001Okay, are we ready? Okay, it is now 7:04 and I am calling to order the regular board of education meeting for Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday, June 8th, 2026. Michelle, will you please take the role? >> Miss Grover, >> Miss Basic >> here. >> Miss Donahghue, >> here. Miss Gins >> here. >> Miss Demi >> present. >> And Mr. Risen >> here. >> Miss Basic, will you lead us in the pledge? >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, July 13th. We have three board salutes tonight. We'll start with Miss Grover. College sponsor national merit scholarship winners. The board salutes seven district
002204 seniors who were recently awarded 2026 national merit scholarships financed by the US colleges and universities. This year's recipients include Ritika Kurana and Shrehan Basupala from Matia Valley High School, Peter Carol Sia Malotra, Robert Yang and Katherine Yuan from Niua Valley High School and Cil Padki from Wabanzi Valley High School. Each sponsoring college selected its scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend that institution. These scholarships provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study. We congratulate all our national merit scholarship winners. >> Mr. Rising >> Nua Valley business students earn Adobe and Microsoft certifications. The board salutes 108 Nua Valley and I apologize it should have said Wanzi Valley too and 81 Wanzi Valley business students who earned industry recognized
003professional certifications this semester by passing certaport exams and Adobe and Microsoft programs. Congratulations to all the Niqua Valley and Wanzi Valley business students on this incredible professional achievement. >> Miss Fastik 2026 Microsoft Office Specialist US National Championship. The board salutes Niqua Valley senior Rohit Fulior for placing fifth in the state of Illinois for Microsoft Excel 365 applications during the spring qualifier of the 2026 Microsoft Office Specialist US National Championship. This recognition highlights Rohit's technical proficiency and his mastery of real world data analysis skills on a highly competitive statewide stage. Congratulations, Roit. >> Let's have a round of applause for these great accomplishments. [applause] So, now we have uh two proclamations for two very special people who will be leaving our district. And we'll start out with Mr. Kurubis. >> Should I make him hold this
004picture of himself? >> Yes. [laughter] >> I think so. [laughter] >> Mind here. >> [laughter] >> Indian Prairie School District 204 proclamation. Whereas Justin Kurubis was first elected to the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education in April 2013 to fill an unexpired two-year term and has since dedicated over a decade of continuous service to the district. And whereas Mr. Kurubis is a proud product of Indian Prairie School District 204, having attended Cloud Elementary School and Hill Middle School before graduating from Oanzi Valley High School. And whereas he continued his academic path at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne where he earned a degree in economics and finance and later attained his jurist doctorate from the Chicago Kent College of Law. And whereas Mr. Kurubis has demonstrated an enduring passion for the Indian
005Prairie Educational Foundation, having previously served as a director and personally supported the organization by running with team IPF for five years, continuing a proud family legacy of service to the foundation. And whereas Mr. Kurubis led the creation of the board of education student advisory board, ensuring that student voices directly inform district leadership and shape the future of our schools. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education, administration, and community hereby honor Justin Kurubis for his dedication and devotion to the students, staff, and parents of our community. His leadership has consistently fostered a caring environment that places children first. Although we will miss his passion for always inspiring our students to achieve their greatest potential and his commitment to District 204, we wish him all the best in his
006future endeavors. [applause] >> [applause] >> Justin, I have a couple words first before you talk. And >> I'm gonna talk over that. [laughter] >> Yeah, >> I I thought I was going to have to finish that, but seriously, thank you for getting that done. [laughter] >> You're gonna cry, too. >> Justin, I want to thank you for your 13 years of service supporting Indian Prairie students. It is clear your passion for the district staff and students. You've driven initiatives that have made a major difference. We will miss your expertise and attention on policy. As someone who grew up in the district with very engaged parents, we'll miss your historical perspective. You've been known to ask a lot of questions. We will mostly miss them. Maybe not always the volume. Um, we'll miss your ability to
007find obscure information, but I think you will still be looking out for us. A minor item, but one we recently discovered you effectively covered. We've already missed you handling the recording devices. It's time for us to learn a new skill. [laughter] On a personal note, thank you for being my mentor and for finding an old letter I wrote and inviting me to lunch at Hoolahands. You took the chance to talk to a stranger about the school board. I left that lunch convinced to run for election, something I never pictured for myself and deeply appreciate. Thank you for your service. through professional and personal challenging times. You made a difference and built lifelong friends on the board. We wish you the best and many thanks. >> Thank you. >> I'll just say one quick thing and
008I promise it will be quick. Um >> you didn't start the timer on me, did you? >> Uh it's uh it's been an honor and privilege 13 years together. So it's uh you will be missed. But here's what I can say with all confidence is all the things that you wanted to accomplish when you first got on board and then some, you have all accomplished. So, job well done. >> All right. I'll let you go, Justin. >> Great. First, um, thank you. I appreciate the proclamation. As much as I don't like proclamations, this is very nice. Um, and I'd like to thank my family who's here. My wife Katie, um, my son Tim and son Wes, and my daughter is now here, Anna, and that is Tegan as well, supporting us. Um, you know, I've
009been looking forward to this day for some time. Unfortunately, it got here sooner than I wanted. So, I uh I'm going to miss you as well. You know, I first ran for school board because two people that I respected um encourage that I respected deeply encouraged me to run. Owen Waverneck was a neighbor since my childhood and he later became a lifelong uh along the longest serving school board member that we've had. um and also a Bonsi Valley classmate Paul Gamboa uh who was in union leadership at the time. Uh both of them saw something in me and believe that I should step up um and run and I'm glad that they trusted me to do so. So it we always kind of pulled by somebody else to do these things. So I want to
010give nod to Owen Waverneick and Paul Gamboa. I've learned that when school boards stay collaborative, respectful, and focused on good governance, it creates the kind of environment that attracts and retains strong leadership, both outstanding board members and superintendent. And I need to thank all of you, but I want to thank one board member in particular, and that's Lori Donahghue. Lori, I do remember that breakfast that we had. um when you when we talked about running and you got to educate somebody on what it is to be a school board member and volunteer your time. Uh and you try to educate them a little bit. Um but they need to also step into the light and and grab that. And I'm glad that you were at a place where you were willing to help out the
011community. So, I encourage all of you to look for other um candidates as we go through. Um I probably had a hundred breakfast lunch contacts with future school board members trying to find um the right people to run that would support the schools um for the right reasons. So, I I reflect back on that breakfast or lunch maybe. Hula hands. Um and it was a I'm glad we did that. But later also when it was time to choose our next president, I was a vice president. But I chose to step aside because I believe that you would be the better person for the job. And you've proven me right. Your steadfast leadership and your ability to bring people together across different viewpoints and your clear focus on what's best for our students have been exactly
012what this board's needed. So, thank you for that. And thank you to Dr. Tally. I was on this board when we hired you back in 2020. For years, our district had chosen superintendent who were lifelong products of 204. But that year, we decided to take a risk on you, an outofstate candidate with no record yet in Illinois. That wasn't an easy decision at the time, but it was the right one. Thank you for your leadership for these past several years. But then I also want to thank the supporting staff whose name do we call most at schoolboard meetings. It's Michelle's. You are the most said name at every school board meeting. >> That's true. And so we and it's not not obviously just you. We've had prior board um secretaries uh Janine, Jackie. Um so
013a lot of what we do, we need to thank the supporting cast that helps gets us done. So thank you Michelle for keeping us for your professionalism um and keeping us organized. And I also want to thank our technical team, the folks that are behind the microphones, the lighting, the cameras, keeping us live stream. Sometimes we see them fiddling. The audience online doesn't get to see them. We sit here and just look at them. [laughter] And if the only we only notice them when things go wrong, when the feed drops, when the microphones screech, if they're doing their jobs, we don't notice them. So, I thank you for helping us run a a nice meeting, getting it organized out to the public. That helps with the transparency goals we have, keeping our community in involved,
014informed, and connected. In closing, I want to encourage others to consider running for the school board. It's a demanding volunteer position that requires real time away from your family, but it's also incredibly rewarding. You get to make important decisions about budgets, curriculum, staffing, and hiring superintendent. And there's nothing quite like the joy of handing out diplomas to our graduating seniors each year, knowing that we help shape their education. If you care about the kids in our community, I hope you consider stepping up. Our schools need good people. To everyone here, thanks again. It's been a privilege to serve. >> Thank you so much. [applause] [applause] >> Picture with everybody. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> You didn't think you would get away without photographing. The picture is not [laughter] I wanted a new picture. >> All right,
015we have a second proclamation. Miss Deming will be reading. >> I know. [laughter] Just bring >> Indian Prairie School District 204 proclamation. Whereas Dr. Adrien B. Tally has served as a superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204 for the past six years, leading a community of nearly 26,000 students and 3,300 staff members since July 1, 2020. And whereas Dr. Tally brought more than three decades of educational expertise to the district, including high level leadership roles in Maryland and Virginia and his tenure as principal deputy director for the Department of Defense education agency where he oversaw the education of 84,000 students worldwide. And whereas he successfully guided the district through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic, ensuring that student achievement [clears throat] data ultimately returned to or exceeded prepandemic levels. And whereas Dr. Tally
016spearheaded the district's first strategic plan, inspire, innovate, and empower, a five-year roadmap for student success, led the first major boundary redrawing since 2009, and initiated the 2023 facility assessment to comprehensively evaluate the district's physical needs. hand. Whereas his deep commitment to student well-being led to the expansion of mental health services, including securing over $2 million and grant funding to establish inschool clinics, providing free therapy for families. and under his leadership, the mental health and wellness symposium was established to provide vital resources and collaborative support for the entire community. And whereas Dr. Tally championed the successful passage of the $420 million bond referendum, laying the groundwork for vital safety, security, and infrastructure projects to make District 204 safer and stronger for years to come. And now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Indian Prairie School District
017204 Board of Education, Administration, and Community honor Dr. Adrien B. Thally for his outstanding career in education where he enriched the lives of so many students. Although we will miss his passion for always inspiring our students to achieve their greatest potential and his unwavering commitment to district 204. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors. [applause] Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I actually have a couple words to say too [laughter] >> before I let you talk. >> Okay. Six years have passed remarkably quickly. For those who did not have the opportunity to work with Dr. Tally, you truly missed the chance to know an exceptional person and to actually and to enjoy some amazing baked goods, too. Dr. Tally led with integrity, thoughtfulness, decisiveness, and compassion through through some of the most
018challenging times, including beginning his tenure right when the pandemic started. We are grateful for your strategic approach to problem solving, your clear and effective communication, and your unwavering focus on overcoming obstacles. You dedicated yourself to advancing the work needed to support our students, family, and staff. Your efforts to expand and strengthen mental health counseling services were instrumental in addressing critical needs across our district. We are also deeply appreciative of your leadership in securing the passage of our muchneeded referendum to support our facilities and future growth. Your impact on Indian Prairie will be felt for years to come. We will miss your leadership, your friendship and we wish you every success in the opportunities and your adventures and we know lie ahead for you. Please know that we intend to stay in touch. I am personally
019grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside you and to have learned from your leadership. Thank you for all that you have done for Indian Prairie. >> I know I'm supposed to say something right now, but I'm going to ask to wait till my public to my comments. I've written something to say. I didn't know this was coming, but if you don't mind, I would like to put them in my comments. uh other than to say thank you. Um this was a surprise is a surprise and uh it will be going up in my new office so that they can see it proudly when I put it up there. But I have I do have some comments to say about the board and about the district and about being here. So if you'll just hold
020off for a moment or two. >> Thank you everybody. [applause] Another picture. >> I can bring over. >> Oh, he gets in the middle. [laughter] Okay. >> Okay. >> It is now time for public comment and 60 minutes is allowed. Each person is limited to three minutes. When addressing the board, we ask that you respect the confidentiality and safety of our students and school district personnel. We also ask that those addressing the board be cognizant that this is an open meeting and is available to all age groups and as such ask that you consider who the audience members are this evening and keep comments age appropriate. Public comment represents the voice and opinion of the speaker. There will be no feedback from the board members during the meeting, but followup will be provided by an
021administrator as appropriate. Although that this is not required, it is helpful for the board to know whether the comments and concerns we hear are being raised by our residents. So, we ask that you state if you live in the district and if you currently have children in our schools. We have three speakers tonight. The first is Robin Schmidt. >> Hi, my name is Robin Schmidt. I am a resident of the district. I have two students at Matia and I am here to express my uh concerns about the district's plan on responding to the reduction in Title One funding. I understand that there's uh less money, but I feel that the board needs to find another way to respond to this short hall shortfall than reducing staff at the schools. Just because there's less money doesn't
022mean there's less need. And as I remember in the uh reboundary process, we were told certain populations were sent to certain schools to keep certain percentages so we could get the funding, so we could get the supports. Those students still need that support. and when we don't handle it well at the elementary level, it just feeds into middle school and high school levels. So, this will be a waterfall issue heading forward. And so, I just really would like you guys to not cut the teachers. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] The next speaker is Christina Garcia. >> Good evening. My name is Christina Garcia. I'm a 20-year resident. Tonight, you are currently looking at a budget cut of 20 title one positions. Schools like Gambert, Georgetown, and McCarthy under the guise of loss of federal funding.
023I'm here to tell you exactly what those cuts mean in human terms. Because my family is living proof of what those resource resources achieve. My oldest son had no I no IEP or 504. At Gambert, Title One funding caught his deficits in math and English. Still, middle school built the foundation because the building was not entirely overwhelmed. Because of those early resources, he entered one level higher in mathematics his freshman year at Wabanzi. In his sophomore year, he was placed in honors English. He just finished AP English as a junior with A's and B's, and he had got A's in pre-calculus. He wants to pursue a career in STEM. That's what happens when you provide resources to students. Now, let's take a look at two the tale of two journeys you're creating for my youngest
024son and his fellow classmates. Fiser already serves a higher percentage of students with IEPs and 504s. It's bursting at the seams. By cutting 20 foundational positions at the elementary schools, some feed into fisers, you're systematically ensuring that the most vulnerable students, incoming sixth graders, will arrive with even greater deficits into the middle schools with fewer tools to help them. Four years ago, when my youngest was in third grade, I emailed Dr. Cali and all of the board members up here. The lack of academic in equality at Fiser four years ago later, you're sitting here making decisions that actively worsen the gap during co a dedicated teacher who listened to me and helped me find someone that would ultimately diagnose my youngest son with visual processing disorder. I'm forever grateful for Mrs. Harry. When you slash
025positions, you eliminate the capacity for teachers who help students who are most in need. Do not look at us and use the word equity. There's no equity in a child's academic potential when it's dictated by their zip code. And the neighbor the neighborhood that the board has decided that doesn't matter. These cuts are unethical. They're predictable. Like our neighborhood lost busing, yet the wealthier neighborhoods kept their busing. If you cut these positions, the message continues to be, "We do not care about these children or your neighborhood. These children are forgotten, unimportant ones because they are lower income areas and cannot be afforded to be helped by these wealthy districts. You already put my youngest at disadvantage. He's two grade levels behind. Do we want to continue to create this gap?" Thank you. Thank you. The
026last speaker is Alicia Smith. When will the 204 school board determine serious safety hazards so that busing can occur for the 2026 2027 school year? All of the data in this public comment about annual average daily traffic, AADT, comes from the Illinois Department of Transportation's website, gettingaroundillinois.com. On page one of the IDOT school safety busing guide book, it states in the second paragraph, quote, "The local school board determines what constitutes a serious safety hazard in accordance with guidance guidelines promagated by the Illinois Department of Transportation." End quote. The local school board determines what constitutes a serious safety hazard, not the director of support services. The first route that the school board needs to determine if there is a serious safety hazard is Colony Lakes walk alongside Yola Road to Fiser Middle School with the ID.
027AADt of 18,600 vehicles between Dorothy Drive and Montgomery Road. The second route that the school board needs to determine if there is a serious safety hazard is WVHS area 2's traffic along their walkway due to the BP McDonald's and Starbucks which should result in a judgment point. The third route that the school board needs to determine if there is a serious safety hazard is K8 pupils walk alongside Eiola Road between Montgomery Road and Fiser Middle School. This section of Eola has an AADT of 37,800 vehicles. This is higher than the AADT of westbound Ognen Avenue and it is higher than the AADT of Route 59 south of 95th Street. The maximum given in the ID do guide book is 1,500 vehicles per hour or greater. That calculates to an AAD of 15,000 vehicles. Eiola's road
028AAD of 37,800 vehicles is more than doubled that maximum given. It is more than doubled the AAD of Yola from Montgomery Road to Keing Road. This is the highest AAD by far for a KA pupil walking alongside a roadway. What is the second highest AAD for a 204 KA pupil walking alongside a roadway? That higher traffic volume is compressed into a much smaller space and road than either Ognen or Route 59, making walking alongside Eola Road even more dangerous. The danger increases when one accounts for the two curves containing signage and barricades. The ID do guide book, bottom of page 19, states that inadequate sight distance caused by a sharp roadway curve is a condition that allows for judgment points. The walkway being more than 8 feet from the curb does not remove the danger.
029Do you believe that no volume of vehicles is too high for a K8 pupil to walk alongside as long as the walkway is more than 8 feet from the curb? Thank you. Thank you. We now move to our consent agenda and superintendent report. We will start with the superintendent report. Dr. Tally, >> Miss Donahghue, members of the board of education at Indian Prairie Community. On Memorial Sunday, we graduated more than 2100 students at our three high schools during their commencement ceremonies. From start to finish, each event was well orchestrated and provided each school the opportunity to celebrate its graduates. We wish all of our graduates much success in their futures. This past week has been an excellent start to our summer construction and remodeling projects. With 125 million of work do going on this summer
030at nearly every school. Interesting. I thought I turned it off. [laughter] With 125 million of work going on this summer at nearly every school, we needed to have the schools prepared for the contractors. This included packing and moving entire schools for the nine flooring projects, packing and moving the office areas for the 11 secured vestibial projects and the extensive moves at Nika Berquette and Wanzi for the extensive work going on in and outside the buildings. You'll hear more about these projects later in the presentation. First, I'd like to recognize the principles and their staff for their extra work in preparing and packing for these projects. Next is all the Aramark staff who worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get everything moved and the ongoing work to stay ahead of all of it. We cannot forget
031to praise the hard work that the IT departments did planning the and executing those moves out in a in an orderly manner so we can move back in easier. Finally, the operations and maintenance team of project managers, Mr. Ken Swell and Mr. Richard Surl did a monumental job of organizing and leading all the teams, contractors, architects, and construction managers through this entire project. I also want to thank Mr. John Roberts for what he is doing, helping to lead the work. Work is on time right now, and that's very important. One last bit of data for me to share with you is that our buses, we finished the 2526 school year with an on-time network result of 96.45 45% exceeding our goal of 95%. For comparison, our previous best year was the 24-25 school year which
032ended at 93.87%. These results are the are the effort from the exemplary effort of our transportation team and the team with first student. I would like to ask that the board of ed approve the appointment of Mr. Matt Hanley as the new assistant director of community relations, community engagement, replacing Miss Jeannie Dina, who will be retiring at the end of the month. Mr. Hanley, who's in the audience with his family, is coming to us from community consolidated school district 89, where he is the communications coordinator. He has also served as the assistant director and then director of community relations for East Aurora School District. Additionally, Mr. Hanley did a phenomenal job leading our safer stronger 204 community group that was instrumental in getting out the community to our to our uh to vote for the
033bond referendum. He is also a parent in our community. As this is my last board of ed meeting, I would like to take a few moments to share some thoughts. It has been my distinct pleasure both personally and professionally to have served as your superintendent for the past six years. Who knew back in December 2019 that I would enter the district in the middle of the pandemic? But entered I did. And due to the exemplary work of our staff and the support of the board of ed, we came out of the pandemic with results that are now better than we we were pre- pandemic. There were many successes we have achieved over the past six years, but I will not go into those tonight. I will let the record speak for itself. What I do
034want to say is none of these successes would have been possible without the collaboration and partnership that happened across our district. From the teachers union to the support staff union, we always work together. From IPC to the parent volunteers, everyone was focused on what was good for children. From the administrators to central office staff and to my exceptional cabinet, I thank you for the hard work that you did daily in support of our mission. From organic life, Aramark and First Student, you helped make our district great. To our board members, those sitting here, and those who are no longer on the board, but brought me to the district, your professionalism helped our district achieve. Everything that was done was not done perfectly. However, in every case, students were always first in our thoughts as we
035made decisions. No matter who is sitting in this chair, there will always be some who disagree with the decisions that are made. I remind everyone that rather than attack a decision or the person who made the decision to understand why the decision was made. I leave the district believing that I have taken what was given to me and made it better. I have always known that this district is the community's district. It has never been the Adrien Tally district. Knowing that it is the community's district, I have always tried to ensure the community was involved, engaged, and made part of the process of making our schools great. I leave you with this picture of me when I when I served helping to cover one of the of our self-contained classes. I have known from the
036for the past six years, I have held the hands of our students, hopefully walking them toward a future of bright opportunities. I now put the hands of the children in Dr. Price's hands and know fully well he will help lead them to great opportunities. Thank you all for six outstanding years. [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Okay. All right. So, I now need a motion and a second to approve Matt Hanley as the assistant director of community and engagement. >> I move that the board of education approved Matthew Hanley as the assistant director of community engagement as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Grover? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue? >> Yes. >> Miss Fosdic? >> Yes. >> Miss Deming? >> I. >> And
037Miss G? >> Yes. Congratulations. The motion passes. [applause] >> You want to say anything or introduce your family or? >> Sure. >> Um, first of all, Dr. Tally, thank you for all you did. So many kids have had wonderful experiences because of your work here. Um, I've been a mystery reader in this district. I've been a field trip dad. I've uh run with IPF. So, I'm really excited um to be an official part of the district and I'm excited for anything I can do to support the kids and the teachers. Um, my wife is here, Lynn. She's an amazing teacher in some other district we won't mention. Uh, Mark is a junior or going to be a junior at Niqua. He is an outstanding musician, a great student, and Annie is a talented actress and
038singer and a great student as well. So, we're all all in on 204, and I'm just real happy to be here. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. [applause] I do have to say we we we did take him from Doug Eicarius's school district. So I hope Doug will still talk to me. We'll see. [laughter] >> Okay. I now need a motion and a second to approve consent agenda items E through V. >> I move that the board of education approve consent agenda items E through V as presented. >> Second. Any discussion? Okay, Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Gent, >> yes. >> Miss Deming, >> I. >> Mr. Rising, >> yes. >> Miss Donahghue, >> yes. >> Miss Grover. >> And Miss Fostic? >> Yes. >>
039The motion passes. I now need a motion and a second to approve the appointment of Andrew Bernard to fill the current board vacancy effective immediately until the next regular election in April 2027. I move that the board of education approve the appointment of Andrew Bernard to fill the current board vacancy effective immediately until the next regular election in April 2027 as presented. >> Any discussion? Andrew will be at our next board meeting to be sworn in. So Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Gint? >> Yes. >> Miss Grover. >> Mr. Rising. >> Yes. Miss Fick, >> yes. >> Miss Demi, >> I. >> And Miss Down, >> yes. The motion passes. Congratulations to Andrew. [applause] >> Okay. Next, I need a motion and a second to approve the middle school core resource
040and extended text for use beginning in the 202627 school year. I move that the board of education approve the middle school core resource and extended text for use beginning in the 202627 school year as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Fostic? >> Yes. >> Miss Gent? >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Deming? >> I. >> And Miss Grover. >> The motion passes. I now need a motion and a second to approve the curriculum revisions to Project Arrow ELA courses for grades six through eight. >> I move Sorry, I move that the board approve the middle school PA ELA course revisions um as presented. >> Second. >> Okay, Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Grover?
041>> Yes. >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Vosdic? >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue? >> Yes. >> Miss Demi? >> I. >> And Miss Gint? >> Yes. The motion passes. We'll now have a presentation from Mr. Matt Shipley, Miss Lesie Mitchell, and Miss Amy Tabiri from Whiten Company regarding the master facility plan update. update the board. >> Is that Mike? >> Just had to turn it on. >> All right. Uh really excited to update the board on on the progress of our safer, stronger 204 capital program. Uh as you know, this program is rooted in the strategic plan and master facility plan adopted by the board. And to that extent, it really does uh span all four of our strategic plan priorities. Our presentation is most in line with board policies 4.150 and 4.160, although
042I'm sure we'll touch on other uh policies this evening as well. Uh, as already mentioned, with me this evening is Amy Terry from White and Company. Uh, Amy's been uh in front of the board uh in the past, most most recently when we discussed our uh plan for the work at Wanzi Valley and Nqua Valley high schools uh just uh almost a year ago to the day. Uh so that is the work that you're currently uh seeing well in progress uh when you drive by either site uh here in the district. I also have with me Leslie Mitchell uh principal of Hill Middle School. Uh most of our focus tonight will be on Hill Hill Middle School and I think Leslie um will get a great opportunity to talk through through the uh proposed uh
043improvements and benefits for that that building. I'll say one of uh one of the interesting things working with Leslie through this project. As you know, she's uh been in several of our other middle schools. And so she'll she's been in a great position to really talk through some of the uh challenges and inequities that are specific to Hill compared to our other buildings. Um and uh we'll try to keep the language PG tonight, but uh Leslie does have full authorization to express those challenges in full detail. [laughter] >> So as mentioned uh we will be giving uh Thank you. This is really an update of our safer, stronger uh 204 uh capital program. Uh we'll start quickly with a budget update and then look at our uh plan for the secure vestibules in 2027. Uh
044and then we're going to transition to the Hill Middle School construction program and timeline. Um before we do that though, I do want to just uh kind of anchor us in that master facility plan. So again, this is a slide that our board and our community have seen before. These were the five highest priorities that came out of that master facility plan. So addressing safety and security concerns, aging infrastructure, modernizing our learning environments, addressing the lack of parity across the district, and again that included Hill Middle School as a high priority in that area, and then addressing operational inefficiencies. As already mentioned tonight, we are uh really starting the most impactful 12 months of this safer, stronger 204 capital program. Uh and that started with this summer construction pro um season with about $125 million
045of projects currently underway. Uh and you can see by the list there, we are impacting almost every school in the district in some way this summer. Uh Dr. Tally already uh recognized the the outstanding work of many different departments and teams. Uh so I will just reiterate that the re the the real coordination and commitment we've seen uh not just in the last week uh getting getting ready but really in the in the six months leading up to that the amount of the amount of planning the amount of thought that uh our building leaders put put into this process to get ready for this summer is is really uh uh really unprecedented I think. Uh and again I just wanted to express my thanks to all those individuals involved as well. So again, just just
046uh just recognizing where we are with the referendum uh budget. On the uh the first half of the slide, you do see the pie chart, which shows how this capital program is built into is broken into um originally nine, but now 10 different capital program budgets. Um and so again, we've we've started work in in some form or fashion now on on every part of this pie chart. Uh again, $466 million over the next eight years is what's rep representing this capital program. Uh the overwhelming majority of that funding is the successful safer, stronger 204 bond referendum that represents about $420 million of bond uh principle of that 466. But there's 46 million of other sources including investment earnings, bond premiums, uh as well as some some incentive payments we're receiving as part of the
047energy efficiency uh part of the program as well as some additional capital grants. Uh I do just want to summarize some of the uh updates that have been made since the board last saw these budgets in uh September. And I I think we we have really three pieces of good news to share. Uh so as a reminder we started the program with very conservative budgets and conservative timelines for all categories. Um so that meant that that we built in escalation and contingency into all programs into all budgets on the front end. As we've started the work uh we we've put a priority on uh really ensuring that we stay within budget and and being costconcious at every step of the way. Uh and also working on really trying to accelerate timelines as well. Uh what
048accelerating timelines does is it allows the work to get done sooner. Um lowers the escalation cost, lowers the amount of contingency that that we're exposing the project to and ultimately it means the project comes online sooner to the benefit of our students and staff. Um the third kind of piece of that triangle that has to be managed along the way is also the financing piece. And so the financing, the budget, and the timeline all kind of work together. And that's where some of the details I shared last month uh come into play as well because we're in a a really strong spot uh with local property growth uh with new property and construction coming online. We are in a position to accelerate some of our financing plans to to potentially coordinate that accelerated timeline as
049well. And so with that, um we're we're kind of presenting tonight that we expect to um start the work at Gregory Middle School two years earlier than we originally presented. uh that reduces the budget for Gregory by six million. So again, not reducing the scope of that work, but saving about $6 million through an earlier timeline. Uh that six million then gets distributed to Hill Middle School and allowed us to expand the scope of some of the work we're going to show here shortly. We also created this new category that we're calling modernizing our learning environments. Uh so again, when we showed those priorities a few minutes ago, we mentioned learning pri environments as one of the high priorities that came out of our master facility plan. it's probably the priority that got the least
050amount of funding. And so, while $2 million is kind of a a small step, it is a step towards starting to fund some of those uh uh needs as well. And that that the the vision for that sort of part of the program is really to provide all 34 schools some piece of that funding. Again, so that that's could be 50 to $100,000 per school. uh enable schools to to um you know refresh the library or refresh the cafeteria, maybe reinvest in a a PE space or or in some music or fine arts space as well. So again, really excited to add that that that part to the program. Uh the last piece I I want to cover this evening before before turning it over the team to look specifically at Hill is where we
051are with our safety and security improvements. So again, we uh we were looking to improve safety and security at every school school building throughout the district, and we were doing that over a three-year uh time horizon. Uh so this summer is sort of the middle phrase of that with summer 2026. And this really is where we're tackling our biggest projects with the with the secure vestibules. And that's because those six middle schools were we're showing that we're addressing this summer. Uh five of those involve relocating the front office and sort of reprogramming the school. And so, uh, if you're familiar with sort of our our traditional middle school, uh, design, a lot of the main offices are are right in the middle of the school, meaning that any sort of visitor, uh, any any sort
052of ability to monitor the the front entrance or the main entrance for that main office is really challenging. And so, the work that we we started last week, uh, specifically, uh, Friday at 12:01, uh, was really to to to flip that main office towards the front of the building, uh, reprogram some of that middle space into into teaching space and again have that already in about 10 weeks for when our students uh come back the second week of August. Uh so that's the biggest piece of the the safety and security work we're doing this summer. Again, when we do that work, we also do a full refresh of all exterior doors at the campus and so that'll be going on as well. Um but then that leads us to summer 2027 when we'll have about
05310 schools remaining. But again, these are primarily back to our elementary schools where the work is less involved. Uh I will point out uh we have three elementary schools that as part of the the the safety work, we're also adding small additions to those buildings. Uh these are buildings that are uh higher capacity and we're using some of that conference space in the front area uh for student space. So, this was an opportunity to to add square footage and and allow the the main office to really capture that space to to ensure it's a true main office function and really works in sequence with the uh the rest of the safety and security upgrades. And then really just as we we add space and really address some of these overcrowding issues, uh you know, that
054that really does make for a safer uh more more stable and calm uh school environment. Again, something we'll cover with Hill in a little bit, how how some of that uh you know, when students feel like they're on top of each other when they don't have uh room to move in the hallway. Uh ultimately that that does impact the safety and security of the school environment. And so this is something we're we're addressing at these three elementary schools as well. >> Good evening. So, why are we here today other than talk about Hill Middle School and why are we here specifically about Hill? Um, as it was mentioned, Hill was one of those schools on the list uh that was had the um opportunity to for equity amongst the district. Um, one thing to note
055that I just want to bring attention to is Hill Middle School. Out of your seven middle schools, Hill Middle School was your first middle school built in 1980. Then it's a it only had one addition on it and the addition was built on in 1992. That was before six out of the seven middle schools were built. >> So it's it's remained much of what you see today. Um before any of your other middle schools. So it's in the one it's one of the schools that are in the most need. Prior to the referendum passing, there has been conversations with the community and staff and even after the uh referendum passed, um feedback from from the school itself. And what amounted to those conversations are much of the goals that you see up on the screen.
056First and foremost, safety and security. We're doing this across the um district on all of your buildings, providing secure vestibules along with what Matt mentioned um replacing all the exterior doors and and adding card readers and electronic access to the building. But we're also looking here at Hill for mechanical upgrades to the any of the spaces that we're touching, enhancing um occupant circulation through the building. Anyone who has been in Hill knows that it's pretty hard to navigate the the hallways. The hallways are very narrow. Um we'll get into a little bit more of the detail on the floor level changes which caused that that uh restriction in circulation. Also looking across the board at accessibility and um bringing up accessibility and making access for all students and staff members within the building. science labs
057in the district as a whole um per student were the lowest here at Hill about 25 square feet per student. The next across the board on average it's roughly about 40 square feet per student. So what we are doing as part of this project is really right sizing the science labs at Hill Middle School to bring it up to standards that you have currently in other middle schools throughout the the district. We're looking at renovating your your dining space and create and this creation of a student commons to to align more with u the support of education and blended learning opportunities within the building. Helping efficiencies by changing out all of your lighting fixtures to LED light fixtures. Replacing the old water piping throughout the building for the domestic water. Looking at furniture and technology
058improvements across any of the that we touch to modernize the the new new rooms and then also renovation to some of your um TE program spaces uh and your applied arts program. What you're seeing on the screen in front of you is a image of the proposed site plan. The area highlighted in yellow is the new proposed addition at just under 16,000 square feet. For the most part, the site plan remains as it is today as far as vehicular circulation and busing is going to remain the same. Busing is going to come in off that circle loop in the front of the building. Drop off right at the main entrance and parent pickup and drop off will continue along the back over by where um where the parking lot is and drop off along that
059sidewalk. We have increased the um the amount of pavement because the addition is coming out a little bit further. We've increased the square footage of pavement so that there's uh safe spaces for students to gather and um before they get into the building and after uh dismissal to line up for their buses. This is an image of the proposed new addition, the new main entrance. So, at Hill Middle School, most of the building is constructed out of brick and there's glass for the windows. Um, we are introducing kind of a metal canopy that over that front main entrance, but while we're using the same types of materials that already exist over at Hill, we're kind of using a more modern twist. We're using intruder resistant glazing at the front main entrance so that it provides
060some a welcoming entrance, but also that safety feature. Um, and then that canopy as I mentioned for um to help with weather and as you approach the building getting into that uh building safely. This image of the proposed addition shows kind of the singlestory edition on the left uh which is that new new main office area but on the right is your academic twostory space um and a stair tower that uh will get students to and from both levels of the building. Pro proposed academic addition is going to house and rightsize those science classrooms that we talked about earlier on both levels as well as some additional classroom spaces and muchneeded breakout areas for students. So the plan that you're seeing up here is your existing footprint of your building. Um, the main entrance is
061where that red triangle is that says main entrance at the bottom. For all intents and purposes, the way the building's organized is your encore programs are to the left of the page or the south side of the site. Your main academic programs are towards the right side of the page or the north side of the site. And then your uh administrative and staff support are right in the center of the building. on the second floor. Hill Middle School has a their main gym actually up on the second floor level. Um, and then that's on the left side of the building. And on the right side is more academic uh classroom spaces. The center of the page is depicting where your library is. It's a twotory volume space that kind of o that um is in
062the center middle school is challenged by the different levels. When it was originally built in the 80s, that kind of yellowish area that you're seeing throughout most of the plan is what we're calling at grade. You walk in um to the building at that level. That light blue area is the cafeteria. that cafeteria is sunken down about 1 foot10 below that that grade level. And then you'll notice on the right side the academic wing is kind of split. That salmoning color is another 3 foot4 below grade. So you have this split level building and the library which is typically the heart of your building is now at a different level as the rest of your academic spaces. For the proposed plan, we're trying to address some of um those issues by by leveling off the
063dining area to make it the same level as your first floor grade level. And then your academic wing, really engaging the library and putting it much on the same level as your academic and that and really creating that heart of the school in that location. much like many of your other uh schools within the district where the library is in the center flanked by a lot of your other academic spaces. What this does is it really helps with circulation paths. So right now on the left hand side stacked from um the bottom to the top is your main level and your second level of your existing circulation. You'll notice that on uh it's much like a horseshoe shape for circulation and creates kind of dead ends. In the proposed plan, the circulation is going to
064improve because by lowering that library level down to the same floor as that um the academic wing, you can use the library to free up space and for students to move through the building much easier by opening up that library and allowing that as one way to get through the building. On the second level, we're creating a bridge. So, no longer does the corridor space dead end at either end of the building, but now you have a kind of a what we refer to as a bridge over the library that you can um get to any either side of the building, the east or west side of the building. the proposed first floor plan. Much like your existing, you're still going to have your main entrance for all intents and purposes um in the front
065of your building. It's just going to be bumped out as part of that addition, but we are consolidating a lot of your resource spaces, your student service spaces. It'll help with efficiencies throughout the building and allow students to have kind of a main point of contact of where to go in the building instead of it being um distributed throughout the your encore suite will remain on the south side, but we're opening up this common space, removing the walls and opening it up to also allow for for additional um not only dining, but um uh different learning opportunities. And then the library um like I mentioned before is kind of that heart of that building. total teaching stations in this new proposed plan is 46. And while one of the most unique things that you're gaining
066as part of this plan might not necess necessarily be full teaching spaces, but rather the small group collaboration spaces that Hill did not have or doesn't have currently. And this will support the middle school model um and allow students to break off and and work in small collaborative groups or get one-on-one help with um uh staff members by having these opportunities. Now [snorts] that second floor, you can see kind of in the floor plan that bridge that I mentioned earlier today. And then the the science labs are are now right sized. Um uh they're about double the size that they current currently are. Um and to create flexible work stations so that you can work in labs or uh lecture mode as needed. So I'm going to turn it over to Leslie to talk a
067little bit more about the details. So, I think I get the most exciting part of the presentation and I promise to keep it PG. Um, so what you're looking at is our new student our new student services administrative area. Currently, those are in two separate areas of the building which makes it very diff difficult for students to have access to all of us at the same time. Um, so this is going to make collaboration easier, parent meetings easier, and student circulation among student services and administration much easier. So, I'm about to show you some before and after pictures. Please excuse the mess in the before pictures. This is what our main office currently looks like. There's not really a waiting area for parents or students. And um that long hallway makes it very difficult for
068um for us to kind of see what's going on as administrators and also our student services department is not in this space. So this is a rendering of our proposed new main office. Um I love how bright it is. It's welcoming. And through that hallway that you're seeing, that's where you're going to find your administrative offices. We currently do not have a dedicated conference space. Um that is a shared office with our student services coordinator. So we will have a dedicated conference space for parents um for teachers to meet. And then the next slide, this perspective is the opposite. So we're looking from the administrative offices towards the two doors. The one on the right is a student door and then the one on the left is part of the secure vestibule that parents can
069enter through. And this slide, this is our current lobby. So very small, not secure, and parents can't, they get buzzed in, but they can come right in, and they have access to go really wherever they want, unless we are directly supervising them. And um if you look at our next one, this is our new lobby. So where you're where the perspective here would be looking through the secure vestibule. Parents cannot get to this part of the of the lobby without first going through the main office. This also provides some flexible seating areas for students. We are a middle school. It's very important in the middle school model to make sure that students have flexible areas, collaboration areas. And what you're looking at down this hallway is our new cafeteria. This is our existing cafeteria. Um,
070it's very institutionalized. You can see that kids are um sitting elbow to elbow. This does not comfortably sit um a full grade level. So, we basically have lunch periods all day because we need to split the grade levels. We do have one period that we cannot split, one grade level that we do not split up. Um, and it's a thunderdome in there. So, kids are on top of each other. So, in the new model, this is looking um what you're seeing by the Hill Trailblazer sign. That is the the main hallway that you saw earlier. And now you're looking at the um part this one perspective of the lunchroom. The lights that you're seeing, there's skylights, so it brings in some natural light, which we do not have now. There's flexible seating. This can be
071used um as a dining area. It can also be used for team meetings. Um, as a middle school, we have um where a team philosophy. So, a lot of times our uh teachers are looking for spaces to meet with their entire teams. This now provides for space to be able to do that. And then there's another perspective here. So, we're looking from the opposite direction. And um you're also going to notice in here, we are the Hill Trailblazers and we're red and blue. So, um I it was very important to me to build that sense of community and really have those school colors come alive um through this new project. All the way in the back of the of the lunchroom, you'll see kind of a cove area and that can be used for, you
072know, students who might not want to sit with the rest of the group if they need a smaller area. Maybe it's a little loud in the lunchroom. Um we have that area for them as well. This floor plan is going to highlight the the staff lounge and work room which is currently located in the center of the building. So there are no windows or anything like that and it's very small, dark and cramped. So teachers do not have an opportunity to Yes. So this right here, what you're looking at is the kitchen and it doesn't provide an opportunity for many teachers to eat together or work together in this space. In the new model, this is our kitchen. And you'll notice on the left side there is a monitor there and plenty of space for
073teachers to sit. If they want to hold a team meeting in here, they can do that. There's flexible seating. There's natural light. There's a lot of storage and a lot of room for um teachers to eat together during their lunch periods. This is attached currently. This is our our work room. It's attached to our staff kitchen, but that wall separates it. So there's kind of just a small um doorway to go through. So that creates some problems. It's creating two small spaces rather than one larger space. And so in this picture, you are looking at the workroom from the kitchen, which you just saw a minute ago. So you can see that there's two areas for staff to plug in their computers, have a meeting. This space also provides more opportunities for teaching assistants to
074um have a home. Currently, our teaching assistants put their things in student lockers and now they have space to do that here. There's also a restroom in there for teachers. Again, more flexible seating, plenty of room for um their mail slots. So, a much more welcoming area. It's important to me to have for teachers to have a space to come together and not just eat in their offices, and this provides that for them. This is probably the most dramatic change in the entire project. Um, this is really exciting to me. This is our new library. So, we're going to kind of take you on a tour. We have several um images of of this space. So, this is our current library, um, our LMC, our our library media center. It's a double story. So, it
075does there's a lot of opportunity here for space, but there's no natural light and it's also very closed off. So for students to circulate the building, they're they have to circulate around the LMC rather than going through it and it's just it it in my opinion not a very welcoming environment here. This is our new proposed LMC. So you're looking um from a you know kind of the top down and what you're seeing on the second floor are student um pullout room. So you can we don't have that available to us right now in in our our building right now. We have very narrow hallways. If students want to work in the hallway, they are laying all over the floor with their stuff everywhere. So um that makes it very difficult for um students to
076pass through. I'm usually stepping over ankles to get to from one place to another during um class periods. So you'll see those small groupoup pullout areas, the bridge that allows you to kind of shortcut from one side of the building to the other. And um there's also it's an open concept at the bottom. So there's plenty of ways to get in and out of the LMC versus just one or two doors. This is another perspective. And what you're looking at up those stairs is the cafeteria. So students can get through the cafeteria. Again, a lot more spaces to circulate the building. You'll see another one of those um small groupoup pullout rooms um at the top. Again, you're going to notice some color pops of our school spirit um throughout these images. There's flexible seating
077next to the stairs. Those are student benches. Um more spaces for collaboration, for students to um work one-on-one or in small groups with teachers. This is the opposite perspective of the LMC, kind of our book circulation area. Again, it's cramped, it's dark. Um, you know, our LMC director currently does a really nice job of trying to pull some color and to liven it up a little bit, but it's still very limited in what it can do. And here's the next perspective of our of a rendering here. Again, more small group rooms on the first and second levels, and flexible seating, updated technology, more space for students to collaborate for. And also this space provides another opportunity for teachers to bring large groups of students um to have some lessons done by our LMC director. Right
078now it's we're very limited in what we can do because the space is so cramped. And again, just one more perspective of the LMC. This is kind of showing you another small group pullout room and then a hallway leading to the rest of the building which we don't have right now. Again, it's very closed off. So more opportunities for students to circle the building. uh right now are it's because there aren't opportunities for students to do that and there's only one or two ways to get to certain places. Our hallways are always jam-packed and overcrowded. Right now you're looking at the second floor and again on the right side those will be classrooms and if you could imagine um in that hallway without those small group rooms right there when students want to come out
079and work in small groups they are all over the place. So this gives them opportunities to get out of the way. it's more safe. Um they're not laying around the the um floor. And if students needed some alone time with teachers to collaborate or do some one-on-one work, they can do that in those small group rooms and close the doors. This will also um yeah, just one more thing. We we do a lot of standardized testing and we have a lot of small groups that need to be pulled out for testing. We have very few opport spaces to do that. So, we're literally putting kids in at my office is used, our assistant principal's offices are used. This provides more opportunities for students to get pulled out for that small group testing. What I'm going
080to show you next is a more modernized classroom. So, this is part of the addition on the front of the building. And um currently our classrooms are very they're they're small. They are not modern. We'll show you a picture of one right now. um on the very far wall that is a chalkboard. A lot of students don't even know what that is anymore, but we still have them at Hill Middle School. And um it's dark. It's there's not a lot of opportunity for flexible seating. So in the new model, we've got a modern classroom. Um in the old model, a teacher typically would teach from one area in the building and or in the classroom. And now a teacher in this classroom has the opportunity to teach from anywhere. Um the technology is movable. It
081can roll anywhere that they want it to roll. The furniture is movable and flexible. We have flexible storage and teachers can teach from anywhere. And also we do have content area teachers that share classrooms. So it doesn't just have to be a math teacher that's in here or an ELA teacher. Um it can be several content areas in one place. Next are our our science rooms. And Amy was was mentioning how our science rooms right now are incredibly small. So going into a science room for me to do an observation. I feel like I'm just one more body of bodies that are already on top of each other. So in this new model, they're going to have plenty of space to spread out and safely do labs um without having to worry about um tripping
082over one another um and you know or having to share spaces. Their groups can have their own. So, here's a a look at what we and yeah, so currently all of our science rooms are in the back of the building. They will now be moved to the front and they are currently all on the first floor. So, we're making it more accessible by having science rooms on the first and second floor um so that you know some of our kids that that have some needs in wheelchairs or in crutches or anything like that um can access both floors. And here is a current look at one of our science rooms. Um, our teachers do their very best with this, but um, they're they've been trying really hard, and I know they're really going to appreciate
083this new model when you see it. Here it is. Um, there's more workstations, there's an a dedicated teacher station, more storage spaces, it's brighter, the um, the furniture is movable, more opportunities for students to collaborate, and for teachers to circulate the room safely and get to every group while they're doing labs. This is another perspective of the classroom and again you see some storage areas there. We are very limited in storage. So a lot of times you're going to see um science you know tools and materials kind of on counters and not tucked away. So this gives it a clean fresh look and allows for the clutter to be to be moved and and hidden away in those new storage areas. So this is um a floor plan of our art room. Currently, our art
084room is in the center of the building. And so, this will be the only encore class that's not really on the left side of that map. So, we wanted to provide for more space for our art room. It's currently um very outdated. This is going to be much more modern. You will see here's our our before picture. And um again, the teachers are doing a really great job of trying to trying to make this work. But in this new model, this will be much easier. Again, much more flexible seating. The teacher can safely move around the building, move around the classroom, and get to all of her students. Um, those doors that you see right there, they're going to slide. So, there's more opportunities for stu for um the teacher to tuck those materials away,
085so the clutter is not there. Um, the sinks are readily available for our students, and there's a lot of areas to display student work. Fax room. another I think very dramatic um transformation in this building. Our fax room currently has four workstations. This is a very popular class especially the eighth grade foods class and we will sometimes have upwards of 32 33 kids in this class. And if you can imagine what that looks like here. Um in this classroom we would not be able to well we are not able to have all students working on a cooking lab at one time. So, our teacher gets really creative with kind of cycling them through to be able to do those cooking labs. And in the new model, we're moving. Well, this is this is as you're
086walking into the fax room. And you can't see her face, but she's smiling in this picture. Um, but she like looking into this classroom and just this is going to be a great advertisement for students to want to take this class. And then we are moving from four um cooking stations to eight cooking stations with a dedicated station for our teacher. Again, this gives the teacher more oversight of the classroom. Um it also currently we have two fax rooms. One is a sewing room and one is the cooking lab. And the sewing room, they're they're closed off. So in this um this model here, they can be doing things simultaneously versus having two different classrooms. So, the space is much wider and um there's a place for student um work to be displayed. A lot
087more storage here. Um much more opportunity for students to collaborate. Um it's I'm really excited about this room and so is our fax teacher. And then the final space I'm going to show you is our PLTW lab. And again, this is another space that we currently have two separate classrooms, which can be a supervision nightmare. So what you're looking at right now is kind of the the the lab area and beyond that through those windows that is the computer lab area. So sometimes things need to happen simultaneously. They're doing computer labs and they're working at the same time. So the teacher can't be in two places at one time and it's very difficult for groups to collaborate in this model. In the new model, we have um one big open space and um in the
088old model, you didn't see that picture, but there are desktops in the computer lab. So, we're removing the desktops and the technology is much more modernized here. We also have um um electricity that's strung from the ceiling, so it's a lot easier um and safer uh for students to work. Um those can just be pulled down and they can plug in their tools. So, and again, supervision will be much easier in this model. So, >> you've seen a lot of images and pretty images, but how do we get this done and still maintain school um an active school building? So, I'm going to walk you through uh the timeline of construction. The area in pink that's highlighted, it's might be hard to see, it's kind of the bottom left of your page. That's what we're
089calling enabling work over winter break of 26 and spring break of 277 creating a temporary main entrance sec during construction. Then when spring break comes along, much like what we're doing right now at Nqua Valley, starting construction on the addition on the exterior while students were in school. So, it'll be fenced off and and start those foundations and structural work on the exterior during um that 2627 school year. When summer hits and all the students leave for the students and staff leave for the summer, you'll notice the plan really um lit up in color. We're taking over much of the building um and starting renovation works. The pink area towards the top of the page has also grown. That is enabling work. We're during that summer, we're going to be setting up temporary mobile classrooms.
090So that when the 2728 school year comes back online in August, all that green area that you saw on the page has now been renovated into its new um classroom spaces. But the yellow area and um that kind of orangey area which is the addition and the library and the common spaces are still being constructed. So students will use temporary classrooms, mobile classrooms that are located on the site towards the back of the building during that time frame. That takes us [snorts] up until winter break of 28. And then when January comes along, your addition is now back online. It's fully constructed, ready to go. The library is back online. But what we want to do is start taking over some of the the other academic spaces in blue as well as some of your
091encore spaces on the left side that are also highlighted in blue during that spring semester. Then summer of of uh 28 is the final stretch of construction and we wrap up renovation of some infrastructure projects in the locker rooms and and the gym spaces with lighting as well as finish off those heavier renovation areas and the classroom spaces that were already um under construction uh during the 2728 school year. We will also be during the summer demobilizing the temporary classrooms on site. So when kids get back for the 2829 school year, your building is complete. >> Yeah. So I don't know what happened to our >> I don't know what happened, >> but uh [laughter] we are pretty much ready for uh for any questions of the board. I just have a few uh a
092few things I just want to update really quick as we uh kind of uh uh kind of summarize the safer stronger 204 um capital program. I do want to point out that as part of this board packet this evening, we also submitted our semianual report. Um so that's available with with the board and we'll be putting that on the safer stronger 204 website as well. Um, I just also want to uh one quick quick thing I wanted to highlight that that wasn't mentioned in all the uh all the uh appreciation and and thank yous we gave earlier. I also want to thank our our school leaders for the work they've been doing uh updating their communities on the capital work through their various channels. And so again, I'd encourage the board and the community to
093go to our um safer stronger 204 website on the district page, but our focus there is is uh sort of uh uh pretty pretty boring compared to what some of our uh building leaders are doing. So if you want to see the fun updates, I'd encourage you to maybe look at the the X accounts or uh Instagram accounts of some of our schools that are really uh uh really excited to highlight all this work. And and again, I'm sure our our hill community is also going to be chomping at the bit to share share pictures and photos when this work gets gets under underway about uh about nine months from now. Uh so with that said, we we are available for any questions. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Guns. >> I want to start by
094thanking you. This presentation was very thorough and very exciting and very PG. So well done. Um, also I want to say I I do understand as a Wanzi parent. Um, you know, I have to commend staff for, as you said, you know, they were using the space they had most effectively, doing a wonderful job doing it, but I'm so glad they're not going to have to anymore and they'll get the space that they need because honestly, it makes me a little nervous the idea of like all of these chemistry experiments or something as we're all very close together um and we can be clumsy under the best of times. So, um, I'm very excited for that. I only had one question. Just making sure I was kind of looking at it correctly. With the library,
095all the books will be on that first level, right? And it's just rooms on the second level. Was that okay? >> That's correct. >> Perfect. Excellent. Thank you. That was it. >> Miss Grover, >> I echo what Miss Gen said. This this presentation has been wonderful. I'm sure the parents of Hill and Brookdale are so excited of their kids coming to Hill. Now, um, my question is on slide 26 or Yeah, if you could explain that to me because I'm not fully understanding. Is that a waiting room for the parents? But then the cafeteria is right there. Yeah, that slide. >> No. So, this is not a waiting room for the parents. This is for students only. Parents cannot access this unless they they have to go through the office first. So, this is for
096students. The secure vestibule is what we would be standing in right now if we were looking into this space. >> Okay. Wonderful. That's I wasn't sure because when I saw that person sitting there, I was like, is that a parent sitting at the front desk or something? So, okay. Thank you for clarifying that. That's my only question. >> Mr. Rising. So, that new stairway that's kind of now brought in the front of the building by the addition. Um, are we keeping because I think there's a west stairway as well, isn't there? Like, we're still keeping some of those smaller stairways, but the kids will probably gravitate towards this one just because it's going to be easier to get up and down, I would assume. Right. >> Yeah. So basically what we're doing is we're expanding
097the stairways that currently exist. Right now they're very narrow. They're what we call switchback stairways where you go up and turn. It's super narrow. It's probably not more than like three feet wide for two-way traffic. So what we're doing is in that center of the building getting rid of the two the uh circulation and only having it if you can kind of see where the cursor is pointing. This stairwell now is only a oneway going down to that lower level academic. right? >> Up to the second floor. Now you have a a rightsiz stairwell with two-way traffic for students and staff to circulate to that second floor. Same thing on the other side. We've widened now that two-way circulation. So you have double the width going down to that lower level. And then to get
098up the second floor, we're making it the right width to go up. >> Okay. Well, the only other comment I'll say is that the uh the Hill community has had it rough for many, many years, and I think it's safe to say when this is done, they just may be the envy of the district because uh these spaces are phenomenal and and they are welld deserving of it. So, thanks for the presentation, >> Miss Dumming. >> I really didn't have any questions. uh just excited about the use of light that is just so critical and the use of color uh and the mobility of the space of the teaching spaces um and especially the LMC. So, job well done. And I think uh the opportunity for the collaboration because I've I've been over um I
099was over at Hill last year for some type of something that they had, but being upstairs and really seeing those those relatively small spaces. So, the chance to provide that um collaborative and openness will be greatly greatly appreciated. So, um one question. So there five are there going to be five science rooms? Two or three downstairs and then two or three upstairs? >> Two on first level and three on the second level. >> Okay. All right. Okay. Thanks, Most. >> Thank you for this. I'm going to echo my colleagues and say this is really exciting work and I'm sure all the community excited to see it unfold. Um I'm still hung up on slide five where you talk about how the referendum has spent mainly just to say um without jumping the gun way to
100underpromise and overd deliver telling us that we're going to be starting construction two years earlier and we're saving $6 million that we can now reallocate to this and then to money that can go to all the school buildings. Um so wow continue to blow us away. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for all of this info. I looked through the slides but it was like hard to It was much better with your um discussion on each of these because I'm like what am I looking at? Um so is there there's still going to be a gym on the second floor though? >> Okay. It's always kind of strange to me or whatever. >> Just like we couldn't quite connect the two third [clears throat] floors at Wanzi where there >> we are limit even with
101$420 million we're limited on what we what this >> referendum could one time at Hill as the PE teacher and it was like there it's upstairs. I'm like what? [laughter] Yeah. Um but um you know, Hill has been has a history of the parents being very vocal at different coffee and conversations or different events about, you know, the spaces in their school, the overcrowding. And um I'm thrilled to death that we are going to be able to do this. And I'm sure that they're like just do it as fast as you possibly can. Um and um you know, it looks beautiful. All of the and the all the white though kind of scares me a bit like is that like keep can you keep that clean and stuff or >> um so we will make
102sure that anywhere that there are heavy traffic areas they get a different level of durability. >> Yeah. Like white furniture too. Yeah. >> Sorry the furniture is not white. >> Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. Yeah. I mean it >> placeholder for scale. We have not selected or discussed furniture at this time. >> Yeah. That's that's the mom and me, right? It's like, okay, that looks really nice and it's not a white there. But [laughter] >> I really think this new plan, though, is going to we're going to see a a huge increase in positive behavior. Um, right now, I don't know how many students are really valuing their learning space because of the way it looks. And I think when they see what they deserve to come to school and and learn in, I think you're
103going to see a huge increase in some positive behavior there. because I remember vividly waiting to go in that gym for my turn or whatever and like just even in the hallway there was some kind of um cubby space where something had been in there before and the carpet was kind of like tore up and kids were trying to sit in there and I'm like h that's just not like you know nothing to be happy about or whatever. So I'm I'm just really thrilled to see all of this. So, thank you very much for all of the hard work and creativity here and um can't wait to see when it when it gets done. >> I'll just I'll just make one more comment before we end to kind of uh piggyback on some what board
104member Faznik and what you said too. I think it was it was important for this referendum to do those high school projects and get those started first both based on the the length of time and the size of the buildings, the phasing and the total dollars involved. But um I think we've always known that this is the building that needed the most. And so uh to be in a position where we're finally at that point where we can present a plan for for Hill is really really exciting for our team too. Um we have you know our team has has heard from the the Hill community for many years as well. Uh and and they're 100% correct. I mean, this is the building that that needed needs that that was the furthest behind our other
105facilities. Uh, and so it's it's exciting to be at a point where we can present that to be at a point we're able to present with with a slightly larger budget than we thought we would have a couple years ago. Uh, we are spending on a square foot, a dollar per square foot basis. This will be the largest investment as part of this capital program. Uh so we we are really really excited to to reach this point and I I um you know just the the phasing of the work was was never um meant to reflect the you know the true need. Um I I think we've known for it didn't take a master facility plan to tell us that this building needed a lot of work. And so we are really excited to be
106at this this point this evening and uh again really excited to to take the feedback we heard tonight and to continue to to run with it. >> Did you have something? >> Um President Donghue as we move forward and um as we move forward and uh Mr. Shipley, it would be great to be apprised of opportunities at the appropriate time for us to uh take little field trips at our different uh buildings in order to see just what's what's occurred. So, um you know, when if you can kind of keep us a breast when that might when that might make sense, that would be great. >> Sure. No, that's uh that that's great feedback and it's something we've we've talked about and we'll continue. Um as you know, we did We did a groundbreaking at
107NUA a few a few months ago. I think when the time comes at Hill, it'll be um we're looking at a fundraiser to to take sledgehammers to the building. And I think we will [laughter] have no shortage of of board members and former board members and uh former principles and one person who fits all those uh categories who I think will will be more than willing to uh uh to do that. So, we're we're going to try and replace the uh the marathon as maybe the big fundraiser for IPAF. I'm I'm not opposed to go during construction if you give me a heart give me a hard hat. I'm I'm more than happy to >> that could be a fundraiser for IPF. You get to come and destroy a wall or something. >> We are
108seriously considering it. >> Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. So, now we have legislative advocacy and board of education update. Does anyone have any items? uh legislative advocacy and board of education update. >> Yeah, I got a couple. Um just wanted to make the board aware again. I went to the IASB state division director's meeting that was all night Friday night and most of the day Saturday down in Springfield, Illinois. Um, and then this week I have my DUP page IASB, my executive board for the DuPage division. We're meeting we're meeting Thursday night to come up with a plan for the fall and the spring dinner um for DuPage for IASB. So, I'll be attending that Thursday night. And just to um make the the board aware, I wasn't at our last
109meeting, but so I'm not sure if you apprised everyone that our present our submission for um the ISB presentation was accepted. So we are um officially uh we'll be working on that. So and then this is it this Saturday there's uh IASB training for um presidents. It's like all day. So, and I know a couple people a ton. So, all right. With that, I need a motion to >> motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? Say >> I. >> Any oppose? Okay. Yes, >> he is the new