001the finance committee chair. Madam President, if you please take over. >> Sure. As we appoint our board committees each year, which we did in April, the committee of the whole will select a finance chair at this meeting. And at this point, I will entertain any nominations for the finance chair. >> I nominate Greg Nigler. >> Okay, I think we all were doing that at the same time and this so are there any other nominations for the finance chair? Hearing none, Greg, will you accept the finance chair nomination? >> I accept. Thank you very much. >> Okay, thank you. It's your meeting. >> Oh, great. Now we got that out of the way. Let's get back to work. All right, so Uh next up, the fourth item on the agenda is the minutes from the April
00227th, 2026 meeting. Does anyone have any questions or changes they would like to make to the minutes? No? >> No. >> So we all agree they accurately reflect last month's finance committee meeting? >> Yes. >> Excellent. Uh let's see. Item five is the athletic training services renewal. Information regarding this topic can be found under item 5A10 of the regular board meeting packet. Mr. if you would, please. >> Uh thanks, Greg. Uh so tonight's agenda does include the proposed renewal for the district's contract for athletic training services with the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute, otherwise known as IBJI. And um again, they provide services at Lyle High School primarily. There's an occasional um event that they might do at the junior high, but it's primarily at the high school and that's to support our student athletes
003uh during practices as well as competitions. And then obviously, they also um help with return to play guidance, uh communication with families and coaches, um rehabilitation support, and other injury evaluation uh and treatment. Uh they've been our provider since 2020. And the current agreement was awarded to them through a competitive bid process uh back in 2023 for a 3-year uh term that expires this June 30th. Uh the current annual contracted is $50,000. And then there's some additional billing here and there for summer camp coverage um as well as kind of those junior high events here and there that I mentioned earlier. Um so as as I kind of mentioned last month, you know, as the agreement was approaching expiration, we did reach out to um IBJI to see if they would be interested in a
004contract extension uh under that previous bid that we did in 2023. Uh they were willing to do an additional 2 years, um but the cost of that went up fairly significantly kind of based on the market and things like that. And so, for 2026-2027, that was a $75,000 cost. And then for 2027-2028, it would be $80,000. Um we did kind of discuss three options last month in terms of, you know, renewing for 1 year and then rebidding the services or possibly renewing for 2 years, um or possibly even bidding it out immediately. And kind of based on that guidance, uh we decided to pursue the the 1 year with the option for a second year. I did talk to IBJI a little bit more about um the committee's interest in maybe getting that second year
005aligned with CPI. Um so I did um broach that topic again with them, but uh their business department was firm on the 80,000 for year two. So as a result of that, I did leave the second year as an optional year. I didn't enter into a complete 2-year agreement or that's not what's being proposed this evening. Um and obviously this gives us the option to either uh consider bidding it out again in the winter or we could decide just for continuity of service um to extend with them for that second year at $80,000. Uh I I did want to um remind that last time in 2023, I think I mentioned this at our previous meeting, we did only have one bidder last time around when we went through this process despite reaching out to multiple
006vendors. IBJI was the only one that actually submitted a bid back in 2023. So, unfortunately, the market for athletic training services may not be as robust as it is in some other areas. And so, um I think renewing with them now will be uh the best bet from a continuity of services standpoint. Uh so, the um the agreement that's included as I mentioned before, it is increasing from 50,000 to 75,000. Um and then any additional summer camp coverage or things like that will be billed separately as it was before. And so, I didn't receive any questions over the weekend. I don't know if there's any additional questions, but the agreement is included in the consent agenda for approval. Again, it's 1 year at 75,000 with the option to renew for a second year at $80,000.
007>> Any further questions or concerns? No? All right. Thanks. We appreciate that uh summary. >> Sure. >> Uh let's see here. Item six, uh school year 2026-2027 technology equipment and subscription costs. The information for this can be found under item six of the finance committee packet. Uh Dr. Filipiak. >> Thank you so much. At this point, I'd like to turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Mr. Markey. >> Good evening, everyone. Um Trent is with us here this evening. He's going to be sharing an overview of our technology budget and some of the main allocations. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Randy. Uh and some of the main allocations uh for this upcoming year. So, we'll give some of the the major highlights. It's not a line-by-line uh budget um allocation, but again, so the
008major purchases including our hardware purchases, some of the major software purchases, and some of the major kind of network and security infrastructure that we uh take care of year over year as well. So, I'll turn it over to Trent. >> All right. Thank you for having me back again to talk talk about this. Um believe it or not, I am excited to come here and kind of present, you know, what we're doing and what we're working on um to you guys. So, starting off we have our student and staff uh devices refresh cycle. Uh this has been in place for about 6 years where we purchase uh new student devices in 2nd, 6th, and 9th grade. And the students keep those devices through um either the three or four years that they're at that school
009building. That creates some device ownership. They're responsible for repairs on that device. Um the idea behind them keeping it all all those years is so that they they're supposed to take care of it um like it's theirs cuz it's the one that's been assigned to them. And then we have the uh the staff refresh cycle as well. A couple years ago we pushed this out to 5 years. Um so, we're going to try stretching out the devices for staff a little bit longer, buying a little bit um higher powered devices to begin with to kind of make them last those 5 years. Uh there was one question um about delaying some purchases that uh Mr. Markey presented in February. Um that is those are those uh kindergarten uh Chromebooks. Actually, sorry. My apologies, they are
010the first grade Chromebooks um that we that we delayed again um from we were supposed to purchase them 2 years ago. We delayed them for this school year cuz they were still working well. Um and we're delaying them one more one more year because they are still performing perfectly fine and there's no need to replace them at this time. Moving into um our device purchasing by location on page two. Uh the high school is the school that is pretty much on cycle for this for this coming school year um for devices, uh projectors, other hardware within that building. Um So, in February we brought to you the the pre-authorization to purchase the staff devices and also the student devices based upon global supply chain issues with RAM, hard drives, all those kind of things. So
011we were able to secure those staff devices at right after right after that you guys provided that authorization. So we appreciate that and it allowed us to secure the best pricing we could at that time and then get all the devices in as well. We're also able to secure the Chromebooks in uh middle of April. They did increase a little bit from that presentation due to the ongoing ongoing global issues with processors. We kind of decreased the amount of Chromebooks we were buying to kind of to kind of offset those costs. Working carefully with our with our vendors and manufacturers, we did the best we could with with what was presented to us. Unfortunately though from when we started pricing out these devices in November to when we executed the purchases, there was an increase
012of about $68,000 in total between the staff and student devices. Luckily we've Jason and I have been working together for a while on this and we were able to move things around, be able to cut some things to kind of just absorb that cost into our tentative budget for next for next fiscal year. >> Oh Trent, quick question. When you delay the purchasing of equipment, is it simply going to spike the budget a year or two later then and have we factored that in? >> With the way the five-year plan is working out, that's also provided provided to you. It kind of next year is kind of a low It's not a low year but there's no allocated staff device purchases which actually allows that to fit in very nice into that then because we're
013not buying for staff and students and then the touch screen ones. >> Okay. >> So it actually fits very well into moving it to next fiscal year. >> Okay, thank you. >> The junior high school and then elementary school are just student Chromebook purchases for those for those buildings then. Moving on to the E-rate purchases, E-rate's always very fun to talk about, can be kind of confusing. Um there were a couple questions around some things I'll do my best uh to answer. So we take advantage of the E-rate program for for our infrastructure and networking purchases purchases when applicable. Um So the fire There was a question on the firewall renewal and I'll do my best to kind of explain this. So E-rate covers infrastructure and networking. It does not cover cybersecurity. So our firewalls
014are our our front door to our to to the internet. So if that that door is broken or if that door, you know, gets you know, knocked in, it's pretty much letting letting anyone out in the internet into our school district digitally. So there's a lot of cybersecurity to it as well. So the way it the way it breaks down is we have two firewalls. One is one is essentially active and one is a redundant one. So in case one goes down, then the other one just takes over. So our front door just doesn't become, you know, broken. And you can't and you can't get out, you can't get in. Uh unfortunately, E-rate does not cover redundant hardware. So So we have two two firewalls, we need two licenses. Only one license is covered under
015the E-rate program because they don't cover redundancy. Uh and so then part of that license is networking and part of it then is cybersecurity. For uh the tier of licensing we use, uh 29% is is considered networking and the other 71% is considered cybersecurity. So E-rate then only covers that 29% that's considered networking and the rest is the rest is essentially not um you know, part of the E-rate program. So that's kind of how it breaks down with the the total cost. The E-rate eligible amount is half of that, but only 29% of of that, and then our reimbursement amount then is at 2545. Clear as mud, I hope. E-rate gets very complicated sometimes with some of the um on what's eligible and and ineligible, but hopefully that was a hopefully that was kind of
016easy to digest and understandable for that. >> Yeah, I know um at least I asked that question to understand the 29%, so that was clear. Thank you. I do have a question about why cybersecurity um purchases and investments are not part of E-rate. Is there a separate program, or is it just the program not keeping up with technology? >> Yeah, so the initial design of the program was to is was to help school districts, you know, have you know, get off the ground with networking, um be able to buy the switches, the access points they need. They did do a pilot program that is ongoing um that we did apply for and did not get did not get accepted, where they're starting to kind of tiptoe in the waters of offering some cybersecurity um eligible
017expenses. Um so, there's a 3-year pilot program occurring with that right now. Um So, there were the the demand was super high. They only accepted a like a very limited amount of participants. Um but so, hopefully down the road it does become um part of the E-rate program because it would benefit us uh pretty drastically. >> Yeah, so yes, thank you. And I'm going to ask one follow-up question. I'm sorry. Um so, there are obviously cybersecurity requirements that the district has to adhere to by state law. So, there's nothing from state funding that helps districts do that? >> Um as we kind of move into cybersecurity software renewals, there is one program we are taking advantage of for for next school year um that I can kind of highlight on, but um it's very limited
018um in what the in in in the state providing um either funding or pretty much funding for any additional cybersecurity, but we are going to take advantage of one program that I will cover and let you know about. >> Just one more clarifying question. You said we have two walls, which makes a lot of sense that we have the first one in the backup. The cost for the first one is what you have under the E-rate on page six, and the cost for the second one is listed on this table on page seven. Am I following that correctly? >> Page >> I'm sorry, which page are you referring to for page seven? >> Oh, sorry. Uh the software renewal costs, and then there's a line for cyber security. Is that the second wall, or is
019that separate? >> Um the firewall renewal is actually not listed under that on under that um cyber security line. So, um I will I can cover what it is under there, um but that wasn't included in that line particularly. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> All right. So, that the cost for like cyber security step one is under E-rate purchases is both under there, or the second one is later on, or both is under this first table? >> Yeah, so the in in within that fire firewall renewal's total cost is both. >> Is both? Okay, that's >> So, that yeah, so yeah, so it's both there, but then we just kind of start breaking out the reimbursable amount, and then that total of 107,527 is included then in that final table listing out kind of all
020the costs. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. And there was also another additional question on um replacing the wireless access points at the elementary school. Um it was it was regarding around um is it because the hardware is going end of support, or is it life cycle planning, and it's and it's both. Um all those access points currently have an end of support date in December of '26, where they'll no longer be um be able to reach out to support and get assistance. And we also kind of align that with the E-rate funding cycle. Um with E-rate it's 5 years of funding uh that you get kind of up front to use for projects. So, this coming fiscal year is is the start of a a of a new funding cycle. So, kind of aligned
021with the end of support date and then also with kind of having a new wave of E-rate funding that we can utilize cuz last year we took our available E-rate funds down to $775 left from $259,000. So, we had no more money left in E-rate last year to do it. So, it's kind of just perfectly aligned to kind of fall within this coming fiscal year where we have um new funding of approximately $326,000 we can use on infrastructure and networking over the next 5 years. So, there were a couple questions also along what are we doing to kind of um you know, reduce the the rate of increase on some of these subscriptions, what are we doing for collective bargaining purchases, how are we kind of keeping the cost down as much as we can.
022Uh so, we take advantage of a couple different programs. Uh first is the Illinois Learning Technology Purchase Program that's offered by the by the Illinois Learning Technology Center or LTC. Um it kind of provides they can negotiate some prices with vendors and we can take advantage of that by being part of that program. Um we also use Sourcewell and then other purchasing contracts that are available. And then so, the one thing we are taking advantage of for our uh CrowdStrike licenses are is the through the Department of Innovation Technology through the state. Uh there there was back a couple years ago a a state and local cybersecurity grant program offered by the federal government that the state received funds for. They are turning that around and offering K-12 school districts up to 100 free CrowdStrike
023licenses to use um within the district. So, that by taking advantage of those 100 licenses, it's about 1/3 of our of our total count for endpoints that we need to protect uh with CrowdStrike. So, that's kind of about 1/3 of that cost or around $11,000 that the state is essentially, you know, allowing us to reinvest into other tools within our budget. So, that's one example of kind of some funding from the state that we're taking advantage of. >> Um and CrowdStrike is a I don't need to tell you this, Trent, but CrowdStrike's a premium product. Have we done the math that getting the free 100 licenses and the additional that we have to purchase is actually beneficial versus getting a perfectly adequate, but not as premium solution? >> Yeah, we definitely kind of evaluated We
024did some evaluated that this year. We've been on CrowdStrike for a couple years. Um we kind of, you know, looked around and kind of tested out some other solutions and still found that CrowdStrike met the needs of of what we're looking to do best for uh our district. Um so, like Sentinel One is another one that we looked at. Um they weren't coming in that much difference in cost, especially with now offering those 100 licenses. Every everything with CrowdStrike was coming in lower than what 300 would have been with other vendors. And then we also just, you know, straight-up old-fashioned negotiations, going back and forth with vendors, like kind of buying a car, um back and forth via email and calls just to try to, you know, um make sure that our fund that we're
025getting the most out of the funds that we have available to us. Um so, it's like every day it's buying another car over and over again, but um so, that's so those are kind of some of the things we're taking advantage of. And then for the projects like Chromebooks and the laptops, we're always going out and getting three or more quotes. Um we're always kind of doing our due diligence by making sure we're shopping around and make sure that we're getting the best price and not just always just going with one vendor, get a quote, and say yes. Um we're always, you know, any anything larger, we're always getting at least three, if not more. There's a question around cybersecurity um and the annual soft and what does the annual software renewal cover? Uh we
026use a um you know, we use a a good amount of tools that you know, to maintain our networking and keep our and keep our district safe. Uh couple of the um I'm not going to mention product names in this, but I'll kind of some of the tools that we're looking at that we use are obviously for backups. We back up all our on-prem infrastructure and also our cloud infrastructure. Uh we use CrowdStrike. We do fishing simulations. Um we are we are we're planning to add an email security platform um and kind of use some of those fund like some of the some of those funds that we are saving throughout through other things and kind of strategically reinvest those into additional things like additional products to keep our district safe. Uh fishing has been
027the largest attack vector we've seen this year. Um we have fishing emails left and right that get reported using the Cyber Not Squirrel. Um some are very very legitimate. Um There's one that the other day was an was a evite. It looked like an evite from a former student to a to to someone. And that when you when you kind of explore that link, it goes to a malicious sign-in page to ask for credentials and then that account would get taken over if they followed it, but luckily they reported it. We deleted out of everyone's inboxes and and kept and kept us safe. Appro- Something like this would then just know that that's not right. Something's wrong with that. It just not even have it be delivered to the end user, which would you know,
028protect us a lot from from the fishing attacks that we see. We're We've also budgeted for uh another uh internal penetration test this year. We've been doing a lot of work with our kind of policies and procedures and kind of really strengthening our our network internally. So we're doing another test to kind of validate all all that work we've been doing um to kind of make sure that, you know, have the work we've done to see like that, you know, we what what we're trying trying to accomplish can't happen, but then also learn more about our network and what else we can do to make it more secure. Cuz that was also part of the tentative budget that that we submitted. And then about instructional technology, um we have have EdTech committee that we meet
029that we met with regularly. Um Jason and I, the assistant principals, and instructional coaches met uh throughout the year to talk about EdTech subscriptions and instructional technology tools. Kind of what do we what what's working well, what what do we want to keep, what do we not what do we want to Excuse me, not renew. Uh so, we're trying to make sure that we are streamlining that approach uh so that we students and teachers, you know, we're using a select few tools that they can really learn how to master. As well as I'm protecting our student data. Our data is not student data is not going to all 10 vendors, it's maybe only going to four, and we can really streamline and protect that. And then and make sure we get the most value out
030of our investment that we're spending on those instructional technology tools as well. There was a question about the process for vetting uh renewals of curriculum technologies that IT doesn't own. Um so, some renewals come out of the technology budget if they are two buildings or more and have the entire student population as part of that subscription. So, I-Ready, for example, falls under technology because it's for the elementary school and junior high for everyone. There are some tools that maybe it's only one school or it's select grade levels from select schools. Those are the ones that IT doesn't manage, but we are very involved in that process still. Um we talk about those at at EdTech committee as well, not just the ones that IT purchases. Um they must have a Illinois NDPA on on file
031for SOFA, so it comes through technology as well to make sure that NDPA that we can get that signed and everything's everything's squared away there. So, we definitely, you know, we are we are very much a part of that process when they're looking at adding um something else at a school building. There was a There was a uh two similar questions on um the note at the bottom of the subscription table of that, you know, this does not include all the yearly software renewals. Um the difference between uh the budget and what is listed is about $40,000 difference. Um some examples of what those uh of those differences are, there we have some plugins for our student information system that helps, you know, uh perform specific tax tasks or add additional functionality, our digital signage
032subscription, uh lib- library management software, our SSO and rostering platform we use for all our tools. Uh those are just some of the examples of things that just didn't really fit into one of those line items. Uh normally when we've done this in March, not everything's sort of finalized yet. Um but now that we're doing this in May, we kind of had that all finalized. Um so we have those kind of concrete numbers now. Um so in the future if that's something you you you guys would like to see kind of a comprehensive list there, um we can definitely uh work on that for the following uh presenta- or the next year's presentation kind of list that out fully. Um but so that's kind of some of the examples of things that are not um
033provided in that table. And then there was another question a about uh you know, at the end here we present the net total of $745,000. And then the question was what percent of spend is missing from the full technology budget. So we submitted a tentative budget of approximately uh 1.039 million. So about 25% or so um is not written out anywhere on this document. Uh the the the biggest uh spend there is for Presidio, our our managed service provider. Um that that it pretty much kind of takes up most of that difference um on what's not included uh in here to kind of what our full tentative budget was. And then moving on to the uh the five-year the five-year plan document, uh we update this every year to kind of uh you know, to
034move everything to the left essentially and then kind of start filling in what we're expecting to do in the next in that in that fifth year. And then we adjust as we go. So, those Chromebooks kind of kept getting pushed back. We move things up sometimes depending on where it kind of fits and try to keep uh that estimated gross cost as flat as possible to avoid a lot of peaks and valleys and kind of you know, keep everything very consistent. There was a question on why the reimbursement amounts in FY30 and FY31 are significantly lower than the other three. That's just because of the lack of E-rate purchases projected in those years. Uh we have one E-rate purchase out of those two years, which it kind of accounts for that $10,000 difference of an
035estimated $20,000 cost on battery backups. And then with no E-rate purchases projected in year five, that's why the gross and net cost is the same. Any questions over the five-year plan document? Okay. And then the last document is uh is just is for your reference in accordance with board policy 4:60. These are just the uh expected contracts that will exceed $25,000 uh within the with with this summer with purchasing. Uh so the the DH the two this high school staff computer project and student Chromebook project are the two largest followed by the E-rate project that was within uh the first document, the projectors for the high school, our our student information system, and then also the i-Ready platform are all the contracts we expect to execute greater than $25,000. So So, in in if in
036closing, you know, thank you again for, you know, the continued opportunity to come here and present this to you guys. Um I get excited for it. I get get excited to share what we're doing um in within our department. And also thank you for, you know, allowing us to continue to invest um, in not only end user devices that everyone sees, but also within our network and and and in cybersecurity that so we can keep using those devi- devices efficiently and and keep our network safe. I hope I answered all the submitted questions, um, but if I missed anything or there any additional questions, happy to to answer them at this time. >> I think you you covered them all. There were a lot of good questions from the board, but you you did a
037great job and bless you. >> Bless you. >> Um, in answering them. So, excellent. Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right, so there are no further Oh, I'm sorry, Dan Dan, did you want to say something? >> I think you >> Okay. Well, thank you very much, Trent. We really appreciate that. And we, uh, look forward to seeing you at the meetings in the future. All right. >> clarify we have authorization to kind of move forward. I know we got authorization, I think it was in February for a lot of these items, but I know Trent already is being very proactive and has a number of POs waiting in my queue just for your guys' authorization. So, I'm sure he'll be emailing me bright and early tomorrow morning to, uh, send those through, but, uh,
038we have those ready to go. So, it sounds like, uh, the committee's in agreement that we can move forward with these purchases and we'll incorporate that into the fiscal year '27 budget next month. >> Uh, any objections or comments, concerns? Uh, we are in agreement that you should proceed. >> Thank you. >> All right, so that brings us to item seven, uh, reduced student fee waiver discussion. The information for this can be found under item seven of the finance committee packet. Mr. Wilkinson, if you would, please. >> Yeah, so I decided to bring a little policy discussion to the finance committee meeting just for a little bit of a change of pace here. Um, and and the discussion really focuses on, uh, something that kind of came to my attention is we, uh, Marilyn actually
039brought to my attention is we were talking about re-implementing fees after our last meeting, uh, Uh, we we were talking about the reduced fee and the fact that it's uh, families are charged 25% but neither of us could find that in writing anywhere. And so, uh, that's kind of been the practice that has been in place previously at the district but we thought it might be a good opportunity to uh, as we're looking at some of these things formally document um, what our reduced fee waiver practice is uh, within board policy 4 colon 140. And then, um, I also wanted to consider maybe a change to that um, what that policy is for 26-27. And so, currently if we're talking about students that qualify for free meals, um, it's already in board policy that they
040get a full waiver of those eligible fees. Um, and that's that would remain unchanged for next year. Uh, for students who qualify for those reduced price meals as I mentioned before, they get a 75% discount and are only charged 25% um, of the fees. Uh, as we'll get into I am uh, recommending that we instead change that to 50% um, and we'll talk a little bit about some of those reasons here in a second. Um, the other uh, thing I wanted to mention is that you know, board policy already requires us to waive fees for those free students but Illinois law does not require um, school districts, the boards of education to provide any kind of reduced fee uh, pricing. That's something that can be decided at the local level. The free waivers is uh,
041required by the state. Reduced um, is a choice that the board can make and that's part of the reason why when we look at that policy it doesn't specifically address or speak to uh, reduced fee waivers. And so, um, let's see here. To help provide some context, I did uh do a survey and I reached out to some of our other neighboring districts and I kind of summarized that at a very high level uh within the write-up. It was a little bit tricky. I tried to to phrase it as best as I could, but some of the answers, maybe you had to read between the lines a little bit, but I think the overarching concept is that um you know, I think there was about five districts or so that appeared to not offer any
042kind of reduction for reduced students. Um from what I could glean, four districts provided a 50% reduction, and then there was another four districts or so that provided a full waiver. They treated reduced students exactly the same um as free. And so, there was definitely some variation. I wouldn't say that any one particular method was um what was the predominant choice, but what did kind of stand out to me is that nobody else is really doing 25%. Um and so, that was definitely kind of unique when we looked at some of the neighboring districts. Um I did get some questions about kind of what is our student population breakdown right now. And so, as of April 2026, kind of our last claim for for uh free and reduced meals through the lunch program, there was
04323% of the district students that qualified for free meals, and then 6% that qualified for reduced price meals. Now, some of those free and reduced might be certified directly through what's called direct cert or Medicaid and some of those kinds of things. So, not all of those students are submitting the applications for the fee waivers. Um those numbers are actually much smaller. A lot of the students that qualify for free or reduced are actually directly certified through the I think it's the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. They're the ones that provide the list. And so we're not actually processing applications for all those um all those students. I also got a question about um under the proposed uh change, what would be the estimated financial impact to families? Obviously, that's going to vary depending
044on whether they're in elementary school, junior high, or high school. Also, when you get kind of into the junior high and high school years, you have more activities and things like that, and these fee waivers do apply to um activities and extracurricular things. But based on assumptions of kind of a $200 annual registration fee, I used an approximate of three activities per student. Um the estimated cost would be about $200 annually for each student. Obviously, the impact would vary depending on grade level and and what they decide to participate in. Another question was whether payment plans are available for families, and yes, we do have those. Um occasionally, families do take advantage of that opportunity, but we do offer that for anybody who can't pay up front and needs to be able to pay for
045it over time. There was also a question regarding historical unpaid student fee balances. And while we don't have kind of what that is year-to-year, if you look at cumulatively since 2017, which is kind of the that's where our records go back to through our our fee invoicing structure, it was implemented around that time, the unpaid student fees right now as stands at $32,000. Um I did include in in the packet a student fee waiver procedures document. Um we kind of had this a a streamlined document of this internally that we used, and that we can hand out to families that it walked through some of the basics. I think it it uses the Illinois administrative code for what qualifies as a school fee, what qualifies as a fine. And so, those were all outlined within
046the document. And then, um also, if students enroll late or withdraw early, there's some calculations that we can do um to kind of prorate those fees for those families as well. And so, that's in here. It was just a draft at this point, um but it's something that we'll probably formalize and put into place as we start to re-implement fees. And that way we have it not only for internal use, but we'll also have it as a uh document that we can provide to families so they know kind of what their options are, what the process looks like, and and we'll be able to hand that out to them both at registration and then also kind of throughout the year. Um I did get a question again that the document outlines, you know, what fees
047are covered under the waiver program, things like the registration fees, athletic and extracurricular, PE uniforms, driver's education fees. All those costs are included in the waiver program. Things that aren't would be things such as parking fees, um yearbooks, optional purchase, things along those lines. But, I did get a question about what about AP exams or certified certification testing fees. And so, those are handled a little bit differently. Um those are actually administered through the College Board, and the district uses total registration as that process uh for those fees. And so, uh the standard exam fee I I learned is $103. And students that qualify for fee waivers or reduced only pay $20, but that is actually subsidized by the College Board, which provides a $37 fee reduction for that exam. And then also the state
048of Illinois provides an additional $33 subsidy. So, that's not outlined on that document that I included because it's kind of separate and it's handled through that total registration process and the College Board. Um There's also, I don't know if this was the certification that was referred to, but there's a state seal of biliteracy assessment that that happens at the high school. Um the district has historically covered those costs for all students. I know that a lot more students are taking advantage of that, so it's getting a lot more expensive. So, that might be one that we have to kind of reevaluate down the road. But at least for this most recent year, it didn't matter if you were paid, reduced, or free, um that cost was covered by the school district. And so, um Again,
049kind of the the first primary focus here is to get something documented as to what do we actually do. Part of the reason I think I I outlined this in the in the document for the 50% is one that that seemed to be kind of the more predominant uh path that many of the districts were taken. I don't know if this is a silly reason, but it also seems like it's a little bit easier to administer when it's just a flat-out 50% of the fee versus 25% of that's just harder to calculate quickly and and all that kind of stuff. And so, um that's what I'm proposing that we change it to. I I think from a district standpoint, kind of using those previous estimates in terms of about $200 three activities, it's only a
050difference of about 10 to 15,000 dollars, so it's not a significant amount of revenue for the district or less subsidy for the families. Um but that's what we're proposing. And so, um it's open for conversation. This is obviously a discussion. Whatever the case is, we will document that in in the policy that I've outlined in there, and then that would be brought for first reading at the next board meeting. And then obviously it would go through a second reading so that we can formally adopt that policy, and then we would start to use that fee waiver procedures document moving forward. So hopefully I addressed the questions that came in over the weekend. Not sure if there's any additional >> have a quick follow-up. So is this um student fee waiver procedures document going to be
051forward-facing to like families and students? >> Yes, the not Well, the policy one obviously will be in policy, and then the other one will be forward-facing to families. We'll use it internally. Um and yeah, it'll be a public document. >> So then I was just wondering like along the lines of like the AP testing and other things that like probably would be too complicated to explain here, if there could be a line like additional financial support is available for finan- you know, for families who qualify, see XYZ person. Just so that there's like an open door for that conversation cuz it that way wouldn't like make someone not want to invest their time or money in those types of courses if they felt they couldn't afford the test at the end. >> So when you're
052saying additional finan- Can you explain that to me a little bit more? Like >> So like the AP tests do have It's just the school district isn't covering it, but it there are additional supports available for families that qualify. >> In the case of AP exams, yes. >> It just as an example. So like if you're not wanting to like have each, you know, understandably every possible situation listed, if there could be like a general statement of additional resources may be available to qualifying families, and then see like direct them to a person, whether that be like their, you know, academic support counselor or assistant principal or someone. Just so a family would know like what questions to ask and where they could go to um related to fees. >> Yeah, so uh let us
053have some conversations about that internally. I just want to make sure that we don't like offer too much and then we >> Yep. >> don't have the ability to do it in some areas. Um in terms of what's in that waiver document, that procedures, I really tried to follow, and this was similar to what I saw at other districts, follow the language that was in the Illinois administrative code. So that's a lot of those um what's included and what's not included is pretty much directly from the the Illinois admin code. But I did put a few in there like parking and things like that just to be clear that parking is not subject that is is not part of that waiver procedure. But let me um thank you for that suggestion. Let's kind of explore
054that and I just want to check with the buildings to see what other things other than AP fees might fall under that umbrella and do we offer any kind of support for those other areas just in terms of how we phrase it. >> Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Yep. >> Any other questions or concerns? >> No. And I know I know I mentioned this I think two meetings ago. I just want to make sure because this will be a big change bringing some of these things back. We have a very thorough communication plan put together. >> Yeah, that was shared I mean uh Jenna worked very hard at putting that together. That was shared. I Hopefully you've started to see that in a lot of the >> Yeah. >> school newsletters that are
055going out. The I all the details are shared. >> Yeah. >> I just want to make sure that and all this all the details too like this is like payment plans and all that that's we all feel it's very clear. >> Yeah, I think you know for me reading through all three buildings, I mean they all have the same verbage. It was it was good couldn't miss it. >> Okay. And no feedback from the community thus far? >> Not that I've heard. I I don't know if anybody else has. >> I think the the waiver fee procedures is is excellent. I think it's It's to list that out and um I would agree with the policy update for 4140 and bringing it back for first reading, so. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thanks for
056identifying that gap and proactively >> Yeah, I mean it, you know, it it I just thought it should be documented so that Yeah. You know, people kind of knew about it internally, but obviously at some point people will move on and retire and I thought it would be important that it's there for anybody else who follows, so this seemed like a good opportunity to make that change. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh let's see here. That will bring us to agenda topics for future finance committee meetings. Would anyone like to introduce a topic for the next couple of meetings? No? All right, I believe we already have um a few other things planned anyway. All right, with no other agenda items, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second.
057>> Excellent. So, the finance committee meeting is adjourned at 7:28. Thank you very much, everyone.