001So games at 6:00 everybody It's quite >> Yeah, we did maybe talked about it a lot. some extra ones. Excuse me. down. >> Okay. >> 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. Monday, October 13th, 2025 at the Molen Education Center, Molen, Illinois 61265. And uh opening of meeting roll call, please. >> Arty Adamson >> here. >> Chet Smith >> here. >> Ramona Dixon >> here. >> Jason Ferrell >> here. >> Lindseay Hines >> here. >> Jeff Mayus >> here. >> Laura Severson >> here. >> Abigail Greenley >> here. >> Verun Mala >> here. >> Um and we do have the approval of any board of education member participating remotely. So we need to do um all
002in favor u correct that we need to do for uh Laura to be participating remotely. So, all in favor? >> Yes. Motion for that? >> Yeah. You want to do it first? >> Yeah. Can I get a motion? Sorry. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Okay. All in favor again? >> There we go. >> Um, and then approval of the minutes. Uh, minutes of the committee of the whole meeting of September 8th, 2025. Making a motion. So, move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor I >> public comment and participation and we have not but we'll move that if we did the second meeting. So school spotlight Hamilton Elementary. So take it away Hamilton. >> Hi. >> Um we are here today to discuss the model schools award that we received last year.
003we presented at the conference this summer. Um so we're going to give you just a little bit of a mini overview of that. It was an hourong presentation, but we won't do that. >> Um so we're just going to go over a little short presentation of what we presented to um the people in Washington DC. >> Um so why we were at model school. In order to become a model school, you have to submit data and you have to um get picked um get chosen to be one based on your data. So we presented data. I'm going to share that with all of you. Um and then they go through that. They look at all the applications and then they select their model schools. I believe there was 12. >> Rob, does that sound right?
004>> 12 elementary school. >> Yes. One of 12 elementary schools. So 12 I know. I love that he came. >> I know. So Rob, you want to be part of the presentation? Yeah. Um so there was 12 elementary schools that were um chosen across the United States and we were excited to be one of them. Um there is another elementary school that's actually in the lane right now that's uh in the process of filling out an application to apply to be a model school as well. just going to share the data that we submitted. Um the first piece of data we submitted was our math map data. Um you're going to see on the left hand side that was precoid. On the right hand side is postco. The top line is our math data. The
005bottom line is our reading data. And this is just our writ score across the building um for all the students that take it. So you're going to see that we were holding pretty steady pre-COVID. Obviously after co we took a pretty big hit um and now we've been trying to get back up to our pre-COVID scores. We were really excited. The data that we used for this was from 23 24 because that was the data we had had to use. Um and we actually surpassed our math writ um that year. So that was very exciting for us. We were working really hard to do that. Our reading is close. We are still trending up um but it's taking a lot longer to get our reading data up to where it was pre-COVID. We're really close.
006We're within like a point or two right now. So this was another piece of the map data that we submitted. Um the triangle was the projected growth for our building that year. and the um blue rectangles were the actual growth. So um our growth that year was amazing. This is actually the first year that we implemented our new math curriculum. So we're really excited about that. 83% of the students at Hamilton that year met their um growth goal, which the national average is 50%. So that was awesome growth to see. Um, another thing that we use as part of our application process is Hamilton has something called RAMP status, which stands for recognized ASKA model program through the National Counseling Association. So, it just means that we really use best practice and have proven that
007in a lengthy application process that we're data driven and really focus on measurable results and that our goals, the school counseling program goals tie directly to the building goals which tie directly to the district goal. Um, so our RAM status goes through uh the end of this year and I just resubmitted our application. So fingers crossed that in April or May we'll get a good email. We'll see. Um, but our panorama data that we submitted and um, some other SEAL data that we submitted showed that our students had great improvement by some things that we did to really support them in the social emotional area. At that time we were taking the Panorama survey and it was like 80 to 99 percentile and we were 80 to 99 percentile in all of the domains. So
008that was what we had submitted for that. Um and then the last piece of data we submitted is in 23 24 we went all green which we were really excited about. Um this is obviously a work in progress and we know it's going to be you know a flow throughout the years but um 2023 2024 was an exciting year when we got back that we were all green. Um and then this is just our sit plan that went with it. On the right hand side you can see the scores. This is again just a lot of the data that I talked about, but what we were trying to accomplish. We met most of our goals there. Like I said, the reading goal is trending up just a little bit off still. We had one quarter
009that we missed our goal by.1% um second quarter for behavior data. But again, that was a piece of the puzzle that we submitted. I will say one thing that was a noticeable difference, you know, having done the rampant process five years ago to now is I feel like the district goals are much more um shared and a collective process. And so I feel like especially at Hamilton School, we've really been able to make some great step forwards because the district has strong goals and so we can align behind that and then make um program goals from that. So just thank you for having such great goals. It really does make a difference. All right. So, our ambitious instruction is one piece of the puzzle. And what we wanted to highlight here is that with our
010MTSS model, which is providing all students with support, we were really more aligned to our tier one focus. With our new math curriculum, we really saw that it was giving all students what they need, but also really excelling them and challenging them in in ways that they needed to be challenged. Um, we also use a lot of student centered coaching and flex grouping. So making sure that we're using data to inform instruction and moving students fluently or fluidly throughout those groups. Um and a lot of Kagan structures to ensure cooperative learning so that students have ownership over the work that they're doing. >> We're really excited. I this is um the last couple years I feel like is the first time that we've really been able to use our like our instructional coaches and other
011people in our building for tier one instruction. A lot of times we're having to use them for interventions and things, but um I feel like our system has really tightened up and we've been able to support all kids and not just the kids that were needing intervention with our instructional coach, which has been exciting. >> Oops. Um effective leaders. I won't touch too much about that, but um the big thing that that changed for me and one of the things that I really worked on is I survey the teachers at the beginning of the year and find out what they need from me. And then that's my goal for the year. And so um you know, I can think I know what they need, but I really just need them to give me impact. And
012um so they submit what they would like to see more of from me from our assistant principal and then they also submit their professional goals for the year and then we're just talking about those throughout the year. And I think that that's really been um important for them and um just for me to have a better understanding of what they need from me to support them >> for collaborative features. This is one of the uh areas that we were able to get into the green. Um and so here's some of the some of the things that we've added um throughout the year. And one thing that was really helpful for us is we had that BLT team which anybody is allowed to be on it and um it's just been really good for everybody to
013have a little bit of a say in the building other than just one person saying. So we've added that in and that's been uh very beneficial for us as well. So but we also have a lot of after school activities. Um so these are just kind of a list of what we have. Some of them are before school, a lot of them are after school. Um, I will say that one thing about our building with all of these, not only are we a big building, but we do have a lot of teachers that are willing to uh step up and volunteer their time whether it's before or after school uh with a lot of these clubs that allows the students to have a variety of things to choose from. So, um it's very beneficial for
014us as a staff for them to be able to do that. So, >> we also need to give a quick shout out to Metro Link on this because um they're coming back now on Tuesdays at 3:30 to pick up our um students that ride the bus. That was a barrier for us because um the city bus takes a lot of our students home and uh our after school activities they obviously couldn't do. So we try to schedule them a lot on Tuesdays and then the bus comes back every day at 3:30 to pick up some of those kids. So we're really trying to make it so um all kids can be a part of these um for that sense of belonging. for supportive environment. Um we implemented the year of our application uh class dojo
015uh buildingwide and uh that was also we added a building supervisor Amanda Carter that's been a huge um help in having a supportive environment. Um our behavior team meets regularly and talks about having a strong tier one behavior system and we try to be very mindful and intentional in engaging both students and staff so that we have an a supportive environment where people want to to work and learn. So, here are just a couple of pictures. You know, some after school clubs. Um, we have staff or we have houses. This was something new we did last year at Hamilton. So, all students are sorted into a house. Um, I'm a owl. Tell the >> I'm a I'm a lime llama. >> You got to show your sign. >> Oh, yeah. Sorry. Llama >> and orange
016fox. >> And unfortunately, I'm the announcer. Mrs. be the one person. >> Nobody has to be in the office. >> There's only two people in the wholesome book without a house, Mrs. Oswald and Mr. Mills, because we need them to be the catch all. >> Um, but all the students and all the other staff have a house and so it's been really fun. We only meet once a month for a half hour, but we just try to be really intentional and it helps build relationships across the grade levels and um it just kind of makes a smaller community within a bigger community. When the students and staff see each other in the um throughout the school, they're constantly giving each other their signals. So, I have a lot of kids coming by, this is Clipper.
017B just showed me how to do it. Um we're going to have the um kickoff for kindergarten. So, they stay in the same house kindergarten through fifth grade and then the fifth graders leave and then the fourth graders become the leader of the house. So, we're going to have the kickoff for kindergarten. They're going to open their envelopes here in a couple weeks and find out what their house is and then we're going to celebrate them and stuff. So, um it'll be fun for them to do that. Um, another thing, I know we've talked about this at one thing, but we have a male buddies program. This has been huge for our um, students. We are a predominantly female staff and so we're trying to get more support for the male students in our building.
018And so, Monday morning is male buddies day. If you ever want to stop by and check it out, it's pretty fun to to see all of them in the building. >> And then this was another area that we increased uh, into our green as well was an involved families. And so, here's some things that we have incorporated over the past couple years. Um, we were able to get a parent coordinator, uh, Steph Pabomb, who is huge help. Um, she does a lot of behind thes scene things that people don't always necessarily get to see, but she also runs our social media account, so our Facebook, um, which gets actually a lot of love, a lot of likes on a lot of things. So, um, keeps parents involved and they love seeing their kids on there
019as well. So, uh, sorry, >> you want me to go back? Sorry. >> I was going to say we also have our PTO events. Um, and we have our school carnival coming up, which is always a huge hit. So, here's some other things that we've done. We just uh completed our fund run. And a little highlight of the fund run, we raised over $20,000. Uh, it was our biggest that we've ever raised since Hamilton's the new Hamilton has been open. So, um, that was pretty exciting for us as well. >> One of the conversations we're having a lot in our building is that family involvement and parent involvement looks different now than it did 30 or 40 years ago. way. So, just really trying to meet families where they are, you know, um single parents
020and two working households and things like that. So, um just because involve families doesn't necessarily mean that you have somebody that's at your school every day, right? Like that's going to look a lot different and and so celebrating the all all the different ways that we can get people in our building or not in our building, but in our building virtually, right, through Facebook and Dojo and um some of those other things. So, we do have very um supportive families and again it looks different but it we're we're celebrating um the change and just embracing the time and the effort that parents put into us and support us when we call and things like that. Um so this is our five essential parent survey again um just touching a little bit on the parent satisfaction
021and just um the teachers do um also score like the parents um on the five essential survey and how involved they feel like families are um but this is the parents perspective as well. So thankfully they they are satisfied with that. That's good. Our next step is our ambitious instruction and learning walkthroughs. We're actually doing this with Rob. He's in the room tonight. Um and so we started out as a district doing this. Um Dr. Prible got this started a couple of years ago. Um and we just started going to other buildings and doing learning rocks and using a a rubric to um walk through other classrooms and provide feedback and things like that. And then we incorporated it um just in our building. And so we let teachers volunteer to do it. We had
022a ton of people, I think, like 16 teachers who volunteered to do it. So, um it's been really exciting to um just let teachers get into other classrooms, see what's going on, give feedback, and they've really enjoyed that time together. Um and our sick goal for this year, just moving forward, is that all of our general education teachers and special education teachers will participate in one of these walkthroughs. Last year, um it was a volunteer basis, and this year we're all going to do it. So, we're working with Rob on that. So, that's us. any questions or any thing you would like to know more about? >> So, Ryan, no, I'm just >> But how so how how are you guys doing like a road show or anything with the schools in our district to
023kind of share some of the best practices? I assume. >> Yeah, we talk a lot about it at principal meetings and the principles are very collaborative and you know, they're we're always collaborating on these kinds of things and like I said, we're encouraging other buildings to do this. I think that we can definitely get some other buildings in our district to be model schools. I think they have, you know, um what it takes to to get it. Um so, but yeah, we have a lot of we collaborate. We talk frequently and collaborate often and building practical meetings and stuff. >> I will say we did Brian was one of our presenters and there was a lot of people at the conference that complimented just having a PE teacher on there and we talked a lot
024about like the impact. He sees all kids every week. Um and it's I think it's important, right? like there's a really positive impact on a ton of kids in our building and um so it was it was really good to have him here have him there and just um the PE teacher sees everybody and and sometimes they might reach a different group of kids that other you know teachers might not so and Alexa and Emmy came too and supported us >> well as a Hamilton parent like I can attest to the great things they're doing and it's just it's awesome to see you all recognized so >> thank you appreciate it >> any other questions >> thank you so Yes, thank you. >> Next up, we have a presentation, a partnership opportunity with the Two
025Rivers YMCA. Mr. Carol, kick us off. >> Um, so we had been approached by the Two Rivers YMCA in regards to the expansion project that they are currently working on for their uh Two Rivers um building in Molen. Um this uh is a potential partnership uh with the school district and uh we would like to just introduce uh Jeff Cornelius and Mike Winnamp to come up and kind of explain that and some preliminary details of what that partnership could look like. So thank you. Well, first of all, thank you uh for the wonderful partnership that we have with Molen Cold Valley School District. I have been with this Y for 21 years and uh I've been through three other communities and I got to tell you uh I have never seen a YMCA and we've
026got multiple school districts obviously that that we work with but uh who serve students during school obviously you do but outside of school you know we aim to support them as well. So um so thank you all for that continued partnership. Um, as Vince mentioned, we uh we're we're looking at some uh uh renovations/expansion opportunities at the what we call the Molen East Molen YMCA. Uh the Molen East Molen YMCA was founded in 1970, formerly the Molen YMCA, but the consolidation of Molen and East Molen together uh is what built the facility and the campus that we currently uh reside on on 53rd Street, right on the East Molen Molen border. Um the uh the facility is 100,000 square feet. It's expanded five times uh during its uh during its life. But uh if you
027walk in uh you'll notice that uh we have a bright new lobby that was renovated 10 years ago. You may also notice that there are several other areas of the building that uh that might seem a little bit out of uh out of touch with today's architecture. And uh so this uh project is really aimed multi-phase project is aimed at um modernizing uh expanding repurposing for programs and and those kinds of things. Um it it does serve as the administrative and maintenance uh center for all of our branches in four different branches including uh Rock Island, Kiwani, and the Bassor YMCA downtown. Uh and uh 30 different childcare locations, many of which we we obviously offer uh within the school district. Um we welcome over a million visits a year. Uh if you think about
028those numbers, it's excuse me, it's kind of crazy, but um we serve over 20,000 individuals. Um that facility is actually uh our largest child care location. So when you aren't uh serving kids in school, we have them at the Y in what's called Schools Out Club uh as well as in summer camp. And uh uh that support enables families in our community to earn over $und00 million in household income. Uh which is a tremendous impact. Um, we have an income based membership and as a nonprofit, obviously we reinvest everything back into uh back into the organization. Uh, this all started back in 2023 when we uh updated our current strategic plan. Uh, we're about halfway through it now. Um, our strategic planning process uh includes uh bringing people together from all different corners of the
029community. And so it is truly a community-based strategic plan. Uh it's not just a staff or a YMCA boardbased strategic plan. Um and uh the goal in this plan is to get to serving one in four residents uh across our six county area which is very ambitious. Um but we know that in order to do that uh we need to engage people in programs. And so we've set a goal to engage uh 60% of our members in uh in programs. and um a major expansion and and modernization of the the Molen East Molen YMCA is kind of at the at the focal point of uh really making that happen. Um we uh we're looking at three different phases for this project. We're currently in phase one uh which is replacing some uh mechanical, electrical, plumbing
030infrastructure and um we uh we're looking forward to phase two uh hopefully beginning next summer and um phase three uh hopefully soon after that, but we'll get into that uh here in a little bit. And uh and community partnerships are are a big part of what we do for any uh anything that we do as far as programming goes and and services for the community, but uh we really want our building to to be a community focal point as well. And um we currently do that uh through a variety of different program areas and uh including aquatics, which is what we we kind of want to highlight today. Uh some of those partnerships you don't actually know uh until you get into conversation where they're going to develop. Uh for four years we've been working
031with the city of Molen and the parks department uh on a collaboration to where YMCA members get the opportunity to uh visit the Riverside Aquatic Center uh and and use their membership there. So, from incomebased membership that we have at the Y, being able to access the uh Riverside Aquatic Center all summer long with no additional fees is quite a benefit. And and we saw lots and lots of kids uh especially with summer camp, they go down there for field trips as well as our members. Through those early conversations with the park district, um one thing became pretty abundantly clear from their perspective and for ours. Uh lifeguards are very very difficult to come by. um you know hiring and retaining lifeguards uh you know each year we have so many that come and want
032to work seasonally so many that are that are students but we wanted to try to address that larger problem of you know where are these lifeguards coming from uh you know in the past we've worked very closely with uh the uh Mullen Co Valley school district with the grow your own teacher program we employ many of your uh students that are looking to become teachers with our child care programs and helping to give them some of those tools with uh being able to work with kids through this uh program with the city parks. We actually looked for an opportunity to engage high school students in PE classes that could learn and become lifeguards that was going to give them lots of life skills and job skills uh as well as give them an opportunity to
033work within the uh uh the park system and with the YMCA. So this last spring was the first time uh we had a class that came through with that. Uh Eric Griffith with City Parks and Amanda Bull were instrumental with kind of taking up this conversation and and going forward with it with the school district. And from that class, we actually had there were 10 lifeguards that graduated through that class that worked at the uh Riverside Aquatic Center and a handful of them are now working for the YMCA as well. So looking to continue that program and it's going to grow from there uh as we expand what it is that we can offer for uh aquatics training and aquatic safety. Uh another unique aspect of uh the facility that we have is a warm
034water therapy pool. Many of our collaborations uh with community partners are on the public side. Uh there are also some opportunities on the private side that benefit the residents of Molen and Cole Valley as well. So we work very closely with the Rock Ba Rock Valley physical therapy to offer time within our pool that they schedule to come and do rehab therapy. Um it is specialized care that will allow them to uh you know recover from their surgeries and ailments that they have and uh having that available along with our uh lap pool um for swim lessons and for exercise has been a beneficial program not only with uh Rock Valley but what it is that we're doing with the lifeguards and our swim lessons. >> Yeah. So, as you can see, you know, community
035partnerships are uh really an important part of what we do because the Y is uh as a facility as a community-owned uh building. And uh the the next slide uh talks a little bit about what phase two and phase three entail. Uh phase two we're hoping to to kick off next summer and uh that's going to focus mostly on kind of active spaces, repurposing some areas um uh including adding a gymnasium to the north side of the facility. uh locker room renovations that meet uh Illinois general accommodation laws and an eighth of a mile track that would go around that whole uh area. But what we're here for is really to look at uh aquatics. Um aquatics facilities are obviously very limited uh and especially on this side of the river uh as you know
036uh Blackhawk College uh a few years back closed their pool uh and uh there just aren't a lot of uh pools uh accessible to people. So, um, what we're looking at is a new eight-lane competitive aquatic center. Uh, it would support all the the regular things that we typically offer at the Y, competitive swim or I'm sorry, swim lessons, um, water therapy as Jeff talked about. Uh, and, uh, we also wanted to serve, uh, the community uh, in in anyone's interest as far as a competitive swim, uh, facility as well. So, uh, we will have spectator seating built into this uh, as far as our plans go. Um, and uh, you know, we're looking at at working together with other community organizations to make this uh, a cost-effective alternative uh, with with anyone else who
037desires to use state-of-the-art facilities but maybe doesn't have the the, you know, the the wallet, if you will, to, you know, to build it. And, uh, and quite frankly, you know, when you look at contributed support in the Quad Cities, which is what the Y thrives on, uh, philanthropists want to see collaboration. They want to see partnership and, uh, and funders do in general. And so that's kind of what we're uh what we're working on now is going out and trying to identify those folks. So um if you flip to the next page, you'll see just a a simple rendering. Uh we have a national architectural partner that's called Grow Development. All they do is design and build YMCA's. Uh we've been working with them uh for the past year or so on this on
038this overall facility master plan that uh we want to take the building into the next 50 years. And uh and so they've provided uh some of this for us. And uh we uh we feel like if we're going to identify partners, now is a good time to do that because if there is any influence they want to have on design, uh we want to do that before we swap over to a local architect, you know, who will then, you know, apply local code and and take us through the entire build process. So, um, so that's kind of the the vision and, uh, and then we hope to, uh, even with this go back out into the community and, uh, all of our our local Illinois Qu City School Districts and, uh, and even bring another
039kind of value ad for for, uh, for all your students. >> Uh, yeah, to reach out to the school districts and and really focus on aquatic safety, which uh, many people one of the first things that they think of when they hear YMCA is swim lessons and is aquatic safety. We take a lot of pride and a lot of responsibility in that. Not only for the kids that come through our doors for swim lessons, but we want to do more. We want to take this YUSA curriculum uh out to the school districts with our partners in Mullen Co Valley as well as the others that we work with on the Illinois uh Quad City side of the river. And um you know, pool safety, uh adult supervision, asking permission to be able to use those
040pool spaces. All of those things are important. Some of these are lessons that many kids just don't receive on a regular basis. If we can work with PE teachers starting from elementary school, even within our own preschools, junior highs, high schools, integrate that into a basic curriculum that's going to teach water safety. Not only do we hope that it's going to improve things when people are in and around water and using pools, uh, you know, within our types of facilities, uh, but also, you know, the Mississippi River is in our backyard. Uh there have been tragic events in years past where kids have uh gone into dangerous waters and didn't realize what it is that they were getting into. This curriculum specifically addresses those types of situations to give kids a cautious eye and make
041sure the water safety is going to be a priority. And it's something that is um you know it's it's taken in different bites. it's presented in a way that kids really enjoy it and it's a curriculum that we can share with the school districts and make it a part of uh what it is that you do to help keep those kids uh growing and safe as they make those decisions. >> And I'll mention that's not uh something new. We actually worked uh I want to say it maybe 10 years ago or so on an initiative with uh moling PE teachers where we were able to uh kind of um you know give them the tools from like a fitness perspective to to take some of that into their programs and uh we also have a
042first affiliate uh golf range and I know firstte comes in and does a similar kind of uh of strategy with your teachers to to deliver that as well. But um as far as what today's opportunities are as we mentioned before uh to kind of conclude here um you know we have a tremendous opportunity I think uh to look at uh an efficient use of community resources. Um, you know, I I have kids that came through the district and they're all graduated now, but um, you know, I remember the days of with Audrey of the, you know, Blue Marlins and then moving over to East Molen because the pool closed and, you know, this would really provide a tremendous opportunity for, you know, for the the Molen and East Molen communities to uh, you know, really
043have access to a a premier facility, you know, related to aquatics. Um and uh and then as Jeff said, you know, drowning is the the leading cause of accidental death in this country. And you know, if we could work with the district to, you know, to equip teachers to to go through a two or three or four week period of time and teach water safety and, you know, hopefully maybe even get a few of those kids to, you know, to come into regular swim lessons on the next level. Uh you know, I think it I think it benefits, you know, the entire community. Um, but thank you again for allowing us to come and talk and uh we'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Were you guys hoping when you compare the swim uh
044like to host like IHSA competitions there? Is that kind of the vision? Is that we want to get to a place where East Molen, Rocky Molen compete at that new pool? Yeah, I think if we the way we're designing this, the way we've already went into the design is that we would be able to host those those kinds of events. Um, obviously if we have facility related partners, uh, you know, that's going to have some influence on on, you know, what those design plans look like and and how those >> ask would that be built like a high dive? Yeah. >> You know, in those kind of things. Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Good question. I just want to >> Well, as somebody who tries to spend as much time on the water and in
045the water as possible, um what Two Rivers YMCA is doing here is is incredible. And I commend you and I thank you for, you know, rolling up those shirt sleeves to uh to to to try to expand what you already have there. And uh uh certainly on on behalf of my my my good friend Porter McNeel, I'm sure he's pretty happy about um everything that's going on through here. So, I just I felt remissed if I didn't bring him up. Thank you. >> Yeah, we have a we have a a newspaper clipping from I think it was 1960s or 70s with uh Porter and Jean Chris Anderson, all those guys. There used to be YMCA then, but yeah, >> questions or comments. I was just going to say I again I think this is a
046tremendous opportunity um especially giving given our aging aquatic infrastructure at the high school and you know potentially being able to do something like this and partner. I just hope that you guys keep in contact as things keep moving forward especially I know you mentioned some potential grant money and things like that. So anything we can do to help uh you know raise awareness campaign for it. Yeah, I sorry. I do think, you know, if this is something that the uh district and the Y and whomever else uh is intent on, I think, you know, the the as I mentioned before, you know, funders and and donors in the Quad Cities really really find these things attractive. And, you know, when you send a letter of support that has, you know, multiple letterheads, it's, you know,
047it's it's pretty impactful. So, I do think that, you know, as we continue forward, we would, you know, we would love to be able to, you know, communicate with you guys as far as your interests go. Thank you so much. Exciting opportunity that just makes a lot of sense for everybody involved. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next up we have our presentation from Leg Architects on the Lincoln Irving project. >> All right, it's me again and our friendly faces of Leed Architects. So, um this is the final update for the board prior to going out for bid. Um, we are just working on the last few tweaks of things and doing our final page turns of everything. So, um, I'll turn over to Zach and he can kind of go through the
048final design features here. Thank you. >> Hello again. Be my beautiful face one more time. >> Um, yes, we are in the final stretches of design on the project. Uh, we're going out to bid next week. um and looking to have receiving bids uh November 20th, the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Um to do all the scope reviews by then. Um that way before Thanksgiving, that way by your December, I think it's the 8th board meeting and off to the races so construction can get going. So, we'll show you uh what we've been uh working on the last uh about month and a half. Uh so just going to go through the process again, our design progress, and then quick uh hit on the budget and then go over those next steps with Facebook just um so
049uh right now we're in the construction documents phase. Uh we've gone started up at the top at research, worked our way all the way over through construction documents, and pretty soon we're going to be heading into the construction administration phase. Um, so really the next uh the next week we're still uh putting together the final details that there's been a lot of coordination meetings. Uh we have a full day tomorrow with Vince and Keith going through the documents. So I'm sure they'll be excited to sit down with and the team. Um so yeah, we're at that the very bottom of this uh this slide here for October 2025 and then going to head into bidding and that'll be through November and construction. Hopefully we can start um March or April of 16. All right. So,
050here's the site. Uh I think everybody's pretty familiar with Lincoln RV, so I just uh I always like to have this up on the screen just to reorient everybody. Um our conceptual design uh like I said in the past is this cultural roots, this uh kind of threading, this rooting through the uh building with the tree as our main focal point. And then we have uh hints of of that design, that tree throughout the building to help tie everything together. Um bringing in those nature elements u from outside inside. We have a lot of earthy tones, a lot of greens, a lot of blues. Um which you'll see on the color palette palette a little later on. And uh starting to show that in the video as well to give you kind of an idea
051of what that looks like. Uh the floor plan um similar to what what you saw back in September. Um, nothing's really changed in the floor plan. It's really just kind of shifting walls here and there. Um, but I'll I'll walk through it just so everybody's on the same page again. Um, the purple area up at the top is your main area, your your main entrance area. Um, we have our principal's offices, uh, conference room, some flex spaces in there, uh, little work area, a little break room space. The dark blue area at the far north is the gymnasium, storm shelter area. Um, so that that's kind of like your your go-to space for the the in the event of a storm. And we have uh toilets in there that will function when the storm if
052the storm shelter was ever in use. Um, part of that storm shelter, we also have a mezzanine space with the uh rooftop unit that's inside of uh inside the building on that mezzanine. Uh, south of that in the orange is your stage and your orchestra area. Uh, the stage is coupled as a music uh room too. That way it's not just a stage that's only used once or twice a year. You're using it every day of the of the school year. Um and then then the lighter blue there and then the kind of cyan color, that's your cafeteria and kitchen space. Um enough uh seats in the cafeteria for 150 students. Um we have a separate restroom right off the cafeteria there. Little handashing area in the cafeteria. Um and then two separate lines for
053serving. Um, and then a full service kitchen, uh, within the facility as well with a separate cooler, freezer, um, things like that. And then once you get past those spaces into the red, um, we have our classroom addition there along the curve. Um, we have first and second grade along the curve there. And then in the existing building on the south side is kindergarten. Um, and then everything kind of in the middle are those core support spaces, those collaboration breakout spaces in the green. Uh, the kind of orangish tannanish areas are the student support spaces, your reading intervention um, and things of that nature. The big purple um, box there in the middle is the staff break room, staff work space. Um, so a nice large space for all the staff to be uh, in
054one break room. Um, and then the yellow spaces off the the right hand side are the special education spaces with OTPT space kind of sandwiched between the two of them. Um, and then up on the second floor, uh, we have our learning stair there is right in the middle in the green, uh, to get up there, as well as a couple of other staircases to get up to the second floor. Um, but in the curved area, we have our third and fourth grade classrooms. And then on the south side, we have our fifth grade classrooms in the existing building. art rooms off to the left in that orange space. The uh media center kind of overlooks into the learning stair space. That's up at that orange space kind of off to the top right. Um
055and then on the far right of the existing building, kind of bottom right corner is the uh computer lab and then a a flex space could be a a future classroom, could be future computer lab space, kind of a catchall space there. Um, and then, uh, the big gray kind of mass there on the far right is our penthouse. So, that's where all of your mechanical equipment is going to live. Very exciting. Um, I presented this the last time uh, we met. Uh, just wanted to show the updated color palette. We have the, uh, samples here, too. Back here, but this is kind of the direction we've gone. uh a lot of earthy tones and looking at using that tone on tone metal panel to give interest and kind of a dynamic feel to that
056curve. So you see a bunch of different uh we have these three different gray and white tones that will move through that whole metal panel shot there. A couple more exterior views. Um you can see we have our main entry sign there on the on the canopy in the blue there. It's kind of far away. Um on the bottom the bottom image is our southwest corner uh kind of coming up the uh main drive uh into the building. And then this is the uh southeast corner of the building um 161. Um looking towards the existing building and you can see the the gymnasium and the cafeteria there. Bottom image here is the north northeast corner. Uh so that's the gymnasium. We have a large large area for a mural similar to uh we're kind of
057thinking what you have at Franklin uh could go there. Um we can help work with you guys on what that ends up becoming future. Um and then there in the middle is the cafeteria. All the glass help bring in some natural light into that cafeteria space. Beyond that would be like the kitchen and the special ed rooms. Um here's our color palette. So, like I said, uh a lot of earth tones. Um we're going with uh kind of the green colors are going to be on the first floor. So, it's like that forest floor um kind of feel. And then on the second floor, we're going with more of the blue tones like your uh up in the sky kind of a a cloud level type of a feel. Um and then the wood tone
058you see there would be uh like your wood doors, your the tree, um things of that nature. And then the other samples you see along the bottom are uh are tile and um paint colors. All right. And here's the video. Hope this works. Okay. So, uh you see we put ABCD. We took the Lincoln Irving off uh because we were we didn't want to skew anybody's opinion of what the name should be uh because I know that process has started. So, that's the main entry. Uh we don't go into the reception desk this time, but uh um here's our lobby space here. We're actually going to peek into the uh cafeteria, but you can see some of those colors on the floor there. Uh bringing some of the colors into the uh cafeteria space. Some
059wayfinding elements throughout. We're thinking of putting a mural along that south wall of the cafeteria space. Your elevator would be right there in front there. Um, and then this would be your fir one of your first classrooms coming into the addition. Uh, so this would be a second grade classroom. We have a bunch of cubbies along that uh bar wall there with some upper storage cabinets. Our accent wall is the back wall and then our teaching wall is the wall on the left. Some tall teaching uh wardrobe cabinets. And with these garage door panels, we're looking at putting a one-way film on those. So when you're in the classroom, you can see out, but when you're outside of the classroom, you can't see in. Uh here's our discovery lab. Uh breakout space. Sorry it's a
060little dark in here. Our lights weren't turned on in the in the video. Uh big presentation area there. Little accent wall, a little stage around the tree um for sitting down and reading or doing a small little presentation. Um you can see the classroom entries are all very similar. We have those tack boards. uh we have the the green kind of surround around uh to to help signify uh the wayfinding into the classroom. Then off to the left here we have our porch area. These are support spaces uh breakout spaces for those u intervention um those types of uh support spaces. A lot of uh breakout seating can be uh put along that curved um area there. And then just bringing in some color here and there to uh liven up the space. And then
061we have TAC boards down that uh first floor corridor for penning up student work throughout the school year. Coming up to the second floor. Um very much the same as the first floor, just kind of a different layout. This is one of the uh fifth grade classrooms. Uh so more more tack boards there on the walls for pinninging up student work. um more cubbies and casework there for storage um and for uh students storing their um personal belongings. This is the uh porch area of the second floor. Um trying to bring in that that home porch feeling here with the the the wood ceiling and the kind of uh wider tone lighting in there. Um and then off to the left here we have our second floor classrooms. We're coming up to the uh the
062learning stair and the tree here at the at the middle of the building. Um we have our little treehouse there on the right. Um couple of little other treehouse element nooks within the um within the media center there that are just built into the wall. Um and then this is your media center with those two little nooks that you can actually walk into. We'll have like class on this so nobody can like actually put their head out. Um but yeah, sorry that was a whirlwind um discussion. Um here's the project budget. Uh this was updated based off of the uh 50% CD drawings. Uh we're right around uh 33.8 million total cost all in. Um construction costs were right around 27 million. This also includes uh $800,000 left of bidding contingencies. So there's still some
063fluff in there. Um it also includes that all in number includes a construction contingency of about $1.5 million. So we're uh thinking we're going to come in a little bit under that 33.8. Um but this is kind of the last uh estimate we got with uh Estus on board. Uh so I kind of went into this at the beginning. Um but going out to big here uh next week and then um looking at uh board approval December 8th. Uh we have a meeting scheduled to discuss uh graphics um and the design of those wall graphics and murals throughout the school with the with the staff and some stakeholders in December. Um and then we're looking at doing a similar meeting to that u later on I think in March or April uh just to kind
064of finalize those graphics. Um, and that kind of coincides with the naming um, and all the meetings that are being set up with those. So, hoping to begin construction in March and then open up the building by August the 22nd. >> Yeah. Any questions? I would just say it's been a lot of fun to watch uh it continue to evolve from um the creative side of of the the architectural renderings. Uh they I I continue to see the the layers of vibrancy getting added to the overall design which is fantastic. It you know as as I'm sure you know so many of our schools throughout the country they were built to complement the baby boomer generation. they were constructed very quickly and without a lot of that uh levels of vibrancy. So, uh that's really
065really cool to see. It's super important. Um this is going to be something that the the the student body and the teachers and staff there are going to are going to be proud to to to coexist with. So, thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. We love to hear that. I'll make sure to pass that along to the team. So, >> keep going with it. >> Yeah, we appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Okay. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I does anybody need any time or should we roll right into regular meeting? I am >> another meeting. >> She signed this. >> I signed. I just got here. So all >> ladies and gentlemen, you're hereby notified there will be a
066regular meeting of the board of education uh school 40 meeting following the committee the whole meeting at 6:47 p.m. on Monday, October 13th, 2025 at the Mullen Education Center, 1952nd Avenue, Molen, Illinois. Um, open. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Audrey Adamson. >> Jet Smith >> here. >> Ramona Dixon >> here. >> Jason Ferrell >> here. >> Lindseay Hines >> here. >> Jeff Mayus >> here. >> Laura Severson >> here. >> Abigail Greenley >> here. >> Verun Mikla >> here. >> Can I get a motion to approve the remote participation of Laura Severson who is out of town for work? So moved. >> Second. Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> Okay. Pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and
067to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We'll move on to approval of minutes. And I have a motion to approve the minutes of the open session of the regular board of education meeting of September 22nd, 2025. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I Okay. I have a motion to approve the minutes of the closed session of the regular board of education meeting of September 22nd, 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Uh no communication, public comment or Okay. Uh consent agenda. recommend a motion of the board of education approve the actions contained in the consent agenda as presented. >> So move >> second. >> Any discussion? >> Have
068a roll call please. Lindsay Hines >> I. >> Jeff Mayus >> abstain. >> Laura Severson >> I. >> Ramona Dixon >> I. >> Jason Ferrell. >> Hi. >> Chet Smith. I uh next up we have approval of location change of the board of education meeting for November 10th, 2025. I recommend a motion that the board of education approve the location change of the board of education meeting for November 10th, 2025 from Butterworth Elementary to the Mullen High School Bartlet Performing Arts Center. >> Second um discussion. Dr. Savage, if you'd like to. >> Sure. This briefing, >> this change is related to the opportunity that Dr. Pribble and I were able to get with the traveling veterans memorial exhibit. Um, we were able to get the date of November 10th for Molen High School. And so
069we thought that it would be a positive opportunity to have the um veterans exhibit the day before Veterans Day um and have the board meeting be the backdrop for that exhibit. We also would like to take that opportunity to have the board of education recognize our employees who are also veterans. Um we have plans to have students be able to visit the exhibit during the day. um as well as opportunities for community members after school. We're still working on that schedule, but we felt like that would be a great opportunity to encompass all of that together and that's the purpose for the change request. >> Well, thank you. Uh any other discussion? Hearing your roll call, please. Jeff Mayis. >> Hi >> Laura Sebertson. >> I >> Ramona Dixon. >> Hi >> Jason Ferrell. >>
070Hi >> Lindsay Hines. >> Hi. >> Jet Smith. >> Hi. >> All right. Now we go into reports or question open discussion. Uh Dr. Savage. >> Okay. Um it is very hard to believe that quarter 1 ends this Friday already. I find that so hard to believe. Um, I'm just so grateful for the students and teachers, support staff, and administration. Everybody is working hard, as you could see in our school spotlight tonight. Just deeply invested in the teaching and learning process. There's tremendous growth happening in our schools, and it's really just exciting to see every single day. Um, I wanted to take a moment to thank the Molen Police and Fire Departments for their quick response, as well as the many other first responders to the incident at Hamilton Elementary on Saturday evening. That night,
071the debris was cleared and a temporary wall was installed, making sure that the school was secure. The next day, a large group, which was Sunday, yesterday, a large group of staff, including maintenance and custodial members, teachers, staff, building, and district leadership that you see here, uh, met at Hamilton to work together to move Miss Swanson's classroom to the classroom space next door. Um, the next door classroom was being used for occupational therapy and that space was able to be relocated to another location within the building. This allowed Miss Swanson's class to remain in the kindergarten wing where the students are familiar and can continue with their daily routines around Hamilton School, which is critical for kindergarten students. I think we have an amazing learning community and this rapid response to a terrible situation is an
072excellent example of positive climate of positive climate and culture not only just at Hamilton but across our district. While it is still early and we don't have a lot of information, I'll turn it over to Vince for any additional updates regarding um plans uh for repairs. Yeah, I would just like to add that the district is working with our insurance carrier, our architects and engineers to document all necessary information and develop a comprehensive scope of work uh to complete all repairs. Um any and all legal recourse will be managed through our insurance carrier and we will continue to update the board throughout the process and ensure that all necessary approvals for services are obtained in accordance with board policy. Um, and lastly, I just wanted to provide a few updates regarding the Lincoln Irving expansion
073project, more spec, specifically the selection process for the new name and mascot. Um, a collaborative committee has been formed of nearly 20 internal and external stakeholders. I'm here present, Mr. Manis and Verun Mccela. I'm so happy to have both of you representing this really, really cool committee. Um the open nomination period period as well in swing um and name and mascot suggestions are coming in. It's very exciting and that process will remain open until the end of the month. We have approximately 130 name and mascot suggestions already in um and there are some really really fantastic ideas coming forth. Our community has really stepped up. every single suggestion is uh backed with a quality um thought behind it um representing people and culture and our geography um and time and just it's really really neat
074to see um how our community thinks and their values and beliefs come through in these recommendations. Um, in early November, the Nest Committee, naming elementary school together committee will meet uh to review the list, all the lists that meet the board of education's parameters that were set uh last month to generate a list of 15 or so that they feel are best representative, that we feel that best meet the parameters uh in guardrails as set forth by the board of education of names and mascots uh that uh everybody feels comfortable able to move forward in a survey number two which will be multiple choice and so that survey will go out um in November and that will be an opportunity to really see how the community feels about that next phase and so I think
075it's just been really really exciting. Um also this month um the month of October Dr. Pribble and I have uh lunch dates with students at both Willard and Lincoln Irving to capture student input. um will be joining in on a parent night at each school. We thought rather than scheduling a separate night, it would be better to piggyback on a different parent night that they're already having to try to capture more parent engagement when parents and community members are already in the schools. Um and we're also still working on moving forward with the large interactive displays that will take place at both schools during parent teacher conferences scheduled for October 23rd and 24th. So, lots happening. Um, it's really exciting moving forward and I think the um the stakeholders at both schools and the communities
076around both schools are are well engaged in the process. >> That's all I have. >> Thank you. Uh, student board of education member report. >> Um, so a lot of fall sports are heading into their conference and sectionals in these next few weeks. Girls tennis just won Western Basics for the eighth consecutive year this weekend and um cross country is having their conference this Thursday. Uh the student hunger drive kicked off two weeks ago with an opening ceremony at the Riverbend um pantry over in Iowa and Davenport. There were a lot of students there from all sorts of different schools and several schools competed in a skit competition. Molen won the skit competition for the second year in a row this year and won 2,000 pounds of food that was donated by HY towards their
077school total. We had Boots versus badges last uh Tuesday at Hi, where both the Molen Police and Fire Department helped us raise don donations outside of HY. And then this Thursday at the high school, we have empty bowls from I believe 5:00 to 7:00. So, if you're interested in attending, um there are a lot of handmade clay pots that you can pick up and take home. They're food safe and then you get to sample all of our soups. We have like 20 to 25 different soups that you can sample. And then student congress is bringing back Hodon this week. There's a hodon on Saturday. I'm very excited for the line dancing. And one of our newer clubs, Kindness Club, is um holding a Socktober and they're taking sock donations for to put into the um
078pantry at the school. >> Congratulations to you, Abby, on your tennis one. I think we owe you a round of applause. >> Yeah, nothing more to add to that. To be honest, it was really good. Um just want to show that quarter's ending. things have gone by really quick. Honestly, it came before I even could expect it to be honest. And one fundraiser that History Club's doing right now is they're selling these things they called legacy bricks, which are basically bricks with whatever name you decide that'll be held up at the outdoor classroom for as long as the outdoor classroom exists. So, that's a good opportunity to cement your legacy in Mullen High School. And then yeah, just congratulations to the girls tennis team for another successful conference. >> All right. >> Okay. Um on
079the board of education member open discussion. I'm going to start this off as Dr. Savage to email all of you these uh training opportunities. So with us hosting the uh black health division meeting here, we're afforded a free training session. We've done one of these board workshops before a couple years ago. So, I just ask that you guys kind of look through, you know, any feedback on what you think would be a good um good training opportunity for this board. Uh so, we can get that scheduled. We're kind of still looking at when we would want to do it. We want to try and make sure that it's at a time where everybody can participate. You know, I think last time we did it after a scheduled board meeting or at the end of a
080scheduled board meeting. said I've asked her to send that over. If you guys could just look through it and then in our next meeting here in two weeks kind of really finalize what we want to do with that. So that's all I've got. Does anybody have anything? >> Yeah. Um I think you guys hit most of the sports. I think the only one that I had on my list was boys golf. Had their best finish since 1983, seventh place. And shout out to Isaac Rler coming in second overall. Um so just kind of a cool thing to read about that. The fall play was amazing, too past. >> All right. Um, nobody has anything else. I'd ask for a motion to go into close session to consider the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal
081of specific employees. >> Second. All in favor? I I Okay. And I have a motion to return to open session. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Now, can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. Motion or meeting adjourn. >> Thanks everybody. >> Thanks. Say something.