001You're welcome to come in and sit down. I see you. Come on in. There's plenty of seats. Greg, see you guys. Hello everybody. Welcome, welcome to church. Uh, you are hereby notified that there will be a committee of the whole meeting of the board of education, school district number 40 at 6 p.m. on Monday, November 10th, 2025 at Bartlet Performing Arts Center, 3600 Avenue Cities only. Uh, so if I could have open the meeting, roll call, please. Adamson >> here. >> J Smith, Ramona Dixon, Jason Frell >> here, >> Lindsay Hines >> here, >> Jeff Mayus >> here, Laura Severson >> here, >> Abigail Greenley >> here, >> Vernon Mwell >> here. >> Approval of the minutes uh approve the minutes of the committee the whole meeting of October 13, 2025. Make a motion. >>
002Any discussion? >> All in favor? uh public comment and participation if any other. So next up we have a Veterans Day special recognition for only [clears throat] Cole Valley employees who have served. So thank you all that have joined us here uh tonight the wonderful display out there. Um so if you can come around um we're just gonna you say me so when you come up who's one of our amazing student award members but also part of oh is here as well injury club is gonna present you with a token of our appreciation and your service. Um, so first up we have David Brown, uh, assistant principal for Roosevelt, uh, served in the Air Force National Guard, the crew chief, one of B1. >> [laughter] >> Uh, next we have Lydia Valero, special ed professional
003for Roosevelt, uh, US Navy NS supply officer, coach for High School, National Guard in Active Writing Reserve. uh family and consumer science teacher from MHS, US Navy reserves, Master of Arms, third class. Baris Holmes, track coach for John Middle School, US Army sergeant, deployed to Iraq for two tours. Agree. Lit. General maintenance. District warehouse. US Army Infantry Corp. Home. McKenzie, computer science teacher. Donier Middle School, US Marine Corp Reserve Warren Officer. >> Evan McNeil, middle school boys soccer coach. Wilson Middle School, US Marine Corps Corporal, deployed Iraq war veteran. Gail Morell District Elementary School's US Army sergeant first class specialist painter district warehouse 44 private station air station. Scott Rice, a specialist HVAC district warehouse, US Navy officer deployed to Afghanistan, Spain, and Guang Specialist, District Office, US Navy Petty Officer, Third Class. Adley Thompson,
004maintenance specialist, warehouse, US reserves paramedic, petty officer, second class. Library professional, Roosevelt, Washington, US Navy processor, second class. Gary B, general maintenance district warehouse, US Army Reserve, Infantry Private. Gregory BS custodian bowling high school US Army Reserves private um in your back you'll find um you know a small gift of appreciation for being maroons who showed up. Um so we appreciate that you are here and um by us here today. So thank you for your service. And you also have I don't know if you want the other things that they have because they all >> they were also handed poppies which were kind of like a symbol of like what World War II was and like how they would grow in like the no man's land. But yeah, that's another thing that's really cool. >>
005Yeah. and the history club, all the members of the history club created handcrafted notes for each and every one of you. So that's >> all right. >> And I would like to invite um we had our guest here today for the military veterans memorial. I believe it is Jeff and Rick. Are they back there? Um just to come up if you'd like to to just say a few words about your day here with us only. What an honor and I want to thank Savage for inviting us. We've had a great time. Really impressed with your students. They they've got to be the top. We had great questions. We really enjoyed the teachers preparing some worksheets for them. Uh that's kind of what it's all about. We're trying to get patriotism back into the schools. And
006uh both Rick and I have been in education a total of over 60 years. And I know I don't look like that, but it's been an awesome experience with you all. And uh we we do several schools during the year and and we've done several schools during the past. And I've got to tell you, you you're pushed through to the top. So again, thank you for having us. The kids need this. Your students need this. [clears throat] Too many of our veterans, all of you guys, what you did makes everything that we had valuable. And we no one could do anything without what you did. Uh, and it doesn't matter if you were the head of the spear or the shaft of the the handle. I mean, it doesn't matter. You all did this for
007us and we we are thankful to you. We owe you. And that's what the students need to know, okay? They we all are indebted to our military and the service of our veterans. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Well, I'll keep it short. I'm a retired superintendent. So, it's the only time I've been to a board meeting when I really wasn't nervous. [laughter] Thank you. I can enjoy this. But anyway, Jeff, he is the the creator of the entire museum. Uh we love kids. That's the That's the bad part. I retired five times >> because I just needed that environment and uh my last job was a pretty rough job. So, then I thought, I guess I'll just retire. So anyway, we miss the kids and it's just like it's like just fun when [clears throat]
008they're here and we don't >> without the lesson plans. >> We don't have to regret them or anything. We can just talk with them and and and they have great questions. You know, we at the end we could let kids sit in the Jeep, but we had so many during the day we would have never gotten out here. Put them in the Jeep and let get your picture taken. It's like gosh, man, it's so cool. But anyway, thank you. And as a superintendent, if I had a school like this, I might have still been a superintendent, >> but uh it is by far the best. And we met her. >> I got to be careful of some things I can say here. >> I met her when she was on the way back. [laughter] >>
009Who do you do? So anyway, it was great and uh we can come back anytime. We'll get a truck that runs better. We don't have to stop seven times on the way up here. But anyway, thank you so much and you should be very, very proud of your school. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here and being part of our meeting. >> Next end of the 11th hour on the 11th day of November 1918. It was known as Armmesus Day. Today the day is known as Veterans Day. The symbol that came out of World War I were the poppies which grew on the battlefields. While poppies are predominantly used to honor the fallen on Memorial Day, the poppy is also used by some organizations to get donations to support veterans on
010Veterans Day. The poppies were made famous due to a poem from veteran John McCrae called In Flanders Fields. In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row and row that mark our place and in the sky the larks still bravely singing why scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead short days ago we lived felt dawn saw sunset glow loved and were loved and now we lie in Flanders fields. The MHS History Club would like to honor the Molen Cole Valley School District employees who not only serve our community but have served our country by presenting them with a poppy and a simple thank you. >> Brian David, US Navy. Thank you for your service. >> Rich Kintana, US Marine Corps. Thank you for your service. >> Josh Rice, US Navy. Thank
011you for your service. John Cornmeer, National Guard. Thank you for your service. >> John Sullivan, US Navy. Thank you for your service. Tvaris Holmes, US Army. Thank you for your service. >> Gregory Lenet, US Army. Thank you for your service. >> Douglas Hadley Swanson, US Navy. Thank you for your service. >> Chris McKenzie, US Marine Corps. Thank you for your service. >> Gail Morell, US Army. Thank you for your service. >> David McNail, US Marine Corps. Thank you for your service. >> Gary BS, US Army. Thank you for your service. >> Gregory BS, US Army. Thank you for your service. >> David Brown, Air Force National Guard. Thank you for your service. >> Stacy Vanam, US Navy. Thank you for your service. >> Lydia Valero Chapel, US Navy. Thank you for your service. Thanks to
012Mr. Lanir as well leadership capable progress update or the people Dr. Savage. >> Yes. Uh we will keep this short and sweet, but one of the things that we would like to do this year is just to provide a couple of brief updates um in the middle of the year rather than waiting all the way until the end of the year. Just to give a couple of bullet points um just to let the board of education know of the great work that's happening behind the scenes uh with our pay schools. We call this our action tracker and we sit down and look at this action tracker once a month. the names identified in green under the point people, but that doesn't mean that those are the only individuals responsible for that goal. We are a
01313 member district leadership team and we are all responsible for making sure that the work gets done. I'm really, really, really proud of our district leadership team. Everybody takes responsibility for all of the goals. Each month we take about 10 minutes of just silent entering and all of these bullet points are just things that are happening throughout the year. Um we don't want to wait till the end of the year to try to remember everything that's been done. So we try to do it periodically every couple of weeks. Uh tonight we just wanted to hit on our people goal and we have three people goals. The first one is what we call our ascend goal. And I'd like to uh welcome Bob Beam and Jeff Twitter to give us an update on our ascend goal.
014>> Okay, so a little bit about the ascend goal. Um we just want to share a little bit of the progress that we've made toward this particular pace goal. Um this is a big goal. Uh the particular goal aims to strengthen our support systems for high achieving secondary students. So the idea behind the ascend goal is that we're going to create structured personalized advising systems that help kids who show strong academic potential reach their full potential. And so as we dug into this goal a little bit towards the beginning of the year um there there really is uh some different pillars involved with this particular goal. um there's this intentional guidance, there's strategic course planning, and there's some expanded learning opportunities. So, we kind of have been approaching it uh through that lens of two
015main ideas. Expanding learning opportunities for kids and then developing a targeted transition plan. So, we want to be able to help kids graduate with more college credit or more advanced coursework options. Um, also beginning at the middle level, we want to be able to, um, have a transition program that is more robust, more comprehensive, um, involves families and ensures that each student's path into high school is clear and relative to the goal, a more personalized plan. So, collaboratively, I think we've made quite a bit of effort or progress toward this goal. Uh at this point, uh Jeff's going to talk a little bit about some of the specific actions we've taken, some of the partnerships that we've been building as we work to bring this essential to life. >> Thank you. Um yeah, couple of
016things to start out is the for transition planning between 8th and 9th grade. Um that is a pretty vital time in in an academic career. Uh and working with junior high administrators and junior high counselors and high school counselors. uh as a collaborative effort uh we're working on uh expan u kind of bolstering our course curriculum night which will be on January 13th and to kind of take a look at have some student le sections um so junior high students can hear what from like from the students not just teachers and administrators and things uh also um during that time uh departments will have continue what they normally do with uh showing off what courses they have and kind of uh promoting their departments and then the the the the other big piece that we're
017adding this year is kind of a planning student working session that will have counselors um and administrators and teachers and things working with parents and students to take a look at like four-year planning and what their freshman year might look like. Um that's always been done at the student level, but we want to make sure that parents are included so you can see what options you have going into that into that freshman year. Um, another thing kind of expanding, uh, you know, Bob mentioned kind of expanding opportunities. We're always taking a look at what like rigorous courses we can offer. We've been meeting with like different schools throughout the area, including Blackhawk College and other high schools in the area to kind of see what dual credit offerings they have, AP uh, AP and like
018associates degree programs to figure out how we can bolster that. Um, one of those things that that has led us to do is we are going to be adding uh an AP environmental science course. Um, which is part of a bigger project which is uh changing the science sequencing. Uh, right now we are a physics first school and we are going to move back to uh biology first. Um, kind of going through this process. I know I I've been kind of informed this has been something that's been talked about for a couple of years and kind of the big reason that led us to this in terms of like academic rigor and taking a look at those things is biology is a huge part of the ACT and now I'm switching back from the SAT
019to the ACT but ensuring that you know ninth graders get that biology and so it's not just a kind of a secondary option when you go into junior year it'll be part of the curriculum uh going going in into into that uh area. Um and that's yeah because those are updates that I have. >> So yeah so we've been kind of strengthening some of the partnerships just exploring a lot of things right now. Um the science sequencing piece was big and then we it opened up other opportunities for us which kind of led to this goal. Um we know we have you know our next steps moving forward looking at the goal specifically. We know that um we need to determine some characteristics and criteria for students who would qualify for this targeted individualized advising.
020Um so that's one of our next steps. Along with that, we're exploring some professional learning opportunities for our counselors focus on advanced advising, transition supports, and family engagement. Uh we're continuing to explore some dual degree uh and advanced learning partnerships. um revamping our transition program that Jeff talked about with some targeted advising for our IG students as part of that and um and creating some communication materials uh that outline the 8th to 9th grade transition pathways. What we've really discovered as we've moved forward um kind of with [clears throat] this goal um is that while we work on these elements of the ascended pace goal, many of the structures that we're developing like the the family involved goal setting, the robust more systematic transition planning, these expanded opportunities, the course mapping is really being built
021to scale for all students. Um, so we recognize the need, we recognize the need to have kind of a more cohesive and uniform transition structure for all our kids and we're actively working on that with the ascend goal of intentional and targeted advising for our high achieving kids as a piece of that larger plan. So it's really um expanded I think but it's been a really good process. We we've been doing a lot of work towards it. I'm excited to slow That's >> two things. First, I think it's great if we're looking at the associates program like a lot of students have gone through the program at North and Western and so I think exploring that and also the science sequence. Um as part of this also looking at our scheduling capacity then because we're
022saying hey there's these great things and we want these students to walk away from that but we know there's limitations periods that scheduling capacity and so I guess that alternate scheduling stuff is that part of the conversation. >> So it is and and we actually met with representatives from North and Eastern Iowa Community Colleges to see how they run that dual graduate program where the kids have a get a diploma and an associates degree. um the uh the schools in Iowa operate a little differently. Uh so there are some challenges, potential roadblocks, but we're still kind of moving forward with it. But yes, to answer the question, part of that too is um taking a look at staffing um looking at opportunities, purposeful hiring perhaps uh moving forward to be able to expand some of
023these opportunities, you know. So just kind of having that eye on the goal on the future and then being really purposeful in the steps we take toward that. >> Thank you. >> I think one thing that I would add is I think that focusing on that transition between is awesome and definitely the right thing. I also think it is unfortunately not too early to start thinking about how what they take in grade impacts knowledge. Things like what schools require foreign language or what states do. it sounds with our two-year-old coming out of eighth grade and you're trying to explain to them why they need to take a foreign language all four years that you know they just can't quite grasp that. So I think somehow integrating college preparing students are probably likely going to some
024two or four year school helping them understand kind of that foury year high school path and then how that affects college choices >> and I can speak to that a little bit. So, one thing that's going to be a significant change in that kind of parent planning and then also like the junior high counselor meeting with the eighth graders is creating more like um examples of pathways. And so, right now the course catalog currently has kind of like a general outline and an honors outline, but adding kind of like adding these additional courses that we're talking about also ask uh like our CPE courses. you're talking about like if we want to go into welding apprentichip, this is kind of the pathway um by growing grow your teacher program to all the different electives and
025things. We have an offer even like the east uh the area career center over in East Molen. So make sure that when they're going through this process they see all the options and they see it in a four-year plan to your point. So it's not just okay what's right in front of me you know two weeks from now but if I you know take this internship course what does that get me later on. Absolutely. >> And those conversations too, we recognize the importance of starting not even necessarily eighth grade, but grade and sixth grade and and and trying to really illustrate and communicate different pathways. Um so yeah, that's some of the work we're doing. We've got lots of ideas. So >> what are you guys seeing just diving into this um with kids coming
026up from ML families or ESL families and expanding that access to kids who may not be restore some of some of the barriers. >> So, I mean, at the when we do the course curriculum night, we'll make sure that we're getting like parent coordinators and and translators and in involved in that process uh to make sure that we are meeting the need of of everybody for sure. >> I would just like to give a shout out to Bob and Jeff and Brian. I mean, as a secondary team, they've only been working together for a few months, and they've really accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. So, I'm really really um grateful for everything that they've been able to tackle so far. So, thank you. I know they've been working really really
027hard uh trying to um have this goal kind of evolve um as the year goes on. Real quickly, our portrait of a Molen Co Valley School District leader. This is really going to be our third portrait. We've done a portrait of a graduate uh for our students which was led by 100 or so stakeholders of adults and kids. We did portrait of an educator which was developed by a group of about 80 students. And this year we're working on portrait of a leader. Todd uh is taking the lead on that as well. We're in the process right now gathering teacher feedback. So, uh, our principles are working with our teachers on their Wednesdays to develop a list of core competencies. So, right now, we're collecting that feedback through the buildings. That's really the first step.
028Um, I was able to go to was invited uh to go to the portrait of a graduate conference and really learn some of the strategies that districts are using across the nation to bring that portrait into practice. And I had a lot of districts ask about our portrait of an educator and how in the heck did we get students to create that and develop that. So lots of shout outs for the students. So we're really just simply replicating the process that we've done um with the previous two portraits. But with that, we're hoping that um we'll get a full um view of all of our employees and really just a great lens for our stakeholders. like to give a shout out to Todd in HR and he's first thought a great way to be able
029to utilize these portraits in the hiring process and being able to say hey these are our expectations. Um so that is kind of a quick update on portrait of a leader and as far as this second piece which was a carryover from last year about finding an opportunity for students to be able to recognize teachers that's a carryover component of the portrait of a leader and goal. Uh we're working on two options for that right now. We're exploring a vendor option and we're exploring an internally developed option. Um we're actually um looking at a vendor called Highlight and they're actually um developing um some tools. Um we talked about students toteer recognition. They have a teacher toteer or staffto staff recognition tool. that were very intrigued by that and took it back to their sort
030of R&D department and are looking to um offer some sort of a pilot for us. Um but also Brian um and his team have been working on an internally developed program to where students will be able to recognize their teachers when they see exemplary uh performance or them exhibiting those high achieving factors. So those things are well in motion. We're really um excited about that work. over to Brian for the AI goal. >> Yeah. So, I'm kind of excited. Uh the AI goal. So, um Shannon Hardy and Craig Reed have put in a tremendous amount of time in staying ahead of AI in terms of education and what we know about it. So, um they're not here tonight, but I want to give them a shout out because we've been working really hard and um
031um the state of Illinois is going to have their plan released sometime July 2026 is the goal. But through our research and working together, there's a lot of with Craig and Shannon, there's a lot of states, there's like 26 states that have already adopted um a lot of guidance and uh one of the sites that we've been watching is called uh teach I think it's AI teach and they've got a lot of framework on there. So, what we've done so far as a district is we did I'm really excited. I I sent this to Lenny last second. This is our survey that we sent out to our teachers just recently. We got over 200 responses to kind of gauge what um kind of stages of what we're doing to sample our teachers. And the logo
032at the top, Lenny, that was a logo. We created kind of our artificial intelligence initiative, which I thought was pretty cool because we did use AI to create it and and prompt us. We actually prompted it based on what we were trying to accomplish and it took our logo into account, I think. So, I thought that was neat. But uh so where we're at from the district, we we took that data from our teachers and we analyzed it and we looked at it and we were able to sort that out and we formed a committee. We're going to meet next Tuesday, November 18th with teachers. We have um students on we have a couple students on that committee. I think uh uh Broom, did you accept or know Abby, you were asked, right? And there
033was a comment, but we got some students, we got some parents, and then Ramona is on there from the board. So, we're going to meet uh next Tuesday and then following that meeting, uh Rachel and I are meeting with over 70 students on I believe it's the uh the next day on the on the 19th. So, um we're working through this initiative with the idea of getting that input and forming basically a guidance for for us as a district and following in uh what's already out there. So, it's not like we're going to really be trading anything perhaps, but we're really going to really bridge until the state of Illinois has something more formal, which we assume similar to what's out there, but we're excited about it. We're moving forward with it and u it's,
034you know, it's such a hot topic and it's really evolving so fast. So, it's it's exciting to um be part of this and that I I feel like we're in really good shape district. Any questions? Next up we have development. >> So that's the audit presentation. The other one >> the PDF one. >> Yeah, it's right there. There's your caption. Um so this is the roof that redevelopment zone is a a statewide initiative um that cities or communities can take advantage of. Um and it it's kind of a twist a little bit of a twist on like a tip zone. Um so Chris Mias from the city is here tonight to kind of present on that give you a little bit of an overview um and and just a little bit more information on what
035the city is planning. >> Thanks. So I'm Chris. I'm the director of community and economic development for the city of Molen. I'm in charge of all the city planners, the economic developers, the building inspector. So it's all about development, trying to grow our city. We're trying to support it and um what I'm going to present to you today is just want to take about five minutes to talk about this tool, which is really just another tool in the toolbox for us. We're hoping um in terms of development. So, River's Edge really comes from the River Edge redevelopment zone. Back in 2006, there were three pilot cities in the in Illinois and it's now grown, I think, to 14 cities um with Molen, Rock Island, East Molen all given the the opportunity now to apply and
036create their own belt. So, um this really these were river cities that had historic river fronts that now you can imagine have environmental issues. They have maybe some blight and we need to create jobs in those areas and revitalize those areas. So, um I'm going to talk more about where the zone would be, but effectively it needs to be 4,500 ft from a river. Um we have two rivers, which I think is something the state didn't realize, and we'll be investigating this for the Rock River as well, but for right now, we're just going to talk about the Mississippi. That's going to be the first one we're going to set up. And of course, that's the oldest uh part of our town as well. So, the whole goal here is to try and level the
037economic development playing field of Iowa. You know, we've seen so much development happening in Iowa side. really been this kind of thing where things go over there and they're leaving the Illinois side. And so we need to find ways to support both sides of the Illinois cloud cities and um like Vince said, this would be different than TIFF. If this and of course this this potential zone here that we're talking about would overlap some existing tiffs, but you can't um somebody in this zone cannot take both benefits. They would have to pick or choose one or the other. What are we competing against? First of all, something on the Illinois side here, you can or on the Iowa side, you can see these five different zones with automatic um incentives already tied to it. So,
038I know if I'm in central Free and I do a multi-residential project in the Iowa over on the Iowa side, I'm going to get a 100% property tax rebate for 10 years, I don't have to come to a city council and negotiate. I just know I get that. So, it's kind of setting up a system. What we're trying to do with ours is set up a system where we know if I do this type of project, I get this type of benefit and I don't have to go negotiate. and it there's a confidence to invest in that. It attracts developers and they know like on the Iowa side here, you can see the amount of investment that's been happening. Um, and the only thing I really want to point out about this chart here is
039the gray is the amount of exemptions they're doing for property taxes, right? And you can see when it gets to about 2024, 2025, they're anticipating now that the exemptions are going to fall off and the 38B is going to go about three times what it was 10 years before. Um, so I said I'd talk more about where this zone is. Roughly 4,500 Freak in the river takes you. Um, on the west side of town about to 16th Avenue on the east side of town, not quite to 12th Avenue. As you can imagine, there's a lot of historic buildings or older buildings um, in those areas. And so this zone, it's the the best incentive, I guess the best project for this zone is going to be an old building where you rehab that building and
040put a new use in there. Um so as we look at the zone um they're actually a lot of the old school buildings are ideal candidates. Um we've got a redevelopment in place for the old McKinley school on Fifth Avenue. Um that developer is like okay I need this you know come spring I need this I need this incentive that'll be mostly a sort of tax credit deal but um other incentives are going to make that work too. So what the RERZ is a set of standards and incentives that will apply to certain projects. Okay. and it's going to be structured to meet the needs of our community. What it's not is not tiff in that if I was to tiff a district and of course the city's done many tiffs over the years, but
041when you set a tiff, you effectively set the base for every parcel that's in that t. What this will be doing is leaving it exact same as it is now. The EABS will creep up as they do every year until a project happens. And if a project was to happen, we'll talk about what those incentives can be. So there's many automatic incentives that come with this just as part of the state program. The number one incentive that's part of this is the historic tax credits. So right now if you were to do a historic tax credit project in our city, what you probably find is that the Chicago areas use them all. You go and you be like, "Oh, there's none left and sorry, you know, wait till next year again." What this will do
042is basically create a um unlimited pot of historic tax credits for these projects. So they can they school if Allenale redevelops um other you know many old buildings you can find downtown um if they qualify to be landmark they can get historic tax credits and we should have that and that's going to be the biggest source of equity for our projects. Second biggest one um and that's the reason I'm here today talk about is a property tax rebate. Now many of these other cities have included a property tax rebate. They've really only had the city's portion of a tax bill. The other thing is that they have not had a state like Iowa on the other side of the river. So, um, Rafford's not dealing with that. Poria is not dealing with that. Ka Key
043is not, but we have Iowa on the other side of the river. And so, we'd like to try and build a property tax rebate to about 90% of the tax bill um for for 10 years um for certain types of projects. So, for residential, we're thinking a multif family project of five units of more. You know, make it make it be something where we know when it hits that threshold, okay, that's kind of project that we want. Um, but you'd really have a system set up where in this zone, property taxes continue to go up like they normally would. If you had a qualifying project, at that point, property taxes are still going to say what say what they are for you now. VAS will still say what they are for you now. But at
044that point, you could repay back what that project generates over 10 years. That's a way to, you know, not to give money to a developer or give money to anybody else, but it's a way to just make um what you're seeing happening with the housing crisis right now and just development in general is that they can't make it pencil, right? Cost of construction, the cost of the material, the cost of everything else, they just can't pencil it. And so, this is a way that hopefully combined with all these other incentives for, you know, building materials and environmental cleanup and things like that that we can start to see more um more things happening in this area of the city. And the final thing I'll say about the property tax rebate is we would gear it
045towards this um you know commercial development of certain certain thresholds multifamily of five units or more. Um and then of course we would look to um like I said maximize to get all the taxing bodies involved. We've had preliminary talk with all the taxing bodies and I think we can get this done. The reason I'm saying 90% as opposed to 100% is in talking with Vince you know we know there are possibly certain districts that may want to get a little cash a little bit of that growth back. And so that's why we're thinking, you know, if we have 10% to play with Roy, you know, half of that goes to the school district back, half of it goes to the other taxing bodies that might need some of that um to capture a little
046bit of that growth. So um you know, final steps after this, um we're looking to get the application in here by the end of the year, first of the year, and we'd like to have this set up in the you know, before the construction in the spring so we can start to incentivize projects. But um if we can confirm the participation of all the taxing bodies, we can then move on to public hearings then hopefully having an IGA with all these taxing bodies uh together. So happy to answer any questions that you have on this. But um really thankful to have all of your support so we can just try and get our um like I said try and match the development activity that we're seeing on the other side of the river. >> No
047question. It's just a comment. It's It's great when not just one Mias presents at school board meeting, but two. I saw your son with history club. So, girls, >> any questions for Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> And we have adjournment. A motion. Okay. A little regular meeting of the board of education district immediately following home meeting on Monday is considered as uh publicing roll call here. >> Smith, Ramona Dixon, Jason Perrell here, >> Lindy Hines here, >> Mayus here, Laura Severson here, >> Abigail Greenland >> here, any board of education members participating remotely enough. We have any correct? Uh so pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all approval of minutes of the open
048session of the regular board of education meeting of October 27th 2025. Second favor of the close session of the regular board of education meeting of October 27th, 2025. >> Any discussion? >> Okay. All in favor? >> I communication public comment or participation. Consent agenda. Recommended motion is the board of education approve of the actions contained in the consent agenda as presented. Um roll call discussion calls. >> Hi >> Jeff Mayus. >> Hi >> Lori Stevenson. >> Hi >> Adamson. >> Hi >> Jason. >> Reports request open discussion. There we go. Superintendent report. >> Yeah I'll be quick as well. Um, it's hard to believe triple eye of the joint annual conference is next week already the end of next week. Uh, Tara has your badges. Um, and please reach out if you have any questions
049in the coming days regarding any logistics, but hopefully you have all of the information that you need. [clears throat] Um, the naming and mascot selection committee met last week and it was quite the meeting. Uh we have again just as a reminder 19 stakeholders on that committee both internal and external. Want to thank uh Mr. Manis and Bun for serving on that committee. We've got teachers, we've got staff, we've got parents, community members uh representing Lincoln Irving and Willard's uh neighboring community and it's really been fun just to watch the process grow. Um just a couple of analytics from the first survey that was open for the month of November. We had 76 original mascot entries. Um the duplicates were removed and there were 13 mascots removed for ineligibility. So either they were repeated mascots
050already in play for local schools. uh five were considered trendy and one would have been way too complicated for kids to say or spell per the rules or guidance that we all agreed upon. [clears throat] That left um the remaining names for the committee to review. As far as school names, uh we had 119 original entries and the duplicates were obviously removed. 43 of those names were removed for ineligibility. Seven people were removed for still living. We say fortunately they were still living. Uh which would be um against the guidance um that we abided by. 19 of the school names were very close if not replicates of schools in the region. Um 15 were considered trendy, not timeless, and two would have been very complicated and tough for kids to say or spell. So that
051left all of the remaining school names and mascots for the committee to take a look at. And I didn't know or Jeff or Brian who were there wouldn't say anything about the process. >> Uh for starters, thank group that you guys formed and assembled uh for this challenging yet exciting task. Um it's just a really exemplary, a great group of people. um they're maintaining real laser focus um with both with ourselves and at the task at hand. And it's it's remarkable for how diverse and from many many different backgrounds within our district. Um but how great they're all doing kind of all moving in the same direction to arrive at what we will ultimately be [clears throat] the world. It's very exciting. It's great division. >> Yeah, I think it's amazing. Everyone's offering their opinion
052which is not something I expected. everyone is really involved in this. So, >> just it's just great to see. I mean, the submissions that Dr. S just mentioned and narrowing it down just a phenomenal list, it's it's now in the community's hands, right? So, >> so the committee narrowed the list down to 12 mascots and 19 names. And that survey was launched right before the meeting. And I've been doing a little live watching over here. I normally don't have my computer up, but uh we have just in the last I it's only been on for about an hour and a half, two hours, 338 folks. >> And so far it's the has gone to parents and to um all staff. So we still have to send the to students and we still have to do
053social media. We were just trying to get it up before we came to the meeting. Also, uh, we timed it with the fall newsletter that will go into every single resident's mailbox in Molen and Co Valley. So, they will get the QR code. So, truly, every single person in our community will have an opportunity to give input. And so, this survey will remain open. Really, it can stay open pretty much all the way leading up to the December 8th board meeting. thinking maybe turning it off December 5th, Friday that December 5th, but I'm just am blown away and just the detail and the thought and engaging process behind people's choice is really exciting. So, um, any other questions on that process? I really feel like we're going to get there and I feel like you
054at the board of education will have some, uh, worthy um, finalists to choose from. We're asking the committee to narrow to to choose three so that we can bring a couple of choices to the board of education because ultimately hopefully it is to her decision. But um I'm really blown away just this has exceeded my expectations. I'm so proud of our community. Um and lastly um board of education appreciation day is November 15th. Uh this month we join districts across Illinois in recognizing uh school board member day. On behalf of the Molen Co Valley School District, I want to express my sincere appreciation to the board of education for your dedication, vision, and countless hours of service to our students, staff, and community. You serve not for recognition or reward, but out of deep commitment
055to ensuring that every student in our district's district has access to an excellent education. You are policy makers, advocates, problem solvers, and community leaders. But most importantly, you are champions for all kids. As superintendent and as the employee who works most closely with the board of education, I know how fortunate we are to be led by such an engaged, thoughtful, and supportive board. Whether in times of trouble or in times of celebration, I'm really proud to serve at the board of education. Your collaborative spirit, focus on continuous improvement, and genuine care for our community make Molen Co Valley stronger district and a better place for students. Um, and I'm really grateful again for the board's um, appreciation and willingness to allow students to serve on our board of education. I think that continues to be
056a beacon in our region and across the state. And I want I want to thank Abby and Verun. I know you are um busy students and it takes time out of your busy day and schedules to be here, but I'm really grateful uh for your service as well and representing the students in this district. So, thank you from all of us uh for your service on the board as well. Um and we just want you to know how much we appreciate. That's all I have. Uh next up, we have the student board of education member report. So, So NHS is gearing up for shared off but it's coming it is second week of December. So all of our committees have started um meeting or we'll be meeting in the next week for um elves. Our
057raffle committee has started reaching out to all the businesses to get donations. Donate eating committee is getting teams together to in our donate eating competition. And then last week on Thursday, Interact Club went to the student hunger drive finale rally um over at the warehouse for urban food bank in Iowa. We as a school district raised 26,000 pounds of food, which is about 7,000 more pounds than we had last year. It's about 15 pallets worth of food. I could not believe how many pallets we had raised in the seed shop. like it's just an unfathomable amount of food to raise and so I'm very proud of our district for that. Um, and then overall all the high schools throughout the area raised almost 1 million meals. And then with Riverben's new million meals match program
058that they implemented this year, um, over 3 million meals have raised for uh, the entire >> and I want to talk about the sports. Um, only cross country sent two athletes to state. So, I want to congratulate both of them and congratulate the team overall for an amazing season and the first ever MHS women's wrestling season is happening now. They just started so good luck to them and I want to keep up with their success throughout the season. And I want to thank Mr. Lamp here and the history club for orchestr orchestrating such an amazing event. And I want to thank the veterans themselves for serving their community and serving the country time and time again. And once again, if you want to support history club, they're still selling legacy bricks online and they would
059appreciate any kind of historical arts to be donated. That's >> uh board of education open discussion. >> Just two quick things. one with the uh conference next weekend as the delegate. Usually, last time I was the delegate, there's all these issues. So, I put a whole presentation together for all of us and walk through all the things we're voting on. This year, there's one issue. It's a blessing issue that doesn't impact our district at all. So, I'm just going to follow the recommendation and they're voting. They make the frontier lunch on time this year. It's short and quick. Um so, like you said, no presentation for that. Um and then second, talk about some of the the student drive event here was amazing. Like my kids had blast the way they did every room differently
060and something that I hope more community members come to next year, but really cool. >> That's awesome here. >> Yeah, we've been blessed. >> Again, I say this has been fun kind of watching some of our students out there helping put everything away while we're doing this and rather quietly too. Um, but just a lot of familiar faces out there. So, that's wonderful. I'm so glad this happened tonight. Um and then just another thing about just the level of engagement in district. So I on Saturday was ILMA. Um so we had a ton of students participating both for band choir and orchestra. So band and choir were over at Auggie. So I was over there in the evening with my son. But during the day I came and was helping with some lunch for the
061orchestra. We got to host orchestra here and it was amazing. But was also amazing was that the same time we had that happening, we also had an academic team uh event happening and a robotics event happening. So this place all day on a Saturday was just hopping. you know, just students and uh families coming in and just engaged and it was just a lovely lovely thing and such such good energy. Um so just want to say I think it's just um amazing and just like the individuals from the military veterans memorial said I mean we have good stuff happening here um each and every day with an educator. So nothing else. Okay. On to annual financial reports. Mr. Galla, >> I know how excited all of you are. >> Um, [clears throat] so I would
062just like to first say that uh this was another clean audit. Um, the district had no findings on this report and uh we have a 4.0 recognition status. Um, a large part of that is due to the business office and their day-to-day work. Um, making sure that we're in compliance with everything. Um, you know, coming and doing everything that they need to do to ensure that we have a nice clean audit like we have. Um, but I also want to give a special thank you to Jen Barton who's here today. Um, she has done a phenomenal job ever since she stepped foot in this district. Um, she's a great resource for everybody who calls her. um and she has done she's put in countless hours preparing for this audit uh and working handinhand with our
063auditors. So, thank you, Jen. We appreciate all the work that you've done. So, I'm going to turn it over to Sarah Bonsai. She's just going to go over um a quick overview of our audit where we are. >> Sometimes I think the technology is my biggest challenge here. And by the way, I think it's fun. The audit is fun. >> Yeah. >> In your honor. Okay. Okay. So, the first slide is the deliverables. Um, every year when we come out to do the audit, we come up with the 2025 comprehensive financial report. Um, that's the the bound document. I know many of you got it in electronic form. We also prepared the Illinois State Board of Education annual financial report that's filed with the Illinois State Board of Education tomorrow morning first thing. Um, and
064then there's a couple different letters of communication to you. The required communications, we really think of this as the report card of the audit. Um and while we come out to do the audit, we came out to do three different types of audit. The first one is the financial statement audit. We issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements um which is the highest form of opinion that you can receive. There was an emphasis of a matter paragraph in that opinion. This year, the district was required to adopt the compensated absences standard um which resulted in recognizing your sick leave as a liability when it was on the full acral uh which was about 13.6 million. So that was a large liability and a large standard to implement. Uh the next type of audit that
065we do is the government auditing standards audit. The purpose of that twofold. One is to look at your internal control system and then to test it to make sure that it's functioning as it was designed and the other part of that is to look at your compliance with laws, regulations, contracts and grants of that audit. We had no findings. So that's a very clean audit. Um and then the last audit we do is your federal single audit and you'll see the big draft up there this year. Um the OM the office of management and budget has not issued the compliance supplement which is kind of the guidelines of which we do that audit um at this point and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has has uh put out a a memo that we
066are not to release any of those until the compliance supplement comes out. We did audit it based on the draft audit or the draft compliance supplement. Um, and we have no findings, but we have to wait until the end to see um if there's any changes in that supplement. Okay, the next page is looking at the revenues of the district. And I guess one thing to point out is when I'm we're looking at the revenues and the expenditures, this is on the full acral basis of accounting. So you're normally working with your your funds accounting and this is as if the entire district was consolidated and reported like a business. Um your total revenues for 2025 were 149.3 million compared to 2024 where there were 150.5 million. Um so you actually have a decrease of
067about $1.2 million in those. The biggest one if you look across is the corporate personal property replacement tax and that's statemandated payment. Um they had uh warned us if you will that they were going to have a 33% decrease and yours is amounted to about $3.2 million and it was exactly a 33% decrease. Um that was offset by an increase in your evidence-based funding formula um which was about 3.3 million and also your property tax increased. Um you had a a increase in your assessed values, your taxable assessed values this year. The next page is looking at at your expenditures. Um, your expenditures were 132.6 million this year compared to about 122 million last year. It was about a $10 million increase. Um this is is primarily within your um support service. And as we
068looked at that um under this full acral you also have to recognize your pension expense, your other postmployment benefit expense and also the compensated absence that I referred to. Um the pension expense and the oped expense are actuarial calculations and they do tend to swing. Um the pension was about $2.1 million impact to your support services. OPED was about 2.5 million which makes up about half of that. Um and compensated absences was about a $500,000 impact to that. And then there were some increases in purchase services throughout the year. Um, another thing I wanted to point out on this slide is that at June 30th, you had outstanding bonds of about 16.8 million. Um, the district paid about 6 million in principal and 635,000 in interest this year. Um, and you also issued those working
069cash bonds of 517,000 this year. But as of June 30th, your unused legal debt margin is about 137.5 million. So you're well under your debt margin at this point in time. Have a lot of capacity. The next page is looking at your operating fund equity and your number your operating funds are your educational fund, your operations and maintenance, transportation and also your working cash fund. Um this year the increase was about 5.3 million. And I wanted to also point out that your financial profile score remains a 4.0. 0 which is the highest you can receive. Um and your uh financial um profile designation is a recognition. And the only other thing to point out is your operating expenditures of these funds were about um 126.9 million. Um and your equity is approximately 291 days of
070operations which was very consistent with last year as well. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Yes. >> I just have a question. So, you talked about the sick leave is now has to be considered as a liability. Is that our problem with a lot of people leave the way that I guess retirement and other things work? I mean, I know most school districts probably have a lot built up sick leave sitting out there. So, right is I mean >> it is pretty consistent actually. the numbers within similar districts in this area are very very similar. Um and it is based on a likelihood that it will eventually be used. So it is a bit of an estimate. >> Thank you. Sure. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Um
071of the 2024 recommended motion is the board of education approved audit as any discussion. Uh can I get a roll call? >> Hi Steven. >> Hi Adamson. >> Hi Jason. I >> adjournment motion. All in favor I I