001Adherence to policy protects the district from risk and ensures that all decisions are fair, lawful, and aligned with our strategic goals. Our mission is to empower all learners to succeed in their world. And 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. The first uh item under subsection 3, student and staff recognition. this time. Um, we hope to in, uh, as the school year commences, take that, uh, period of the agenda to recognize student and staff achievement. Um, so just a a placeholder, if you will, if there's any comments on this. Yeah. Do we anticipate starting this with the start of the new school year or so? Will it just
002be on the agenda until then and then every month we'll do some recognition? Exactly. That That's the anticipation. Yeah, that's what we're hoping to do. Anything else? Okie do. Uh consent agenda item four. Uh the recommended action is to approve the consent agenda as presented. Items 4.01 to 4.18. Um, on the consent agenda, we have minutes of the May 27th meeting, executive session minutes of May 27th, bills payable, financial reports, personnel report, uh, an amendment to the superintendent's employment agreement, transfer of earned interest, a resolution designating depositories, uh, intra fund transfer report and renewal of resolution. Uh, we've got review and purchase of liability insurance coverages, the appointment of the district treasur, the district bond for the treasur, the fiscal year 26 administrative and data services agreement with the NIA. um gifts from sports boosters
003and other organizational donations uh in reference to policy 880, disposal of property, um an amend or a uh inclusion of policy 5272 from the policy committee, um approval of North Grove parking lot resurfacing bid and the approval of the 2025 2026 early childhood calendar. Uh is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Items 4.01 to 4.18. So moved. Second and seconded. Any discussion? Can't wait for August 25th for early childhood to start. Nice. All right. Seeing no other discussion, um Kelly, would you call the role? Evans, yes. Yes. Gregory, yes. Tomlinson, yes. Zansu, yes. Pavo, yes. Dito, yes. Motion carried. All right. Uh the next item on the agenda, section five, NIA consent agenda. The recommended action is to approve the NIA consent agenda for items 5.01 to 5.06, which include the
004NIA treasures report, bills payable, personnel report, contract vendor agreement, tenative budget, and establishment of hearing date and executive board. Uh is there a motion to approve the NIA consent agenda as presented? Items 5.01 to 5.06. So moved. Seconded. moved and seconded. Any discussion? I'm just a little confused. I probably should have asked this earlier. Why do we have to approve their ballot? Do you have any idea like I was going to break in for a second? So, I'm glad that you you asked that question. It's the board actually votes on the ballot. Um there are only two vacancies and there are two as luck there are two candidates. Um one is Steve Fantino. He's a board member in 300. He's been on the NIA board for for longer than I've been on the NIA board.
005Um I think he would be a great fit to continue serving. He's he's obviously willing to serve. Uh the other name escapes me, but I believe it's the director of student services in Sandwich. Diane Tyrell. Yeah. Um who's um if I remember correctly. So uh she is taking over as the director of student services in Sandwich and replacing Crystal Swan Bravat who was the previous um not only director of student services in Sandwich but also was the chair of the of the NIA board. So I would um encourage the board to consider approving both of those individuals for seats on the NIA board. Great. Any other discussion? Seeing no discussion, Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Yes. Tomlinson, yes. Zantu, yes. Topple, yes. Evans, yes. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Next item on the
006agenda is item six, audience to visitors. If you wish to address the board this evening, please raise your hand at this time and when called upon, kindly state your name and address. Limit your comments to three minutes. Uh, please refrain from mentioning specific names during your remarks. And in accordance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, the board cannot engage in deliberative discussions or take immediate action on items not listed on the agenda. However, we want to assure you that your comments are important to us and will be taken into consideration. Is there anyone at this time who'd like to address the board? All right, seeing no one, we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, the superintendent reports. Item 7.01 uh is a building and departmental update. Uh you'll note some memos. Um
007Steve? Yeah, there's uh memos from high school, uh middle school, nothing from elementary. Things are really quiet now during the summer. Uh I believe there's also an egg update. There's a a report from um our egg program. So, they were really busy at the end of the school year. Um and appreciated that pointer and throwing and Brooke, whose last name always escapes me, he um did a lot of great work with our students and uh so that's included in the report. uh in terms of student discipline policy and and safety review, there's a memo included there. This is something that's required every year. So, we tend to do this in June. Uh just a kind of review of both student safety and and discipline. So, discipline policies were reviewed as part of the student handbook
008that was approved earlier this year um by the board. Um we conducted our annual safety review. In fact, had a also a conversation with um Sycamore Fire Chief, Syc Police Chief, Deputy Fire Chief, and then um Mark Anderson um from the city um we discussed you know how the city would handle a crisis but also discussed the school district crisis plan so had good conversation with them something that we do every year but we don't publish that plan on purpose we don't talk about the details of that plan just to maintain the integrity of the the plan so u those are both included in the memo I also included in the memo an update on cameras uh but I have a a quick revision to that um believe in the memo indicated that that 95
009or so% of the the cameras in the district are going to get replaced this summer. That was inaccurate. That's my misunderstanding. We are, however, so I've got an email from Mr. Holland owner who is the kind of the guru of of all things security cameras. Um so I'm just going to read part of this from the memo. Um all of the high school middle school cameras are being replaced and moved to a new system. We're not at this time replacing the elementary cameras. Part of the issue that we've had with cameras is that they're all on one system and that bogs down in software. So implementing new cameras and new software for the high school and middle school essentially separates 612 uh from EC5 throughout the district. Uh the hope is that the elementary the
010cameras in the elementary school start to function a little bit better, a little bit quicker, a little bit more accessible because the high school and middle school parents have been replaced and moved to a different system. So uh that work is going to happen this summer. um 200 new cameras throughout the middle school and high school. So looking forward to that. We had a conversation about that at our leadership team retreat uh just yesterday. So I think we're all looking forward to the cameras being replaced but also being implemented and and hoping that they all have improved functionality. So wanted to include that as well. Any questions for me in the memo cameras? Anything? So are these interior and exterior cameras? Okay. Does that include transportation? I would want to double check that because uh
011Mr. Hollandon just indicated high school, middle school, but high school. That's where transportation is located, I would assume. But I'll double check that and I'll get back to you. Okay. Thank you. And then after these uh new ones are implemented. Could we get an update just to see if the elementary school cameras are still functioning better or worse? Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Um give us a couple months to get them up and you know, replaced up and running and then uh maybe August, September, I'll come back with a followup to the board. Thank you. And um I understood from the memo that the software is all being updated which is very good because that could be a lot of the problems. So is that the newest software available they're they're using? Which soft which software?
012I don't know the name of the software but it is going to be new software for us. Yeah. For the high school and the middle school cameras are being replaced. Okay. Yeah, that's good. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Any other comments on 7.02? All right. So 8.01 board reports. Uh there were some foyas. They're there. You can see them. Any questions, concerns? We can uh always discuss. So I'll just move on. Anything on 8.01? Okay. 8.02. Uh just standing item. any updates from the uh teaching and learning? Um we have identified um three members that are going to join the uh learning and teaching committee. We have our first meeting where we'll seat them on July 8th at 6 p.m. at the at the administration building. Um at which point uh Mr. Rice and others
013are going to give some updates on the educational report for the last uh previous school year that just ended. I think there's a lot of good information that we can all learn from. So, I hope you're all able to attend. Great. Business services committee. Yep. We had a meeting on June 10th uh at which we the business services committee welcomed new members Josh Husman, Dr. Ketta Miachi, and me Kors who bring a unique set of financial, educational, civic, and business-minded perspective to the business service committee while all having deep ties to the community. Uh the committee was informed that while ISBY uh the Illinois State Board of Education has not yet posted the official 2025 financial profile, calculations show us moving from early warning last year to review this year. Welcome progress. Still below the
014threshold for recognition where we're trying to get. We received an updated financial forecast that indicated the district would need to boost its annual surplus by roughly 1.3 million to keep the fund balance at the board mandated 25% minimum over the next 5 years. This was an admittedly prudent skewed forecast. It was noted that we historically underestimate revenue and overestimate expenses. Rather than recommend uh making a large and potentially surprising move, the committee discussed a phased glide pla glide path plan that would suspend our 25% fund balance floor, which would keep reserves above 20%, spread the surplus build over several years with gapyear checkpoints, and originally consider reviewing only purchased services and supplies. Adding more dollars gradually could mean our ISBY financial rating improves more slowly or even declines compared with the front-loaded approach. But this
015way, we could keep delivering for our students and community while setting up our district for future success. Consistent with that approach, we endorsed adding two teaching sections next year so that elementary students and teachers could take advantage of appropriate class sizes. Looking ahead, we're asking for a broader rolling five-year forecast of facilities priority list and staffing growth projections tied to the glide path and a more systematic grant identification and application process. Exploring tools like zerobased budgeting will continue to help us live within our means and clarify how each dollar can best advance student success. We love a good set of processes. So, questions, comments, thank you for that update. policy committee. Sure. Thank you. Um, first thanks to Kelly for organizing the policy committee document folder in diligent for the board. This resource is available
016for all the board members and includes a list of all the policies for review and monitoring. The review and monitoring list provides clear expectations for all recommended policy changes by the committee and it differentiates what changes were made locally by this board and what changes were recommended by the by press which I'll get into press later. My hope is that this document will help serve as a foundation for succession planning for future boards to understand why this board made the changes that they made. So, at the policy committee meeting on June 3rd, we covered three main topics. First, the committee discussed and approved policy 5272 regarding staff assignment and transfer. This policy creates a clear process for reassigning staff. It aims to make teachers work environment better and help manage district finances responsibility. As you
017know, this policy was already approved on consent. Second, at our meeting, a big part of the meeting, um, we delved into Press 118. So, as a reminder, PRS stands for the policy reference education subscription service. It's a resource from the Illinois Association of School Boards, and it gives us sample policies, procedures, and legal references to help keep our policies current with state and federal law changes and best practices. You can find more details about these changes in our board packet, and we'll talk more about this item later in the agenda. Third, and finally, the committee worked on several other policy revisions that were outside of the scope of press 118. First was policy 460, purchases and approvals. The committee suggests adding some additional language. And this language would require that all purchases that meet the
018Illinois bidding law threshold, which right now it's $35,000, would come before the board for approval in in advance of the purchase or contract being made. Secondly, regarding policy 640, which is course offerings, the committee recommends adding some language that will clarify how we handle pilot programs, curriculum review, and minimum class sizes. We also talked about policy 445. Um, and that was just guidance that Nicole shared with me from our audit firm, Ladderback and Aean where they recommended we add a policy for outstanding check procedures. Finally, we discussed a student board member proposal. So we the committee is endorsing the student board member which would also result in a change to policy 240 which would allow for that student board member to sit on the board. Additionally, we directed administration to outline the student board member
019process as detailed by ISB and I um Michael got administration the IASB sort of roadmap for starting the student board member process. That's all I have. Are there any questions about the policy committee's work? So, a pretty quiet meeting. Oh, thank you, Alex. Short, too. Yeah. Yeah, it was a we four hours. So, uh let's see. Excellent stuff. Okay, so uh next item on the agenda, 8.05, parent teacher advisory and behavioral intervention update. Yes, we met. Um, we were short some some members, but we were able to seat uh the the members from the public and uh we were able to kind of get a framework set up of what we're going to be doing hopefully for the next October meeting. Uh, but it was strictly an inter introductory meeting. Um, we we met, we
020were able to have a back and forth uh discussion with the the principles, which is very nice. Uh, and other um staff as well. And so it was, I thought, a very productive and informative meeting. Um but ultimately there's still some documentation that we'd like to review. Um including the report uh that we've sent to is that it already been submitted to the state or which one is that? Uh the discipline report that we have. Um they're in the process of being submitted now. Yeah. School submits that. Great. And so um once we have those, I think we'll have some more things to sink our teeth into as a as a committee. And so I'm hopeful that the October meeting will be a lot more uh productive and we'll have recommendations to produce for the
021board as a whole. Uh but for this one, we don't have anything new to report. So I'll add a comment on that regarding the behavioral interventions piece. So, we had um a lot of discussions with Christian and I had an opportunity um to meet with uh Meg Thurman who is director of student services. Uh and we got to sit in on a uh behavioral intervention meeting. Uh currently they meet annually as I understand it. They do a lot of really good work. Um, board policy uh 2150 talks about the statutoily required behavioral interventions committee as a committee that develops and monitors procedures for using behavioral intervention. Um, it also discusses how at the board president's discretion, the parent teacher advisory committee shall perform the duties assigned to the behavioral interventions committee. Uh so at this
022time I'd like to state that I believe we should have the parent teacher advisory committee um take uh the role of the behavioral interventions committee assigned duties and leave the district committee that is uh the bick district committee um to operate as it has and does and produce as it needs to recommendations to the open and public parent teacher advisory group. So I think that'll be a just keep things a little more smoothly running and you know the higher end. So uh any questions on that thought? No, I would just doing an amazing job. Yeah. Yes. So the so the currently existing district behavioral intervention committee is going to continue to do its good work and then we'll also have the board required behavioral intervention committee that is wrapped into PTAC. Exactly. meeting our statutory
023requirements and also providing the necessary uh oversight that again the statute calls for so we can serve our students and staff. Good stuff. Dope. Uh all right. Uh health insurance information collection update. Uh so the board had previously approved a resolution to do some factf finding about a potential health insurance liaison role um and the health insurance committee. Uh Steve and I did some uh digging uh and well I don't know if digging is maybe not the right word. We did some discussion. We talked to some people. We got some information. Um Steve, did you have any comments or because I have some information on but I don't want to No, I don't have any comments. Okay. So my general takeaway was and I guess I'll just share this for those who may not know
024there exists a health insurance committee that is a uh board and association insurance committee uh that has joint membership. Uh it is stipulated in the um Sycamore Education Association contract to be composed 50% members of the union um or I'm sorry they have to have a 50% uh buy into the vote procedurally. We have representatives on behalf of the board who are our administrators um and they go and they review u matters related to insurance. It is um a topic of interest as employee benefits is uh a part of a significant part of our district's uh expense and also having quality benefits is really critical to making sure we can attract uh great staff and retain great staff. So a lot of care uh to that custody needs to be had. I believe there would
025be some really great value in us having uh an additional conversation with our insurance broker Gallagher to discuss some more of the details of the plans so we can better inform ourselves about the existence and not bog down or burden the health insurance committee as they go through their normal procedural processes. Uh so Steve and I have a scheduled meeting uh to talk with um the health in health insurance rep from Gallagher where she's hopefully going to um share some really nice insights, teach us uh a little bit about some of the nuances to the plans. Um and then hopefully that information can uh make its way to the public so that way it can just serve to inform. Uh so a lot of great work being done uh by a lot of parties there
026but at this time um I don't have any other recommendations or comments other than pending further information. Oh, I should also add, and you'll note this later on the agenda, uh we can and are statutoily entitled, well, I shouldn't say statutoily entitled, but we are legally entitled to uh maybe the same, but uh a seat on this committee, but if we choose to take a seat as a board member to be a representative on that health insurance committee, uh remains to be seen as if it would be or wouldn't be helpful. So, uh again, something to talk about. So, uh, I think we have Oh, you had a question. I just had one thing not on that. Um, because we're under committee reports. Sure. Yeah. Uh, and this previously did fall under as a committee.
027Uh, the North Grove School Association, I just brief update. Thank you. They do have a summer open house this weekend, June 28th and 29th, from noon to 4 p.m. at the schoolhouse. I'd love to see any of you there. I'll be there on Saturday with my son, Henry. So, that'd be a good opportunity for all of you. People want to come, just let me know. Yeah. Michael, quick question on the health insurance. So the next step is this call or meeting that you described. Is there anything else between now and the next meeting that you anticipate or you need our input or help on? So the hope is that tomorrow we can have this meeting. Oh, tomorrow. Yeah, we'll see. We've been uh so hopefully we'll have this meeting. My uh ask is for just
028an understanding and a confirmation of the summary of benefits for what I understand to be the two district plans that exist. Then to also understand what the individual cost burden is to uh staff and to the district. Uh then to understand what the um health savings uh eligibility exists for both plans. Um and then to understand what the dependent cost is to staff and to uh the district. And then with that information, I'd like Gallagher to produce a document, single page document that compares those two plans in what I hope would be a really understandable way. Uh so that way the board can again have a better picture of what we offer uh to staff, but also so that um we can maybe take some actionable steps to uh save collectively some money. So I
029think the objective is if we can offer more for less that without compromising uh networks that would be really really valuable and in in my line of work we talk about it is out of pocket premium and access. So like you know what's the worst you'd pay if you had a medical expense what are you going to pay as premium to have that and what kind of care network do you have? Notable is and this is a I want to confirm this but both the plans that our district offers share the same network. So, the same doctors and hospitals you can access in both plans. It's the premium and the out of pocket that, you know, we need to make absolute clarity on with um Janette at Gallagher. And then with that information, I think
030we could likely have to the board, a delivered single page document that just compares the two plans and just outlines who would be better fit on the, as it's being called now, low deductible plan and who would be better fit on the high deductible plan. like if there is a person, right? So, yeah, it's basically that hope and intention. Great. Uh, all right. Next item on the agenda and fitting is the approval of board representatives. So, we use liaison in the past. Uh, representatives is the language we've been advised to use. Um, you'll note it's blank. So there is no policy that I could find or statute that gave me the right as board president to just unilaterally decide who these are. So I wanted to bring this to the board for the board to
031make that determination. Although I will add that I have some recommendations. Um but before I make those recommendations, are there any comments on this? We had some discussion last time about whether they were whether these appointees are representatives of the district and the board or whether they're just to report back what was discussed at convenience. Do you remember? I don't remember what the answer I don't remember either and I I think we were going to reconvene on that. So here's the answer to that question. Uh and this is coming from the board's attorney. So they would recommend not appointing uh the board member as a liaison to any group. Um it says here that hang on let's see uh better to phrase board representatives rather than liaison for the purpose of the resolution. Um then
032what we would want is to not have a formal role in the decision- making of the organization and situations where a board member may technically be considered a member. um they should be cognizant of policy 280 and um when at all possible bring back uh information to the board for the board to deliberate and then make a recommendation on. The one caveat or outlier I guess would be the ISB delegate as there is a special motion that ISB recommends and that historically well last year maybe not that much history but last year when I was the representative I brought forward that motion and that did allow me to vote on behalf of the board at the meeting but that's the only committee I I think that that would apply to but there's a special separate
033motion that grants that authority. Just wanted so if you're the ISB delegate, you would have some authority if the board so wishes, which I just anticipate we would. Yeah, I appreciate the clarity. That's helpful. The discussion last month. Okay, cool. So, yeah. So my my um and having spoken uh individually and not contemporaneously with the board, uh I would say that the Sycamore Education Foundation uh representative would be best served. Um sorry, sifting through notes here. It's like the Grammys. I'm going to open up a file here. Uh be by uh Beth Marie Evans. So uh that was my recommendation for the Sigma Education Foundation for the North Grove School Association Christian Kappell. Uh for the health insurance committee, I think we should leave that uh blank right now pending further information. Uh Sigmore City
034Planning and Zoning, believe we should have Alan Zantu for the Illinois Association of School Boards, ISB Delegate Assembly, Heather Tomlinson. So if uh there's any comment or discussion on those recommendations, I think it fits. I know we had some discussion last month. I guess this isn't aligned with a lot of the discussion. This should not come as a surprise, right? No, I don't think anybody. So, Heather's going to take the one at the conference, correct? That's right. Yes. I would appreciate that. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because you had asked me about it. So, that's fine. The um and my hope and thought would be that everybody would come to if you can make it to the conference. That would be a a really good valuable place to to weigh in. I don't
035know if you've ever seen their general assembly kind of go through that voting process, but it's pretty We have to register by uh you have to register with Kelly. What is it by end of July? Registration is Oh, October. All right. Okay. I'll let you move. Thank you. Uh I move to adopt the resolution appointing board representatives along with the recommendations given by the president. I second it. Is there any discussion? uh for North Grove School Association. Um the practice has been that the the liaison in the past now now representative uh did participate in voting uh on just various things that they they do to support the building itself. Uh so nothing really substantial that would really impact the the board itself. I mean I'm cognizant of 280. uh if there was anything that
036would run a ground in that or run a file in that I'd bring it to the board, I guess. Thanks. But I haven't encountered anything like that in the past. I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention. Would you like authorization? I can try to find the file where I have the authorization language. We can vote on that, too. Yeah, if that ever comes up, I'd be happy to. Well, should we just do it now? Usually, it's an annual. Oh, we just want to have that. Would that help? Well, we could do it at the next meeting either way. I mean, it's on the agenda now, but yeah, I mean, if we I I mean, I guess there isn't a harm in having a second motion, but I think at the same time,
037if we can get some more clarity on if we need to because it'll set some precedent, too. Okay. So, okay. So, we'll put it as a future agenda item to revisit that. Sounds good. All right. So, there's a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Sure. Seeing no discussion, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Yoke. Move on to the next item. 10.01, press issue 118. Uh the first reading of press 118. Alex uh gave a really great update from the policy committee on what press 118 included. Uh there's also a nice memo that press produced and I know that um you know a lot of the board was in attendance and it was like I think it was like four hours of kind of sitting through policy so it was you know you were man
038yeah it we it was a lot there's a lot there so thank you guys anything on that I don't have anything additional I guess does anyone have any questions about any of the policies or why certain revisions were made. Be happy to answer them. Okay. Just as a clarity, a lot of them were legally statutes that had had changed that this this follows. Yes. A majority of these fall into that category. Correct. Yep. Okay. Uh again, it's first reading, so not soliciting a motion here. Uh you'll see this come forth uh as old business on a second reading in July. Um board review for policy updates. Again, first reading. Um there were some action items from the June 24th meeting outside of press uh that Alex outlined and you'll see those listed um any comments,
039questions, concerns, no actions being solicited. So these ones were the ones that were there wasn't necessarily statute but there were issues that arose that were come that were brought forth to the policy committee's attention and revision revisions were made as a result of that. Okay. 10.03 uh requesting facility assessment 1947 Bethany Road from our architects. Um the motion uh looking to be solicited. Oh, you've got the motion. I have a one I'd like to make. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. So, uh, what motion would you like to make? One second. There's a proposed motion on the floor. If I could get the thing to open. If not, I might just have to go with the default one, but I tried to figure something out. Where's that? I move to direct administration to enter into the provided contract
040with FGM architects and inquire about moving this timeline for the report up as well as a plan to present to the board a summary of the costs that would be incurred through 2035 annually for each administration building. There's a motion. Is there a second? What was the last second? All right. Any discussion? What was the last sentences that I mentioned? I didn't I didn't catch the last few words you said. Do you want me to just Yeah. Yeah. I moved to direct admin to enter into the provided contract with FGM Architects and inquire about moving the timeline for the report up if possible. Um as well as a plan to present to the board a summary of the costs that would be incurred through 2035 which we have for one of the admin buildings for
041each of the admin buildings. Okay. So, we have one for the current building and you're asking to supply a secondary one for the old nine core building. Yes. Okay. Clarifying though, you're saying in this to get one another one for central as well. What you're saying an updated one for central if that's needed to get the cost through 2035. Oh, okay. But I don't think it is. But I would like the motion included a report to compare the two. Any other discussion? You'll note the scope of the proposal uh from FGM in the agenda. Uh they outlined a final report by September 26th. Um what that would entail, just kind of some details. hopefully a usable document for uh anticipating maintenance. So, is there a time frame of how soon you want this report? They
042believe they can deliver the report by September 26th, but from Alex's motion, you're asking if we can do it sooner, that would be I think preferred. So, we'll Yeah. So, if they can do it sooner, then they said they might be able to do it sooner. Okay. So, there's no You're not asking for a specific timeline? No, just if if the sooner one if they from the call I had with them, I guess I should give a little more background. I after the business services committee meeting, I reached out to FGM architects just for some follow-up information on where they came up with that 2 I think it was $2.9 million figure for work that needed to be done at Exchange Street and how that was escalated to 6.67 million. And they explained that half
043of it, well roughly half of it was work that needed to be done between 2030 and 20235. And that work was asphalt and um mechanical systems that were installed in 2010. So it wasn't necessarily work that needs to be done now. It's work that will need to be done in the future. So, I guess I'd like before we go sell the current building or renovate the new one to have an applesto apples comparison on what those costs would be at the new one because the mechanicals at the new building are older. So, just having that comparison I think would be helpful for the board to make a fully informed decision. I I don't I mean I don't know if I see the need to relitigate the or extent set of repairs. I mean I I
044think it get No, I don't either or know. It should clarify that's not what my intent was because we already have them. So but like why are we are so we're just asking FGM to do this assessment for the new building and we already have the assessment for the old building. So there's we're only asking for new we're not asking to do additional work. Not new work at the old one, but a comparison would be helpful. Just take the data we already have compared. Okay. So the report already exists for the old one. This is only I mean we looked at it together. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh, well that's why I was just I was just checking. Okay. So this is just they're just doing one new report on uh Bethany and comparing it to
045the other. Yes. But the old report exists already. Okay. And through your conversation, did you get the impression that this quotation will cover us an app? You you said apples to apples apples to apples comparison of what what's listed on the uh current admin building compared to the new building. Yes. I I think that this this would be the same type of report that was conducted on the Exchange Street building so we could have that comparison. Yes. Okay. Any other discussion? Can you restate the motion in its entirety? Okay. I moved to direct administration to enter into the provided contract with FGM architects and to inquire about moving the timeline for the report up as well as a plan to present to the board a summary of the costs that would be incurred through 2035
046annually for each admin building. Comments, questions, concerns? Why do we need them for both admin buildings if we're just using the one? Just so we can compare the costs. I mean, we already have the numbers. You just put it in the report. Any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion, there's a motion and second on the table. Um, Kelly, would you call the RO? Gregory, yes. Tomlinson, yes. Zanu, yes. Pell, yes. Evans, yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carry. All right. Next item on the agenda is the approval of board goals. Um, this is a proposed or a recommended action to approve board goals as presented. Um but on additional consideration, believe it may be valuable for us to consider doing a first and second reading of the board goals to give the community time to uh digest
047the information uh and seek any clarification. So we were all uh we participated in a goal setting uh session last week. It's public open. Um that one we kept we kept that one under four hours. It's like three three and a quarter. It's pretty good. Um, these po it's been been a busy summer. Um, a lot of good conversation there. Um, but as it stands, item 10.04, uh, potential district goals. Uh, there was a document that, uh, Alan and Alex were kind enough to produce. Um, some, uh, any questions, comments on those? Did we figure out the feasibility of sabers for all K through 12? I I looked on their website and it said that they recommend giving it to 2 through 12. So, I mean, I guess it would be the middle and the
048high schoolers is I think that would be the new. Did Did we ever did we get results for that? We did have a conversation at DT about this yesterday and and Phoebe Valentine who's kind of assisting with that did get a quote. It's about $20,000 to do 6 through 12. Okay. Um the other concern is that we've not done an survey like this before. So we'd like to recommend kind of ease into this this this first year not not survey all students K12 or or K5 or um as Alex mentioned if uh you know two through two through five. Um couple classes per grade level just to kind of see what that data comes back looking like first to kind of see what we can get out of it. That would also give us time
049to kind of budget for expanding it in the future. So, okay. Um, would you like to make that recommendation? So, what would the recommendation what grades I guess because that's the only goal that we still were were pending. Everything else has been I think solidified just we the only outstanding task was picking those grades. So, would you K I mean 25 K5? We maybe the best way to say it is it's elementary. understanding it was if it was available K through 5, but if if it's not available K through 5, if it's 2 through 5, then we would we would do K through five. Okay. So, I have it now. I have the file open. Would the deliverable be pilot a universal screener just sabers um to elementary school students during the 2025 2026 school
050year to begin simple system systematically measuring student perceptions of physical and emotional safety and security. Does that sound nice? Does that sound okay? Yeah. So we can just add that and then vote on that because we I want something that says pending feibility, right? We will get that revised for sure. The other um public facing goals that we had uh were maintaining a dynamic public student achievement dashboard which would look like a dashboard based on board's priorities uh related to academic achievement. Developing a multi-year academic excellence plan which would include recommendations and actions for improving student achievement in order to see year-over-year growth across ELA math science across K through 5, 6 through 8, 9 through 12 as measured across all uh cortiles or equivalent. Will you get it on that thingies? Oh, yeah. Is
051it is it possible to put it on the screen? I don't know. It would be really small, but uh the the power the the spreadsheet. Yeah. Oh, you know, we probably reading it's probably Yeah, it's really small because we can do that. Yeah. Well, right. The public facing. Absolutely. Um, and then, uh, some of the other ones that we had had on here. Um, again, just kind of a teaser, developing a college and career pathway endorsement, ensuring all students feel physically and emotionally safe at school. Uh, ensuring the June 30 fund balance will maintain a rate at or above 20% while maintaining a balanced budget. Uh, maintaining a dynamic public financial dashboard that includes at minimum the ESB financial profile indicators. Uh so those uh are what would be going into a district goals matrix
052and hopefully then into a publicly available dashboard where progress will be measured, deliverables, timelines. Um so yeah, so that's coming to a theater near you. Um any other comments on this? I wasn't involved in the process last year, but I understand this was a little bit different, but I do think it was really collaborative amongst the the board, but also with Steve and the DT. I know you met separately on that, but the feedback that was provided was really great and I think it really helped to guide this and hopefully create district goals that we can all get behind and really drive towards that are reasonable and and achievable. So, I I thought it was a good process and we did it internal to our district and you know we can get better each year.
053Would you and that's a really good point. Would you speak to just what what we actually did how that timeline what that timeline looked like because I know it was Yeah. So I think our first meeting was in May. Is that right, Alex? May. I think it was May. We had we had two main meetings. Uh the first of which was kind of a come to the meeting with some homework as far as individual priorities that each board member saw fit as well as some ideas from from Steve and the team of areas that were important. kind of laying out generally what's the outcome and then we we have it you'll see in the in the minutes intentions and expectations and then deliverables and then the timeline in which we want those to be achieved
054but the initial start was just generally what are the big outcomes. So in this case we have um kind of an academic area, we have a financial area and we have a general district um culture and community I guess I'd kind of describe it and then from there we broke it down into expectations. So what are kind of goals related to those outcomes? So that was the first meeting. Um and then taking that back, we asked Steve and the team to give some deliverables um and ways in which we could measure those intentions and expectations based upon uh well based upon the the expressed interest for the intentions and the expectations. Stephen the DT provided some really good feedback um and we incorporated that into the deliverable as well as the timeline in which we
055thought these things could be achievable achieved, excuse me. And ultimately Steve and the team reviewed that and I think we're in general agreeance as a whole that that uh looks reasonable. The expectations are, you know, well aligned with what we're trying to achieve as a district and moving us in a direction that I think we all think is a is a positive um direction for for the district and our ultimately our students, staff, and employees and community. That's great. So, thank you again guys for co-chairing that. That was no easy feat. Thank you administration for your participation in that. Really Cole, you made a comment the public meeting at the end. You said I think some feedback for next year if we could make it just a little longer. Maybe we got a kick out
056of that. So um we we as Allan made a comment we uh really worked through this and uh learned a lot. So a lot of lot of really good stuff. I think the other thing, excuse me, one one thing that I think it really helped to point out too is that these committees that we've um kind of restarted or started will really help us pinpoint and and really target goals that are specific um to our district in areas that we can grow over time. And I think this year and subsequent years, we as a board will get a lot smarter and more attuned to what's going on within the district and what makes sense to have as a goal. um what are reasonable goals, what are areas that we should, you know, really target with
057the participation of the DT and the rest of the district in those committees will really help us to really massage out where are areas that we want to focus and identify those and then better communicate that in and amongst ourselves and throughout the community as well. Yeah. Well, and like the next big lift now is going to be the reporting of progress on those goals. And like I think it's just going to be so so so important that we see um you know, we can we can watch that progress. We can report on that progress. I was looking at a neighboring district, um the Kelp, uh they do a really nice job. They do um beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year, and they have, and I love this, it's
058like a color-coded layout, and they got like a thumbs up, they got a thumbs down, got like a check mark. Um, but there's like there's a lot of ways that we as a board can um agree to watch and monitor our progress uh towards these goals and work with administration and and the uh district at large to report to the public on our progress. So, uh I think that there are some really big opportunities there and what that public facing piece looks like. So excited about that. Yeah. And I think when you look at the outcomes, there's three main outcomes which align very well with our committees. And so if anybody in the community would like to come participate or or be present during the committee meetings, they can see how that relates back to
059the goals and then ultimately discussions that we have as a board and hopefully actions that we take as a district. Yeah. And that it's kind of goes to the sub point. We have this little asterisk at the bottom of all of our agendas that we put on a few months ago and it's policy items should be aligned with uh the board's goals and the district bud budget with relevant connections noted as applicable. So um you know hopefully we can keep on pointing to those board goals. So I love it. That's good. Uh we'll go any other comments on board goals. Just generally speaking I think next year this process will be much more efficient um because we won't be building something from the ground up. we have a pretty solid foundation and we can just
060tweak what we have. I've archived all of the different outcomes that we've come up with together if we want to revisit them next year or just stick with what we have. But I think going forward I imagine we would just tweak this as opposed to throw it away and start new year over year over year. So continuously this should be a smoother process and we might only need one or two goal setting meetings would be my estimation. Maybe two hours instead. Yeah. Well, but yeah, like you make a good point, Alex. Like a lot of that was just creation, right? Like making this process that worked for this board that worked for us that can hopefully live beyond this board. And like you guys, you made something. There's a documented process now and now we
061can go and we can point to that every year and so it's was really good good things. Um so item 10.05 approving the proposed IASB resolution. Um the recommended action is to approve the IASB resolution. Michael, did you did you have a Did we want to make a motion to just do this as a first reading rather than approve? Oh, yeah. Oh, that's a that's a great idea. I thought that was a good idea. I'd like to make a motion to um not approve the board goals, but move them just to first reading where we can approve them. This is not a very formal motion, but so that we can approve them in the July meeting. Sure. I'll second that. Moved and second. Um any discussion? No discussion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All
062right. They live on to go to July. Uh, all right. Then 10.05, approving proposed IASB resolution. The recommended action to approve the IASB resolution as proposed. Um, I'd like to discuss this a bit, but I'll solicit a motion. Is there a motion to approve the IASB resolution as presented? I Yeah. All right. Moved by Heather. Is there a second? Second. Second by Christian. Uh, so any discussion? And Heather, would you do you want to speak a little bit to this or Okay. Yeah, sure. So, um um we got information that there is a new seat belt mandate for threepoint um seat belts that are required to be on all of the buses, which means that we have to have all of our buses up to date um by 2030, I believe. And that um you
063know after looking at that um I realized that you know and after talking to Lacy and um Steve about our financial situation, our bus situation, what that's going to look like for us, um that's just not a reasonable expectation. So, we decided to um look at options for um what we could add to the bill that would benefit smaller school districts like ours. I'll brag a little bit about Heather, too. So, she um IASB, the Illinois Association of School Boards, solicits every year the opportunity for boards to propose resolutions uh that the association then convenes on and uh votes to then champion to the legislative body of the state of Illinois um as like a lobbying group. Um Heather had interest in doing something like this and particularly in seat belts and the board in
064my tenure has not made a resolution. Um so this was a new process. Um so Heather took the time put together um you know statement uh of resolution worked with uh the transportation department. You solicited some information from administrators uh to bring this to us. So um again excellent stuff. I think it's great that Sycamore is even if even if it isn't a recommended resolution from their committee, uh we're going to be um uh making our way into that little proposed resolutions uh book as having contributed to uh the opinion of what the legislative body will potentially review. So, a lot of steps. It's like I always think like if you know the little bill kind of going to become law. But any other comments about this? The statement of resolution, the district rationale, all
065here. I'm gonna take a roll call vote on this, but anything else you guys want to add on? I think it looks great. Nice work. Seeing no other discussion, uh, Kelly, would you call the role? Um, yes. Yes. Yes. Evans, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carried. All right. Next item on the agenda is item 10.06, 106 approval of the learning and teaching subcommittee recommendation for the middle school math resource. Recommended action is to approve the recommended middle school math resource as pre presented. There'll be some time for discussion to solicit a motion. Is there uh a motion to approve the recommended middle school math resource as presented? Some moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh is there any discussion about the recommendation from the learning and teaching subcommittee who has vetted uh and produced this for
066the board as a whole? I I just add this is a continuation of our discussion in April where we voted to approve the math resources for K through five and this is just the extension of that for um 6 through 12. Uh one of the areas that we we completed was the 30-day um review cycle and this was reviewed by the smaller learning and teaching committee that will grow here pretty soon. And yes, as you said, it is the recommendation of the learning teaching committee to approve um as it's provided here in the memo. I'll just add I really love the way this memo is structured. As far as memos goes, this one is a be really really nice. Talks about the uh background school code, talks about a little bit about the individual recommended
067resources and the costs. So, uh, kudos to, uh, you know, the learning and teaching committee and, uh, respective administrators for, uh, working on this. I appreciate that. This looks great. Yeah, they did a great job. The the DT team did Any other comments before we go to vote? Uh, the only thing I would add that's needs some clarity is that the cost associated with that is a six-year cost. It's not annual. So you'll take that and divide it by six. You get about 18,000. Just for reference. Okay. Wait. 18,000. That's some good math there. I had checked it before. I just forgot to do some uh some irony. Uh is there so we got a motion in a second. Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Yes. Evans? Yes. Yes. Yes. Tomlinson? Yes. To yes.
068All right. Item 10.07. Uh the last item on our agenda before executive session and adjournment. Um approval of the business services subcommittee recommendations. Uh the recommended action is to approve the four recommendations from the business services subcommittee presented and outlined in their memo. Um well there will be some discussion. Uh is there a motion? Uh, I'll make a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Alex. Oh, I'll take it. Sure. Any discussion? Uh, business services chair. Yeah. Uh, I will note that in one of the recommendations I used the phrase fund balance at a certain point. Uh, earlier I had used fund balance percent. Understand that I mean fund balance percent at all times. And I would add on to that, we do have a board goal that every budget will be balanced through FY30.
069So that would sort of that that we don't want to deplete fund balances and yes, but the percentage may go down. Y any other comments on the recommendations? I guess my only question would be if the administration and staff are comfortable, understand the recommendations, have any questions, are we kind of all aligned on the goals here? Would you be willing to read the recommendations? I will read the recommendations and I will say fund balance percent every time I mean fund balance percent. Uh recommendation one, the business service committee recommends the board consider a glide path plan. This plan would involve incremental surplus increases and a temporary suspension of the 25% fund balance floor. The business services committee further recommends not decreasing the fund balance percent below 20% during this plan and that the glide path
070be structured in a way that maximally limits impact on student opportunity. Recommendation two, the business services committee recommends proceeding with option one from Mr. Rinick's June 10th memo adding a section at the affected schools which would result in two additional FTEES. Uh, recommendation three, the business services committee recommends that the board politely decline the IGA between the city and district involving the transfer of land for antennal antenna rental space as proposed. Recommendation four, the business services committee recommends that the board prioritize applying for the $50,000 state facilities grant in the years it is offered. It was also discussed, though this is not a formal recommendation, that the board perhaps through policy committee should re-evaluate its fund balance targets of 50% and how they are calculated in policy. Is there any other discussion? Just real succinct
071recommendations. Those are we covered a lot in those meetings, so that was good. Would the board like me to add a discussion of that policy related to fund balance to the next policy committee meeting? Is that part of what this motion? Because that was like to Cole's point that wasn't explicitly part of it, but it was mentioned as it possible. So I I guess some direct I mean I'd like to discuss it but I guess if the boards would also like to discuss it that would be good to know. It sounds like we should add it at least as a discussion topic at all policy committee. Yeah. Any other discussion around the business services subcommittee recommendations? All right. Seeing no discussion, Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Evans? Yes. Yes. Greg, yes. Tomson, yes.
072Sanu, yes. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Next item on the agenda uh is executive session. It's recommended that the board of education adjourn to executive session for the consideration of matters related to the employment appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees. Collective negotiating matters between the public body, its employees and or the representatives. The purchase or lease of real estate uh property for the public use of public body. Setting of a price for sale or lease of property owned by the public body. litigation when an action against, affecting, or on behalf of the particular body has been filed and is pending before a court or tribunal. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Sorry. The the motion is the uh Oh, sorry. Is there a motion? I'll motion. I'll second. Thank
073you. Uh, any discussion? Kelly, would you call the role? Evans, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. [Music] We're just being nimble. I'll run that back for you. It's on a tape. Yeah. I live on these. All right. We're now in open session. Um, is there a motion to return to item 7.02 on the agenda? So moved. Second. Seconded. Any discussion? Uh, all in favor? I. All right. We are on item 7.02 uh to the student discipline policy and safety review. And to our local Sycamore law enforcement, please accept my apology uh for the oversight. So, please uh we are very interested in hearing what you have to say and hopefully getting a better look at your beautiful dog. He's tired. So, we'll just stand briefly and kind of do an annual review of our
074I'm Officer Peterson. I'm a school resource officer. I primarily work in the middle school um since high school. Yeah, that's what I was going to say offic. Um and we just wanted to briefly give you an overview of what our year looks like and kind of some of the things that we did, what our reports look like, um our numbers and what we were doing throughout the school year. Um so at the high school Dan um there were 73 reports taken throughout the school year. At the middle school there were 62 documented reports and then a total amongst the five elementary buildings there were 50 reports. Um and law enforcement reports there's a wide variety of things that we document um and report on anything from a battery toformational reports and anything and everything in
075between. So there's a a plethora of things that we were documenting and involved with. Um, in addition to that, um, as you can see, there is a therapy dog. He's, um, partnered with me and he works with me at the middle school and we cover all the buildings. Um, over the last three school years, we've had just over 570 deployments here in the school district. So, um, some deployments are anything from 5 minutes of a child just needs some assistance getting back to class. Um, other things may be a couple hours um, with the crisis response or uh, an emotional student, staff member, or anything in between. So we have had a lot of deployments and those things also are um reading to students. Dan and I go and we read at the elementary levels
076very often. Um our elementary programs do really nice job inviting us in and doing that proactive um building rapport with the students and the staff in the elementary buildings as well. Um so that's kind of some of the things that we did in addition to just to note um threat assessments. We both uh oftent times are a part of threat assessments or um the safety team post threat assessment and between the two of us um we we participated in 19 threat assessments this school year. Um so we are always very excited to be a part of the team and work with our administration and work with our um staff and students um to be a resource. Um we kind of operate on three pillars um which is law enforcement and and primarily safety as well
077as counseling or counselor and um education. Um, so the education piece, Dan does a lot of the driver's education. What are things you do in the high school? Just a simple like with any of the reports or whatever. I have students just walk in my office. I was trying to get an educational moment. You know, when I was my famous quote is to make wise choices. So I just take the opportunity to try to build those relationships, get some educational points and set them on their way, whether it's a report or just having a discussion about life or whatever crisis might be going on at that time. Um, and I do a lot at the middle school level of health class with uh mental health resources, uh, drug education, all of the things, um, to
078try and work in the prevention mode and education mode. Um, and again that building rapport, building relationships amongst our staff and students. Um, Dan and I take a lot of pride in our role and we really enjoy working with our staff and students and administration. Um, so just some tidbits about what we what we did this school year. um what Julie did to help us kind of bridge that gap of law enforcement in schools in addition to um in addition to like I said the the education needs and um and I just want to put a plug out there thanks for the high school and the school board and the admin um we're actually training at the high school this week. Um so we had roughly 120 officers from the whole county coming in to
079do rapid deployment training. So officers that hopefully it never happens might have to respond to the high school they get a view of part of the building. So they're not it's not not totally funny. Like for example, this shoot there's over 100 different agencies that responded. So it's good to get eyes on and get more training. So we appreciate the opportunity having the building. That concludes our review of the year, our reports, and kind of what we've been doing throughout the school year. like you said our staff and students and our administrators that collaboration together with students and staff I would sorry yes do parents get notified when a report is made um generally yes unless it's anformational report um but anytime there's any sort of consequence associated um they would 100% be notified of
080any sort of uh consequence or anything with us or if you need permissions to talk to the student so you asked permission to talk to the student. Um, not every time you have to operate or the law. Um, and so it is dependent on the investigation and what what is associated. Some of the information we're documenting um is just a documentation purpose. Yes. Thank you very much for your service to our students and community and for being here. I appreciate the uh make wise choices. Yes. It's uh when I was dropped off as a freshman at college, uh my mother and father drove by me and a group of my new friends and my mother yelled out the window, "Make wise choices, goodbye." Yes, I appreciate that, too. Thank you very much. I participate at
081the Southeast PTO and I know Douly is very popular at the school and I appreciate you coming and helping and supporting the PTO and the school as a whole not just to help uh bridge the gap like you mentioned but just as just a great resource to have and a nice smiley very friendly face it's very much appreciated. Thank you. I I had an opportunity to meet with um Officer Vinowski um and she spoke about um some of her experiences uh with students and highlighted just what I think is more than discipline, more than support, but also just truly bringing definition to what it means to be a resource officer and how what our SRO's are doing on a day-to-day basis is is truly a matter of life and death in a lot of cases.
082Um, and so having gotten that insight, uh, it's kind of like goosebumps hearing some of the stories. Uh, I can't underscore enough how much I think it is important that we as a board continue to support our uh, SRO. And again, it it should go without saying that there there is just you have nothing but a partnership in in your public education governing body. So I I have absolute confidence in the abilities of our SRO and what you guys need and and if there is anything that our board can ever do to support and further support some of the work that you're doing, please uh having this information, having this presented um is very helpful, but you have an immense amount of trust at least from me uh in the work you do. So I
083just want to commend you for that. Thank you. Anything else? pretty well. [Applause] We're not supposed to pet Julie, right? Is that he's a Oh, it's I always get I'm like, "No, it's not. It's not." I didn't Yeah, it's therapy on when he starts sniffing over there. So, he's just trained to be loved on. He does not sniff or do any other Well, he'll sniff, but maybe for two. He is. Yep. He's three years old. We He's been in the district. This is um our third school year. So, he started with me in the district and he's making [Music] is it dually you said? Die. We need douly at our like goal setting meetings. Yeah. Right. How do we get Julie? They put a time slot in for good because a lot of times they
084use golden retrievers for these kind of dogs because they're more and it's $100 with how common it is. There's a breeder that has a live cam of the puppies. Thank you guys. Uh that they use specifically for therapy dogs and uh I sometimes in court if I'm think I'll throw that live stream. I I move to reenter executive session per the uh my earlier motion. Okay, there's a motion. Second that. Moved and seconded. Kelly, would you call the role? I seconded it. I Yes. The board is now in open session. This meeting stands adjourned. Come on.