001And it's now 7:00 p.m. and I'm calling and reconvening to open session and calling to order the regular Board of Education meeting for Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday, April 6th, 2026. Michelle, will you please call the roll? Ms. Donahue? >> Here. Ms. Fosdick? Here. Uh Mr. Rising? Here. Mr. Carubis? Here. Ms. Demming? Present. That's it, right? Ms. Grover? We have a quorum. We have a special guest to do the Pledge of Allegiance tonight, Simon de la Guerra. >> [crying] >> I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, May 4th. I have one board salute tonight, Mr. Carubis. Vex
002Robotics World Championship qualifiers. The board salutes students from Metea and Neuqua Valley for qualifying for the Vex Robotics World Championships in St. Louis this April. Neuqua Valley's team 2360C, Clockwork, earned their spot as the Illinois State Tournament runner-up after dedicating over 300 hours to this robot. While Metea Valley's team 8995R qualified by winning the innovate award for their creative design. This global event features 700 teams from 60 countries, and we congratulate these students for their teamwork, technical skill, and commitment to excellence in STEM. And I believe there's a couple of them here. >> Yeah, we're going to get our picture with them. So, if you would like to come up here, we would Congratulations. [applause] We're going to get our picture with you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Next, we'll have our student representative report by
003Soha Panjwani from Metea Valley High School. Hello, everyone. Um as you know, my name is Soha Panjwani, and I'm the executive board representative for Metea Valley High School. And I'm very upset to announce that this will be my last board report. Um this is Avery Powers, and she will be the representative for next year. Okay, so first we're going to start off with some general updates. So, we were excited to host our yearly Multicultural Fair and Student Shadow Day. We officially moved prom to Bobak's Signature Events on May 8th, and BPA and DECA did very well at state this season. Next up is athletics. We had over 30 staff raising money and taking the plunge to represent their sports and clubs. We also had several students plunging as well. Lastly is fine arts. We hosted
004our spring pep assembly in March with band, cheer, orchestras, and dance performances. This event was capped off with our staff versus student basketball games. Lastly, we had our band, orchestra, and choir concerts in March as well. Um that will be all for our report this evening. And I wanted to thank every member um for being a part of my journey for public speaking. This role has taught me a lot, and it was truly an honor to report to you all. Thank you all for giving me this opportunity, and as always, go go Mustangs. Thank you, Soha. Thank [applause] you. Soha, Soha. Thank you for being the board representative. Uh what are your plans? Can we ask? Um I plan to study marketing at Loyola University. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> All right, next up is our
005school spotlight, and tonight it is Owen Elementary School. So, we have Heather Whistler, Christie March, Nadine Harati, Samantha Connelly, and Simon de la Guerra. Welcome. All right, so thank you for having us. Um we are pleased to show you Owen Elementary. Our motto at Owen is to inspire all students to achieve their greatest potential. Simon is here to help us show some of our greatest potential that we have shown. Um so, AIM stands for achieving independent milestones, but I think as a team, um it's more than just having your students complete a task independently. It's about building confidence, resilience, and self-belonging and belief that our students are able to achieve um their highest potential um at our school. Um with being said, with these milestones, we think that celebration is key and important at our
006school um in our AIM program. There's some pictures on the slideshow behind you guys of what we do to celebrate and um incorporate our community, our families in our parties, fun events. We have AIMsgiving every year. We learn about Thanksgiving, and we have our students bring in um treats, snacks that they're thankful for, games that they're thankful for. We do an annual AIMs Mother's Day brunch, where we have our students invite their moms with an invitation, their grandparents with an invitation. And then we do Super Bowl AIM party, which is super fun. Dads come, siblings come, grandparents come, um and we learn how to cheer on our friends with our peers as well. As a team, we strive to promote their independent adaptive skills. So, we work on not only their, you know, being able
007to take care of their activities of daily living, their toileting, their um you know, feeding themselves. We also work on them being responsible for carrying their own backpacks, their own lunch boxes, um pushing their chairs in when they're done using them. Just like we expect every other child, we're expecting that of our AIM students also, um whether they're in our classroom or in the general education classroom. Um we not only want them to be independent with their functional skills, but academics as well. Um approaching challenges with curiosity, learning skills that they will use in elementary school at Owen and in middle school at Owen as well. Or middle school Crone still. Not just Owen. We want you to stay at Owen. We build their confidence to be included with their general education peers in every
008meaningful educational opportunity that we possibly can. Simon here is a good example of a student who goes to fifth grade for ELA, uh history so- social studies and science. And he participates with his peers. When they're doing read-alouds, he's there listening. A lot of times we um read him the questions that the students are going to have to be answering on their worksheets prior to them starting the read-aloud. And as you hear him vocalizing, when he starts to hear something that sounds like it's going to be related to that question, he'll start vocalizing. And his peers are always very in tune saying, "Yeah, Simon, I think so." And everybody is working together. So, he really enjoys those group opportunities. Um We've had our students present in their classroom using their devices and switches. They participate
009in the third grade wax museum, um as well as all of their specials and lunch. Did [snorts] I forget something? No. Um also, enrichment activities based on individual needs. Um so, our students participate in adaptive PE, adaptive music, adaptive art, adaptive LMC. Um during adaptive LMC, it may seem very simple to you guys, but um our students are working on milestones like learning how to check out a book, where to put their library card, what a book is, how to purposely use a book, and we want these skills that they learn in adapted programming to be used in inclusion opportunities at Owen. So, our AIM program at Owen consists of a K to 2 2 K to 2 classroom and a 3 to 5 classroom. And our goal is to make their transition to junior
010high as seamlessly as possible. So, every year we're working on that goal so that they can be independent in junior high. Junior high is kind of a fun time because they get their own locker. Now they're responsible for having to unlock that locker. So, these last couple months they're starting to work on being able to use a key to open the thing because a lot of them can't do the combination, but we adapt and make sure that they are ready for it. And we want to make sure that the team that's receiving them knows that student as well as we know because having had them for five or six years, we have, you know, really known their insides and outs. So, each student works to make a presentation to be able to show at their
011IEP meeting. And this is a little bit So, at the beginning of the transition meeting, Simon recently presented some cool facts that he loved about Owen and things that he wants to do in middle school. So, he would love to showcase his little presentation, just a snippet of it. Okay, so it says Simon's middle school transition. You got your switches ready? Yes, okay. So, in middle school I want to I know you've been waiting a long time. When I go to Crone Middle School, I want to join band. I love music. I love my friends. Check out all my friends that I have made at Owen Elementary School. I like to hang out with them at school and outside of school. So, thank you for allowing us this opportunity to showcase our wonderful school community
012at Owen Elementary and to showcase our strong sense of belonging to make that makes our school so special. Thank you so much. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to hear all about the AIM program at your school and see the wonderful work you're doing to support Simon and others in your in your building. So, I wish him the best of luck in middle school. I'm sure he'll be a great success and a great favorite in the school. So, thank you. You can see him in a band concert. >> Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, thank you so much. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> So, we have no public comment tonight. So, we will now move to our consent agenda and superintendent report. Dr. Tally. Thank you, Ms. Donahue, members of the Board
013of Education, Indian Prairie community. As we return from spring break, I am hopeful that everyone had a restful break, whether you went somewhere or stayed around town. We now come back to a very busy part of the school year. Prom for our high schools is right around the corner. High school seniors who are going to college are making up their minds on which college or university to attend. Those who will be entering the world of work are finalizing their plans. At all levels, the last couple of months of school are very important. Please remember to send your child to school each day. Attendance is vital for your child's academic success. It is that time of the year when you can register for the annual IPEF walk run event. I I I emphasize the word walk.
014The event will take place on October 18th. This year will be the 13th annual event. It is the most important fundraiser for IPEF and the funds help to support our schools with half the funds going directly to the schools and the and other funds supporting events such as fine arts festival, robotics, and the Young Hearts for Life. The Young Hearts for Life program is done every other year and for the 26-27 school year, which will be coming up, this will be the year in which that program will screen our high school students for heart issues. Registration is open now for people to sign up for the walk run event. The goal is to raise $100,000 and that goal is achievable with everyone's help. April is Arab American History Month and this month we celebrate the
015Arab Americans' story and contributions that Arab Americans have made to our country and the world. Our schools in their own way are recognizing the role that Arab Americans play in our lives. And before I turn the meeting back, I would like to ask the Board of Education to approve the appointment of Dr. Jessica Hurt as the new Director of Core Instruction High School effective July 1, 2026. She will replace Dr. Mike Purcell who left Indian Prairie earlier this year. Dr. Hurt is coming to us from York Community High School where she is currently the principal. Her other positions have included assistant principal at Hinsdale Central High School and a teacher at Hinsdale Central High School and also at Oswego High Schools. She was the DuPage County Assistant Principal of the Year in 2022. She's excited
016about coming to work for Indian Prairie and I believe she's in our audience right over there. So, Ms. Donahue, I will now turn the meeting back over to you. All right, I need a motion and a second to approve of Dr. Jessica Hurt as the Director of High School Curriculum. Make a motion that the Board of Education approve Jessica Hurt as the Director of High School Curriculum as presented. Second. Any discussion? And Michelle, will you please call the roll? Mr. Rising. >> Yes. Ms. Demming. I. Ms. Donahue. Yes. Ms. Fostik. >> Yes. Mr. Carubis. Yes. And Ms. Grover. The motion passes. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> It's okay. Good evening. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. I'm so thrilled to be able to join this prestigious district and team to lead the work at
017all three high schools. Also, the best part about a unit school district is ensuring that transition from grade 8 to the high school is a successful one. I am here with my amazing husband, James Milkert, who previously taught at Metea Valley High School and coached volleyball there. And so, we are so thrilled to be back. I also have to mention, just because a family shout-out is always important, is that my mother-in-law was a preschool speech pathologist downstairs for over 20 years in District 204. So, it means so much to our family to be able to join District 204 and thank you to Dr. Howard and Dr. Lee and I look forward to getting at it. Thank you so much for the congratulations. >> [applause] >> Okay, I need a motion for the approval of consent
018agenda items E through O. I move that the Board approve consent agenda items E through O as presented. Second. Any discussion? Okay, Michelle, will you please call the roll? Ms. Demming. I. Ms. Grover. Yes. Mr. Rising. >> Yes. Ms. Donahue. I. Mr. Carubis. Yes. And Ms. Fostik. Yes. The motion passes. I now need a motion and a second to approve the addition of the MXINCEDU as the resource for the new seventh grade exploratory course Design and Discovery. I'll make the motion that the Board of Education approve the addition of MXINCEDU as the resource for new seventh grade exploratory course Design and Discovery as presented. Second. Any discussion? Okay, Michelle, will you please call the roll? Mr. Rising. Yes. Ms. Grover. Yes. Mr. Carubis. Yes. Ms. Demming. I. Ms. Fostik. Yes. Ms. Donahue. Yes. The motion
019passes. I now need a motion and a second to approve the 2026-2027 school board meeting calendar as presented. I move that the Board approve the 2026-2027 school board meeting calendar as presented. Second. Any discussion? Okay, Michelle, will you please call the roll? I Okay. I'm fine. I thought it already had been approved, too. So, I thought so, too. So, you I but I'm good. >> going to be approved. Yes, it's really going to be approved now. Ms. Fostik. Yes. Ms. Yes. Ms. Deming? I. Ms. Donahue? Yes. Mr. Keroubes? Yes. >> And Mr. Rising? Yes. The motion passes. We will now have a presentation from Dr. Nicole Howard regarding high school course updates. Good evening, Board of Education, Superintendent Tally. I am here this evening to discuss um updated high school courses for the 2026-2027 school
020year. This is in accordance to board policy 640 curriculum development and 6210 resource adoption. And it also aligns with our strategic plan priority number one. There are four courses we're going to discuss this evening, and all four are existing courses. So, English 9 and Honors English 9 are graduation requirements. Anatomy and physiology and anatomy and physiology dual credit are electives primarily taken by students who are interested in health-related fields. So, as a reminder, we do have a review process and it's kind of on a 5-year cycle. During our review and needs assessment phase, we look at the scope and sequences of the courses and we look at those through the lens of the state standards, through um performance of students on the assessments, engagement in the course, student outcomes. We also look at alignment between
021the schools. Are all of the teachers able to meet all of the demands of the units in the time that's allotted? And if not, which content do they tend to skip? Or where do they feel they don't have enough skill development? And we also look at the performance on the assessments. Are the students learning what they need to learn from the existing curriculum? After we sort of answer those questions, we move into the design and development phase where teachers from all three schools get together several times and they kind of discuss best practices, strategies. We do some research, we look at some resources, and then they develop and kind of refine the scope and sequence. During the second year, that's when they imp- they implement the curriculum. And during that implement- implementation phase, they come
022back together a couple of times to look at any revisions that are needed based upon how teachers and students are reacting to the curriculum. And then we continue that review into year three. And then a few years after that, it's time to do the process all over again. So, this is a high-level overview of our English courses between the levels. So, English 9 has four thematic units designed to develop skills in reading, writing, and academic discussion. Whereas our Honors English 9 course is designed to build literacy skills through complex text and intensive writing instruction. So, the anchor text options that you see there is representative, it's not exhaustive. There are additional texts that are used including some poetry and short stories and throughout the courses. In the English 9 course, they kind of focus on
023literary analysis and they move toward argumentative essays by the end of the the school year. In the Honors English 9 course, they really go deep into literary analysis and they do it in a timed fashion during that semester one. And then they move into some synthesis work during their semester two. So, English 9 semester one is has an internal focus. You'll see that the first unit is about empowering diverse identities because students, you know, they're the center of their own universe at that age. And so, this is a really good way to sort of engage all of those students in some of these required skills they need to learn. And unit two is about the power of knowledge. When we get into units three and four, we have more of an external focus. So, now
024they're working on navigating societal expectations and then the search for truth and justice. And yes, we still read Romeo and Juliet. That's one of the options. Um it's just a powerful piece that continues to sort of engage our students and it's always interesting to see how the student perspective changes over time. Right? And in some years, they really hone in on kind of the suicide mental health portions of it. And in other years, they really focus in on just the expectations of family and what that means and how it weighs on young people. In the Honors course, it's more foundational. So, they really hone in again on that complex writing piece. So, you'll see the texts are a little more complex here and they're going to cover three units during that first semester. And during
025that second semester, they move into uh four units including a choice novel and some research toward the end of that semester. Um and there's lots of options for the students to choose from here and the teachers. Okay, now moving into our uh anatomy and physiology course. This is an overview of the two levels here. As you can see, the regular or standard level anatomy and physiology covers topics more broadly and there's 12 of them, so it's scaled back just a little bit. Um it combines them into single like systemic units and it focuses on the major core systems. In the dual credit course, they cover 18 highly specialized topics at a college accelerated pace. Um and in this particular course, because of the pace and because of the depth, we're proposing this one for Honors
026credit. So, right now it's just college credit, which is great. But with that level of rigor, it really is commensurate to any AP course the students take and it's definitely up there at the college level. So, we wanted to honor that by offering the Honors weight that it deserves. Okay, this is a look at the anatomy and physiology course. The first semester focuses on foundational terminology and several major internal systems. The second semester transitions into structural systems, the nervous system, and sensory reproductive functions. The course emphasizes these hands-on lab experiences to reinforce the concepts, which include dissections like heart and brain dissections, clinical uh simulations, technical skills, being able to use a microscope and having practicals there, and some creative modelings where they build like lung models using household supplies. It's kind of fun. In
027the uh Honors course, soon-to-be Honors course, the first semester covers the foundational language of the field, the structural systems of the body like muscular and skeletal, and the complex nervous system. The second semester focuses on sensory input from the internal systems responsible for maintaining and reproducing life like the special senses, um vision, hearing, balance, fluid and transport that covers the blood, cardiovascular system, um immunity and respiration. So, they're talking about the respiratory system here. Then regulation and processing. So, that's the endocrine system, the digestive system, urinary system. So, it's really complex and it's a lot of content for our students to digest. And in addition to that, they have all the labs and clinicals that go along with it. So, for this particular course, um the team decided they really needed a new set of
028resources. So, after looking at several, they landed on the anatomy and physiology book by Pearson called Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology. And the Honors course wants to use Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology, 12th edition. So, we're looking at the same uh provider here. So, the class set of texts plus a 6-year digital license is going to be about 383 for the standard course and 79 uh for the Honors course because we just have more sections of that. So, we need more courses. Need more work. So, implementation. Between now and the next board meeting, these resources will be available um here at the CEC for any members of the public who want to look at it. Then at the May 4th meeting, I'm going to come back with the formal request to approve the course revisions
029and the resource adoptions. And um also late spring here, we have some training set up for those teachers of that course to get their updates and kind of get used to the resources. We'll follow that up in August before school begins um so they can look at it some more and they have the entire summer to kind of play around with it, especially the digital resources. And we'll be set for a launch 2026-2027. Thank you. And I can take any questions. All right. >> [laughter] >> Um quick question. You know, I always assumed that all our dual credit courses were Honors courses until I saw this. Do we have and you might not know this, but um do we have other dual credit courses that are not Honors courses? Um none of our dual credit
030are Honors with the exception of dual credit calculus three. Okay. Um and so, we've been that's been under review. We created a rubric now, so we can look at those courses and determine which ones should receive Honors credit um as we go through this revision process. And so, this was one of the first courses under the sort of new rubric we just developed last year. Okay, yeah, cuz calc three was the only dual credit course that I was aware of. And so, knowing that it was Honors, I just kind of assumed all of them were Honors because if it's college a course, you would assume. So, thank you. Thanks for that. That's all I have. I only have five questions. Uh is uh what uh anatomy and physiology, that was just one class before, right?
031There was it was just kind of >> It's always been the two levels. Oh, it hasn't always been two levels? Okay. >> It's just it was dual only and it wasn't for weighted credit, so but we've always had it. Okay. Um well, I'm glad we're Now I guess my next question is is is there enough students registering for this? Yes, actually. So, the intent of sort of separating them a little bit is to make the courses more accessible. So, the dual credit course is extremely rigorous and when you think about the amount of work that goes into it, students are like, "That's a lot of work and I can just take the regular class. Like, why would I do all of that work?" Um so, we wanted to make that separation so that students who
032don't want to necessarily do the rigor of the college level course will now take the standard course because we did scale that one back a little bit to make that more accessible. So, our enrollments we anticipate will actually increase, which is be a which will match the increase in interest in the health-related fields that we have. Yeah, right. It is cuz my daughter took it 4 years ago and she still says it was one of the hardest classes she had in high school. But, she wishes she would have gotten the honors credit cuz it was a pretty tough class, but I'm I'm glad we're kind of scaling the one back if those kids don't necessarily want college credit and then they can just at least, you know, try it out for health care. So, thank
033you. I just want to say I appreciate the um going and looking at the coursework and the rigor of the coursework and awarding that honors designation because um I know students are I recently spoke with a student in this class um and she was telling me about the work she had just for one one assignment. Um it sounded pretty intense. So, I'm glad that we have that review process in place now. Thank you. I'm going to be quick. Okay. Um so, do we do feel that there's enough time to for the staff in order to be able to roll this out for the fall? That that was that was just one the because the dual credit um can you share a little bit about how that dual credit course is facilitated? Will will it be
034through one of our college partners or So, it's through the College of DuPage. Um so, the dual credit course has been taught for a while and the teachers who are teaching it going into the fall are pretty much experienced. And so, they were also the writers of this project um which was great because they were very instrumental in trying to decide what we needed in the basic course versus what remained in the dual credit course. So, um yeah, it's a case where they are ready. Okay. The only thing new to them is this resource that they're going to be using that they have That's the learning curve. And this brought um as you mentioned that we're looking at making this an honors opportunity due to the rigor. Can you just share quickly, how is the
035honors process? How does that occur? Is there a state assessment or how how's that determination and our congruence made to determine that a course can receive honors credit? That is a wonderful question. So, some of it is is simple because it's just tradition. Right? Like, you have your English 9, English 9 honors. Those courses precede the majority of us. Um it becomes a little more difficult with the dual credit versus um more elective courses because there's so much variance in those courses. And it had been looking at um whether or not there is a basic level. And then do you have that honors level and then does that honors level lead into something else? So, it's been a I don't want to call it subjective. It's not totally subjective. But, what we've created is a
036process to make it less subjective. So, in the rubric we look at sort of pacing and rigor. We look at whether or not you get college credit for the course or is the course at a college level, right? Being taught like would any freshman in college see the same level of pacing rigor for the course, etc. And then as we put those courses through this new rubric, it lets us know kind of delineates what would receive the honors credit versus what would not receive that honors credit. And again, it's a little murkier on the electives than it is core because core has such a predictable pattern to it and we've learned to just write to those patterns. Like, we know what level of difficulty we want in any of the honors courses in the core
037areas. And so, we ultimately We get to decide. >> Okay. >> look at what's standard across the industry, too. Um are other schools offering it for honors credit and are we disadvantaging our students by not offering it it for honors credit? >> Okay. And then the last question I had, the time liter um on slide five, the time literally liter- literary analysis, um does that mirror and is it analogous to the AP um what students will experience in the AP exam? It's getting them prepped for that. Okay. So, this and in fact, even some of the texts that are chosen are chosen so that students will have a smoother transition if they want to go into those AP courses junior and senior year. Okay. Thank you. I Oh, it was an Anna. Sorry. I Okay,
038even with being on the school board as long as I have been, um I didn't realize I I thought like Miss Grover that if it was dual credit, then it also was honors. So, it's a educational opportunity for all of us tonight. So, thank you and thank you for taking a look at this cuz I I know that's impactful for students when they pick courses and and look at their grade points and things like that. So, so thank you. Thanks. Okay, we now have a presentation from Dr. Christine Igo, Ms. Michelle Show- Shabaker, and Ms. Ann Drogash on um student services update. Good evening. Thank you for um inviting us and giving us this opportunity to share with you some of the work in our student services department. I would like to welcome Annie and
039Michelle who are going to help me present some of the information this evening. So, our out- Oops. So, a couple of outcomes that I have for our presentation today really are to make sure that I provide you with just a general update on who we serve, how we provide some of those services to our students, as well as start to share with you some of the work that we've begun to do in the department. Uh as always, it's really important that we're aligning our work with our strategic plan and our discussion tonight connects directly with priority our priority one focus on student development and priority two where we invest in our staff. Um as a new leader in the student services department, I wanted to take a minute and talk a little bit about the
040guiding principles that we use as a team to help guide our decisions to ensure that we stay aligned with that strategic plan and to make sure that we're we're staying true to the things that we that we value as a team. And so, at the heart of um those guiding principles is ensuring that all of our decisions um work towards creating one system for students. So, special education at times can feel very siloed and kind of work on two systems and kind of be a separate piece. So, as we're thinking and making decisions, we're really trying to make sure that we are com- combining both of those services and making sure that the work that we're doing is strengthening the core and providing kids with access to that core. It doesn't have any unintentional consequences
041for our students. We also talk about it and we always are thinking from the lens of that meaningful progress. And we want to make sure that we are offering our students enough opportunities to engage and make that progress and that we're mon- monitoring progress over time and that if we're not seeing accelerated rate of progress that we're making changes. We know our students need to to um complete more skills or grow faster if we're ever going to close that gap for them. And then finally, we talk about this idea of presuming competence. And when we talk about presuming competence, we're really talking about the importance of um making sure that we don't make a decision either in how we build and design services or for any one individual student that unintentionally creates a barrier for
042them later in life. So, that we are always setting things up for that they haven't learned it yet and that we can continue to put those things in place. Before we jump into some of the work that we're doing, we thought we'd like we'd wanted to share some general information about the students that we serve. We're going to share our information based on something called the December 1st child count, which provides us just a quick snapshot of our students um that we serve at that moment in time and it allows us to make um connections and look for trends across years because it's always that same exact uh we use that same exact date every time. The first one is to really take a look at our overall percentage of students um with IEPs in
043the district. And when we look at the um the percentages, we can see that we're seeing an increase in the number of students that we serve. And that's really a twofold. One is we are seeing and serving more students just just in the number count, but we also have a lower enrollment. So, as our enrollment goes down and our numbers are going up, we're kind of seeing those pieces kind of they're working together to make each of those things. While our numbers are going up, we are still staying under the state average as well as the national average, which this national average is 15% and the state average is 16%. We are still serving less students. One of the things just as a disclaimer, that 2026 number um is calculated on our December enrollment and
044that may change um when ISBE uses they might use a different number as a final enrollment. We then wanted to really understand what disability areas our students are eligible to receive services and what will that mean for us and how we provide those services. So, the graph just shows you those high incidents. It's not all the disabilities, but it's our high incident disabilities. And you can see that there are some unique things. One is the the disability area that we are most we most service as students with autism. And that's actually pretty unique. Um that is not typically the number one um when we start to look at across the state nationally or even our our neighboring districts. So, we see significantly more students with autism. And then you can also see that that number
045has also been rising over the last few years. So, as those num- we're seeing an increase in those number of students that we're serving. As well as if you look at our students with specific learning disabilities, again we're starting to see a slight increase over time. If you look at our other disabilities, you'll see they're pretty stable and they're kind of remaining around the same in that same spot. When we looked at that data as it relates to students with autism, we wanted to see how does that relate to the state and what does that look like? And our takeaway really is in that left-hand column is like you can see that we are serving about twice as many students with autism as the state and that number has continued to kind of increase over
046time and it's also increasing at a rate slightly larger or slightly quicker than the state as numbers are are moving through. And what that really tells us is that again, the disability category doesn't determine the services that we provide for students, but it does tell us a little bit about the types of services that we need to have in place and what that looks like and that we should anticipate that the services that we're going to be providing are going to look a little bit different than many of our neighboring districts because of the the high number of students we serve with autism. And then if you look at our specific learning disability, you'll see that it's actually the exact opposite. So, what we see in that is that we serve less students with a
047learning disability than we when you compare us to the state. But we're also seeing that those numbers are kind of remaining they're pretty constant little little bit of a change, but they're falling in line with the state. We're not seeing anything that looks more or less than. So, again, that doesn't really again, those services aren't based upon that disability, but given that when you put those two together, that's about 47% of the students that we serve. So, we need to be thinking about that as we're making plans and kind of looking ahead. And then we looked at the educational environment that we service students in and one of the key pieces to the in special ed laws that we want to make sure that we're serving kids to the greatest extent possible in the general
048education environment. And so there one of the ways that we track that is through it whether or not they're spending 80% or more of their day, whether there's at 40 to 79, less than 40, or whether or not they're receiving their services in a therapeutic day school. And so, as you take a look at that, one of the interesting things in our data, it's not large, it's just slight, but we're starting to see a slight decrease in the percentage of students that we're serving in um that 80% and then a slight increase in our other three. And really that just kind of promotes some questions for us to think about. Right? Like why are we seeing that? What barriers could possibly be existing for students in that gen ed classroom? And what might we need
049to do to help support students so that they can continue to access that general education classroom? And here's our early childhood. We do early childhood slightly differently because of the way that we um staff that, right? Our EC teachers have all three um they serve as a gen ed teacher, special ed teacher, and a multilingual teacher. So, when our students are in what we call those blended classrooms or they're being served in a separate classroom a uh completely special ed classroom. And again, your CR numbers are continuing to increase, but the one that I wanted to really talk about was the special ed separate class. You're starting to see those numbers are are also getting larger over the last 3 years. And again, that also just poses a couple of questions for us. Right? Are
050we seeing students with more complex needs? And does that mean we need to do something different or do we need to change the way in which we are programming for our students? As well as are there some barriers in those gen ed classrooms that we need to dig into to see if if there if there's something we can do to make sure our students are accessing those classrooms as well. So, just kind of those key takeaways really are that that we have to continue to make sure that we're monitoring the needs of our students particularly in those growing areas with autism and specific learning disability so that we can be changing based upon the needs that we see. That we are starting to investigate what those barriers could possibly be to the gen ed as
051well as kind of brainstorming some potential solutions for removing those barriers for our students. And then beginning to really think about those EC students and um thinking about what does that mean for us moving forward? Do those complex needs indicate that we need to be planning differently for as students move into elementary? Just making sure that we continue to have a strong uh strong continuum of services for students. Now that we've kind of talked a little bit about those who we are seeing and how we're serving those students, we'd like to share some of the projects that we started this year. So, um on enhancing our services. So, I'm going to turn it over to Annie to talk a little bit about steps. All right. Uh thanks for having me tonight. So, this slide really
052represents um where our work at steps is going as we're moving into the 26-27 school year and how it connects to the broader district priorities as they relate to um equitable access and high-quality curriculum and meaningful student outcomes. Um and so, what you're seeing here isn't really something that's new um but really it demonstrate that there's a refinement and strengthening of our program that's happening. Um lots of great things are happening at steps every day um and what we're doing now is bringing greater coherence and intentionality um into the work that we're doing by enhancing rigor in a way that is appropriate and meaningful for the students that we're serving. Um so, at steps rigor doesn't look like traditional high school coursework. Um instead it it is grounded in functional academics and real-world application. Um
053so, across all of our classrooms and pathways, we are organizing our learning around three core areas. So, functional ELA, functional math um independent living and community-based instruction. Um and what's important to note here is that these are not isolated student experiences. They really build on each other. So, we move from developing the foundational skills to practicing those skills in structured environments and then ultimately applying them in real-world settings um which is better known as community-based instruction. So, taking the skills from the classroom out in the community to apply them. Um so, this this progression is what leads to that increased independence and that autonomy and that in community community integration as they move through a transition program and then onto that next step um into adulthood. So, um for 26-27, what you can expect to
054see is the full implementation of a guaranteed and viable curriculum um for transition. And this is going to ensure that every student regardless of their pathway or their support need um has access to instruction aligned to post-secondary outcomes. Uh it's connected to 12th grade standards and it's aligned with ISBE's top 10 employability standards. And this is a significant lift uh it given the wide range of students that we serve, but it's essential if we want to ensure consistency, equity, and meaningful outcomes for all of our transition students. Um so, when we talk about rigor, we're talking about ensuring that every student has access to the skills that are going to matter most as they move on into adulthood. Um we accomplish this by creating this shared framework. And while instruction will look different across our
055across our classrooms, uh the outcomes are consistent and they're intentional. Um this is going to ensure that every classroom contributes to a coherent, connected transition experience for every student and one that's truly preparing each individual for what their life is going to look like next. So, um I am very proud of the work that we've been doing collectively this year and I'm very excited for implementing this new plan next year and so, my hope is I can come back a year from now um and talk to you about what that's actually looking like um and how our program is growing and progressing and how our students are making gains. Thank you. Really important for us in working that work through steps is it kind of lets us that's the end goal. Particularly for our students
056who might be in our aim program, who might those students who are going to access steps, that will give us a a nice cornerstone for us to build backwards from, right? To make sure that we're making sure our kids have the skills that they need to be successful. And then I want to talk a little bit about our project lead the way. Um at the middle school, um we had a focus on finding some opportunities to increase meaningful access. And in the project lead the way, we were able to purchase some of um uh child safety uh saws. There's a specific name and it's falling out of my head right now. >> [gasps] >> But what it really does is it allows our students to access that um independently and to fully participate in the
057class with their peers. And that's been a really nice add and our our students have really enjoyed that and we've kind of spread it across all of our building staff so that they all have that access. I forget if that was where that was. Um I also have Michelle and she's going to stay talk a little bit about the work we've been doing with our RISE program at the elementary level. All right. Thank you again for having us. I wanted to speak a little bit to our RISE program review. We started this initiative in order to ensure that our services, our current services are meeting the needs of the population that we serve. As you could see through the data that Dr. I Grow presented, our students with autism, that section of our population is
058growing and continues to grow. And with that, we have also seen an increase in the number of students who are part of our RISE program at the elementary school level. And so we wanted to make sure that we were the practices that we are engaging in, the systems and instructions that we're engaging in every day align with the current population that we are serving. And so that was really our main priority is to examine those current structures and systems and practices that we are engaging in and to analyze how they are impacting our students and our student learning. So we sent out a survey to gather interest to see who wanted to be part of this team. We wanted to make sure that we had representation from those RISE staff members who have their boots
059on the ground every day and are working with our students and know exactly what's happening within those classrooms. So we were lucky enough to have over 30 of our team members who were interested in being part of that team. And so from that we selected a a group of 15 who again are representative of our teachers as well as our related service providers and administration. And so that allows us to get perspective from a variety of individuals. So far we have had three meetings and our focus really has been in that initial establishment of our our group. Really understanding what our current practices are. So really digging deep into what the current state of our RISE program is. Again from those people who are living it and breathing it every day. And so we wanted
060to make sure that we had a clear understanding from the classroom to the building level to the district level. What is happening for for our our staff and our students. Then after that we turned to what we wanted our future state to look like. So where are we headed with our programming? And so that really speaks to we wanted to make sure that we understood, had an understanding of those evidence-based practices and what high quality programming looks like for this sect of students. And we wanted to identify those back best practices in order to be able to recommend those improvements that will strengthen our RISE program. So it was very important for us to to build a future state. We asked our team to dream big and think about what we what we want to
061see as we move forward. And that included building a purpose for our for our RISE program. Being able to find guiding principles, values. We've been working on developing a program indicator rubric which allows us to examine our current state. And then also as we move forward to be able to determine how we're doing in comparison to that to that that future state that we were looking for. So looking at how we want our personnel to be distributed, what we want curriculum instruction to look like, our educational environment, our family involvement, transitions, collaboration, all of those pieces and more are part of that current state. And we wanted to make sure then that we were also in alignment with the districts, the district's goals, the district the district's strategic method mission, vision, portrait of a graduate,
062all of those pieces as well as having alignment with our department guiding principles that were established this year. So from that we have now started to do a gap analysis. So where are we currently? Where do we want to be? And how do we get there? So we're developing our path to move forward, examining those and doing a comparison. And then determining where our priorities lie. We have many steps that we need to take and this is not this is not a sprint. This is a marathon. And so our team is now focused on moving towards establishing what those priority areas will be for our work and that is where we will be headed next. Again this is we're going to be continuing this spring and then moving on into next year because there is
063quite a deal of work for us to do to get to that future state. So that's a bit about about our review. As we've been working through that review it's I think the high point for us is that it's been collaborative and that we're bringing people to the table to really engage us engage in the work with us and that they're helping us build that path together. And so that's been really important as our foundation. And then the final thing that we've been working on again is in that same kind of um idea around collaboration and bringing people together. But we really are starting to we haven't started yet. We're getting ready to start this work. We'll probably meet once before the end of the school year and then we'll do some work over the
064summer. But really trying to start to think about what is our literacy review look like. And again we'll do a committee that brings some general teachers and special teachers and building administrators and district administrators together. But really again our goal is to understand how how or where What is happening in our core curriculum? Where is it strong? Where is it weak? Where cuz all curriculums have those places where they're strong or they're weak. What is it that we need to do in support to ensure that our students with disabilities are able to access it, make progress, participate in it as well as ultimately land in a place where we've got some additional resources and materials that don't sit separate but actually build upon our core and give students the opportunity to really engage in that
065information. So we're really excited about that piece. Actually both of them. I've had the opportunity to work with really closely with Michelle in building that RISE and and doing that that committee work. Haven't had as much Annie's been doing tons of work but we have lots of every every couple weeks we sit down and talk a little bit about how do those plans come out. But it's really interesting and really it's it's been great to sit down and really work with teachers and understand each of those pieces. So thank you for having us giving us the opportunity to share about some of the projects that we're working on. We are happy to answer any questions that you may have. Start with Ms. Deming. My first comment is that I am so impressed. Um Thank you
066so much. I love on slide Oh gosh. Um Give me just a second. Um Oh. The the compare Oh the investigation slide four slide 11. When you talked about the investigating to see if there any potential barriers for our students in general education accessing and just the conversations that you even had at the end in in wanting to make sure that we don't have those barriers that accessibility. That is so critical and thank you so much for having that focus. I see the enthusiasm and I see the growth just within this year just from what you've shared. And so it is extremely exciting. So thank you especially for those students to be able to look at ways they can continue to participate in the general education portion. One of the questions I did have you
067did a great uh gave us some great comparisons along the states. I do we have any type and you may not have it now but do we have any comparisons on where state students sit as far as access to general education participation in general education on the 80% and 40%. You may not have that now but >> Don't have it in front of me but I absolutely can make sure I share that with you. Okay I just wondered where we kind of where we stand in that comparison. Um let's see. Slide six. Um I love how you're doing the same date in the comparison. You said the December 1st slide it was slide six and you're taking a look at Hold on let me grab the slide six. Um as you looked at our students
068with IEPs and you're using the same date. That's that's so critical because you know if you're off a few months then you're not giving that same comparison. So thank you for doing that. And let's see. Slide seven. You know, as we look at the uh our growth in autism, we're we're a district that's so well known for the type of services that we provide for students with um and families with disabilities, do are we seeing do we hear anecdotes of people moving specifically because of the services we offer on the autism side? Yes, we do. We hear that very often. Um you know, I I I can't say I've got like solid evidence of that, but um it is not uncommon for me to be having a conversation with a family who says, "We moved
069here because of these services." Okay, that's and I was just I was just thinking that there must be something that we are extremely that that we're providing that other districts just aren't getting on the on the autism spectrum and and families are seeing a huge value in what we're what we bring. Um and then the last thing that I had just for for edification, remind me for is a reminder for me, but as well as for our families listening who may not participate and take advantage of the RISE services, can you share exactly that acronym, please? Oh, jeez. I know. >> [laughter] >> Sorry. I'm reaching for Okay. Yes. I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. We'll get it back to you. We'll get it back to you later. Let's move on. All right, Ms.
070Grover. I just want to echo what Ms. Deming said. Um you know, thank you for this presentation and removing the barriers and um you know, adhere like making sure that each student is successful. So, thank you. Ms. Vazda. Um mine is similar. I appreciate the thoroughness with which all of this was explained. Um and I appreciated and place a lot of value in the amount of self-reflection that sounds like it's happening in each each of these reviews and examinations. Um Dr. Igoe, you mentioned a couple times what what questions each of those things uncovers. Um and that's being able to acknowledge that you might not know the questions to ask yet and then uncovering them and then addressing those um I think it's a real strength. Um and that bodes really well for moving forward
071through this process and moving backwards from steps down. I also liked that reflection of being able to build backwards. So, thank you for that. Mr. Carubis. Slide eight. Often you don't need even need to comment [clears throat] on this. This is me commenting. Oftentimes people take things out of context. Great presentation. Love where it's going. But it says the percentage of students with autism is 23%. And in no way is the do we have that many students that are have autism. So, it's a percentage of students that have disability that have an IEP. So, somebody could take that snippet out of there, misread it, and misrepresent it that 23% of our whole population is um has autism and that's that's not that's not your intent. That's not what the rest of the slides leading up
072to it meant. So, I can appreciate it, but I just want to drive home the point for the six people that are watching it online that that is uh not entirely accurate. So, thanks. >> appreciate that. We will try to fix it before we get it posted. Is that it? That's it. Okay. Mr. Rising. Uh So, I was one of those parents that moved to the district because I heard about this is 29 years ago before we had our daughter. We knew she was going to have issues. Both my daughters had IEPs. This is an area I've been pretty passionate about in my 15 years on school board. And I've been pretty critical of presentations that were given on student services. Uh I just wanted to say kudos to all three of you. I was
073extremely impressed. Um and I just want to have a couple call outs. Uh the first thing is your guiding principles. Very much appreciated that. Of course, we all want to do the first one, right? Inclusive inclusive and responsive. That goes without saying. Um but the fact that you're approaching it from a meaningful progress way and looking at our special needs students like that, that very much is in line to our equity statement and what we try to achieve with all students in our district. And um I haven't heard that in the past, so I very much appreciate that. And looking at we should presume competence that all students can succeed and we should view things at that and look at things from that from that lens. And so, very much appreciated that. Secondly, you looking
074at our educational environment. Um I encourage you to keep looking at that. I I I can't remember us having a discussion like that in the past 15 years, but I appreciate that you're taking a look at it because we all understand it's a fine line, right? Like we want kids in general ed environment as much as they can, but that also takes resources, right? So, we all understand that that's a fine line, but I appreciate that you're looking at what can be accomplished, what is best for the student, obviously first and foremost, but what we can accomplish as a district. So, I appreciate you looking at that piece. Um STEPS, you guys always do a wonderful job. So, things that you do. Um you know, looking at um your landscape and the successes and areas
075for improvement. I always appreciate that with STEPS and same thing with the RISE program. Um I appreciate you're looking at what those best practices are and how can we always look at continuous improvement there. Uh and then the last thing I just want to call out is I very much appreciate you looking at the literacy review um because we know as a district our proficiency rates with our students with with special needs and IEPs and 504s, um that that always is it's a challenge with every district, right? We're not alone or unique in that, but I appreciate you're being intentional about it and really looking at where can we maybe lean into that tier one instead of you know, maybe pushing so many kids to tier two or tier three where we don't have the
076bandwidth for that. So, the fact that you're looking at that is I'm so excited about that. So, thank you so much. Wonderful job. Super excited. Thank you. So, it was very nice that Owen had their student here, Simon. That was a nice um lead into your discussion because I I had the pleasure of recently and I shared with Christine recently um being a special ed teacher for um one elementary school and also several times recently being a TA specifically mostly helping autistic kids. And um it is really impressive to see the work that is being done to support the students in our district. And also the welcoming nature of all the other kids to support those kids. Like they really are the cheerleaders for you know, some accomplishments that maybe weren't possible previously. And I
077I subbed for um somebody that I um had subbed for in first grade and now in third grade. And it was an incredible difference in what this student was achieving. And uh I mean, it it brings tears to my eyes cuz I just couldn't even have imagined that when I first met her. And you know, that's just my two seconds in the schools, you know, a couple times subbing. But um thank you for everything you're doing. And I agree with the comments that were made about um self-reflection and looking for where we can improve or where should we be going. And looking at our population changes. Like are we putting uh looking at barriers that maybe can be removed to help, you know, bring them back into the classrooms more often. But um well done.
078And just keep you know, keep going with everything that you presented to us. And thank you so much. I have three things I need to say. First, reaching independence through structured education. Yes. Thank you. That's one. Number two, there is an art teacher. He serves Longwood and Young. He is also using the SAW. Um so, it might be interesting to see how he's using the SAW with his students. And then how it might be combined with what's happening at the middle school program as well. So, just giving you that. I bought him the SAW not too long ago. So, he's saying that's going very well. And the last thing I want to read to you an email. I have not shared this at all with any of you before. Hi Dr. Talley. I hope you're
079doing well. I just wanted to let you know that the RISE program committee is amazing. The leadership that Dr. Igoe and and Shaveker have demonstrated this year is nothing short of phenomenal. I have not felt this supported and excited about our program since I first started in our district and these wonderful women and behind those feelings. I just wanted to share that with you since I have seen our district go through blah blah blah blah blah. These two women make us all feel empowered and valued and I cannot express my gratitude enough. We are very lucky to have them and their vision for our programming in 204. And so that's from one of the members, Natalie, who is in the program. So I just wanted to share that. That's it. Those are my three. Thank
080you very much for your presentation tonight and everything that you do. Thank you. Okay. I Do we have any legislative advocacy or Board of Education updates? Okay, I need a motion to adjourn. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Let's go blue. >> [laughter] >> Okay, all in favor? Yes. Okay.