001e e e it is 6:30 p.m. on March 24th 2025 and I would like to call to order the meeting of the finance committee for ly Community School District 202 uh item number two on our agenda is public comment is there any public comment today we have any received no request for public comment excellent thank you very much item three is the agenda for the minutes of the February 24th 2025 finance committee meeting does anyone have any uh questions changes comments to those minutes no excellent good so we are in agreement that the minutes accurately reflect the finance ah the February finance committee meeting excellent good so item four is the audit Services engagement letter for fiscal years 2025 2026 and 202 7 the information for this can be found under item 6 A1 of
002the regular board meeting packet Mr Wilkinson if you would please thank you uh lauderbach and amen has served as our independent auditor since 2019 uh when we conducted an RFP process they've been um with us for another three-year extension which concluded with the fiscal year 2024 audit that we just wrapped up the new three-year proposal that's included in your um in the board meeting tonight reflects a slight increase of about $1,200 for the fy2 audit and then incremental increases of a little over $1,000 each year for the FY 26 and FY 27 audits uh the total cost proposed is around $29,000 in the first year 30,000 in the second year and 31,000 in that last year of the contract um and that is in line with audit pricing of our neighboring districts I did did
003a survey um of what other districts are paying for their audit and this was kind of right in the middle there was a couple that were lower but then there were quite a few that were also uh quite a bit higher than ours um these amounts will be included in the respective annual budgets this is for a three-year uh engagement letter so each year obviously we'll include this amount in the budget that's approved by the board I did get a question from a board member regarding the following language that's included in the engagement letter um just for purpos of the question I will go ahead and quote what that sentence says it says we will evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by management and the question
004specifically was whether their review includes a review of the budget and Levy presentations that um are provided by Administration on an annual basis and the short answer to that is is kind of not directly uh but maybe indirectly in terms of the um audit it primarily looks at The District's financial statements and when it talks about estimates it's talking about the estimates within those financial statements for example uh there's a lot of estimates surrounding pension liabilities within those financial statements and so uh obviously the audits Auditors look at that as well as if you have any kind of accounts payable or accounts receivable items those are just some examples of some of the estimates that they're um they're reviewing and taking a look at you know they do kind of throughout the audit process validate
005kind of the Integrity of our reporting process and our financial reporting process so in terms of um how that kind of supports the credibility of our budget and our Levy presentation and those kinds of things it's kind of indirectly but they're not directly looking at those uh particular presentations that we um go through on an annual basis and so ultimately uh we are recommending as the administration acceptance of the uh three-year proposal from lauderbach Andaman as presented are there any other questions okay thank you very much all right so item five is the contract renewal agreement for the Food Service management company for the 2025 2026 school year that information can be found under item 6 A10 and the regular board meeting packet Mr wulin and so last year we went through a very detailed
006and thorough RFP process and ultimately ended up awarding that contract to Chartwells our current food service provider um the current renewal that we're discussing this evening is year one of a potential four years worth of renewals um which is allowed by the uh national school lunch program with a contract for um Food Service management company per the original contract so with within the bid specifications um it provided that any annual increases would be based on the CPI for urban consumers food away from home so it's a little bit different than obviously what we use for our tax levy but it's very specific to food service contracts and so for December 2024 which is the last uh reported annual amount the CPI was 3.6% and so the proposed rates within the contract reflect those increases uh
007the project Ed costs kind of before any reimbursements that we get from the federal government is expected to be about 540,000 based on kind of where the meals that we've served are so far year to date and kind of projecting that out for the rest of the year um and those costs would be included in the fiscal year 2026 budget I did get a question from a board member regarding the fendal reimbursement Trends uh and kind of our contingency planning the of uh Federal funding being disrupted with what's going on uh obviously at the capital and kind of looking at the last three years in fiscal year 2022 we received approximately $647,000 uh in fiscal year 23 it was just under $300,000 and then in fiscal year 24 it was just over $300,000 and so
008you might be wondering why why that significant fluctuation from the first year of 647 ,000 down to just under 300,000 the following year and if you recall during the covid period of time they were offering Universal free meals to everybody and so the reimbursements uh increased significantly uh during those years and so these last two years right around 300,000 is more of our normal reimbursement levels that we would expect to see going forward as well um you know at this time we haven't received any correspondence from the Illinois State Board of Education or the USDA or anything that would say that the funding is going to be significantly reduced or cut all together I know they've talked about even if the Department of Education gets rolled in they'll kind of convert some of those grants
009and some of those other things to I think it's the small business administration at this point is what they've talked about and so you know obviously if such a scenario like that would occur we'd have to kind of re-evaluate um the the program's operations the meal costs we'd have to look a little bit closer at our fund balances in our school nutrition program and uh obviously evaluate from there and and see what we can do to continue offering those Services uh but at present uh what's included is a recommendation to renew the contract with chart rils for one more year and uh it's as presented and then obviously ISB will have to approve it and it will go to them uh for the final approval to move forward with Chartwells are there any other questions
010regarding the food service contract excellent thank you for the presentation thank you Dave you're welcome um let's see here item six is the junior high uh RT replacement and theater stair Renovations bid that information can be found under item 6812 of the regular board meeting packet Mr binson so this is actually a rebid of what was uh discussed at our last meeting in terms of bidding out the original project that original project included not only the cafeteria rooftop unit over at the junior high but also uh our Ambitions to replace the auditorium rooftop unit with two smaller units that would allow us to operate both the house area and the stage area kind of separately um and then also uh some theater stair Renovations that are part of our life safety requirements and as we
011talked about last month it the the bids that were open we got a fair amount of bids I think we got five or six and they were pretty uh pretty tightly spaced so we felt pretty good about the price that we got but at just over 1.5 million um it was pretty well over our original kind of budget expectations for the project so in response we we talked with Perkins and will and we decided to go back out to bid and actually reduce the scope by removing the Auditorium unit and rebidding the project the auditorium unit is is a nice to have at this point it's not um a requirement like the uh cafeteria unit which currently is down a compressor and so we only have one compressor operating for air conditioning and it's just
012an older unit in general and we're just nervous about um it not being able to be repaired and it it is at end of life so we kind of re we reduced the scope focused on just the uh the cafeteria rooftop unit and the theater stair workor and the cost of those we did get five contractor submitting bids so we had a pretty good um a pretty good turnout for that rebid as well and the the um bids were all tightly spaced with the lowest bid being just under $937,000 and that low bidder was Fe Moran Inc there is a an alternate that was put into the bid documents uh for what I'll call external grip vill steel and so basically instead of supporting the new units with steel that's kind of inside the roof
013we were actually going to put it up on top of the roof kind of in an effort to save some costs and see if that was less expensive as far as the actual work to implement the solution versus having to do it from underneath and take the ceiling tiles down we thought maybe we could get some savings by doing uh some external steel but it ended up only being a savings of $117,000 and so our concern with that is by using external steel we would actually be raising up those units you know three four five feet and so aesthetically we're a little bit concerned that they would be that much higher on the roof where they'd be much more noticeable from the street level as you're looking at the junior high so our recommendation would
014be to not accept that alternate for the $177,000 dck simply for the Aesthetics of of kind of what the junior high will look like from the street level terms of the budget we do have $500,000 of this project budgeted for in the current fiscal year obviously we're going to start the project in June and so some of those costs will be put into the current year that we're in and then once we know how much of those costs finish out this fiscal year we will budget the remainder in the fiscal year budget a board member did ask for clarification on the anticipated cost of the auditorium rooftop unit in phase three and how that kind of compares to our original budget um the original bid the first bid that we talked about last month came
015in at just over 1.5 million and so looking at this bit of just about 937 th000 we can kind of extrapolate that that rooftop unit is about a $600,000 cost if we decide to do this in summer 2027 you're looking at kind of two years of escalation in terms of labor cost material cost those kinds of things things so I would anticipate that that cost would be around $650 to $700,000 um again we'll be doing some additional rooftop or HVAC work at that time so hopefully we can kind of get some economies of scale of having that all wrapped into one project um regarding the original budget our internal budget for this this summer phase that we're working on which was the cafeteria the auditorium and the stairs we as estimated kind of working with
016pepper and Perkinson will it would be about 650,000 obvious as we know it came into 1.5 million it was significantly more and and I think the the challenge we ran into is when we first started working with Perkins and pepper on the project we were looking at all three phases and so the estimates that pepper did were kind of that entire project all together and so we took that information and we tried to isolate very specific scope items for this particular budget and unfortunately that proved a little bit more challenging than we realized and so I think kind of extrapolating that from our original estimates we missed kind of what the current market is and what the full cost of all of that project is so kind of moving forward you know do we want
017to get more estimates for phase three that something we'll certainly talk to them about will some something we would consider but that would yield an additional cost to work with pepper and to get get those estimates so it might be better to just focus on what we want our scope to be build in some alternates into that phase three bidding process and then actually see what the market is going to is going to cost for that particular work so we'll kind of navigate that as we move forward but I did want to address uh that question and then secondly in our last meeting there was some question about the Energy savings for those new rooftop units and so I did reach back out to our architects who also consulted with the engineers again it's kind
018of a technical response um I'll try and give a little bit of kind of the shorter version of a long email but um what we're looking at doing is with the new kind of structure there's going to be three rooftop units that are replacing a single multizone unit and so with those new units they actually have these energy recovery Wheels built into them and so kind of based on the industry standards of those of those recovery Wheels being involved now they're estimating we could reduce energy by approximately 15% but that's all things being equal and so when you actually look at the new systems it's not a one forone replacement and so to kind of get a precise estimate of what that would entail they'd have to do a full energy modeling based on you
019know the the thermal envelope of the building the usage schedules the lighting and equipment loads like there would be a lot of other factors that would go into that and obviously there would be a cost to that as well um so with that they don't feel like the the cost of the study would yield a reliable return I mean it's certainly something they could do um but in general they're expecting some Energy Efficiency as you know there'll be no more targeted Zone control because we're now going to have three units instead of one so we can Target specific areas that we want to heat and cool so that's going to help um and then just having a a more modern system with that energy recovery wheel we'll see some Energy savings as well uh from
020that standpoint but in terms of a specific number they really can't they don't feel comfortable providing that without a full energy model audit um so those are kind of the questions I got to try and address I don't know if there's any other questions based on kind of what I've shared so far as we kind of move forward here I was just curious other board members opinions on like the an extra $100,000 in two years for the the the auditorium unit do we want to just spend that this year or in two years spend $100,000 more potentially I mean I can go either way I'm just you know it's we know these costs go up and if we have room in the budget this year or I mean in you know notten we do can
021we do if we do it this year save 100,000 or 50,000k over the next two years just wonder I would want to know what it admin's recommendation would be and whether we have that available in the budget I mean that would be certainly two big factors yeah I I think Keith and I discussed that a little bit and we kind of said okay there's three options we can kind of defer the work Al together and not do anything but we don't feel like that's a very good option because um we need to replace that cafeteria unit its end of life I'm worried that if the other compressor goes out then we have no air conditioning which is not a situation I want to be in um so defer didn't seem like a good option and
022then we have two bids here that we can choose from one's 1.5 million and the other is 900,000 I think we were both leaning towards the going with the reduced scope project uh for two reasons one I'm not sure that the Energy savings from splitting out one unit into two is going to make up that cost over time we were we were looking at doing that we were hopeful of doing that because then you could again control two different areas um based on which unit you wanted to run but we just don't use that Auditorium all that much to where I think we're going to make up that cost over time and so when we look at doing it as part of phase three we'll probably scale that back to just doing a replace in
023kind for the auditorium as well as um you know the budget for the overall Junior High project is running a little bit I guess hot for lack of a better word we a little bit above that $20 million and so by you know the auditorium unit doesn't have to be done now it's not critical it's not used all the time I think if we defer that to phase three it will allow us to look at the overall remaining scope of the project and make some decisions where right now if we spend that money this year then we don't have that money to use for something else in phase three in the summer of 2027 I don't know if you have anything else to add to that Keith based on kind of our conversation I think
024we're trying to do our best to put things into categories Necessities at some point in necessity and a want and this one feels like one we can defer and so in a couple years from now and we're looking at the full scope it it may not make that list of being a high priority and so because we're feeling like the budget's already more than what we would expect in every single bid we open we feel like we'd rather make this decision down the road knowing that it's not a high priority relative to probably other things we'd rather see happen in that building so it's it's we're recommending deferring and and maybe it'll be more expensive later but maybe we'll choose to not even do it until further down the road and focus on things like
025the new science rooms and things of that nature okay thank you have we had any issues repairing that Auditorium unit in the past like is it is it very old or or hard to get parts for anything like that no sometimes it's they don't build them like they used to to be honest but um the one's actually been running pretty well we did have to replace some duct work um as part of we actually applied for a school maintenance grant for a portion of that duct work so I think it was about $100,000 and we got half of that paid for so we have new duct work up there attached to the unit the unit seems to be running pretty well we don't use it a lot it's it's not you know it's not nearly
026as important as the cafeteria Commons unit and so um I think we feel comfortable at this point deferring that one where we don't feel comfortable deferring the uh the cafeteria unit all right thank you very much any more questions comments concerns oh just um two quick thingss one thank you so much for inquiring about the return on investment I appreciate that and the technical rout and then um two just one other question about the um this this I'm going to probably describe it wrong the alternate deduction with the steel is there any other benefits other than the $177,000 cost deduction to have it raised like is that better structurally for the building or anything like that no again the only benefit we were exploring is if it would be cheaper to install and that's that's
027obviously the the credit here of the 177,000 but um there is no functional benefit between the two it's just a matter of whether you I mean I think in in talking to to the contractor as well they kind of feel like they're going to have to remove the same amount of ceiling underneath uh in the cafeteria either way so they're other than the 17,000 there isn't any other significant benefit and that wouldn't help them with like repairs or anything in the future no I asked Jeff that question that's a that's a good question and and I did talk to Jeff about that like is it going to be better or worse and he's like no they can they can work around anything it it doesn't matter so okay and it wouldn't create like I I
028don't know if risk is the right word but I'm just thinking like snow leaves animals in the Gap like would that cause problems for us if we put it up there well I think if anything by raising them up to the three or four years you three or four feet you'd probably be more apt to have those those challenges where if they're literally mounted right kind of on the roof some of that will go away so there might be some I guess Leaf maintenance improvements and things like that yeah well I'm just thinking we have to send someone up there because of a nest yeah no that's a great question I did ask Jeff I was like Jeff is there any other reason to do this and he he he he recommended it as an
029alternate just to see how much we would save if we were saving 5075 $100,000 I think we'd be looking at it a lot closer but you know I I I don't know if you guys recall the units over at the high school they were more energy efficients they were much larger you can see them much more from the street level than you could the old ones and so I think we have a little bit of a a um you know fear of that happening again and so raising them up I think even though they're kind of tucked behind the roof as it is I just I'm concerned that those additional 3 to four feet with the new units that are usually bigger it just might be more visible from the kind of the Circle Drive
030and the parking lot I don't know if you you probably see the unit that's there right now above the uh above the kitchen area that will be gone now which will look better and they're actually going to be well it's going to be smaller there's still going to be one there but it'll be smaller and then the others will be tucked further back behind the roof that's kind of a long winded answer to your question oh it it does it explains it nicely thank you Dave Kate I had some experience in an office U that was built in Woodridge and they recommended lowering it just for that reason because there was other um problems with mold underneath at raised levels so they recommended bringing it down so your points are you know well taken excellent
031any more questions good well thank you Mr Wilkinson you were very prepared for that uh Q&A session thank you all right so moving along uh is uh item seven the uh technology equipment and subscription costs for 2025 2026 this can be found under item s of the finance committee packet and I gather we will also have a guest speaker yes I'm not very prepared for that one so I'm going to and this one off to the it department and uh Linda and Trent can talk to you a little bit about that all right not that Audits and auditoriums are not exciting but we hope to bring a little uh excitement with some tech talk here from with Trent and I um in my opinion Trent um technology is always fun because it's so um widely
032used now and integrated in absolutely everything we do from a teacher to a student level so whenever we get to talk about this it's um I hope it's appreciated because I think the staff and the students appreciate it but each year our job is to really look at what the future holds as far as equipment what devices we might need what things are at end of life um just the direction that we're going and to um approach that direction in a fiscally responsible way um so I have Trent here um I'm fortunate that he's really embraced uh his role and and has supported um the process and getting quotes and working with teachers so um um I started this but he's kind of taken it and really run with it so I'm going to let
033him um continue to tell you a little bit more about our plans thank you thank you and thank you for having me back to talk about this I app appreciate it uh so um the the refresh Lego that you have in front of you is we've been doing this for about five years now and it's just was really to paint the picture on you know that we're putting reliable um devices into the hands of of students and teachers um before we started the kind of buying a grade level every year was kind of use Chromebooks for three years shuffle them down shuffle them around students were maybe not getting the highest quality devices that they could have been so we kind of established this life cycle so that each student at each um in second
034fif or 2 Sixth and nth grade is getting a a brand new device in their hands to use for the course of their time at that school building the one change I would like to kind of highlight here on this on this cycle is the um is in kindergarten they've they're they've been currently using iPads for since Co um they've had one to one iPads in their room and we are we are looking at making the change to touchscreen Chromebooks for for kindergarten students that would align with what first grade students are using as well it kind of builds that continuity of using the same operating system across those two grade levels uh until they then go to second grade where they would get a non-touch Chromebook but still using the same operating system um
035as they were using in kindergarten in first grade those devices are about 5 years old um in in both those grade levels um the iPads no longer can will no longer be updating their operating system come the following year um just due to their age uh the first grade Chromebooks we would like to kind of build some continuity in terms of our Support Tech at the building as well Daniel on on repair ability uh we did talk about last year maybe extending those first grade Chromebooks a little bit longer uh but then if we're we cannot purchase those same Chromebooks anymore so we' kind of be in an issue of we'd have two two different devices totally different supply parts for fixing screens um fixing any any headphone jack breakage on the device um so
036we' like to kind of bring those in line with with with each other and have the one model across both those grade levels um in terms of support and providing uh great support and getting the devices back in circulation when they do break and as an FYI the teachers are on board with switching to the Chromebooks so that's exciting too and I will always say um when technology is going well everybody's really quiet because it's working and I think this cycle has supported that um we the feedback from teachers is great the feedback from students is great parents all of that because things work and this this cycle supports that so thank you and then our Junior and and our Junior High staff are on their refresh cycle for staff for staff laptops and computers
037this year so um we'll be looking to move forward with refreshing their devices uh to get new devices in in their hands as theirs have kind of ran their course of the four years for that life cycle moving on um to the device purchasing by location we're kind of try to break out all the costs and kind of what's what's being replaced um and purchased at each at at each building um there kind of looking at the at the Chromebook purchases there was a question on um the kind of the quantities we were purchasing um and kind of how that align with the current enrollment uh we usually like to take the kind of Cur the current enrollment of the grade level so for example we're purchasing for grade two we' kind of take that
038grade one current enrollment usually usually multiply that by about 10% to factor in um like full unit breakage um if they if they fail um if enrollment all of a sudden dramatically increases we kind of have that buffer built in over the course of the life of those devices and that kind of leads us to that um purchase quantity of about that of about those 400 devices um the current enrollments in grade 1 for example is 121 grade 5 is 128 and grade8 is 115 so if you're looking to purchase that 10% that kind of puts us to 401 we're kind of that we kind of quoted out that 400 to kind of allow for that uh flexibility not to run out of devices if for some reason kids decide to get really aggressive with
039their Chromebooks possibly um I was just going to say because the worst thing is if we ask teachers and students to use them and there's not a replacement if one needs to be repaired or one's down or screen needs to be replaced um we have been operating with this about 10% overage for I don't know 3 years probably or four years yeah and it's it makes um everybody's lives a little bit easier and then with those extra devices sometimes they sometimes they um we use them for State Testing when we know we need to have maybe all there's three grades at the high school doing testing and maybe we we pull out every Chromebook off the shelf and we have 40 extra Chromebooks for that day of testing so that way we don't have to
040send a student home um that because we don't have a device available for them we kind of have enough extras to cover everyone and get everyone in whether they forget it broken not working just we hand out another device for that test so they can so they're able to take it with the rest of their classmates there was also a question in regards to uh the cost of the Chromebooks from kind of what we had on on this on this um document last year versus this year so we are looking at increasing the specs of the Chromebooks we're purchasing we've been we're kind of look looking at increasing the internals on terms of RAM and processor because things are becoming more intensive um as as the operating systems continue to evolve there's I don't know
041if you guys use Chrome on your computers but it eats up your memory like and you know like no other and runs pretty slow so the Chromebooks are built on kind of that so the more RAM we have uh the better they're going to perform for the students so between kind of the increased internals as well as um it being a new model versus the model we purchased last year was kind of a they were one and two years like from their release with a new model this with a new model this year looking to purchase uh it does kind of increase that cost as well with the uh the Chromebook purchases too we do for all all these large purchases we do get multiple quotes from from from different resellers to kind of make
042sure we are getting um that kind of best price available to us so it's not just one vendor um quote yep sounds sign on the data line there's multiple uh quotes receive kind of some going back and forth as well those vendors kind of make sure we are getting the best price and then as we moveed down the list um the junior high has the those same uh Chromebooks as well as then the staff laptops and everything associated with that project um We are continuing to look to move forward with our um kind of the laptop is becoming the primary presentation device in the classrooms we used to have laptops and desktops um in each room but with Hardware cost increasing and demands increasing for those devices we're looking to consolidate that from uh two
043devices in a classroom to to to one device and that's why maybe that laptop price seems more than it has been in years past uh because that device needs to be a little bit more powerful now because it is driving kind of everything they're doing in the classroom and then the projectors for the Junior High School uh we replaced about 10 projectors um as part of the of the phase one of renovation last year so the rest of those projectors are to kind of standardized one model across all of the building so we only have to maintain one projector have one have one uh lamp that we need to replace it with right now I think the junior high has about six or seven different projector models just just just due to the projectors have
044never been kind of on a cycle they've always been kind of like one brakes replace it grab one off a shelf replace it so hopefully getting all of them on one cycle keeps us with one lamp and then when those come up to be replaced that we replace them kind of all at one time and kind of stay on that cycle um which provides you know better support you know having making easier to have lamps on hand those those sort of things so that's kind of get everything for our for our Support Tech there Andrew one model one one lamp very easy to support and then the elementary school um is just following um the same purchasing but then those uh the difference there is then those uh kindergarten in first grade Chromebooks those are
045more expensive due to them being a convertible device with a touchreen that does definitely add to the cost of the cost of the device and that 260 uh is an estimate I think there's I think in the um Staffing Report with the estimated enrollment uh kindergarten and first grade are expected to be lower so we will looking it we'll look to adjust that quantity based upon what we kind of determine those final enrollment projections to be and kind of then add that 10% on top of it so that 260 will most likely come down um we just kind of use that same 130 number just to estimate that those costs the one caveat I will note is that these uh costs are prear costs um I know it's the t word uh but so right
046now I and you know building our relationships with our with with with vendors we we work with um still having I still we still have prices secured uh before tariff increases for the for the time being so I'm just keep working uh using our relationships with our resellers and vendors to kind of hopefully hold those prices until it's time to execute a PO um to kind of lock those purchases in so so far so good um but that it could be subject to change if time Runs Out possibly um or they decide to slap them on it at any at any point unfortunately that's just the day and age we have right now with with that and then the one dis purchase this year just to um highlight highlight that is our firewall renewals it
047is just it is a cyber security necessity um it's an annual renewal that we'll just kind of need to keep purchasing to keep our district safe um it is just a large expense so just want to make sure to highlight that um on this document just so that cyber security is expensive but it does keep us safe and running um on a day-to-day basis so we kind of total up by school um for each for each of those locations to kind of reach that $373 um th000 so that's factored into that the gross total at the end of the end of this document but the next is the E rate program um this is the last of the uh funding cyle for for this for these 5 years of eate um we've our budget for
048eate for category 2 which funds the hardware purchases of access points switches anything like physical um is about $250,000 and we've used about $248,000 of that which means we've been reimbursed by the federal government half of that so my quick math I'm going to just use a 250 number as about $125,000 received back from the federal government to help support um upgrading our our Network so for this remaining year um we are purchasing some batteries which you know is thrilling um but it helps our equipment shut equipment shut down safely in event of a power outage uh the high school um we're installing wireless access points this year uh we we completed the junior high last summer for access points and kind of in conjunction with that phase one of the renovation and the elementary
049school will be taking place uh the following summer to kind of complete our three-year phases of upgraded access points and then the last category to purchase is for some recabling at the high school we need to add some access point coverage in some locations that haven't had it before increase some coverage because of students maybe using a different space than they have as well as uh some internal building cabling that kind of connects our equipment in in the building is kind of running end of its useful age also like two of the three connections are down so if we lose that last one that whole of the building goes down so it's replacing that uh Backbone in the building to keep us uh running reliably we are at a 50% discount rate from from USAC
050which which runs the e- rate program so the the total cost of those three projects is about 900 or9 90,000 but then with that um 50% reimbursement rate we would get reimbursed approximately $45,000 of that back from the Federal Government after we've completed the projects and submitted for for reimbursement there was a question on um kind of tying the eate funding back into the like purchasing by locations uh so to kind of maybe keep it simple we kind of kept all the eate purchases um within that erage P purchasing table and then that table kind of goes into that gross total at at the end which which I will get to in a second um firewall renewals are eate eligible but only to a certain percent because eate doesn't fund cyber security it funds basic
051connection basic networking so we decided to use the r money for other projects because we would only receive about 20% of those firewall renewals back they're about 20% eligible via the eate program so we use that money elsewhere this year to kind of get more bang for a buck for say and then and then and then use e right next year to to kind of fund that 20% for the firewall renewals in following years on the next page we have our annual software renewal costs uh these are um about the the same renewals as last year uh just with with unfortunately some some some increases in percentage we work with each vendor really trying to negotiate costs and push back on costs because vendors are wanting to hit you know slap us with 10% 15%
052increases so it's really a lot of back and forth and push back to try to keep these costs as reasonable and as a and as cost- effective as possible uh the one addition here is the is our student web filtering and classroom management tool that we use that is up for a three-year renewal uh so that so that cost of $24,500 is for a three-year uh renewal that that spread out out across three years paid uh once up front for for the three years so between the device and Hardware purchases the e- rate purchases and estimated subscription costs that brings the grow total of this of everything to about $796 ,000 there was a question in regards to um kind of breaking out federal state and local reimbursements uh from those from those totals so
053the only uh funding we're expecting to receive for the FY 26 budget is through the rate program uh so in that underneath that gross total that erate program reimbursements that is factoring out that Federal those Federal reimbursements to kind of leave with that net toal total of that $751,000 uh sorry if the finance committee is comfortable with what we have laid out here um we will move forward with um ordering and procuring the items that are noted here um if there's something that you all would like to consider further or would like more information on please let us know and we can get back to you on that I had one question regarding first I love how this keeps evolving even better every year um and that being that we kind of have this Cadence
054of all the replacement are there opportunities that we can partner with other districts get districts to get even greater volume discounts on any of this I have not heard of any districts working together for purchasing like for purchasing like that um I do not know of any uh Consortium that does kind of group purchasing I know we use cons use some consortiums to secure better pricing for us um but it's not like a but I've not heard of like a group purchasing effort in terms of purchasing Chromebooks or or laptops in that sense okay but it's definely I can definitely reach out to you know some of our other districts and or vendors if they even allow if they allow that kind of group purchasing effort but yeah it's definitely something it's definitely a good
055question I mean love it you guys have created a very predictable pattern here you know with that predictability over a fiveyear period you know working with a theoretically other districts they go maybe they have some also equal schedules like this going with if we kind of go start sinking together get that greater volume discounts but obviously and we've done a great job with districts other organizations and partnering maybe this could be another opportunity because these costs are only going up and the technology is definitely something we have to have in our with our students so great definitely thank you this is awesome again yeah and then I just would like to highlight the last um two Pages uh very briefly so the 5year hardware kind of Hardware planning uh table is just to kind of
056lay out what's upcoming what is on cycle to be repurchased and really trying to balance out uh those costs over a 5year period so really trying to not have a like a huge Peak and then a low valley and trying to kind of maintain um the most like level budget we can kind of that's how this 5year planning document kind of got was established is to really try to maintain that level budget um the one I think there there was a question here on what do like the X's represent within the like within the table and everything so it kind of differs so on like in the description like if it lists out like High School Technology lab or grades 269 Chromebooks the x is just there to to kind of let you know that
057that like we're just purchasing that for that for that particular uh like item description and then and in like the in the wireless access points row there is kind of it does break down by like by building for like high school and then Lees um it just kind of it just kind of dependent on what the description is for the item and if it's an X or um like what school it's for or or similar but so we we're try to keep this really level um as best as possible and kind of slot those um slot that Hardware in for replacement and where it fits uh to try to just you know keep uh good Financial stability and not have huge Peaks and valleys in and in our technology budget Dave also likes that yes
058that's true that's correct and then and the last document is just a um a report on like all the all the all the contracts were're expecting to exceed that $25,000 threshold for FY 26 uh there there was a question here about um you know what steps have been taken to get best pricing and you know like I stated before we procure for any of these large projects we're procuring quotes from multiple vendors and comparing those and then you know using those quotes to kind of work on you know negotiating the best price possible uh through the E the e- rate program is a competitive bidding process we we put out a a form it's a form 470 that kind of lists out what we want and then companies will submit bids on that and then
059we evaluate those bids based upon you know pricing familiar it with the vendor uh if they meet our needs Etc we're pricing is the highest weighted factor in that in that decision so that is a competitive bidding process and then software renewals are mostly handled directly with uh the vendor sometimes through a reseller if need be so we work I I'm always communicating with other districts about about everything that's going on so usually there's a lot of conversation back and forth about what are you paying per student for this for this program or what are you paying for per student for this program of similar size school districts obviously comparing Indian Prairie to us they'd be getting a lot lower cost per student um but so we try to find those similar siiz districts and
060compare those and then make sure we're not make sure we're getting the best price for those subscriptions because that is directly with the vendor and it's the only one you can really buy that byy those um sub subscriptions from all right are there any further questions concerns no Mr Howley I believe all of your uh questions were answered they were excellently all right well thank you Trent we appreciate all your diligence and uh keeping District costs in mind that was an excellent presentation thank you all last call for Tech questions because Trent's leaving oh no more Tech talk with t Tren more Tech talk we can Tech talk but it won't be with Trent well I think that'll be all for that topic for now all right so uh next up uh agenda topics for
061future meetings does anyone have anything to add no all right excellent so with no other agenda items I will uh I will entertain a motion to adjourn so all right so show that uh the meeting was adjourned at 7:17 uh p.m by Miss Alman and Miss Foster e e e good evening it's March 24th 2025 at 7:30 p.m. and I would like to call to order the meeting of the Lyall Community Unit School District 202 Board of Education could we please have a roll school yes um Mr lesnak present Mr nagler here Miss D Domino present uh Miss Foster present Mr hle present um Miss Sims is here and Miss Alman here thank you can we please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
062and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all next is the reading of our mission statement in the L 202 mission statement is to provide our Learning Community with the essential education skills and experiences for future success we'll keep those thoughts in mind as we meet this evening next on um our agenda I will turn this over to Mr marsof we're having our um student recognition this evening for the state culinary state championship [Music] not recognizing me not recognizing you good evening it is my honor to represent ly high school and to recognize Delila Nora for her accomplishments and her competition with the Technology Center of DuPage culinary team her and the team of five uh competed and won the Illinois state proart competition uh
063the Invitational so she is a state championship or she earned the state championship rather in the this baking competition this culinary competition I'll let her tell you a little bit more about her actual role um but overall she competed against 11 other schools the team not just hers competed against 11 other schools they won and now they get to go to Baltimore to compete in the national competition um well she'll talk to you about what she cooked don't sleep on her you will see her in Top Chef let me tell you she has the culinary skills she is such a fantastic young lady with a huge heart this afternoon she shared with me I was lucky enough to score one of these cupcakes that she made for the tcd bus driver's birthday and so she
064took it upon herself to make the cupcakes I made the I was sharing with people outside I made the mistake of cutting it in force and sharing it with other people I wanted it back as soon as I took my first bite um it is absolutely fantastic her skills are outstanding and like I said she's going to do great things when she she graduates here so you can talk a little bit more about what you did um well I was uh part of the appetizer uh I made a lump crab salad with Q Mayo sriracha and I made a Napa cabbage SLO it was tossed in a Asian citrus vinegret um on the side it had avocados um and butter poached king crab and torch and that's what I made um the day I was
065like so nervous like I was so nervous I couldn't I woke up at 5:00 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep I was just so excited and once I got to Cisco like and I started and I heard that timer start like my mind went blink like my body automatically took over since I practiced for so many months and and um for so long like when I did it I didn't even notice like an hour has passed and once I finished I felt like so relieved like so proud of myself that I've completed this ever since I was young I started cooking when I was 7 years old and ever since I've loved it I've never stopped I always uh try to find more recipes to do mix and match um I always cook for
066my family all the time and I love it especially my favorite part about cooking is giving it to people and receiving feedback and compliments I just feel very joyful with cooking and I love it so much and this competition is going to help me in the future especially with um my I want to open a restaurant when I'm older and this is like a huge step for me especially for when I go to school look for jobs and start on with my career congratulations fantastic thank you congratulations do I we're very proud of you and congratulations let us know where that restaurant will be whatever time we will be there I also want to mention I um I know your key role was in preparing that appetizer the lump crab appetizer I'm going to a
067party on Friday I'm supposed to bring an appetizer I was going to I was going to bring chips and dip but um maybe I can get together and find a better restaurant recipe rather so thank you very much for coming and we're we're just very very proud of you congratulations so much your family is welcome to stay than you thank you thanks for being here to support her than you congratulations thank you bye bye school age kindergarten I'm hungry all right number five on our agenda is our public comment and we do have one blue card request from uh Stephanie Trussell and Stephanie I think I think you've spoken before and know there's a three limit three minute time frame but uh um yes go on with whatever you would like to present hi um
068I was pretty excited when I um had realized that I had an opportunity to share with my daughter my nine-year-old granddaughter uh a chance to see Mean Girls the musical I much to my dismay I wrongly assumed that it would be edited making it appropriate for all ages this morning my favorite radio host recounted how his wife had taken his three small children to see their High School production of The Wizard of Oz I immediately began dreading preparing to speak tonight I wish L Senior High School had chosen something wholesome and familyfriendly unfortunately according to the play build the director and the principal decided to make a deliberate shift from the recent classic feel-good shows they wanted to offer students a contemporary experience with different technical demands and one that directly addresses themes prevalent in
069their lives when the first bad words were spoken I grabbed my Play Bill there was no PG-13 warning at that time I didn't know the rating was listed on the ticket page someone else in my family had purchased the tickets I lost counts of how many times the b word two gor function and Dyke was used and I'm sorry I don't use those kind of that language but the cast even used damn hell and the s word um even if my granddaughter was 133 I would have been just as uncomfortable it was my idea to attend the show and I immediately felt guilty for exposing my granddaughter to very sexual obscene content the next day I sent an email to each member of the School Board the principal and the superintendent not everyone replied the
070principal responded immediately and met with me that following Friday he told me that 51 edits had been made to make to soften the script I thought why not make 61 to remove all the profanity during our our meeting I was told that I was the only one that complained the responses from the the board members that I did get made it seem like it was a me problem my granddaughter's parents graduated from lyo high school in 2003 I find it very hard to believe that the principal at that time would have approved such content in four five short years my granddaughter will be at the high school and I wonder what be considered contemporary Orange is the New Black I don't know my advice to the high school is that they should go back to
071Feelgood content because we need something to feel good in this day and age thank you okay thank you Stephanie you know um we've had several corresponden back and forth and I respond on behalf of the Board of Education and I believe Dr philipak and and the principal did but we appreciate you you being here thank you okay next were there any other uh public comments online or okay thank you brings us to our uh item six which is our um agenda item 6A is our consent agenda 6 A1 are the board meeting minutes 682 payroll pay orders 683 vendor pay order 684 Personnel 684a certified employment 684b certified resignation 684 C classified resignation 6 a4d extra Duty employment 6 a4e extra Duty resignation 6 A5 resolution for dismissal of probationary teachers and reduction in force
072686 memberships in ihsa 687 D page West cook intergovernmental cooperation agreement Amendment resolution 688 official school calendar 2026 2027 6 A9 intergovernmental agreement with the ly Park District 6810 contract renewal agreement for Food Service management company for school year 2520 2025 to 2026 6A 111 audit Services engagement letter for fiscal year 2025 fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027 68 a 12 ly Junior High rtu replacement in theater stair Renovations contract and 6 A113 approval of the Board of Education annual policy review do we have any any sorry go ahead oh go ahead you wanted um to pull uh 688 school for discussion okay do you want to have that discussion why don't we have that discussion and then we can uh go through okay go ahead yeah so looking at the calendar for the
07326 27 the the last day of the year is a Friday the first day is a uh call Thursday and um I just have some questions there's 86 then 90 and know we try to keep it even I I I generally have you know when the last days of Friday often we have at least one snow day and I think I asked for like roughly this the snow days from the last three years when it pushes over a weekend especially Memorial Day weekend which is not the case in 2027 is that it's sort of like everyone get ready and then come back for one day of of school K8 it's to me the last couple days are more about celebration and transition which is all part of Education moving on to the next level high
074school of course there's some effects with uh finals but if there's ways that we can do to make it where the school year does not go over one day of a you know the last of a weekend of the last weekend especially a labor day I'm sorry Memorial Day weekend are there things that we can do and I think in Prior meeting I mentioned can we do some like snow days and then ACC combination some snow days initially and then remote learning one other idea that I came across uh talking to a friend from Sandwich is that they take good well we call it spring holiday or Good Friday and that becomes like the first snow day and therefore you know if we look at historically I think we had three last year but in
075lot of cases I think it's often one or two one often one is that we sort of building that buffer so that we have a snow day and we've had a lot of discussion over the value of a remote learning day which is very different from a kindergartener through a 12th grader but there could be some compromises there so that you know we don't have you know these days the the year being pushed over a weekend by a single day and so I just one of other board members thoughts on that I want to talk about the snow day piece I think we did a really good job of sending the survey out I think we need to honor the feedback from the community and stick with that and if maybe we give that option
076maybe on the next survey I think that's fine but I think for what the survey is now there was it was a pretty clear response for snow day so I think we need to honor that yeah for for this school year yeah we're past that I don't think we're going to have hopefully no snow days or cold days at this point um but you know it's something we want for the 2526 and this is of course the 26 27 if we want to come back and revisit that and look at that survey to maybe adjust it for what other options people would be interested in you we do have you know a lot of feedback I'm getting now from a lot of you know friends and constituents is like can we have remote learning days
077because all our neighbors are doing it and I don't think that's necessarily the right answer just because our neighbors are doing it that we do it but we have kind of a discussion and see if there's a compromise in there you know for the schedule so Dr philipak when we sent out that survey was it just for this current school year I can't recall the details on it it's sent out on an annual basis so I think for the foreseeable future we will continue to send that out because we've gotten a lot of responses yeah is there anything contractually you know building on the idea of um the March 26th date or the Good Friday date um is there anything contractually that that would be an issue with Good Friday is a holiday mhm it
078is considered a holiday so for our seal employees I believe we would need a waiver if we were going to take that day if we were not going to take that day excuse me so um and I and I understand you're thinking of maybe has it have it as a backup if we do have a snow day the only thing I for a consideration is that generally if people are making their spring break plans ahead of time and they know we have Good Friday off I'm sure they're going to include that Good Friday as part of their time off and then for us to flip and say oh wait that's a school day um I'm not sure that that would be well received um the only other thing too I think it was may have
079been brought up is the creating trying at least to create that balance of the first semester and the second semester first semester having 86 attendance days second semester having 90 attendance days um one of the things we always kind of consider for that second semester is testing at the high school um there are 10 test days for high school students or for high schools um 10 of those days are AP testing AP testing um there's testing in the morning and there's testing in the afternoon not that every student takes that many tests not that they take one in the morning and one in the afternoon but during that twoe period they could have three to four to five testing days depending on how many AP classes they have so obviously if there's a test they're
080losing that AP instruction they're losing um just general instruction and it and it disrupts the schedule there's also ACT Testing for all 9th 10th and 11th graders so when we try to take that balance it always there's always a little more days in the second semester be to to take into account those instructional days that are missed for testing um so again that's 11 days um so I think oh you you can go ahead I was was going to say um if I remember correctly on that survey that came out a lot of the high school parents weren't they more in favor of the um e-learning when there was a snow day and I know that we've said as a district we want to try to stay on the same days off as a whole
081District but I know we do things like conferences where like we're off for the high school and the Junior High in October I think and then the Elementary is like November for conferences so is there something we could do just for one school or or two schools you know that would maybe use that if the parents are wanting that the parent teacher conference days offset each other because they're both getting the the one the early release day and then the conference day so that equals out it I don't know that it's significant that they're in different months because the time in school is the same but if you had a completely different um um situation where half of your District was snow day I mean I don't even I honestly don't even think that would
082work I don't think this state would approve it to have half of your District do one thing and half of the other half do the other I was just going to add that it was several years ago I think when we moved the start date up sooner and that was so that the high school testing could be accomplished before winter break for finals correct and there were very concerns about moving it earlier correct um to start you know it's the middle of summer and we're going back to school uh you know so I I I think there are concerns both ways there's you know positives and um you know I certainly understand the after Memorial Day um issue um but I think we would also have parents who are concerned about starting earlier and for
083as Mr hly said for that 26 27 school year Memorial Day happens to fall late that year it's a whole another week later um so yes it's could be on a Monday or Tuesday but it it's at least not interfering with the Memorial Day that year yeah it's been my experience um that having five using five emergency days happened once in 26 years so um and ending on a Friday ending on a Monday Tuesday there's that end of the year exuberance and it doesn't matter what day you end on you're going to encounter that so I think it's good to look at it with each calendar cycle to see where it falls and and you know I I know I've heard those concerns also I've heard the other concerns but it's good to review it
084each each year and that's why I think more of this discussion of planting the seeds for next year's discussion for the survey more you know not so much the the spring Holiday Good Friday one you know I just know that was an option some districts have done so and if we do it far enough ahead then people will know not to hopefully not plan odly enough I know um a parent and they said well you guys should just put those snow days on the calendar when you hand it out and I said it's on there it's the last five days she was like I just never noticed I'm like it's there well no you you you you made a very thorough calendar so thank you and just a clarifying question with the um the change
085when we have the snow days it doesn't impact other things I know someone said something about high school graduation recently like none nothing else moves right we just go to school one extra day right generally uh graduation is a week and a half or two weeks before it's usually miday so it's not impacted if we go another day okay do they do oops do they do like finals though after that one day like after they've been off that weekend and then they come back on Tuesday then they have the last day of finals yes okay that's good extra study time gets them ready for college yeah all right good discussion okay are there any other items otherwise I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second okay we have
086we could please have a roll call Sir um Mr nagler I Mr lesnak hi um Miss D Dominico I miss Foster I Mr hle I miss Sims is and I and Miss Alman I thank you next on the agenda is item seven which is our financial information and the board acknowledges receipt of the following report 7A financial report 7B treasur report is there any discussion on either of those okay item eight on the agenda is the preliminary 28a is our preliminary 2025 2026 Staffing plan so I'll turn that over to Dr catolic um great so I'm happy that um we are at a point where we're moving along pretty well and we're not seeing big flu fluctuations in our staffing plan from year to year in fact they're pretty predictable so generally they're based on
087what our enrollment looks like and sectioning looks like and since uh we combine Tate woods and Shure they've been it's been pretty pretty level which like I said I'm I'm happy about that's good to hear the report that you have in front of you um the spreadsheet that you have it's probably going to retire pretty soon um when this spreadsheet was built maybe 10 years ago um we didn't have our Skyward system and so now we have a um our Skyward system which is our Personnel system and and all of that and we can start to pull that information from Skyward directly instead of using an external form and so I'm mentioning this because that's why we had the couple errors with the custodian so they were entered correctly in in Skyward but they were
088entered incorrectly on this spreadsheet so um it isn't really a increase in custodians anywhere they were just mismarked um and the person is actually at the elementary and it was noted that they were at the high school um we so that's that's we're starting to see that um we have a better way of doing this instead of entering things twice but that's an example why have all the have all the documents been corrected and uploaded to board books cor yes yes they're up there um so in general what we're going to see next year is a decrease in 6 FTE English enrollment at the high school and there were a couple questions on that if I remember correctly m I think it was just a you know why is there a decrease um yeah I'll
089refresh your yes I'll pull up the question just a second um so the the decrease is we're decreasing one section at freshman one section at sophomore one section at Junior um we are taking um the classes were relatively small and what was determined is we could add two or three people to the other remaining four sections and still make it a perfectly um typical size for L classroom um so that's where the the three sections are going and that's why there's that decrease in Staffing at the high school okay and that was the question what what was the reason for the reduction in section there's no CH less offerings um we're still offering the same things we're just able to do it in four sections and still maintain the Lal class sizes that we want
090um instead of having the extra section uh you with that um so that there's um no real increase in the Staffing we're going to um add an instructional coach at the high school so we're going to be trying this this is something new and we will post for this 6 pres position um we'll see if someone applies just for that position or if we pair it with something in the in the building already and then that creates some changes in who's teaching what but um I it's a pretty exciting position and we hope to um see some great things from that you'll also see a plus point2 in AP AP music theory so this year we did not offer it because we did not have enough students next year we're going to bring it back
091because we have five students that will be taking that course um again in Lyal fashion um we have enough students that want to take that course so we will offer it and so that's where that's coming from the plus point to any questions on the high school just a quick question what's the instructional coach what do they do like what's their dayto day they will um support teachers they will support teachers with technology pedagogy um learning a new new strategy um working directly with teachers to improve their instruction so we have the model right now Vinnie Slovak Dr Vinnie Slovak we created it it was just part-time he had some availability because he was teaching some and then he had some availability and it was just so well received by the staff and so let
092me give you for an example we're seeing all these changes in AI we're like What do we do with that where do we get training for that and then even if you go to a conference you get a general idea but a person like this instructional coach winds up reaching out to everybody saying what would you like to do in your classroom I've know some great websites some AI things we can do what Vinnie or this new person will do at the high school is meet with the teacher and say give me some ideas of what you're focusing on that person does the research they get everything lined up they co- te it the first few times that the individual does it and then at some point they exit out um it was something that
093the teachers at the high school said they're really appreciating what's happening at the junior high Vinnie has gone to the high school and done a lot of professional development they're like boy it would be great to have a Vinnie here so we don't know if this is a permanent position but we really feel like as much as technology is changing we need somebody who can get into the classrooms be able to model be able to be you know very specific as to what you want to accomplish and then do the heavy lifting so that at very short period of time you wouldn't need that individual anymore we'll report back at some point towards the end of the year when I met with Eric on this I said in my opinion um there's a lot of
094pieces to this number one the staff wants to have to wants it needs it you know they're saying this is something I want if the staff is just saying wait what this person supposed to come in and tell me at had a teach I've been doing this for you know 20 years I'm I'm not really sure I want that but the staff has clearly indicated they want somebody particularly to help in technology so we decided not to call it um a technology anything we it's more about instruction with a leverage of Technology number two it has to be the right person we don't know if we're going to find the right person yet we're very hopeful but I think Vinnie Slovak does such an incredible job of partnering collaborating really coming in with h what
095would you like to accomplish it it's incredible if you've ever met him as an individual and so we're hoping to find somebody very similar because even if they have the best intentions and people want somebody good if he can't connect with them and do the heavy lift and no one's going to want it the thing that I had shared with Eric though and we're doing this with Vinnie is like I want to know what they're doing and so Vinnie keeps a calendar that says here's the days these are the people I've met with these are the the things that we've covered and so I'm very comfortable in what Vinnie has been accomplishing to know that we're getting value out of that position rather than creating something and having somebody say well no one's really asked
096for any help and so as we continue to to share with you where our growth is in terms of Technology we think we need this type of position but we also be willing to share some of those things that they're doing you know towards the end of next year we we'll make sure to talk about Vinnie this year when we talk about Ai and what's happening at the junior high and how he's had an impact in the district but we'll Circle back at the high school level to show that there's actually some value in this so this isn't anything permanent staff's asking for it we're going to try and find that right person we're going to monitor it and see the impact and report back to you um to make sure that this is something
097we want to continue to do we're also changing I hate to use word librarian and I'm not even sure we use that word anymore but at the high school we're redefining that role too that that person's only to spend about 04 of their time doing Library work and they're going to be the counterpart to this their job and so they're going to spend about six of their time doing the exact same thing getting into classroom showing what you can do with technology and being a support it's embedded professional development I think we can all go to conferences get some really cool ideas but then job when you go back to work takes your day and you're like oh I didn't get to that and so to have somebody who's willing to like meet with you
098go do the heavy lifting come back show you work with you and then exit is what we're hoping is the best strategy for this embedded professional development particularly in technology but not not limited to technology one thing too is um as a teacher sometimes it's hard to try new things and sometimes there's fear and how do I do this and what if it goes wrong and the whole idea that if there's someone there to support you and and team with you on that it it makes it much much easier to try that new thing um you know you go back and what went well what what do we need to work on um so the people that embrace it uh it's it's really really a great position you would have a line out the door
099if you said I'd like to know what's happening at the junior high and how Vinnie has made an impact um we're hoping to find another Vinnie and have a very similar Cadence in terms of the growth that we've seen in utilization of Technology because it's changing so much and you really Trent's incredible for what Trent does but that's not his wheelhouse he's the boxes and wire guy he makes sure as everything's up and running um you really need somebody now to be able to focus on what we can do with technology and instructional practices and so we'll share more information as we try and find that right person and if we're not finding the right person we're not going to have the job just to have the job just to clarify like the um Vice
100pres the assistant principal of a curriculum like that's not something that's in their realm there's a lot of overlap with that um the assistant principal spends time in classrooms particularly at the high school the department heads spend time in classrooms but the day-to-day doesn't allow them to really be able to meet with teachers what do you want to do do the research help set up the lesson plan co- te with them so that they're feeling comfortable they're just not enough hours in the day for that I think like as an aside I'm quite familiar with this role um I serve as an instructional coach um and the nonevaluative nature of the role is really important especially when you are trying something new um when you can partner with somebody who is like like on your
101side to be a thought partner a researcher um also could model um and that's a very vulnerable space for a teacher to be in to to sort of invite that professional learning um but it has the most um profound impact and the most it's the fastest way to get change um in an institution I'm glad you brought that up too because I gave a little bit of push back in the beginning thinking what do the department heads do then but to have a relationship with your evaluator be at the assistant principal of the department head is a different conversation cuz as as much as we'd like to think you'll know when I'm doing your evaluation if you make yourself too vulnerable doing these conversations uh trying something new and seeing failure you can do that
102with an instructional coach I'm told that's not as easily done when it's your evaluator and and Paul you can speak specifically to that I've not been in that circumstance it truly it is a just a fact but in addition what I have noticed is a trend too of new teachers I sit on a lot of um interviews it's an Ask of new teachers what is your mentorship and coaching program is like one of like some the universities must be helping you know because it's the same question over and over but that's definitely an Ask um of teachers so I think like you said teachers are definitely asking for it and appreciative of it and I think change is probably difficult for most people not just teachers um I appreciate it you know looking into a
103way especially technology technology is changing so quickly technology assists education and other jobs the changing jobs to be more effective so I really like this you know to find this Vinnie or maybe has a cousin who knows so um Good Luck in that search favorite movie yeah it's been a I we've had instructional coaches um in in my world for quite a while and it's been an extremely effective role um I think that a good word for it is current because we're always looking to stay current with education and on top of all the changes and that's a primary role of is of an instructional coach is a stay current with best practices to meet the needs of students and along the way helping uh teachers to hone their craft in a as Paul you
104put it most eloquently in a you know in a kind of a a safe space because you're unsure you want to make sure that you put your best foot forward but um it's teaching is performing live without a net so you go with it and then you're like uh oh did this work or did this not work so having somebody in your corner to kind of help guide you through that process is definitely helpful and they have it embedded in what you're currently doing in your current day it doesn't fall outside and it isn't a theory this is literally servant leadership might be the right word somebody coming in and saying how can I help what would you like to do let me do some research I'll get back to you by the end of
105the week these are the things that I found let's give this a try rather than just saying oh have you tried chat before like that what do I do with that like I got to get back to class I got to teach I don't I just can somebody help and so the staff has asked for help this is our way of giving it a try Beyond just the junior high because Vinnie's doing an incredible job and he's met with the other schools there's just not enough Vinnie to go around I think we've all heard the success that um Vinnie's had in his programs and with the staff at at the junior high and I think instructional design is very different from curriculum content so they're almost like two things that have to be merged um
106but this is a position that would help that merger so okay any other questions on that all right one more sorry I'm just I'm just learning about this the goal with the goal of this what are we looking to see as our outcomes are we looking like you're talking about like supporting the teacher in the classroom are we looking to see like a staff retention goal are we looking to see um improved outcomes like educationally on certain metrics that we have like certain test scores or students achieving and our graduation rate is great so I don't think that's one but um you know just I'm just thinking what what are we looking to say cuz you said we'll reevaluate next year what are we going to use as our Benchmark to say we re-evaluated this
107is what we're seeing and this is why we want to keep it or not keep it so I'll answer your question but I'll start with a story I think when they're when they impact you directly it resonates more and so just a quick example and I could give you a bunch of these when I was getting my MBA at depal I knew more about what was happening in the real world than the staff and at a time this is an extreme example but at a time when PowerPoint was the most prevalent thing they were teaching me how to use laminates at depal University for an MBA program and those teachers lost us and then in our web design classes they were teaching us code when no one was using Code everyone was using web design
108programs and I'll never forget that Professor just looking deflated and saying I think this point I've realized my staff has gone or the students have gone well beyond my ability we are right at that Tipping Point our kids know so much and how to do things with technology if we don't keep up with them we're going to lose them and so the things that we're hoping to bring back to evaluate is teacher saying I've used this AI to improve um how we're collaborating on this I've made it very clear when it's appropriate and when it's not appropriate we're still trying to find that gray area in between the two to have the courses reflect what they're going to see in the real world and not be like technolog is bad AI is bad and they
109get to the real world and realize it's a huge part of their life teachers are more than willing to understand that they just don't have the time and the professional development to a learn it knowing that it's changing every few months and then what do I actually do with it my curriculum and so this these positions will have a heavy lift to be able to work with teachers so that we we don't lose the students and become irrelevant but the ways that I think we're going to measure it is to be able to have firsthand conversations with the teachers perhaps next year we can it'll be part of what we talk to you about towards the end of this year what we're doing in areas of AI but to have some success stories about working
110with this person it made me even as we're working we have an AI committee right now one of the teacher said wow when I'm unpacking and I'm trying to figure out what we can do with AI I'm realizing maybe what I was trying to teach is n't as relevant as I initially thought and so it's making them take a step back as what you're trying to accomplish and is there a more efficient way in today's world to actually do it and so having the vines of the world were able to say yeah this is this is what's new this is what you're seeing changes so that we're not teaching what was the way of approaching things even a year or two ago so that's a roundabout way of saying I don't know the answer yet
111but I do know we need to be able to share some stories about what we're doing in the actual classroom or we're going to lose the kids but it's so new to all of us I don't know if there's a metric that says you used AI this many times you change your lesson plan to make it more like those will be part of it but I don't know if it's a destination and I don't know if we're going to get to a point where there's literally a matrix to so that you know these things happen therefore it must have been successful but I would like to give it a try because I think not trying we're going to quickly become that MBA program that I talked about that they just lost lost us we we
112they were teaching us something from years ago and that was not the direction we were supposed to be learning and the kids are so much further along than we are at this point professional development is going to get us to hopefully at least catch up to them if not pass them and it's going to look different at the elementary versus the Junior High in high school that's the other thing um somebody needs to be able to help us differentiate when it's appropriate and when it's not appropriate because in our meetings at AI we know what cheating looks like we know taking credit for someone else's work is wrong we know if it's an embedded part of what we're trying to accomplish that's that's great you know maybe it makes it easier to takes a lot
113of things and say AI find the commonalities and differences what are the top three things you that those things can happen really quick as long as we've said it but it's this 80% Gap in the middle that we still have to figure out and I think these roles are going to be huge in helping us figure out the Shades of Gray and when it's appropriate in that and for us to communicate to students so you're never put in the situation where kid gets in trouble and there's discipline and then they come back here and they say I didn't know that that you know violated something like well we're coming up with drafts but the next two years is where we're going to try and figure out where those Shades of Gray are again talking way
114too much I apologize Kad and no thank you for the the addition trying to answer your question no I appreciate the clarification um could we if we're going to do these at all the building levels because it's a newer concept I don't know yet if it building levels but right now we have one at the junior high and now we're moving to the high school we may make our way down to the elementary I don't know yet if these two plus individuals might be able to backfill some of their time to the elementary okay we'll put a maybe in there so we maybe we'll have these if we do have the if we have them next year when they do their presentations in the fall could they maybe share a little bit about like what
115some of their experiences are just so we have a good understanding and I think we can present to the community um like someone like me that Works outside of Education this is a concept that I'm not familiar with the day-to-day with and just I think that'd be great to really learn about how it's helping us so we can continue to and so I'm hoping it'll be a a stepped up process I'm I we had targeted I want to say next month to bring back information I Ai and as a team of both administrators and teachers um we're just not ready yet and so um we're still planning by the end of the school year to talk about at least the draft not of a board policy but what the expectations are and then having Dr
116Slovak talk a little bit about some of the PD that he did but I think You' really love to hear from some of the junior high staff um and the impact he's made in their classroom and then the year after is then we can get a you know follow up on this point 6 and the change in the librarian's role to say is it impactful again and if so then maybe we expand it to the elementary or maybe we consider this isn't the impactful position we had hoped it would be I like to back I like the idea of the presentation of of the outcomes and particularly like the AI I mean you talk about cheating what's that gray area the other aspect of AI I'd be curious if this works into the curriculum or
117the program or whatever is teaching kids critical thinking when they're using AI I use AI every day it doesn't give me 100% right answers often gets me really close and then I spend 30 minutes going that was the wrong that line there in Step number three was wrong and say hey that's wrong goes oh are you using version X yes okay here's the right answer right of teaching kids how to use a tool like Ai and have that critical thinking on going it is not you know 100% correct ever many times so um it'd be interesting in in part of those presentations how the curriculum on AI is and I think I've gone to a lot of presentations on AI I don't think anyone quite yet knows where it all fits in and so in
118many way to me it feels like when computers first came out we talked about computers and we're getting computers and computers are going to help instruction and we didn't really know what it was going to become and and how critical and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't and I think we're at that beginning stages with AI so it's not all about AI but I do think we need to have some in-house experts to be able to walk us through how we can use it in a way that actually improves instead of this thing we fear because kids might cheat kind of like when the internet first came out I think even beyond that that position can be critical to evaluating the instructional platform that's used at the high school make sure that that's compatible
119with colleges and what they're using so it's just amazing some of the things that you see now it is a huge tool we currently use for teachers developing lesson plans um being able to say this is what I want can you come up with 10 questions about this um in terms of and I know there's some legal issues with this now but in terms of putting a lot of information together and maybe getting a first draft of an IEP because part of that is just taking so many you know separate pieces of information so it's never allowing AI to create and that be the final draft but I do think it's really getting some of our kns back in terms of being able to create something or at least getting a first draft of it
120so we would appreciate your support um with seeing the decrease uh in English as much as I'd like to bank that money I do think the staff is asking for us to support them so the students don't pass us too much with technology and we think embedded professional development is an opportunity but we'll bring more information to you when we actually find the person so that you're comfortable that it's not just filling a slot okay um regarding the junior high the minor changes that you see there are to support the additional students that we're having coming over for sixth grade next year so you'll see an increase in the core math English literature um they're able to manage science and social studies with the current staff um so that's the plan there we will decrease
121a point2 math intervention position um and and fill that with the math the for the sixth grade so um we also have a 6 English person that we will bump up to a 1.0 FTE to cover the new um language arts and literature class so it's an easy fill for us any questions on the junior high question um that was where my question was that but that was before the chart got fixed and so it looked like we were just taking off point two of math but it's being offset by math so it's fine um the last is Elementary obvious viously we've been uh managing the elementary increase in sections over the last few years we are anticipating a decrease in kindergarten of course that will be watched as enrollment happens over the summer and
122um if if we need to add that six section back we will certainly be coming to you but we're we're predicting that we'll be able to go um five sections in kindergarten and first grade but that bump we've been um um working with is now going to be in fifth grade so we're still down one section as it as it stands right now at the elementary um and managing um that larger class at fifth grade and so a total of a minus point4 FTE as always we will continue to watch PA of professionals to see how IEPs come in and what's needed for students in that regard and obviously kindergarten is something that we always have our pulse or finger on the pulse on that one so nothing crazy this year which is great any
123questions okay I I just want to make sure I felt like there was some questions and maybe I missed you addressed um the difference between enrollment at a building oh that's right did you want to talk a little bit about that um there are many many questions about the St staing the numbers on the Staffing report versus the enrollment report so the enrollment portion is students that are enrolled in the district so they may be in assd program they may be in um other programs that are not housed in our district the Staffing report accounts for students that are in one of our three buildings period so then we always do have some extra students that are in out placements so that's the difference so I do think we got a lot of questions that
124said on Linda's report report why is that a different number than the enrollment report and you'll see in the totals there was a number that was what did we label them as um inhouse and that's a total and that's the number you would see on Linda's report excuse me and then outplaced would be if students had to go to sasset or a private facility and so that's why if you just picked up on the highlighted yellow number and said why don't those agree to Linda's report that's because L is just inhouse there were some also some questions about why do we think ly Elementary is going down in the number of students and you can see on one of the attachments that preschool starting to settle we don't know for sure it was a small
125amount this year and so that rolled into first grade and so it's really seeing kind of the bubble we lived starting to to make its way through the rest of the organization um we don't know if this is the new trend but we do know it's going to be a lower first grade and a lower kindergarten as part of the recommendation to bring those six sections in kindergarten first grade down to fifth grade we'll keep looking very closely at kindergarten it seems like even this year's number was lower than last year's number a year ago but we'll look at it very closely in the summer I don't remember off the top of my head but we do have a number that once we hit that number that's when we'll add to the to the uh
126six section for kindergarten and then on the flip side as we talked about that bubble as Linda pointed out fourth grade was a large class now it's moving into fifth grade so that's where we add a sections so two sections down kindergarten in first grade one section up in fifth grade for a net of one but we're not bringing you an instructional coach to fill that one so okay well 8B is our overview of mckeny vinto and homeless student support programs we'll turn it over to Dr law this is um a followup from last year um last year I did a presentation and you guys said you wanted to have more information each year so I try to do a little bit different um cover some different things one of the topics that I hear
127a lot is our numbers have gone up so much which is true they have gone up but so have all of our surrounding districts um so I sent a survey out to all the mcken vento the aison in DuPage County so every school district's required to have one um I asked them for their current McKenna vento enrollment number and their current District total enrollment um most of the people that I um reached out to responded but not everybody so um on the sheet that I presented the attached the one that looks like this it's got um they're in order of percentage so you can see at the top the hensdale 181 they have three students that are mckenny vento out of 3531 students so .1% of their population and then all the way down um
128for the school districts that I didn't hear back from I was able to get their most up-to-date numbers now keep in mind these numbers change every single day but um every month the regional Office of Education will pull the numbers so if I didn't hear back from somebody these are updated from within the month and then on the total District enrollment if I didn't hear back I pulled those numbers from the December one count that we do in special ed so um so some of them might be a little bit off but overall they're pretty close so you can see the highlighted line for um Lyall we have at the time of this report we had 70 students with 1562 total enrollment which was 4.5% um so we've got the very top of 0.1% all
129the way down to you see West Chicago 33 at 15.3% so there is quite a difference um among the districts and um I was trying to look at like is there something that has to do with maybe the median income or but you can't really pull that by School District at least I haven't been able to figure out how to do it um you know because they're like if you look at Lyall not all Lyle goes to Lyle right so some of them go to down so that was didn't really help but it's not also about the the median income there are other factors so one factor might be like in Downers Grove they have that whole hotel on Butterfield that has been converted into a pad's homeless shelter so all those students that live
130there they have the option of going to school in Downers Grove or they have the option of staying where they were um if I would have thought about it when I sent the survey out I would have asked districts to also tell me how many cost shares they have so if we have a student who let's say they Neighborville 203 is where they were living when they became homeless then they um are doubled up or whatever in our district they have the choice to enroll in Lyle or they have the choice to stay where they were and if they decide to stay where they were then we have to transportation and we split the cost with the district they're enrolled in and the district they live in so we split that 50/50 and that's called
131a cost share so Downer's Grove has in just in that one housing unit there's over 200 students that live that are all homeless that live in that apartment complex or the hotel the pad shelter so um we've had students there in the past that we've done you know the cost share with District 58 at 99 um they don't have a choice they have to to share in those costs um and then there's a chart a graph that goes along with that this one that one shows um the enrollment over the years in our district and then the last line where it says 2425 with the asteris the at the time of this report there were 70 students in District that are mcken vento throughout this year just this school year we've had 86 so there's
132a lot of coming and going there's some students who've been in the district for years who then become homeless for you know a variety of reasons and they want to stay here and so they may not be living in our district and we might be doing that cair with another District but we keep them as a Lal student um there's other students who you know move into the district and move in as homeless because they're moveing to either like a Catholic Charity's um shelter situation or doubled up with somebody but every single family that comes in that um if they have trouble producing the documents that they need for registration they usually get routed to me and then I work with them and if it turns out through the um process of um you know
133we have to go through trainings and there's a whole process you go through with the families and after those questions if it turns out that they are eligible for mckenny vento then I'm the one that helps register them and I meet with those families every single year so we're required to meet with them every 18 months to verify if they're still mckenny eligible but I meet every year at the start of the school year um let's see um there's another chart um I was asked if there if we could look at the breakdown by schools um so there's the second upload that I just uploaded tonight the one that looks like this that shows from the 1920 school year through now and um the number of students total the number that were at um ly
134Elementary which is prek through 5ifth Junior High and then High School to transition so that includes our transition Aid students so you've got the number of students plus the percentage for that year thank you for adding that I was wondering if there was a bubble or how this works these numbers completely confuse me because there doesn't seem there's no pattern there's no pattern even the increased size of the elementary school it's disproportional and then it suddenly like drops in junior high and then goes away you know up it doesn't MH and I think kind I touched upon the the transient nature of some of this it's just going to be random yeah somewhat random so um I appreciate the extra work that you put together there some additional insight into the situation our homeless students
135yeah thank you there's we've had students who have been eligible under mckenny for years and then we have students we had one family this year a student was here for a week and then they're gone you know so there's a lot of lot of that transition so the um I think there was a question also about what kind of supports we provide was that yeah I think just an overview I I uh I know one of our board members wasn't here you did an extensive report last last year but Paula was new to that so so the supports we provide are um most the the focus of the mckenny vento is removing barriers so we want students to attend school we want them to participate we want them to be involved there's a lot of
136things that you know we take for granted like at the elementary school they had pajama day and they do that for Spirit Week a couple times a year there's kids who don't have pajamas you know so I had a teacher reach out to me and be like hey we've had Pajama Day a couple times this my student hasn't participated I've asked her she said she'd like to is there any way we could get pajamas so I was like sure so I contacted the regional office because all the funding for it comes through the regional office it's none of our our local funds or taxpayer money it's all through the federal funds that we get through the regional office so I contacted them and I'm like hey can I get pajamas for roughly 35 children because
137there's some student students who you know their teacher said they need them but then they have a sibling who that teacher didn't say so I'm like well you know if one child needs it they probably both do so I went to Target bought just a variety of um pajamas and met the nurse in the nurse's office had the teachers send the kids down we went to the bathroom they tried them on they got to wear pajamas for the day take those pajamas home so now they can do pajama day every time we do it and it was all funded through the Roe so it's a lot of the things that we do it's the teachers bringing that to my attention you know we do the typical things like we do toiletries which is a and
138it's become this very impressive process where Jen minky's class at the high school um is very involved they do the shopping they do the um the inventory and the categorizing and then if at the junior high or the elementary or the high school if somebody has a student who you know needs shampoo or body wash or deodorant or whatever we just let Jen's class know they put together a little bag we send it over and then they have it within a day so it's kind of like our own little like you know resource store and then Jen students you know keep inventory and when things get low they let me know we order what we need and keep things un stock so that's nice um we've done some other things like you know um we
139had a student who was taking culinary classes at tcd and she didn't have the black non-skid shoes that you need which are like $35 the family didn't have the money for that so we bought those um we've bought sport a lot of sports things you know paying like either fees or waivers and then they might need the soccer socks or they might need you know cleats or they might need wrestling shoes we had a student who wanted to do cross country and we bought shoes for him he went to state so those things wouldn't have happened otherwise so a lot of the things that we do you know it's it's removing those barriers so kids can Excel and be you know participate with their friends and then of course Transportation which is um you know
140that's a requirement of what school districts were required to do and that's not funded through the Roe that's funded through us and it it is a complicated process but it's you know it's required and we know that when a student changes school's midy year they can lose the equivalent of a month of education so it's really important that we keep that the stability in their enrollment great thank you Jen anyone else with that okay thank you no thank you again for putting this together I mean I think this being an annual report is great yeah y got it on my calendar for next year and if there's anything specific you want to know just let me know and I'll pull that okay thank you again Jen HC is our Freedom of Information requests and those
141have been in the packet and responded to uh 8D uh public comment followup uh there was none from last month um and it brings us to 8e which is our superintendent report this is always so hard to write because I mean in any given month so many things are happening I'm sure you're all on the emails that go out every single week from the uh principles and so what we ask them to do is highlight just a few um you know each and every month to be able to include in the superintendent's report and so today's is three full Pages which I won't read to you but just kind of giving you a breath of some of the highlights at the elementary um fire safety is always an important thing I think we tell students
142time and time again but they really enjoy meeting with a firefighter and having that individual come out and walk them through some very specifics and so we're fortunate to have the relationship that we do with ly Woodridge fire department and so they were able to come out and work with our students at the junior high we had a lot of positive competition results our Science Olympiad did extremely well in the regional competition competition you we've listed there as to how many sixth fifth fourth and third and second places and so we were really excited with their performance but the varsity team um for Science Olympiad actually qualified for the state competition and so we're looking forward for them to be able to participate and show their best in the April month I think it's at
143UI anybody UI fan here yeah it's a UI it's UI yesterday we have a huge ufi here fan um in terms of the um music competition liar Junior High symphonic symphonic band and concert choir both did really well they earn the highest rating but um symphonic band actually got a perfect score and so I think that's pretty rare and so we're proud of our students performances on both groups in terms of the academic Excellence for those of you who are relatively new to having either high schoolers or being on the board I we we had a period of a time where we only had 10 seats and the students all fought for those 10 seats and that really didn't align with what we wanted as an organization and so we set a threshold that said
144if you can meet this threshold you know ideally we want every single student to be able to participate and so we're proud to see that 14 students will be joining us when we recognize them in the coming month actually it's I guess just over a month it'll be May 4th and then a real special part of that is they pick the most influential teacher and their teacher actually talks about what you know they see in that individual and so I think most of you were able to come to that event we'd encourage you to come because it's just really great stories about teachers sharing about their students and then students why they picked you know who that person was and the impact that they made during their time period and it's not just for high
145school teachers it's not uncommon for a junior higher in some cases is even elementary teacher to have had that big of an impact that carried through all the way to their high school years tcd uh we have our a team we've listed that uh eight students were recognized at tcd and so we're really excited about our students being recognized not only for the academic but also you know their drive and who they are as a person and how serious they take the work and so listed there as the eight students and then we got to meet DEA tonight about meeting that state competition I know tcd does traditionally pretty well but she was actually able to be a great part of that team and talked about tonight about how you know impactful it is on
146her and how she sees that in her future which is always great to hear in terms of um the Iha ihsa congratulations to Sydney buelt who's recognized as the honorable mention with all of her work in all state Science Olympiad competition at the high school they did incredible too they are going on also with the state competition uh CTE recogniz izes uh on an annual basis those Educators that have stood out and so Mr bambo is our industrial technology teacher and so he was recognized through a combination of tcd and cood as being uh an outstanding educator and so we're fortunate to have him in terms of state qualifiers I won't read all of them to you but you can see we have boys wrestling girls wrestling bowling basketball skills and deca and so I
147think uh for as small as we are we've got an incredible group of students who are really showing what they've accomplished at each of those individual type events and then the High School Musical Mean Girls uh mixed reviews it sounds like however I think uh it was really full I think most nights I'm always amazed to see what a professional performance those young students are able to make no matter what the script is and so um it was really a great event and then District the coral Festival was held on March 12th I think many of you also there I take such Pride when we're able to do these districtwide events it's so often on you know grade levels but that's one of those events that we were able to bring you know from early
148on Elementary all the way through high school they perform you see kind of the the scaling in terms of how or sequencing how they grow over time but then when you have those final performances we're all on the stage together I mean it's just an amazing amazing event and then um one of the things I didn't include cuz it's still somewhat of a a work in process uh many of you probably heard cuz I think we notified you we had a an event with a PE student about two weeks ago who actually was having trouble while he was in PE class and so we had three of our staff um Maggie Pell was the nurse Rebecca chapeta uh as our PE teacher and Jason lumon stood up uh to what we needed at the time
149they worked together as a team and provided CP to that student until we could actually have the ambulance come even Beyond them um just recognizing how the the staff all pulled together everyone had their role we've talked about it regularly but then when the actual emergency happens how much of it do we remember and everyone knew all right do this with your students take them here it was a very um a day that could have gone really bad but wonderfully everyone pulling together and the ambulance uh getting here as quickly as possible really made a difference in that young man's life and so um the three individuals who were most involved with the CPR really don't want the extra attention but they've authorized us to have the fire department come out this Thursday and so
150I was hoping maybe the board president if you're available um Mrs alond could join me and then the fire department at 10 o'clock very small not in front of students not in front of the staff but just recognizing that you know in a day that we really needed people to step up they were willing to step up and do the best thing so um we'll be recognizing them this Thursday again very small event just handful of people uh at 8:00 this Thursday in the comment but we're just so fortunate that we had the right people in the right place at the right time who had the right training and then the rest of the staff to be able to support and in the end um everything turned out the best that it could have been
151and the students doing quite well great and I'd be glad to represent the board and that I know everybody would appreciate that so thank you thanks for that update well thank you and that concludes my superintendent's report excellent I just want want to add one thing for the Science Olympiad that it was at cood and both the senior the high school and the junior high were there and I was just very impressed with how the high schoolers and the junior high students interacted lots of fun lots of mutual support just really those high school students really shined and I kept hearing stories about how fun the Junior High kids had with the high schoolers which I just thought was one of the remarkable Parts about that event I thought it was really neat they were
152in two different locations like they didn't know each other's rooms or whatever the high school students um came down and found the Junior students and they were helping them with projects and answering questions they were kind of mentoring them and it was just really neat to see them take that initiative and do that and also the junior high and high school Bol they were just so well behaved it was just really great to see them put out such a good um positive view of Lyle so I think the coaches and teachers are doing a really great job yeah they were both their best cheering section for each other that's great those are great stories thank you for sharing excellent thank you thank you all right our committee reports item 9 9A is the facility Master
153planning committee did not meet uh 9B is the finance committee the finance committee met at 6:30 In This Very Room earlier today discussed issues including food service and Technology terrific thank you uh item 9 C is policy I we did not meet we approve some tonight we did approve a couple Poli tonight so thank you all right um long ago yeah and one of the policies we approved was the uh the self up update to the cell phone policy or an inclusion of a cell phone policy and um we may be hearing more on that Paula and I sat in a webinar uh from State talking about some legislative changes but it also May down to the fact that everybody's just required to have a policy so I think we've got a good start on
154that appreciate anything Paula you wanted to add to that or I think you captured that well okay great thanks all right item 9d is a vision 202 um you want to talk anything about that Keith sure I I think we've kept you up to date over the last few months of what we're trying to accomplish but often the most wonderful thing about the Community as our size allows us to have some real conversations and so we had taken a Break um during covid we had had some smaller groups we're trying to get a larger group conversation again we've got a wonderful group of um parents that are partner with us to give us some feedback as to how we could best set this next one up and the feedback has been just really focusing in
155on it being relevant not having something that we think people want to talk about and so tomorrow um we're sending a a survey that lists around 10 items that'll go to every single parent that says what do you want to talk about you know narrow it down to your top three and so um after it being open for a couple weeks we'll look to see if you know three really stand out maybe five will then we'll have to Pivot a little bit but ideally if there are three that really stand out that most people would like to talk about we'll spend the first hour probably first 15 minutes just talking a little bit about the school district in general the things you would expect to see in terms of Trends demographics finances and then based
156on the three things people want to talk about each of those topics will be about another 15 minutes devoted each so that'll be the first hour similar to what we've done in the past the second hour will give everyone who in attendance and we'll mix up the tables an opportunity to be able to kind of process what we said see if they have an additional questions see if you know what what direction would you like us to pursue and what would you like for us to look into next and so um the list will be generated from parents feedback um we'll invite um anyone from the community who wants to participate um we'll put that on social media if they also want to give us what their top three things are they can participate that
157way um just going right on line to be able to fill out that survey of the top three and then we'll also invite all of the staff they were a huge part of the the conversations the last times we've done this and so they won't be involved in picking the three topics but we're going to ask and encourage everyone if they're available to be part of those conversations cuz having somebody who's actually an employee sit at the table and give some of their perspec perspective is seeing it firsthand really add to that conversation and we're tagl at what what's next you know we need to figure out what's next for L 202 it doesn't mean anything that's talked about there means we can do something about it but we definitely are looking for blind spots
158and would like to know from people like what's next what would you like to see from your school district any questions or additional information Greg Pam you're both on the committee helping behind the scenes put all this together things in addition to what I said you'd like to share no I think everything you covered everything okay good job thank you and just and when that's all done I just want to make sure I'm understanding this then there's like an open community meeting like we used to do and everyone's welcome so on April 29th everyone will be welcome to come so be one of those we're just trying to figure out what do they want to talk about and so that's where we'll have hopefully three topics that people want to come and want to talk
159about and not come and say oh I didn't realize that's what they were going to talk about so everyone's invited okay I just saw parents and staff I just wanted to make sure it was like all Community M all Community member will be uh invited we're going to send a postcard if you have a mailbox you'll be invited to the conversation and then if you have social media you'll see the opportunity to fill out the survey it's just it would take too long to send every some person a postcard and then a QR code and then get the information back we think you know sending the email and putting on social media will give us a general idea what people want to talk about but again if you have a mailbox you'll be invited right
160thank you for clarifying good summary thank you all right uh item 10 10A is our home and school organization the hso council meeting minutes are uploaded uh 10B iasb delegate to board um Dan did you have anything or um to start I think we are now going through doing our ISB recognition so I'll starting that work which is a report we do or a submission we do every two years so two years have flown by very quickly so we'll be working on that with a later presentation I we'll share later um the other thing we had our division meeting on March 5th and it was myself Pam who am I missing Kate was Kate uh Paula Paula thank you and so it was very interesting uh the keynote speaker was very interesting um Eric I
161foret his last name but a really discussion about some Trends and how to looking at college and uh work study programs in high school so was a very interesting presentation okay excellent thank you um I just add that Paul and I uh participated in a webinar on uh advocacy ambassadors and uh that was on March 14th and uh um we we learned a lot about legislation and uh what's pending we didn't actually learn a lot about being ambassadors but nonetheless we have that background Paula if you had anything to add I just thought it was very interesting that like the emails that they send out is like a nice digest of what bills are coming out um for us to be aware of as they will impact our policy and our decision-making but what they
162did then was share multiple perspectives on ways that you might think about how it's going to impact your district and of course every district is going to be impacted differently um by the legislation so it's just like a helpful I like I'm going to keep going um and keep exploring and seeing if there's um things I can learn from that to support our work yeah they were very good that's what when we were talking about the cell phone policy and you know there were concerns about um safety security issues with students uh you know was it a concern if if students had their phones and just different things that are pending allowing students of course we had with uh someone's on a 504 I plan uh they were also uh adding in elel students in
163there so um you know we get that's that's how we get the uh the end result I get is how it is so it was good all right the other thing just a reminder um May 19th uh we if you have that penciled in already that will be our new board member workshop and I think we came to an agreement on on 6:00 p.m. that evening um so we'll do other reminders as it gets closer but that will be with our new board okay um intergovernmental was our uh 10c did not meet lend met this past Friday and um Dr philippic and I uh attended that call um those that information is uploaded in the packet ly Education Foundation did not meet uh sassad did not meet uh which brings us to item 11 on
164our agenda which is our board member recognition so um this evening is Steve lnc's uh final meeting on this side I would say of uh of the of the hill we we'll use it that way and I know I think I quoted you from before you want to exit with exuberance I believe you said earlier this evening I didn't say I wanted to exit with students but um the Steve is is on the board until uh April 1st is our election and so with the timing um he opted not to come back in April which will be our the uh meeting which we seat our new board members so we wanted to recognize him I uh you know I we will say personally but I know as a board we will definitely miss you Steve
165and um I you know I look over you're always that warm smile that uh calming demeanor your thoughtful comments your uh educational experience and your expertise and I know you are always doing committed to doing what's best for all students so we appreciate that greatly and uh and appreciate all the time that you've put into the district we have some um some parting gifts uh for you lovely parting gifts I would say but uh one of the things it is really heavy that is one paper weight it is and just flop it over there Steve but not over the laptops this is very nice Steven lesnak dedicated service for Lyall C 202 Board of Edge from 2021 to 2025 so we thank you for that yes and we're actually you'll have to leave that and
166we will have that put in over by the high school for I think Dan wants use it is a mouse pad right now the last thing the other thing we have Steve is um a plaque for you Proclamation um it's it's our duty to to have a proclamation for you we'll call it Steve lesnak day we can call it whatever we want but um it this I will give to you Steve also and I'll read it out loud I'm not going you are welcome that's quick plation it it is you know you'll probably want to put a loadbearing wall in your um but I I will read it um I've printed it in larger print could fit onto that page but whereas Steven lesnak has served with distinction as a member of the Board of
167Education of Lyall Community Unit School District 202 from April 6th 2021 to April 1st 2025 and whereas such membership requires dedication effort and unselfishness selfishness and whereas Steven lesnak has served as a faithful Guardian for the interests of students parents staff and community members members alike and whereas Steven lesnak served on the board of education during an important time in District 202's history that included supporting instructional shifts and expanding communication interventions and options to implement a remote learning plan and mitigation strategies and protocols to promote a safe and healthy learning environment during a global pandemic updating a district health and safety plan expanding data-driven instruction technology course rigor AP class offerings and seal initiatives adopting the I ready program to better assess student performance approving new Elementary and high school principles and additional positions to
168support learning and interventions expanding the roles of department heads and the communication coordinator implementing parent Square to ensure frequent focused and easily accessible information and updates providing consistent weekly principal me principal messages Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. supporting Vision 202 small group discussions providing and reducing student fees securing multiple Financial grants initiating and improving approving a new board member orientation guide modifying pos position descriptions and the administrative Compensation Program initiating a job salary and benefit review and Analysis schedule transitioning a new District Maintenance team and adopting a new food service program integrating technology education sequencing and a shared agreement for management information technology Services utilizing a continuous Improvement framework to align districtwide work to improve student learning adopting new math and Ela curricula in a new literacy program providing additional accelerated learning options and dual
169credit opportunities expanding electives and extracurricular options and enhancing opportunities for career Readiness promoting academic excellence and receiving top recognition for school performance by the Illinois State Board of Education Chicago magazine US News and World Report and the College Board and the 2024 Thrive award for a positive and supportive school learning environment reviewing Life Safety survey and Facilities security and educational adequacy assessment updating a facili master plan selling Tate woods and lacing Shure and promoting creative initiatives result for resulting savings and Investments negotiating for collective bargaining agreements appointing a new board member supporting School Improvement plans and recognizing student performance and growth in I results AP exams and PSA and sat achievement updating board policies and supporting substitutions for PE and cell phone guide policy guidelines addressing Capital needs and a six-year Financial projection consistently achieving
170and uh the highest Financial AA rating for Moody's and the Illinois State Board of Education and promoting an overall fiscally stable District amending and expanding intergovermental agreements and Community Partners ships and approving an agreement to further Downtown Development and school use of village hall for district office staff and board meetings and whereas Steven lesnak provided outstanding commitments to the Board of Education as an active participant on the board policy Finance Junior High building renovation steering and facilit facility Master planning committees and as a board layers on to the seal and Lea negotiation teams and Sid Board of control and governing boards and is in his contributions to the ly 202 Board of Education receiving its first iasb board governance recognition now there therefore be it resolved that the members of this board of education extend
171their appreciation to Steven lesnak for his service to the students staff members and citizens of ly Community Unit School District 202 thank him sincerely for his efforts and wish him everything fine and good in the days ahead signed this or dated this 24th day of March 2025 thank you Steve thank you um uh when I started on the board someone said to me it's like drinking from a fire hose and that that fire hose hasn't stopped um I've learned a whole bunch um from my time on the board and and if things had been different I definitely would like to extend that time unfortunately life happens um but it's not goodbyes I'll see you later okay so I I really appreciate all the things that I've learned all the relationships I've established and made and
172all the things that you've taught me it's really been a really amazing journey and I hope to continue it just in a different way so thank you I I my just the last thing I want to say Steve is that that you understand the art of the pivot uh in both your personal and professional life and I think it's the professional life that you're making this pivot for and so I think you'll always continue to do that so we'll think of you as when we hear that word pivot so thanks okay anybody else have anything there okay well thank you again all right agenda items for future board meetings item 12 anybody have anything that they would like to to add for future board meetings okay if not I will entertain uh item 13 I
173will entertain a motion to adjourn to close session to discuss the security procedure School building safety and the use of personal personnel and equipment to respond to an actual threatened or reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees student staff the public or public property so moved second may I have a roll call Mr Helder Le here Mr I'll take that with an i okay Mr lesnak hi U Mr nagler I Miss D Domino I miss Foster I um Miss simses and I and U Miss Alman I okay we will adjourn to close session at e e e