deepened. Um we're not really sure why. Um, so they've come out to help us, you know, take a look at that. They're sending me some plants. We're gonna have to, um, put a camera through some of the sewer lines. It's kind of by some of the cleanouts
144that they're noticing. And then more so, um, right underneath the drinking fountain. Um, so we're trying to figure out what the cause of that is. And then right outside the gym in the hallway, you notice there's a heap in the concrete floor. So we're trying to figure out as well. Um, as Dr. mentioned, um, our safety team came up with came up with the idea to try and do a reation exercise with our district office staff, administrators, support staff. Um the thought being that in the event of you know we have to actually run a reunification exercise at one of the locations in case of catastrophe and you know you name it. Um we thought that it'd be a great idea to have our central office team train on how to effectively run a um
145we're following the guidance from the local guys foundation. Um they're a great resource when it comes to school safety. Um and we did a you know just kind of a brief overview originally and then we dove a little bit deeper um sometime next month after the break we're going to do a an actualification exercise here and then ultimately um you know to next door on a larger scale so that we are as prepared as we can be in the event that we need to run. Uh right here is one of the binders that we are working on. Um it has you know initial assignments um items to check off as far as you know um delegating some assignments to anybody no matter what their current job title is. We're all in this together and try
146and keep everybody as we possibly can. Um inside it has a you know further instructions and kind of just a step-by-step basis on what we need to do um along with uh you know ID cards and on the back of the ID cards uh for the decisions. It has a brief overview of what the expectations and staff go uh because we are the middle of the crisis. Um it's a great little school to have you understand what your what your role is like uh the uh one of our new custodians. He just recently over at Sunnyside. um he has a best interest in keeping our buildings nice and clean and safe um because he's a community member and his um children um is currently at our schools. Um so he was really excited the opportunity.
147Uh lastly, we're about 90% uh complete with the energy efficiency lighting program um or the project um for the lighting upgrades at Woodier Jefferson and here at the district office. Um we've been receiving a lot of positive uh feedback from all the staff on the buildings. uh mainly because we're able to give the the classrooms the capability of you know dimming capabilities and also creating like scene lighting. So if they're projecting um on the screen we can dim out lights of the classroom so that there's no flare um the keyboards um and you know just really just create a better atmosphere classrooms. Um the nice thing about the these light fixtures is that I will have installed on um you can go into the classrooms and spaces and uh adjust the the lighting system. house.
148So the other piece of applies for that school maintenance project through is it was 50 matching fun $50,000 for approved um for that. Um so that really helps lower the cost overall cost the project for us. So now we've got increase in our savings on our So when I walk out my phone, it's like I'm a superstar and then the lights just >> it's fantastic. I love it. >> And Dr. White walks down the hallway. She's so Good report guy that I'm sorry >> so the units uh you or those not um I believe >> they were during the project >> um it was during during the project so we'd be going through the balancing reports um the initial ones and then once every submission um and trying to figure out why we have a
149lack air flow um to a couple areas. Um even though the systems demanded to be running at 100% you know supply side we're not getting enough is a year starts to fail Um okay. Um the you mentioned the safety program we do cable. >> Um we we can I don't know if we have in the in the past the reunification side of what we're doing is kind of completely separate from that. like if it's a detective threat inside one of the buildings um you know police are going to own the crimes you know students so um same question Okay. Very much interested understand a lot of years before they begin. So absolutely they were they were just asked as we were because they were expecting a lot of water issues and moisture on the floor.
150They weren't they weren't seeing anything. weren't seeing anything still. So, we're really trying to get to the bottom the energy. So, we didn't have any part of our project or so the the lighting project. >> Yeah, this was for uh for Whittier Jefferson and then here um that we did not have. We still have like T8 lights and ballast and things like that. LEDs. Okay. And then you get to our controls. >> It's it's not separate. Okay. >> Yes. You had also >> let's move it aside. Mr. Baron, >> I have a long report. >> Go for it. All right. Um so as uh Mrs. Zimmerman mentioned a testing season is approaching weeks after break testing NWA map testing and then up to that A testing and testing. So that's up. So there's a lot
151of back end work to ensure all the technology systems that we use are appropriately and all the successful things like that to 470 that is updated packages. So vendors can look at those. They have plenty of days to bid on those and then shortly after breaks moving forward switching and equipment Jefferson firewall and then a lot of work was talked about by Mrs. Zimmerman Nicole and John with safety and then some data. They're trying to work to support some of that work. So with like safety. John and Nicole did some presentations over the last couple days about reunification. So, we led some conversations about we're in a different location. We have emergency contacts. We have updated pictures and things like that. So, we went through and we updated all of our student images. We do
152that annually. We wait until all pictures are taken completed. But then, so when anybody looks in the system, they can see some updated pictures again. fits into the safety aspect of the school district and we're ask a little bit of a push to make sure all students have emergency contact. I think this is something that the school work very hard in but there's still a gap. So we're in a situation where we may have vacation situation if mom's not available or dad's not available we need to be able to get on the phone and call somebody to pick up this child safely. So worked on accumulating some data to figure out which of our students don't have those contri what we're doing well in what we need to work in and then kind of communicate
153that Any questions? >> Yes. >> In our annual registration process, families have the opportunity to update them, but that doesn't mean they always do, right? Sometimes you're trying to get through that. You're clicking next, next thing next. So, it's a great point. Just drag it in there if it's not there. Very >> I just want to acknowledge I know shared with us the six members who are participating homework three are north we're really proud of training future teachers so excited about that >> my colleague at the building level we are in the heart of observation agency we're trying to get that done so we just wrap up our first half of the valuations and obligation. Um, in building family connections, we had our fall guest at North Lake Middle School. We had a really good
154turnout. Want to just thank our food department for just the incredible um dinner that we put together and just making our families feel welcome. Uh we tried for the first time ever an I award dinner that was to acknowledge the 140 scholar in North Lake Middle School who met exceeded on the ELA math and science test in the Illinois assessment for readiness and I want to thank Dr. Sullivan. I want to thank Mr. Zimmerman and I know had uh Miss Espinosa come out to just uh celebrate our scholars who did well on our state testing. That's a big part of report card that we did. So greatly acknowledge them. Thank you Mr. burn who helped us uh get all of our scholars ready for PMSA. The opportunity is underway. The window ends this Friday. So,
155we have 50 of our 80 possible scholars have already applied to Provisal Math and Science Academy. So, we're going to wait for the results to come in uh late January, early February. So, we still have a couple more days to make that happen. Um and then I want to celebrate one other scholar from North Lake Middle School, Valeria Lopez, uh who won our district 87 holiday winter card contest. So, when you guys get compared to another school. >> And then lastly, on behalf of everyone at North Lake Middle School, we want to wish our entire board and everyone in this room a very happy winter break and a very happy new year. So, thank you guys for all you do and we really appreciate your >> Thank you for that. Appreciate it. >> Dr. Mike,
156thank you for being tonight. You up. So, thank you for having >> always welcome. >> Okay. Any other new business? >> No business. >> Sure. >> I'm sure. All right. Sounds good. Dennis, when they board me 26. All right, we'll take that. All right. Before we go to We got we don't have this sensor, right? Okay. Correct. Wish everybody happy holidays and stay safe. Okay. Happy holiday. Thanks everybody. Thank you.