001Okay, everybody got quiet naturally. It is now 700 p.m. and I am reconvening to open session and calling to order the regular board of education meeting for Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday, December 15, 2025. Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Miss Deming, >> present. Miss Donahghue >> here. >> Miss Fostic >> here. >> Miss Gint >> here. >> Miss Grover >> present. >> Mr. Kurubis >> here. >> And Mr. Rising >> here. >> We have a quorum. Mr. Rising, will you lead us in the pledge? >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy and justice for all. The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, January 12th. It is now 7:01 and I am calling to order the public hearing for the
0022025 tax levy. All right. Good evening, members of the board of education. Tonight's public hearing is the final step towards the adoption of our 2025 tax levy. The adoption of the levy is an annual process that must be completed by the end of December. Notice that tonight's hearing was published on the district's website and publicized during the November 17th board of education meeting when administration [snorts] initially presented the tenative levy. business office has not received any public comment regarding tonight's levy or tonight's public hearing. We estimate tonight's levy will result in the lowest tax rate for the district since 2011. This is the result of many years of annual increases at or below the consumer price index, a strong local residential property market, a stable bond and interest levy, and sustainable budget practices. The Illinois
003School Code gives authority to boards of education to levy a tax on the real property within the district to support its public schools. Tonight's levy is prepared in accordance with the property tax extension limitation law or PEL, which has been the legal authority over Indian Prairie's levy for over 30 years. Under PEL, the increase in the district's operating levy is limited to the prior year's consumer price index plus an allowance for new property. The 2024 CPI was 2.9% which is what was used in tonight's levy. This levy is the same as the tenative levy presented at the November 17th board of education meeting. is also materially consistent with revenue assumptions included in the legally adopted operating budget, a budget that was first discussed with the board in February of 2025. Is also consistent with projections
004for the 2627 school year. Administration has began to work on that budget year as well and will present an initial forecast at a February 2026 board of education meeting. Tonight, administration is recommending an operating levy of 360,500,000, which will be a 4.15% increase over the prior year extension. This increase represents the 2.9% tied to the consumer price index plus an additional 1.25% for new property. Once filed with the county clerks, the counties will res review the levy and adjust it based on an actual amount of new property. And as such, we will not receive the full amount levy this evening. The county clerks will also automatically apply a levy for the payment of the district's outstanding bonds. This levy amount is estimated at 27.2 million. The levy amount for bond and interest is consistent with
005the commitment made to the community during the 2024 safer, stronger 204 referendum, mainly that the tax rate will stay at or below the 2023 amount of 37 cents. administration continues to be committed to the successful implementation of the referendum and in the past year we have done two bond issues, obtained aa bond rating and completed nearly $40 million worth of capital work towards the the referendum goals. Uh 2026 will be an even busier year with several contracts even on the agenda this evening. In making the levy recommendation, administration performs a complete review of the current and future budgets as well as our reserves to ensure we are asking for revenues only to the extent necessary to fund services. The district continues to see cost increases at or above the consumer price index for which this
006levy is tied. Specifically, costs associated with salaries, health insurance benefits, and transportation continue to increase above the rate of CPI. Additionally, state and federal revenues have also not kept up with inflationary challenges, making these levy funds even more critical for the district. 77% of the district's total revenues now come from local property taxes, a percentage that has gradually increased over the past 20 years. As required by state public acts, we have included in tonight's materials disclosures related to public act 102-0895 and public act 103-394. These disclosures demonstrate that the financial reserves of the district are in line with what is needed to operate. The district had approximately 222 million of cash on hand at June 30th, 2025. The purpose of which was to address current liabilities and provide necessary liquidity. Of note, the 2526 budget
007included a one-time use of $12 million of those reserves. So, reserves will be reduced going forward into next year. The district has received estimated valuation information from both counties for both new and existing property. And based on this information, we estimate that tonight's levy will uh generate a tax rate of approximately 4.55. We estimate that for a home of five of a market value of $57,000. The tax payment will increase $187 or approximately 2.9% for the current year. And with that, I recommend that the board adopt the 2025 levy later in the meeting. I'm available for any questions on this on the levy either now or at that time. >> So, we have no public comment on this topic. I need a motion and a second to close the public hearing. >> So moved. >>
008Second. >> Is there any discussion that anyone wants to have right now with that? >> Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Deming? I >> Miss Grover. >> Mr. Kurubis. >> Yes. >> Miss Donahghue. >> Yes. >> Miss Fazdik. >> Yes. >> And Miss Gitz. >> Yes. >> The motion passes. All right. We have some board salutes tonight. We'll start with Mr. Kurubis. >> The board salutes Niqua Valley Department Chair of Physical Education Bill Casey for receiving the Illinois Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Clifford Pop Horton Award. This award, named after one of the founding fathers of the Illinois State Association, reflects a professional life dedicated to leadership, service, and accomplishment. Congratulations, Bill, on this outstanding accomplishment. And I have another, if I may.
009>> Oh, you have another. The board salutes young elementary principal Brian Zerfus on graduating from the Learning Forward Academy. The Learning Forward's flagship 2 and a halfyear deep learning experience supports educators and learners in problembased learning, helping them enhance their practice, create better learning conditions, and improve outcomes for students. Brian completed a groundbreaking problem of practice research study on feedback which will help embed effective feedback practices across district 204 classrooms. Congratulations Brian. >> Miss Guns. >> Skull orchestra teacher awarded Illinois Education Association score grant. The board salutes Skullan Middle School Orchestra teacher Daryl Silberman for receiving an Illinois Education Association score grant. This grant will support Soundwave Sarasuadi, a project introducing students to Hindustani classical music and culminating in a performance with professional percussionists. This work reflects meaningful community centered learning in our district and
010aligns with the score mission to promote excellence, equity, and educator leadership. Congratulations, Daryl. Miss Bazda. Fiser English teacher recognized as the city of Aurora Ward 10 2025 distinguished honore. The board salutes Fischer Middle School English teacher Jennifer Stade Hearner who is being recognized as the city of Aurora Wward Ward 10 2025 distinguished honore for her contributions to Fiser Middle School and the community. Congratulations Jennifer this for this welldeserved honor. >> Miss Dming Patterson fifth grader represents team USA in junior raetball. The board salutes Patterson Elementary fifth grader Samira Ray for her outstanding achievements as a Team USA junior raetball player. At just 10 years old, Samira has competed internationally, won a bronze medal in Guatemala, and will represent Team USA at the World Junior Championships in the Dominican Republic this December. Best of luck to
011Samira at the December World Junior Championships. >> Let's have an applause for Ali's great accomplishments. [applause] All right, next on our agenda is our student representative report by Anushka Sandep from Labanzi Valley High School. Hi Hello everyone. It's a pleasure to be here again. My name is Anushka Sandep and I am 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. Wubanzi just opened after extensive renovations their David A. Calvert Auditorium. The first event in the newly renovated space was our annual Prism holiday concert. Each of the shows was at capacity and the new space showed and functioned very well. Beginning in June of this year, the mechanical systems behind the curtain get updated.
012The current systems are from the early 90s. Because freshmen don't participate in our holiday concert. On Thursday, December 11th, freshman musicians participated in Meet the Artists with Jacqueline Skavca, Megie Snder, and Thomas Scarf, who are three local artists who share their talent with our band, choir, and orchestra students. As a point of pride, Wubanzi now has four very strong and aligned link programs with our elementary and middle schools. We regularly send to McCarthy and Gomebert as a part of our connect programs, a tutoring and mentoring program for the young elementary students. Soon to start is Fisher Connect. We also host a gold ambassador program that returns middle school eighth grade achieve classes to help with the eighth graders transition to freshman year. On Wednesday, January 14th, Wubanzi Valley will host 8th grade open house where
013we welcome the Warrior class of 2030. This will kick off our course selection process. And this last week, Wubanzi celebrated Special Olympics Respect Week to promote inclusion, acceptance, and respect for individuals with disabilities. Last Tuesday, we had our Pack the Place basketball game where Warriors cheered on our Special Olympics athletes. Finally, we'd love to thank Dr. Tally for so much commitment and service towards the school district for so many years. We're so excited to welcome Dr. Price as our new superintendent. On behalf of all of the Wanzi Valley students, we have a small gift for you. Welcome, Dr. Price. Our school year is off to a great start, and we really, really celebrate 50 years of tradition and excellence. At my Dex Boy report, I'll be able to provide more exciting news about our athletics
014and activities. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] All right, next up is our favorite subject every board meeting. Our school spotlight is White Eagle today. So, come on up. We have Tara Fowler, the principal, Amanda Aishin, fourth grade teacher, Don Vieiraa, the LMC director, Payton Lewis, the fourth a fourth grade student on the student council. Leah KD, an interventionist, Erin Petri, a fifth grade teacher and math club sponsor, Julie Tamburo, a first grade teacher, and Grant Courtney, a fifth grade student in math math business club, >> welcome. >> Good evening. Thank you so much for having us. I'm Tara Fowler, proud principal of White Eagle Elementary School. And I brought just a few friends. I said we travel as a pact because we're the wolves. Um, and so before we get started, there were so
015many amazing things that we could talk about that are happening at White Eagle, but we wanted to highlight some new student leadership opportunities that we have this year. So I am going to turn it over to my friends that I brought here to tell you a little bit about these leadership opportunities. So this year we at White Eagle, we started a student council. We saw many students who we thought had chances to do leadership, you know, show the way in the school, lead our pack. So we invited fourth graders to apply to be members of our student council. We chose fourth graders knowing that they could then lead the pack next year and including fourth and fifth grade. So they had to fill out an application, had questions about like what kind of qualities that
016they had as leaders, what did they think made a good leader, and then what ideas did they have for our school in leadership. And then we have our friend Payton here today to tell a little bit more about our student council. >> Good evening. My name is Payton Lewis and I'm a proud member of the White Eagle Student Council. One of the goals of student council is to support not only our school but our community. Keeping this in mind, student council worked with our PTA and the Salvation Army giving tree. We were in charge of gathering presents from students as they arrived at school. We checked them off as they were returned to ensure all gifts were received and organized. We then came early Saturday morning to help load the truck. A huge assembly line
017was made to deliver the gifts from the LMC to the Salvation Army truck. My favorite part of the giving tree experience was seeing so many students and families from Wiggo coming together to help and give presents to those in need. >> One of the other things the student council did is they developed spirit days because we all know how much fun spirit days and how it builds the school community. So they developed um their own list of spirit days. Thursday is mismatch shoes and socks if anybody comes to school. Um then so once they decided the days they created posters and then they are put into teams of three that go and present each month to the classrooms to get them excited about it and they shared their posters and so then they wear their
018wonderful spirit uh and student council shirts to show that community. And then finally, our current project that we're working on is welcoming new students. We have a lot of new kids that come to White Eagle School and sometimes it's the middle of the year and that can be really difficult. All the other kids have been here since August. So Payton and the rest of the crew are working on a few things. We're starting with a PowerPoint that will have like the three main aspects that we think all students at White Eagle School would need help with knowing when we start a new school. The beauty of that is it can be translated into many languages for all of our students. Then we're going to work on some videos and some pictures to go with that
019as well to welcome our new families. All right. So, I'm part of the math committee at White Eagle School. And so, this year we decided that we would like to start a club um business math and leadership club. So, that is what we we worked on. And with that, we have a schoolwide store. So, the kids run everything um from just money management, financial literacy, inventory, data, working on their communication skills. They do the advertising. They make commercials. They decide what we're going to sell at the school store. They put cost on that. And then when we have the school store, we have that once a month. And then we also have Wolfpack tickets for good behavior and different things at our school. So all kids can participate at the school store. So it's including
020everybody. So they can use like five Wolfpack tickets to the smelly pencil. So, we do it that way, but the kids run everything with that. So, so our use of funds um for this, our turnout was so amazing. We had over 70 kids um join the club. So, we divided them into two different 10-week sessions. So, um Grant was part of our first week 10-week session and then we'll start another 10-week session in January. Um so, we're not 100% sold on what we're going to do. We're going to wait until the second group joins us so they have input on what we're going to do with our funds. But we talked about donating to a student selected charity um funding schoolwide um initiatives in in our own school and supporting classroom or club activities um
021within our school. And then um Grant who is also part of our um business club. I found him one day walking through the halls hanging posters and I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm giving up my snack to hang the posters around the school." I was like, "Oh my gosh, [laughter] >> amazing." So, this is Grant. >> We have sub communities within the club such as finance, inventory, and marketing. I am part of the advertising team. We work on creating announcements, slideshow, and videos to share with parents, staff, and students. >> Wow. Thank you for sharing. and um Payton and Grant, how wonderful is that you've become involved and leaders in your school. [applause] So, thank you so much. What a great story. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, tonight
022we have no public comment and now we will move to our consent agenda and superintendent report. We'll start with our superintendent report, Dr. Tally. >> Thank you, Miss Danahoo, members of the board of education, and the Indian Prairie community. At the beginning of this month, our three high schools held their annual winter concerts. Crystal at NA Valley, Prism at Leonzi Valley, and Collage at Matia Valley. I was able to to attend all three, and they were all outstanding. These events are never easy to create. They take a lot of effort, skill and talent of our staff and our students. A lot goes on behind the scenes. Therefore, we have to extend our appreciation to all who were involved on the stage and behind the scenes. We want to thank IPF for their support of these
023concerts. Your donations to IPF helped to make these concerts possible. Today, our state superintendent, Dr. Tony Sanders, visited two of our schools. Dr. Sanders was able to spend time at Wabanzi Valley and McCarti Elementary. He was able to talk with students, see some of the construction work that we've completed, and learn more about some of the work that we have left to do. Dr. Sanders makes it an effort to visit schools at least once a week, and we were honored that he selected our district for a visit. Work continues on the planning of our fourth annual mental health symposium. The event will take place March 7th, Saturday at Matia. I'm able to share with you our keynote speakers. Keynote session will be uh co-presented by Dr. John Duffy, author of Rescuing Our Sons, and Miss
024Kathy Casani Adams, author of Restoring Our Girls. Additionally, we will have a student keynote, which will be the first time ever, by Eddie Salakoski. This is our first year we've had a keynote for students and we're looking forward to that. We are partnering our symposium this year with Neapville 203, Oiggo 308, and Easter 131. The National Science Foundation has awarded a 2 and a halfyear grant to Digital Promise in partnership with Looking Glass Ventures, Data Science for Everyone, and four diverse school districts. Broward County from Florida, Indian Prairie, Iowa City, and Tallaladega County in Alabama to design and implement practical, scalable pathways for teaching data science from middle school through high school. Indian Prairie is hosting the initial training the week of July 22nd. Indian Prairie has been part of digital promise for more than
02510 years. We are pleased with our relationship and with organiz and with the organization and what we learn from other school districts. I want to thank Mr. Brian Giovenini, director of innovation and instructional leadership for the work he is doing with digital promise. And as we prepare to go away for winter break, I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and may the new year be bright for everybody. Thanks. >> Okay. Next, um, I need a motion and a second to approve Dr. John Price as the new superintendent for Indian Prairie School District Community School District 204 for the period of July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2029. I'll make a motion that the board of education approve John Price as the new superintendent of Indian Prairie Community Units School District 204 for
026the period of July 1st, 2026 to July June 30th, 2029 as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I do have comments, but I'll wait to see my comments. Does anyone else want to say anything right now? Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? Mr. Rising, >> yes. >> Miss Gent, >> yes. >> Miss Donahghue, >> yes. >> Miss Grover, >> yes. >> Miss Fostic, >> yes. >> Miss Deming, >> I. >> Mr. Kurubus, >> yes. >> The motion passes. Congratulations. [applause] Anushka, would you like to give your gift to Dr. Price? Okay, I prepared a few comments and then I'm gonna ask Dr. Price um to come up and Mrs. King also and I'll introduce them in a moment. Okay, I wrote these down because it was very important to me to get this
027right tonight. The board went through a comprehensive nine plus month process to select a superintendent. I want to extend special thanks to several people. Dr. Tally provided valuable advice and support throughout the process. You are a difficult person to replace and will be be greatly missed when you leave next summer. Michelle Carter for all your help to organize the many moving parts in this process. the 23 cabinet members, association members, and principles, along with Jeannie Dina, and Sharon Ruff, who participated in interviewing the final candidates. A special note to Lisa Barry, our outstanding communications leader. She organized over 25 focus groups, the community survey, and numerous timely, informative communications during the process. I also want to thank the members of the Indian Prairie School Board. These dedicated members demonstrated how seven people with very different
028views can work together to achieve a goal. I am honored to serve with these thoughtful, passionate members. Much appreciation um goes to the thousands of people who participated in this process. Your input was valued and at the beginning of the process we communicated as a board our dedication to selecting a leader who reflects the values and aspiration of our 204 community. The survey summary provided the following desired characteristics. This is up on our website and if you want to check Indian Prairie's next superintendent must be an experienced student and staff centered leader with exemplary and integrity with a passionate commitment to every student's growth and success. Stakeholders seek a leader who is authentically approachable and highly visible in our schools and community. The next superintendent must also be a caring, compassionate, empathetic leader who brings
029a clear, collaborative, and visionary approach to leadership, communicates effectively, values equity, academic excellence, and innovation, and makes fiscally responsible, balanced decisions that serve all students and families. Dr. Price brings a wealth of experience and a determination to support students success. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Pierce to Indian Prairie. >> Price. [laughter] [applause] >> So, I um I know you've brought some guests. Um and Mrs. King, would you like to come up and say a few words? should introduce her. >> Yeah. >> Thank you so much for having us. We are so proud of Dr. Price and his family. You have no idea what a jewel that we've lost in District 187 and you are gaining. his community spirit, the way he loves the kids, the immediate responses that we have received for nine years
030now. I I've been the board president, the only one for 13 years. So, we've seen a lot, but together, Dr. Price and the school board and especially me and my family. My husband is a graduate of the high school and my daughter also is a graduate, but they're both our greatest supporters. We support each other and we support Dr. Price and his family. I cannot imagine anything less than greatness coming to you. and we are we're the ones that are crying, but we're also very happy for him. Thank you so much for having us. >> And Miss King, I just wanted to recognize you as well because you won this year's uh Thomas Lay Burroughs award for outstanding school board member in the state of Illinois. So, I wanted to make sure you got your
031recognition for all the work you've done. [applause] So, >> thank you all so much. >> Okay, Dr. Price can come and tell us who you brought with you and say a few words. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Miss Donahghue. Um my guests with me this evening, my my home family. Um my wife Cheryl um almost 25 years um and as a trained lawyer and as a gift officer now at Chicago Kent Law School. Uh my daughter Charlotte is a sophomore at Syracuse University studying journalism um and is home with us for the winter break. Uh and my son Sam uh who should be recruited by Grant. I made a note. Grant should call Sam for the finance subcommittee I think at White Eagle. Um Sam is a graduate of Mallister College is
032living fortunately back in the Chicago area. No pressure Charlotte. We want you to do that too. Um and is working as a data analyst at Uline. Um and so I really appreciate them being with me. here this evening kind of gets me every time. Um, and then you've met my work family too, Mrs. King and Mr. King Tara Cook, who has done incredibly innovative work in our school district, initiating peace rooms at the high school, at the middle school, and spearheading uh, restorative justice programs for us. Um, but, um, Mrs. King really is has has brought District 187 together as a family. And that's a a tone and a um an attitude that I recognize here as well of of being as a family. And so, thank you very much uh for your warm welcome.
033Um before I start, I just um I've watched you all on TV for so many months. I told you in an interview that you're kind of like movie stars. Um and I've got to know this community thanks to your hard work, the AV tech streaming um geniuses. Uh the work you do is amazing and has allowed me to get to know this community from afar. So, thank you for what you do every month uh for the community. Um, thank you Dr. Tally uh for your time and openness during this process. I sincerely appreciate our opportunities to talk. Um, thank you to the members of the interview teams for your hard questions uh and your careful attention. And of course, thank you to the board members for your trust in me and welcoming me and my
034family into your family and your community. Since I announced uh my change in North Chicago last week, I've been blessed to receive a number of notes and texts of appreciation from parents and employees in the school district. No one has thanked me for strategic plan execution or the increased grad rate, lagging indicators or public success dashboards. No one has thanked me for the PowerPoints I created uh or even the curriculums that we purchased. The notes have thanked me for a short conversation when I asked about a child that had been sick. The time I introduced a son's teacher to a teacher's son to a congressman and started him on a political career path. A scholarship that I awarded that gave a graduate the chance to pursue their dreams. Or the acknowledgement of one of our
035teachers and their students that they received at a board meeting that made her students and her feel special and seen. A moment of taking time to talk with a student that was struggling. a challenging assignment given that I meant that meant that I believed in my staff member and believed that they could do it well. Thanks for digging a trench in the rain on a Saturday morning for a new homeowner in North Chicago. It's been helpful for me to be reminded as I begin the ending in North Chicago and begin a new beginning here in Indian Prairie what is indeed the most important about a leader and what makes the biggest impact on individuals. All those other things that I mentioned are important. The strat plans, the data, hitting our goals, and getting new and
036better tools into teachers hands. But what comes first and last are the ways that as leaders we make people feel and the care, kindness, and concern that we show for our students and our staff. It's the time as leaders that we show up in the spaces and places where we are needed the most. And this is the first thing that drew me to Indian Prairie, your advertisement. um a job profile that highlighted relationships, a student and staff centered leader, authentic care, and showing up for your students here in Indian Prairie. So, I commit to beginning in Indian Prairie as I've will end in North Chicago by showing up especially where attention is most needed by focusing on building relationships of trust and mutual care. I commit to keeping the children of district 204 fortho for
037foremost in my thoughts and advocating for them at every opportunity. I commit to partnering with the school board and the community to advance an agenda of equity for all of the students that we serve. I commit to supporting the outstanding team that Dr. Tally has built and supporting them through this transitional period for all of you as well. Only by maintaining and growing with this excellent team can we hope to achieve the goals that we will set for our students. I commit to partnering with community groups, foundations, colleges, universities, not for profofits, and corporations to maintain and create the opportunities that our students deserve and need to thrive. I commit to bringing to Indian Prairie my full effort and dedication. Thank you for this opportunity to grow in my service and to become a member
038of this community. I'm looking forward to getting started. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. [applause] I think this is good. This is Let me see. Nice to be here. I think it was very strange. [laughter] Okay, I need next we move to our consent agenda. I need a motion for approval of consent agenda items E through P. >> I move that the board of education approve consent agenda items E through P as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Okay, Michelle, will you please call the role? Miss Gent, >> yes. >> Miss Fostic, >> yes. >> Miss Demi, >> Mr. Kurubus, >> yes. >> Miss Donahghue, >> yes. >> Miss Grover, >> yes. >> And Mr. Rising, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Next, we move to our action items. I need a motion
039and a second to approve the 2025 tax levy resolution. >> Miss Donahghue, do we need to approve um consent agenda C? >> C. >> No. No, you don't. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I'll make a motion for the approval of the 2025 tax levy resolution and the resolution adopting working cash fund tax uh MS board policy 430 revenue investment 440 incurring debt 484 taxing and borrowing authority limitations. Oh, no. I don't have to read all that. No. >> Uh, okay. >> Strike that. I approve that the board of education approve the 2025 tax le resolution. Resolution adopting working cash fund tax as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Well done, Matt. [laughter] Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Rising? >> Yes. >> Miss Gint?
040>> Yes. Miss Grover, >> Miss Deming, >> I. >> Mr. Kurumis, >> yes. >> Miss Fostic, >> yes. >> And Miss Donahghue, >> yes. >> The motion passes. We will now have a presentation from Mr. Brian Giovenini regarding middle and high school course updates. >> Sorry, it's just me tonight. [laughter] >> I'll go sit there. I always like friends as long as the camera's on my good side. Just uh good evening, Dr. Tally, Board of Education. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on on three different ideas that we're bringing to you tonight. Uh two of them are about our middle school elective encore courses that will be uh proposed for next school year and one curriculum resource for our high school uh CTE course. Each one of them aligns to our instructional resources
041board policy 621 and curriculum development 640 as well as strategic plan objective number one. In general, whenever we have a curriculum update or change or resource, we follow a general process in collaboration with our building leadership as well as staff. Making sure that aligns to state national standards and any mandates that are outlined by the state. making sure that our course outcomes are have alignment between the schools at each of our levels and making sure that we have high outcomes and rigorous experiences for our students that aligns to board goals, strategic plan and our equity plan. Tonight we're going to talk about three courses. The first one is going to be an eighth grade project lead the way flight and space class. Second one will be our seventh grade middle school studies school skills class.
042and our third one is a high school CTE business law class. The first one that we're going to talk about tonight is our eighth grade project lead the way flight in space. Our current class at the eighth grade level is energy in the environment. We're bringing this class as a change proposed idea uh for a couple of couple of reasons. Uh the first is project lead the way energy in the environment has been in our district for over 10 years. It's also a class that project lead the way has not updated recently and so what our district and staff are having to do is to bring in some really new ideas curriculum and it's uh becoming some time and effort for our staff and flight and space has been a high interest uh for our
043students. I'll show you in the next slide as well as project lead the way has some really great experiences for our students built into that that I'll talk about in a little bit. It also does align to some courses that are offered at the high school. uh one of them being our engineering pathway with an advanced course at 11th and 12th grade. And we also have a really great class that's available for ninth graders or energy engineering engineering I can't say the word engineering tech one and two that is available for our nth grade students to start as you can see before we embarked on this journey and having conversation with our teachers we did want to make sure that our students were interested in this course so we brought together uh four different course
044descriptions and surveyed our seventh and eighth grade students last year to kind of get their interest on if you had an option, which one would you most interested in? Why? And you can see that flight in space was an overwhelming favorite for our students based on for an eighth grade elective. The course is very project based just like every other project lead the way class, but it does really relate to a number of current events that we're seeing in terms of space exploration, drone technology, and project based and higher interest. And the final culminating event is actually planning a mission to Mars. The second class that we're bringing to you tonight is a slight change in one of our seventh grade courses. Currently, we have a seventh grade study skills class that is one quarter.
045What we're proposing to you this evening is changing that from a quarter to a semester class and adding some additional content and competencies into that class to kind of engage our students into a semesterbased class. There's a number of reasons why we're doing this. one to provide more student choice at seventh grade level based on some things that they're interested in. Right now, they currently have to take the study skills class as well as one other class. This will allow them to actually choose their elective at seventh grade in that spot. The second idea is it will help with our master scheduling for not only for our building leadership and provide some flexibility on when courses are available as well as the staff that will be teaching those classes. There are three major concepts that
046we're going to uh embed in that class. Uh the first one is really the executive functioning part of study skills that is currently in the course. Continuing to focus on type management, organization, uh project management, test test preparation. Those will be really important. Uh the thing that we found those concepts are most relevant when we're aligning to the current courses they're in and allowing to apply that. Those concepts are also really helpful if we kind of embed that throughout the year as opposed to a one and done. So, it's kind of a weekly continuous process that they continue to evolve and practice those skills. By moving it from a quarter to a semester, we're now actually able to now embed some additional opportunities that we've talked about for a long time. One of them being
047entrepreneurship and innovation, bringing in some design thinking, allowing them to solve some problems of high interest to them. A lot of student voice and choice within that. And the last piece is we can bring in some career awareness and expose students to a number of different careers that they may or may not be aware of at this time. You can see our course description here uh that proposing really uh connecting the current study skills outcomes and then adding the career awareness as well as the design thinking process that directly aligns to our portrait of graduate competencies and really giving our students opportunities to highlight those competencies in their student work. Our final one that we're bringing to you tonight is a CTE course resource update. Uh our business CTE law class has been working with
048the new social studies curriculum law class. As the social studies and Mike Purcell mentioned when they proposed this class, law is one of our higher interest careers and providing two great experiences for students is really important to us. So our teams have been working together to make sure that we have a robust experience for students in both classes and reducing that overlap. So when we look at the business law, it's really looking at the foundations of the system, how we transact with the system, how we protect ourselves, and then ultimately protecting our personal relationships. When we reviewed our current resource from 2006, uh what we saw was that there was a lot of actually examples, case studies, mock trials that were looking at it from the personal side. And we think it's really important to
049look at it from the business side, which is why we're bringing a course update for Sengage Business Law, which will be available for purchase in 2026. And we're proposing that as our new curriculum resource for CT business law, and that'll be on the board um agenda for January 12th. Next steps for our middle school classes. On the January 12th board agenda, we'll be asking you to vote on uh switching from the energy and the environment class to the project lead the way flight in space for our eighth grade students. That cost is including includes the core training. Project lead the way requires that all stu all teachers who teach the classes to go through a core training. They go through it one time as well as some of the curriculum supplies to change from energy
050and environment to uh flight and space. The second piece will be the design and discovery. Uh that'll be approving that design and discovery class. And then if that course is approved, we will bring a curriculum team together to review some uh curriculum resources. It's really important to us that we build a really robust curriculum for that class that is um really outlined and has some strong resources because we do anticipate teachers to change in and out from year to year. So having a strong foundation will be really important for the success of that class. and we'll be asking for approval for the curriculum resources later in the spring. So, thank you for allowing me to share those three courses for you tonight and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about those
051courses. >> Okay, I'm just going to open it up to anyone. Um, if you have a question, just free to ask. I just I had one uh obviously we know the the project will lead the way uh with the uh um the flight and space is the design and discovery is that is that something we're doing ourselves? Is that an outside curriculum company um that has >> little both that has tools and instruction and training and that type of stuff? I mean I'm assuming that's what that $35,000 is. Correct. Correct. We're going to bring in some curriculum resource, digital resources to evaluate and see what is the best option for that class and all of them would have some training and curriculum resources available to them for those digital >> and you'll let us know
052as that progresses. Okay. >> Yeah. That'll that'll be board approved. Whatever we decided for team, we'll bring that back for final approval in the spring. Okay. For adoption. >> I just have one quick point for a clarification. Um the project lead the way class is an elective right this isn't doesn't replace eighth grade science it's in addition to >> yeah I forgot to mention uh one of the reasons why we're switching is project lead the way flight and space is a really good complement to our science courses right now energy and the environment we actually do see some overlap in some of the concepts that are taught in science curriculum and then the elective flight and space so this is a really nice complement to the science curriculum so it does not replace that eighth
053grade required class for science >> great question >> thank discover. >> Okay. So, is the design and discovery replacing study skills? >> At seventh grade, it'll change the study skills class. So, study skills will no longer be an option for seventh grade students. Okay? >> It'll be the design and discovery that students will have a choice to select that class. For students in the sixth grade wheel, they will still take the study skills class at sixth grade. So, do you have to take because sometimes there's certain encore courses you have to take in seventh grade in order to take the eighth grade. So, do you have to take like design and discovery in order to take the flight course in eighth grade? >> None of the class uh no classes have a prerec. >> Okay.
054or eighth grade or seventh grade. Based on the option that a student chooses in their middle school kind of depends on where they go each level for option one, option two, option three, option four, whether they take world language, whether involved in band, choir, orchestra. It kind of um students make choices on where they go. Depending on which choice they make is how many elective opportunities they have at seventh and eighth grade, but there's no prerexs at any level for seventh and eighth grade. And they all all students take two instructional technology classes in sixth or and seventh grade. >> Okay. And then if study skills was a quarter, what was the other quarter? Because if you're replaceing something else, then that was another quarter, right? >> Absolutely. So at the seven in option one,
055the seventh grade was art one. >> Okay. >> And study skills. Study skills and move to the sixth grade part of the wheel in addition to facts. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks. >> Well, it sounds like these are um worthy upgrades for these courses. I think the flight one is probably going to generate a lot of excitement just the title itself. So, so thank you for um looking at how to evolve our curriculum and excited to see what goes forward. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> All right. Now we have legislative advocacy and board of education update. I know Miss Dumming you have some report. >> Yes. Um [clears throat] we attended the Illinois Associated School Board meeting. We the entire group did uh and I was our delegate this year for our
056assembly. And so I just wanted to provide some feedback from the delegate assembly. Uh, as you'll recall, there were 10 items that were on the agenda and they were all recommended for approval. There were a couple that we discussed as a board and the um item number two which we discussed as a board and wanted to have a vote of no. Um, I did speak on that at the meeting and shared our reasoning why um [clears throat] it was pulled. I requested for that one, that item to be pulled from the consent agenda. There were there actually were five items that were pulled. That was one of them. It did pass. It was a 380 to 60 vote. So, there were others who had some concerns as well. The other items that were pulled were
057um item number three on nominations, item number six um on the nominating committee, and item number nine declared emergencies. So they those all did p excuse me did pass as well. The other discussion one that we had were terms of office um that did pass but um there were a number of people who shared some thoughts about that as well but um but they all did pass. And the second thing that I'll share is um I did sit on a presentation on on Sunday along with um another board member from Springfield and there were four of us some of the ISB members and basically just had a chance to share reasonings on uh what we've done with some of the other districts that are current that are contiguous to us as far as legislative advoc
058advocacy and really helping others to understand how they can really have an impact and some different ideas. We discuss that they can help uh ensure that they have an opportunity to engage with a number of other school boards in helping to reach out to different legislators. So that went very very well. And that's my report. And that last topic is something that the public probably doesn't see us doing because it's invisible work that um the board is involved with uh very much uh interacting with legislative local legislators on topics of interest to Indian prairie and advocating our positions on different things. Um so thank you for that >> and I think that you know one of the things that um that Dr. Tally and and some of the other um superintendents that that we've worked
059with, they have made sure that they look to help bring us together in order to have those opportunities so that we hear what each other are doing. But we also have a chance to let our legislators because so many of them cross district boundaries. And so having an opportunity to to get together so that they can come to one location instead of sometimes having to maybe get to four or five districts, but really having a chance for them to hear some of the things that we share and do it collectively can have a little bit more impact sometimes. So that's been extremely beneficial and look forward us to us doing another one. We haven't done one in a while. So, >> any other topics? >> Two weeks ago, I attended uh IASB's advocacy kickoff for
060that they have. Um they're they're thinking about taking it a little bit of a different direction and kind of laying things out a little better for school board members. I mean, obviously still keeping them up to date as far as what things we should speak about, you know, to our local legislators, but they're going to try to I don't think any of us need that because we all know our local legislators for the most part. Um, and have no problem approaching them or or have them on speed dial. Uh, last week I participated in the evidence-based funding committee that I'm on with Isby uh and um continuous things on that. I'll get you the minutes when they come out for that meeting. Um, but it's always interesting. But the the real reason I wanted to
061speak up because I know our board collectively have been talking about how we need to tell our story more. Um, especially with us being a tier 2 district. Uh, I wanted to give kudos to Matt Shipley, our CSBO. Um on December 4th he participated in an IASB presentation on legislative hot topics on budget challenges. It was IASB ISBY IASBO. There was a state senator there and uh Matt participated and did a wonderful job of telling our story how evidence-based funding really hasn't helped us or stay ahead of inflation. um you know and then we're also capped with levy and then with the reductions in the M mc categoricals the MCATs um you know how though those things are kind of building upon each other over time and and I just thought Matt did a wonderful
062job and and uh people at IASB let me know that they were so thankful for Matt so I just wanted to give him a shout out on behalf of our board >> right thank you >> President Can I um say one thing other thing? Thank you Mark for attending the um inaugural uh advocacy. I could not attend that meeting but um ISB [clears throat] has asked for some of the delegates to uh be advocacy ambassadors and so uh they are going to be sending some information uh to us to share with our boards so they can receive some feedback. So once um I have some things that they wanted to share that they're looking to put forward to different legis potential legislative action um but they want to have some of our feedback first and
063um and I'll share as soon as I receive some of that information. >> All right. Thank you. All right. I think that's it. I need a motion to one more. Okay. >> One other thing. Sorry. I just wanted to one other thing. But uh you were gracious enough to thank every person uh as we did our superintendent search and just wanted to say thank you for your leadership as we went through the process because it was done excellently and you worked extremely hard. So we wanted to thank you as well. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, we need a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? Okay, we are Eight of >> struggling.