001I 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. [clears throat] Kelly, would you call the role? Michael here. Christian here. Evans here. Alex here. All right. As a reminder, our board governs by policy aligned with state law. These policies are not just guidelines. They're legal, ethical obligations that ensure transparency, accountability, and consistent leadership. When policies no longer meet the district's needs, it's our responsibility to amend them within the bounds of the law to better serve our community. The board acts as a whole only in duly convened public meetings with a quorum present. Outside of this structure, no individual member has authority. Adherence [snorts] to policy protects the district from risk and ensures that
002all decisions are fair, lawful, and aligned with our strategic goals. Our mission is to empower all learners to succeed in their world. Our vision is to provide an ideal learning experience where students and staff are engaged and want to come back the next day. Our board policies and actions should reflect that mission and vision. So, couple of things I'd like to talk about during the student and staff recognition piece, and we're going to make a quick deviation. During tonight's student and staff recognition, I'd like to pause to acknowledge the loss of one of our own, Mary Beth Fouse. Beth served Sycamore School District 427 for 13 years as a dedicated special education teacher, most recently at Southeast Elementary School. She began her career at Sycamore Middle School and South Prairie Elementary School. She faced her
003two-year battle with cancer with remarkable grace and strength, supported throughout by her Foo Fighter teams. As an educator, Beth had an extraordinary ability to connect with her students, creating a safe, joyful classroom where every child felt seen, supported, and capable. Her impact on students, families, and colleagues is profound and lasting. At this time, I'd ask that you join me for a brief moment of silence in honor of Beth and the lasting legacy she leaves with our district and community. Thank you. [snorts] Right. The next item on a different note like to take this time to recognize the work of Heather Tomlinson. Heather, if you wouldn't mind standing up, I'd like to recognize you. Heather's been on the board of education since this past April. And while her time on the board has been short due
004to a very reasonable change in her family situation, Beth, sorry, [snorts] Heather has been absolutely instrumental in serving this board. She notably proposed a resolution which Sycamore School District has done for the first time uh in a very long time, at least in the history I've been on this board for. That resolution happened to be the only resolution that was submitted by the 853 school districts solicited to submit resolutions and received the recommendation of that resolution committee's adoption for active lobbying uh with our general assembly at the state legislature. It res it received a overwhelming amount of support this past weekend um as it successfully passed and Sycamore uh was mentioned read aloud again alongside no other districts as a supporting resolution for change uh regarding uh really at large the concept of unfunded mandates
005and and in general specific to buses. This is a framed uh copy of the resolution that you proposed and successfully had adopted and now it lies in the hands of the IASB to lobby to get this made into legislation. Fantastic. Thank you so much. [applause] Separate but equally important has been the time that you've served this board, the countless number of hours that you volunteered to work with us. Um, make no mistake. I know that this is a volunteer capacity role. You run in an elected position. You operate under the scrutiny of the public. Uh, you learn things and information as fast as you possibly can while coupling it with your responsibilities as a parent. Uh, and while under employment, you're pushed into the ethical uh quandries of of what is right and what is
006wrong and what best serves the most possible people. And in return, you get this beautiful plaque, your name placard, and a resolution for your hard work. Thank you so much. Your community is grateful for you. Thank you. It's also [laughter] Oh, wait. There's more. So, and filled with Reese's to sustain you in those long nights. Now, thank you. This board is in no way endorsed by Reese's. [laughter] [snorts] Michael, can I jump in real quick? Um, just uh a lot of what you echo or what you said about Heather, I would echo about the whole board. I know you guys don't want recognition tonight, but the gifts in front of you are just board appreciation. Um, so I won't say a ton, but you guys also put in so much time, so many hours, so
007much work, and it's volunteer. Most people think you get paid. You don't. I know that. Um, but the gifts in front of you are just an appreciation of what you do. So, thank you all. That's all I'll say, Michael. I promise. Very much. Well, I appreciate that. We will have to report these as taxable earnings, though. [laughter] Thank you guys so much. Such a pleasure. And thank you everyone for all of your faith in me. We know you'll watch all the live, right? I'm going to be keeping my eyes on you. I'm interested to see who you guys choose as superintendent, but I have the utmost faith in you. Thank you. [snorts] All right. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. On the consent agenda, I'll be soliciting a motion to approve the
008consent agenda as presented items 4.01 through 4.09, 9 which are composed of minutes of regular meeting October 28th, minutes of executive session October 28th, bills payable, financial reports, personnel report, fiscical year 25 annual statement of affairs, fiscical year 26 school maintenance grant [snorts] revisions to policy 460 and the IASP conference reimbursement. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented items 4.01 through 4.09? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, Kelly, would you call the role? Hi. Zantu, yes. Evans, yes. Motion carried. The next item on the agenda is the NIA consent agenda. The recommended action is to approve the NIA consent agenda as presented. Items 5.01 through 5.04. NIA treasures report, NIA bills payable, NIA personnel report, NIA contract vendor agreement report. Is there a motion to approve
009the NIA consent agenda as presented? Items 5.01 through 5.04. Okay. It's exciting. Yeah, I know. I am second. Seconded. [snorts] Any discussion? Just one piece of brief discussion if that's okay. Nick, I do not mean to put you on the spot. I emailed you very recently about some NIA information. I didn't know if you had a chance to. Again, not on the spot. I know you haven't. I just emailed you about it, but sure. I emailed Nick about NIA, the co-op. Just curious if he felt like we were maximizing our place on NIA's board in order to help their sort of staffing align best with our co-op needs, but if you haven't had a chance to look at it, I totally understand. Don't want to put you on the spot. Yeah, I think it' probably
010be best to maybe even meet in person. Um, I have served on that board. There's been one board meeting since uh I've been in this capacity, so it's fairly new, but I think it'd be appropriate to probably bring Mrs. Thurman in on on that conversation as well. But absolutely, I think it's worth further discussion, perhaps the future agenda item. Great. Any other discussion? All right, seeing no other discussion, Kelly, would you call the role? San, yes. Cppel, yes. Evans, yes. Grados, yes. Yes. Motion carried. All right. At this time, I'll be hosting a public hearing for the adoption of a levy uh in conformance to the requirements of the Truth and Taxation Act. The purpose of the hearing is to take testimony from anyone in attendance regarding the 2025 tax levy. Before we uh solicit
011and open the hearing, um Nicole, if you wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit about the levy, just brief overview. Sure. So, the first thing that we're required to disclose during the uh levy hearing is this public act 1020895. So, this requires us to disclose at a public meeting um the information that's on here is our cash and investment balance in each of our operating funds and then our past expenditures for the last three years. So, again, we just have to share this per school code. Um if anyone has any questions on it, be happy to answer it. For the record, I do have some questions, but I'm going to ask you them later when [snorts] we're voting on it. Okay. So then, um, I'm just going to give a very brief overview of, uh,
012the levy presentation that I did to the business service committee meeting on October 14th. So, just kind of keep it high level for everyone here um, and hit hit the the high point. So, uh, what is our tax levy? that is the amount of dollars that the school district gets every year in order to pay uh the bills for the following fiscal year. Um Sycamore Sycamore's revenues are comprised of about 75% um and tax levy dollars. So most of our money comes from local sources. Um so once we pass this levy tonight um then we will start working on the budget for fiscal year 27 um in January. So that's kind of the process of how the two work together. Um so again, we kind of work through um how much money are we going
013to ask for, how much money can we ask for, do we operate under a tax cap, and what that looks like. I'll talk about that in a little bit. Then asking the board to adopt that levy, and then we're required to file those levies with the county clerks and both with Calvin and Kane County since we are in both of those counties. The big thing that we talk about with the tax levy is equalized assessed valuation or EAV. Um that's the total property valuation for all property within the school district boundaries. So residential, industrial, commercial. Um and then we have some um railroad um money that we get to as well. Uh why is EAB important? Um, this plays into the calculation on how we get the final extension, meaning how much money do we
014actually get for the tax levy each year. [snorts] So again, I touched on these are the different types that we get. Most of ours is residential here in Sycamore. We do get a small portion of commercial and industrial and then farm as well. Um how does EAV work with uh the consumer price index and the tax rate? Um so most recently uh the um EAV has been going up and when that happens um your tax rate actually goes down for that specific taxing body. So, um, your home values are going up, but the tax rate actually for Sycamore school districts, when you look on your tax bill, the tax rate is actually going down. History of um, CPI and EAB and then the total extension there. You can see over the last 10 years what
015that looks like. Um, CPI's kind of been all over the place. It plummeted back in 2021. um then came up to 5% for 22 and 23. That's the first time I've seen 5% in my 16-year tenure here. Um and then you can see the extension has gone up as well. Truth and taxation. School districts are required to hold a truth and taxation hearing, which is what Michael's going to open up here in just a little bit. if what you're requesting is more than 5% greater to what the prior year's extension is. We are not asking for more than 5%. Um, but we've always been very transparent and just sharing that information and still holding the hearing even though we're not required to. Uh, so we know for next tax year the CPI is going to
016be 2.9%. And then we've worked with the different counties on what the estimated EAB percent change is. It's looking to be around 6%. And then also part of that calculation is the estimated new construction and that's looking to be a little over $10 million. This is what our estimated levy by fund looks like. So we are able to levy in each different fund for the expenses um that pertain to each of those. So, our educational fund is our largest. That's where uh a majority of our staff are paid out of and most of our expenses come out of there for our students. Um so, for the 2025 levy, uh we are looking to extend a little over uh $46 million. [snorts] And again, this just shows from 2024 to 2025 levy, we're asking for a
0174.8% 8% increase in our aggregate extended levy. So those are all the funds minus the debt service fund which is actually having a decrease. So overall the increase we're asking for is 3.88%. And then the bottom line this is the impact on the tax rate. This is what I spoke about earlier. Um even though your home value is going up the actual tax rate itself is going down. Um, so depending on if your actual home um percentage goes up, some people uh will see a decrease in their tax bill. Again, it's just all dependent on what your actual home value is doing. So again, we like to put this up here. This is um looking at if your home value stayed the same from last year, uh what your approximate tax bill for just the
018school district portion would be last year and then this year you would see a decrease. And then here's our levy calendar. Uh tonight I'll ask the board to approve the final levy and then we're required to file those with the county clerks um by the last Tuesday in December. And then the levy extensions come out in um end of March, beginning of April from each county. And then as everyone knows, uh homeowners receive their tax bills in May. And so then we start seeing payments come in to the school district. Um our big payment come in comes in in June and then September is our second large payment. And that's all I have for that portion for tonight. And again, we'll have some question opportunity when we actually take a motion on this. Um, but
019at this time, I'd like to 7:16 p.m. uh open uh the public hearing to speak to uh the tax levy. If anyone from the audience would like to address the board regarding the tax levy or submit any written materials, now would be the time. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Okay. At this time, it does not appear that anyone would like to address the board regarding the tax levy. So, I will be closing the public hearing at 7:17 p.m. and we'll continue moving on to the audience to visitors section. At this point in time, would anyone from the audience like to address the board uh regarding any matter for that matter? Okay, seeing no one in the audience, we will move on to the next item on the agenda. Uh we've got superintendent reports,
020uh building and departmental updates. Um any comments regarding uh item 8.01. All right. Uh there's some pending policy change related to this and Lauren has been instrumental in helping the board. Um especially with its board goals regarding communications and Lauren's the communications director. So I asked if she could uh give us another update this month just given how much she's been involved in a lot of uh what we've been doing. So uh that information is uh particularly relevant to policy 8.10 10 as well as to some of our gold pieces which you'll see forthcoming. I guess just a couple quick comments. Um I [clears throat] like seeing getting the excuse me Spartan TV students involved in some of the things. I think that's really great. Looking forward to that. And then I saw a question
021related to or a comment related to updating the website from an accessibility standpoint. I don't know if that's going to be real intensive or if it's just a minor uh update or how how obtrusive it'll be for the district as a whole. Um but I thought it was a great report. Thanks for providing it. Lauren's giving me some homework, too. So, yeah, got I got a newsletter. Yeah. Have to work on here, get to work on cited content. I don't know. Not uh So, to the the members of the audience and the people at home, we'll see what that looks like. So um [clears throat] but hopefully we can connect with community better and you know share a little more in a different way other than just minutes. So the after [snorts] the briefing board
022briefing I think has been really nice. I know get some confidence on that too. So that is wonderful. And then there was talk of schoolboard 101 videos which is probably good timing because we're going to be finding a new schoolboard member. So, you know, want to be able to engage the community, show them, hey, this is a, you know, this is what that is and this is why you should care and, you know, so it'll be interesting. All right, so the next item on the agenda is the annual report for uh enrollment projections. So, this is uh incepted out of our new policy 5.204 for enrollment projection. Um, lot of information here. This is a great memo. Thank you very much, Nick, for preparing this. Really appreciate it. Um, it didn't seem like there were
023any recommendations um that we needed to take action on or as a future agenda item out of this. From what I saw, at least it looked like um we can remain steadfast at least with uh what we'd anticipated as my takeaway. But [snorts] um I know that there's also some interest in us having conversations about this that are forthcoming February and in a more advanced time table. So, we're sure to be able to give our admin leadership team ample time for recruitment, right? So, uh and hopefully we make that a little easier for you guys. Yeah. Be great. I do think like just regarding this because it's a new new memo um that was added into that policy. If you guys have feedback on there's something that needs to look different next time, just give
024me that feedback and I'd be happy to um next year. Otherwise, I'd probably use the same format, different numbers. I mean, I it might be not worth your time creating. I'm just curious, how long do you think it would take to do the actual versus anticipated ratios, studenttoteer ratios? Um, I guess by building or by class if is that data we have easy. You could just, you know, export something and guess it depends on what year what years you want to compare like just just this like what we we thought the ratio would have been at the beginning of the year. Let's say it's 15 students per one teacher. In the first grade class at North Grove, it comes out to 17 students per one teacher. Um like would that is that data we already
025track or would that be requesting you to track something new? And like if that's burdensome to produce, I wouldn't say I'd suggest we add that. But if it's not, I think it would be insightful. Yeah. I mean elementary is a little trickier because we're tracking all all summer. Um, but I could I could look at numbers maybe from the spring when we were making our initial staffing proposals and then look at current. Um, outside of maybe a couple sections, I don't know that there's going to be significant changes. Oh, so it's not something there's a lot of fluctuation in what we estimate versus not really. I mean some some uh sections at some buildings, but I would say overall there wouldn't be significant changes. Okay. But a couple certainly there were gains at at some
026sections. But if you don't think it's material, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. I was just more curious. Yeah. Like if you thought that would be something to even look at. Can you populate that with AI? I went to this uh session at the conference. It was amazing. This guy, in fact, I have a hand out with his information and he said if anyone ever had any questions to Yeah. contact him. I think he was from Neighborville, but he literally put together a p a PowerPoint in real time on the revolutionary war, you know, and he said, "Yeah, you do have to go edit it and make sure to that everything's correct." But it was amazing how this thing just pulled together the pictures. I think he was using chat GPT. Lots of opport
027Yeah, definitely. No, I I had no issues with the format. I recorded and I recorded just to let you guys know if you want that information and I photographed a lot of the powerpoints. Yeah, if you would share that that would be I will. Uh, anything else on 8.02? [clears throat] No, I love the projections. Thanks. Looks like we're pretty good at guessing. Projections are very, very close. So, yeah, there's a lot of growth at the middle school as I anticipated. That was the big outlier, I thought, but we were able to accommodate. Yeah. Even so, 30 out of 800 is is still pretty good. So, the next item on the agenda is item 8.03, board goals update. Um, really detailed. This is great, great to see, and I know we're right about that midyear
028point. So, and I know, you know, lots of, uh, we've got an appetite for, uh, ambition here in this district. So, uh, that's not to say that this is, uh, limited by that. So, I guess any comments on the board goals update? The only thing I would add that I if I can comment is it if that's right that I didn't include in this because it's a recent development is um we've had a lot of discussion just around the dashboards both academic success and the financial and trying to narrow down exactly what we're looking at and uh what it should look like and we've talked to or met with uh some third parties to see what their tools looked like. Um and that meeting kind of led to us um Mr. Rice trying to build
029something out internally to see if it could be dynamic in what we're looking for and uh I think he's made a lot of progress. So nothing to show you yet, but I think we're headed down a good direction and then um yeah can can plug in some of those data points we want to highlight. That's [clears throat] great. Yeah, thanks. So hopefully soon I can show that to you guys. Yeah, I'm look I think looking for the item on here, but there's one about the five item three here about the five essentials survey are and I know we talked about switching. we're keeping it the same this year, which makes sense to me. Are is that something that you think maybe we should just keep the same going forward or are we still do we
030still have the appetite to make it a different survey next year? I was just curious what you So, I think that could be discussion in the in the spring for sure when we when we sit down for board goals. Um, we've had some internal discussions about um five essentials and maybe looking at some things we could do differently to try and get more participation. Um, which I think is kind of why there was an appetite to move away. um I wasn't part of all those discussions, but that's the way I understand it. Um so I think maybe let's see where kind of what data we get back, but I still think it'd be worth looking at alternatives if we don't get what we want, you know. Yeah. My only comment related to the five essentials
031was uh can we help do something to drive in involvement so hopefully we can unlock the data for all the schools so that we can really get a good view. And I think it's traditionally been the community that where we've lacked if I remember. So if we can drive hopefully parents and uh um community members to really fill that out, it' be really helpful I think for the for the district and community as a whole. So if that's communications item or what we do, but how how do we drive that and facilitate that? Yeah. When does that solicitation go out? Do you know? Um it's late winter, early spring. Uh January. Yeah. Okay. So we we've got a full window of opportunity. That's great. Okay. So, [snorts] uh, from the student safety piece or at
032least ensuring all students feel physically and emotionally safe at school, um, I'm just looking, uh, a lot of that is pending like data we're we're hoping to receive to be able to get a better approximation of what that looks like. Is that am I understanding that right? like FastBridge is going to it's going to be a data source and then we'll be able to see where where there's opportunities and where there's successes. Is that Yeah. And I'll defer to any of the principles, assistant principles, but the way I understand it so far is we haven't had a ton of optouts. Um so I think we should have some pretty good data, a lot of students participating. Um so I think that's good. We did a trial since we're learning that product. Mhm. from there. Excellent.
033Yeah. Any other comments on the board goals update? Just that the career pathway endorsement. I was glad to see that that's moving forward and it might be something that we might want to touch upon, Nick, maybe at the LTC meeting. Just a quick update. Um doesn't have to be overly thorough, but just kind of where that stands. But really glad to see that's moving forward. Yeah. I I don't know that I necessarily put in this update, but it's one thing we've talked about is this um kind of growing into a a grow your own um pathway, which is why we chose this one first that um Oscar feeds into, you know, it's all kind of intertwined with some of our different programming that our Oscar staff become our PAR become our students taking these classes
034become our teachers, you know. So, ultimate goal, you know, it's a nice vision. Yeah, I had an opportunity to sit in a board goal setting um related workshop and one of the things I thought that was really interesting was this concept of like sort of the process at large and they mapped it out as sort of cyclical and I know we spent a lot of time this last April. Um we we had three meetings, three regular board meeting or three special board meetings that were open to the public where we went through the goal setting process um actively attempting to solicit input for goals sort of I'd say reaching to try and get our arms around what good goals could look like, what was like what were tenable data points. It [snorts] was uh it
035was very difficult. Um I know a lot of hard work went into it. Um, I'm hopeful that and I want to start looking at what April's goal setting process will look like and hopefully having it um see improvements to some of like where our pain points were. One of the notable pieces was this idea of district goals um not blurring with uh superintendent goals. So in concept, the way it was laid out was the board in collaboration with um key stakeholders would develop district goals for a year or multiple years and then uh those district goals would be the catalyst for a strategic plan uh that would be created by the superintendent that outlines how those district goals will be implemented over that period of time. That strategic plan is the basis for what would
036be superintendent goals that are adopted into the appendix of a superintendent's contract. Um, and this is really relevant as we talk about uh hiring a superintendent uh for the upcoming year and then amending that prop uh potential contract to include in the appendix not district goals but superintendent specific goals. So what will be really important and what you guys should really start thinking about and the community at large needs to start thinking about is how again we intend to in an open session host district goal setting that district goal setting and the outcome of those goals what those goals are um will will be inclusive and hopefully will not take three meetings maybe it can take one and maybe we'll have better attendance um and that is that burden falls on the board to again
037propagate uh we will then need to though have collaboration with this new superintendent to what that strategic plan slash superintendent specific goals will be to see the support to the district goals. I know we have had a strategic plan in the past and my impression of the strategic plan in the past was that it operated as this overarching plan that had domains and then we had district goals that we maybe made at some points but they fit in to the district to the strategic plan one it was kind of cart before the horse and it I'm sure it worked in its own right um but at least from what What I understand many districts do uh is this approach where we come up with district goals. These are the things like what we've set, but
038maybe they're more specific even than what we have. A strategic plan is made by the superintendent in collaboration with our leadership team. They work on superintendent specific goals that we agree to mutually amend into their contract, evaluate them on, and the year goes on. So that is the process that I intend to help us propagate in April. So and I'm hopeful that we can with the same goal setting team that we had, you know, kind of have that dialogue and do that in public. So all right, any other comments on board goals? Okay. Uh item 9.01 is the FOYA report. There were FOYAS. Any comments on the FOY? Nope. Okay. Item 9.02, the superintendent search process update. Um, so I'm proud to uh report that we have had uh more applicants, as I understand it,
039than most area districts have had in this process. So, it's an overwhelming amount of applicants. Um, they have narrowed those applicants down into a set of categories, a tier one and a tier two. We will be reviewing those candidates and their personal resumes and information with the advice of uh HYA, the consulting firm we engaged this evening. They have personally vetted them, background checked them thoroughly. uh made sure that their um credentials and alignments uh would be suitable for the roles and then once we've hopefully tonight chosen of that reduced slate, we'll conduct interviews on December 5th. December 5th's interview process will span well depending on the number of people we interview, they're 50-minute interviews. If you have six people and you have gaps and you have an hourlong workshop before and you have deliberation
040after and we start at one o'clock on a Friday, um we're talking about a long long meeting. Beyond that, there is then going to be due diligence narrowing and [snorts] the deliberation that happens. then potentially a second round of interviews, fewer candidates, more deliberation, then negotiation, um then then an offer, uh then signing, then onboarding. So, a lot of time, lot of effort, and we are a board of six. We're also on boarding a new um so we're going to need to conduct interviews for that. So, lots of lots of balls in the air, but we're going to get it done. So, I'm just not going to work the month of December. I figured it' just be easier that way. No, I'm kidding. But, uh, any questions on the update? So, [snorts] with regard to
041the meeting on the 5th, if everyone has their calendars, I could do earlier than 1:00. That would be awesome. I could do as I'm just going to take the whole day. Yeah. Is that okay? So, we can do earlier than one because if we can do earlier than one, that would that would be slick. I think Sorry. Which was this the first meeting or the second meeting? Which was the date? December 5th. December 5th and we're looking at potentially then a second meeting December 17th 18thish for second round I think 18 I believe. So just note so it would have to be this I'd have to do the 17th and we had agreed at we had agreed at 100 p.m. on December 5th. Yes. And I'm saying I could do earlier if there's an appetite
042from the board because it's going to be such a long meeting. Can anyone not do earlier than I might not be well at this. Yeah. At this point I may have had a morning appointment. talk to I mean do this send me an email if you can't do earlier than 1 p.m. Okay. And then if there's no emails, we'll act. Yeah, we'll have to check my second thing then, too, just again. How early are you talking? I mean, it's it's finite amount of time, right? So, we're going to it's going to take what it's going to take. But if we start it earlier, we can get done earlier. So, I'm thinking nine hours. So, if we start at 1, we'll be done at 10 o'clock at night. So, it's not that. Yeah, I'll email you.
043Okay. [laughter] um for me anyway. The second meeting again, if we do a second interview, what that looks like, attendance, just mentally start thinking about what your availability is. And if you could send me dates that don't work for you in December, that would be really helpful so we can say is the 17th. Do you know off the top of your head? Wednesday. It's a Wednesday. Yes. Yeah. So that's going to be rough. And that's going to be a night. That would be [snorts] evening probably fewer potentially interviews. We don't have to all interview, but if we do want to do if we end up choosing to do a second interview, logistically that will be a challenge. So, we'll have to make that decision. Okay. That's kind of up in the air. Until December 5th.
044I think I was ready. We couldn't wait to do it till after Christmas and just push back a little. I mean, there's lots of options. There's lots of things to do, but again, we should talk. Yeah, we'll discuss it. I think after December 5th, maybe there may be a really strong compelling point to act even sooner than that. So, because they have also work around candidate availability. So, okay. Uh, anything else for the superintendent search process update. Thank you. Great. Glad to hear that we're an attractive district. So, thank you guys. All right. Um, teaching and learning updates. So, we've got some other board reports here. [snorts] um LTC Alan, what you got? Well, um you may have seen the memo that was drafted kind of as an overview of the meeting as well as
045the recommended actions that the committee um is suggesting [snorts] for the board to uh accept and vote on in section 11. Uh the main topics that were covered ELA program, we went through what's going on um K through 12. I don't know if you want me to go through the whole aspect of this, but basically, uh, K through8 looked really great. Some concerns related to high school, a follow-up meeting in January to learn a little bit more. Um, and then kind of what we wanted to look for, uh, from the administration and the team administering the the pilot for a potential recommendation um, at the February meeting uh, the board meeting coming from the LTC in January. Student performance, we went through the Illinois um, for card for [snorts] Sycamore. We decided a few things.
046One of the things that we're asking action on are just basically um approval from the board as a whole is that we're moving forward um with the aspirational goal of having all schools meet an exe exemplary um target um in the future. And then also using the Illinois State report card data, academic data as a basis to start the dashboard. We can add sig more specific um data points that we want to include, but that would be a starting point. We also talked about uh school improvement plans, specifically Southeast Elementary, that was a targeted school in 2023. Their uh school school uh improvement plan needs to be approved each year. that is a recommended action that we take that action and approve it. Um we went through the FTE report that the administration [snorts] provided.
047Um it was a good report, good starting basis. It's very similar to what we looked at today as far as um enrollment but but from an FTE standpoint. And then there was some discussion related to uh staffing at the high school level. That'll continue to go from a discussion standpoint. Graduation requirements was discussed. Uh lots of interest and discussion there with the potential of increasing those requirements. We're going to have a follow-up discussion at our March meeting. Um between now and then, the administration and the teams are going to have some recommendations that they're going to come forth with at the March meeting for us to review and potentially a recommendation in time to the board as a whole. There were four new uh high school courses that were proposed. Uh the LTC committee is
048suggesting that the board recommend all uh sorry approve all four of those uh to potentially be run next year pending enough student participation and interest. And then really there was a lot of discussion related to the goal setting meeting uh coming in the April time frame that you talked a little bit about Michael as well as overall the budget meeting that's a joint meeting in February for the LTC and the BSC. So you can see it there are some committee recommended actions at the bottom. I kind of just walked through all those and we'll get to those in section I think it's 11.03. Any questions on that? Just a comment about the new courses. Those sound amazing. Yeah, if you go to the minutes for the meeting itself, there's a long write up of each
049of those courses expected to do and how it might work and in which departments they fall. Lots of really exciting stuff. I was curious about the job program. It's kind of an extension of uh the a current work study program, but I think it's a a beefed up version of that. It's something that existed in the past, but um it's been quite I don't know if you remember, Greg, but it's been quite some time. It was there when Greg and I first came to the district, but it's been quite some time since it's been there. A lot of it has to do with just uh the ability of a teacher to have community partnerships and um depending on staffing. Sometimes it's not as strong as others, but there's a proposal to kind of beef it
050up from what it was in the past. So excited I got to be in that jobs program. Worked alongside Ray Borgman, Ryan Piclotti. Yeah, PE teacher in training. All of the middle school upstairs locker room is organized. Thanks to I didn't get paid. So [snorts] yeah, I did have a question for Alan. Um, on the exemplary status, a problem that used to exist with shooting for exemplary status, I'm asking for clarification, is that it used to be only the top 10% of districts got it right and it was you were boxed out of getting it if you weren't there, but they're ch am I correct that they're changing it? There's potential for it to change. I don't think it's been approved yet for change and then depending on how that changes, we may have to
051right evaluate how Yeah, it's okay. Okay. So, I thought I guess I thought maybe it had been changed, but it seems like they're weighing changing it to a just a rubric and then it doesn't have to be the top 10% of schools, but if your school just meets the metrics in category A through right, you know, E, then you get that designation. So, you're not boxed out by by, you know, 10% of other districts or something. That's right. Yeah. But that hasn't been approved yet. So, if and when that becomes into effect, then we'll we may want to decide how we go about doing so. So, they did a um uh Bisby did a like a series of how do you guys feel about this and they hosted them in early November and I had
052an opportunity to get uh information about the quality of that and um talked with uh some folks over at Isby about the general sentiment. Um and it sounds like it they they made it sound as if it is inevitable while tentative. It sound like to your point it is absolutely tentative. It seems like this is this new um system is uh this new framework [snorts] is going to exist and they're going to have two baskets of indicators. They're going to have a core performance and elevating performance. And to your point, the moving target that existed before is now going to be a fixed target. Um, I looked and just tried to map where our existing schools would fall under this new model and found some really interesting opportunities for us. And I think that um
053it is absolutely I'm excited at the idea of the tenability under this new report card model of exemplary. And I think that uh the long-standing sentiment of a moving target being a discouraging one is now going to be ameliated by this new model. So, it's exciting. Yeah. I think one of the nice things about it is that if we were to move forward with that, a lot of the board goals that we'll probably develop or have already developed kind of feed into this already. So, it's kind of a continuation of that, but just a nice strong aspirational goal that we can kind of put we can hang our hat on and say, "Hey, look, all the schools, this school, we've met these criteria and we're moving forward." Um it's just just one additional nice nice
054[snorts] uh metric to have. Great. Anything else on LTC? Okay. So we are going to vote on those recommendations. So if you have any questions otherwise we can thank you very much. Great work. It was it was like 30 minute meeting right you [snorts] guys were done in very quick. Yeah. Yeah. No it was quite lengthy but it was good. There was a lot I did. So great audience. Uh it was great. It was all around really nice. Good presentations, too. Um, all right. Business services committee. I think you need we voting on those later. I'm sorry. Got you. Got it. Uh, anything for business services? We have not met since you got the last update. There's no update. Good stuff. Uh, all right. Policy committee. In the interest of time, um, there's a memo
055outlined. I'd encourage you to read it on future topics. will be taking action um in December potentially on some policy changes and we'll be first reading tonight those changes and I'll walk through them when we get to that agenda item. Slick uh 9.06 parent teacher advisory update. We're meeting on the 9th and uh we are waiting on some reports. I believe we'll get close around December 3rd. There's still some work that's going into that meeting. So hopefully we'll have an update after. Great. Good stuff. Will we be uh primarily primarily overlooking [clears throat] handbook? Is that what we're going to be primarily doing in the meeting? So that in that agenda should be released now to all of to everyone. Um so you guys can all see it ten the tenative agenda to see the
056structure. It's the same agenda in a lot of ways as what we had had from the framework from the previous meeting. So it's just an extension of that. Okay. To Christian's point, admin are working around the clock to get those reports in. We're working uh we're running at 100%. So I appreciate you guys. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for anything. Uh so Spartan Senate update they uh gave us a nice uh video update uh which was I thought was great. Really uh love that. So that's really neat. Any comments, questions. Was nice video. Yeah, it was very nice video. All right. Very professional. Yes. Yeah, they've they've got they've got a really good team behind them. So, uh IB conference update. Uh there is you guys saw um some reports. Alex, you put together a memo
057which is Yeah, I would suggest we just potentially table this if anyone else has and then just a time if we want to be done by 8. We're at 7:47 now. Yep. This isn't a pressing matter. I mean, there's there's information. I would encourage you all to read it, but I'm not going to go through it now if that's okay. Yeah. Great. Thanks. Yeah, this is really detailed and nice. So, all right. Uh, old business. We have here adoption of the 2025 tax levy resolution. The recommended action, a motion to approve the 2025 tax levy resolution as presented. Be soliciting this motion. So, is there a motion to approve the 2025 tax levy resolution as presented? So, seconded. So, at this time, is there any discussion, questions, or comments? Yes, I do have some questions.
058Um, and mostly this is for the people watching at home. I'm sure there's lots of people, and I just wanted to make sure we're as clear as possible. And so, Nicole, I've got some questions for you, and I think everyone will benefit um from talking some stuff through. So, I appreciate your patience. Um, so these are for you, Nicole. Could you briefly explain how PEL limits the dollars we can collect from existing property? Yep. So, uh, what is PEL? I'll just give you the acronym for that. Property tax extension limitation law. So that actually limits the lesser of 5% or the increase in the national consumer price index which you saw earlier in my presentation was 2.9%. So it's 2.9%. We've I've only seen 5% for two years in the last 16 years that I've
059been doing this job. So typically it's CPI. So we're limited to that amount. Gotcha. And if we levy less than the full PTEL amount this year, can we ever get that capacity back later? No. So just to clarify then, so under PTEL, the cap on what we can collect from existing properties tied to inflation and if we don't levy up to that cap, the lower amount becomes our base and that gap compounds year after year. Gotcha. It's my understanding. Okay. And then related to the budget, is it fair to say that a large portion of the budget is effectively mandated by the state or by laws? I'm thinking special education, transportation, staffing mandates. Um, yes, special education definitely has a lot of mandates there. Um I think we were given that number this past weekend
060on how many mandates we actually have but yes um yes there are a lot of mandates that the district has um and we know that 75% of our budget is collected from the tax levy. So um that's really the only place that we can increase our revenues. And is the cost of those services in your opin I mean just historically are those growing faster than pel than our cap? Yes. Okay. 100%. And then insurance has been going down right. Yes. It's actually negative. Does the does the state when they require us to do those things do they send the like do they fully fund those mandates for us if we have to do the things they say? Absolutely not. Okay. So just and I want to chime in on this because this is a pain
061point for me. the state mandates that we run a school a certain way and then does not tie in a lot of cases funding to it like the resolution we just recently approved that uh to lobby against thank you to Heather. Uh and then we are expected under our county's cap on taxing to levy a limited amount to meet the demands of the state. So you get these two conflicting interests. your county saying you won't tax beyond this amount and the state going you will run a school in this accordance with these obligations that cost money but people don't work for free so that it might I'm not missing something they're called unfunded mandates unfunded mandates there are hundreds of those and if we don't meet the state guidelines in general is that expose the
062district to financial risk or liability yeah especially from like a special education perspective yeah for sure but the state has an evidence-based funing model. And of course, they've identified and funded Sycamore 100% of the evidence-based funding, right? No, wrong. Isn't it like 75%. Something to that effect. Um, so they they do fully fund evidence-based funding, but again, we only receive like 15% of funding from the state. So, because they tar it, right, based on your need and so Yeah. So our it's the our ratio is what we're 75% funded or 77% funded to the EVF model. Our tier our adequacy target adequacy target is that okay? Yeah, we're between Yeah. 78 80%. And like I think DEL is 88% something like that. Yes. So they're they get a lot more state money than we do
063but have the same mandates that we do to Oh, I think that that tier though that that that's our tax base. So of the property valued in Sycamore 427 the state estimates that we could cover 78% of the expenses required and then EBF is supposed to make up the gap but the issue is EBF isn't fully funded to make up the full gap and it doesn't it correct for some districts it just depends on the district like our peers to the east it does us a tier one school, it does not fully because the rate of increase to EBF is about 350 million bucks a year is typically what the um state legislature allocates to it, which sounds like a lot of money, but when you consider 830 something, it does not even keep up
064with inflation. So, the state reimbursements are not keeping up with inflation, which is which is a quandry for for boards like us that are tier one. So, do you think there's a realistic way to maintain current services, meet state mandates, and generally do everything we need to do if we didn't levy at the max under PTEL? No. And even levying at the max, we still are likely going to fall short. Correct. It's great. It's good. Good system. But we've got a debt extension that was set based on what? Our 1998 levy of whatever debt we had extended for at that time. So if in 1998 a school district extended for no debt, they have what? No available debt extension without referendum, but because Sycamore had extended for debt in 1998, we operate under whatever it
065was extended for in '98. Now they do get a CPI cost each the law in09, right? But yes, that didn't help them out if they didn't have anything to begin with. But but for us, it was just like darts at a dart board. It just coincidentally we happen to be levying x amount of debt in 98 and that is now our ceiling for the amount of debt that we can issue without referendum and that now supplements our ability to offer services and continually is being drawn on to maintain our facilities and buildings to try to keep up with these unfunded mandates. Is that Yes. Okay. The sky is falling. The the ceiling may fall on us. The roof got ripped off. I don't know. I'm just sorry. Yeah. I mean, to put it like in
066layman's terms, I guess we're only receiving 2.9% new dollars in revenue, I can guarantee you our expenditures are a lot more than 2.9% each year. So, as far as an increase, our fund balance has been increasing consistently, right? A little bit. Yeah, [laughter] just a little bit. Yeah. I mean, so it seems to me like the levy vote is basically about doing what we have to do given the mandates and the realistic fiscal costs, our responsibility to the taxpayer and more importantly our responsibility to the students and our opportunity for action and help letting the community help us set priorities is the budgetary process which hopefully we get lots of feedback and interest on and we're having a business services committee meeting in February and you're going to start in January and that's when we
067can show people. All right, you know, here's there's sort of a fixed pot of money and what we're going to spend it on is how we can, you know, prioritize for the community. So folks, what can you do at home? This is my understanding because I'm thinking like I look at this and I go, "Oh my gosh, woe is me. The sky is falling. Would we have this this issue where if at some point EAV if the home if your home's value doesn't go up and let's just say in one year your home's value goes down that would be a devastating impact to our district and something that we can control as a community is new growth the community needs because new growth in the year it adds to the tax rules as I understand
068it is not capped. we get one year where we can have an uncapped amount to levy against new growth. And so like in cities where they have $500 million data centers going in, it's just an insane amount of opportunity that comes in. In Sycamore, we had 10 million of new growth last year. And so what does Sycamore have? It doesn't have a $500 million data center. It has a tiny little fragment of industrial and manufacturing growth. Um, we have nice parks, we have good schools, we have great schools. I would say we should and I hope we can have exemplary schools. And with that, hopefully we can grow residentially more new growth and fill in some of these empty neighborhoods. Um, but even then, that's kind of a falling sword because when you add new
069residential growth, you add pupils. So what we really need is new commercial industrial manufacturing growth to help subsidize the amount of taxes that we as residential uh homeowners pay. And that is as I understand it would help that or the state needs to pony up and either a fund the schools to be in alignment with the mandates they have or b eliminate the mandates many of them and say we're not going to compel you to do this thing that you don't have money to do. But something's got to give. But they solved it in 1993 didn't they? And we're seeing that you're seeing that at home on your tax bill. The solution to that. Uh so as I stand here or sit here uh lamenting about the wo uh wo is me the state of
070uh our schools being funded by tax dollars, handcuffed by pel and limited by mandates. Um I just want to rant. So I feel better now though. Thanks. I missed anything. Anyone else have anything else they want to Well, at a more positive note, I'm happy that many people will be seeing a decrease this year so that I can vote yes because otherwise I would vote no. I'll tell you the new growth. That's it. That's all I got to say. So, that's just for the school district portion, too. Just want to make sure that's you know that you have other places that you pay taxes to. Right. Right. It's just for the school district portion. The tax rate is going down and that's good. That's a positive. Is that going up? When it comes to taxes,
071down is always better than up. But yes, um some of the mandates, if you look into them, are ridiculous. And um we should do more lobbying to get them taken away. Some of them that are the only ones. So we're lobbying them. So when when does it I I understand Christian probably knows this. When can you can you only do it on certain years? the lobbying against lobbying mandates. It's an ongoing process, but it's whenever they're in session. I'd move to call the question. Move to call the question. Close to vote. Was there a second? Second. There's a second. Cole moved to call the question. Christian seconded it. Uh the motion is to uh end debate and uh take a vote on the levy. Uh is there a uh Post a vote. All in favor
072of calling the question. I opposed. All right, we will call the question. The Let's see. Let me pull it up. You're done listening to me, Rant. Could you restate the motion regarding I'm getting it. Yeah, I got it. I'm having to talk to the tax resolution as presented. All right. There was a motion. There was a second. We had discussion. We had a called question. We had a motion on that and a second and it's approved. Um, at this time, uh, Kelly, would you call the role? I. Evans, yes. Regary. I. Zant, yes. Motion carried. All right. New business. Board policy revisions for first reading. Not approving these right now. Just acknowledging they exist. and considering their future uh review at a later point. Any comments on 11.01? Seeing none, we will move on to
07311.02. More policy changes in alignment with press updates. There are memos there in great detail for anyone interested. Any comments on press 120? Seeing none, is there an interest to bring them back as presented? I would just be curious to know if that any changes need to be made. I was okay with them. I know we had a long policy committee meeting having sat on that committee. Yeah, I have no problems with open to feedback. What I saw looked good. Maybe just a little bit more on the the policy change because one or was it a new policy? Which one? Um, let me see. I have to find it now. Made an 18page memo going over the changes. Yeah, there was one. It was intro introducing a new policy. This this you're on the Yeah,
074there's a there's a better memo. Oh, okay. Thank you. Yeah, you're on the short one. Okay. Yes. Oh, no. that Oh, are you Was she looking at the future like future agenda report on what we'll be talking about in February? I'm not sure. It wasn't the It wasn't the 18 page memo. Yeah. No, no. I Yeah. So, what was what was in my report earlier is just what we're going to be talking about in February and bringing back. We're not taking action on that now. Okay. Never mind then. Yeah. I'd like I think for 480s changes I think we should um collect some more information on feasibility of implementation so that way we make sure that we're cognizant of all the um pieces and and moving puzzles. So, I'm hopeful that we can learn more
075about like what implementing that policy would look like and maybe where there are um like what is the existing infrastructure alternative opportunities with the end being what we hope to intend on it. So, is it possible do you think to produce to maybe put together just a a brief recommendation on on that something like that? Just a memo short just a little one. Yeah. I would I would suggest that we meet with admin first. Sure. Yeah. Before we get that, if if you want to discuss changing this. Yeah. I guess I'm just looking to and this is maybe just something for me, but I'd like to understand I want to make sure that we don't um miss anything on 480 particularly related to control requirements. So that way we know exactly what's being done, what
076we're talking about doing, and if it is going to create a lot of um burden relative to advantage. Yeah. I guess I just think to clarify, we could meet with them, give them more information because I don't think that's enough. I'm trying to learn more. No, that's what I'm I I would just suggest that we meet with Nick and Nicole as the policy committee chair and board president to go over this before we direct them to make a memo just so that they're clear on what the memo would entail. Does that does that work? We can sure it's a feasibility question, right? Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Do you guys need a lot of direction? I think we have clear direction and can put something together and if do you need more? I think
077maybe that's what it looks like is if we get you work something and then you're like, "Oh my gosh, we we need way more feedback on this than we could meet." Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Put something in that probably before it goes to the board, we just see if that's what we're looking for. That works. Okay, great. All right. Anything else? 120. [clears throat] Okie do. Item 11.03. 11.03. 03 approval of Southeast Elementary School improvement plan. The recommended action, a motion to approve the Southeast Elementary School improvement plan is presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Quick comment. Learning and teaching reviewed this plan and uh there was information in their recommendation about it. Anything else? And who drafted the plan? the school administrators. Okay, great. Yeah, there's a
078committee that drafts it together. Any other questions? It carries with it the endorsement of the learning and teaching committee. Yes, we reviewed it along with the others all the other schools as well. Great. All right, Kelly, would you call the role? Evans, yes. Grados, yes. Regary, yes. Su, yes. Motion carried. All right. Item 11.04, approval of the LTC. Um, recommended actions as laid out in agenda item 9.03, actions related to ELA pilot, student achievement, academic goals, school improvement plans, FTE planning, new course additions. Recommended action is to approve the recommendations of the ELA or of the LTC committee as proposed in the report. It's at the bottom of the report um in 9.0 that that report because there's no attachment to 1104 so it's just the same from up above it's from right that's why
079the motion refers to the 93 y moved motion second Christian will take any discussion I just want to say thank you I know a lot of work goes into these and you guys have done an incredible job with them and I'm excited to see what happens with them it's be great thank you getting getting things in case. Yeah, the meeting was one run extremely well. You did an excellent job from the audience. I enjoyed it. So, all three hours of I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It's the least we could do. Longer. Four hours. Three. [laughter] Who's count? Any other comments? Seeing none. That's it. Thanks. Uh, all in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. The next item on the agenda is a onetime valued service bonus. Some working context
080to this. Uh this uh bonus are uh included. The board uh has access to them and will be released for public consumption. Um is there a motion to approve the valued service bonus? So moved. Second. Move and second. Any discussion? Yes. Um, so to clarify, this uh bonus relates to the healthc care savings that the district experienced when the employees on the low deductible plan migrated to the HSA plan. Is that correct? So, we haven't experienced the the savings yet, but yes, those are the expectations. Gotcha. And when are the savings what year are the savings budgeted for? Or I mean what year do we anticipate like what budget year do we anticipate realizing the savings? So it will be the second half of fiscal year 26 and the first half of fiscal year 27
081because that runs calendar year. Gotcha. And then what are the projected savings to the district roughly? Um I believe it was $1.3 million. 1.3 million. And that's just for the years that we offer health insurance. Right. Say that again. Is that just for the like so I assume and this is the part that I think is nuance we're going to save $1.3 million every year we continue to offer health insurance right is that I mean well I mean health insurance costs will go up year after year so compared to what they would have been had we have not made a plan design change correct gotcha so each year 1.3 million and then let's say the next year health insurance costs go up and what they would have gone up had we have not made a
082plan design change let's say it's 20% like it This year 1.3 million becomes 1.6 million. So over a 4-year period that number is $5 million saved off of an expense that we would have imminently had. Is that am I missing something? Yeah. And the the thing that I it's tough to get my head around on this and like talking about it. The plan the coverage itself is very minimal change. Is that correct? Was there a change? Essentially coverage has not changed. Coverage did not change. a PO plan. Still a Blue Cross Blue Shield PO. Okay. So, it just seems like have realizing the savings without without the coverage changing is almost too good to be true. Um, could be, but like I'm not the deductible, but the but the actual the deductible changes, but the
083actual out the maximum out of pocket for the HSA plan is is better, right, than the if you include the cost of the premiums. If you include the cost of everything, the HSA plan is less expensive to the end user than the other plan. Is that correct or no? I don't think that's correct. What's the What's the like if you hit the max out of pocket? Yeah. Um I don't know off the top of my head, but yeah. I mean, so yeah, there there is an increase to the end consumer if they hit that max out of pocket. Correct. The best case scenario I have for a family who's on the HSA plan is saving $6,448. The worst case you're talking about like including premium cost. Yes, including premium cost. Oh, okay. Yeah. Sorry. I'm
084talking total cost. I thought you were just talking deductible. No, right. I understand the deductible is higher, but the price of the plan itself is actually is you're paying less in premium, right? Correct. Yeah. So if you want to figure out how much like an insurance plan costs you, the end user, you would take all of your premium payments, multiply that by 24 and then Yeah. So if total I'm talking out the door everything out the door everything the HSA plan is less expensive to the end user. Yes. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And many of our staff were already on this. This isn't brand new for right all the staff. Many have already been on. Yeah. Many were already of those 500. It's like roughly 100 people are migrating. 111 people, 130 people
085somewhere in that neighborhood. Yeah. Somewhere around. Yeah. And those people who are migrating, as I understand it, if they were a family, best case scenario, not counting our savings, they are going to save $6,448. Family coverage is going to see the biggest. They're going to see. So, like literally on top of this potential bonus here, you now as a family, if you in a best case scenario are going to have $6,448 more dollars at the end of your year than you would have on the low deductible plan. Worst case, if everything terrible happens to you because of our HSA contributions and your new lower premiums, you're going to save $4,348. So, people who are switching, the 120 people who are switching are not only going to get presumably this bonus, but also a $4,300 like
086added benefit raise to their total compensation by not having an expense. Is that my amendment? They have family coverage. Yes. Single coverage. It's I had the numbers at 257 best case, 1807 worst case. So, which is huge numbers and every year. And then and so then what we're looking at here is a one time we're calling it a onetime valued service bonus. This is a portion of the sa a portion of the savings over time. I mean it's because we anticipate saving napkin math four or five million over five years. This one-time service bonus would be about 20ish% of that. And that's what we're talking and that was already essentially budgeted for benefits. And what the proposition is is to keep that with the staff who it was already budgeted for and return some of
087the savings to them. It sounds like a win-win across the board, right? By consolidating the um plans to a singular save the district and thus the employees money. AC savings in their pocket, the employees do in their pocket because of the plan change as a total cost to them. And then this is a fun way for us all to celebrate that that success in this one time over a course of years. um a bonus point and the way theus read the bonuses are $2,500 per person regardless of if they like so if you migrated as I understand it you got and again your best case family you got 6448 coming to you next year plus this bonus in based on the way the user laid out 2500 bucks so and then again your single best
088case you got 2500 bucks coming from this plan enhancement plus 2500 bucks coming from this valued service bonus. If you were already on the HSA plan, you're not going to see anything from having made the migration. Except now you will because we're going to give you some of the district savings because the numbers I was throwing out earlier, Nicole, right? None of those counted our savings as a district. This was just their premium savings, their out-of- pocket expense. You throw around both ways. Yeah. The 1.3 would be both. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, this bonus will be attributed to them over the course of the next four years. That's that's Yeah, it's right. So, and as we talked about unfunded mandates and the challenges of meeting those, this is a nice way that
089everyone wins in that sense and we're able to help over time hopefully support some of those unfunded mandates or just the district as like we need a lobby. What's that? We need a lobby support. Yes, I agree. That's what I was trying to bring up before. Any other questions on this? I think but maybe that could be a future agenda item because I don't think any everyone knows exactly about lobbying or the opportunity to lobby and if more people in the community got involved in it. It could help bring our t their taxes down too or have more what they're paying going to the things that are important because some of the mandates if you read them, you know, really look into them are really unnecessary. Sure. And redundant as well. Jeff Ker knows all
090about it. Any other discussion on this valued service? Anything else? You like the idea? Kelly, would you call the role? Gregory. Hi. Yes. Evans, yes. I prepared some words in the chance that it did pass. So, tonight the board would like to share an update regarding our goal to attract and retain top staff. We know that dedicated individuals in this room and across the district are what makes Sycamore 427 school district exceptional. I'm pleased to announce that this board here has voted to approve a valued service bonus of $2,500 for all insurance eligible staff. As we transition to a single HSA eligible plan in January 2026, we've identified significant cost savings. This existing HSA plan already includes sizable HSA contributions and lower premiums for staff, making the transition alone an improvement to the district's overall
091benefit offerings. As for the millions of dollars in additional savings that now stay in your community as opposed to leaving to an insurance company, investment of a portion of those savings into the people who serve our students every day allows us to remain steadfast in our efforts to make our schools better. Our staff's working conditions are our children's learning conditions. Supporting our staff supports our students. Eligible staff members will receive the bonus and distributions over four years of continued employment. As I've said before, as a volunteer- elected representative of the community, we will support you. We have your back. We are listening and we are taking action. Thank you for what you all do. Lead with care. We stand with you. And with that, we've reached the end of our regular agenda. Is there any
092motion regarding executive session? I move to adjourn to executive session for the consideration of matters related to 5 ILCS 120C21 one and two for the following purposes. The employment appointment, compensation, discipline, performance with specific employees of the P public body. Discussion of meeting minutes lawfully closed under the act and collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classifications of employees. Motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Just want to note that we've added an additional exemption exemption two regarding negotiating with collective bargaining agreements and salary schedules. And salary schedules. Is there any other discussion? Seeing no discussion, Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. special dump. We're going We're live. Take your time. [laughter] Good. We good. All right. It's
093uh It's 10:34. We're now in open session. Um, item 13.01. Uh, right. Sorry, it's not turning. There we go. Having reviewed uh previous close session minutes, uh, the board of education finds that the need for confidentiality still exists as to all prior close session minutes and that these minutes shall remain confidential. Is there a motion? uh to the effect of uh having reviewed previous closed session minutes, finding the need for confidentiality still exists and that these minutes for all prior close session minutes remain confidential. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Kelly, would you call the role? Evans, yes. Kratos, yes. Zantu, yes. Motion carried. All right, we've reached the end of our agenda. This meeting stands adjourned. Have a great Thanksgiving every