MCV CUSD 40 Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] Here we go. Everybody notified. There will be a committee of the whole meeting of the board of education district number 40 at 6 p.m. Monday May 12th Logan Elementary School at 1602 25th street Illinois. So meetings Adamson here Smith here Dixon here. Jason Frell here. Lindsay Hines here. Jeff Mayus here. Laura Seersonson here. Abigail Greenley here. Yokumar here. Any public comment or communication? Okay. So next up we have uh student and community safety upgrades for the future parades. That's Dr. Pibble I believe by Chief Health. Yes. So as part of our partnership with uh police department and uh we always focus on student and staff safety and one of the big things that we have coming up soon is the homecoming group. That's kind of next on our list. So we've been working with

002Chief G Police Department staff Chris Moore Scott Aers at high school and if you want upgrades I'll turn it over to Chief and afterwards if there's any questions. All right. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jiren G. I'm the police chief in the city of Molen. a proud parent of past three past students who went through Mo school district all the way from elementary through college. But I appreciate everything that you do. Give gave my kids a wonderful education. All three of them in college and doing wonderfully. So I feel very passionately about our community and of course the the safety of Moline. So we're going to talk today about uh the upcoming parade. I do want to bring your attention we have a therapy

003dog here. So if I stress you out uh we can call the dog over. Also, I did notice that we have safe dodge balls here. So, you could, if you're going to throw something at me, let's choose to throw one of these dodge balls and the superintendent will hand them out. Um, so as we get going here, I I want to ask you uh to to think about something and I want you to think about what the city of Mine, city of Highland Park, Illinois, and the city of uh Walking Shaw, Wisconsin all had in common. We'll come back to that. But listen, parades, festivals, they all have an enormous amount of risk associated with [Music] them. Uh they they all have a an inherent element of risk in them. So when we use roadways

004that are designed for vehicular traffic, uh that puts pedestrians at risk. Uh pedestrians can have contact or be caught between vehicles, trailers, they can be pinched, crushed. Uh we also have to worry about the dynamics uh of the vehicles that are around them. Uh we have to consider crowd side density, dynamics, behavior of those crowds. And this isn't just related to school events. It's related to all things that we have come through our police department that involve risk. And so our job here is to assess the risk and then decide what type of risk tolerance that we have. And risk we're never going to be able to get to zero. Right? You can probably pepper me with some questions tonight about well what if and we recognize that in events particularly what we're talking about

005tonight. We're never going to get to zero risk but what can we do to mitigate the risk uh that that we face. And so when we do risk assessments, we look at the likelihood of something that may happen. I don't know how clear this is up here, but if you just use a simple matrix of the likelihood that something is going to happen and the consequences that that could happen in each one of these sectors, we know that something that's rare and that is insignificant is low risk. And conversely, something that is almost certain and could be catastrophic is extreme risk. and then obviously all the squares in between. So the question is how can we mitigate min minimize the risk? I'm here to tell you today that that it's an unfortunate part of our

006society that you can no longer say that it isn't going to happen here. You can replace that with any scenario that we may have but particularly with parades. You cannot take the posture that it will never happen in Molen. And one of our jobs uh when in our partnerships that that we work with particularly in the school district is is to learn from other communities events uh the tragedies that they may have had the lessons that they have learned so that we can provide a safer community for us so that that we can mitigate mitigate that risk. So let's just talk about some incidents. Highland Park, population of about 30,000 people, 57 foreign police officers. In July 4th of 2022, they had a Fourth of July parade. Uh and in that parade, they had an

007elevated shooter on top of a business. Seven people were killed, 48 injured in a mass shooting. Apologize if this is for anybody in here. We're going to talk a little bit about some incidents that have happened, Wisconsin, a population of 70,000. uh 123 sworn police officers in November of 2021. They had a Christmas parade. Six were killed, 62 injured in a vehicle attack. Uh Mayberg, Germany, population of 200,000. December 2024 Christmas parade, six killed, 299 injured in a single vehicle attack. And in New Orleans, you may remember on New Year's Eve, New Orleans has a population of 364,000, uh 900 sworn police officers January one, the New York New Year's street festival. That picture is in the upper right hand corner. One single truck. 14 people killed, 57 injured. Vehicles are as dangerous, possibly even

008more dangerous than a firearm. They're definitely more dangerous than a single handgun. Uh but they they can cause mass carnage in a hurry. And so we I'm trying to push the city and all of our parades to be safer, all of our festivals be safer. But I can tell you the size of town is not a factor. So I ask you what is mulling Highland Park and Waka Shaw, Wisconsin all had in common. It's certainly not our size. Uh we are bigger than Highland Park. Uh we have uh about 42,000 people in our community. I have 84 swarm. I'm supposed to have 84 sworn police officers. So you can see we fit in between Highland Park and Washaw. I can tell you what we all have in all of our committees, little children that go

009to our schools that we have to do our best job as adults. give them the safest environment that we can even though it may not be publicly popular or uncomfortable to change certain things particularly like traditions or things we've always done just say it won't happen here. So in 2023 the city of Molen ended allowing parade applicants to pick their own routes. It's almost impossible for us as a police department to secure every route that everyone wants to have a parade on. uh there are multiple intersections, alleys, different dynamics, grades, businesses, elevated positions, extremely difficult. So, we reduced it down to two options. We grandfather the moing high school parade in as an option that you can have. We continue to do that for the last couple of years. I advocated that we would continue

010to maintain the Avenue, the city's parade route. Uh and then unfortunately last year at the parade it was delayed for a significant amount of time because we had an individual drive through a parking lot and crashed through uh the building at 27th Street right as the parade was getting ready to start. Happy to report that no one was injured in that but kind of gave a little start to us uh that that could happen here. And then as you know on Avenue of Cities here we had a couple students that were hit by a car. Uh and so I can you know constantly looking at the dynamics of roadways. Uh and and how we can be safe. Um and as you know in the past we've reduced the moing heist together. We've reduced that parade

011from all the way to Wharton. It's cross I74. That's another issue of getting permits from the state on that. It's already reduced down to a current one mile route from the high school to 27th Street. All parses in the city only are required to get a permit and all city services are bu are build and today we are not billing the high school police for these costs because it's in a unique time where we do have a lot of staff that are working but that staff isn't it's not an endless amount of resource. Uh so the city has a special events committee and whoever I'm not sure whoever makes that application fills all that paperwork out for you. and put all this information through. It goes through it's it's reviewed by the special events committee

012on which I have staff on that committee. Anything that goes on an I do route has to have a different permit. Then ultimately all applications have to be approved by the city council. So we have a lot of issues with parades. Um and and unfortunately this is my job to be the bad guy in the room is say that parades are we call soft targets. Um they are being attacked nationwide, globally, internationally. They are a very big security problem and they're very difficult uh to secure. We we have to be mindful of safety. We have to be mindful of the different routes. Uh the staffing is an endless police, fire, event staff, volunteers, types of barricades that we use. And the day of execution is always a problem. No matter what person or group applies

013for an event, the events never go as planned. Um it's just part of it. and and day of execution is a problem. But I will say that one of the reasons that I advocated to continue on advocacies was because Mo High School has a long history of executing at a high level because you put a lot of very experienced and trained uh and and passionate educators uh behind this. But the Department of Homeland Security has come out and said that public gatherings are increasingly vulnerable to violent attacks and it's equally important to focus not only on high-profile events but all securing all public gatherings. Um these these public gatherings I won't list them all you can you know what they are common sense often have minimal security increasing their v vulnerability to a variety of

014security risks and many incidents may be mitigated or avoided with simple risk assessments. So, some of the considerations, I won't read all these, but I you get it. Some of the things like potential for injury, average daily traffic volume, the speed of the traffic, intersection counts, uh whether we're going to put up ballards or barricades, the city's investment about $300,000 in and crash rated ballards for events, uh we're going to deploy a drone, how we're going to staff it, and of course, disruptions to the public and private, commercial, and the motoring public. And so what we're what we're trying to do is get off extreme like it's possible and what the possibility is is catastrophic. Trying to get off that 12 15 mark something that's lower than that that's more risk tolerable. And again we're

015never going to get to zero. This is one of the routes. So this is this is the only route right now that anybody is using that we've gone to is and if anybody's been I know many of you probably marched in the dialect parade for marcado this is an example the LGBTQIA plus parade is all parade has been there in the past they do now but in the past we've done this has good staging areas and ending areas it's minimal intersections we're able to secure pretty well has little to no elevated positions for active shooters and things like that. So, this is a very desirable parade route for us. Um, and then our plan can be repeated uh over and over and over with this route. Uh, that does cost somebody that wants to do

016a parade about $2,400 for the services that are provided, including barricades, police officers, paramedics, etc. Currently, your parade route runs from the uh entrance to Roosevelt there all the way to 27th Street. At 27th Street, it's total chaos, right? It ends there. And what we've tried to do over the years is have have vehicles and Dr. Fri is uh one of those people pulling a vehicle, right, with with people on the back. We try to get vehicles to go to 12th Avenue and return in the general motoring public and we have pedestrians mostly uh students return back through the neighborhood on foot in this little route in my little animated practice there uh all the way back to school and we sort of hope they show back up. We hope that they uh they make

017it back there to school. Not not ideal. So your existing parade route uh from the staging lot to the end is one just over a mile. The actual spectators is just under a mile but it is on one of the busiest roadways in Mullen. There are 23,200 vehicles on average a day that go on Avenue cities. as comparison for you, John Deere Road is our busiest at 38,000 and I74 just underneath that. So, it's about the third busiest roadway uh on in the city of Mol. That's a lot of vehicles to hope obey the police officers uh and you know, don't get lost, don't drive through, don't come off on another intersection. So, there's intersections uh on this route. It is very problematic for us to secure and I'm going to be 100% transparent with

018you. We're not securing this route. We are hoping for the best. Uh we have police officers at the beginning, one in the middle, and several at the end and a many of these other intersections are not staffed. Some we try to get some school staff members out there. Saw horse barricades. Total safety risk in my opinion. Um It cost us internally about $2,600. Staff 16 intersection posts are still not secured. So if you think about a four-way intersection, you might have a police officer on the south side. There's nobody on the north side. There might be a staff member on the north side, no one on the south side, right? So there's still 16 posts that are not secure. There's no ending zone. Uh and as I mentioned, they're we just kind of divert them

019into organized chaos. There are dozens of unsecured lots, alleys, and driveways. So, got a nice little campus leaf on the first picture there to give you some reference point. That's Terrace Cannabis. That's where we had the crash last year. But, as you can see, because of business driveways, you can get through drives in a multitude of ways. We're not securing any of those. Uh, here is the Shell station. Uh, as you can see, there's there's an alley in the middle. There's a street on the side. Uh, there's an alley on the south side. There's a parking lot you can cut across. None of those are secured by police officers or barricades or anything. We're just hoping that people see it rain and uh don't go don't go through. So, there's over 23 businesses in this

020one mile. Uh, and many of them have that setup there. So, in working in partnership with the school district, we we've come up with an alternative parade route that I think is much much safer. It still gives the school feel uh it's contemporaneous to the scoop the school. I think we have some vision that it could be expanded into some some other ideas next year or in the future, but uh we'd like to start the parade at 41st Street and 26th Avenue and go all the way to 34th Street and Avenue of the Cities. basically on the opposite side of the school. Uh on your old parade route is 76. This new parade route is 870 miles. So let's just call it the same. Okay. Uh this event is now contained completely to the campus

021area. Uh this the students will be pretty much on roughly school contemporary school property which I know uh school administration feels a little bit better about. Um staff is closer to this location as well. not spread out. Right now, you've got a sixth grade math teacher at 27th Street with a cell phone hoping nothing happens. And if she needs help from from Principal Moore, uh, she's hoping the answers are, right? There's no radio communication, nothing. Uh, we do have some issues that we'll need to work through with Y's meeting condos on 26th Avenue, 13 single family homes. Um, we have about nine driveways and one gas station to deal with. But as many of you know, that area is is very much smaller population. Uh really it's 11 little to no businesses. The roadways are

022very wide, very large, an enormous amount of space up there for pedestrians. Um I think it' probably even be a better feel outside of, you know, taking over the avenue as an issue. So, what we would what you know I'll leave it up to the school and how they want to stage, but you've got the entire interior of the campus stage. Uh you can use a mult variety of either the west parking lot, all the roads that are inside the school to stage stage large vehicles like flatbeds. They we would get them out of basically the baseball. I don't know what you really call that exit, but basically the baseball and lighties, right? They would come out eastbound there. We'd get them right on 41st Street and right on 26th Avenue. Spectators will be on

02326th and then we get them through there. Once that last parade float is is through 26th, it open back at 41st Street. Those officers are repositioned to the end. Uh we with that Avenue, the city's blocked off there, not for a parade, but to get people back to campus. So once the floats and the students end at 34 in the Avenue, we'll get them right into the eastbound lanes of the avenue and right back into Roosevelt entrance and right back on the we also have the option of the sidewalk there uh to you know to have pedestrians even even safer. But you know we'll work through that as as we get there. Um so here's a here's a little bit of another example. The freight route is red to go there right around the corner

024minimal impact to 41st Street. uh and then all the way around and then the white is the route back to the to the end of staging or the uh you know that end of the of the prem. So reduced vehicle threat less size vulnerability continuous to the campus staff is staff is closer uh to the campus designated staging and ending routes. Students are not walking back to the neighborhoods. volunteer drivers are not driving kids back through town. And as I said, no no plan is zero risk. Uh the risk tolerance through risk mitigation is our mission here, right? There still could be a whatif. There still could be a a confused driver, something like that. But we think the risk is much less better able to manage both of our scarce resources. Uh I I've

025al also thrown out this idea that we're able to maybe offer an expanded fall festival atmosphere for the school in the future. Uh we could we could basically bard the tennis courts all the way to the soccer bowl. You could use the dragon range as like a food park and people could come and go through that. We could harden that space with zero impact to the public, right? Um obviously, you know, that that takes somebody to organize that and that's a different conversation for another day, but it's an option. you don't have that option on the um maintains the traditional feel of connection to the high school rather than asking you to relocate the river drive, right? That's a whole another. Uh and it and it it keeps that parade up there at the high

026school. So, uh again, if you feel like throwing something at me, I'd ask you to use the dive balls. I'll call the therapy dog over. But listen, as I close here, you know, when when I I've been doing this for 27 years, and after Coline in 2001, we met similar to this. And the attitude was much different, right? Uh no one got the public safety threat landscape at that time. And I I met with the schools in the city that I worked in at the time. I said, "We need to lock all the doors at all the schools." And I was met with folds. We will never lock down schools to make them feel like prisons to keep our families and our community from being able to visit schools and have that feel. And where

027are we at today? The threat landscape is different. You all understand that threat landscape from a series of tragedies, right? And you've learned as a school district that we have to enhance security like locking all the doors and having a best of mule. We worked really hard to do best that many of them have locked doors, video access, right? You're you've done that because of other towns that have suffered the consequences. And so we we've evolved, you know, if you flown on a plane and today versus 1970, it's much different, right? We cannot continue to say it won't happen here and treat our community like leave it to be a griffith, right? We have to evolve with the times. And the sad fact of reality of today is that the threat landscape soft targets. So

028that's our plan. I'll turn it over to uh school administration to add any proposals comments there. As building administrator, of course, you know, we don't expect this to be received with great joy. We understand we are um challenging a long held tradition. However, as a building administrator, as a as a principal of 2,200 students, many of whom struggle with even just transportation to get back from a parade route. Um there are besides the safety, there are many advantages here in my opinion. For those students who don't have transportation, who don't have access, they can still participate in the free And of course, I want to be able to go to sleep at night when I have done anything for kids. I'll just add, you know, as being someone who actually organized parade way back nearly

0292000, applied for the permit, um, we've evolved and, you know, our safety is priority and, um, but we're still maintaining our tradition. This allows us to maintain the tradition of the parade. And um going back to what Chris said is being someone who's behind my truck, so I get to pull floats. Usually it's a freshman float because no one volunteers, which is fine, but I've I've gone down to 27th Street and then I've had kids that I've had to jump in the truck and take them to the work fieldhouse or then some go back up try to get to the high school. It is chaotic and and it is a school event. those kids are a responsibility during that school event because they're being, you know, we're hosting it. So, this does mitigate that. It

030also helps the staff, too. The staff are close. They don't have to worry about um driving somewhere, parking up the street. They can stay at the uh high school and they go out to the the signpost. So, um it's our best best really uh solution at at a challenging probably unpopular uh decision, but yet keeping honoring our tradition. doesn't pass to make the most out of it. Open up for questions. Question I have on this is that turn you got a big drop on both sides of that road flats pretty sharp turn. What are your guys' concerns of trucks going downhill that the first thing? Yeah. So that so that is a a very wide area of of roadway. Um I don't I don't I don't have a CDL. I don't know. Um I I'll

031make this first comment. If you're worried about that, you should also be worried about the unlawful driving of kids in the back of a pickup truck or on a flatbed down 12th Avenue. Right? That's that is actually against the law. We just kind of turn our heads try to allow it to happen and get back again. Um, I think we've talked about having to maybe do some dry runs. Uh, number one, we talked about getting out over a couple of speed bumps that are right there by the ballpark. And so, none of us really have a semi where we like, hey, we get whatever set does it, but uh, whoever it was come up and do a dry run of that. Um, I think that that's that's the best I could give you. We've never

032had a traffic crash at that location. Um, so I I'm just going to make some assumptions here that a vehicle properly driven at slow speed should not have any problems. But I think it's something in the break packet that we should that that we should encourage uh to people send out like listen this is the route uh you should drive your float uh or you know your vehicle, your trailer or whatever through that route. uh in normal motoring public to ensure that you can complete the um first of all thank you for working so hard to give us a good option here. So, um, that being said, um, oh, do we have to have this approved by city council? So, we'll have to and do we have to notify like the neighbors around that on

033that L turn on that route then? Yeah. So, what what we'll need to do and we can we'll work with the street. We can send this out by address point. Um, but there's there's very few residences that can't get to their house by another location and it's just the people across from the the corner of the soccer bowl right at the turn. They do not have rear access. And then right at the beginning there on 26 and we do know that there's one medical house that needs uh access. Um, well, you know, we'll obviously have control of that that area and so somebody need to get in and out of there. Also the the the area that we're giving the most most number of people I think it's 13 residences uh is the shortest amount

034of time right we can pass that fastest then I think it's two or three houses at the corner um but we'll send we can work with the school district to send that notification maybe a similar question on on that ele but not from a vehicle standpoint but from a standpoint I mean those our hills going both ways and we know that 23rd is usually a line of people who like to sit in chairs because they're waiting, you know, students coming through. I I'm just trying to picture how that going to work or we're just anticipating it smaller or shorter so people are comfortable with standing. But those chairs that people can sit in are going to go like dominoes down the hill. I I don't know. I mean, I think that there there's a large

035amount of space even if you wanted to avoid the corner, right? 34 and 26 intersection there. Um, I don't know that absent maybe somebody that has, you know, mobility challenges, that's probably not the best location for them. Um, but I don't know that they would just fall out of a chair. I don't know. It's not that safe. U but I I get what you're saying and I think that um you know as with any event where people are planning to go you're going to have to assess the best location them and their best location probably would be closer to whiteies. You've got probably over a quarter of a mile from White to tennis courts. Yeah. The only comment I make is understand not having spectators on 41st, but that that distance is MHS and then

036YDs. So that's more controlled. So if you feel like you need more spectator room that is more flat, maybe at least consider that that front part a little bit just to understand. Yeah. Yeah. The only issue is that that 41st Street is the same vehicle problem that we have on Avenue on Avenue, right? is that we have a lot of traffic crashes on on and then there that then plays into some of the other intersections that there's a there's a Tetris piece right there with a roadway that goes to the east that that we have to monitor things like that that just become um problematic and then the vehicle speed on 21st Street is as you probably all know is significantly high. Um, I may not have put it in this this sheet here, but

037the daily traffic counts of places are I think less than 5,000. I mean, yeah, the area on 26 by 10 range is it's extremely wide. Not just the road, but the the area there. Trying to count how many rows of chairs you It's quite a few. So, I'm hoping that compensate for what? together by lane. I just want to reiterate that I so appreciate the fact that we came together to come up with options rather than say hey no great sorry too many risks figure out what we can create this experience and hopefully developing maybe some new traditions moving forward. Um one thing I think about is if this does not have as you mentioned it doesn't have as side but that also leaves for people where they're going to cart to get to the

038parade route. Um, and so just to consider how we might put out more information probably about that of like places people could be or how they're going to access the center of that trade route because I can imagine a lot more pedestrian issues walking through the NHS campus. But then we also have lineup happening at that same time of people trying to scr through that area to get to that center that so I think there's those logistics will have to work out. But I this is a a not ideal world. um as close as you can get to an ideal situation that allows us to continue the traditional. Yeah, we talked about that. I think the superintendent and the rest of the administration we're going to have to do some public education about this obviously

039after tonight I need to inform the city council as well and then heads up for the main application. Um you know the the parking on the city isn't ideal either, right? People are uh are in businesses parking lots and you know we get a lot of complaints about that. They're just parking everywhere. there is chaos up there. Um, and so I think there's probably some other opportunities, maybe partner with some larger parking lots there that maybe this staff could reach out to. There's a couple other options. Then there's some other neighborhoods that you could walk across the driving range and stuff. And so I think it's just education reorient people fastest rout um but you know many of you probably been there the day at parade is chaos anyway. Thank you very much. Yes, sir.

040So, I have a quick question from kind of a student perspective. So, last year I already talked about that neighborhood. I was driving kids back and forth understand so after the parade ends like let's say you're because last year I was in the parade and I was walking so I was to get back on that route going to be sad. How does it kind of work? Yeah. So the the parade will will end at 34th in the Avenue. Obviously they'll have police officers there, school staff, right? And we'll just make a turn right and you know I don't know if we've worked out all the details. We either use the sidewalk to get back and certainly we'll have control of the the traffic intersection there as well. They just put everybody all the way down

041the road as well, but we haven't worked out that detail. They basically take a right on the Avenue and a right back into Roosevelt back into a lot simpler than I don't have any necessarily questions or concerns. just made a comment of, you know, I I spent a good chunk of my career um working for the city and it was my job to produce a lot of events like this, whether it was raids or events down and I was undoubtedly behind those closed doors with special committee and and and through many of those events. said, "Heck, I was I was with you in your squad car for the day that I said before Ridge was um ran open to you when when the governor was in town." And um through those experiences, I saw firsthand

042the amount of attention to detail, care, and professionalism that Chief B and his team um exhibits for events like this that um quite frankly, you know, the city of Molen is is is incredibly fortunate to have um you and your team uh making sure our community is safe. Now, I love parade just as much as anyone. you know, slightly bummed that it it's going to be not on Avenue City Tech. I wish we could take it all the way to the Rock Island and park park in front of St. But it's times changed and and what I see here with this route um especially considering I've been to most every homecoming parade since I was born, right? And it is chaos beside streets. The entire city almost bottlenecks because of that 1 hour or so

043long break that happens and this will free up a lot of that. So long story short, you know, I I just I I have a lot of respect for what police department does every day to keep our schools safe, keep our safe and co think we should do it. All right. Anybody else? All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up, we have a student spotlight Logan Elementary parent mentor program. I am excited to back home to Logan, but then also his parent mentors from Wu. So excited. excited to hear about this away. Mr. Fergus, [Music] we've got a couple of highlights that we want to share with you guys, uh, including the parent mentor program and and some students we have here as well. So, first off, welcome to Logan Elementary School.

044It's beautiful. He's about 105 years old and standing strong and doing a great job. So, we want to highlight some of those things that are going on here at Logan. We think about systems of student supports in the molding school district. A lot of things come to mind as far as academics um and different things like that. Academic interventions, full-time counselors, some great improvements we've made, special education resources, enrichment, and many more things. However, here at Logan, what we've really been striving to do is looking to see what can we do that's going to go above and beyond support our students in ways that we haven't really thought about in terms of the academic, in terms of the start of their day, in terms of supporting their classroom teachers with extra adults, extra mentors for

045these kids. And so, as we highlight some of our student supports, uh we want to mention a couple of newly introduced things. I say newly introduced, but we have had the parent mentor program here for a number of years now. Uh, we were able to introduce an elementary building supervisor this year, a student support room, our Woo interactive playground, which I need to turn back on. Um, our therapy dog, Otto, who is out there looks like now making his way around. So, I think if you don't like dogs, please just tell him to leave it and uh, and he'll be out of your way. And then also, we have one of our classroom teachers here, Mrs. Dyster, a third grade with some of our students to highlight the morning soft start in the classrooms. So

046to get started, I do want to talk a little bit about that parent mentor program and kind of what it has done. Um we are about six years into having the parent mentor program here at Logan. It's offering additional adult support for classrooms and students. Onboarding volunteer parents, grandparents, even aunts and uncles to come and work in the schools, pair up with the teacher, receive uh training for Western Illinois University, and really get some great exposure to the real school day, seeing what it takes with the rigor in the classroom, the rigorous day of the teacher, the rigorous day of a student, and being able to help them along the way as they go. It's also been fortunate there in our district a strong pipeline for recruiting and training carers and future educators. Going through

047this presentation, I kind of listed off in my head. I think we're up to about five in um parent mentor alumnists uh that have moved on and received other positions in the district as special education paras, classroom paras, life skills paras, and other positions there including our current uh elementary building supervisor. So this bond we have with parent mentor program is strengthening our home to school connection. Again inviting parents into the classroom to see what's goes up what's going on great strategies on how to help their kids. Um and then also strengthen our local community. And like I said it's kind of sharing that rigor of the school day. Many things like a homecoming high school parade. The rigor of the school day has certainly changed of times from yesterday year. And so we always

048appreciate the opportunity families for families to come in uh and sort of experience that train alongside teachers and work with kids. And so at this time I'd like to ask our parent coordinator Tony Carpenter to come up and share a little bit of his story [Applause] as Yeah, guys. I'm big up to my team mentor. So I'm kind of excited. I started out at both my daughter mentor. I sat in the class, you got to work with the kids. They come in just just to give a different perspective to kind of more be more relatable to the kids and kind of, you know, see and listen to what they were saying, what they would have like questions and stuff like that to, you know, like your old traditional teacher, not to speak about the teacher.

049But yeah, just give it a different perspective, different way. And then from my started out as a mentor, I think we did a tour here at the school met Fergus and he saw me was like, "Hey man, we need to get you into supervisor supervisor." So I'm kind of excited about doing that my first first year that working. So kind of like doing both. It was like, you know, a lot of my stuff, but you know, we managed for everything. Tom, thank you for doing this. And um that's [Music] question just wait until you see the next picture in my slideshow and then so again I appreciate Tony again he came up as a mentor at Roosevelt um then became a parent coordinator and while they were touring here I was introduced to him to

050tell his passion for for kids. And so we had the opportunity to hire an elementary building supervisor was our next celebration with that nervous right on board elementary style right off the bat. So there um but again another great example just talk about one system of support to the next from our parent mentors and great example of Tony Carpenter here when we were looking for a person who has experience in who has understanding of kids and the dynamic of the school day. I I we knew for a good place to go. Um so Tony has been serving as our elementary building supervisor here at Logan. Great new big position for us helping us to support kids. kids in escalation, kids needing a check-in person, kids being like you should see him play basketball with the

051fifth graders. He's giving them a run for their money. So, uh just doing a great job being around. He has shared between us and Butterworth and I know we are fortunate. I think we have two separate goals, five day positions in both Butterworth and here at Logan next year. But just increased adult presence, in additional support in the offense, when we got kids coming in, when we need to make calls for attendance, when we need support for talking to kids, and just kids that need to take a minute, uh, it's been a great role, a great system of support for us here. And one of the things I'm most proud of, and I think this speaks to Tony's character, something he did not hesitate at, is we have really increase our population of kids that

052are riding the Metro bus. Um, which does serve as a bit of an issue. You get a lot of kids in a con confined space in that 10 minutes between leaving school supervised by adults and home supervised by adults. They kind of let let go a little bit on the bus. And so we're getting some feedback from parents on the bus, feedback from bus drivers. We'd really like some help on that bus. And so when we brought down building supervisor, Tonyy's like, "Oh, I'll ride the bus." And so he rides the bus uh every day that he's here. Um gets on that Metro Link bus, you know, he knows where the kids get off and he's helping them out. Um, and the Metro Link drivers are kind enough to adjust their routes and drop them

053off back here at school. Um, so that works out nicely. But to uh continuing along with our our our great introduction of student supports here at Logan, we uh we we lost a teacher due to enrollment. Our enrollment's been down quite a bit over the last eight years, about 50 GenEd students. So, um, we went down from a three section third grade down to a two section. We had a free classroom on our hands and we started to think to ourselves what can we do that's be best for kids with this classroom not just for storage of extra desk but what can we do that's best for kids so leaning on some grant funding from title one from public schools foundation from donor's choose we outfitted our room 9 and when the meeting concludes or

054at a good time I invite you to come back and see it kind of down our student support room it's a great place for a number of things incentive time and check-in checkout for students we've outfitted this with tons of toys and squishies and pillows and flexible seating. Um, you know, tangibles and and things you can touch and move and they sparkle and glow. It's really fun. Uh, but very sources uh supportive area for sensing needs as well. Housing the district's K1 and two uh learning for independence or LFI program, self-contained special ed. We've recognized a lot of student need there with sensory. So, again capitalized on this room, brought in a lot of great stuff. worked with our occupational therapists, our physical therapists, speech language, our LFI teachers to get some really engaging things

055for those kids that were going to support them the day as well. And then it became a very safe space for deescalation. We have students in the in the course of this day get escalated, need a break, need a somewhere to cool down. And outside of having them in the office where we have lots of parents and traffic coming through the nurs's office as well, we found a nice calming area back in this room 9 has served a great purpose for us uh and just letting kids kind of calm down, separate, hit the men that they need uh and really improve this awesome port uh support for our kids. The next thing I I got kind of turned on here and um I think officer G wanted to maybe um or golf sorry wanted to

056play a little bit of that turned on earlier. Just a very cool thing. Maybe later on I'll get you all fired up. I know. I want to let Mrs. Dexter get going. Um, but again, this guy installed last year, new little interactive playground. And you can see probably more from the pictures behind me here. We've used it for a lot of great things. Incentive gym class. Again, if you come through and you all watch our learning for independence, our special ed kiddos, watching the uh mimicked stretch routines on the L up there. It's a lot of fun. It's interactive, so that wall becomes a touchcreen when we fire it up. We got a credit to our maintenance facility. They they made a wonderful door plug for us there for our cafeteria window to create that

057flat surface. But when it's up and going and I can turn on a little later, it does become that full wall touchcreen. Very interactive. It's got math games, word games, uh dance party lights, all kinds of fun stuff, which has been awesome. Um and then we've got our therapy dog, Roto. Raise your hand if you know where is. He's over there. He's made some friends. Introduced to Logan here just this year. Credit to Miss Hannah Ross, our counselor, and I he's he's the Ferguson family dog. Um they got trained last year as a therapy dog to come in. Just a positive presence for kid. Um his response to an escalated student. Again, I think a lot of our special ed population that we have just the student having a moment. They're not sure how to

058communicate what's wrong. We're not sure how to communicate how we can help in that moment. But I can't count the number of times on my two hands this year. I went and got Otto, brought him out to a student and then, hey, you want to come take Otto for a walk with me or put their hand on his fur and immediately they change. They're smiling. They're up. They are happy. They are feeling good about where they're at and they're able to get back into the classroom to learning. Just a couple more pictures. One of the fun parts of our day is uh Superstart out in the back at Logan. We do that every morning. it as an ontime attendance incentive. We pick some cl We have our parents uh pick out of the bucket some

059classroom teachers names and they get to pick some students that are there that are on time being some great Logan leaders and they get to play fetch. I'm going to call my students up here. How many you guys have played fetch without them in the morning? That's awesome. We got some great ontime Logan leaders here. And I do want to introduce them next along with one of our third grade teachers, outstanding teacher, Mrs. Maggie Dystra, who's going to talk to about her very cool student support system she uses in the morning. Sust. All right. Hi. All right. As Mr. Ferguson said, my name is and I'm a third grade teacher here at Logan. Um, this is my 16th year of teaching in the Milan School District. Prior to that, I was a student for 12

060years and I'm now a parent of for three years. My students go to Jane Adams Elementary. So, I'm here to talk about something called soft start. And before I do that, I want to share with you what how it came about. So, um, about three years ago, I made a change to my classroom because I was noticing in the morning, students were not very excited to start the school day. And, um, prior to this change, they would come into my classroom, they would choose their lunch, they would put away their things, and then they would get started on morning work. And that morning work, ironically, was called wake up brain, but it was not waking up the brains of my students the way I liked. And so, I noticed just the need for change. And

061um I wanted my kids to come in excited about learning and excited about getting the school day started. So um about 3 years ago, that's what I did. I I um saw the idea of soft start floating around. And now from about 7:55 to 8:15, um this is what we do in the morning in room 21. So the term soft start means that it's just a soft way to enter the classroom. I greet the students at the door and they come in as a non-threatening way. It is not silent by any means. Um there is a little bit of organized chaos going on. They come in um they're creating, they're building, they're collaborating with um their classmates as you can see up here. Uh they get started right away. They uh choose their lunch like

062normal, but then they just grab their items that were chosen um the previous afternoon and they know to get right to work. So um it provides a fuel for focus. I feel like as much as it seems, Mr. Burton comes in. Sometimes Otto joins our soft start. It seems from an outer perspective like it might be a little alarming to come into I mean I have 24 21 students that are all building and creating but it um provides a fuel for focus. They get to do this for about 20 minutes and then get out of business. So all students are engaged um and there is no technology and there's no items with rules. And I say that, I don't mean like they can do it's free-for-all and they can do whatever they want, but we

063don't have board games that would require reading of rules or anything that would um eliminate students from being able to participate. And it also looks pretty different every day. So these two photos up here, we have some kids with the cards. They build with them. Others play games of their choice. Um over here we have students that created a tower. And then this year, these students um in the middle were they opened a little restaurant. And so some of the items that they chose turned into macaroni noodles. Um some turned into other food items. And then down here at the bottom, same items, but um using them just in a little bit different way. So like I said, it's not um very tidy in our classroom for those 20 minutes, but they are all very

064actively engaged um when you come in and see it. Um I think the best part of soft start is that it regulates morning emotions. Some students come in the morning, they've had a tough morning, maybe they um haven't been able to eat breakfast yet. And so, normally if we see tears or we see students that are maybe um not having the best morning, it really provides them with a exciting way to start the school day. But I think the number one reason I love it so much is that anyone walking into my classroom can engage in it. So, I have students that are newcomers that don't know that don't speak English. But the first day that the newcomer, my student came to the classroom, she was able to um join in with some of our

065friends. We have um some younger students who come in for check-in checkout in the morning to room 21 and they are also welcome to play with the third grade students providing positive role models and um for how to start the day. And then otherwise, um, and you'll hear from my students on what their favorite parts are, but they just get to talk and it's the way that adults like to start their days, too. They like to I don't come to school and get right down to business. I talk to my um colleagues and we get to know, you know, what happened last night. How was your morning? And that's what our students are able to do also. So, I'm going to turn it over to the real stars here and they're going to talk a

066little bit about their favorite part of soft start and um what's it the positive the thing that what we say their favorite thing about soft start and their favorite option. This is Luna. My favorite thing about soft start is Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head because you can decorate the potato and there is a boy and a girl. My favorite thing about shop in the morning is that we get to hang out with our friends and play. Thank you. You can see her beautiful creations with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Next is Ben. My favorite thing about um my favorite soft star is sleeping because I can make motions and use my imagination. My favorite thing about softar is being with my friends and and talking. All right, next we have Ryan. My favorite thing about

067soft start is giant because it is challenging to win. My favorite thing about soft start is in the morning is you get to wake up in the dirt. And then finally, this is Jamie. My favorite thing about soft start is hashtag box because you can imagine things you want to build and then have things have fun with the things you build. My favorite thing about soft start in the morning, we all have fun before we learn and get your brain ready for the school day. came up with on their own. Um, in conclusion, it's my very favorite part of the day and it's the best um, change that I've made to my classroom since I So, if you have any questions, I'm sure the students would be happy to answer or I All right. Thank

068you very much. [Music] All right. So, kind of in conclusion with that, um it's just been a great year with some new additional supports. Things like building supervisor uh provided through the district, things like parent mentor program, a great program ongoing for years and years supporting uh not only our kids but also our teachers and our our things at home. And then dogs great fun interactive imaginative games in the morning. A lot of good stuff going on here at home. So, thank you for being here tonight. appreciate the Logan team. Um, next up we have a presentation of the 2526 school year budget by Mr. Gallow. [Music] We're just as excited. Well, now I can put you all to sleep. All right. Um, so the 25 26 uh proposed budget, we will do this every

069single year. Um, potentially multiple times throughout the year because we usually do an amended budget. So you'll see me up here a couple times. Um, and this is just the first step in approving that new school year budget. Um, so a little bit of an agenda. We're just going to review the calendar, review any uh revenue assumptions, local, state, and federal, and then review our expenditure assumptions, and a budget overview. So, in May and June, we'll put this um proposed budget on display. So, you have to have your uh budget on display for 30 days prior to adopting that budget for the next fiscal year. Um, tonight I'm doing a presentation on the proposed budget and then on the June 23rd board meeting we will adopt that 26 budget and then by September 15th I

070will need to submit that budget to ISBY. In October 15th we should have an annual financial report for you and then in February and March when I come back here a second time to put you sleep um we'll do the amended budget. So budget cycle um our budget cycle starts probably back in October. We usually start looking at our next fiscal year's levy. So in November we'll come and set that levy with you. Um go to the county on the third dece third Tuesday in December to submit that levy. Um and it's one of our largest funding sources for the district. So it's the most important thing that we do every year in my department. Then uh February we usually do that amended budget midyear budget review. March we'll start looking at staffing for the

071next fiscal year. And then in spring we'll have department meetings uh with each department head to go through their budgets, their building budgets, their department budgets. And then in May we'll do this budget presentation and then like I said earlier we'll submit this uh budget to be in September. Um, so some of the assumptions that we have for revenues, the local economy is improving. Our property taxes, those are increasing. They're up about 7.7% with EA growth. And then our state uh evidence-based funding, it looks like they're going to fund um $350 million for tier funding. And if those of you who don't know what tier funding is, it's extra money that the state puts in to the um formula every year. so that they can get all of our uh schools to 90% adequacy. That's

072just a formula that they came up with what they feel is the necessary funding for our school district each and every year. And then federal, so we all know that there's some um different things going on at the federal level right now. Um with ESSER ending, uh the CARES Act ending, all of those dollars have been expended from the district. We closed those out back in December. And then um our assumptions with title one and title two is no increase. We're going to keep those flat. And then the title three and title four uh potentially we're going to be losing out on those. So we did not include those into this budget. And that's around 200 to $250,000. Um, so we're going back to more of our standard to where we have about 65% of

073our revenue is at the local um side, about 27% at the uh state side and about 8% or so at the federal side. So that's typical what we usually see. Federal is usually around that 7 8% each year. Um, so that's going back to historical values during the pandemic and all the esser dollars and cares dollars that really skew that that pie. Um, and just a breakdown of how our um operating funds are are separated. We have, you know, 42% are local property taxes. You have the other local funding which is going to be our corporate property replacement taxes. Those are taxes um that we now get. Back in 1979, um they redid the tax code in Illinois where school districts can no longer um get personal property taxes from corporations. So, the state imposed

074a 2.5% tax on all corporations throughout the state of Illinois on their um their net income. So then they redistribute that out throughout the state and depending on how many corporations were within your district at that time got a set percentage amount of that pie. Um and then we have uh evidence-based funding which is the next largest at 24% of our budget and then we have other state funding which is your mandated categoricals and then that federal funding. Um, so property taxes. So when you're looking at these numbers, 2023 EAV, that is really this current fiscal year's EAB. So we're always going to be looking at two years in the rear on EA, which is your assess valuation. So it's the value of the property within our district. Um, so this current year we have

075about, you know, 1 billion 37 million. Next year our EAV is 1 bill117 million. Um that is that represents that 7.7% increase in that EAV and our um local levy. Then you have the CPPRT. So during the um pandemic with all of the stimulus money that got pumped into the economy, those corporate uh T replacement taxes skyrocketed. So, we got a large influx of money, but now those are going back down to historical value. So, back down to the 2018 2019 values. Uh, so that's why we're seeing that decrease. And then interest rates, they're going down a little bit. Uh, last year, I believe we averaged around 4 and a half to five. Now, we're looking at more like three and a half to four uh for this upcoming year. And then, um, evidence-based funding.

076So, we're anticipating an increase with this. Um, we we believe that we're going to be teetering on the tier one to tier 2 district. Uh, so depending on how we fall, but in our current budget that we are proposing, we're looking at probably a 1.2 million increase in state aid from our current base that we have. And then, uh, the other state grants with the mandated categoricals. This mainly refers to our transportation reimbursement for special ed. Um we have been told that they are going to prorrate that even further to about 68% down from about 78% that they're currently paying out. And then we have federal grants obviously that decrease um and then we expended all of those errare dollars. Um so expenditure assumptions everything's going up. Um I mean in every category with inflation

077um we just are seeing it um every step of the way. So construction costs, utility costs, staffing, health insurance costs, they're all going up. But the benefit is that we have that growth in EAB. We have that um investment from the state going back into our EVF dollars to be able to combat that inflation. And then uh we have this chart just kind of shows our expenditures by fund. Um so obviously the biggest piece of the pie is going to be our education fund. So that's roughly around 67 and a half or 68% of everything that all the dollars that we spend. And then you know the next one is going to be our on and m and our capital projects as a combined is about 13 to 14%. So we have that much we

078only have 13 to 14% of our budget every year take care of all the facilities that we have. Um, and then this is just a historical chart showing, you know, our revenue versus expenditures every year for the last about 10 years here. Um, and then this is a chart since we have started to implement AC in all of our buildings, how much is the actual cost to that? So the actual cost ends up being roughly around $2 a square foot to to AC all the buildings in our district. We're about 1.2 million square ft of buildings. And then what capital projects are we putting in this budget? So we have LED lighting upgrades uh throughout the district that we're continuing to work on. Uh we have our 10ear health life safety survey. So that one's

079coming up this year. uh the Lincoln Urban construction costs, the middle school, uh those are both getting new front entrances, secure front entrances, parking lots, uh which is mainly just kind of resealing, restriping, uh concrete repairs, the browning upgrades that are currently going on. um our high school cafeteria that we're looking to remodel and then the elementary schools. We have the classroom improvements and Logan and Jefferson. Um and then this is just the overall budget summary. Um this is something that we have to present in this uh proposed budget um in our board meeting just to comply with u state law. Uh but it's just a general overview. You can see that in our onm and our capital projects and our transportation funds that we are expected to um have some deficit spending, but that's

080mainly due to those extra dollars that we had in prior years and we're just expending those dollars now um that we we have those projects lined up. Um so in conclusion, the district, you know, we are still maintaining a strong financial position. Uh even though you see some of these deficit spending, this is really just spending down some of our fund balance. Um and like I said, those are mainly the capital projects funds and the on funds. Um we have a 7.7% increase in EV like that's helping us keep pace with inflation. Um the district follows a conservative budgeting approach. So we always overestimate our expenditures and underestimate our revenues for like a more worst case scenario type of event so that we know we have that buffer in this budget. Um if you spend

081a little bit more and we don't get as much revenue as we initially are anticipating. And then um this current budget does not yet include the bond sale that we will do for Lake Irving. Um I did not include that in here because we're still working through the details as to how much we want to bond out based on the budgets that are coming back from um our architect and construction managers. And then um I will end up amending this budget come early spring, late winter uh to correct that and put those in there. Um any questions? So with the increase in the evidence based funding, remind me that have to be spent on certain things or can we allocate those funds wherever we need it? Um so there is no restrictions on which fund

082you can slip those in right now. Um but typically we try to spend those dollars on the 32 cost factors that they have within it but just wondering some of those expenses that repurpose some other funding to support. Yeah. So, we're going to utilize state funding. Um, so those EVF dollars will probably end up helping replace that. And with the Title 4 dollars, um, you know, we're not going to be able to do some of the projects that we did do with it this year. just remind me I don't recall the project playground at Washington. Um, so that was a significant portion of that title 4 dollar, but we're just not going to be able to do something like that for next year. And and we'll try our best, you know, as the budget goes,

083you know, as we kind of get through the year, we'll see where things will fall and then we can try to accommodate or um try to tackle some of those projects. My second question around Head Start, are there any sustainability conversations that there may be cuts there as well? Are you guys expecting everything as budgetwise? Yeah, right now um our plan is to try to continue as is. Um but you know, we're always continuing to have those conversations um at the uh you know, administrative level and see what we can do to make sure that we're serving our students. Well, thank you everybody. Thank you. Next, we have our PA uh gold data sources with Dr. Savage. No more presentation. You should have a paper hand out of this as well. Um it is um

084that time of year again where we are getting ready to um look forward and um getting excited to start to see some of our um academic achievement data come in uh for this school year so that we can begin goal setting for the next year. As you know, we use our acronym PACE for people, A for achievement, E for community, and E for environment. And so, I thought it might be beneficial, especially with our new members, just to do a little bit of a review about where do pay schools come from? And so, in each of these categories is just a sort of um list. It might not be completely uh conclusive of everything, but just some of the data sources that we utilize to draft these goals. Um so that you can see where

085these goals come from and the type of data that's included in each of these goals. Um we have quantitative data and we have qualitative data embedded in each of the four categories. Um, in our people go bowl, we rely heavily on our input from teachers and staff. We utilize input through building leadership teams, our five essential surveys, district and building check-in or input surveys, employee group solutions meetings, and those types of departmental meetings that take place all year long. There's a constant flow of information uh between employee groups and administration. And we have a lot of opportunities to collect input on what is working, where opportunities where we can improve and all of those lists get stockpiled throughout the year so that we can begin to apply them in our next set of goals. A

086lot of uh input is collected from our students. We try to operate on a nothing about them without them mindset. And so we collect input from students through uh several events. This year we had an awesome student voices event at the middle school level that was sponsored by the United Way. We have amazing student board of education members that bring that voice to the board's uh table and remind us all why we're here. Um we've had superintendent advisory council. We have students that respond to the five essentials data. And each school, regardless of the level, uh, elementary, middle school, and high school, all have opportunities for student voice to be collected. And that information is channeled and utilized. It comes together, uh, through our administration so that we can find out what is important to

087our learners and how we can improve so that we're meeting their needs in the best way possible. We also u meet monthly with our administrative uh, team. They are amazing. um and they have a lot of input and a lot of um ideas to help guide our district and continue to move it forward goals. These changes are not top down. They're very collaborative, I would say. And a lot of this information really rallies together as we begin to write these goals and certainly um input from our board of education as well and other focused information. And a lot of it also comes from the Illinois school report card. uh people metrics such as employee recruitment and retention data. And again, these are just examples. Um our achievement metrics, a lot of this is where you're

088going to find your quantitative academic achievement data, our Illinois assessment of readiness, especially our English language arts in math and science. Look at growth and proficiency data. Look at our measures of academic progress, our benchmark that we administer to students three times a year. look at growth and proficiency there as well. We have our SAT uh from previous years and we're transitioning as you know this year we transitioned to the ACT and of course the access assessment for English language learners uh and many many report card metrics um as well that help guide our academic achievement goal setting. Uh we utilize the um school improvement process that the Illinois State Board of Education guides us through the summit of designation process. Um working directly with principles to help support areas of improvement if there's a

089particular population of students that might be underperforming compared to other populations of students. The state board provides resources and support and year yearly coaching to help us move the needle and move students forward. Um we have other metrics such as graduation rate, dropout rate. Um we look at uh freshman on track to graduate. We look at eighth graders passing algebra. That is um one of those metrics that is a quality indicator. Um we also look at the rigor in our coursework such as students taking career and technical education. dual credit and other AP and honors courses. And again, a heavy focus on college and career readiness and work-based learning. And some of these metrics are going to be appearing on the Illinois report card moving forward. For community, this is really where we tap into

090our community partnerships and our parents. Our parents are our partners. They are our students first teachers and we really lean on them and work together to make sure that um we're are doing everything that we can to educate uh their children and help make sure that they're as most su as successful as they can be. Uh the parent mentor program is a fantastic example. You guys are amazing. They really help bridge the gap in helping connect parents to the school. Um, not every parent had a successful experience on their own and might not know how to enter into a school or might, you know, have an aversion to a school environment or maybe be intimidated. And so they have a wonderful um program that really helps build the bridge and make sure that all parents

091feel welcome and that they know they are our partners. Parents are our customers and working together helps kids be successful. So thank you again. Uh a lot of communication metrics that we have through our tools such as Remind class dojo. Um a lot of our uh communication and translation tools help make sure that we are communicating in languages that all of our parents can understand. Um I know that um we have more and more tools to help us with that. We have uh amazing interpreters that assist with that. Um as well we have a lot of input from our community members and community partners throughout the year. Several focus group type opportunities such as this year we really focused on mission and vision recalibration. We have a lot of portrait of graduate work five essentials

092data and just connecting with parents staff and students as much as possible listening to them taking their feedback. you know, what are the issues that we hear from parents throughout the school year and keeping that list so that we can make sure that when we're creating goals that we're addressing issues and finding those opportunities where we can improve. And for environment, we really focus a lot on the Illinois 5 essentials survey. Uh we focus on collaborative teachers, effective leaders, ambitious instruction, involved families, and support supportive environment. And again, those are those five metrics. Uh, in this category, we tend to look a lot at discipline data and behavior management data, attendance data, other metrics such as class size and student demographic data, and how we can find new and improved tools to address the everchanging

093student needs um that seems to be um ever changing every single school year. So that is just a small little just sampling of the types of data that we collect throughout the year and just to kind of get you thinking on um the types of goals that might uh move forward. And then just very quickly just to kind of piggyback off of Vince Vince's just sort of year-long process uh throughout the school year, the 13 member district leadership team, also known as cabinet and extended cabinet, we collect all of this data throughout the year, qualitative data through conversations, per uh focus group talking with our uh stakeholders, performance data, other quality indicator data throughout the school year. Um, and then that last collection comes in late May and early June when we receive our 5D

094data and start to get some of those early uh report card metric academic achievement data as well. Spring map is just wrapping up as well and we're going to be looking forward to that analysis. Um, and those are just some of those uh qualitative pieces, focus group data, input from board of education to help guide our direction and our thinking throughout these categories. our awesome administrative team, staff, students, and community members. Every stakeholder has a voice at one point or the other throughout the school year. Um, so that we're always making sure that we're including all of our stakeholders. Then we get to work. the district leadership team uh just starts pulling it all together, analyzing all of the data, synthesizing all of the data, finding the things that we're doing really well, those pockets

095of high performance, and then finding those opportunities for improvement. We have learned in our very simple PACE goal process, what gets on that poster really becomes important. And what gets on the poster gets done. It sort of really legitimizes it. it becomes important and and publicly portrayed across our district. Our principles have done a really great job of sort of um adopting that framework as well and plugging in their own areas of improvement. So that process will begin to happen during the next couple of weeks. start to draft the new goals with all of that data we just mentioned and hopefully wrap all of that up by the July board of education meeting so that we can present draft to you so we have one less opportunity for feedback uh just to make sure that

096you're comfortable with the direction that that we're going make sure that um you know there aren't any other opportunities where we can tweak and make sure that everybody's comfortable moving forward with our new set of goals and then we get ready to roll out in August and repeat the process all over again. Improvement never ends. It's very cyclical and we've gotten into a good groove and a good process. Um always looking for ways that we can improve and love opportunities for improvement. Um but this is sort of our cyclical process. So um any questions on what's in school? Thank you. And we are ready to adjourn. Hold on, Audrey, real quick. Yes. Can I just I just want to give a plug to the parent mentor. So, I had the opportunity to go meet with

097them um I don't know a month or so ago, and I did not admittedly know that much about the program. I had heard of it. I had heard some things they were doing. They're supporting multiple elementary schools in our district and not only are they building up our students. If you spend time with them, they're building each other up and like they're helping each other become better for the kids in our district. So, um, don't follow them on Facebook, follow them. They're everywhere. They're always doing something and we are so lucky to have you guys. I'm standing up are how long you've been doing the program and what school you are at. Um I would like to say I mean I get to see them come down to Western and work with some of our

098amazing people there um learning and and bettering themselves so they can help families. So thank you for that. It's always a joy to have them in our spaces. So but I would love to just make sure everyone knows who you are and what you're doing. I'll go ahead and start. My name is Sarah. Um, I've been with the parent program. This is my third year, my second year as a coordinator at Roosevelt Elementary. Um, when I first started the program, um, I have one son. He's a second grader, about to be a third grader. And he's the light of my life. And the thought of him coming to school was kind of mixed emotions for me because my school experience, I loved school, but my experience in school wasn't a very positive one. And so

099when we started this journey, I was really nervous like what's this going to look like? what's it going to be? Um, and then I was able to join the parent mentor program as a volunteer. Um, and I got to be inside of the school and really see what was happening on the other side of those walls. Um, and it was a huge like eye opening moment for me. Um, it made one of the other teammates who my my kids teachers and everyone there that was at school trying to make, you know, this magic happen for for our future. Um, and it really just made it made a bridge visible just like Dr. S was saying between like a family that I had never experienced before. And so that was really important for me to say,

100hey, how do I do this for more than just myself and my family? How do I expand this to a lot of families who I know may be feeling the same way. Um, and our program really just focuses on, you know, we're trying to to give people that that hand up of what they're looking for. you know, if they if they want to go back to school, right, Gabby, if they want to get their GED, you know, whatever it is that they're aspiring to, we're there to help them. And then somehow like this magic happens where parents start to improve themselves and then they go the same for their children and they want the same for their friends and like we just have a very unique relationship with the family community of schools and I'm

101really really grateful to be a part of it. Thank you guys so much. Thank you for the show. Thank you Lindsay and Dr. Savage for all of your support. We hope you just keep on going. So, thank you. [Music] I'm Kate Ferrell. This is my second half year in the program, first year as a coordinator over at Bar. Um, just to add on that one of our biggest claims this year, the parent program is we got 24 professionals that were licensed from these mentors who helped with this program. Several of them hired within the district, which I think is incredible. Um, and then I just want to add my favorite thing about the Quad Cities is that we are a very diverse and my favorite thing about this program. So diverse and so again I

102just let us into the schools trusting and trusting the program. Well, hello everybody. I'm Sha Andrews and I'm actually at Wilson Middle School and I came here from Chicago. So I was born and raised in Chicago and I was in in the projects and I never was really easy on letting people in. So when I came and I moved down here with my grandbaby, I uh started at he was at Washington Elementary, matter of fact, and I was working for Hilton and one of and I was having a hard time at Hilton. One of his teachers said, "It's a program that you can go to and you can work in the school with your baby." because I'm one of them mas. My son is 36 and I don't know if you guys have grandkids but

103you can love your kids but you like really really lovely grand. This is a different kind of love. But I called the number and this lady answered the phone and she didn't speak English and I'm like this teacher done gave me a spam number. This is her right but she did not speak English. This was in 2019. So, I was a parent mentor making this short you guys and I loved it. When I say it's just so hands on now I see since 2019 since I've been doing this I cannot go nowhere and nobody screaming Miss A. All the kids love me and I take my time with each and every one of you guys up in these schools. I love each and every one. When I walk through the hallway, all the kids giving

104me dab, the girls giving me hearts. It's just when I say I can't even express how much I love these kids and how much this program mean to me with my sisters here. I'm taking up too much time here. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. By the way, I'm not a spam. My name is I came from Morocco and being here like in another country like a different country from mine. It was difficult for me and I didn't want to know what's going on inside the school. So that's why I I was in Washington with my son and then Mr. Berbal was the principal and I start as a mentor there 2017. So I became a coordinator. I will say this program opened many doors for me to be here today.

105I mean it's it's something huge for me. So thank you so much for having us today here. Thank you. We have a shy friend here. Hello everyone. My name is Camila Mendes and I'm in the program for this is my four years. Um I came here from California 2020. So I was looking you know to get more about the community. I was really excited. It was a very different time and change but um I just want to say thank you so much for your support to the program. It's been an amazing growth this year. Um like Case said, we have 22 uh per mentors that they get their um her license. Um some of us have our GD last summer and we're ready to go back to college and um and this has been a

106great opportunity to be here uh with you tonight. Thank you. Hi, my name is Sriina and I've been in the program for a year. I started as a parent mentor at Hillrest and I have recently been as a coordinator at Laring for like a month and a half and I'm just joining the program and continue to grow. I'm currently like enrolled in GED trying to finish that. Yeah, thank you. Hi, I think I'm ready. So, my name is Lai and I'm from Balmer and this is my fifth year in the perial program and then as a coordinator this is my first year I'm at Jana school and when we came here uh we we have totally different culture and also the school system. So by when my son first going to the school the whole

107day I'm praying inside my house is he going to be okay is he going to be okay how the teacher going to check is I I could not I'm just waiting to follow and then I wanted to ask is everything okay is everything okay no one said anything to you no this is the barrier for us too so I'm finding a way how can I go inside the school and then I can everything like the teacher the student how they trick to our kid. So I try to communicate with the teacher and then finally Mrs. me from there give me the number not this one our coordinator and then that uh you can contact her and then she will give you the information so I contact her and then she introduce me about the parameter

108program and then first I'm afraid because of my English but she said we all can do together so I started and Then now I am the only uh people in the school community. So every time our community they need they need something they have to call me. Oh defin not all of them but I help them as much as I can. Thank you so much for having us here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Really appreciate it. I get a motion to adjourn. All in favor? We're going to take a brief break now um and have a snack or whatnot and show off some things in Logan for just a moment if we want to go see room nine, the sensory room or the fun board here and then come back. Yeah, 10 minutes. We'll

109be back. I can do this. [Music] We are hereby notify that there will be a regular meeting of the board of education school district number three following the committee of the whole meeting on Monday 2025 at elementary 4602th Street in Illinois 6126 Audrey Adamson here J Smith here Ramona Dixon here. Jason Frell here. Hines here. Jeff Mayus here. Severson here. Abigail Greenley here. We have no four members participating. Uh pledge of allegiance. [Music] 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. Approval of minutes. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the open session of the regular board of education meeting of April 28th, 2025? Second. All in favor? I I

110uh can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the closed session of regular board of education meeting of April 28th, 2025? Second. All in favor? And can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the open session of the second regular board of education meeting of April 28th, 2025? Second. All in favor? Um any communications, public comment, open for participation? No. Moving on the consent agenda. We've got a few things here. Uh we'll start with direct a motion the board of education approve the action to amend the consent agenda to remove item T from the agenda at this time. Second. I have a roll call, please. I'm sorry. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Or Seson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. I Ramona Dixon. I Jason Perrell. I J

111Smith. I recommended motion is the board of education approve the actions containing the consent agenda items A through J1 J3 J3 through N and P through S and U as presented. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Laura Severson. Hi Audrey Adamson. Hi Ramona Dixon. Hi Jason Farerrell. Hi Hans. Hi Ch Smith. Hi. Recommend a motion board of education approve the action contained consent agenda item J2 as presented. Second. Uh roll call please. Laura Severson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. Yes. Mona Dixon. Hi Jason Frell. Hi Lindsay Hines. Hi Jeff Manis. Hi Jeff Smith. And the recommended motion that the board of education approve the action concerning the consent consent agenda item O as presented. Move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call please. Audrey Adamson. Hi. Ramona Dixon. Hi. Jason Ferrell. Hi. Hi. Hi. Jeff Mayus.

112Abstain. Laura Secret. Hi. Cha Smith. Hi. Okay. Item six, resolution to approve fiscal year 26 tenative budget for public display and to establish public hearing date. Recommend a motion. Board of Education approved placing the 2025 2026 school district budget on display for public inspection as well as publishing the notice of hearing public notice of public hearing for June 23rd, 2025 at 6 p.m. as presented as listed. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Jason Carl, hi. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Severson. Hi Audrey Adamson. Hi Ramona Dixon. Hi J Smith. Hi. Number seven approval of amended 2025 2026 board of education meeting dates. Recommend a motion is that the board of education approve the amended motion update the 2025 2026 board of education meeting dates as the meeting on August 25th 2025 was inadvertently left

113off. Second. Any discussion? Which one was left off? Um, August 25th, 2025. August. It's on there. It is. It's not. It's not on there. What What are we saying? It's not on there. It is on the copies that you received at the last meeting, but the originally it was not on there. That was posted online. We caught it after it was posted to board book. So we didn't change it. Just wanted to just confirm. Thank you. Roll call, please. Lindsay Hines. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Laura Severson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. Hi. Mona Dixon. Hi. Jason Farrell. Hi. Smith. Hi. All right. Number eight. Approval of student teaching clinical agreement with Augustana College for 2025 2026. Recommended motion is the board of education approve the student teaching clinical agreement between Augustana College and the Ming Valley School

114District number 40 2025 2026 school year. Second. Any discussion? I have a roll call, please. Jeff Mayus. Hi. Severson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. Hi Mona Dixon. Hi Jason Farrell. Hi Hines. Hi Jetta Smith. Hi. Number nine. Change order renovation of Brown Field Shipley Track and the middle school sports fields. Recommended motion. The board of education approve the change order to bush sports turf mile for the Shipley track asphalt repair at a cost not to exceed $110,000. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? Severson. Hi. Audrey Adamson. Hi. Ramona Dixon. Hi. Jason Farrell. Hi. Hi. Hi. Jeff Mayus. Hi. J Smith. Hi. All right. Reports or questions. Open discussion. We'll start with the Steven board education member report. Um so uh want to start off a little bit about uh this weekend.

115So students had the opportunity to go to prom. Here's junior and senior students in the dance and it was DJed by daughter who did a wonderful job. Um I would take suggestions from the students but you know keeping the energy up for the whole dance. It was an awesome experience. Um it's definitely a memorable night for me country based on kind of the academic side. We are now at AP testing starting last week for the exams have been rolling have been taking those. So today um for example I did my calc exam and there's also some other music theory. Um I know that the MHS musicians last week had an awesome opportunity to display their talents wars deep concert. I wasn't able to attend. I heard a lot of great about that and saw pictures

116of stormtroopers um next to NHS musicians. So, I don't think it get any better than that. And lastly, I want to touch base on some of our athletics. So, our um sports are heading into the Western Big Six season. So, tennis is going to have their conference um the next week and then after that sections in state. So from last year a lot of the conference matches matches are actually a week earlier state I just said guidelines but we're excited for that. So yeah women is having their last meeting this week on Wednesday. We're super excited to close off this year and start planning for next year. Also happening Wednesday um history club is having the veiling ceremony under Charles Carpenter statue. um at 2:30 to 4:30. Yeah. So that'll be 2:30 to 4:30 and

117then we're expecting media like some of the relatives of Charles Carpenter himself. If you guys don't already know, he was a former teacher in high school and served in the military and fought for our country. So it's a statue that was donated to the history club to honor him and Wednesday is going to be the Yeah. So, that will be on the senior patio in case anyone is interested in attending. And then a hit on most of the other points, but I'd like to give um a special thanks to all of the AP teachers at Mol High School specifically. Um I've had a very positive experience with all of my AP teachers. And I know that's not always every student's experience, but I've heard a lot of positive feedback from um in these AP classes.

118I think specifically at the high school there is a very talented group of staff that are very engaged students and concerns um and comments very seriously and I truly appreciate that. Um they're very dedicated to that group of high achievers. Um I would like them to know that their work does not go unnoticed. Thank you guys. Um now moving to board of education member open discussion and actually like to start um speaking of our board members. I'd like to start with special recognition. Um you know we're very fortunate in our district to have students as members of our board of education and been very fortunate to have a with us um here and uh he'll be graduating this Friday and moving on to sure great things. Um, but we want to take a minute to

119present him with token of our appreciation. And uh, like I said, we're just very fortunate to have you guys and really wish you all the best in the [Music] future. Canvas tonight. I just want to say thank you the board. This has been an awesome opportunity. Um especially I know when Dr. Savage first came up to me about this role, I was super excited and maybe like any other student stepping up to the podium. Um I was nervous with the first few meetings, but I've had a great experience throughout the entire year. It's been one of my favorite activities, one of my favorite experiences. I look forward to these meetings. I just want to say thank you the entire board for making this such a memorable experience for me and I truly had an amazing

120opportunity to grow as a leader and then next part of this would be viewing of the board nor dorms and code of conduct. Um I don't want to spend a ton of time on this tonight. You guys all should have copy of that in front of you. Um, I just ask you all kind of either familiarize yourself or reamiliarize yourself with everything on here. If you've got any thing that you think we should clarify, anything you think we should change, anything you think we should bring up further discussion, um, you know, feel free to reach out to me and if you want to put this back on the agenda at the next meeting so we can dive deeper, but I know this has been a pretty long. We still got some important work to do.

121So, yeah, I just ask you guys go over this. If there's anything you think we should take out, add anything like that, please feel free to reach out to me and work on doing another. So, if everybody's okay with that, kind of push this off until a later date, but just kind of refamiliarize everybody that um does anybody else have anything. All right, we will move on to our superintendent, Dr. Sage. Couple of announcements. First, um I'd like to thank Mr. Ferguson again for being a lovely host here at Logan Elementary, Miss Dystra and the students, and of course, who's thoroughly enthused now. Um, of course, um, and certainly highlighting the parent mentor program was just awesome getting to hear how they have, um, had an impact on our our kids and building that bridge.

122So, thank you for that. Um, I can't stress enough the importance and value that our district has in the positive working relationship with our police department. I know that making the changes that Chief G is proposing is taking uh quite a big leap in change and what some might perceive to be a break in tradition. But I believe that um proactive is something that I think is really um the the part to celebrate and I'm grateful that the police department is willing to do that with us. I know that there are states in our country and larger cities and other places where those conversations would not happen and certainly would never be a collaborative plan together. It would be perhaps this is what's going to happen and you know have a nice day type of

123thing. And I know Chief has um you know spent time with Mr. Moore and Dr. Cribble and others at the high school to figure out what works and explain the rationale. And so now sort of comes that communication piece on the back end and working with the department heads and helping make sure that they understand. Um we'll look forward to some sort of a joint press release in the coming weeks uh with the goal that everybody has that communication before school gets out. So, I just wanted to reiterate how grateful um that I am and I know that we are to have that uh positive working relationship. Um we have a new K5 dual language um English language arts curriculum now on public display in the lobby at the district office. Uh that is per

124our required 30-day new curriculum procedure. Um and I know that uh Miss Leslie Perkins has been a part of that process. Um, we did receive some additional funding that was released in late February. And so she worked together with the curriculum department and our multilingual multilingual specialist and dual teachers to um look at some curriculum and see what was available. And so they have worked together to find some materials that they were comfortable with, made sure that um the curriculum met our standards on ed reports and um had put forth a product for public view. So, anything that you'd like to add, Leslie? Um, just I think the teachers are really excited about getting something um that is specifically targeted for dual language. Um the what makes it unique is it has a bio literacy

125component. So, it bridges the Spanish to the English um explicitly. So, it takes that off of the teacher's plate. So, I think that's really great curriculum for them. Thank you. Um, and I know May is a very busy time and there are so many amazing opportunities to see our students celebrate their talents and achievements. Um, I know you guys highlighted the patio um, unveiling. I'm excited about that. Um, I'd also like to highlight a couple of other events this week and I know things are very busy. Um, but I in particular would like to um, highlight senior convocation or senior awards. This event is tomorrow night at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center beginning at 7 PM and board members are certainly invited to attend. Terra has done a great job of hosting all of these

126events as board activities so we are covered for OMA if you are able to come. Um it's a true testament to the amazing option graduates that our district uh produces. see the culminating achievements of our seniors, especially for parents and community members uh or parents that might have younger students in our system. This event can really portray an amazing circle full circle display of the important work that happens in our schools. even through the challenges and hurdles the day-to-day can bring. Academic achievement and preparedness for the next chapter of their lives is our full purpose and is proudly confirmed and displayed at this event. The other event I'd like to highlight is the Quad City's registered high school apprenticeship signing day and you have a half sheet at your tables as well. This event is

127Wednesday after the patio unveiling so it's a busy day. Um it will be held at Capitol Theater um on Third Street in Davenport. Doors open at 3:30 and the program begins at 4. This event is sponsored by the Quad City Chamber and is a very unique bystate celebration of multiple districts in our region. You can see all the districts there of students coming together and celebrating their um work readiness experiences and all of the businesses coming together to sign those students for their apprenticeship experiences is a very very cool event um and just takes the idea of community partnerships to that next level. And lastly, just a reminder to mark your calendars for this year's um graduation ceremony and vibrant arena. This event will be in just two Um, next Friday, May 23rd. Again, first

128time we will have it on a Friday and in a while or if ever. Um, I will be sending out additional updates to the board in terms of time and so on. And certainly we're uh I certainly will connect with our newest members in terms of pro tips on their department. and um now we'll kind of transition into our case goal period of focus reminder you know we're here to kind of put ideas on the board not necessarily write goals tonight um student members are more than welcome to stick around and help us come up with ideas to yeah right there and should have markers and all kinds of stuff I believe ready to go yes I have uh two papers and I'll sort them out a little bit better uh for each category um

129so that can focus your thoughts kind of based on that handout uh for the different um just ideas for each categories. If thinking about those or have ideas or direction that you'd like [Music] All right. [Music] So that that was a great session. Uh now I would entertain a motion to journ. Any discussion? All in favor? All right. Meeting adjourned. 8:33. Okay.