001Good evening everyone. It is 6:30 p.m. on February the 23rd, 2026. I would like to call to order the meeting of the finance committee for LA Community Unit School District 202. Uh next up, are there any public comments today? >> We have received no public comments. >> Okay. Excellent. Uh the third item on the agenda are the minutes for the January 26, 2026 finance committee meeting. Are there any questions, changes, or comments on that? >> No. So, we all agree that they accurately reflect last month's finance committee meeting. >> Yes. >> Good. All right. So, that brings us to item four, the student and staff device purchase authorization. Uh, information regarding this topic can be found under item four, the finance committee packet and item 56 of the regular board meeting packet. Mr. Wilkinson, if
002you would please. >> Yeah. So, I'm going to um hand the baton off to uh Mr. Marky here. He's going to talk a little bit about uh some of the background information regarding this request. Um some of the specifics that uh Trent Shock, our technology uh coordinator, has kind of um gone through in terms of getting quotes and things like that from different vendors and uh he'll kind of outlay the request. So, with that, Jason, go ahead. >> Great. Thanks, Dave. And yeah, Trent is at a conference today, so I said I would uh present this on his behalf and certainly try to handle any questions that came up. I know there was a few questions in advance of the meeting that I think I'll work into my remarks. So, if I don't answer something,
003uh certainly we can address those. Um first of all, we're looking tonight for an authorization in the amount of $345,740 um in regarding some specific purchases. This is a little bit out of step with the typical time period that we bring this and we'll address why in a second. But we will be bringing forward the entire technology budget still uh at a future board meeting likely in in March or April. I think we're determining that still. Um and one of the primary reasons that we wanted to bring this early is is try to be um economical because we know there are some market concerns specifically with these devices that you probably read about in the memo. uh so because of the surge in AI technology and the needs of data centers some of the the
004technology that's used in these sort of laptops also are being diverted or are being diverted to those technologies instead. So it's just impacting the lead time and the cost of these devices. We're seeing lead times from 6 to 10 weeks and the cost just from December uh we've seen a jump by about 10%. And we were concerned that potentially that could jump again andor put us in a bind as far as a timeline of getting the devices and prepping them prior to the school year starting. And certainly since um you know this is a reoccurring item. I think most of you are aware of our cycle of regular purchases for Chromebooks. Um there's also included in this authorization are staff laptops uh that we are converting many of those to Chromebooks which there's some uh
005savings to that as well. Um and then also a tech lab for the high school. That tech lab is about 9 years old. So certainly we'd like to address that this year and get us up to date with some uh modern technology. Um, I know one of the other things that that came up as far as a question in advance is do technology purchases such as this need to go out to bid. They technically do not for technology, uh, but to do our due diligence. I know Dave and Trent have worked together to make sure that we always get at least three quotes on all of our prices uh, from multiple vendors to make sure that we're sourcing the best vendors in terms of service and pricing that we're able to. Uh, so Trent has
006done that for all of these purchases. he's gotten at least three quotes. Um, and we're certainly working with vendors that we trust and believe will will follow through um, and provide us with some high quality service. The other thing, um, I know that came into question was a little bit of kind of just wondering about the total cost of ownership. And although that can get pretty detailed, we probably couldn't do a complete analysis of that tonight. A couple things we wanted to mention is that we we do make sure that this is inclusive of the cases for the devices and also warranties for the devices. That warranty varies a little bit depending on whether it's the laptop or the desktops because those desktops again we try to get to last a longer period of time.
007Um but providing those warranties um certainly help with that total cost of ownership. The other thing is our licensing for both the Windows platform and certainly the Google accounts. all comes as part of that package as well. So that total cost of ownership is um all contained within that budget amount that you see. The other piece that gets into that just a little bit is by going to Chromebooks, we think that will decrease the amount of um uh support that's needed for those devices. they're just generally a little bit easier device to support as opposed to a traditional Windows laptop uh that has a little bit more to that operating system um and the software that needs to be installed on it sometimes. So hopefully with our staff going more to the Chromebook, it'll be
008a little bit um less intensive and less burdensome for our technology team to support those devices. With that, I would certainly uh handle any other questions if there are other questions. >> Thanks. Some of the other questions that were asked was how does this kind of fit into our budget? Do we have a line item for this in our budget? Do we have kind of a recurring budget for devices and Chromebooks? And so, um, I would say overall the the tech budget is around a million dollars. And so, um, our first priority is always getting the Chromebooks for the students and then also obviously the laptops for the staff. And so, that's this request within here. And then as we work through uh kind of March into May, the rest of the technology budget, we'll
009build the rest of that technology budget around this initial request. Uh Jason also alluded to the fact that normally all of the requests are brought kind of comprehensively to you guys in March. Um with the current environment and some of these market trends, that's why we're focusing on these two items here in February. And as Jason kind of alluded to, we'll probably bring the rest of the requests in April as opposed to March. Um, obviously we're getting a jump start on these critical items so that it can have those and get those set up in a in a timely fashion. But we'd like to work through a little bit more of next year's budget, look at the projection a little bit before we kind of put together uh those final items for request. So, I
010know it's on the board planning calendar for March, but at least for this year, we're probably going to move that to April. >> One additional question. Is that where you present the you have a chart that has like the rolling three four year? >> Yes. >> And so, with this purchase kind of adjust some of that because you have >> Yes. And and Trent put that all together. He has all that information. It was um in here initially, but we decided it might add some confusion. So he'll be presenting that in April when we uh look at the overall request. >> Perfect. >> He'll show that chart. >> I was thinking about the same thing Dan was thinking about. But when I was reading this too about deferring the first grade Chromebook that offset it,
011right? I interpret it that offset so that we're within like the cost so we're within where we should be for the budget, right? By deferring that for one more year. This >> first grade Chromebook. >> Correct. So, I mean, we didn't need to do that necessarily due to the budget, but we evaluated those Chromebooks and realized we felt like we had a good another year left in those devices to be able to do that. So, we just thought it would be too soon to to turn that. So, that will likely would be a request a year from now. >> Oh, >> to replace those devices. >> Okay, good. They're holding up. >> We're making it work. Yep. >> Um, I don't You answered all of my questions that I had sent ahead of time, so
012I appreciate that. I guess I just wanted to make the comment that I appreciate that the administration and staff are on top of this because I think 10% as far as the resellers are letting us know is just the beginning of cost increases on devices and lead time and quotes and all of that lasting only a week. So, um I think it's great. I appreciate it. >> Yeah, Trent has been outstanding at communication and working with our vendors on this. So, we'll pass that along. we've we've locked in this price so to speak like you know um >> yeah so this pricing um it'll be a pretty quick turnaround but they were willing to hold this until after this meeting and so uh Trump will be able to follow up with them and so we're
013confident in this pricing >> thank you >> it's a good question we have any further questions excellent thank you very much Mr. Marky, we appreciate uh that presentation. All right, so next up we have the Village of Ly downtown TIFF number three extension. That item can be found under 5A6 of the regular board meeting packet. And I understand that aside from the esteemed Dr. Philippia, we have a guest speaker. Uh welcome, your honor. We appreciate you coming. >> Of course. Yeah, we're lucky enough to have the mayor here and so we've had many conversations prior to today, but she had offered to be here in case there's anything that uh I can't answer tonight. Hopefully, she'll be able to answer and we'll continue to move forward. There's actually a presentation that uh you've seen before,
014but I've narrowed it down to just a couple of critical slides. Let me make sure this just as a quick reminder, we have a TIFF. It has about 12 years left on the right hand portion. That's where there's going to be about 32 town homes. Uh just east of there is going to be another 32 town homes, but only only the side uh to the left of the red line will actually be within the tiff. That organization is uh being constructed by PY Homes and they do believe that they will not need any tiff funds in order to be able to make that development work. Uh to the far left though is Family Square and so those would most likely be apartments. I think it's about an $80 million project they're looking at and they're
015really having some struggles to make the finances work there. In addition to that, we really want to be able to add some additional parking. And so partnering with that developer along with getting 90 public parking spots is adding a little bit more to the project. And so, um, it's kind of a negotiation we're going through, but in talking to the village, uh, and them talking to the developer, it appears that, uh, the developer will pretty much be able to utilize their at family squares property taxes to be able to fill the gap that they would need to make the project work. And so in doing that, uh, we've proposed, um, well, we we could give an agreement that supports the 14, I'm sorry, 12-year extension to the TIF because if you remember last month, we
016looked and the remaining 12 years isn't enough, but if we add another 12 years, it looks like these numbers work. And so, in order for that to happen, all taxing bodies need to be able to give a letter of support. And so we definitely want to give a letter of support because we want to see Family Square be developed, but at the same time, if possible, we would like to be able to actually get them property taxes from PY Home on an annual basis. And so we're on a pretty quick timeline here, but we've come to an agreement that the village of Lyall will talk I think at the meeting at the beginning of March about giving us a basically a letter of intent that says in short in the next 90 days we're going
017to get a formal agreement that'll have all the details you would want to see. Um, but the intent is to be able to give the taxing bodies, not just the school district, uh, an annual surplus distribution for whatever property taxes come from Arbor. And so it, uh, the numbers we looked at before, uh, include a total. So that's that middle section in red. Over the next 24 years is going to be about $14 million. Of that, the school district is only 67% of it. I think that the fire department is the next largest at 11%. So it's this is nothing specific to the school district, but basically the village has found a way working with the developer they believe to be able to on an annual basis have that Arbor Station town homes deemed surplus.
018Um but the numbers don't really appear to work if we have any what they call hold back. And so when you look at Family Square legally I think it's in the statute um the village would need to hold back 40% of the property taxes. every September they would say how many students do you have based on the number of students we have it comes to about 20,000 per student we'd get if you remember a few years ago when we got to this stage the developer said that 40% is not going to work it's probably not going to be reality but we have to get financing and so we have to go under the assumption we're only going to get 60% of the money in round numbers and so the numbers don't work and so just
019like they didn't work in 2002 these numbers don't appear that they're going to be able to work in 2026 and so the trade-off as the village says, we'll be able to give you the surplus for Arbor Station town homes. We just need you to wave any hold back, even if you have students there for the apartment complex at Family Square. So, it's it it doesn't work with an and we can't get the surplus and have our hold back. There just isn't enough left over for the Family Square apartment complex to actually work. And so as a process tonight, if you support this, you would approve the letter that supports um the project and the extension I should say of the TIFF for an additional 12 years. And then what would happen beginning of March when
020the trustees hopefully approve that letter of intent, Jeff Cook, the current village manager, and I will meet at a designated location and we will both hand over our letters and we'll count to three and both let go of our letters, but we won't be giving them our letter of support until we are able to get um a letter of intent voted by the majority of the village. >> Can you wear like a trench coat when you guys do that, too? probably a trench coat hat and you know some place but uh but that's so you know tonight you were approving the letter of and you're approving the support of the project so that um so long as all of the taxing bodies give a similar letter we'll be able to get that 12-year extension but
021ours is contingent on waiting until we get that letter of intent from the village at the beginning March meeting and then at that point it'll be executed and then hopefully just continue to move forward family square who has given initial response to say they think they can make it work, just keep moving in that general direction. Anything to add besides the trench code? >> Um I I'll just one of the questions I believe uh Keith had mentioned someone had uh was around the other taxing bodies and where they stand. Um the county, the park district, and library have all um approved it. Um with park district and county already providing their letters of support. Um, we're continuing to work with the fire district because they have some sim similar um, requests as as you guys.
022Um, so I think with this proposal, this proposal also, you know, you know, Keith kind of touched on it, you know, is going all the taxing bodies will get surplus from uh, the arbor station um, increment. Um, so I think you know the fire fire district has yet to take action. I think this is also going to help them and allow them to support it. And then beyond that, it's the um groups that we don't necessarily see and engage with as often like Forest Preserve District and I've talked to the president. He said that they'll give us a letter. Um the township and the highway commissioner need to do it. The College of DuPage and I just talked to the legislative affairs uh guy uh last week. So all of those are in process. It's
023the ones we have to chase now is where where we're really going to be at that we just don't talk to as frequently. >> So, as it relates specifically to Lyall School District, um it won't be until about 2028. That will actually start to see if everything meets the timeline that's tenatively been scheduled. I think if you look though in that tiff area, there's been a lot a lot of tear downs in terms of trees and houses and so it seems like there's some momentum. But in general, it'll be about $400,000 from that arbor station that will come to the school district annually to be able to, as you know, in 2028 is when we're thinking we're really starting to see a dip from being uh in the black to in the red. And so
024this will make a huge difference that um allows us hopefully to get closer to that black than red. And um special thanks to the mayor and the village manager, Mr. Cook. Uh they've met with us many times. We've had some really great conversations trying to figure out how to make this a win-win. And so, um, the partnership means a lot to us. And I don't think that, uh, having not had those conversations and looking at it as a ly as a community and trying to find out the way to be able to support the community, I don't think we would have gotten to where we are today. So, we appreciate those conversations. >> I have one question that I forgot to ask earlier, or I didn't think of it until now, and I might have
025asked you this during the last Tiff, so I'm sorry if I did. So, let's say that um the builder comes back and says after we've approved the TIFF and everything, they come back and say, "Well, actually now the bank says we can't do it. We don't have enough funding." What happens then to the TIFF? It just stays there. So the tiff if if everything goes through legislatively and the um state legislature approves the extension, it would be in place still after the um if we lost the potential for the Flity and Collins to redevelop the property. If they can't do it, they'll end up selling it and we're going to try again with someone else. Um if it looks like that's just not going to happen or something totally different happens or we don't need
026a tiff to support a project there um then we would shut it down if needed. Um if if it there's no ask or need for it anymore. There's no reason they have it on the books just in case if everything's addressed that we the goals of the tiff are addressed um without it. So, it would continue to exist so we can continue to market that property and try and get people to redevelop it and comp like in alignment with our master plan for downtown. Um, but if it turns out not to be needed, there's no reason in holding it open. >> How many tiffs do we have in the 202 footprint right now? Because I feel like we've had a lot of tiff discussions in the last year. This will be our third, right? as
027>> so for Ly 202 we've got the one on East Ogden uh the lock former site and then we have one on 53 which is the Honda dealer there and then we have this downtown tiff >> I would have had different answer for you uh if we had had our meeting last week tomorrow is our rescheduled meeting um because we didn't have a quorum um I would watch the committee of the whole meeting um The there's reason to believe that the lock former placement tiff and the route 53 tiff are not going to be considered valid and we'll have to stand them up again and we're in the process of reconsidering what we do at the lock former site. We're not sure if we're going to stand that up again immediately or wait and see
028what happens with future development potential there. >> Okay. Okay. So, to clarify those two, depending kind of on how the meeting goes tomorrow night, those two may be null and void. >> So, there'll be there's three now. >> Three now. >> Just two of them. It was a technicality. I mean, it's public information. There was a name, a taxing body that wasn't included on on some of the uh information. >> A taxing body that doesn't tax, so it doesn't show up in your taxing bills. Um, okay. >> But so, they they have authority, but they do not tax. So they were not uh noticed and our contractors will be on hand to explain that to us tomorrow. >> So is it just a technicality as one of the taxing bodies that doesn't tax was not
029listed as one of the taxing bodies and so it's it's like you it's not uncommon like you missed you didn't put it in this newspaper by this date or it was missing this cross tea or whatever. I mean it was not material but I think the v in my opinion the village is trying to be prudent say we're at the beginning stages if somebody's going to bring this up 5 years from now let's just start right now let's get it right so that five you know in the future someone isn't going to catch that and say everything you've done is wrong so it it's really just taking a step back and making sure that no one could ever fight the tiff because a non- taxing body wasn't included in one of the doc or two
030of the tiff's documents >> right okay so it's more like a pause on the tiffs not uh the tiffs are on or do you guys have to go through the whole process? >> We'll have to go through the whole process all over again. So, um we plan to move forward with about 53 tiff again and we'll make a decision maybe in the summer when we know better what's going to happen at Lockformer. There's a lot of indecision at the moment um as to what's going to happen with the current proposal. Um, and so we're just kind of waiting to see, evaluate where the current proposal decides to go. And then if that doesn't happen, um, my goal is to make a plan for what is truly feasible at Lock Former so we can pursue that
031um, a more feasible development at that location and then decide if it's if it's uh, needs a tiff to be able to move forward. more than likely it would because of the remediation that still needs to be done as you disturb soil, but we're gonna kind of see how things play out over the next few months. >> Okay. I'm just thinking of kind of, you know, the picture of our footprint and Lyall and just, you know, where all those tiffs are kind of lining up. >> And because the tiffs have a timeline, as soon as you start it, there's a there's an end date. And so to take a pause and kind of see what might be a potential, whether you know what are next steps. Sometimes it makes sense to get those things in
032place before putting in the TIFF to show that it's necessary to have it done rather than just quickly turn it around only to find out it takes three years to have anyone who has any interest, but you just lost what could be three years of the TIFF. >> Right. Keith, could you um kind of explain, especially to the newer board members who weren't here through the um the incremental um the difference between, you know, we're looking at 400,000 uh for for the school district's portion um versus if there was the uh the um the hold back the so the holdback is contingent upon the number of students and and I I I'm Not sure that the newer board members they because we had that with Mark on Maine. Um if you could give a little
033bit of background. >> So I can talk specifically about Family Square as the example. Um the process is Family Square would pay their property taxes. You'd multiply that times 40% and you'd set that aside and then I do believe it's somewhere around September 1st. Uh someone would reach out to us from the village and say how many new kids are in that development who didn't already live in your district. So, it can only be students. They didn't move, you know, within the community. They have to be from the outside. >> We would give a list of those students names. Um, probably some certification that they're new to our organization. And then based on what we spend per student, which is about 20,000 per student according to our financial reports, we would be able to get
03420,000 per student. When we looked at this before and the developers said, I, you know, gosh, the people that are loaning us the money is worried that you're going to get up to that full 40%. the numbers just don't work. So at the time we looked at what we had for mark on Maine and then I keep calling it arburedom village but I think it's a vent oh it's right off 88 next to >> advent. We only had I think on Mark on main one or two students every few years. Um the other apartment was a few here and there. What's changed though is that other apartment now has 17 students. And so we just don't know if that is the new norm. And so of course if uh if we have 17 students coming
035from Family Square, it financially might make sense to do the holdback. But I think the developer saying if you're taking all the arbor station and the village is saying this, there's not enough money barely left over to make this project work. And so if you're going to tell us you're going to take $20,000 per student for anybody who registers that there's just not enough money. And so um I think financially we're saying let's focus on Arbor. It's $400,000 a year. We can plan for that if we have students that come from the apartment. We'll just have to figure out how to make it work with the $400,000 that we're getting from Arbor and know that the deal will go through. >> Anything to add to that? >> No. Nothing else. And I think the big
036comparison is that's an unknown. The 400,000 is a given and and so it's much more beneficial. And so the the the simple math of it is you'd have to have about 20 students come every single year from a family square in order for it to seem like that's the better choice. But again, um the recent 17 students uh for the Arbor Reedom um apartment complex is new to us, but if we had to go off a data prior to that, we're looking at like $40,000 on at the high end in terms of the fees we would have gotten from the holdback. And we had previously or you had previously had discussions I think with the developer there about the hold back when their figures didn't work and we you >> we went from the 40%
037down to 28% because we thought it was unrealistic that we'd ever hit that 28%. But again the newest variable is the 17 students we have this year at the arboritum apartment complex. But again probably anomaly given the choices it's not an and it's an or. And so your choices are to give the extension but have the hold back and run a chance that you're going to get at least 40 students or you wave that and you take the $400,000 and know that that's something you can count on when you budget over the next years in terms of what your finances will be which seems to be the better of the two choices. >> Um may I ask two maybe three questions about the actual intergovernmental agreement that we're talking about? So, you made the comment
038that hopefully it's approved and I think I read something about there's some sort of guidance or decision from us by a March meeting. So, if for some reason the board doesn't vote in a majority to approve this letter that we're proposing, then what happens then with that March date since we don't meet again between now and then? So, it's my understanding if the trustees don't have a majority vote on the letter of intent, then we would not give our letter of support and all it takes is one taxing body to not give the letter of support and you can't extend the tiff. >> Okay. Um, my second question is what the the hold back and I understand the the difference here and we're talking about a what if versus a a pretty well-known amount of
039money but the holdback is a legal requirement and the IGA that we're talking about is potentially 25 26 years. What makes that legally binding as the board changes out, the mayor changes out? So we as a school district have the ability to wave the hold back and that's what we did at the last request in 2022. Uh the village can't do that on our behalf. That's something that we directly have to say that we would wave it and so that would be part of the intergovernment agreement but we have the ability to wave it >> but we would be waving it in favor of this um gi incremental property taxes from arbor station coming to the school district. So what requires the village to uphold? I know we are all operating in good faith here,
040but 15 years from now, this room is going to look very different. So, I'm just trying to understand what makes that binding to the village and all parties. >> Um, it's my understanding. So, there's two phases. There's the letter of intent that they'll approve at the beginning of March that says we intend to the things we talked about in the intergovernmental agreement that will be something legally binding between the village and all of the taxing bodies. And so that's why we've given 90 days for the attorneys to come up with some drafts, for us to be able to review those, for the trustees to approve it, for the taxing bodies approve it, but it is a binding document that will be in duration for the 24 years of the TIFF >> and neither party can
041rip it up. >> Nope. >> Okay. >> They can rip up the letter of intent and so that comes down to integrity. That's what they'll be approving in the beginning of March. But I think that there's a lot of trust here and that I would think that um having the majority of the board approve the letter of intent shows that's their intent and that we would hope that we would work together in the 90 days to be actually have a binding formal letter. There just not enough time between now and when it needs to go to the legislature with the support. But in a perfect world, we'd actually have an intergovernmental agreement prior to where we are today. But it's just there's not enough time. Anything to add to that? >> No, I don't think
042so. Unless you have any anything specific. I don't I understand though like what things could things can be very different on either side, right? In 15 years, you never know what a board's going to look like. Um but I think one of the things in the IGA will be the commitment also that you know the the school district is you know waving the um >> hold back so that if somebody were to rip it up and the a future village board you know somehow overturned it then I would think that you also then have the right to go back to the holdback if that's embedded in the IGA as well. I just don't know how they would have the ability to change like you you would need to agree with I don't think you I
043don't think you would like it would be quite latgious if the if a village board tried to do that I would imagine and it would probably be an adversarial relationship like between the school and the and the village at that point already before if someone tried to do that >> and again I do think it's a legal agreement so uh I think both sides need to legally >> follow that agreement and so if they break the agreement ment. I think we could very well bring that to the court and the court would be able to say yes, you have an agreement, >> right? But I do understand the question just because there's crazier things in the news than >> well there's always a way out of a contract >> several suburbs south of us. >>
044So essentially this could be terminated if both parties agree to do so. >> I think it would be more than both because it involves probably seven other taxes. Yeah. Unless somebody wanted to wave specifically their piece or something. But yeah, >> Paula, you had a question about if you wanna um on the butt four, if you want to. >> Yes. And then I also have another question that just came to mind. Um but do we have any um information? So let's say that we say no, we're not going to support the TIFF extension and then um the project, it sounds like the project at Family Square would not be able to move forward. Correct. Um, and at that point you would have the choice to either create a new tiff with different boundaries. Do we
045have any information on the but for clause for that new tiff if that were to come? >> Well, the argument would be very similar as to when this tiff was established in the first place. um you do have a lot of the same circumstances and we've already um asked SP Freeman to take a look at a new boundary for us and we would actually include a larger boundary um to capture some of the flood plane area which is very easily makes the argument because the area around Garfield Pond um we've been evaluating for development as well um whether it be like um revenue generating development or features for the village you know something more parkish. Um, but we're already exploring that. And then there's also some other interest in properties that are outside the boundary,
046so we would probably make a larger tiff. Um, and then the but for would be, like I said, real similar to what exists today, as well as the flood plane concerns and um any potential um leftover contamination at that site from when the gas station at that corner had uh a leak, you know. You know, so that's one of the arguments um that we know exists today for that site specifically, >> but it logically then would not include Arbor Station because that will have been developed. Am I correct in that? >> That's up for um discussion. We could still include it because the district has to make sense, not every single property. and the increment generated from Arbor Station may be helpful to other parts of the tiff depending on how big we go and
047what areas are looking at improvement. Um so it's potential that the same half of Arbor Station could be in the TIFF in the in a future consideration too >> and with that we would not then be getting the surplus >> when we redraw it it you may not be able to. >> Okay. >> And then my question that just came to mind and I'm It's okay if you don't have the answer to this. Do we know how many apartments are being being proposed in the family square development? >> We do. I don't have it off the top of my head, but it's it's a retail first floor and then between between three and four floors of apartments on top depending the kind of like the grade falls significantly. So, it kind of steps down. >>
048Um, but it was I'm trying to think >> there's several hundred apartments. >> Can't remember that. I should have that number off the top of my head. You really think I would have that like locked in? >> Those are the kinds of things that fly away from my brain as soon as someone asked me, which is why it's absolutely okay. Yeah, >> but I can totally get that back to you guys. >> Building off Paula's question, if there was a new tiff proposed, it would be how many years total? >> The standard like new tiff 23 years. And so the approach we wanted to take here is if 23 versus 24, this is a pretty fast process to extend it, I believe, where if we had to go through a brand new tiff, maybe it
049takes, I'll use the number a year when you're talking an $80 million project. And it's not uncommon to see construction costs go up 10% a year. That apartment complex at Family Square just went up $8 million. And so if there's barely enough runway to make this work now, I mean, it's an additional 8 million that's got to come from someplace. And so I think collectively the developer, the village, the school district, the other taxing bodies are trying to find a way to be able to have Family Square be something that's a point of pride. We're very excited about the town homes coming. And if we can do this simply by extending the current tiff and being able to use the Arbor Station town homes property taxes to be surplus to the taxing bodies and have
050family squares property taxes be what incentivizes them over the next 24 years to make a great great apartment. Uh it seems like it works. And I would also add that as Family Square redevelops, plus you have the new town homes, everything surrounding the downtown tiff value will also go up. So that's additional property value that you have access to when you're uh issuing your levy as well. You know, everything is slowly going to increase around there, greater than they it would have if it stayed vacant, >> which won't generate any new property taxes. What it will in turn do is pull tax relief to the rest of the community >> because of the increase in the commercial value. Right. So that goes up at a faster rate than residential. Residential then pays less. >> Correct.
051And just building on that, do do you guys have any vision or hope trajectory on how much commercial then is going like you would like to see come because to Dan's point, we'll get more revenue off that to offset this. So we have um our comprehensive plan that kind of estimates where we want to um ultimately take zoning towards where we want to switch zoning in areas from industrial to commercial or commercial residential to commercial. Um that outlines kind of what that future vision is for uh different um commercial or industrial uses and residential areas. Um I don't know a percentage target off the top of my head. Um, a lot of it is going to even stay commercial but be redeveloped into something of higher value. Um, I think a good example of that
052is is where we have Quicktrip um approved, move forward. I'm just waiting for them to be able to um jump through their last few hurdles and start developing um down um Ogden near the Speedway. Uh so that site will be uh consolidating a couple small properties into one higher value property. or higher value development. >> So will some of are there actually industry properties here that be converted to commercial >> in that >> or just commercial to higher value commercial? >> A lot well so a lot of what's in the pipeline right now is commercial to higher value commercial or office office research to another type of commercial. Um, I'd have to go back and look at the at the comp plan because I think there were a couple areas where we we we were
053trying to move away from industrial use. Um, but they were small pockets if I remember correctly. >> That's good because industry has increased a very slow rate of evaluation whereas commercial can potentially go faster. So that's >> true. >> That's why I ask because even as small bits it all helps helps our residential taxpayers, >> right? if those >> we're trying to we're looking right now also at doing some restriction of the types of businesses that can come in. We don't want any more spas that the police have to pay attention to. Um so we're looking at that as one of our um ways to also encourage higher value development. You know, if there I don't know if there's other questions. I just I just want to comment having um been fortunate to be a
054part of of the discussion this was a real example of not over of collaboration but um just compromise because I think actually Dr. Philippia came in up with this proposal >> that would make this work for all the government entities with the surplus and the compromise on that was to wave the school hold back um and it's still to the advantage so and u the village was very receptive so to that discussion and and >> no I I think that it has felt like the village has seen the importance of the community working together trying to still meet their goal of being able to develop the downtown and I think collectively by us having many many conversations including with Jeff Cook um a way that uh collectively makes a lot of sense and so I'm
055hoping all of us will be able to hand letters uh in the next few weeks you'll be able to get it to the appropriate people and we can uh if you've probably already seen there's a lot of work that's happening at Family Swear out of trust and so if we can just build on that momentum I think in a very short period of time you're going to see a lot of town homes homes and that whole area developed in a way that when people drive by, they're very proud and have interest in Lyall and want to live in Lyall. And uh hopefully it'll be the spark to continue to see the economic growth that we'll see in our community. >> That's the goal sharing with the group. I'm I'm concerned about the quantity of tiffs
056and the impact on the district, but to your point that I mean that is there's no better way to say it. It's kind of the eyesore of our community where where that is right now and I know that's been a long time. So, um, you know, if we do support, I really I really hope this works cuz, you know, it just it's a big commitment for us longterm. I think to your point, like this is years down the road. None of us will be here anymore. You know, our kids won't be here anymore. So, this is it would be a big commitment for the future. Fair. But I think that's part of the the goal of the compromise to Pam's point is to make it more palatable and feasible for the schools to be able
057to make this kind of agreement with us and give give that support. >> All right. Well, thank you for looking at those things. >> Of course. >> So, um we don't do any voting here in the finance committee, but this will be coming up in the regular board meeting. Um, is there any, I guess, interboard discussion we we that anyone would like to have? Just wanted to make sure to put that out there. All right. Thank you very much. On a side note, I think that the uh pedestrian tunnel underneath the railway would be a good place for you to have this secret meeting. It's very picturesque for that. >> Just a thought, you know. >> All right. Uh, thank you very much, uh, your honor. Um, uh, let's see here. So, it is 7:12.
058Think we have 10 minutes for uh student fees, Mr. Wilkinson? >> Yes, we can uh we can start the conversation here on student fees. Um >> excellent. That's item six in the finance committee packet. >> So, uh we're we're uh bringing forward the annual discussion here regarding um our student fees for the 2627 school year. Uh just as a little bit of background, as I outlined in the um uh in the write up in your finance packet, the board did suspend uh book and supply fees um shortly after the COVID uh pandemic started. And so uh that was with the 2020 2021 school year. That was the the first year that fees were suspended and they have uh continued to be waved all the way through uh the school year that we're currently in. Um,
059prior to that waiver, so the the 1920 school year, uh, we collected about $185,000 annually in books and supply fees, which represented less than 1% of our total uh, district revenues. Historically, we've looked at this uh, each January. Uh, we've had this conversation and then those have been approved in February. Um this year uh we didn't make the February meeting and we decided to um or they're they'll be approved in April as opposed to now and we're just going to have the discussion here in February. And just as a little bit of context, the the CPI for calendar year 2025 often our fees are tied to the CPI increases. Uh that's 2.7%. So kind of keep that as a kind of in the back of your mind as we walk through this. But um the
060intent tonight is to to discuss uh those fees and get kind of a a direction from the committee as to how we want to handle that. And then again, our plan is to wait until we've looked at the financial projection in April. And that's when we'll bring uh the final decision on student fees and the final um student fee schedule uh to the board. Um, you know, as as also outlined in our discussion seat, previously we were anticipating that for fiscal year 27, we would be able to have a balanced budget. Um, we've always had a balanced budget for a number of years and we thought that would be able to continue for at least one more, but I'm not sure if this was mentioned at our last meeting or if uh I think I
061had found out just before our meeting, we actually had the preliminary renewal for our health insurance benefits. And the projection right now is not the 6% that I included in our last projection in September, but actually a 16% increase in our medical insurance rates. And so, um, annually we have about $5 million in premiums that the school district pays for. The employees pay a portion of that as well, but the school district's portion of that is $5 million. And so, if that increases an additional 10% over what we were originally anticipating, that adds about half a million to our budget. And so, that kind of uh had a pretty signific sign significant change in what next year's budget is going to look like. And so that's why uh we thought it was important to have
062the discussion this month and to kind of bring that forward to the committee uh regarding possibly reinstating those books and supplies fees. And so kind of as we were discussing re-implementing these, we we obviously had the rates back from 1920, but we don't have rates for today because we haven't done it in six years. And so I actually went out and did a survey of kind of our neighbors, the other unit districts in DuPage County and I included that information for you. It's one of those additional pages so you can kind of see what other districts are charging for their basic books and supplies fees. And so we looked at those, kind of analyzed the range, looked at the averages, and arrived at what we thought was a reasonable uh fee schedule to kind of
063start fresh, start a new uh if the board decides that we would like to reimplement those fees. And so, um, kind of as an example, you know, the the average for grades 1 through five with our comps was about $152. And so, we thought setting that grades 1 through 5' $150 made sense. For 6 through 8, the average was 188. And so, we thought setting it at 190 made sense. And same thing with 9 through 12, the average was about $22. And so, we are proposing setting that at $200. Um again the the full um student fee survey is is in there if you want to take a look at it but we were primarily focusing on the averages terms of some of the questions that were raised uh over the weekend. One was whether
064the cost of offering athletics and activities increases annually in line with CPI. Uh in a perfect world that would be the case. But uh you know obviously a major part of our activities and clubs is the stipens that we pay every year. And so those are uh part of our negotiation process and and are uh based based on what our extra duty fee schedules are. And so just kind of looking at next year uh the increases to the base for our athletics and activity stipens is about 3%. Um so it happens to be pretty close to CPI uh for this upcoming year. But then as far as you know um transportation costs are a huge part of our activities and clubs and as we've talked a lot about transportation costs have often gone up more
065than CPI. Uh we do have bid out rates for next year and that increase would be 4% so just a little bit above the CPI that we're looking at. And then as we're learning with some of our supplies and materials in especially in the technology arena, um those don't always align with CPI and can often be significantly more. Um so it really just kind of depends on what costs are are particular to a certain activity or club. Uh but we can't say for sure that they'll always align with CPI. We hope they do, but that sometimes isn't always the case. Uh let's see here. Another question was whether the activity fees are waved for students who qualify under the federal uh free meals program. I think that might have been part of one of the
066policies you were looking at tonight. And so um the answer is yes. Any activity fees are waved for students who meet those uh federally free uh meals criteria. Uh question was also asked about what a CPI based increase would look like for I think in particular our athletics and activities fees. And so uh with again CPI being about 2.7% most of the fees are going up a dollar or two. It depends on what their fee is specifically but in general we increase them by about CPI. That's been the practice and so that works out to about$1 or2 dollars depending on the activity. Um, it's not in this packet, but whenever we do bring the final fee schedule, there's a historical summary of our fees, and it shows specifically for not only the the books and
067supplies fees, but all for all the athletics and activities what those increases are and how they compare to the prior year and the previous four years. So, you can actually look back if you wanted to dig into those a little bit more. If you go back to last February's meeting in February of 2025, you can see those fees I think increased by 2.9% and you can see for each of the athletics and and activities what those dollar increases were. Um, another discussion item was the cosmetology program at TCD uh and whether the district should continue paying uh $400 of the $500 uh supply cost for the first year and then I think in the second year it's around $450 and the district has been paying about $350 of that. And so, uh, a number of
068years ago, the E3 committee, uh, met and had a discussion about this cosmetology fee because most of the fees at TCD are around $100. Uh, and again, students will pay that 100 or will pay that $100 or if they're free, they'll get it waved or if they're reduced, they pay 25% of that. But the cosmetology program has this higher fee and that's really so that they can get additional supplies in terms of what they need to be a part of that program and you know scissors and all that kind of stuff that goes along. It's like a kit. And so uh the E3 committee at that time decided that to make it more accessible to students the district would pick up uh everything but $100 of those cosmetology fee costs. And um you know, I
069think right now we have about three students in the program. And so if the district's paying $400, that ends up being about $1,200 that the district covers for those additional students. I know some years there's been about five students. And again, you'll be able to see that uh in April because we always get uh a listing of enrollments at all of our TCD classes. So again, you could look back last February and see what it was. Um, and then obviously we'll update that here coming up uh in April. So you'll be able to see all those enrollment figures. Let's see here. Um, and then another question was, yeah, whether they're waved for students who qualify under the federal meals program. And yes, that is the case. Um, those fees would again continue to be waved
070for anybody who qualifies through the the free program. Uh, I mentioned we will continue to monitor the enrollment. You get a 5-year history of that enrollment. So, that'll continue to be a part of that. I think I've answered all the questions. Uh, I did get another question about lastly, how many districts currently need fee waiverss in our district and what is the total amount that we would be waving if we started charging student fees. And so as of today, there are 358 free students in the district. And then we have 88 reduced students. And so I just went through and I did an average of our K through 5, 6 through 8, 9 through 12, what we're proposing those fees would be. And so if we reinstituted fees, those that would be waved or reduced
071would forego $65,000 of revenue. But again, they're they're they've applied. They've gone through the process. And so um any fee waiver that that's what would be required. But obviously going back to our number from a uh quite a few years ago, the 185,000 that obviously didn't include any of those fee waiver amounts either. So, I'm sorry to kind of throw a lot at you. I had a lot of questions. Hopefully, I answered all of those that came through. But ultimately tonight, uh, in the remaining time that we have here, uh, I put those three questions kind of at the bottom of the writeup that we're looking for direction from the committee on. First of all, should this books and supplies fee be reinstated for the 2627 school year at the proposed levels that that are
072in the packet? Um, should student usage fees be increased by CPI as we've done in the past? Again, those are our athletics and activities. And then finally, um, how would the committee like to handle the cosmetology fee going forward? So, with that, um, I will leave it open to discussion or any additional questions. >> Dave, can I just clarify? I think you answered this, but I just want to make sure I understood it correctly. for that cosmetology program. Were you saying if they're on free and reduced lunch then that gets waved or was that just about the other fees? >> It would get waved as well. Yes, >> it would get waved as well. So the students who would be charged that were those who aren't on free or reduced lunch. Okay, >> the paid
073students. >> All right, thank you so much. >> We are a little short on time. Um do we want to have a more um in-depth discussion about this at the next finance meeting? is is I don't know if this is appropriate to ask, but are are TCD students and and the fees that are involved there for the different programs um is there a significant percentage that are waved those fees that are on the free and reduced? >> I'd have to pull that information. I don't I don't know that offhand. I can certainly bring that to our next meeting to find out how many of those students actually get those fees waved. One of the reasons the E3 had um moved towards reducing the cosmetology was because the numbers had gone down from like 9 to
074four and five right before those years and the committee at that time was looking at equal opportunities for all the students and so that's why that came up. I can't remember at that time uh what percentage were on free and reduced but uh we were also trying to build up that program or and we thought is cost limiting the number of students that can participate. >> In addition to that from what I remember every other program in TCD is $100. Cosmetology is the only program that you have to buy a $500 kit. And so our fear was a student goes, "Boy, I really want to go into cosmetology. Dad, mom, can I get a check for $500? And they're like, absolutely not. And that's only round one. If you go to the phase two of
075the cosmetology, you have to buy another five. I'm rounding here, another $500 kit. So it it's $1,000 in fees for that student. And that's one of the most attended programs we have at TCD. And so we were saying, we don't want that $1,000 to be the reason that you don't pursue something you're really interested in. And so we'll pay for 400 of the 500 knowing that most other classes are 100. So that that's kind of the rationale. Uh I had an opportunity to be at the TCD board meeting last week. I asked all of our other peers if they do something similar and none of them do. So um because of our smaller size, I think we're looking at maybe three students a year that go into the program and would be qualifying for that.
076Um does that sound right? That sounds slow to me. >> Yeah. No, over the last five years there's been um I think three years where we've had five students and then two years where we've had three and this year we're currently in has three students attending the program. >> So I think I may have misspoke. At one point it was one of our as you were saying Mrs. Alman one of our most attended and then it's gone down to about three and we felt like part of it was just how cost intrusive it is. And so we're hoping by if it's just $100 like any other program that we'll be able to build it up to the size that it once was. But it is the only program that requires you to buy $1,000 worth
077of stuff. You get to keep it, but at the same time, it's a check for $1,000. And not everyone has an opportunity, even if they're not free and reduced, to want to put $1,000 towards a kit in order to pursue something they have an interest in. >> Curious Whoops. I'm curious, do they end up with like a certificate at the end of that or a license where they can practice then? >> Yeah, I do believe they have both of those. And uh I just wanted to add to even the kit and talking to TCD they said if you were to go to other organizations COOD it's going to be significantly larger because there's margins but they just do it right at cost. But yeah you can leave right from high school have a certification and
078go right into that program or career I should say. So I the two justifications for the 400 out of 500 in the first year was that to make it an equalizer for other TCD programs roughly and to try to bolster up the program further. When was that? Cuz it sounds like it was a while ago. >> I roughly I don't need an exact year but it's at least five plus years ago. >> It was a recommendation for the 2019 2020 school year. >> Got it. Okay. So, it hasn't done much to bolster the numbers as far as I'm hearing at least. Okay. >> It has not. No, I it, as I mentioned, it's been pretty stable. Three or five students all of those years. I I don't recall that there was nine students before that,
079but it sounds like uh from Pam's recollection that it was higher at the time and then it kind of dipped, but it's kind of >> that was back in 2015 16 there was nine and then it steadily went down. Yeah, those are the numbers I'm remembering somewhere around 10 was what we traditionally saw and it went down and part of the feedback was it's so cost intrusive and so we implemented that to be able to hope but I hoping to increase enrollment but I also in some ways feel like it's the right thing to do to ask a student to have to come up with a check for $1,000 in order to do a program like that. there's some value in helping them with that contribution. Whether it's 400 of the 500, I don't know,
080maybe that's something the board should decide. Like maybe 5050 split, you pay for half of it. We have, I think, what they call skin in the game. We'll pay for the other half and we see if it changes the numbers. But I don't know where the 400 of the 500 came from. Again, we're talking about those students who are not free and reduced. Maybe the number needs to be something different. But we are the only school district at least that attended that board meeting that said that they help the student in any way, shape, or form with the cost of the kit. >> So, that was my only quick follow-up question because I know we're at time, but um the fee structures and the the disparity between the other programs that that remains the same
081from 5 years ago that the other ones are roughly 100 and this one remains high. Okay, correct. confirming >> and the and the biggest difference is because you are actually getting a kit that has supplies and you get to keep that then that's yours and I don't think the other programs give you anything that's to considered your own to take with after you're finished with the program. So maybe we'll just add that to a conversation for the next one and and maybe it's a 50/50. You know district pays 250, the student pays $ 250. They have some buy in. They didn't get $500 of free stuff at, you know, at the cost of the district. And again, we're only talking about those that don't qualify for free and reduced. >> It is a two-year program.
082And another option might be if they pay for the first year and are successful, then the district pays for the second. You know, it would be a 50/50. >> And so, we can certainly have those discussions. That doesn't have to happen tonight any way, shape, or form. I don't think there's a big rush on this third question. So, I I don't want to overshadow the first question, which is probably the more important of all three. So, I think we're running out of time. So, we'll probably bring that back to the next meeting. You guys at least now have kind of the framework what we're thinking about. You can obviously think about this over the uh the course of the next few weeks. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out. But
083um I'll bring this back again in March just so we can kind of focus on what we want to do about uh reinstituting the books and supplies fee overall because obviously that's the I think the the bigger decision um that's kind of facing us here by April. Uh we do need to um come up with a plan by April because we start to send out uh fee information in May. And so that's kind of the um as far as we can delay that formal approval will be April. So I'll add this to the agenda in March and we can continue the discussion at that time. >> Yeah. Would would you be able to next meeting talk about the communication plan because it would be probably a surprise to many of our parents that this will
084suddenly show up and for some of them they maybe only be in the district for you know three years. They've never seen us charge a fee and for the ones who've had in the past going why is this back? So, we probably need some communication why we're reinstating it. >> Yeah, we're definitely going to go above and beyond for that. And >> just to be clear, the three of us adamantly oppose fees. It it is something that we've talked about and been so against, but when we look at the projection, particularly when we get to 2028, we cannot get a balanced budget unless something changes. And so if we're able to reinstitute these fees, we the rationale is when we eliminate it in the first place is because we could financially afford it. I'm not
085convinced this organization can financially afford it. And so as you know Dave pointed out that half million beyond what we even projected for um uh for the health insurance like how do how do you make up the difference other than cuts when we're right getting to that balanced budget number? And so this isn't something we've taken lightly. We will communicate the heck out of it as to the why and what we looked at when we came up with these numbers. I'm confident they will not be wellreceived, but it's a hope to be able to maintain our current programs and not have to be making cuts in the short term. Are there any further questions or comments? Thank you very much. We appreciate that has given us a lot to think about. Uh so next up
086is uh agenda topics for future finance committee meetings. Obviously we will be talking about fees uh next month. Uh would anyone else like to uh enter another topic? >> No. Excellent then. All right. So with no other agenda items, I will entertain a moment a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. So uh that is Miss Alman and Miss Foster. So, the finance committee meeting is adjourned at 7:33 p.m. Thank you very much. >> And we need a 5m minute break to have the >> visual