001I'll take the roll call to the meeting to order and then we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Roll call, Rhonda. Mr. Haverly [clears throat] Mrs. Hutchinson Here. Mrs. Maxey >> Here. Mrs. Meyer Here. Mr. Mulholland Here. Mr. O'Donnell Here. Mrs. Schilling Here. For the record, Mr. Haverly is absent. Great. Item number four, approval of agenda. Um audience Let's do We have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Do we have a second? You have a second. Do we have any discussion? >> [snorts] >> Seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Hutchinson Yes.
002Mrs. Maxey Yes. Mrs. Meyer Yes. Mr. Mulholland >> Yes. Mr. O'Donnell Yes. Mrs. Schilling Yes. Um audience to visitors. Audience to visitors is a time for community members and district employees to express a viewpoint of view not to debate an issue. There was a sign-up card for the public to identify their name, address, phone number, and name of organization represented if applicable, and a brief description of the topic to be addressed. A district 200 administrative staff member will follow up within 48 hours if requested if the issue needs to be discussed further. Comments are viewed limited to 5 minutes if multiple individuals wish to address the board on the same subject, the group is encouraged to appoint a spokesperson. See board policy 22230. Do we have any I don't have any sign-up cards. Anybody have
003anything? No. I'm seeing a no out there. Okay. On to the number six, treasurer's report and financial update, please. So, um treasurer's report for this month um uh again, Mr. Steen and I have gotten into a nice little rhythm. Um we met on the 14th. Uh again, the treasurer's report's there presented for you. Um it documents revenues, expenditures, and variance for this month, what our beginning and ending balances are, um and then again, uh that total balance versus our register balance at the bottom, which this month, once again, we tied out to um zero, which means that what's in our bank balance versus what's in our register there is identical to each other. Um one thing I do want to show uh this is presented at the business services meeting. Um and so, this here
004provides uh almost identical information. Uh does part provide sorry, identical information. Um but the revenues instead of in the treasurer's report, where you would see here um that it shows that we received $967,000 in the Ed Fund in revenue, this breaks it down by where we're getting those specific funds from and revenue sources. Property taxes, CPPRT, sales tax, evidence-based funding, state federal, interest income, and then these miscellaneous and other receipts down here when we're getting student lunches, when we're getting registration fees, student fees, athletic fees, athletic admissions, all those type of things are broken down there at the bottom. Um and then again, disbursements, bills paid versus payroll remittances. Um so, uh what you'll be provided with monthly from here on out um and moving forward is a copy of this as well uh that
005will be provided at business services and then we'll provide it for the board. This will be kind of the one time I go through um this in presentation form, but we'll be there if anyone has any questions in alignment with the treasurer's report and with financial update. Any questions on on the connection between those two briefly? Okay, hearing none. I'm going to move on to the financial update. So, again, this was presented at the business services meeting. Um we have our revenue expenditures again tied to what the approved budget was for uh the fiscal year '26. Um again, as you have seen um in the previous months um in January, uh I projected what I believed our revenue and expenditures were going to be um and then this is tied out against that as well.
006This is presented at business services um and and what walked through. Budgeted revenue >> [clears throat and cough] >> one thing for uh just the the the knowledge is that um February and March are always going to be low revenue months. In those months, we're we're not seeing much come in from the state or federal government. Um we're not getting local property taxes, so our main sources of revenue really are uh what we're getting in kind of those miscellaneous areas and then evidence-based funding. Um IMPACTs aren't vouchered, uh there's not much coming from federal reimbursements, and we're not getting taxes. Um again here, we're seeing expenditure by object. There's really no change um from prior months. We're running on the same uh pace and at the same uh area that we were previous uh in
007previous months. Again, big changes uh from prior month to this month, third categorical payment was vouchered for transportation and private facility tuition. Those have both now been entered into this month. Um we have received those and they've been deposited. Those uh will be reflected on our April uh financial update and treasurer's report. The PMA facility tax on monies were expended to cover the cost of the Unibit work, and this account has subsequently been closed. Uh you've seen that throughout this year on a couple different accounts. This just continues to prevent us from exposure to fraud, anything like that, uh and try and make sure that we have stronger internal controls as far as reconciliation and as far as making sure that we know where our money is. Uh $92,000 in countywide sales and facility tax
008received in March, that puts us at 23.4% higher than where we were last year, which puts us running uh to still exceed the $1 million mark for sales tax, which is great. Uh and then about $42,000 in interest, um which is 86% of what we budgeted. Um as we talk uh momentarily about the amended budget, uh I anticipate that most funds will have uh more interest than what we originally budgeted for revenues coming into them. General updates. Uh Winnebago and not Winnebago County, Winnebago and Boone County tax extensions have both come. Uh they were both uh about what we anticipated, but lower than what our ask was. Um Prairie State, uh which is our liability and workman's comp insurance, has their annual meeting on May 8th that I'll be in attendance with. We'll get our
009renewals around then. Medical insurance updates, we started at 36% as a renewal. For context, we pay about $2.1 million in medical insurance. So, a 36% increase on $2.1 million is pretty substantial. At this point, I'm confident we will be under 14%. Um but we will that we will definitively be in double digits. For context, in communicating with uh we that we stirred haven't left stones unturned in this. We looked at uh and I've communicated with those that are in co-ops. I've reached out to other companies um that if we want to keep our current plan and keep some of that, can't can't touch it. So, um and then the co-ops, the middle banding for like ISC, which is the Illinois School Cooperative, um which is also Gallatin, that middle band is close to like 14%.
010So, that's the ones who hit zero. There's ones that are well above 20, and there's some that are below that, but banding wouldn't have helped us this year. We'd have been at the top. Doesn't need to be said, but utility, fuel, and non-discretionary supplies, the cost of goods, the cost of utilities, and the cost of fuel are going up and don't anticipate those sliding down anytime soon. Um in talking uh with uh Mr. Hammock, our new facilities director, and talking with Dr. Casho, we're continuing to explore uh different ways that we can look for energy savings. I met with a colleague today um and talked about a couple of ways that as far as electric costs that we might be able to explore to lower what those utilities look like. Um fiscal year '27 audit
011is uh started. Um we have some uh significantly improved documentation and systems. So, the uh initial phases are going far smoother and and quicker. Um one thing that I did want to point out to the board, um as you may uh recall this past year, you all got a letter and you all got a survey that was the fraud um survey for the uh audit. From now uh from now on for them, the rule the law has changed, the school code has changed, so um they will just randomly select a few people and send it directly to them. It won't be everyone. Um so, as we get closer and I get more information from them, I'll let you know, but wanted to at least give you an update there. Couple final things, fiscal year amended
012'26 amended budget update and timeline. So, the intent of amending the budget is not to come in and show that we want to spend more money, that we are going through and expending things far higher that that the intent of the amendment of a budget on an annual basis to make sure that we are most accurately reflecting the actual expenditures and revenue that is gained by the district. For context, at the moment with what we're looking at and what you've seen previously, um this isn't an expenditure issue when we look at the amendment. When when we see that at least 1.4 million dollars is as a result of revenue that we aren't getting that was originally put in. So, the timeline for this is that at the May business services meeting, that initial presentation uh
013of the budget amended budget will be presented. The May board meeting, uh the tentative amended budget would be presented. June business services meeting, any adjustments or changes that uh are necessary would be presented again to the business services meeting prior to the public hearing at the June board meeting. So, pending board approval, uh if we're to to do that, which would come in the May board meeting, uh the timeline would be as follows, which is May 13th. We would post uh public hearing notice the same way we do with the uh initial budget in the fall. And we would leave that tentative budget, the amended budget on file here in the district office extends past the 30 uh statutory days. Board would hold a public hearing and vote on the adoption of the amended fiscal
014year 2025-2026 budget at the June board meeting. And then prior to June 30th, you would make sure that that's filed by both our parties, posted on the district website, uploaded as the um and all of those uh places. Any questions on the uh financial update of the amended budget portion? There's one more uh update, but I just wanted to make sure that I don't go >> [clears throat and cough] >> over it. Okay, hearing none. Uh the last thing in here is working cash interest transfer. Um so, per uh Illinois school code, uh interest gained in any fund, but interest gained uh specifically for us in fund 70, which is working cash, can be transferred without repayment to any fund that the district determines is in most need. What you may have been used to
015in the past or surely you can take working cash loans. If you take a working cash loan, you have to pay it back to the working cash fund. If we designate it as interest, there's no repayment. As a PTELL district, we're limited in the amount of money that we can levy in different funds without impacting other operating fund revenues. Our workers' compensation and liability insurance have far outpaced our CPI. They have far outpaced what we're able to bring in in tort because the primary uh revenue driver in tort almost exclusively is property taxes. We receive about $6,000 a year in interest. That's because, as Mr. Mahon has pointed out a couple times when we've had the discussion, tort runs negative. If tort is running in negative fund balance through the year, we're not gaining interest
016on it. My recommendation, and if this is what the board so decides, is that in the May we have to do two things. In the May board meeting, we would adopt a resolution that designates the interest in fund 70 as interest. That's it. So, all we're doing is saying that this is interest, it's not going to be applied to principal at the end of the year. We're designating this money that came in as interest as interest. Then, at the June board meeting, we adopt a resolution that would transfer said interest from fund 70 um working cash to fund 80, which is tort. Again, this helps us to again give a little bit additional revenue to tort to allow us to stay in a place where we can uh stay solvent in tort, but also be
017in a place that hopefully um after the amendment and after we make some of these adjustments that we're able to potentially gain additional interest throughout the year as well, so that we're not running a negative fund balance for uh as significant of a period of time. So, no action needed on on this at the moment, but wanted to make sure that this was presented. Uh will be spoken about and discussed again at the business services meeting. Questions for Joe, anybody? Okay. Thank you. Moving on to item number seven, committee reports, policy committee. >> [clears throat] >> Sorry. Um we held our meeting on April 7th, and we went over the uh press uh 121 release, which is um on the agenda later for approval. Um and with that, we have finished the press update. And
018again, thank you to everybody who stuck through the hours and hours of pouring through the policies and doing everything. Um the hard work's paid off because we don't have to have another meeting now until December unless it is needed. Um so, thank you again to everybody who stuck it out and did it. So, um your time was very much appreciated. So, that's it for policy. Anybody got questions for Sarah? All right. Thanks, Sarah. Moving on to business services. Business services met on April 14th, and a lot of the stuff that we discussed will you'll see later on, Solution Tree, Group 2, E-rate, athletic trainer, intergovernmental agreements, um joint at annual conference. So, we um discussed all those and decided to bring those to board, and we will meet again on May 5th at 6:30 here
019at the district office. Any questions for Judy? All right. On to our next one, facility long-range planning. We had our meeting earlier this month on April 9th, which we had the opportunity to meet Jim Hemrick, it was a pleasure meeting him, going over as new director of facilities for campus. Uh we had a conversation with him, some of his ideas and recommendations. Uh we also discussed some of the master facility planning, and I think that was with Richard L. Johnson Architect Firm. So, we had 10, 15 minutes, maybe even 20 minute conversation about that, going into also uh the 10-year life to also master planning. And then, the biggest thing at the tail end was the asphalt project that we're looking at doing in a couple of years, so. Uh there's conversation points on that
020later in this meeting. So, looking forward to going over that with everybody. Next meeting will be May 14th, 6:30. Everyone's more than welcome to join. Do you want to wave at everybody? >> [laughter] >> Welcome, Jim. Welcome, Jim. Welcome. Thank you. Anybody got questions for Russell? All right. On to item CIA committee. CIA has not met since our last board meeting. Uh the last meeting we had was February 25th. We will be meeting again on Wednesday, May 6th at 4:45 here at the district office. Fantastic. Any questions for Judy and CIA? All right. Moving on, CTE committee. Oh, I guess it's me. >> [laughter] >> So, CTE meeting, we met for the first time on March 30th. Um we talked about we kind of went through a little bit the program guide. We had lots
021of questions, and uh we're going to meet again Thursday, and uh that has uh that agenda has a lot of answers to the questions. So, um I I I think we'll we'll have more to share next board meeting. And 6:30? 6:30. Okay, perfect. Anybody got questions for Judy and CTE? All right. Thank you, everybody. On to the consent agenda. Board on an individual basis prior to the meeting has reviewed all of these items. All financial reports are available for review by the public in the business office. Items on the consent agenda are considered routine and will be enacted by the board as one motion. Item A, minutes of the policy committee meeting held March 12th, 2026. Item B, minutes of the facility long-range planning committee meeting held March 12th, 2026. Item C, minutes of the
022regular board meeting held March 17th, 2026. Item D, minutes of the executive session held March 17th, 2026. E, minutes of the career and technical education meeting held March 30th, 2026. F, minutes of the policy committee meeting held April 7th, 2026. G, minutes of the facility long-range planning committee meeting held April 9th, 2026. H, minutes of the business services committee meeting held April 14th, 2026. I is personnel. J is Title 1 Parent Family Engagement Contract. And K is the 2026-2027 Consolidated District Plan. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Do we have a second? I'll second. Okay. First and second, any discussion? Okay, seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Maxey? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? >> Yes.
023Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? >> Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Motion passes. On to item number nine, new business, April item eight, April 2026 bills. It was my month to review the bills and I reviewed bills that I had a few questions, reached out and was happy with my answers, so I will make a motion to approve the April 2026 bills as presented. Do we have a second? Second. Do we have any discussion on the bills? Would you share with the group what questions you had, please? >> Sure. So, on the on the bills, normally it tells what the bills are for and there was a section where it didn't have, it just said for and everything was left blank. And so, I wanted clarification on that. Clarification has been made for all but maybe two
024and they said they would get back to me for that. So, it's just a little bit it wasn't any questions about what was spent, it was more about clarity on what's going on. So, we want to make sure when we present anything to the public that we know what things are spent for. That was all. There was also a double batch. It was printed it wasn't it's not like we paid it twice, but just little things like that. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions? Okay. Roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? >> Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Motion passes. Item B, So, this I brought to the Business Services Committee this past month. This is a contract for next school year
025to provide professional development for administrators and teachers on professional learning communities. This is part of our work that we've been doing over the last few years with effective teams and all of our MTSS work, so this will just strengthen that. So, this is a contract for two full days with a consultant from Solution Tree. Both PD opportunities will be held in August. One again for administrators in early August and then one on a teacher institute day for all teachers. The cost is $14,200 and this will be budgeted in title two for FY27, but we have to sign the contract in order to reserve the dates and so that's why I'm bringing this at this time. It did go through Business Services and Business Services voted to bring it to the board for the board to
026give it the final approval, but Business Services approved um this amount. Questions for Carrie. Any other questions? So, I'll make a move to approve this the Solution Tree purchase agreement for professional development to be provided for the 2026-2027 school year. Do we have a second? You have a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, Rhonda. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Motion passes. Item C, thanks, Carrie. Group two E-rate purchase. So, as we can see, we are down internet right now. >> [laughter] >> Again, so I'm not kidding. You're right. This >> [laughter] >> This has been discussed at two Business Services meetings. We have not as gotten Group two E-rate funds for a few years. Group one E-rate pays for
027So, E-rate in general is provided by the FCC from the federal government for telecommunication and internet services. Group one pays for the actual services themselves. Group two pays for hardware and equipment. We have the opportunity for Group two funding. What has been presented by our tech department in most in need is new firewalls. We need one new firewall Our firewall currently is running down to its last few ports from the prior storm and our current firewall can't even push the bandwidth if we had both the internet service providers up and going. The two firewalls would allow us to potentially have prevented the surge that we ended up having that caused one internet service provider to completely go down. We are out of internet right now not because of anything local, but because our internet service
028provider Windstream is down along with a significant swap of Verizon at the moment as well. All that to be said, at the end of the day this project itself would be a total cost of $138,000. This was run through Business Services. The recommendation from them is that we purchase both, which is why the total cost is at the bottom, but federal Group two E-rate funding would cover $71,000. The district would pay $67,000. If we were to go with just one firewall, which puts us in the exact same uh configuration we have right now, it'd be about $40,000 net cheaper. Um but again, we believe deeply that this will both provide better internet service throughout the district along with providing better redundancy and it will also allow us to not have downtime as we can do
029work on one firewall while the other one is still up and running and if one goes down or anything like that, we can balance and be able to do and move better with that. That went through Business Services, too, and was came out as approved, recommended to the board, so it's been through Business Services. Do you have any questions for Joe before we move on? Okay, do we have a motion to approve the Group two E-rate purchase purchase as presented? I move to approve the two upgraded firewalls from Heartland Business Systems with a combination of federal Group two E-rate funds and local district funds. Do we have a second? You have a second. Any further discussion? So, do you have MAP testing coming up? Having it bandwidth limitations and firewall issues going to create an
030issue for taking to standardized testing? We We've had some issues um with the state testing. Um where we've had to move it to different days, but luckily they've taken place um in between the windows of when it's been down, but we have MAP that will take place in May, so this is stuff that we're trying to act quickly on. Great question. For context as well, the reason that none of the contracts are posted for this is that the contracts have the specs for all of the firewalls along with the UPS and all of that, which would essentially be giving anyone who wanted access to our systems the keys to it. Security. Any other questions? All right, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer?
031Yes. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Motion passes. On to item D, athletic trainer contract extension approval. So, talking with Isaiah had good good discussions back and forth with Market Precision. Got to meet Dylan the other day, our athletic trainer out of the running out to a baseball game and carefully out to a baseball game, not running. I walked and I was careful. But we've had a three-year contract with Precision. They are extreme extremely well liked. Our athletics department has spoken very highly both of Dylan and the the services that are provided. The uptick for this contract extension was $10,000. It was brought to Business Services to see if he would go to five years. He wasn't comfortable going to five years. Which is understandable, but again had that conversation. This three-year increase is a 9% cumulative increase
032over the the three years. For context, I did a little bit of research and for contracted athletic training services, the industry norms are between 15 and 30% increases. So, we are seeing a lower cumulative increase over the the length of this contract than what would be historically industry norm. So, this was presented once again to Business Services to be brought to the board. Do we have a motion to approve the three-year extension of the contractual agreement with Precision Sports Training at the annual cost of $100,000 per year as presented? I make a motion. Do we have a second? I second it. Do we have any further discussion? Seeing none, Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? >> Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Motion passes item E, intergovernmental agreement
033senior semester program. So, all of all three of these should look very familiar to you all because they come through every single year. All there that you're not going to see it it was been ex- shared with you on Thursday when it was posted. And all that's on there are general updates. We've had conversations with Mr. Ackman. He He said that all of this is standard and nothing that bothers him in any shape or form. So, I'm speaking with all three of them at the same time. Um but that's they're just minor adjustments. They're all with Rockwood. This is all of what we do with Rockwood. Those two things. Okay, so do we have a Do we have a motion to a You've got to do them one at a time now, yes. Do we
034have a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement for senior semester program as presented? Do we have that motion? I'll make a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement senior semester program as presented. Do we have a second? I'll second. Okay, do we have discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? >> Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Motion passes item F, intergovernmental agreement regarding running start program. Do we have a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement for the running start program as presented? I'll make a motion to approve the inter- intergovernmental agreement for the running start program as presented. Do we have a second? I'll second. Do we have discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Maxey? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? Yes.
035Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Motion passes item G, memorandum of understanding. Do we have a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding regarding dual and articulated credit as presented? We have a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding dual and articulated credit as presented. Do we have a second? Second. Do we have discussion? Yeah, how come this one's an MOU? Intergovernmental That's typically how this because there has to be an understanding between the high school and the institution >> Yeah, that makes sense. where you're going to teach it this way and all of that kind of stuff. Makes sense. Yeah. Love it. Thank you. Further discussion or questions? Yep, okay. All right. Do the roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs.
036Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? Yes. Motion passes item H, first issue 121 adoption. That's what Sarah spoke about at the beginning coming out of policy. Do we have a motion to approve the first issue 121 adoption as presented? I make a motion that we approve the first issue 121 adoption as presented. Do we have a second? I'll second. Do we have discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? >> Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Motion passes item I on the new business, overnight field trips. Do we have a motion to approve the overnight field trip for FFA Illinois State FFA convention as presented? I'll make a motion to approve the overnight field trip FFA Illinois State FFA convention as presented. Do we have
037a second? Second. Do we have discussion? Is this the one that's like June 10th? Yes, June 9th and 10th. Okay. More discussion or questions? Seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Motion passes on item [clears throat] J, master facilities. Do we have a motion to approve the master facilities {slash} long range plan proposal {slash} contract as presented? I know this did go through business services and facilities long range planning and that came out with a positive vote to bring it to the board. So, do we have a motion for that? I'll make a motion to have Richard L. Johnson GMB perform the long range planning study. Do you have a second? Do we have discussion? Just that
038I I want to reiterate that it originally came up in facilities and then facilities said let's send it to business services and so both groups both committees said um yes to this. Perfect. More questions or review here any other questions? Seeing none, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Motion passes on item K in the new business. 10-year life life safety proposal. Do we have a motion to approve the 10-year life {slash} safety proposal {slash} contract as presented? We have a motion to have Richard L. Johnson GMB perform the 10-year life safety survey on all school buildings as presented. Do we have a second? Second. Do we have discussion? Um just again that it went through facilities then to
039business services and I think the other thing is we were trying when we dis- we're discussing this at facilities, um it came up that we wanted to get it started as soon as students were out of the buildings and we figured if we approved everything now there wouldn't be any hang- a hookup or hang- a hangup when we were trying to get this and it they could get in the building as soon as the kids were gone. So, that was the other reason we wanted to get we wanted to stay ahead of this. Perfect. Any other questions or discussion? And summer school's out at Poplar Grove this year. So, they'll work around that schedule. Yeah, absolutely. Financially, these are both budgeted in the long range plan and the life safety uh for contacts again for
040contacts master facility plan will come out of fund 60, capital projects. That's where the projects will come out of and 10-year health life safety will be paid out of fund 90, health life safety funding. So, these won't hit our operating funds. Perfect. Great information. Any more questions or discussion? All right, roll call, please, Rhonda. Mrs. Hutchinson? Yes. Mrs. Maxey? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Mr. Mulholland? Yes. Mr. O'Donnell? Yes. Mrs. Schilling? Yes. Motion passes. We are on to item number L, joint annual conference. So, we we [clears throat] shared this, I believe, at the business committee meeting only because we wanted some of that dialogue to start as soon as we could. So, the emails have already come in to Ms. Bruner regarding the conference um letting us know that they're going to allow for
041sign-ups to begin June 1. If you remember a year ago that that was some of the conversation that we started to have probably in May at some point that it opens [clears throat] in June June 1 and the sooner you sign up and the sooner you try to get lodging, the better it is. And if you remember last year when we went, it was tough to get a lot of the lodging in different spots. So, we're just trying to get ahead of it. One of the So, we're letting you guys know. Also, there was a scholarship opportunity that was shared that would was shared with uh Ms. Meyer as well as Mr. O'Donnell and Ms. Meyer is pursuing the scholarship because they've never attended. It only applies if You can only apply as if you've
042never attended. So, Sarah's pursuing that or Ms. Meyer is. Um and the other part that came from the business committee regarding the joint annual conference was what did we spend a year ago? And a year ago we spent essentially, I think, $9,450 for the five board members that attended as well as myself last year. I The district paid for registration and then um I said if significant other my my my wife's district paid for everything else. And so, we'll probably have to flip that this year, FY. I'm just saying. But you that's what you guys wanted to make sure that we shared this time. So, I'm just sharing that out. Not no action or anything, but just kind of information only. Discussion? Anybody have questions or discussion on that item? Okay. Whoa whoa whoa whoa
043whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just making sure. I don't really have much. I just want to cuz I think we got We're on a timeline, right? Cuz once it comes up and people want to apply and they have to go What is What else is surrounding this? If we bring it back in May, are we going to say there's a cap on money spent? Are we going to say anything or just who wants to go go? I I think cuz it's here and it's good information, but is it just information or are we going to set parameters? Just so we're ready to go June 1 if people want to sign up. From our point of view, it's just about making sure you know when's the earliest
044you can sign up. It's about trying to get lodging for um the the board members that want to go in the very place that they want to get lodging in. The closer to the event uh fills up faster than any other. And if you've been down there, you know that if you don't sign up soon enough, you're going to have to either walk or Uber to to the conference from different hotels. That's from us. You want to put caps on it? That that would be a decision that the the board would would want to take or take. >> [cough] >> But I believe you also have policies that would also uh support what you would spend on a given day as far as per diem uh meals and such. That I think that's how we
045would take it. So. Many of the hotels aren't going to require us to pay up front anyway. So getting them right away is getting them reserved. Yeah. Getting them reserved is key and that's really why the conversation is starting in April. Got it. Yeah. And the and the conference was great I I think, but again, just cuz we are conscious of our cash and what we're spending it for and this is a completely board administrator activity and assistance. Um if if we're going, we got to bring that information. Again, I'm a firm believer if we're going to go there, you got to bring something back. It doesn't do us any good to go and then we don't share that with our community, our staff, our district, whoever it may be. Doesn't mean you have to
046do a presentation or get up here and chat, but you got to bring something. You got You got to bring information. It's not just go down there and And we don't know anything I mean cuz everybody's got a different you know, focus focus point on what they want to see and hear and there's a vast array. Um but I think if if we're paying for it as a district, it's got to benefit our district. And kudos. I I believe that we share. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody shared out who was here. So, kudos. I mean, thank you so much for bringing the information back last year. Does anybody else have anything else? Okay, we're on we're moving item M, regular meeting dates in your packet. Um you'll see the 26th, 27th regular Board of
047Education meeting dates are all set forth therein. Um we've also added the two dates for town hall dates based on the community's import input that those dates get on our calendar. So, our community members know when we can do a better job of communicating that with them. So, that's on the master schedule now for our students, parents, everybody, community. Town halls coming up October 15th of 2026 and April 29th of 2027 so we can get that more publicized and people will know. If I may. So, the town hall [clears throat] October date is is a reciprocal date. It's essentially the same day for '26 as it was for '25. Whatever the day it I believe was a Thursday, it was in October, it was that number week in the week and so that was the
048one that we used here. April 29th is is used because there'll be an election um I believe on April 7th if I'm right, I'm pretty sure I'm right. April 7th, something like that. So, we in order for the votes to be canvassed in time for our board meeting, we we put we had the April board meeting ends up falling the last week instead of the third week of April. So, all of the votes are canvassed and then the new board would be seated and then you have your town hall after [clears throat] the new board is seated. That's why those dates are there. There's no action here yet. You'll have to take action uh either in May or June to solidify these dates, but we wanted to make sure that you had the necessary information
049and why you had what you had in front of you. So, when you look at dates, do you double check against um guaranteed conferences and things like that? We just went reciprocal dates. No, no, no, no. Not town hall. Oh, these? Yeah. Um I want to say most if all of them are typically that third Tuesday. Like we did if we move it, it's because of known vacations in the summer. Um or if there's a time that it's going to be the the conference the the triple I conference or something like that, then we try to adjust it. So, we do try to do that. Okay. I thought you were talking about those town hall dates. But no, but the rest of it, yes. More But it's usually the third Tuesday though. Usually Any other
050questions? Sorry. All right. Great question. Okay, I think we're through new business. We have no other questions. Uh we are on item 10, superintendent's report. All right. Good evening. Let's see here. So, uh we continue to focus on improving district operations, communications, facilities. We're currently exploring an up upgrade to the board's audio visual system to enhance both functionality and professionalism. This improvement should address ongoing challenges uh with with our current setup and provide a more effective environment for presentations, board meetings, and professional development. In addition, we have formally begun our partnership with Apptegy uh to develop a new district website and mobile app. The app, it's really cool. It's our it's our little logo. Just put in the plug in. Uh the target target for that is July 1. Uh we want to try to
051have that done by the end of June. Operational improvements are ongoing. New security cameras have arrived and are in the process of being installed uh following a delay. Work on the softball scoreboard continues. Although recent weather has impacted the timeline, at the same time we are advancing a larger asphalt project in final design work uh nearing completion and the pre-bid was held today. Uh pre-bid meeting we was held today here in the board room. Um we believe we had eight different companies uh present including but not limited to Stenstrom, CTI, and such. Uh we're excited that the board move forward with this long-range master facilities plan and required 10-year life safety audit to ensure our facilities are aligning with future needs. Student registration for '26-'27 school year has progressed exceptionally well. Roughly 80% of our
052families have already registered. This is significantly ahead of previous years. This early data will allow us to make timely and informed decisions regarding staffing and class structures. The registration window has quote unquote closed. However, we'll continue to enroll and register students that uh recognizing that classroom placement may be impacted moving forward. In the area of teaching and learning, we continue to try to strengthen our uh career and technical education or CTE programming. We have engaged with Rock Valley College and our regional EFE C ANCE to explore expanded opportunities for students. The CTE committee has been formed and has already begun its work demonstrating strong interest and engagement from stakeholders that might even be in this space. Um where we are exploring uh we are also exploring the three circles grant as a potential funding source
053uh to further enhance these programs. Additionally, a team of educators uh recently visited Mary Morgan Elementary in Byron to observe instructional practices and organizational strategies or structures particularly as we consider refinements to our own upper elementary model. For our personnel and organization standpoint, we recently completed uh all certified evaluation uh administrators' evaluations. These conversations were thoughtful and productive in reflecting a strong commitment to continuous improvement among our leadership team. We also welcome Jimmy Hamlet uh this evening, our new director of facilities, and it's already he's already begun engaging in key projects and is off to a strong start. We continue to address staffing needs where necessary including temporary support with building and grounds department as as well as special education for the next school year. We've also been actively engaged in labor relations. We developed
054a draft MOU uh with N Base regarding a summer secretary position transitioning compensation from an hourly rate to a stipend while remaining within budget. Additionally, we've we have drafted an MOU to allow qualified nurses to support IEP meetings also structured in a stipend. Negotiations with N N Base are ongoing with our most recent proposal presented last week and our next meeting scheduled for next week, June 28th. Um May. What I say? Do you I meant April 28th. It's a week from today. My apologies. Going too fast. Uh last week uh the Kate Bernell Elementary Art Fair, I've never attended that. Amazing. Um a lot of a lot of community members turn out even if they don't have any kids or anything. It was just it blew my mind. Um which showcased exceptional work of our
055students and staff. Was wonderful to witness. Uh additional regional committee community partners including Growth Dimensions and Belvidere Chamber. Uh I attend both those meetings and make sure that um I catch them up on the incredible work that we're doing including tonight. Um that was a heavy lift tonight. The board did an amazing job uh moving the district forward. Finally, we're preparing for the up upcoming strategic planning sessions scheduled for June 26th and 27th. These section sessions will help guide the district's future priorities and ensure alignment with our long-range vision. Thank you, and thank you for everybody's continued support of our students, staff, and community. Question for Dr. Cashaw. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh executive session, do we have a motion to go into executive session? All right. >> you got to read the reason
056why we're going to go into executive reasons. Okay, open meetings act exceptions. Um the board and board committees may meet in a closed meeting to consider the following subjects. We have one tonight, collective negotiating matter between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees by Illinois compiled statute 120/2 C 2. Now, do we have a motion to go into executive session? I'll make a motion to go into executive session. Do we have a second? Do we have a second? >> All right, discussion to go into executive by anybody? Okay, it looks like we are at 7:20. 7:20, we're going into executive session. Thanks, everybody. We should be back shortly. >> [music] >> Okay, it's 7:43. Do we have a motion to go
057back into open? Do we have a motion to go back into open session? Do we have a second? Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Maxey. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. Mr. Mahon. Yes. Mr. O'Donnell. Yes. Mrs. Shelley. Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson. Yes. All right, do we have any recommendations coming out of executive session? We actually do not have any recommendations at this time. Okay, do we I think that is all we have today. Do we have a motion to adjourn? I make a motion to adjourn. Second. Second, any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Mahon. Yes. Mr. O'Donnell. Yes. Mrs. Shelley. Yes. Mrs. Hutchinson. Yes. Mrs. Maxey. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. We are adjourned.