001[music] Good evening and welcome to the January 26, 2026 Valley View School District Board meeting. I hereby call this regular meeting of the Valley View School Board to order. Please silence your cell phone. Um, member beras, would you lead us in the pledge? >> 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. >> Okay. Member Hill, would you please read the affirmation of the board of education mission statement? >> Our mission is to empower every learner to be college, career, and life ready and to develop, grow, and achieve as a productive citizen. >> Dr. Woods, the agenda, please. >> Yes. Thank you, Vice President Campbell. We are seeking the board's approval of the agenda as presented. >>
002Second motion to second. Any discussion or questions? >> None. Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. >> Member Burus, >> yes. >> Member Pipkin, >> yes. >> Member Hy, >> yes. >> Secretary Sutherland, >> yes. >> President Prom Campbell, >> yes. Motion carries. Student and staff recognition. Dr. Wood. >> Yes. Tonight's um staff spotlight video is Miss Liz Matteo, 7th grade math teacher at Brooks Middle School. Lesson one. Our goal for today is I can explain in a discussion how to get an idea for the likelihood of an event by using results from previous experiments. So today we're going to be looking at experiments. Okay, experiments. I love this position. It's really unique. I work with newcomers. So I work with students who are new to the country, been here three years or less, and I
003can only not see the growth in language, but in math. And working with the math department, they are very organized. They provide a lot of supports. I'm truly grateful for how they run the department. And so I've enjoyed working with our math department. Day one, I had two great mentors. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here. So I've had a lot of support. You are going to be getting bags throughout the experiment. Okay? So you're going to be getting one of these three bags and they're going to be labeled green, red, or yellow. Now, here are the rules. You are going you cannot be looking in the bag. Okay. And then you can only take out one block solo uno, not two, not three, only one. Right now, four languages happening in my
004classroom currently. Last year was seven. So right now, the class that you just saw, I have Spanish, Ukrainian, and Chinese, and varying in different ranges of proficiency. When they come in, math is something common, something that they've seen before. so they can find comforts in this classroom. And teaching math to newcomers is teaching math to any other student. They need visuals. They need repeated directions. They need those extra supports. We do try to support in the native language. So, their math books do come in English and then there's an online version that they can translate into their language. Um, using a lot of visuals. For any student, visuals will always help. We had a conversation recently and you said this phrase, "I want my students to not be afraid of math." How do you help
005your students to not be afraid of math? >> We're not just focusing on is this right or wrong, but we're helping them build that positive math identity by giving them feedback, letting them discover and explore math. And hopefully when they leave, maybe it might not be their favorite class, but they feel as they belong here. That's my goal for them. >> Now, let me tell you what was in the bags. So, here's what was in the green bags. Here was what was in the red bags. And here what was in the yellow bags. In this lesson, they're exploring why in some bags do I have better outcomes and in other bags I don't have a better outcome. So, they're just exploring what does it mean to have a better outcome and why. And then in
006the next lesson they'll start learning okay well if I have this in my experiment this is more likely if my experiment is like my red bag that's less likely to happen and that will later transform into okay how do we calculate that >> is the aha moment when you reveal to the students that there are different numbers of tiles in each one of the bags. >> Yeah. So I think as you saw when they saw what was in each bag, some students were like that is why I was doing better in the green bag or in the yellow bag and then some students were okay. And then you had occasional students, okay, why was my luck so uh poor in the green bag? You know, sometimes we have those. >> I look around this classroom
007and I pretty well think that if I took a test in this classroom, I could probably get through it based on all the information on the wall. But the part of everything on your walls that I find the most fascinating is the clock. Explain the sign that is over the clock. >> So, um, one of my first years here, I had a student that would just stare at the clock. Just wouldn't look away, would just stare. Or I had students like, "What time is it? What time is it?" And so I was just, "It's time to learn. Like, while you're here, you're giving me 100%. I'm giving you 100%. I will let you get out on time, don't worry. But while you're here, the goal is to be focused and working on class and discovering
008it. [applause] Thank you for all our valuable staff and all the hard work that they do. No treasures report. So, we have a consent agenda item. Dr. Wood. >> Yes. Tonight we are seeking your approval of seven consent agenda items as presented. 7.1 board meeting minutes January 12th, 2026. 7.2 Executive session meeting minutes January 12, 2026. 7.3 Student Activity Contract Life Touch Portraits for Dr. James Mitchum Early Childhood Center. 7.4 Independence Elementary School mobile units occupancy certificate. 7.5 Romeoville High School trip 7.6 6 Humphrey Middle School um trip and 7.7 gift to Romeoville High School. >> May I have a motion? >> Motion and second. Any discussion or questions? Seeing none, hearing none. Roll call vote, please. >> Member Pipkin, >> yes. >> Member Hy, >> yes. Member Beduras. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutherland. >>
009Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. Leen, any from reports from my right? >> Any from my left? >> I I do from your left. >> So, we did meet last I think I turned it off. I apologize. The calendar working group met in December and then we also had kind of a remote um meeting um virtually um in January as well after the last board meeting. So there were just slight changes that were made to the calendar based on um recommendations and suggestions and questions that were given after from both the community as well as some of the other members of the the working group. So we had a good meeting. Um I do believe that just for the record for the calendar uh working group it involves teachers, administrators, um community
010members, board members. So it has a great range of people on the working group and definitely parents. >> Yes, I have two um reports. Um the first one was um on um Thursday, January 22nd, the um financial advisory committee had met and a few takeaways from that meeting. Um Ms. uh Rome Romeo reviewed the financial statements for the month ending December 31st, 2025. She indicated that the district is trending appropriately. Also, she discussed that the district will begin to realize the insurance savings because our plan year starts on January 1st, 2026. And then um Mr. Lopez um provided an update on facilities and upcoming projects. He also talked about how the district would be preparing a bid for our energy costs. An interesting metric that um Mr. Lopez discussed was that 1 cent increase in
011kilowatts can cost the district over $250,000 in utility bills. So dial down or unplug. Um also I want to congratulate or at least um make mention um that Ms. Romel Romeos and Mr. Lopez gave an excellent report very detailed and Mr. Lopez provided us with um graphics and charts to help understand where the projects are, what's being being completed. And so I appreciate that from the meeting. Also I attended the uh Will County uh I'm sorry Wilo school board meeting on the same date and um there is uh the the assistant principal had reported that 75% of the students receive A's or B's at the end of the first semester and almost 20% earned C's. Also they had received the grant for instructions um for auto instructors on the electrical vehicles and um she has
012submitted um director um Kaufman had uh submitted a list of um capital pro projects which was um given to the department of economics development um which was funded by that part of the state and she's not sure exactly what kind of funding so she's not sure exactly what kind what's going to become off that list or anything is going to be um going to be addressed which becomes an issue. Um Wilco will also be celebrating their 50 years um as an institution and um they had finished up their JJC enrollment for spring semester and things keep moving along and doing quite well. Uh a lot of new projects are being um addressed and implemented and also suggested. So our next meeting is February 19th. Thank you. Thank you board members. And now we have our
013student ambassador Les and report and we just want to thank her for weather this weather coming out here tonight even though she at e-learning today. So we're going to have Hayden Harper still give her her report and thank her so much for coming. Good evening members of the board and community. I hope everybody had a safe and warm weekend and snow days. I would first like to sh to share the student ambassador's appreciation to all students and staff who continued to work from home over these past few days in this extreme weather. Your dedication and commitment is much appreciated. Since the beginning of the semester, both BHS and RHS have had successful freshman nights, showing upcoming Raiders and Spartans all that the schools have to offer from extracurricular activities to academics. In upcoming news, Romeoville
014High School is having a meat raffle on Sunday, February 15th, starting at 11:00 and going to 5:00 p. p.m. All proceeds from this event will be sporting Romeoville's junior ROC team. The STEM decathlon for middle school students will also be having Romeoville on Friday on February 4th. Good luck to all participants. With Black History Month coming up, students at Bowling Brook High School have been working hard planning engaging celebrations to celebrate the rich heritage within our community. On February 6th, the Raider BA at the Raider basketball game, we will be we will have a HBCU Divine Nine night with representatives from different fraternities coming out to share their support. On the 7th of February, we will there will be a Black History Month showcase highlighting all sorts of performances from dances, songs to spoken word.
015Lastly, on February 24th, BHS will also be hosting a fashion show that is that is 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s themed. Come out to see all our students hard work and creative designs. More details to come about these celebrations in the upcoming days. Finally, I would like to wish everybody safe travels tomorrow as we brace the cold and enter back into in-person school. Thank you. >> Thank you. And she's talking about dedication. That's dedication. Let's give her a round of applause. [applause] Thank you so much, Aiden. Any um audience participation, members of the PL public would have his opportunity to address the board. Please advise that the board has a right under policy to limit the comments to three minutes or less. Give your name and you are allowed to come if you have
016any comments. Audience participation My name is Sharice. I'm sorry. Can't hear me. Oh, I'm sorry. [laughter] My name is Sharice Moore. I am a parent of the Valley View District for the last 20 years. Um, this is my first board meeting and it isn't coming with good like good spirit. My youngest child has been in the Valley View District for the last three years and um this year she's had three incidents with a peanut allergy um in the last 30 days. Um the first time she told me was December 15th. I called the school to see about the peanut um allergy restriction. I was informed that no peanuts were allowed in her school. I shouldn't have to wor I shouldn't worry about it. Uh January 16th, the school nurse called me saying she had um
017a bad allergic reaction to peanut butter. I informed the nurse that how is this so because I just called a month ago and they told me that peanuts weren't allowed in the school and she said I don't know I'm she's having she's currently having issues breathing. Um she has an EpiPen so now my heart is racing because is do do you need to in insert the EpiPen? But she said no my daughter was calm calmly breathing. I can come pick her up or do do I want her to give her the EpiPen? I'm at work. I'm I'm I don't know if you should give it or not. Now, I'm at I'm uneased. So, I did go to the school on the next day, which would be January 20th, to see about the policy. I was
018told that some classrooms have signs um stating that no peanuts because of the child allergy. But then when I spoke to staff, staff said, "No, the school is allowed to bring peanuts and peanut butters to the school." I've never been able to send peanut butter or peanuts with my oldest two and they're 18 and 20. So when I asked what where do we go from here? Um they had no answer. They said they would ask the nurse um me possibly write a 504. I have no idea what a 504 is, but it's in my daughter's file that she has a seafood and peanut allergy. So, I just I don't know at to this day. I still have no word on the 504 or the plan to rectify this situation. >> All right. Thank you. >>
019Thank you, >> Dr. Wood. Dr. Wood. Okay. Thank you for coming and sharing and Dr. Woods will look into that. Thank you so much. Anybody else would like to address the board? >> All right, seeing none. This time we have the action report. Uh >> all right, this is Sarah. >> Yes. Action for 10.1 is to approve the consolidated action report for certified, classified, and administrative personnel. The administration is respectfully seeking your approval on all items as presented. >> So move >> motion. We have a second. >> Second. >> Any questions or discussion? Say none. Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Member Burus. >> Yes. >> Member Pipkin. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutherland. Pro President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. Job descriptions. >> 10.2. This evening, four descriptions
020are being presented as information to the board to move directly to action. These are newly named positions and support a reorganization that results in cost savings and administrative salaries while ensuring a model of direct intentional support to building leaders, staff, and students. While these job descriptions are presented for information, we are respectfully requesting action this evening to allow for the immediate posting of these vacancies to secure high quality candid candidates to support a seamless transition which provides stability for the district. >> Have a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion and second. Any questions or discussion? >> I just have a question. I know you mentioned it in your overview, but um you you mentioned that it would be uh result in reorganization with cost savings overall. Are we adding additional? So at the
021end of the day, will there be new an increase in the number of administrators per student or would this result in a decrease? >> No, this uh there will be a net reduction in the administrative staffing for the district. >> Thank you. Any other questions, discussion? Seeing none, hearing none, roll call vote, please. >> Member Beduris, >> yes. >> Member Pipkin, >> yes. >> Member Hy, >> yes. Secretary Sutherland. >> Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Action 4 10.3. The administration is respectfully seeking your approval for resolution number 2612 authorizing dismissal of an educational support personnel employee for reasons other than reduction in force. >> Motion to second. Please. Second. Okay. Any questions or discussion? Seeing none. Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. >> Member Burus. >> Yes. >> Member Pipkin.
022>> Yes. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutherland. >> Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Action report. Finished. 11.1 is the approval of the inter intergovernmental agreement with the village of Bowling Brook for the school resource officers uh which has not been updated since October 2016. With the passage of Senate Bill 2131 which amends the Illinois school code, it made sense to develop a new IGA with the district and the village to incorporate the key provisions outlined in the new law. The administration recommends that the board of education approve the intergovernmental agreement between Valley View and the village of Bowling Brook regarding the assignment of school resource officers as presented. >> Motion motion and second. Any questions or discussion? >> Call vote. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Member Pipkin.
023>> Yes. Member Burus. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutterland. >> Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Okay. May I have a motion to temporarily pause the regular meeting to go into public hearing for the purpose of discussing the 2026 2027 school calendar? >> So moved. >> Second. All right. Second. Any discussion? >> Okay. Roll call vote. >> Oh, I was going to have a discussion. Sorry. [laughter] >> Oh, you want discussion? Go back. Let's go back. Discussion. >> Thank you. I apologize. I was slow on the uptake. Um just want to ask uh for the administration regarding the calendar. Um have there been any changes since the previous um proposed posting last board meeting? Yes, there was one shift um that you'll notice the April 5th date on theformational calendar and then
024with community feedback, staff feedback and the committee feedback, April 5th is now a day off that will be included in spring break. And so you will notice that the last end date has been extended by one day in May. >> And I guess a a followup to that, will that affect those who have an extended school year? >> Great question. Um, no, that will not impact our summer school planning for programs as well as our extended school year for our students with um special education needs. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Member Burus. >> Yes. Member Pipkin, >> yes. >> Secretary Sutterland, >> yes. >> President Prom Campbell, >> 2627 calendar. Thank you. Um so just to bring to the surface that this was started at our last board meeting and
025tonight we are seeking the approval after we are in hearing for the waiver component. This is a new step that we have approached as a district. This essentially takes all of our minutes from early release time where students are not receiving instruction and combining those into five school improvement days across a school year. Those are days that are accounted for instructional minutes because our students attend longer than the state requires and we can bank those minutes. So those banked minutes then are included in um five individual school improvement days where students do not attend but staff do attend. So that is the big shift and the reason why we have to do the extra step step excuse me for the hearing. Are there any um comments? Any more comments from any board members? Any comments
026from the administration? Any comments from the public? Okay. May I have a motion to close the public hearing and return to the regular business meeting? >> We have someone stepping up. We have someone. >> Okay. Come. Okay. Please give your name and where you're from. Um, hello members of the board and the administration. Uh, my name is Ruth Michaelelsson, a Romeo resident with two VBSD students, one middle schooler and one elementary school age. Thank you to the board and uh BBSD for the opportunity to comment on the um state uh waiver application for the full day school improvement days. So I submitted my comments previously via email so I won't repeat them here but I wanted to show my support to other BBSD uh families where the full school day uh school improvement days no
027student attendance would be impacted the most. So, I know I'm not privy to all of the state and federal requirements, um, but, uh, VBSD prides itself on student teacher parent partnerships. So, I hope that you consider all of the emailed comments and all of the comments that you may hear from today uh, from parents uh, during the public hearing um, in your decision towards uh, the school district calendar. um if the waiver application uh for the full day school improvement days are approved. So according to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are some key demographics um amongst uh VBSD parents. So uh according to uh their data 10.8% 8% of families are below the poverty level. 29% are single parents with no spouse or partner and 85% are in the labor force. So obviously
028taking five full days um of no student attendance will definitely impact parents. um you know I know that you can't meet the needs of all of parents, students, teachers that there's a lot involved and I don't envy any of you that are on the calendar committee. I really applaud everyone that goes through this process every year and I appreciate that. Um but I do believe that a compromise can be made between the full school improvement days and nobody likes early release days. I know they're not impactful, but maybe there's a combination of using the full uh school days with half days or kind of um some of those early release days kind of um but I know other districts do that. So um thank you for allowing parents to have an active role um in
029the partnership with the school district um and our student success. So, thank you. >> Thank you for the response. Um, we really appreciate your feedback along with many of the over 30 families and staff members that had responded to our feedback as well. Um, it definitely is a delicate balance as we look to shift our calendar in a different direction than we have for many, many years. So, thank you for the feedback. >> At this time, we have a motion to close the public hearing and return to the regular meeting. I have a motion. >> Second and second. Any discussion? Roll call vote. >> Member Burus. >> Yes. >> Member Pipkin. >> Yes. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. Secretary Sutherland. >> Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Now we will have
030a motion to approve the 2627 school calendar as presented. >> Yes. So tonight we are seeking your approval for the 2627 calendar for the school year. following the presentation as I already indicated and um board member Pipkin also shared some insight on how these decisions are made and all the details that are taken into consideration. Um following the presentation of theformational item um member Pipkin already noted that there or asked about if there were any changes there definitely was a change for again April 5th you'll notice is extended into spring break. Um in addition all the things that the team has to take into consideration is where do holidays fall for that given calendar as well as what holidays we do take off we don't take off we have to think about uh finals for
031our high school as we think about winter break an extension of you know two weeks of no learning and then coming back is it best to have the finals before after spring break. So these are all the things that of course go into um all these decisions including looking at surrounding districts when do they start which is um why you will see that our start date is very similar to the districts that are near to us. Um so just wanted to bring all those details to your attention and so much more but um yes we are seeking your approval as how the calendar is presented this evening in the agenda. >> So moved Member Pipkin. >> Yes. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Member Beduris. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutherland. >> Yes. >> President Prom
032Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Yes. Tonight we are seeking your approval for the purchase of assisted technology iPads and software for our students with um specialized communication needs and nothing has changed based on how it was presented as anformational item and the request is $110,000 to purchase these items including the software all of which are funded through the federal IDA Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act um through the grant. The administration is respectfully seeking your approval. Motion and second. Any discussion? And on hearing on roll call vote. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Member Burus. >> Yes. >> Member Pipkin. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutherland. >> Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carried. >> Yes. Thank you, President Pro Tim Campbell. Tonight, we are seeking the board's approval of the student discipline case
033A, as presented. >> So move. >> Member Hy, >> yes. >> Member Burus, >> yes. >> Member Pipkin, >> yes. >> Secretary Sutherland, >> yes. >> President Prom Campbell I can take that one. 13.2. Tonight, we are seeking your approval to designate Kelly Cassani to be deputy recording secretary and fulfill the duties of the recording secretary when the recording secretary is absent or unable to perform her duties. >> So move. Second. >> Second. Any questions or discussion? Roll call vote by Kelly. >> Member Burus. >> Yes. >> Member Pipkin. >> Yes. >> Member Hy. >> Yes. >> Secretary Sutherland. >> Yes. >> President Prom Campbell. >> Yes. Motion carries. Information report. Yes, thank you Pro President Prom Campbell. Tonight I have superintendent update and first um continuing our classrooms to community connections. On the left
034you see um a donation from Bernie's Book Bank um which located in Lake Bluff, Illinois. They donated books to Hermanson Elementary for our students to take home and enjoy. You see they are quite excited about that. And on the right, Bowling Brook High School 11th grade student Reagan Brooks was featured in an interview on CBS to Chicago previewing the Girls Who Lead Conference. Reagan is a co-founder and chapter president. Um she was interviewed and highlighted the significant work the chapter is undertaking and we are quite proud of her and the other members of the chapter for making a positive impact on our SCU community and shining a bright spotlight on women and girls who lead. Just like to take this opportunity to share that the five essential survey window will be open between February 3rd
035and March 10th. It is an annual survey administered in all Illinois districts and schools. The survey identifies five indicators that lead to improved outcomes for all students, including improved attendance, and larger test score gains. Those five indicators that positively affect school success are effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involve family, supportive environments, and ambitious instruction. The survey generates valuable data that districts can use to guide their ongoing efforts to improve schools and to offer students an excellent education. The survey is another improvement tool that allows districts in the state to share data as a means to inform parents and community members about the school's learning environment. Voice is sought from students, staff, and parents. And we are asking that all parents be on the lookout for additional information on the survey and how to complete it so
036that parent voice can be heard and utilized for school and district improvement planning. One of my favorite times of the year, kindergarten enrollment is coming soon. It opens on February 27th. And would you believe that the students that you're looking at, and I'm assuming they're in early childhood, will be going to kindergarten and they will be the class of 2039. Let that soak in for a moment. To be eligible to register, kindergarten, students must be five on or before September 1, 2026, and the family must live within Valley View School District school boundaries. We offer full day kindergarten at all elementary schools. And if your child already attends one of the early childhood centers, don't need to enroll them. They're already in. And just a reminder about some important upcoming dates. January 28th is early
037release. February 9th will be our next board meeting. February 11th is early release. Again, February 16th is uh President's Day. Schools are closed. and February 27th. Once again, just as a reminder, kindergarten registration opens. That is all I have for tonight. Thank you, uh, President Proim Campbell. That is the end of my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Wood. Uh, Dr. Pollson, and phonics adoption for grades kindergarten through second. >> Yes. Thank you. Tonight within your board packet you will find an information report regarding an adoption of that we are proposing for our phonics for reading horizons discovery for grades kindergarten through 2 grade. This recommendation follows a rigorous four-month pilot that involved four schools and a datadriven evaluation by our K5 team which included ongoing site visits and support with benchmark and programming regarding reading
038data. The primary driver for this adoption is our alignment with the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan, which mandates systematic, explicit, and evidence-based phonics instruction. Our pilot data overwhelmingly supported reason reading horizons who um specifically 100% of the participating teachers agreed the program provides the explicit instruction that is outlined in the literacy plan for the state of Illinois. Just some quick key highlights from the program. Um it's a strategic shift for teaching reading um our youngest learners how to read. It's moving from guessing strategies to explicit decoding strategies. Um it is access for all students. It's sound fir it's the sound first approach for supporting all learners and particularly this supports our multilingual learners as well. implementation is a comprehensive four-year implementation process um that would could begin um starting April of this school year. The estimated
039three-year cost is outlined in your board packet and is funded through local funds. We are confident that this program will provide the um equitable access to phonics instruction that all of our K2 students um are should receive and are mandated to receive by the state. Lastly, before I close, uh this will be brought as action at the February 9th meeting. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank the individuals that helped make this happen. Um Dr. Dr. Lency, the executive director for um educational services for preK5 and assistant director Miss Amanda Dystra were hugely instrumental in getting the pilot up and rolling as well as our curriculum department for elementary, our building leaders, and most importantly our educators supporting it with our students in the classroom. Thank you. >> Thank you. Recruitment and retention
040update, Mr. Donado. >> Yes. Um, I'd like to welcome Miss Amanda Herrera Ford, our human resources director, who's coming on down, and she'll be sharing an update on the district's recruitment and retention efforts. She'll be sharing a snapshot of some of the work she is leading and supporting this year. All right. Good evening. I look forward to sharing our recruitment and retention efforts that we've been working on. The human resources department is committed to ensuring alignment with the strategic plan priority of stewardship of resources and empowerment. And our goal is to successfully recruit, develop, and retain staff to support our our diverse student population and also help them attain the portrait of a learner competencies which are listed here. Adaptive learner, empathetic citizen, critical thinker, and effective communicator. We have six recruitment strategies that I'll
041review tonight. Our first is to attend job fairs. We have 20 fairs lined up to attend this spring in person and virtually in partnership with local colleges and universities. Some of them are education specific and some of those events we will be able to recruit for our classified roles. The image in the middle is our new banner that we coordinated with the print shop to create. Um this will just help candidates um see our table a lot more clearly. It's about six feet tall. It's really, really nice. The print shop did a great job. We also held our first paraprofessional hiring event this summer in July and we had over 90 people from the community attend this event. It was um very very well attended. We were able to hire eight new employees from this
042event. one is actually a special education teacher and the rest were paraprofessionals, two of whom are bilingual, which is um definitely a hard to fill position for us. So, we plan to have another event um this spring and this summer just to fill some of the openings that we still currently have and then prepare for the upcoming school year. We will also continue our partnership with online hiring platforms such as Indeed and LinkedIn. These platforms are great for reaching candidates for our classified positions. And Handshake is another great resource that we'll continue to use that reaches over uh that reaches students at over 2,000 colleges and universities for our certified roles. We will also continue to host and support student teachers. We've developed really great relationships with local colleges and universities. Um, this school year
043we have 36 student teachers placed in the district. Last year we were able to hire 14 student teachers to work this full school year and we were able to hire an additional three student teachers to work in teaching roles for second semester. We are also excited about a new program um where we're going to be trying to hire our students, our recent graduates for pair of professional roles. We have partnered with Aaron Clifford at Bowling Brook High School. Um, and her teaching as a profession course really prepares students to understand what teaching is like. Um, and getting them a pair professional role will actually increase their knowledge even more. Um, and hopefully they would like to become teachers with us down the road as well. We just recently hired one recent graduate from Bowling Brook
044High School in a paraprofessional role at the early childhood center. We have another uh former student in process as well and we are coordinating with Will County Workforce Services to help support these students in getting their licenses because there is a cost associated with taking tests to become eligible for the license and then paying for the license as well. Um we hope to have some funds available to support our graduates next school year. We will also continue our grow our own program which is through a company called Bloomboard. This is a paraprofessional toteer program and our employees um attend lake either Lake Erie College or Oklahoma Christian College. These uh universities offer fully online teaching programs which is great because our employees can work as a paraprofessional full-time and also attend school full-time. We were
045able to hire three graduates into teaching roles for this school year and an additional three um just started for second semester in teaching roles and we are going to have an additional 12 graduates ready to hire into teaching positions for next school year. So we're very excited about that. We will also continue to work with the union on hiring incentive and hiring incentives for hard to fill positions. We were able to hire 21 educators into hard to fill roles this school year with this incentive. Then we'll look at three of our retention strategies. We plan to update and continually continuously improve our new teacher mentoring program. This year we were able to incorporate culturally responsive teaching into one of the sessions and we'll make sure that we continuously get feedback from our new educators so
046that we can work on making sure that they're fully supported. We also will continue again this is a retention strategy and a recruitment strategy is our Bloomboard Elevate you um program. We did have five new pair of professionals enter this program this school year and this program has been funded for the last three years with the state teacher vacancy grant. At this time that grant has not been extended into next school year. So we are also working with Will County Workforce Services on funding so that we can continue to have our employees as paraprofessionals enter a program to for them to be able to become teachers. Um this is a very important program and so we want we are definitely looking at ways that we can continue to fund this going forward. And our last
047retention strategy is to grow our own um administrators. Last year we had our first cohort of aspiring administrators and this cohort was very successful. We were able to fill four administrative positions from that cohort. Um, we also have 18 aspiring administrators from cohort one connected with current administrators. And this year we have our second cohort. We had approximately 25 individuals sign up. We've held two sessions with this group, one in person and one virtual. We have a lot of really um wonderful educators that have signed up for this program. Um the feedback is all very positive. So we look forward to continuing to work um to grow our own administrators. and how can you help? Like our LinkedIn page and any openings that you know somebody that's qualified, tell them all the great things about
048our district and we'll get them in the door. Thank you. >> Okay. >> No formal report tonight. >> Associate Federation report. Valley View Council 604. Valley Office Personnel Council 604, Valley View Transportation 350 3057. Okay. Any old business? New business. Freedom of Information Act. Any uh requests be direct them to Mr. Baney. Announcements from the board. >> Announcements by administration. I do have one announcement. Um, we just got news as I was walking into this meeting that I wanted to share with the board. Um, as you know, we undertook a major undertaking with converting our insurance to the Blue Cross um, BCO network, which is probably one of the largest changes this district had encountered. Um, and what you didn't see, um, is that Blue Cross Blue Shield probably didn't honor its full commitment. And
049the reason why you didn't see that is because one employee stepped up behind the scenes and really um took her laptop on weekends, worked late nights to make sure um that there was no hiccups and did a little bit of heavy lifting um to ensure that our employees had as smooth transition as possible. And her name is Mary Kilner, our benefits specialist. And I want to recognize her for for that effort. And in recognition of that, I uh negotiated with Bluec Cross Blue Shield to give a district a credit for all the extra effort that the district uh put in. And uh as I said, walking in, we learned that we're going to get a $100,000 credit um in um recognition of the extra effort that the district had to put in to make sure
050our employees um had a smoothest transition. So I would like to share good news on that. So >> thank you very much. Fiscally responsible Other announcements by the administration. >> Yes, I have a uh couple of announcements. Um and one is to thank building leaders and educators for the heavy lifting, our students for being adaptive learners and also our parents for um adapting as well during this last couple of um e-learning days. certainly know [snorts] that it's not um certainly no replacement for inclass um learning and we um grateful um that we were able to transition and pivot um hardly any hiccups um if any um we're looking forward to being in person um tomorrow as already mentioned um earlier by Hayden. Thank you. And um additionally, there's a lot of behind the scenes work
051that occurred over the last few days, and you're never really going to notice it um unless something goes wrong. But everything went right. So, I just want to make sure I point out um our facilities um team for doing building checks, making sure that our grounds were in um good order, um checking to make sure that there weren't any leaks so that um our students and staff will be able to return to safe uh and warm uh environments. And also would like to thank our facilities and transportation. Even though the buses weren't running, they were ready to go. and um making sure that the buses could um turn on, be warmed up. And again, you know, as many people who did not have to leave the house did not, but these individuals um that I
052mentioned um it's their job and their duty and their responsibility and they fulfilled it and we're greatly um appreciative of that. It's um the end of my announcements today. >> Thank you, Dr. with for acknowledging all those that continue to help to keep all the aspects of our district going. And again, I'm going to shout out to Hayden for coming here tonight uh dedicated as she is. So, if there's no other announcements from the board of administration, may have a motion to adjourn. >> So, moved. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed motion uh with the meeting is adjourned. for coming.