001Are we ready? Okay. >> All right. It is now 7:10 and I'm reconvening to open session and calling to order the regular board of education meeting for Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday, February 9th, 2026. Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Donahghue >> here. >> Miss Gint >> here. >> Miss Fostic >> here. >> Miss Deming, >> Mr. Kurubus >> here, >> Mr. Rising >> here, >> and Miss Grover >> here. We have a quorum. Miss Grover, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, February 23rd, 2026. We
002have four board salutes tonight. Miss G. >> Longwood and Brookdale Elementary Schools advance student literacy. The board salutes Longwood and Brookdale elementary schools for their work in advancing student literacy through the support of Champions for Literacy and International Paper. Each school received a $7,500 grant for a total allocation of 15,000 benefiting student readers in Indian Prairie School District 204. The Indian Prairie Educational Foundation along with the principles from Longwood and Brookdale participated in the check presentation at Northwestern University. Congratulations, Miss Fazdik. District 204 students excel in the middle school robotics tournament. The board salutes district 204 middle school students and staff who participated in the robotics tournament as well as the director of innovation and instructional leadership Brian Jovanini for serving as tournament organizer. Congratulations to Cone team C and Skullan team B which captured
003the tournament champion award. Cone team D and still team S were named tournament runner up. The Excellence and Skills Award was earned by Cone Team C. Congratulations to all the robotics teams and thank you to the Indian Prairie Educational Foundation for supporting this robotics tournament experience. >> Miss Deming Nqua Valley senior advances to the boys bowling state tournament. The board salutes Nqua Valley senior Riker Quattrini for his performance at the bowling recent bowling sectionals. By finishing in the top eight, Riker advanced to the boys bowling state tournament individual championship at St. Clair Bowl in Fairview Heights, Illinois. Congratulations on this stellar achievement. District 204 students received 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Character Awards. The board salutes Wubanzi Valley senior Jashawn Rule and Mattea Valley seniors Trent Sterling and Zolan Terry who are honored during the
00425th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration hosted by Aurora's Catholic Cathedral of Grace St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church. The students were recognized for their outstanding commitment to service at school and in the community. Congratulations, Shawn, Trent, and Zolan. >> Let's have an applause for these wonderful accomplishments. [applause] [applause] Now, we have our student representative report by Anushka Sandep from Aanzi Valley High School. Hello everyone. It's a pleasure to be here again. My name is Anushka Sandep and I'm here today to represent Wanzi Valley High School. As a warrior, I am proud to report that our Wanzi community continues to thrive and provide many outstanding experiences to our students. This past weekend, we had 47 students participate in the winter showcase called Believe to Become, a performance that included a one-act performance of Peter and
005Wendy, a student directed short film, and a student directed musical theater review. WVHS is having yet another record-breaking season. They won DVC, they were sectional champions, and are now entering the IHSA state tournament in Peoria over Valentine's Day weekend with a top seed. Additionally, our Scholastic Bowl team is also having wins across the board with varsity coming in first and JV coming in third at DVC. Moving on to athletics, our girls gymnastics team became DVC champions last Friday and headed to regionals this past Thursday. Our girls basketball team has been crushing it on the court with two records broken on senior night. This year, our senior class has 17 Illinois State Scholars, 38 National Merit Commended Scholars, and 10 National Merit Semi Finalists. Congratulations to them all. On February 25th, 314 seniors will be recognized
006as Indian Prairie Scholars for earning a 3.6 or greater cumulative GPA over seven semesters. And finally, we'd like to welcome Dr. Jennings as the new principal of Matia Valley High School. And on behalf of Wubanzi Valley, go Mustangs. That is all for the Wanzi Valley board report. Thank you all so much and go Warriors. >> Thank you [applause] very much. Our school spotlight today is Scullan Middle School. And I see you have quite the crowd here. So we have Scott, our principal, Jasmine Pelin, Mera Payne, Manishi Kuruba and Ashton Shadari are all students at Scullan. [clears throat] So, welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh good evening, board of education, Dr. Tally. Uh as you mentioned, my name is Scott Laurage and I get the fantastic privilege of serving as principal at Scullin Middle
007School. Uh this evening we'd like to shine a light on uh one of our school improvement goals, which is to create an environment that is welcoming and safe for all students. We strive to create an environment of kindness where students have the opportunity to build relationships with our staff and each other. This evening we have four representatives from our ILE student leadership organization. Jason Tatla, Meera Payne, Manasha Kurva, and AA Chowry. These students are instrumental in uh facilitating activities at Scullan that pro provide and create a welcoming environment for our students. Uh they're also led by two staff members who are in the audience this evening, Miss Michelle Abel and Miss Jocelyn Mendoza. and and I I have to say that this presentation was completely created by these students as well as our script for
008this evening. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to shine a light on Skull and Middle School. >> Hi, my name is Ka and we are a few of our team members are even in the audience. >> [applause] >> Hello, my name is Mera Payne and today we are highlighting just a few of the many amazing events we do at Skullan. This includes the Skull and Palooa pack the house event, Skull and Studentle podcast, the 10 days of the spirit of giving and our end of year assembly. Hi, my name is Jason Topla. To begin, Skull and Palooa is a pack a house event at the start of the year where Scolan hosts multiple home games like soccer, football, and volleyball. Students are encouraged to come cheer on skull and support their peers.
009This allows even those who aren't in sports to get involved in school events and build a sense of community. We even have Kona Ice on site and I sell napkins and spirit items. SC has our very own podcast run by our health teacher, the 2019 national health teacher of the year, Mr. Todd. Videos take the form of studentled discussions in which students are given an opportunity to share their thoughts on school and life in general. Students engaging debates and conversations about health class, social life, being a teen, mindfulness, and so much more. This podcast allows students to share their voices and be heard by a wider audience. Hello, my name is AA Chry, and another event I run is our 10 days of the spirit of giving. These usually take place during the holiday season
010when people need it the most. This is a fundraising opportunity where students can donate essential items such as toiletries, canned food, rice, and laundry supplies throughout the week. This year, Skull and Students donated 2,459 items, which went to the local Gracegiving Joy food pantry in Asiggo. We also sold donuts before school on Wednesdays for 15 minutes each day and raised $800 in three weeks, which we donated to the pantry to allow them to continue helping our community. Finally, I runs the end of the year assembly where students and teachers participate in team building activities. Grade levels were different school colors to represent their team spirit. Teachers and students compete against each other in games like knockout, tugof-war, spider relay, and staff musical chairs. Clubs like No Place for Hate and Spell and Spring Musical also
011make an appearance. The assembly highlights all clubs throughout the year in their achievements on an ongoing slideshow. These activities have given us many opportunities to make lots of friends. The teachers are also very welcoming and make us feel like we belong. One memorable event at Skull is Skull Welcomes incoming middle school and Welcome in the acronym welcoming is an understatement. I leaders help the sixth graders learn what middle school is like and make them feel comfortable. Sixth graders learn to open their walkers, walk their schedules and participate in team building activities with their small group which helps them make new friends for the new school year. One of my favorite events was the physics field day. Teachers plan activities and parents can volunteer to help out. We can learn more about science through hands-on activities
012rather than typical classroom lessons. We can participate in games like tugof-war, floating foil boats, rocket launching, paper airplane flying, and other activities that teach us about physics. Some great SK events are our dances, one of which is the winter glow dance that took place last Friday. We can go to the open gym to play basketball, volleyball, and bminton against our friends and even our teachers. We can also participate in trivia, watch a movie, and even sing at karaoke. All of these events make us eager to come to school every morning. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak and share about the amazing events we do here at Skullan. If there are any questions or comments, feel free to ask at this time. >> I want to thank you, boy. It sounds like a
013very inclusive, exciting environment to go to Skull in. And it's so nice, too, that you have these efforts to bring in the new sixth graders and get them comfortable because I know that can be a scary transition, but it's obvious that you're all very excited with all of these opportunities. And thank you for participating and planning them. So, thank you. >> Can I just add you, [applause] Mr. L? You have an incredibly articulate panel of engaging student speakers. I feel like there are future speech team members here, student leaders going on. Um, so well said and so well done. Thank you guys. >> Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well done. [applause] >> Thank you all so much for the opportunity. Thank you. [laughter] >> Okay, it is now time for public comment and
014[clears throat] 60 minutes is allowed for each person is limited though for to three minutes. When addressing the board, we ask that you respect the confidentiality and safety of our students and our 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 administrator as appropriate. Although this is not required, it is helpful for the board to know whether the comments and concerns we hear are raised by residents. So, we ask that you
015state if you live in the district and if you currently have children in our schools. We have one public comment tonight. It's Vicki Mulligan. Welcome. >> Hi. Good evening, school board members and district 204 administration. My name is Vicki Mulligan. I am a parent of a second grader and a fourth grader at Longwood Elementary. I have also been a teacher in District 129 for the past 19 years. Parents at Longwood have had opportunities to share concerns with Mr. Zewin and Miss Rosenlum, but the issues we are facing are larger than what two individuals can solve on their own. District 204 is a large and diverse district, but Longwood is an outlier among its elementary schools. While the district average for low-income students is appro approximately 18%, Longwood's population is closer to 48%. We are grateful
016for the Title One funding and the opportunities it provides, but it does not address larger systemic challenges, especially as those funds face potential cuts. Longwood has an incredible staff of teachers, specialists, administrators, and support personnel. Unfortunately, due to dangerous and deeply disrespectful student behaviors, many of these dedicated professionals do not stay. In our five years at Longwood, my husband and I have loved every teacher our children have had. Yet, only one of those classroom teachers remains at the school today. We do not need another program designed to help teachers manage. We need real consistent support. We want teachers to stay. We want Longwood to be a safe place where children want to learn and where teachers want to work. There have been multiple inst instances where my own child has come home describing classmates, flipping
017desks, throwing water bottles at other students, shoving peers, and using language that I would be uncomfortable using as an adult. I ask you honestly, would you want your child learning in that environment? The school where I currently teach serves a very similar population, has a comparable level of support staff, and enrolls nearly twice as many students. The difference is that nearly or is that my school is not treated as an outlier. Supports are present daily, not shared across buildings. As a result, we have teachers who have spent the majority of their careers in the same school. I do not claim to have the solution. However, I do believe it is important to remember that a decision that works for most schools does not always work for all schools. When neighbors whose children attended Longwood years
018ago talk about their experiences, they describe a very different school, one filled with positive memories. While I can speak highly of the current staff, the overall experience my children are having is not the same. I am here because I care deeply about our school. Longwood may be small, but that does not make it less important. Our children, our teachers, and our community deserve better. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we now move to our consent agenda and superintendent report. We will start with the superintendent report. Dr. Tally. >> Thank you, Miss Donahghue. Members of the board of education and Indian prairie community. February is African-American history month. During this month, we celebrate the contributions that African-Americans have made on our country and the world. Schools have already started their activities
019to celebrate this month with resources that have been shared with all of our schools. Registration is now open for our third annual uh for I'm sorry for our uh fourth annual mental health symposium. More than 200 people have already registered for the event. The event will take place March 7th at Matia High School with sessions for both adults and for the students. You may find information on our website. Each year, our schools, as required by the state, ask parents, staff, and students to complete the five essential survey. Parents will be asked to complete the surveys um starting uh this month. Survey results are used by the schools as a data piece that is reviewed for the creation of the school improvement plan. This survey is designed to generate a detailed picture of your child's school
020as it relates to the important elements of school effectiveness. In order for schools to receive results, however, parents must we need 20% of all parents to complete the survey per school. Surveys will be open until March 13th. Before I turn my comments back over to the board, I would like to recommend that the board approve the following principal appointments that take effect July 1, 2026. First, Dr. Sarah Jennings from Matia High School replacing Mr. Dan Decker who will be leaving us at the end of the year. Dr. Jennings is coming to us from Decal High School where she is currently the assistant principal for teaching and learning. She has also served as the assistant principal for student services and operations and she was a Spanish teacher is her teaching background. Miss Amanda Adams for Springbook
021Elementary School replacing Mr. David Worst, who is retiring at the end of the year. Miss Adams currently is an assistant principal for Granger Middle School. She was formerly the student service coordinator at Spring Brook. Therefore, she will be heading back to a school she worked in before. She also has experience as an ESL teacher and a third grade teacher. Dr. Aaron Alexander for Prairie Preschool who will who will be replacing Miss Sally Osborne who is retiring. Dr. Alexander will be joining us from Addison School District 4 where she is currently the principal of the Addison Early Learning Center. She is als she has held that role since 2014. She has also served as an assistant principal in Planefield and as a department chair music teacher. voice is her is her instrument if I remember correctly.
022And finally, I will recommend Mrs. Miss Elizabeth Swagger for Mary Mary Watts Elementary. She will fill a vacancy we have had and will replace the two interim principles at the school. She is a parent in our community. I think she has four children who are in our schools now and is eager to be an administrator in the school district where her children attend. She is currently the principal of Troy Heritage Trail Elementary School in Troy District 30C. She has also worked as an assistant principal, a district math facilitator, and a middle school math teacher. All are here tonight except for Miss Adams, and she has a great excuse. She had a baby over the weekend. I interviewed her last week, and then she had her baby. >> Yes. H is right. [laughter] We wish her
023well with her child and I now will ask that the board approve all of these appointments. Miss. >> All right. I need a motion to approve Sarah Jennings as the principal of Matia Valley High School. >> Make a motion that the board of education approve Dr. Sarah Jennings of Matia Valley High School as presented. >> Second. Any discussion? Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Gent? >> Yes. >> Miss Deming? >> I. >> Mr. Kurubus? >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue? >> Yes. >> Miss Grover? >> Yes. >> And Miss Fostic? >> Yes. >> The motion passes. Congratulations. Would you like [applause] Would you like to come up and introduce who you brought with you and say a few words? >> Sure. [laughter] They look very excited about coming
024up too. >> Thank you very much. Uh Dr. Tally and Board of Education. I really am very deeply honored um to have been approved and appointed as Matia Valley's next principal. I am so honored. The students did an amazing job making me feel at home during the first round. And I said, I really hope this works out because I want to be with these students and I'm super bummed that they're graduating because I won't get to be with them. But I have a feeling there are there are students just like them there. So very very grateful. Um this is my husband Dave and my son Cohen. He's a sophomore in high school. And I brought a picture of my Oh, sorry. Oops. Brought a picture of my daughter Lily. She's away at college. >> Couldn't
025quite make it for this, but she wishes she could be here. So, >> thank you all very happy to have you. [applause] >> Okay. I now need a motion to approve Amanda Adams as the principal of Spring Brook Elementary. I move that the board of education approve Amanda Adams as the principal of Spring Brook Elementary School as presented. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Gent, >> yes. >> Miss Deming, >> I. >> Miss Donahghue, >> yes. >> Mr. Kurubis, >> yes. >> Mr. Rising, >> yes. >> Miss Fosik, >> yes. >> And Miss Grover, >> yes. >> The motion passes. Congratulations to Amanda and her new baby. [applause] >> I need a motion to approve Aaron Alexander as the principal of Prairie Children Preschool as presented. >>
026Make the motion that the board of education approve Dr. Aaron Alexandra as the principal of Prairie Children Preschool as presented. >> Any discussion? Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Grover? >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue? >> Yes. >> Miss Gint? >> Yes. >> Miss Fazek? >> Yes. >> Miss Deming? >> I. >> And Mr. Kubas? >> Yes. >> The motion passes. Congratulations to you. [applause] Thank you so much. I'm just thrilled to be here and join the 204 community. I'm been working in early learning for a long time and so happy to continue the work here building strong foundations for our youngest learners and building upon the amazing program that you already have in place. So, tonight uh this is my husband Sean and my daughters Satie and
027Haley. Satie is in third grade and Haley is in second grade and they are thrilled to be a part of this community with me. So, thank you so much. >> And we're so happy to have you here. Yes. [applause] >> I now need a motion to approve Elizabeth Schleger as the principal of May Watts Elementary. >> I move that the board of education approve Elizabeth Schwiggler as the principal of Maywatts Elementary School as presented. >> Second. Any discussion? Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Fosik, >> yes. >> Miss Gins, >> yes. >> Mr. Rising, >> yes. >> Miss Grover, >> yes. >> Miss Donahghue, >> yes. >> Mr. Kurubis, >> yes. >> And Miss Deming, >> I. >> The motion passes. Congratulations. [applause] I got the whole crew. Um I'm a
028little bit emotional. I didn't expect that. Um but I I want to say thank you so much to all of you. Um I'm so deeply honored for the opportunity to serve um the Maywatt students, staff, and families. Um we are an Indian Prairie family, and so I feel like I'm being welcomed home. Um so I'm joined today by my husband, Greg, who is finishing his 20th year at NA Valley High School as an orchestra director. I have my oldest daughter, Anna, is a senior at Niqua this year. My son, Adam, is a sophomore at Nqua. Maria is a sixth grader at Cone. And Maggie is a third grader at Graham. So, thank you for bringing me home. >> Oh, [applause] have fun. I need now a motion to approve consent agenda items H through Q.
029>> I move that the board of education approve consent agenda items H through Q as presented. >> Second. Any discussion? Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Gent. >> Yes. >> Miss Fazic? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kurubus? >> Yes. Miss Grover and Miss Deming. >> I. >> The motion passes. Next, we move to our action items. I need a motion in a second to approve the gifts and donations report for the first semester for the 202526 school year. I move that the board of education approve the gifts and donations report for the first semester for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. Any discussion? I'll just say a few words. If you uh take a moment to look at our gifts and donation
030report, it is obvious uh what a caring uh community that we have across parents, families, businesses, and uh truly appreciate the generosity of the gifts that um people provide to our schools and to support our students and staff. So, thank you so very much. So Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Gent, >> yes. >> Miss Grover, >> yes. >> Miss Fosik, >> yes. >> Mr. Rising, >> yes. >> Miss Demi, >> I. >> Mr. Kurubis, >> yes. >> And Miss Don, >> yes. The motion passes. We will now have a presentation from Dr. Trudy Ransom regarding the Indian Prairie Education Foundation. So this lines up with our donations report. Yeah, >> we got the black memo today. >> We're okay. [laughter] >> We don't count on you guys. >> It's It's all
031good. It's all good. [laughter] >> Good evening and thank you for having me back again for my Indian Prairie Education Educational Foundation midyear report. Um I always start with this slide because I think it just speaks to the incredible partnership that we have here with uh district 204 37 years over 5.7 million towards district programming since 1988. Um and we are still working hard every day to make sure that we can enrich education for all of our students here in Indian Prairie School District. So, here is my midyear update. Like everybody else, I have to submit that donation report. And so, this is part of what the foundation has donated in semester one. Um, $8,000 in district support that is primarily for the primary expenses for the fine arts festival. I'm proud to say team
032IPF uh earned over about $75,000, 37,530 of which we donated straight back to the schools. Um, and I'll get to talk a little bit about how we did that. uh in grant money this year so far. So far 17 and uh 172 uh we've given out four A+ awards and over $12,000 in support for the kid essentials program which does helped to support our lowincome and homeless students here in the district. The A+ award is a is a favorite among teachers, students, and community. So far we have given out five A+ awards. Uh you can see here that although we are a little elementary heavy this uh year so far um we have had amazing teachers uh be our recipients this year everywhere from um grade teachers to LMC directors to special needs teachers. Uh
033it has been a fantastic year so far. Thank you Western Governor's University for being our sponsor this year. Team IPF 2025. While I will say that [clears throat] the weather was not as ideal as we had hoped this year, [laughter] Dr. Tally is shaking his head. Um, I am proud to say that 235 district teachers, students, community members, alumni stepped up this year to join team IPF. We had 30 schools that participated in our runwalk this year and uh we raised uh just shy of $75,000. Um I have put in a request for better weather this next year and I would like to give a shout out to everyone who joined me out there on the course. Um this was uh seven years of running for me and this was my first rain race. So
034let's not do that again for a while. Um but uh thank you very much to everyone in the Indian Prairie community who uh came and helped not only with the uh running and walking, but also the folks who manned the spirit squads and they were out there uh they were out there cheering us on as we ran through the rain and um also all of the folks who supported our runners. Thank you very much. I'm delighted to say that we have given out 10 teacher innovation grants uh in the first semester of this year. Three high school to middle school and five elementary schools. As you can see, we are supporting everything from music and STEM to um special needs support and uh ELLL. So, thank you to everyone who um applied for teacher grants.
035It's very difficult for us because we always get so many fantastic ideas that we want to support. Um but these folks are out there doing amazing things and I I just want to give a shout out there to Mr. Walsh. He's sitting there holding his one board bluebird house bluebird house there. Um, this is a fantastic program that he does with his middle schoolers. And they build these bluebird houses with their own hands, with their own with their own tools, and then they give them to their moms for Mother's Day. >> I know. It's such a great It's such a great story. And also, um, shout out to my friends, uh, over at Wansi Valley and, uh, Mr. Chris Dandelis for doing Schlock Fest this year, which basically means hit things. Um it was a
036fantastic concert uh uh for all of our percussionists across the district. >> We also fed funded several academic enrichment programs uh in the first semester of this year. In the music departments, we um did our annual sponsorship of the collage, crystal, and prism concerts, which are our holiday concerts at our three high schools. I got to attend all three this year. They were all fantastic. Congratulations to all of those student musicians. We also sponsored the Wubansi Valley Meet the Artist uh concert in um December. And uh this year they had a singer songwriter come in to work with the chorus uh folks, a violist to come in and work with the orchestral folks and a trombone player come in to work with the band kids. So it was quite a variety of of music and
037and it was wonderful. And then finally, the Masterworks concert at NA Valley High School that just took place this past January. They were doing music of America from all sorts of time periods and genres. It was wonderful. The freshmen did a fantastic job and their uh finale with the senior musicians was incredible. We also sponsored uh several STEM uh events including the high school and middle school robotics tournaments. Um, and we have upcoming our elementary robotics tournaments. So, I'm very excited about those. Always great to see those kids. Um, and what kind of creative problem solving skills they have put to work for this year's VEX Robotics Challenge. I wanted to showcase a couple of grants that the foundation received in this first semester and I know they get brought up but honestly I can't
038say enough uh fantastic things about these programs because when opportunities arise like this it's really important for the foundation to seize them and to make sure that we are serving as many kids in as wide a variety um of areas as possible. So here is our champions for literacy grant which was mentioned earlier. Um this supports K to3 literacy in title one schools. This is our third year uh as the recipient of this grant. It was originally supposed to be a one and done but district 204 as they always do. They brought the energy and the enthusiasm and um we were complimented on being such amazing partners that we are now in our third year of this partnership. Um over three years we have received $45,000 in grants from International Paper and the Champions for
039Literacy Foundation supporting Brookdale, Georgetown, Gomebert, Longwood, and McCarti. So congratulations. This money has been used to buy everything from um Vox books, which are audio books that you listen to on headphones and they read along with you or to you. Um those are incredible for uh multi-ingual learners. Um, and also for kids who need to catch up to grade level, who might not quite have the vocabulary to read, but if somebody is reading along with them, makes a huge difference. These books are 50 bucks a piece. Um, you start looking at uh at your budget and thinking, "Oh my gosh, I wish I could buy more of these." Well, now you can. Um, we also have supported some um fantastic computer software that supports online books, um, all kinds of um new paper books where
040we're actually putting paper books in students hands. I love it because I had an LLMC director tell me, I'm so excited because I am now going to be able to update the non-fiction section of my library because all of those fascinating facts and all of those Guinness Book of World Records from 2019 just aren't cutting it anymore. [laughter] Um, so, uh, we are super proud to be able to do this. And as you can see, we did attend, um, a basketball game at Northwestern University a week and a half ago on a Saturday night. These kids showed up, they turned out, and, um, it was really a wonderful time. So, I'm really glad we got to have that experience together. The other academic enrichment grant that I'd like to talk about is a personal pet
041project of mine. This is elementary robotics. Um, I first was made aware of robotics in the district when my youngest son participated in elementary robotics at Longwood Elementary. Um, I did not realize at the time that not all of our elementary schools had robotics teams. But when I joined the foundation and I realized that we had five schools that were not um that did not have that opportunity for students, I made it my mission and I have been writing a lot of grants. But finally, thanks to the generous folks at International Motors, we have acquired the funding to uh purchase the starting equipment for five new robotics clubs at Brooks, Graham, Maywatts, Patterson, and STE. And I tell you how excited I am about this because I know what a huge difference robotics made in
042my child's life and I want as many kids to have that opportunity as possible. So, this is going to be 35 teams, 175 more participants, uh nothing but good news uh from the robotics front and this will mean that every school in Indian Prairie will have a robotics team and I am very excited about that. I would like to invite everybody to the IPF Inspire Breakfast. It will be again at the White Eagle Golf Club on Thursday, March the 26th, which is right around the corner. Um, we've already sold half our tickets. So, uh, get your tickets now before they're gone. Um, and if you buy them in the next couple of days, you get an early bird discount which ends on Thursday. So, please don't miss out. I'm looking forward to another wonderful breakfast
043this year. We will be highlighting our programs in fine arts, in mental health supports, and our robotics teams. IPF is expanding their graduation skybox auction and it is now the springboard into summer auction because why should the graduates have all the fun? Uh we want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to find a treasure here in our uh spring auction and it's going to feature everything from dining and jewelry um to art and all kinds of summer adventures. The community response has been really large for that. So I'm I'm excited about this new program. That's sort of piggybacking on an old one. The online auction will be April the 9th through the 20th and it is all online so you can bid from the comfort of your home in your slippers and your
044favorite hoodie. Finally, how can you make a difference? I tell people all the time, everyone can help in their own way and it all works together to make more opportunities for our kids. So, please join us at the Inspire Breakfast. Um, we're still looking for sponsors. If we've got some folks out there who are still looking to sponsor, register for team IPF 2026. I know we just finished that big check tour. Um, but uh it's right around the corner here. We've already signed the contract for 2026. Um, charity registration is March the 1st through April the 30th. And this year, everybody who signs up in that time period um is going to get a bonus [clears throat] training shirt, which is going to be an IPF green, which is the green that I've been using
045throughout the slides. Um for those of you who have a closet full or a drawer full of yellow shirts, um you too can own a green charity hero in training t-shirt um to mix it up while you're out there uh practicing your runs or walks for the race day, which this year, October the 18th. [clears throat] Um, if you're not a sporty person and you don't eat breakfast, you can nominate a teacher or a staff member for the A+ award. We are so excited because this year we have gotten so many amazing nominations. Um, I'm glad I'm not on the committee because then I don't have to choose, but I'm also glad that I'm the exec director because I get to read all of them, right? So, I get to see all of the amazing
046ways that our teachers and staff are helping students. And these come from community members, from parents, from students, right? There's this is not a staffto staff nomination. This is the folks out there who are being directly affected and the stories are incredible and heartwarming. And finally, if anyone would like to know more about what IPF does, you can visit our website at ipf204.org. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? >> Yeah, I'm just gonna open it up to everyone for any questions or comments. >> Hey Trudy, thanks for this. Um, IPF does an amazing job. My question is for the teacher innovation grants. I'm sure people would love to contribute um because you probably can't approve all the grants since you get so many. Is there a place where they can go? Say if the
047PTA of that particular school wants to donate to a grant that a teacher um has proposed or people in the wider community want to kind of donate money towards a grant that wasn't approved by IPF. Is there a place that they could go? >> We do work with district administration on these grants. So sometimes the district has funding that we don't and so we can direct those teachers to other um grants. We also grant funding. We also um will be doing spring grants this year which is a a series of $500 grants which they're kind of like very quick grants for for teachers who might not have been funded in the fall but could reapply in the spring. um any uh any community member or PTA or or community group that would like to help
048us fund grants, we are always open to that and you can always say that your donation is specifically for teacher grants. Um which would be fantastic because I want to fund them all, right? I mean I this is my goal, right? To just keep funding as many opportunities as possible. So yes, if those if those community groups if there is a specific business If there is a PTA that would like to help us fund these grants, uh we are very open to that. Absolutely. And they just need to contact me. >> Okay. And then you so you can provide them a list of the grants that are available for their particular school for instance. And then they can because sometimes people are very particular what they want to like what grant they want to give
049them the money to >> and and that is true. I do occasionally get donations. For example, I I received a a donation from the Crest Creek Garden Club and they said they wanted to support grants that went towards gardens and um and ecology focused uh sustain sustainable resource focused uh teacher grants and um we made that happen. Um, whenever we get a specific request like that, we try to make sure that that gets paired up with a need. And sometimes that goes outside of the teacher grant process. Um, just because we can pair that support with a specific person. Um, if somebody wanted to support a specific grant, um, I would of course contact the grantee to make the the grant the applicator, sorry. words are hard um the the applicant to uh make sure
050that it's okay to share that information with them. But yes, absolutely. I would be happy to provide a list of needs at school or requests at school because some of these um some of these things that we don't fund um would still be amazing for classrooms. >> Right. Right. Yeah. Because the reason I bring it up because I remember in elementary school and middle school during open house sometimes the teacher would have a list of things that the teacher would love the parents to get like glue sticks or whatever and the parents and you and she would have postit you could take them with you and bring them back and so that was my reason for asking the question because if the parents know what's needed then they can provide that. So >> and a
051lot of time these these teacher grants are um They're asking for very specific items so that they can try something new in their classroom. Right? These are all innovation grants. So, you know, if they want to try a new um if they want to try a new addition to the curriculum, like a new way of teaching their curriculum. Um a lot of times that that's what it is. So, sometimes these lists are are very expensive, sometimes they're not. Um but yeah, I would be happy to provide um schools with uh with lists and things like that if that is something that the teacher would be amenable to. Thank you. >> There's one caveat, however. We have to be very careful about this and I want to I want to say this as carefully as I
052possibly can. Not every application for a grant can be or should be approved. And so therefore, just because someone is saying they would like the money for this item, um it doesn't mean that that item has been approved to go forward. So, um, I think we want to be very careful to say, and I'm paraphrasing big time here what you're saying, that we can just accept money for any grant application. There has to be an approval process that the administrator has has [snorts] approved on it and that we as a district have approved it as well. >> And we do run those all through a vigorous vetting process before we sit down with the with the rest of the committee and decide how to disperse the monies that we have. >> Do you have a
053comment? >> Yeah, I just have a comment. Uh um I just wanted to thank you for getting these academic enrichment grants and looking at corporations. Um, sadly, a lot of times when there's nonprofit companies out there that give grants out, they oftentimes don't want to, unfortunately, give to education because they feel education has lots of money, but they don't understand education is all funded differently. And we are in a unique position being a tier 2 district where we don't receive a lot of extra state money and we don't get a lot of local money. Um which a tier four has a lot of local money and a tier one has a lot of state money. So we are in that unique position and there needs to be an education there um with some of those
054nonprofit companies. But I love what you're doing, working to get those grants from corporations to serve our underserved students that may not have the financial resources or the parental support. Um, not oftenimes, but sometimes. Um, so wonderful way of thinking outside of the box, especially what you do with International Motors. So, just wanted to give you a compliment and keep at it and spread the word. >> Thank you. Okay, I wanted to um thank you for the list of accomplishments in this first half of the year. It was very impressive when you go through all those slides. I mean, I know it probably went by quickly, but it was like, wow, there was a lot of things that happened in the first half of the year. I I agree with you. We need better race
055weather next year. That was pretty miserable. Um, as a computer engineer, I am absolutely thrilled about the robotics. um expansion to those five other elementary schools because I agree with you that it's such a um opportunity for our students to learn a multitude of skills that will be helpful in the future and I am just thrilled that we're able to offer that to all of the the elementary schools now and um just the vast variety of um activities that you IPF has contributed to in this district is an impressive result that you know I encourage everyone to take a look at your website, participate in the race, come to the breakfast um because this is an organization that has done tremendous good for our school and our our schools, our students and our teachers. So,
056thank you so much, Trudy, for being the the point person for that and for helping to continue to evolve and bring in new opportunities for our district. So, thank you. Thank you. I I have to say that the the longer that I'm in this job, the more I see all of the different areas that IPF is sort of uh sneaking I won't say sneaking into, but we do a lot of we do a lot of work behind the scenes that doesn't often get recognized, which is why opportunities like this to sort of give you my mid-year report and say this this is kind of what we've been doing here in the district are so important because I don't think people realize it's like you know, you have a robotics program because We piloted it and
057we continue to fund it. Um you you know students at some of our neediest schools are getting new books. They're getting new resources. Um opportunities like this. Our music departments, goodness gracious, we fund so many things with our music departments and we support our arts and music so highly here in the district. And I don't think people realize what a rarity that is. Um as a as a musician myself, um It is one of the reasons that I chose to move to this district because I wanted my kids to have those kinds of opportunities which they took full advantage of and um and I think it's really important for people to understand um how much the foundation does and what a fantastic partnership we have with this district. >> Thank you so very much for
058sharing all of that information and sign up for the breakfast and the race. >> Yes, please. And thank you very much. >> All right. Now, um, legislative advocacy and board of education update, um, any comments or updates? >> Just one thing. I just sent you all an email. Um, from the latest IASB, ISBE advisory board meeting that took place on January 27th. I sent you all the notes. Some of you that were at the DuPage division meeting saw some of that with the accountability designations that Dr. Sanders went over, but there's other things in that report like Issby's legislative agenda that's coming up for session, uh, federal funding updates and AI guidance work that the state board is looking at. So, look at that document when you have a chance, but uh, it's in your
059inbox. Thanks. Um, as a reminder, uh, our last board meeting, uh, President Donahghue indicated that, uh, time for us to begin considering what our, uh, IASB and a potential presentation, which we so consistently, uh, do and are always welcome. I think there's an expectation from us to to be participatory. So, um, already begun to think about some ideas, but um, I'll send out an email just asking if anyone has thoughts and I'll kind of give you So that uh the our president our suggestion that we would make is due March 15th. I'd love to see us get it in early March. So I'll send out some dates. I'll share some of the thoughts that have come through already and but please submit anything that you have um for us to consider and hopefully by our
060next board meeting we'll be able to make some final determinations so we can wrap it up and get it submitted by early March. I'll also mention that on Tuesday, when was the division meeting? Tuesday. Yeah, last Tuesday we um a number of us were at the division meeting and it is an opportunity. We got to hear from the state superintendent about his vision, the work that he is doing, some of the legislative issues that are priorities for um the arching overarching organization that cover school boards in the state of Illinois. So, it was very informative session and um worth our time on a Tuesday evening to attend. >> And Lori, along those lines, just so that people know that we continue our ation. Just some of the recognition that that was received by our board
061members. Really important that our community knows that we're continuing our education so that we can ensure that we're up to date as we represent our district and our all of our stakeholders. So, uh, a number of people were received those commendations for the continuing development that we do >> and umbrellas. Yes, people people were recognized for ongoing education and their advancement in um understanding the board member role and um different opportunities to pursue um education. So um we did get recognitions and very nice umbrellas and there will be pins coming but the pins were not available yet. So yeah. Okay. Any other Advocacy updates. Okay. All right. Then I need a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> All in favor? >> Yes. >> Any opposed? Okay, we are out.