001Jesus. Yeah. That was office today. Memorial Day weekend. Imagine maybe some graduation parties. Yeah, I went to couple. Cool. Do you do anything? Um some my son other than hit upas. Yeah, there's Oh my god. So exciting. I'm so sorry. Lifetime for sure. Call order the regular meeting with the board of education, school district number 40 at 6 PM on Tuesday, May 27th, 2025 at the Molen Education Center, 1952nd Avenue, Molen, Illinois, 61265. May I have another roll call, please? Audrey Adamson, here. Chatter Smith, here. Ramona Dixon. Jason Ferrell, here. Lindsay Hines, here. Jeff Mayus here. Laura Severson here. Abigail Greenley here. We have any board members participating remotely. Pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with
002liberty and justice for all. Approval of minutes. Can I have motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the board of education of May 12th, 2025? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Uh communication, public comment, and participation. Let's see if we've got three. We will start with Ellen Garcia. Um, and just to clarify, we try to keep it under five minutes and we typically don't respond to any public comments. Okay. Sure. Wheel it around. Okay. Thank you. All right. We have some folders going around for everyone. Um, I'm Alan Garcia. I'm the department chair for physical education and I'm here to address the anticipated increase in class sizes for next year. I'm told we're going back to pre-COVID numbers which was anywhere from 50 to 55 students. With that, I'm asking that
003you consider hiring an additional PE teacher to ensure our numbers stay in safe range. And I also want to thank you for your time and consideration as you listen to my team's concerns. So, I know I'm short on time. Um, so first I want you to take out the picture that I put in So just for a visual this is what 50 students looks like. These students are not seen. There is no teacher student relationship. Imagine being a teacher when walking into this class. Our main concern is monitoring our students. They don't get the instruction that they deserve. They don't get the PE experience that they deserve, especially after given the new facilities. And with that I have current class rosters. I have the names blanked out, but these we do have some classes that
004already have 50 students. You can also see we have several ML students, several IEP students, and several 504 students. And most of the time, we are not given a parrot. So, as one teacher, we're accommodating all of these things. So, our main concern, our number one priority is student safety. With our big facility, it's almost impossible to keep track of that many students. We have multiple access points. We have places to hide. This year alone, we had seven physical fights that were documented and many more that were deescalated. So, our main concern becomes safety. And with that, we have a lot of equipment that propose safety concerns as well. We teach golf currently. There's no way we're giving 50 students a golf club that have little to no knowledge in golf. We have an a
005beautiful weight room and one of our main priorities was to get all students in the weight room, not just our athletes. And a lot of teachers don't feel comfortable bringing 50 to 55 students in the weight room with little to no knowledge. The next thing I want to address is that we would compromise our PE curriculum. I became department chair three years ago and worked extremely hard to enhance our PE experience. We added more class offerings. We added student choice. We wanted students to enjoy PE and not just our athletes but our average student. We wanted them to be comfortable and have a choice in what they do in PE. So if you look at the bullet points, if we go back to 50 students, these classes that we offer right now would be compromised.
006Like I mentioned the weight room, I mentioned golf. We also take students bowling. Can you imagine 50 students to the bowling alley with one teacher? We can't even fit that many on a bus. Um, also space becomes a concern. We offer pickle ball in bad mitten and comfortably we fit about 32 students. So, we'd have about 20 walking while they're waiting. Um, we also have a lifeguard certification course in PE leadership that is capped around 20 to 25 students. We can no longer afford to have those smaller classes when we have an average that much higher. So with that with that handout the next page I'm asking that we hire one additional PE teacher so that we can cap our classes so that no PE class exceeds 45 students depending on the class um and
007number of students that enrolled. Some caps are smaller. I also, if you look down on the handout, I h I have reached out to many, many schools with similar enrollment this week. And I wanted to know their class average and cap. And almost all the schools that I reached out to had a much smaller cap than us. They were anywhere from 35 to 40, which ours is currently at 50. Furthermore, I wanted to know about um low income and free and reduced lunch rates percentages. Ours was much higher than the schools that I reached out to with smaller caps. So, I believe our students deserve a lot more support. They don't have the resources outside of our PE facilities. They deserve the best PE experience possible given that we have one of the best facilities
008in the state. And I also want to say we owe it to our taxpayers. They they're funding this beautiful facility. Um so with that I I hope you consider um additional teacher and lowering our cap numbers. Um we owe it to our students and also our community and taxpayers. Thank you so much for your time. Next we have Tracy Sam. Let's see if I can do this without my glasses. So, all right. All right. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Tracy Sandom and I've been teaching at Mulling High School for 20 years. I currently teach physical education and wellness and I'm the developer course of mind and body, a class that combines yoga, meditation, positive affirmations, journaling, group sessions to help students connect with themselves and with each other on a deeper
009level. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Ellen covered all amazing things, but she didn't cover the stories. I'm here not just as a teacher, but someone who sees the quiet, visible weight our students carry every single day and how the structure of the classroom can either support them or let them fall through the cracks. In our physical education wellness classes, we have upwards of 50 students. I try my best every single day to connect with each of them, to give them support, attention, and a moment to feel seen. But the truth is, no matter how hard I try, some slip through. Not because I don't care, but because there simply isn't enough time, space, hands to reach all of them in the way that they deserve. Every kid deserves that. a chance to be
010known, to feel safe, to speak freely, to move, to reflect, to grow, not just physically but emotionally and mentally. In my embodied class, we do more than just teach yoga or movement. We create a safe spa space for students to process anxiety, trauma, self-doubt, things that are never talked about anywhere else. But when the class is too big, it becomes harder to build meaningful relationships. And that's where the real growth happens. I need to get a water. My mouth is so dry. Can I get a piece of water? I'm so sorry. I'm like trying to talk and I'm like, it's been a long day. Thank you, Ellen. That's where the real growth happens. These aren't just numbers. They are young people silently asking, "Do you see me? And do I matter here?" Last week, I
011gave my students a teacher evaluation, a form to complete to see what I needed to do to improve as a teacher. Some of their comments were, "This class made me feel more comfortable than regular PE. I didn't feel judged here. I used to hate PE. I felt invisible in this class. I feel noticed. You knew my name. That means more than people realize. When teachers know me, I try to I try harder. When they don't, I check out. And then, of course, in PE, it feels like I could disappear and no one would notice. This isn't just about fitness. This is about wellness, dignity, and connection. According to Shape America, one in three students in large B classes don't feel comfortable participating. The CDC report that students feel connected to school are far less likely
012to experience depression and sui suicidal thoughts. Smaller class sizes mean equals more safety, more feedback, and more connection. Let me be clear, smaller PE classes won't just improve academic performance. They'll restore dignity. They give the students back a sense of being seen and valued. Our students are so much more than test scores. They are more than athletes. They are more than just high school students. They are humans with real stories, real struggles, and a deep need to feel that they matter. As an educator and leader, we have the responsibility to create this space for them. I use an assignment called I am human to help reflect and write. Let them write about their inner lives. They begin with the phrase I am human. And they go to describe what it means to feel overwhelmed, to
013carry pain, to try hard, to hope, to fail, and to grow. This is the binder of all of my students in mind and bodies stories. So, I would like to maybe go through this later on and then if I could get it back to this test. So, this picture right here, this is my class. This is my first period class. This is my mind and body. Okay? This is 50 students in this photo. 50 faces, 50 stories, 50 lives in motion all at once. And I try every single day to show up for all 50. Yes, these students, some have IEPs, 504s, and speak different languages. But there are also students who have been in the hospital for anorexia, two students kicked out of their house, two which are sisters living on their own, foster
014care, um an absent father, a father that's in prison, a mother that's in prison, protection order against their uncle, hungry every day. His mom's a drug addict. Another one that's been in fights, multiple fights at Mullen High School, but now was a senior and really found peace. Pregnant, housefire, sexual abuse, and was blamed, her mother blamed her for her brother's death. That's just in my first period class. And those are conversations that I've had with each of those students other than the IPS, other than the 504s, and other than the ones that speak different languages. Miss. Yes. I'm sorry. Is my time up? Yes. Oh, okay. I didn't realize I was Thank you. Thank you. And last we have Mike Morris. All right. I I'll definitely be quicker uh because I didn't know I was
015speaking until like 20 minutes ago. Uh but obviously uh I'm I'm Mike Mory. I'm the head football coach at Molen, but I'm also a PE teacher and most importantly, uh, I'm a father of three kids in our district. Uh, you know, I was very fortunate enough and I was listening to the Mrs. Garcia go through things and Mrs. Sanmore go through things and, uh, Miss Federers had a major impact on my children as well. But, uh, you know, the relationship piece just keeps coming up over and over and over again. I was fortunate enough to have Abby in class, uh, you know, be it was a smaller setting. you know, I don't know if we had a huge class tonight, but maybe 35, 40, and it was easy to connect with those kids. It's easy
016to get to know them. It's easy to to wish them good luck on a test or things that they're doing that they have outside of school or in athletics or whatever it may be. When you start to compound, you know, some of the other things that Mr. Garcia talked about where you have ML students, you have IEP students, you have all these things kind of thrown into one that need your specific attention. It's almost impossible to do. And I hate I hate to say that because obviously we strive to to break down those barriers all the time. Our department, I think, is incredible for that. Uh but it's it's definitely easier said than done, you know, and I think we we put put forth a balanc effort. Uh and I think everybody does the very
017best they can to connect. Obviously, all of them have talked about that tonight. Uh but adding that that additional teacher, I think just takes even a mental health component out of our picture as well. You know, we talk about that all the time with with our kids. Uh but you can see the stress on some of our teachers. you know, you can big time, you know, with the overwhelming numbers, with the overwhelming discipline problems, with the overwhelming uh, you know, communication barriers that we see on a daily basis. And not that this is uh, you know, unique to our our department. I mean, it's everywhere, but when you have that many students, it it is it's hard. It's hard to manage. And, uh, the reality is, you know, as a parent, uh, I want my
018kid to have the best experience. You know, selfishly, I want them to have the best experience that they can have in education as well. Whether that be in science or English or math or PE or anything that they get involved in, we want them to have that. You know, all of us do. All of us that have kids believe that and we want what's best for our kids. It's it's it's one of those things. I I met with with Dr. Spelog uh who was a superintendent of Pleasant Valley. I had I had lunch with him years and years ago before he retired. And the the main thing I took out of that conversation besides all the stuff that they were doing was his goal of being the very best at every single thing that they
019do, everything. He's like, "That's my goal." It doesn't matter if it's athletics. Obviously, they put a ton of money in athletic stuff, but he's like, "We want to win all of our academic competitions. We want to win like be competitive in all that stuff. We want our kids to have the very best opportunity succeed to succeed in everything they do within our district." uh and that just it resonated with me and obviously as a PV grad I was I was just fortunate enough to listen to him. Uh but I think we offer the same things I do in a lot of different ways. I think we're we're right there on the cusp of a lot of those things in PE especially uh with what we're doing from our our curriculum standpoint, especially with what Miss
020Garcia said, but um that that additional teacher I think is is is paramount for us. I I think you know it's one of those things that it takes the stress off of us with the numbers and some of those other things. But I also think more importantly and way more importantly uh it gives kids the experience that they deserve in our district because we do have some amazing kids and a lot of them unfortunately sometimes get lost in the cracks and uh you might not be able to have those relationships with those kids that you that you really strive for because that's what education is. It's about ed it's about relationships. You know I know the knowledge the content knowledge and all those things and the test scores are all great but uh you know
021the reality is like I want Abby to come back and visit Moly High School and tell me how amazing she's doing 10 years from now. You know that's it. And it's it's it's hard to have that connection piece with every student unless you actually get to have that connection piece with every student. Uh and and smaller class sizes definitely contribute to that. So, thank you guys for your time. Definitely appreciate it. Uh and everything else. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, presentation on design development of the Lincoln Irving project with the Lincoln Architects. Vince Thank you. All right. Well, good evening everybody. Um, we have some pretty exciting updates on the Lincoln Irving project. Um, we've been working really hard over the last couple months uh since our last update kind of
022refining that uh building. um working with the administration with Leot with Estus Construction now on board as well as getting feedback from our community members, our staff members and really taking that all into account and creating a much uh more refined building. So, we're really excited to kind of share that with you. Uh there's a little video walkrough at the end. So, I'll let it kind of take over. Thank you, Ben. Thanks so much for having us today. I'm just good to be the book ends and introduce this fabulous team. Uh we've had such a great time working with you. As you said, it's it's been such an inspirational uh project and we've been able to engage with the community along the way. So, I'm Robin Randall. I'm the director of education at Leed Architects.
023I'm Zach Campbell. I'm the uh project manager on the project. I'm Val Pierce. I'm an associate on the project. I'm Brandon Edwards. I'm also a project associate. Ryan Ross Miller, fastest construction. So, we're going to take you through a presentation and also a video walkthrough of the project. So, um our agenda tonight is hopefully we're pointing it in the right direction. Next, you want to just hit the arrow. Thank you. Oh, there we go. Um, as I said, we've been through quite a collaborative process. So, we're going to take you through and and just share that information. Um, kind of book in collaborative processes. So, what we've been through so far, the community engagement, uh the programming requirements, that you've got a copy of the program in front of you, uh the conceptual planning and
024design, reviewing the design development progress, which is where we are right now in design development, um and then we'll review the budget. Estus will do that, and then we'll talk about next steps and a collaborative process for the next phase. All right. So, uh, these are the, uh, all the meetings that we've had. We didn't list all of them, but we just want to give you a update of where we've been at. So, we started this process back in January of 24, um, where we did a test fit to make sure the building could fit on the site with the program that we were looking for. Uh, then we moved into conceptual design, community engagement. We had many meetings with the community and staff updates. Um, that coincided with schematic design. And then after schematic
025design, which is when we presented to you last back in Jan, beginning the end of January, uh we moved into design development, that's where we start kind of putting all the pieces together, figuring out what's going in classrooms, in the gym, uh things of that nature. Um and since then, we've had probably another seven or eight meetings just between different committee members, updates to the full staff at both Lincoln, Irving, and Willard. Um our last one was in April, and now we're here today with a a kind of grand update of where we've been at so far. And then moving forward, uh we're heading into construction documents. Um that's going to be from uh May 2025 to um October of 2025. I think I have my dates from there, so sorry about that. Uh so
026like I said, uh we met early on in the planning phase um with the administration to figure out if the building could fit on the site. Um and during that uh process, we came up with these four themes um that are currently driving the building and the project. Um and you'll see that with uh what's going on with the design throughout when we get to the video at the end. So those four themes are cultural, um flexible, visionary, and affordability. Uh so part of the community engagement process uh we wanted to go these are kind of were our rules of engagement with the community members just making sure that we came to those meetings with an open mind uh make sure that we were listening uh understanding and sharing um between everybody just so we
027all ideas were being heard all voices were being uh listened to. Um, and then from there, these are some of the photos and the processes that that we went through. Brandon's going to dive a little bit further into those. Yes. So, to kick off schematic design, we had um some sort of community engagement sessions with both schools, and that was a chance for the public to sort of get involved and voice sort of what's important to them about this uh new school. And I'm so sorry I can't read the question that far, but I think the first question is like how would this uh project like best reflect your school's culture? Yes, there's one here and there's one here. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I guess but um obviously with it being sort of a multicultural
028multilingual area um that is one of the major factors and they want it to feel you know welcoming and inclusive for all those diverse backgrounds and more oh sorry no you're good no and more of like a influence on sort of the sort of sensory um individualized sort of education stuff um and then we also kind of had them further on during Smash design sort of as the plane was being developed to let the teachers and staff also sort of reflect on what we're doing. Yes. The second question we would ask is how would you see this project on the first day of school? Like what are three words that you want to sort of be reflected in this building? And a lot of them obviously like feel like home, inviting, accessible, like everyone's a
029family, amazing, open spaces. And so kind of keeping these factors in mind is kind of what helped us for schmatic design. And we also sent out a survey to the public. This helped for those that couldn't make it to the two sort of in-person sessions. Um they went out to teachers, students, uh and staff. And most of the participants were students, which was kind of fun. They had really good answers. And one of the questions we asked them are, "What are some strengths of your school?" And ironically enough, almost all the staff and parents of the students and almost all the students said the teachers and staff. So those actually were the most common responses we had. Um but beyond that, the multiple languages in the community kind of were the overarching strength. And then
030what would um what spaces would basically benefit um you know from being this project? A lot of them said larger classrooms, more storage, more space in general. Um, dedicated spaces for gym and lunch in an auditorium, so you're not doing it all in the same room. Um, intervention breakout spaces and stuff like that. So, a lot of those survey responses, they helped drive the program and uh the program requirements um came from the Hamilton project over 10 years ago now. Um, and that that uh program really helped drive the Lincoln Irving project. Uh, we took that program as along with the uh the community responses and kind of tweaked that with lessons learned of what spaces needed more or additional space and came up with this um this program for the new facility, which is
031everybody should have a copy of this in front of you. I'm not going to go through it line by line, but this is kind of what we've been going back to continuously um as we move forward through the project just to make sure that we're on track square footage wise because at the end of the day, the more you increase the square footage, the more you're building at the cost here to the end. So we all those different colored we split it up in between classrooms uh PE different learning environments within the space mechanical spaces things of that nature. So um at the end we did grow in size compared to Hamilton and actually what what you're seeing here were additionally increased on top of that just from feedback that we got from staff and
032um administration on um needing to increase the size of the cafeteria um and things of that nature just to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the students with using the space. Well, and I think some of the feedback that you had on sensory spaces and supportive spaces that are needed, the things that we learned through COVID, right, that um we know that students need more support and so finding those spaces for support and adding that to the program increased a little bit of the square footage, but we think it's worth it in terms of supporting the students. Yep. Thank you, Rob. Um, so here's site plan of Lincoln Irving. Just wanted to give you everybody the same uh detail here. Uh so this is your existing site. Um one of the things we
033had to figure out early on was whether or not all this program would fit on the site. Um because this site is about four acres and Hamilton was about five and a half acres. So we're already a much smaller site and we're still trying to fit the same amount of square footage plus some on top of that onto this site. So early on um the team came up with these conceptual design options um and we moved blocks around. We we tried to figure out different layouts for the building and the the consensus option that we all kind of agreed upon was this arc option. Um and and from there we took this option and we moved the pieces around. Um started to figure out where adjacencies met the most sense. um tried to make it
034fit architecturally and to where you could end up building the building. Um and this was the test fit that we came up with and we found out that that we could fit the building on site with the program that we were looking for in addition to getting all the parking spaces that that the team was looking for, which was a big thing for uh Lincoln Irving because parking is a is a premium over at the Hamilton site. And then from there, uh, we dove into, uh, the actual design of the building. I'm gonna let take over. Yeah. So, these are eight forces that we kind of came to a conclusion on from those community and staff engagement sessions. So, these were like what we considered the top eight that came out of all those words.
035So, there's welcoming, cultural, visionary, inclusive, security, flexibility, and efficiency. And then from there, here's like a kind of a diagrammatic um way how we implemented all those onto the plan. So you can see at that core there's like a it almost looks like a star, but this is like our our learning stair, our learning tree. It's like our cultural kind of hub where everybody can come and collaborate together. And then those little colored blocks, they might be hard to differentiate, but they kind of swoop through the building. Those are where all those different elements of like cultural, welcoming, um visionary, etc. kind of implemented into the space. and we were thinking of it almost as like the roots of the tree were kind of like weaving through um the design. I would just like add
036that that that walkway that element the the swoop as we call it or the art um is really the cultural threads of how everything is tied together conceptually because you'll enter the building and that whole dash line is all of the learning spaces that are pullouts. So everything is about learning but it also is expressing the culture uh through that. So we we've called it the cultural threads or the cultural roots connecting. Thank you. So then to take you through the floor plan more specifically um we kind of started with a division of public versus private. So point there you go. Why would people See that purple box right below that is going to be the main entry. And then directly across from that, the blue is the commons and cafeteria space. To the north
037and the orange is the stage, orchestra, musical areas. Above that is the gym and our storm shelter. And then that purple, as I a mentioned, that's adjacent to the entry is the admin. So everything basically there up is our like public area. And then below that, we have our private section with the classrooms. Um I guess specifically the classrooms like on that big curve the red as well as that red in the bottom like bar section that's the existing school. Those are all our main classrooms and then you have the yellow which are the life skills classrooms. There's a little bit of instructional and collaboration like integrated throughout which is the bright green and those like pale yellow. Yep. Right there. So those are kind of like core spaces where we also are thinking about
038visible learning. So if you break out from your classroom and you want to be in the collaborative space, it's visible still to the to the teachers. So it's more of like a security feature there, but also just collaboration. And then on the second floor, same concept. We have the bright green for the collab spaces, classrooms, and then integrated throughout there. We also have the orange, which is art, media, and then um we have this little roof garden, which is that kind of orange box that sticks out. So that that'll be like a I don't know outdoor learning basically with opportunities maybe for scientific classes um just environmental studies whatever you might want out there media oh in the yep the media center which is where the roof gone was basically off of and then to
039transition to the exterior color palette we kind of wanted to continue that natural um you know cultural roots tree concept so we went with earthy more natural tones and what we started with actually was the fact that to get the existing building up to energy code, we have to take off the existing brick to be able to correctly insulate it to meet code. So from there, we were able to select a new color palette and we didn't want it to be shocking to the community, but we wanted to keep those like warmer earthy tones, something new. Um, and on this existing building, which is the top, that's the top image, we have some data lines that we're using to kind of pull through the building. It'll help you kind of pull horizontal I should say,
040sorry, horizontal data lines that help you visually kind of move around the building. And then the bottom image is actually our new um that's that new curved classroom. This is conceptual. The color tones might be a little bit more muted, but we're thinking it'll be like a pop color. It'll be neutral with like a warmer integrated metal panel in there just to be something completely different from the rest. And then adjacent that that lower right here, that's the that'll be like the main entry admin area with your gym. Then from there, let's transition to the interior where we still wanted to keep with natural kind of earthy colors, but we're making it more fun, you know, since it's on the interior and maybe this many colors might be too much on the outside, but on
041the inside, we want to use this to you to do um wayfinding, help differentiate certain spaces, public spaces versus private, etc. um which you will begin to see in the next slide which is the walkthrough. All right. So we are uh walking into the main entry here from the parking lot. So what you see right in front of you would be the main office. That's the old secure entry space. So we'll be walking through this main uh You're interesting. There you go. Uh so we got main reception space. We have a little seating area for those waiting to be get into the space. And then here would be your main entry into the school. Uh looking at bringing in that tree element throughout the uh school so you get glimpses of it before you get
042to that main um tree element at the center of the uh building and the learning stair. So here we're walking up to that space. You get a little glimpse of the tree there. Uh this is that discovery lab, a group pull out space from the classrooms. And when we turn around, you'll see the garage doors that open up and provide that visual learning connection. So here we're walking into one of the classrooms. Um starting to see all those colors that we're bringing in, all those natural tones. Um we have a a wall opposite the teaching wall. That's the colored wall there. Um coming back out here into the main corridor, you get another glimpse of the tree and then up the learning stairs there. And then through here we have another um smaller tree element.
043We're looking at how we can incorporate a larger mural um and possibly doing like a leaf effect along that wall to trail through the whole space. Um here's that porch. So these are all those student support services space. That's that group out space. Um, so the direct connection to the uh classrooms through the garage doors to the uh to the porch area to continue that idea of of visual learning throughout the school. Um, and then we're heading back here. This is would be the kindergarten wing off the left, but we're going to sneak upstairs here. Um, sorry the staircase isn't super exciting. Um once we get outside here, we'll be up on the fifth grade area. Uh so the fifth grade, the porch is a little bit different up here because we want to be
044able to provide that connection between the fifth grade and the porch in those uh student support services and the group pull out spaces. So here's just a little look into a fifth grade classroom. We're still working through some of the casework and the layout of the space, but um just to give you an idea of the general colors in that area. Uh so those green and the blues uh would be like a tackable wall surface. So be able to tack up student work uh throughout the space during a group pull out activity. And then this is would be the main corridor along the uh second floor. And we're going to walk up here to the uh learning stair and the the main tree element here. So the learning stair you'd be able to fit like
045a full class section on there. Um so like all of fourth grade could be on the stair at the same time. We have little windows in the tree and a little treehouse um to overlook um the space. And then here we're popping into the media center. Um our meeting with them, they wanted a lot of flexible seating, a lot of flexible furniture. Um but we also wanted to provide those little reading nook spaces uh for students to be able to break out and kind of sit in different areas within the space and have um a little a little reading area. Sorry, that was a whirlwind. Yeah, it seems really slow when you're doing a video, but when you start talking through it, it gets really fast. It goes fast. Well, I think I mean hopefully
046what you're seeing here is 10 years ago when Hamilton opened, it was the premier uh 21st century learning environment in the region. And we believe that this will be the next step forward. Um it's learning everywhere, right? And um we're super excited about the next steps. I'm gonna transition over to the funds now. I'll let Brian talk about the budget or the whole thing. No. I know you probably can't read that, but um this is the budget we did last iteration of the drawings which is mag design. And reason I bring that up is now we're sign development, right? So we're going to update this moving forward. Probably next month we'll have an updated budget. But this is where we started at and this is just a summary page. We've got about 20 pages of
047detail behind all that. And what we do, we we we quantified everything that we had off the documents that I had provided, the site work, all the building stuff, mechanical, electrical, everything, and the owner's costs. Reviewed all of them and we after they approved everything, we went and reviewed with Vince and Keith. And so in agreement as a collective group, we agree this is the most accurate budget we have at the time we with the documents we have. Right. So um nothing on the ordinary here. We are trying to capture all the owner costs too like the um some of the technology equipment, security equipment, all those kind of things are all in the overall budget. So you got to know where you are at all times. Um the other thing I'll point out uh
048we're carrying several contingency allowances in here still based on the level of design and we have time. So as design progresses, we'll do a more detailed budget than this was even and that'll come down based on the scope that we know is going to progress as design progresses. So, um, as we move forward, you'll see those numbers come down. The goal is to be at or below this number every single time, hopefully below it every time. Um, and we'll we'll get we'll do an up budget update to end the design development, which is now, next month. And we'll do another budget check as we get closer to construction documents as well back probably in October. So, I'm sure we're still on track with everybody, no surprises, so we know what we're going to do when
049we put off bids. Yep. Like if Brian mentioned, we'll have multiple checks along the way. So our next one we just we're just finishing up design development. So we'll share the drawings with Estus. They'll hopefully within the next month month get us an updated estimate and then um we'll do another check here probably in September um just before we go out to bid in October. So um and then so here's our next steps. So right now um like I said we're going we're just finishing up design development. um we'll be uh jumping into construction documents. So that's basically us going through the documents and putting details to everything, making sure that the building um but the design we're trying to achieve can be built um effectively. Um so we'll have constant checks back with Estus
050with Benson Keith um and the other core admin team. We'll have additional meetings with the staff just to bring everybody up to speed, make sure we're um tracking all right with what's going into classrooms, what's going into the gym, cafeteria, kitchen, things of that nature. Um and that'll take us through October. Um we're planning to present to the board again on October 13th. Um and then after that, we would go out to bid towards the end of October. um with with bids received in November and then hopefully starting construction March if not earlier depending on when the frost is out of the ground. So that's still projecting for an opening of August of 2027. So, our last thing we wanted to mention is we're going to let everybody take the summer off and then when
051we all get back together in September, we want to uh really work on this naming uh the renaming element and bring in the community and and engage with all of you uh to talk about what's in the name. Uh, and then as part of that, we're going to develop, we talked about the mural, um, that cultural thread or the cultural roots that go through the building. We want it to be really coming from the community. So, we're going to engage with the community um about the mural design as well. So, those are two elements that will will still be designing and still being a part of of the project. So, looking forward to that. Any questions, comments? Thank you for letting us come and present. We appreciate it. All right, we'll now move on to
052the consent agenda. Uh the recommended motion is that the board of education approve the actions consent agenda. Second. I have a roll call, please. Jason Perrell. Hi. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi Laura Severson. Hi Adamson. Hi Ramona Dixon Chaki. Hi. Appointment of board secretary pro town. Regular motion at the board of education appoint Vince Gallow as board secretary pro town for the June 23rd 2025 board of education meeting. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Uh roll call please. Lindsay Hines. Hi, Jeff Mayus. Hi, Laura Severson. Hi, Audrey Adamson. Hi, Ramona Dixon. Jason Ferrell. Hi, Ch Smith. Hi. Approval of the check signature authorization resolution to recommend a motion of the board of education approve the resolution authorizing Chest to Smith, president and Vincent P. Gallow, board treasur be designated as officers authorized to sign checks
053and legal papers. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Laura Severson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. Hi. Ramona Dixon. Jason Ferrell. Hi. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Chetta Smith. I. Approval of memorand memorandum of agreement with Eastern Iowa Community College. Recommend motion. The board of education approve the memorandum of agreement between Eastern Iowa Community College and the Mullen Pole Valley School District number 40 for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Laura Superson, hi. Adamson, hi. Ramona Dixon. Jason Frell. Hi. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Jet Desmith. Hi. 10. Approval of cooperative agreement regarding pre- studentent teaching placements and student teaching with St. Ambrose University for the 2025 2026 school year. recommend a motion that the board of education approve the cooperative agreement regarding pre- studentent teaching placements and student
054teaching between St. Ambrose University and the Mullen Cole Valley School District for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Arson. Hi. Ramona Dixon. Jason Frell. Hi. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayis. Hi Laura Severson. Hi Jetta Smith. Hi. Okay. Uh, moving on to reports, requests, and open discussions. Rachel, just a couple of things. Uh, first, I want to thank everybody for um an excellent graduation. It was really just an awesome event. So proud of our students and to see just the culminating event of over 500 students and the pride that the families and the friends and the community members come together to celebrate the achievements of those uh students was just really really special and I was just so proud and thankful that the event was successful even though it
055took a while to get everybody in the building. Uh but we will certainly work on that. But we're grateful that the event was successful and everybody was safe that evening. Um we have um the end of the school year coming near just a couple of more days. Uh this Friday is the last day of school. It's a short day. Um and it has been for all sakes and purposes just a wonderful, wonderful school year. And I want to just thank our teachers, our support staff, our administrators, our students, our parents, and our community. Um, everybody really comes together in this town and it's something really special to make sure that our kids have a positive experience here in Molen. Um, I did want to mention um that our um school district will be offering meals
056this summer. Um, our district is offering free lunch to anyone under 18 years of age in the community. There's no requirement to register and no requirement for identification. All students need to do or anybody under 18 is to come uh to the high school. Um the meals will run June 4th to July 2nd. Um except for June 19th when the district will be closed. All meals can be picked up at MHS between 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. So pop in through that half hour to pick up uh free lunch. And again, anybody under 18, no identification needed, no registration, and we want to make sure that um our kids know that they have that um opportunity, and we'll make sure that we're communicating that um out to families as well. Um and
057lastly, just a reminder that registration will be opening up on Monday for the joint annual conference in Chicago this November. Please uh remember to send your intent to attend either to Tara or to Brian uh the rest of this week so that we can make sure that we get everybody properly registered um so that um those u registrations can be secure. And that's all I have for tonight. Rachel, for the meals, do they go to the cafeteria? I think Vince is at the cafeteria. Yes, the cafeteria. Thank you. Y All right. Uh, student board of education member report, Abby. Yeah, I don't have much to report since we're basically at the end of the school year. Everybody is counting down the days. School is feeling a little lonely without the seniors now that they've graduated.
058There's a lot less people in there. Um, but I did want to give a quick shout out to girls and boys track. We sent about 10 or so athletes to state um last weekend, which is super exciting, and that's a great accomplishment. Yeah. So, that's all. Thank you. Does anybody else have anything? I think Brian, Dr. Prible posted it, but I think our our fishing team also had a pretty good run, too, right? They qualified two boats uh to the state tournament. That's awesome. And uh this year the state tournaments at a brand new 12 I want to see 16 years and moved to Shelbyville Lake. It was pretty exciting to have two boats get down. That's awesome. I just want to say you you'd commented on our slight delay in getting started on Friday
059night, but I just want to say I think it was amazing how well that was handled with that many students in the in the area waiting and that many family members who had been there for a long time. Thank goodness it was lovely weather. um at least hopefully security at Vibrant um is a little bit uh more responsive uh in the future in terms of getting people through, but I think staffing and all of the the faculty staff that were there to sort of support it, I think made it just it didn't feel like it was like a oh my gosh, what the heck's happening sort of situation. It ran as smoothly as possible. It was a great night. So, thank you to everybody that helped make that happen. Anybody else? All right. Uh now,
060All in favor? Um, close session to consider collective bargaining or collective negotiating matters between public body and its employees are the representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. Motion second. All in favor I All right. I get a motion to return to open session. All in favor? I Okay. Uh number 13, uh approval of the MESPA union agreement. recommend a motion that the board of education approve a three-year agreement between the Mullen Education Support Personnel, NESPA, and the Mullen Pole Valley Board of Education for the 2025 2026, 2026, 2027, and 2027, 2028 school years. So moved. Second. Any discussion? I just want to say it was uh wonderful to work with you, Michelle, and your group um on these negotiations. So, thank you. It was it was very smooth,
061very, very good negotiations. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you all. Okay. Can I have a roll call, please? Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Laura Severson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. Hi. Ramona Dixon. Jason Ferrell. Hi. Chad Smith. Hi. All right. And now I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor? I second.