001Okay, I'd like to call this meeting to order for Crete Moniz School Board regular meeting today, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 6.30 p.m. Can I have a roll call, please, Madam Secretary? Yes. Dr. Hall. Mr. Swalage. Here. Wolfo Kizzi, here. Zeitzumber. Here. And Mr. Brown. Here. Let us stand for the pledge of allegiance led by mr. Suarez and our mission statement led by our vice president Jamie Our mission is to engage and empower our students to positively impact their community and future Thank you both Do we have any? Written public comments? No. Electronic, the one that I have, is that the only one? Yes. Okay, we have a public comment submitted by John Pachuta, and it reads as, and the public comment was submitted today at 1255 p.m. He mentioned, I was watching the YouTube board
002meeting from 5-12-2026 at 3115. Into the meeting. It was mentioned that $17 million was going to be moved from the working cash fund into the maintenance fund, then moved into a capital fund. A June 6th meeting was going to take place to ratify. Where will this be? It was further mentioned that some of the funds were going towards the stadium. I thought that the entire sports stadium cost over $21 million. Was going to be paid off with TIF money. Crete 201U board used the same process last year. Open parentheses 2025, close parentheses. And moved $20 million into capital. All of this money should be going back to the voters to reduce the school portion of our property taxes. Currently, two-thirds of my taxes go towards the 201U school. This means that 37 million dollars in
003the past two years have been going towards capital projects that we as voters have no idea about. It seems as the school board needs some type of oversight into the projects and spending of our taxpayers money. The school board does not have an open checkbook that is supplied by us. All of us, pears. Have a limited income the board cannot keep on spending. I think giving the Crete school board over $85,000 is excessive $8,500 is an excessive correction Again eight thousand five hundred dollars is excessive. I want this letter also to be placed in the June meeting that discusses the funds John Pachuta Arrange submitted public comment and the comment topic is occupational therapy contract CO by a miss Megan Haskin you may go to the podium over there dear members of the school board
004we respectfully ask for your thoughtful consideration as decisions regarding occupational therapy services that are being made being discussed within our district as occupational therapy providers serving through Omni we have had the privilege of supporting students across a variety of educational settings grade levels and individual needs for many of us this district has become much more than a workplace as become a community we deeply care about and we are honored to serve For the past 40 years the Omni occupational therapy team has proudly provided consistent professional and high quality occupational services to this district Throughout that time we have remained steadfast in our commitment to supporting students Collaborating with school teams and honoring the unique needs and priorities of the district The longevity of our partnership reflects not only consistency in service delivery, but also a
005deep understanding of the district's culture, expectations, and the evolving needs of its students and families. Although we are contract employees, this district has consistently treated us as valued members of the school community. Across our assigned districts, we have been welcomed as members of the educational teams. These districts have invested in our professional growth through training, collaboration, and ongoing support that we can better serve the unique needs to our students. This partnership has strengthened our ability to provide effective student-centered occupational therapy services and has reinforced a shared commitment to student success. Throughout our time in the district, we have remained committed to providing high quality student-centered occupational therapy services while building strong collaborative relationships with teachers, administrators, related service providers, and families. We have worked closely within the multidisciplinary teams to support student access, participation, independence,
006and success in the educational environment. Our team has proudly provided dependable support and care for students and staff. We have collaborated in co-treatment sessions, we have supported families through ongoing communication and guidance, and we have worked diligently to ensure students receive the individualized support needed to make meaningful progress. We value the trust that has been built through these relationships and recognize the importance of maintaining the consistency for the students that we serve. One of the greatest strengths of our company, Omni Occupational Therapy, is that we have flexibility and our unwavering commitment in honoring the needs of this district. We have consistently adapted to changing our caseloads, building assignments, scheduling demands, staffing needs, and district priorities with professionalism and a solution-based mindset. Whether supporting across multiple schools adjusting services to meet student needs or collaborating closely
007with educational teams We have remained dependable and dedicated ensuring students receive the occupational therapy support they need in order to succeed We deeply admire the dedication and collaboration with our amni OT team and we are proud to work alongside professionals Who consistently go above and beyond for students families and staff? Together we have remained committed to serving this district with integrity, compassion, flexibility, and professionalism. The relationships we have built, our understanding of student needs, and the continuity of care we provide are invaluable. We care deeply about this district and we remain fully committed to supporting the students, staff, families that we have had the privilege to serve. It would be an honor to continue partnering with this district and contributing to the growth, well-being, and success of its students. In addition to our therapy responsibilities,
008we have also served as level two fieldwork supervisors for occupational therapy assistant students. Mentoring future professionals has allowed us to contribute not only to the students in our district, but also to the development of the profession itself. Thank you for your time and consideration and continued dedication to the students and families of this community We do have enclosed testimonies from school staff colleagues and We we can also submit that as well, but we just wanted to come together and be heard Thank you Thank you. Thank you for your public comment Do we have any board updates? I read in the parent square that there's an ACT boot camp where for rising juniors and only two of the 50 slots have been taken. So this is nothing else to share with the community to please sign
009up as it's an opportunity as excellent for rising juniors to take an opportunity to prepare for the ACT test. When is that test summer? Oh, well, they would take the boot camp is the summer the testing is throughout the school year I don't know the dates. Oh my apologies. This is okay. Is it given one time? Dr. Perkins the tests Boot camp is something new that we're trying this year. So Mr. Hollyfield is going to put it in his Sunday night live call and try to boost our numbers up. But this is the very first time that we've offered that. And it's free? And it's free. And it's free. Okay. Wow. All right. Great news. Thank you. Dr. Perkins, I'm going to need your help on this because if I would have participated, it would
010be an update for me. But the 50 educators. that I tried to attend. I don't know. Can you expound a little bit on that? That was held here in this room, right? Was it here? Yes. Yes. last week we hosted 50 educators from I believe 19 school districts across the state we are doing developmentally appropriate programming for our kindergarten students and we partner with the state all year in developing this program we had eight brave teachers this year in the district that piloted the program and the educators from across the state came here to learn about how we implemented it and went into classrooms to observe debrief with the teachers coaches and the OTL team and putting it together as we partner with the state and so the the state I think we've talked about
011this before is looking at us as a model of what this should look like excellent excellent in the field Thank you for that report, Dr. Cogmanese. Your staff is knocking it out the park. They are. They always do. Thank you so much for that report, Dr. Perkins. If there's no other board updates, hand it off to administrative updates by our superintendent. Yes, this evening we have an update for our Education Foundation. Ann and I, we have Reverend Hunt here, president. is going to be presenting and then is Miss Gustafson as well? Okay, terrific. So we're going to just take a few minutes and get that uploaded while they come to the podium. Let me just say hello. I'm Reverend Dr. James Hunt. I'm the chairman of the Creed Moneen Education Foundation and this is my
012partner. Cindy Gustafson. She's our vice president. And we're here to just provide an update and I thank the board and Superintendent Cochranese, Dr. Cochranese, and all the staff for all the help that you have given us in supporting our students, our teachers, and our schools. And so we have a presentation, but first of all, let me give you sort of the mandate for the Creed Monee Education Foundation. Our vision is to build pathways that prepare students to succeed today and lead tomorrow. Our mission is dedicated to raising funds to support innovative learning initiatives that enhance, enrich, and empower the educational experience of students and educators in the district. Our purpose is to actively engage with our diverse rich communities to ensure that every student has access to opportunities that inspire learning, creativity, and growth beyond
013the classroom. Our core values are rooted in a shared commitment to equity, excellence, and student success. And we recognize that strong schools are the foundation of a thriving community. And as I said, I am the president and Cindy is the vice president. We have nine other members, including our board rep, our own Janine Wolfe, who has added so much to our experience. We want to applaud her. Yes, she is. Yes, she is. So without any further ado, I think we have a slideshow for you, presentation. And then we'll take any questions. one tutoring for advanced students that we gave. The special ed reading room, most of all the grants that we've given out so far. So far our main fundraising has been through our 5k which we've done for the past three years. The last
014one at the high school was awesome. Help from our superintendent. And now we're part of the homecoming program. So our fun run is tied in with homecoming, which is really good visibility for us. It makes a lot more sense. We've had the ROTC, some other student organizations. We're having a fun run to support the teachers and the students. Microgrants for teachers put on some special programming. Back to the classrooms, back to our students. And so we're out here racing and raising money. I'm running with my kiddo and my dog, Loca. We want to make sure that our teachers are not lacking, that they have everything they need, that our students are supported. I feel it's important to support all my teachers. I want us to be united, and I want our focus to be on
015our students. After they go through the school district, they'll come back and they'll live here because this is a wonderful community. I decided to leave my wife and the kid behind. They were holding me up. Me and the dog finished strong. This is a community effort. This is about Creek, Monee, University Park, Park Forest. It's about the school district, the organizations like the Creek Runners Association. It's about coming together as community. And that's what you've done. Thank you, University Park, for hosting. As you heard me say several times before, it's all about support. It's about supporting one another, supporting the community, supporting the schools, the teachers. And it's all for one purpose, that we might have a better community, a greater community, and our kids might want to come back and lead families and have
016careers here. And so I just want to thank everybody for your support. I want to thank... Janine again for urging us to come. You see we were the only ones brave enough to come. They're very humble. They're very humble. So we want to just kind of highlight the activities and achievements that we've had, and we will continue to work hard. We're going to be involved with the homecoming next year. We have some other activities that we have coming up. We're planning, and we'll need some help. We'll need some help from the staff. We'll need help from the board. will need help from Dr. Cogganese, who has been a wonderful partner. And so we're just excited about the coming year. You saw some of the members here that were not here with us today. But there's
017one thing we want to do. It's not just about putting us in front. We want to begin to involve the community. So we need some support. We need your support. And one of the great ways to do that is to apply for a grant. To look at go to our website and apply for a grant. We don't have that all that information on our website We have it on our website, but you can contact us at New Hope Christian Community Church at 4700 West Court Street, Bonilla, Illinois and you can make general inquiries by email through CM 201 U foundation at gmail.com and we'll leave all this information with you so that you may have it but you can look on our email on our website so again it's we need we need help we
018need support and as you can see we've given out grants probably over almost $4,000 this year. We wanted to give out even more. But one of the things we wanted folks to know is to understand who we are and to see who we are and understand that the work that we're trying to do. And again, it's all about community. So go ahead. I just wanted to... Because I moved to the community in 2014, and I wanted to get involved somehow. And anyway, I ended up found the foundation. So we started in like 2019, and then COVID hit, and it kind of went away for a while. So we had a really, really rough start. But in the last couple of years, and I again want to thank the staff because the word has gotten out
019there. Us being involved with homecoming was huge. I think Jason, you helped with that. And that makes a big, so we're out there and actually Callie's been good about getting, when we publicize it, like we got a whole bunch of applications for grants. Part of it is we're also trying to figure out what we fund. You know, some people are asking for things that are sort of out of our mission, you know, and like athletic stuff is usually funded elsewhere. But the other thing we're really looking for is parents to get involved. because we have Reverend Hunt and I, I mean, I don't have kids in the school, Janine does, so we've got a couple, but it would be really, really great to get some more parents involved, you know, to be members and or
020to help with, you know, the 5K is one thing, but next year we're also hopefully going to do a gala or something that would raise more money and a little more. publicity and the other thing I wanted to say is when I moved here I didn't have to worry about the school district my kids are in their 30s but I want to say being being involved in this you know you hear things whatever but being involved in meeting the staff and the and students and teachers that work here it's very rewarding and you guys are doing a great job And one of the most fulfilling things that we experience is awarding these grants and to see the look on the parents, the teachers, their faces, that they could even get anything. We want to give
021even more money. So we're looking for donations. We're looking for folks to advocate for us and with us. And we're looking to build an even stronger team within this community, within this district. And so I just want to thank you. if you have any questions for me or cindy i i do no questions do you guys still have the golf outing in honor of former board president mark rose no did they stop that that was a that was a while back that was a while back okay so that's not good i came it was okay started over well Well, I'm so I'm so elated that you guys did pick it up and took the ball and ran with it and It does my heart well to see this dynamic board member called Janine that is
022so full of energy, so full of... You would think she lived in this community for the last 30 years. So she's relatively new in the community, and she just wants to help in any capacity she could. And she asked me a few questions about the foundation, and I said, you know, Dr. Hunt, he's a tremendous young man, and he's been a beacon in the community for years. You're a young man. I told you you didn't age, okay? Even though you may be about, yeah, I'll leave that alone. Okay. But thank you. And Cindy, thank you for being his vice president. Okay? His vice president. So, and I heard you numerous times mention the words, grant. You need resources. You need money. things of that nature. And I did volunteer to donate some funds like several
023months ago. And Janine do not have to remind me in words, but she gave me that stare at every board meeting. So I'll tell you this, that you will get a donation from me and it will be compound with interest. I think it is. I forget. Notes are being taken. Do you have a number? Dr. Hunt and I have been knowing each other for a while. He's a mentor of mine. He mentors me in many different ways. So I want to support, as long as I'm around on this board and being off this board, I want to support the Ed Foundation best I could. So thank you for all you guys do. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. One of our board members just arrived. Oh, she has the, okay. Thank
024you. One of our Newmark members. And so, again, we thank you for this opportunity. You don't have to wait to give us money. We'll take it even now. So we don't have to wait for anything. So anything that you can do. Because, you know, these experiences, the feedback we get from the students, from the teachers, and from the community is just tremendous. And it serves for many folks, for many young people as a jumping off point. to go even further, to go even higher. And that's what we want to do. We want to lift all boats so that community will not only be a good community, be a greater community because of its residents, because of its students, and because of the work that we're doing. And so we thank you for all your support.
025Thank you, Jason, for all your help and everyone else in this room. And we look forward to working with you even more in the future. We'll be in touch. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. All right. That was a good report out. Good report out. All righty. Not everybody leave at once now. All right. That brings us up to number seven, consent agenda approval. Can I have a motion? First of all, I'd like to ask the question, is there anything that needs to be retracted or taken out or added to? The consent agenda that a board member would like change to change or are we good with what we have here? hearing no changes, I would like a motion to approve the consent agenda as Presented to us today moved move by bill
026second second by Jamie any questions or comments? Hearing none superintendent have it All right another superintendent's report item one approve the regular meeting minutes of April 21 2026 item to approve the committee the whole meeting minutes of April 14 2026 item 3 pre approve the committee of the whole meeting closed session minutes of April 14 2026 item 4 approve the 26 27 Board of Education meeting calendar item 4 approve the press plus issue 121 revisions Underneath business, item one, approve the Board of Education financial report. Item two, approve the payment of $170,117.39 to bear construction for work completed at the middle school. Item three, approve the payment of $669,450.10 to bear construction for work completed at the middle school. Underneath personnel and culture. Item 1, approve the personnel report consisting of certified staff employment, reassignment,
027resignation, intend to retire, educational support staff, employment, resignation, intend to retire. Item D, teaching and learning, approve the 26-27 consolidated district plan. And item 2, approve the middle school overnight field trip. And that concludes the consent agenda. Thank you, Superintendent. Madam Secretary roll call please. Ms. Venegas. Dr. Hall. Aye. Mr. Swalish. Aye. Woolfolk is an aye. Zyce Thumbris. Aye. And Mr. Brown. Aye. Motion carried. Moving forward Madam Secretary you do not have to call a board member who's absent once we state unless they came back up showed up okay yeah all right thank you okay moving along number eight action report a alpha business number one can have a motion to approve the resolution debating the working cash fund of creek lonely community unit school district number 201 u will county in illinois in the
028amount of 17 million dollars move second move by jamie second by bill any questions or comments Hearing none, roll call, please, Madam Secretary. Dr. Hall? Aye. Mr. Swalich? Aye. Wolfo Cousin, aye. Zyce Dumbris? Aye. Mr. Brown? Aye. Motion carried. Moving on, number eight, action report, alpha number two. Can I have a motion to establish the date for the 2025-26 amended budget public hearing, June 9, 2026? Moved. Moved by Bill. Second. Second by Dr. Hall. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, Madam Secretary, roll call, please. Mr. Swalish. Aye. Dr. Hall. Aye. Ms. Wolf-Holkins, an aye. Zyce-Thumbris. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. Motion carried. Moving on, number eight, action report. Under Business A-Alpha, number 3, can have a motion to accept the bid results for garbage removal and recycling services at all district sites. Submitted by LI Waste
029Services, DBA, doing business as Republic Services, Inc. In the amount of $48,421.32 for the year 2026. through 2027 school year and $50,842.38 for the school year of 2027-2028 school year. Moved. Moved by Bill. Second. Second by Dr. Hall. Questions or comments? Hearing none, Madam Secretary, roll call, please. Dr. Hall? Aye. Mr. Swalish? Aye. This will focus and I vice numbers. I mr. Brown. All right motion carry Moving on number eight action report a alpha business number four can have a motion to accept the bid results for milk procurement submitted by very farms and flex pricing in the amount of 29 cents point 29.5 cents so 0.29 prices per carton for 1% white milk at .315 cents per carton for nonfat and slash or chocolate milk at 99 cents per carton for lactar milk for the
0302026-2027 school year. Moved. I think I got a little bit more reading on that. School year, sorry Bill, with the option of one year extension through the 20, 30, 20, 31 school year. Moved. Second. Second by Dr. Hall. Any questions or comments? I think I might have pronounced, I think that's lactate milk. Lactate milk. Sorry. Okay, that was moved by Bill. Second by Dr. Hall. Questions or comments? Hearing none. Roll call please. Mr. Swalish. Aye. Dr. Hall. Aye. Wolfo Kuzanai. Zykes-Dumbris. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. Motion carried. Still under Action Report Number 8, Bravo, Personnel and Culture. Can I have a motion for Number 1 under that category to approve the Administrative Salaries Increase for 2026-2027? Moved. Moved by Jamie. Second. I second. Okay. Second by Mr. Brown. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, roll call,
031please, Madam Secretary. Mr. Swalish. Aye. Dr. Hall. Aye. Wolfo is an aye. Zite Stumbris. Aye. And Mr. Brown. Aye. Motion carried. Under the same category, Personnel and Culture B, Bravo, number two, could I have a motion to approve the non-union salary increase for 2026-2027 school year? Moved. Moved by Jamie. Second. Second by Bill. Questions or comments? Hearing none, roll call please, Madam Secretary. Mr. Swalish? Aye. Dr. Hall? Aye. Wolfo Kis and I? And Zayas Thumbris? Aye. Mr. Brown? Aye. Motion carried. Number nine, do we have any old business? Yes. I know we have been talking about. updates with the capital funds is that am I saying that right uh short term uh short term capital projects for 2024 through 2026. okay um and I know we've been talking about doing the um updates in the
032auditorium with the lights and the sound and everything um and also the weight room I was trying to see if we get an update on that yeah um uh at the March 10th of the whole meeting that was when it was last presented. I do have updates on the audio and also the lead time for the weight room. I can go ahead and include that in the FYI and then I can provide a updated presentation for the committee of the whole on June 9th. Okay, thank you. I just had one item, Mr. Ogierzynski. On the sports complex, are we just down to punch list items? I know you guys were talking about possibly receding and all that other, but other than that, are we down to the 10%? Yeah, less than that, less than the
03310%. And then just whatever punch items that are left? Yeah, we're just really working on the receding and some issues with the tennis courts with some cracks on the tennis courts. So those are the last two items to my knowledge. All right, thank you. Yep. The one question do we know if and maybe this is a question for John who do we have people? Maybe not yet using the pickleball courts. I know we got like 16 of them I know that tennis uses the courts the tennis courts. Yeah, what about the pickleball court? I've seen them on both sides, but I'm aware of right now. Okay, we roll that out. I would imagine once we're a hundred percent We could probably I would assume the public You know, the public may use them a little
034bit more, but they may be afraid that it's not open yet. Do you know what I mean? Because we're still... Okay. I would say once it's done, we can say everything's open. And I was thinking in warmer weather, like the PE classes could use it. Because when I was in high school, we did pickleball. I'll be able to inside. That's where I learned pickleball. A lot of people think it's good. Yeah, I could check with Mr. Mueller, who's a division leader over physical education, provide that. And as you said, we haven't received any inquiries about using it from the public. I do know, I believe it was the Village of Crete would rent the field house space from us indoors. but haven't had any requests on that uh people were happy that the track opened
035up i know we've had people use the track no no request for the pickleball i have seen the track and that's i think the point is i think maybe when we're 100 put something out there so that the public knows because pickleball is the number one like it's the fastest growing sport so if people know that they're available for the public to use they they probably would use it we can put that on social media Especially with summer, we're like knocking on the door in the next two weeks. I think Bill wants to play pickleball. So we are out there playing, or people are playing pickleball. Is there any complaints about noise, anything like that? That's not a problem, right? Haven't heard anything about noise levels or anybody complaining about noise? Okay. The courts are
036in a unique location. There's nothing there. So regardless if they played constantly, they're so far away from anything. Okay, that's good. That's good. Excellent. All right. Any further old business? Any new business items? Hearing none, we do have a reason to go into closed session. And the reasons being for the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees. collective bargaining, and pending litigation. Can I have a motion to go into closed session for those reasons stated? Moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Do you have any idea how long, roughly? All right. We will be in closed sessions in between 45 minutes and an hour, and we will not be taking any further action. Correct. No further actions after coming out of closed session. So thank you public for joining us this evening. We
037look forward to having you join us at our next board meeting next month. So thank you. Have a good evening. Be safe. Roll call. I do? Okay. Oh, you're right. I'm really trying to rush it. Okay, fair enough. We got a second. We got a motion, right? Who's second? Who first? Who moved? I moved and I think Bill seconded. You did? Okay, no question. Comments and estates are raising. Roll call, please. Okay. Dr. Hall. Aye. Mr. Swalish. Aye. Will focus an aye. Zayce Numbers. Aye. Mr. Brown. Aye. We are in closed session.