001Order the regular meeting of the board of education, school district number 40, at 6 pm on Monday, August 25th, 2025 at the Molen Education Center, 1952nd Avenue, Molen, Illinois. Um, can I have a roll call, please? >> Audrey Adamson >> here. >> Ched Smith >> here. >> Ramona Dixon >> here. >> Jason Ferrell here. >> Lindsay Hines >> here. >> Jeff Mayus here. >> Laura Severson. >> Abigail Greenley >> here. We have no members participating remotely. Item number two, introduction of student board of education member. All right. Room Nulla, please rise. Meet you up here. We will recite the student board member oath of office. We will just read this together. Can you raise your right hand? So I >> I >> do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully discharge >> the duties of
002the office of student board member >> the duties of the office of student board member >> of the board of education of the Mullen Cole Valley School District >> the board of education of the Mullen school valley co valley school district >> in accordance with Illinois school codes >> I further swear that >> I shall encourage and respect free expression >> I shall encourage and respect free expression >> of opinion by myself and fellow board of education members >> of opinion by myself and fellow board of education members >> as part of the board of education >> I shall accept the responsibility for my role >> I shall accept the responsibility for my role >> in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district >> in the equ equitable and quality
003education of every student in the school district. >> I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students >> I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students >> and our community schools to advance the vision >> and our community schools to advance the vision >> for the Molen Cole Valley School District and >> the the vision for the Molen Cole Valley School District and >> I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent. I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent >> to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision >> to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision >> The board has created >> fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills. >> Fostering excellence for every student in the area of academic
004skills, >> knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. >> Knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. >> Congratulations. Okay. Can we try and do the honorary roll call of name student board of education member? >> Yeah. Brun here. >> All right. I will now rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Approval of minutes. Um, can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the open session of the regular board of education meeting of August 11th, 2025? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor? >> Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the closed session of the regular board of education
005meeting of August 11th, 2025? >> So move. Second. >> Discussion hearing. None. All in favor? Uh I >> do we have any communication public comment? >> We do not. >> Okay. >> All right. Moving on to consent agenda. Recommend a motion the board of education approve the actions contained the contained in the consent agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I have a roll call, please. >> Jeff Mayis. >> Hi. >> Audrey Adamson. >> Hi. >> Ramona Dixon. >> Hi. >> Jason. Hi, >> Lindsay Hines. >> Hi, >> Chad Smith. >> Hi. >> All right. Number seven, approval of approval of memorandum of understanding between Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health and Molen Cole Valley School District number 40. Recommended motion that the board of education approve the memorandum for
006of understanding between Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health and Molen Cole Valley School District number 40 for the 2025 2026 school year. >> Second. Any discussion on that? Uh, hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Audrey Adamson. >> Hi. >> Ramona Dixon. >> Hi. >> Jason Ferrell. >> Hi. >> Lindsay Hines. >> Hi. >> Jeff Mayus. >> Hi. >> Chad Smith. >> Hi. >> All right. Reports, requests, and open discussion. Dr. Savage. >> Hey. Um, we had a great first week of school. I want to thank our amazing teachers, staff, and administrators for all they did to prepare for the school year. I also want to thank our facilities department and our ed tech departments for all of their work over the summer. The kids are off to a great start
007and we're grateful to be working again with our parents, our families, and our community partners to help us fulfill our mission. Um, triple I focused Friday workshops. I want to be sure that you all saw your email communication regarding the Friday focused workshops at the joint annual conference this November. These sessions are very popular and tend to fill up fast. So, if you would like to get registered for one of those, please let us know right away so that we can take care of that registration for you. Um, Illinois Association School Board Blackhawk Division event. As a reminder, we are hosting the uh September 16 Blackhawk Division event here in Molen at the district office. We are working on the catering and the student musicians to uh support that event. We are also coordinating with
008ISB to determine their count of participants um and all of those uh supporting details. Thank you for subi submitting your RSVPs. Tara has gotten everyone registered including Abby and Verun. So we're very excited to have both of our amazing student board members participating as well. I think that'll be really special to have both of them there. Um you also received communication from Mr. gallow today regarding scheduling uh board of education member tours at Browning Field. We would like to take uh the board to be able to see the venue prior to the ribbon cutting event. We are currently working on those plans and that is uh currently slated for uh before our first home game on September 5th. We're working on those details and we'll be putting out a press release once those details are
009finalized. Tara has both posted both of those dates or will be posting both of those dates um as a board activity so that um we are able to have uh multiple board members at either of those tour dates. So please let Mr. Gallow know if you would like to attend either of those uh tour dates and if neither of those dates work for you, we can certainly schedule another date as well. Couple of facility updates. Uh today the soding was completed at John Deere's football field. We're excited to get that done. Wilson is scheduled for tomorrow. So, things are definitely looking better after all the heavy rain that we had the last couple of weeks ago and the soccer fields at both sites uh will be hydro seated. Uh next, uh the front entry at
010John Deere is also coming along. The deer the doors will be coming in on the 18th. Um and the current uh vestibule that is existing is of course now fully functional, but the new doors for the second entrance will be coming in on the 18th. and the new ADA lift that is inside the front entry and the inside stairs. That installation is currently taking place. As far as the second entrance uh for Wilson, we are waiting on the door closures and the front hardware and we're uh hoping for installation by the end of this week and then the drywall and painting will follow in the vestibule. So, that project will be wrapping up very soon. Um as far as the browning project, uh concrete uh was completed today. Fencing is still in progress, but the
011fencing around the track is complete. Bathrooms and concessions are slated to be complete by the end of this week. Um, and the track is scheduled to be sprayed and striped uh September 6th through the 18th. Uh, the regrading of the coolage field as well as the field behind the visitor bleachers at Browning will take place over the next month or so and those fields will also be hydroed. And regarding our summer roofing projects, they are both complete and those took place at Logan and Jefferson. And lastly, I'd like to give a shout out to our multilingual team. They developed a lessons to explic explicitly teach pedestrian safety to all of our K12 newcomer multilingual students starting today through September 8th. We're grateful for the team for working on this and getting it together so quickly
012so that our students can be more aware when crossing streets, boarding buses, and getting to and from school more safely. So, we're really happy that team has taken measures to be more proactive. As our multilingual student population uh continues to grow, we want to make sure that those kids um are as safe as possible getting to and from school. And that is all I have. >> Thank you, Dr. All right. And we'll move on to student board of education member report. >> So us at Molly High School started school on August 15th. But that was not the first day for freshmen who had it on Thursday, August 7th and Thursday, August 8th where they were welcomed by the link crew. The fall play theater is just getting into season. This year we are doing the
013outsiders. Homecoming is also just around the corner. This year at NY High School, we're doing the ocean of memories as our theme. And with homecoming, usually comes the homecoming parade. And with the homecoming parade comes class floats, which always brings a, you know, an air friendly competition between the classes. So, we'll see who comes out on top. And MHS is updating their slogan, and we have maroons show up as our new one. And a few sports are also starting like cross country, football, volleyball, girls tennis, and a few more. And that's all I have. >> Thanks. >> Um, building off of the sports, girls tennis went to Morton. It was our first invite. Um, we won the invite this weekend. Volleyball, girls volleyball has their first uh home game on Thursday, I believe. Um, theater
014just auditioned this week. Vern already mentioned that. And um, most of our clubs are getting started up started up. Women in STEM and Interact are having their first meetings this week. And then the student hunger drive should be starting in the next couple weeks. So, I'm very excited for that. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Now, board of education member open discussion. Does anybody have anything? >> I just had one quick thing. Uh, we saw I think hopefully most people saw it on the Facebook page and we saw the announcement about it, but I would like to do a shout out to Dr. Savage for doing the over the edge experience. Jim and I tried to get them there in time, but they went a little early. So, she had already gone over the edge
015and survived by the time that we arrived here and and still had a smile on her face. >> I really need to think things through. So, it I looked up terrifying. So, just thank you for representing our district so well um in that. And then one other shout out fact, I know we continue to do great projects in our schools, but um I had a chance to to see how the Wilson new sound system was working when they tested it out the other day and oh my goodness, so much better. Um and evidently people installing it said the speakers, you know, were like 1970s so previous to that. So um super exciting that we have those those new systems in both Wilson and Deer to just um have for just overall school events. So I
016think I'm proud that we continue to move forward with projects like that. So that is all. >> Um, and I just had one question. I know at the last meeting we talked about the date for graduation. Have we heard anything else about that or if not, do we know when we'll know if we got Sunday or did we decide to do Sunday? >> Okay, >> we did. So, um, we followed up with Vibrant shortly after the board of education meeting because there was a fear that um, other districts were vying for that date. So Chris and I followed up with Vibrant um and Vince shortly after the board meeting. We did get that slot and we told them to um you know count on us for that slot. So when we updated the district calendar
017very recently by adding the early release for homecoming, we also added we took out the TBD for commencement and added the Sunday date. So that date is now live on the district website for the calendar. Um, and we do know that we have the third slot. We're sharing with North Scott and Pleasant Valley. And as of now, they have the first and second slot. Um, I haven't had an opportunity to communicate with those two superintendents yet to see if there's ever an appetite to or a consideration to take turns with with the slots. I rather doubt it, but we will uh be able to have those conversations. So, as of now, um I assume that we'll be starting in the evening probably 6:30, 7 7:30. I'll have to kind of see when our evening slot
018um takes place, but nonetheless, we'll be very proactive and making sure that we mitigate some of those issues and concerns that we had last time. >> Awesome. Good news. Uh the only thing I have is there's a Gab's Gift 5K is coming up here next month for the Perkins uh put on by the Per and that's an important cause and important event and they're still looking for volunteers just to kind of cheer on the runners and work some spots. So if anybody has an availability that's that's a great event to get involved with. So >> do you have that date, Jason? September 6. September 6. >> Okay. Thank you. So, um, board member committee assignments. I think I've spoken to everybody individually. Um, once we know for sure we're final, I'll probably just send an
019email to each individual person with the point of contact for the committees they're on and then they'll kind of communicate that way. That's all I've really got for that. So, uh, if nobody has anything else, um, move to close session to consider the purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired. I have a motion to go into close session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I second. >> Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Um, so after that closed session, the recommended motion that the board of education approve the purchase of the property located at 1405 11th Street, Molen, Illinois for the purchase price of $200,000 plus
020closing costs with the intent to demolish the property and further authorize and direct Vince Gallow, chief financial officer, to execute all documents and do all things necessary to effectuate the purchase of the property upon terms that he and the superintendent deemed acceptable. moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Uh, roll call, please. >> Jason Ferrell. >> Hi. >> Lindsay Hines. >> Hi. >> Jeff Mayus. >> Hi. >> Audrey Adamson. >> Hi. >> Ramona Dixon. >> Hi. >> Chad de Smith. >> Hi. >> All right. Motion carries. Thank you, Vince. >> Um, can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor?