Urbana School District 116 Board of Education 04 21 26

001Look at the technology and they got it right going. What's that? K A N I >> N, not K A N. K A N. Oh, there you go. Yeah. I'll be back. I'm supposed to meet you guys with the Okay. >> Uh good evening, everybody. It's 6:00, so let's begin this business meeting of Urbana School District 116. Roll call, please. Member Sheryl? Here. Member Hickson? Here. Member Marube? Here. Member Jones? Member Langendorf here. Vice President Baxley? Here. President Palowsky? Here. Are there any additions, corrections, or modifications to tonight's agenda? No, hearing none. It is now time for a citizen statements. If anybody wishes to make a statement before the board, there there are these goldenrod sheets in the back of the room, and they can be filled out and handed to record recording secretary Lori

002Johnson. Uh there's a 3-minute uh time limit on public participation for each uh speaker, and we have five set up uh right now, starting off with uh George Gallon. Thank you. Okay. >> All right. All right, there we go. My name is George Gollin. I was a physics professor until my retirement last spring. I had heard that Urbana plans to scale back um its French language instruction. I think this would be unfortunate. Let me describe the wonderful benefits that have flowed through three generations of my family because I began learning to speak French in 7th grade. The public school system where I grew up did a fine job on foreign languages. Half my French classes were taught by by teachers born in France, and the rest were fluent. I spoke the language easily by the

003time I went to college and had actually done brief home stays with two two French families. As a postdoc, one of my professors invited a research group from a French lab to collaborate on our Fermilab experiment. The younger physicist didn't speak much English, so I had a chance to use my French with them. Years later, as the emphasis in particle physics shifted from Fermilab to CERN, a lab on the French-Swiss border, um it was natural for me to look for sabbatical opportunities in Europe. My wife, a former chemist, and I landed visitors' appointments at a lab in Marseille, at labs in Marseille. We moved to a small town east of the city and plopped our daughter into a French elementary school for 4th grade. It was a fabulous year. Cordelia's classmates were welcoming and fascinated

004by the exotic American girl. She went to loads of birthday parties and sleepovers, and we became good friends with some of the parents of her buddies. That was 27 years ago. My daughter is still fluent in French, mine remains fairly strong, and we are still in touch with some of the friends that we made. Cordelia had become fearless in her ability to to thrive in a foreign language environment and had come to understand how to learn another language. She took German at uni and did a gap year with a German family before college and then landed a Fulbright after graduating teaching English in Poland for 2 years. She became fluent in Polish. By the time she was 25, my daughter was fluent in four languages and had lived for a year or two in each

005of three different European countries. She is very much a citizen of the world and it was her initial exposure to French made possible by my early years learning the language that made this possible. Her interest in foreign languages is now enriching the lives of my young grandchildren, both of whom are enrolled in a Spanish immersion nursery school in Chicago. My colleagues and I tell each other that part of our task as teachers is to enrich the interior lives of our students. That has certainly been true for me thanks in part to the fine job my French teachers did. I would hope that Urbana students continue to have opportunities like those afforded to me some 60 years ago. Thank you. Uh next up is Paul Taylor. Hello, my name is Paul Taylor. I'm president and owner

006of ESS Clean located in Urbana, Illinois. We've been working with unit 116 since 1999 providing janitorial services. I'm here tonight because a recommendation has been made to contract with HES facility services out of Knoxville, Tennessee to take over janitorial services at UHS, UMS, and the sixth grade center. I believe the contract for UHS, UMS should go to ESS Clean instead of HES even though our price is 4.5% higher. Here's why. Prior to 1997, unit 116 worked with an Urbana janitorial company. In '97, and of state called 4M was the low bidder. That lasted 18 months. Parents and teachers were disrupted by unclean facilities. 4M walked out mid-contract. ESS was called in '99 to help. We fixed the problem. ESS had the contract for most school buildings for 22 years. In 2021, ABM, an out of

007state company, was the low bidder and won the contract to clean all the schools. They failed. 11 months into the contract, ESS Clean was called in to help. We fixed the problem at UHS and UMS. And now we're back to the same scenario. My company, ESS Clean, is headquartered in Urbana. We have over 100 well-paid employees with benefits. Our team at UHS UMS makes $19 an hour. We have 12 full-time supervisors, floor techs, and managers located in Urbana that can solve problems on any shift. We're part of the fabric of this community. Our reputation depends on us providing good service. We pay over $50,000 in property taxes to the city of Urbana every year. I have personally served as a mentor of six young men at Unit 116 over an 18-year period. HES has zero

008clients in Champaign County. They have zero employees in Champaign County. They have no office or warehouse in Champaign County. They're coming from Knoxville, Tennessee, and will be hiring all new people. They're risking nothing. They get paid, fail, and move on just like the last two out of state companies. The janitorial RFP specifically says in the qualification section, section 13, "Urbana School District is only interested in quality cleaning. Only this type of cleaning is acceptable. Price will not be the sole factor in awarding the contract." Section 14, "Manager and supervisor are required to live within a 50-mile radius of Urbana Illinois. Section 15, bidders are required to have an office and or warehouse in Champaign County or be able to secure an office or warehouse. My question is, are you willing to risk chaos, unsafe and

009unclean conditions, disrupted lives, low morale of students and teachers, all for 4.5% savings? >> [bell] >> Thank you, sir. Thank you. Uh next up is uh Jim uh Creasy. Is that Cry? Sorry, thank you for >> I don't get it right myself sometimes. Uh I'm Jim Cry, I'm the Urbana branch manager for ESS. Uh I got in my car today, looked at GPS, and 1.6 mi. Our corporate office is 1.6 mi away from all these buildings here, middle school, high school, and even closer to the central office on Glover Street. We have a staff back back up staff of over 10 people that, regardless of the situation, weather, flu, anything that happens, can come over and clean. Their background checks are already done and complete, and we use them all the time. As a branch

010manager, I talk to Randy all the time. And let's face it, it's not always good news. When you run a cleaning company, you don't always do a great job. Sometimes your cleaners fail. But Randy knows he can get a hold of me, whether it's 7:30 in the morning, 8:00 at night, Saturdays, we're there. And not only do I pick up the phone, we have staff to come over and do what we need to do. We also use our staff during the day. So, whether we did something wrong or you need something else to be done, we have a staff during the day that will come in and do it. We do not charge extra for that. We consider that part of the partnership. We're here Saturdays and Sundays, 20-some weeks at least out of the

011year, to to uh service the various special uh events. Our staff is here on Thanksgiving when it needed, when you have the event over there. So, I just want to point out it's more than the money sometimes. It's a partnership. Um I feel we we work well as a team. You know, I've worked with Randy, Lori, Tyler, Piper. Um we have a good thing going. And when it comes to quality of service, in 3 years we have not been had a fine for not doing what we're supposed to do because there are times we don't, but we fix it immediately. And we are there and you can always get a hold of us. Thank you for your time. Well, thank you. Uh next up is Aurora Moroz. Good evening, all. Uh my name is Aurora

012Moroz. I'm a professor at the University of Illinois with 20 years of research and expertise in language education. Uh in Urbana, French is not a foreign language. It is a community language spoken by actually thousands of families. Many are children in our schools. But you see, multilingual education only works if it goes both ways with native speakers being allowed to develop uh strong literacy while their English-speaking peers also learn their language. This is how communication becomes mutual. This is what our students and families want. And this is what the dual language program at Yankee aimed to offer, yet that foundation is being weakened. This once flagship program is now stalled. No clear vision, no recruitment, and efforts to strengthen it are blocked. Even more concerning, teachers trying to build the program are being discouraged, pressured,

013and recently threatened so much so that they didn't feel like they could come today. This is unacceptable. You cannot sustain a program while undermining the people who make it work. At Urbana Middle School, the situation is even more damaging. The French world language program is being eliminated, removing the only entry point for English-speaking students. At the same time, the dual language track is eroding. 45 minutes a day does not sustain literacy, and students who should be advancing are in fact losing their skills. Also critically, the district is losing all track qualified, highly experienced teachers, educators that you invested in and cannot easily replace. When they leave, programs don't shrink, they collapse. These are not isolated decisions. Together, they dismantle an entire ecosystem. I'm told this is because enrollment is low, because students choose electives like

014intro to AI. But across engineering and AI, the message is actually very clear. Advanced multilingual literacy is the most critical skill students can develop in preparation for AI, because the ability to think and communicate across languages is essential in complex global systems. Reducing language education for minimal exposure to AI is not preparing students for the future, it's compromising their future. These issues also raise a question of democratic alignment. Let's remember that Mayor Williams was recently elected on a platform of educational inclusion and opportunity. Dismantling language pathways without transparency or a plan runs counter to that mandate we Urbanians voted for. You can change this in five easy steps. One, reinvest in and support the program at Yankee Ridge. Two, secure a real secondary pathway at Urbana Middle School. Three, maintain the French world language program

015as essential. Four, retain and protect the teachers who sustain these programs. Five, restore transparency in decision-making. Uh you have a choice. These are five immediate feasible steps. The question is to be builders rather than barriers. And if you don't think that there's enough French speakers, come to campus on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. and you will see over 200 kids, all French speakers, celebrating their French-speaking identity. Thank you for your attention. Uh thank you. Uh the last one I have right now is a Jude uh I'm sorry, uh Krasinski. >> [clears throat] >> My name is Jude Krasinski and I coordinate the world language teacher education program uh at the University of Illinois and as the name suggests, we educate future world language teachers and prepare them for state licensure in Spanish, Latin, German, Japanese, and

016of course, French. And of course, we believe in the power of multilingualism and intercultural competence as well as the importance of language education. And so that is why I am here to speak in defense of the French program at Urbana Middle School and across District 116. Um this is of course a concern as my colleagues will enumerate and they have done so. On a practical level, there is a 2-year language requirement coming down from the State Board of Ed, which will require that starting in the 2028-2029 school year, high school freshmen will have to complete 2 years of a world language in order to graduate high school. And it stands to reason that providing students with the opportunity to start a language at middle school will make it easier for them to meet that requirement

017come high school. I do support that requirement, full transparency, but with or without that requirement, our support for language education is a reflection of our values. We live in a very vibrant and diverse community, a very multilingual and multicultural community. So what does it say when we end a language program? What is it that we value? Do we value students being able to build bridges across languages and cultures? I should hope so. Do we value a student having the courage to sit with a student who does not look or speak like they do because they had the opportunity to speak or to learn French at the middle school level. Perhaps a little bit late in the game, but they were able to get started on that journey. Do we value teaching them to understand and

018empathize with students who are learning English as a second language because they themselves are finally coming to learn French as a second language. Do we value empowering students to cry, dream, and hope in French, English, Lingala, or whatever language that moves them? Something that AI just can't do. I should hope so. In his 1998 article, Carlos Fuentes reflected on a piece of graffiti that read, "El monolingüismo es una enfermedad curable." If your middle school Spanish failed you, that means monolingualism is a curable illness. And so I say that we should continue our journey to work towards multiculturalism and multilingualism in District 116 and across the state. Thank you. I I received one more from Dr. Dina Armstead. Good evening and thank you for taking the time to listen to my statement. Also, out of respect

019for my French speakers, uh parents and students, I would like to say bonsoir. Merci beaucoup. On va y réussir ensemble. So, um I also started French when I was 12 years old in middle school. And I My family's monolingual lingual Well, not anymore because I have a brother who's learning Japanese and a sister who speaks Spanish. However, um without that middle school introduction to language, I would not be where I am today. And what I want to emphasize on that, it's going to be my third point, but it will be my first. Critical period. Seriously, we have to pay attention to the sensitive um period of language learning. If any of you or any of your friends have ever decided that language is hard, it's because you didn't learn start learning early enough. So, do

020we really want to cut the legs off of our children by not starting early enough? And finally, when I was in high school, I got to meet people who look just like me from Guadeloupe. I was in the AP French class, we invited them, and I thought, I want to learn French fluently just because I met these students. Because it became so relevant. So, we have an opportunity as a small community, one of the communities in the US that's considered one of the highest communities of best places to raise children, we have that opportunity here to raise children who are multilingual. Do we really want to not continue in that vein? I also want to say that learning language is a high-impact activity rated at all universities that this is one of the things that

021they that students have come back year after year have made a lifelong change in um impact on them. And speaking of impact, of course we know that for career um after college and during college, that it is um a game-changer. It really can open up careers for our students. So, we what are we doing if we um take away this power to help our students? When our students are born, when you were born, you understood all the sounds of all the languages. And slowly as you got older, you forgot them. Well, now's the time to to to do this for our kids. I taught English in China, and the whole elementary school understood perfect classroom English. This little second and third grade, it was beautiful. And that's what we could have. We do not need

022to cancel the program. We need to grow it instead. There are plenty of French-speaking community people in our community, as my colleagues have already mentioned. So, I won't go into all of that. Now, with my last 20 seconds, I also want to plug ESS because they recycle our pencils. I simply asked them to, and I've never run out of a pencil. And they're so kind. I made friends with several people, and I've even shared the pencils with the middle school. I I teach at the sixth-grade center. So, we don't want to leave them behind. I Money's just a tool. Use it wisely. Thank you. Uh thank you to all the speakers. Um and one last call for anybody who wishes to address the board this evening. Going once, going twice. All right. I thank you.

023Um there is no call for an executive session after tonight's meeting, so the chair would entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda as published. So moved. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have an agenda. Uh it's now time for a student ambassador report. So, current things that are happening at UHS, the girls soccer, they won over Bloomington on the 14th. There was a girls track meet on the 17th and a boys track meet on the 18th. And there's a girls track meet at Central tonight. Um and then we'll be celebrating Earth Day. We'll have a cleanup around the high school. Um and then we have our senior sunset coming up at the beginning of May, where the seniors will all come together and celebrate the end of the year. Uh one

024thing that is not on there, um the there was an elementary tour um April 17th, band, choir, and orchestra um all attended that. We went to um Leo, Yankee Ridge, and Thomas Paine. So, um that was a really great event. Um and we all had fun. Um girls soccer senior night. Um they had their win over Manual. So, congratulations to them. Um all seniors got to start and be announced. Um it was a really fun night and everyone had fun. Um and a lot of great mid blast memories were made. So, congratulations um to all of the seniors on the girls soccer team. Next Monday, we have our senior trip to Malibu Jacks. Um this will be a place where we'll play laser tag, go on go-carts, play in arcade, and go on rides. Very

025exciting. And this is our report. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. It's now time for board reports. If any board member wishes to give a report, I guess now would be the time. Who wants to go first? I hadn't really planned to make a board report tonight, but um I've been inspired. I used to um be the multicultural program director in Urbana, and um there we used to talk about an old old old joke that says that said, "What is a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What is a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What is a person who speaks one language? An American." And um I guess what I would like to say is that we do need a multilingual community. And um it it doesn't exactly take hard work, it takes

026opportunity. And Ur- Urbana has been trying to provide that opportunity, and I think that's great. And I think we have to do all we can to um support that into the future. I know that there were um when we taught world languages to our neighborhood kids at King, it was we we made a a t-shirt and it said welcome on the front and then it said goodbye on the back in a whole bunch of different languages. And it was a little African-American neighborhood boy third grader second grader who came up to me one day and said um Mrs. Hickson, the goodbye on the back is wrong in Japanese. And he was right. And um we've had kids who when they left kid King school and went to Uni skipped a year at Uni and then

027went on to learn multiple multiple languages as the people here. So, I guess I'd like to um just put that put that little bee in everybody's bonnet. Uh I thank you, Jennifer. Sheri? Yeah, I have a few things that I wanted to relate. I was entertained last week and over the weekend first by attending the middle school production of the Addams Family and those students had so much fun participating and doing all the aspects of the of the play from set design. I thought the sets were were really impressive. I don't know if the students made those. That was really impressive. They got a very good education there how to build things that most adults don't know how to build. And they were just so much fun to watch and they did a great job.

028I also um heard part of the Urbana Orchestra. They participated in the music musical magic live. It was a fundraiser to benefit the Lillian and David Gankhouldt Holocaust Tolerance Education Outreach Fund and they did a wonderful job um representing our school and our community and that was very enjoyable as well. But my one thing I do want to talk about this morning I loaded up with 83 containers of juices lemonade, Gatorade, no place to park at the high school whatsoever. I finally found one spot in the paved parking lot. So I was lucky but I thought where am I going to park? I can't park in the students parking lot because that's for students. But as I parked my car and started walking towards the school I counted 21 empty spots in the student parking

029lot. So I don't know if if it was senior skip day or something. But I I don't know. I was told that maybe they are um more conscientious now maybe the school's more conscientious of only having students who have the permit park there. So I don't know but I would like um the student ambassadors to help me figure that out and see what we can do because it just didn't seem at least this morning that there was a parking problem with the students but there was more of a parking problem for the visitors the teachers and also maybe the tutors or uh university students that participate in in programs there. Um so we Mr. Saxon um has been trying to really crack down on people who don't have stickers Mhm. because there is so many

030people who are parking in spots that are not meant for them. Um and so he's able to to really minimize a lot of the issue. Okay. Um and so some of the empty spots could just be students not you know being at school or some of the empty spots could be him getting rid of Right. >> people who don't have the sticker to actually be in those spots. Um as far as the teacher lot or Mhm. other lots where visitors or TAs or anyone else can park in, um I know that lot really tends to fill up really fast. Um I I don't know if um I know last time whenever we talked about this, we talked about um maybe TAs and student teachers parking at the middle school, right, Dr. Every Town? Um so

031I don't know if that is currently in effect, um but that should also hopefully reduce the amount of spots in the teacher lot, too. Um not just for teachers, um but for visitors who also need spaces to park for if they're going inside to the main office or going inside to have a conference with somebody. So hopefully we can we can really minimize uh that, too, by moving some people to some different spaces to to make more spots available. Okay. My point of bringing that up was I hope that as you re- research the student problem that you that you also consider the problem for the visitors and for the the rest of the community that come to help at the school because we have a lot of people coming in and signing in and

032wanting to help the students. So I appreciate your help in that. Yep. I have one more thing to say, and it's another accolade for President Polansky, who will be a recipient of the Community Impact Award at the Mayoral Recognition Recognition Program April 29th at 5:00 at the high school, and I hope everyone can make it to congratulate him and to honor his work. Well, that's very kind. Thank you. I didn't know that. Um any of us wish to make a board report this evening? I'll I'll do one real quick. I just I want to thank all the people who came and spoke in in in favor of the of the French program. I moved to town uh because of the French language. My wife uh received her PhD in French at the university. Uh she

033started her journey uh as a Francophone in in middle school herself. Um all four of my kids uh went through and had French in middle school and in high school. Value it greatly. But but that said, we have expanded the the offerings of electives at the middle school and parents and kids are not just are not choosing it. It saddens me. It makes It makes me sad, but they are not choosing it. I We we does we need to keep French language available for our bilingual students coming out of Yankee Ridge for sure. I think we need to encourage it in another way is but we also have to be physically responsible to the taxpayers of this district and the and um Yeah, I I I would love to see us offer more languages, Mandarin

034and others, but right now that's not what the students are asking for. And just to be clear, we are still we still have sections of French world language happening at the 7th and 8th grade center, so. Thank you. For next year, those have not been cut completely. They may be combined um and because of numbers, but they they have not been cut. So, we still have a teacher teaching French at the middle school. Uh the other thing I want to want to tell to my fellow board members is when we reorganized after the election a year ago and voted in officers, uh we did that as a one-year appointment. So, next agenda for our first meeting in May will be voting on officers again. Just putting that out there. Um one last call for board

035reports. Uh moving on, we have one action item we want to do before the others, and that's our administrative personnel items. Angie, do you have a context for the board? Sure. Jess and Jen, do you want to come up front? So, we have Jen Roan, principal at Gerber School, and we have Jessica Wilson, current special education teacher at Gerber. And as you may or may not remember, Beth Gatchi, the current assistant principal at Gerber, is retiring at the end of this school year, which created an opening at Gerber. And so, Jessica, better known as Jess Wilson, has worked as a special educator at Gerber School in the Urbana School District for 17 years. Besides being incredibly humble, Jess is an active member in our school community by serving on the PD cadre and school improvement

036team for over a decade. Jess holds her LBS1 from Eastern Illinois University from 2008 and her master's degree in educational leadership and administration from the University of Illinois at Champaign in 2024. The Urbana School District and building administration are very thrilled that Jess Wilson is joining the administrative team. We've worked with her in the capacity as a UEA leader in the past and she did an excellent job as a teacher leader in our district and we think that the continuation of her stepping into a leadership role at Gerber is critical for our staff. And so, we are pleased to recommend Jess to serve as the next assistant principal at Gerber School. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the administrative personal items published in our agenda packet this week? So moved. Second. Been moved

037and seconded. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. Member Hickson. Yes. Member Marimba. Yes. >> Member Langendorf. Yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palosky. >> Yes. Member Sheryl. Yes. Motion passes. Congratulations. You can Do you want to say anything or So, Jess helped me out with the bio and I will tell you in the past 7 years it's the shortest bio that I've ever received, which speaks she's very much so a humble servant leader and does the work quietly behind the scenes and so I doubt she's going to say much to toot her own horn, but they'd love to hear from you so they at least hear your voice I'm sure. I just want to say thank you so much and I'm super excited about this new opportunity. Yes. Thank you. >> to

038family and friends that came out to support. We have a pair of administrative reports this evening. First up is report on the young adult program facility space. Okay, that is me. Um, normally Beth Ladd, our executive director for student services would be here presenting this with me, but she recently had a minor surgery so she's still at home getting well and recuperating. So she is probably watching from home, but she did have input in the slides that we created that you will see tonight. Okay, lower that. Okay, so some of the objectives things that we'll talk about a little bit is I'll share a brief history of the young adult program recent changes in the program model and the goals and purpose of the program. We're going to talk a little bit about space, instructional

039need, structure, curriculum planning and location of course. Um, and one of the biggest goals for the program is preparing the students for independent living and then at the end there is an ask and a funding request. So you'll hear about all of those things in the next few minutes. So the young adult program is a program that traditionally prior to 2021 served um, one of the teachers when we met with them called them super seniors. So, they are our students who are, um, in the life skills program or other, um, students that receive special services at the high school who, once they turn 18, um, instead of graduating and leaving the high school, they're able to stay. Um, prior to 2021, they stayed until their 21st birthday or the beginning of their 22nd birthday, but,

040um, recent, uh, school code changes allow those students now to remain with us at it whatever point they turn 22, they can finish the school year with us. So, we basically have 18- to 22-year-olds, um, that are part of our young adult program. Um, the primary focus is on skill building. So, vocational skills, um, independent living, social skills and communication, and then, um, really and a really important part of their program is, um, as accessing the community in different ways. Um, so, they work, um, they have, uh, volunteer opportunities, um, and we have some really great partners who, uh, work with the young adult program. Um, continuation of services. So, again, we those students are with us for 4 years at the high school, um, and then they can continue up to an additional, uh,

0414 years as super seniors, um, beyond their, uh, graduation date. Um, the program focuses on post-school outcomes. So, education, training, um, employment, and again, independent living. So, a little history. So, the young adult program is not new. Um, it has been a part of the, uh, the fabric of Urbana for many, many years. Neither Beth or I could go find how many years, but for a very long time. Um, we used to own a home across the street, um from the high school on Iowa Street and it was called the young adult house for many, many years. Um at one point, we eventually used both the home, the program grew so much that we used the home across the street and a space at uh Wesley Community Church until 2021. Um and that was the

042church right on Green Street, Green and Goodwin. Yes. Um and we were able to utilize multiple spaces for different needs for the students. Um eventually, the young adult home across the street uh from the high school became irreparable and you know, it just was really, really old and so um after a long time and serving many students, uh we had to the home was uh torn down because it was no longer safe and the program existed basically just at Wesley um until 2021. So, uh we had a very committed staff member who uh really uh really was the um kind of keeper of a lot of this tradition and knowledge around the program who following COVID um retired. And uh unfortunately, as you all know, we talk about this a lot that the impact on

043um our staffing uh due to COVID really hit us hard and the young adult program was one of the programs that was hit the hardest. Um so, we lost several staff members and um then the program moved back to UHS and it has been there ever since. So, the vision of the program and this is, you know, a lot of these words and language came right from the parents and the uh staff members. So, real-world living environment. So, the the importance of not having this program continue to exist as the high school is eventually, these young adults will be hopefully able to independently live on their own. Um and so, it's really important that we provide some real-world scenario scenarios, give them an opportunity to practice real-world daily living skills in an environment where they

044get support from teachers, they get to practice, they get to to learn those skills and do those skills over and over again. And it's a great way for us to bridge from the school to adulthood. I said this the last time I talked about the young adult house. It is you know, it is in what other space do you have 22-year-olds in a building with 14-year-olds who are freshmen and you know, them interacting in the same spaces. And so it gives them a chance to not be high schoolers anymore and to really see themselves as adults. It is a safe, supportive, and structured setting where we can teach life skills through the year that those students turn 22. They're with trusted adults who care for them and know them and who work on developing their

045IEP goals, their individualized education program with the parents. And so these are adults who work with some of these students for eight years. So their relationships are really, really strong. The vision of the program is actually is also to allow the students to see the community in ways that the their their same age peers do. So many of our students when they graduate from the high school, they you know, they get a job and they go to school and you know, they they become adults. And so our students who are in the in the young adult program want to do those same things. They just do it in a more structured way. And so they're able to go out and in the community and then the young adult home kind of serves as their home

046base and a space for them to learn with other students um them and with staff who care about them. Um right now the program is serving less than 10 students, but when we met with the teachers and looked ahead at um some of the middle schoolers who are coming over soon, um our current uh junior um 9th through 12th graders who will be uh in the next couple years moving into the program, we need a space um much larger than the space that we are currently utilizing at the high school. They're using two classrooms, um which is not nearly enough to serve the probably um as many as 20 students in the next two to three years. So, the student impact and the why. So, um young adult students often struggle with routines and independence.

047So, having a home will allow them the opportunity to practice cooking, cleaning, um the having a daily schedule that is kind of their real setting. Um this model helps them build confidence through repetition and support. So, um the cooking was something when we talked to the teachers, uh we've had a couple uh opportunities to engage with them since we started talking about this, and cooking is a big deal. So, you'll see a picture later on in the slides about um with the kitchen uh image of a kitchen, but cooking and being able to clean and take care of a home on their own, um and just being able to keep to a schedule is really, really important. Um being able to do those things in a routine, structured way um will help them have the

048confidence that they need when they are doing those things hopefully uh one day by themselves. Um we are seeing an increase in the number of students staying in the program uh because of our why and because um families um appreciate the the program that they've been able to get over the years. So, more and more families are choosing to stay beyond 4 years. Um so, having a dedicated space for them is critical. The families that we've engaged with, hearing about what we're talking about doing, um is is really causing some excitement with the families with the younger age students. A young adult home uh will provide options because not all those students uh stay for 4 years, and they don't all have a traditional day. So, um one of the things that some of the

049parents, as they're making that transition, um it's hard to realize that they may not be coming to the home, you know, like at 8:00 8:00 and staying till 3:16 as they do now at the high school. They may come, um you know, at 10:00 and have a lesson or two and then go out and do a work study job and then come back in the afternoon. And so, the um the traditional day is very different, um and it really mirrors what a real work life experience would be for them. So, we've already had some stakeholder engagements. Um we started off, I think I mentioned it at an earlier board meeting. I probably should have put that on there as well. Um that we would be um when we talked about um the architectural services with

050BLDD, um I mentioned that the young adult program was one of the really high priority um uh needs at the high school uh because of space. Their space is just completely inadequate to what they need right now. Um so, we we kind of talked about that when we when we um talked about that agreement with the architects. They've already started their work at the high school and have engaged several departments already. So, um March 16th, during spring break, um we had the board's facility committee um come. Randy shared some early pricing. Um we talked a little bit about the design and we talked about some options um for either purchasing a new home or leasing a new home or, you know, just what would be some things that we could consider. Um the facilities committee

051gave us their their okay to go ahead and move forward with um starting to look at some of our options. Um March 24th, the district administrators and building administrators uh along with our BLDD folks um toured They toured the whole building um and they also spent some time in the young adult and life skills existing spaces at the high school. On March 30th, uh district building and district and building administrators and BLD met with the UHS and the uh young adult instructional team to discuss vision and needs. On April 8th, uh district and building administrators met with the current and future some of the current and future young adult families and students. Um and we shared some of the options that we were considering. Um we discussed the current programming and their needs um and

052the option that we're going to share with you tonight um from the meeting on the 30th and the meeting on the 8th um were both uh kind of prioritized by staff and families as what they would like the board to um consider moving forward. Um on April 13th, um administration met with the department chair and the uh teacher teacher at the high school who uh provides the most leadership for the program. Um and we sat down with him and started talking about some possible floor plans and what were the activities. So, one of the activities that the BLDD architects gave the staff was really not to think about, "Oh, we need this, we need that, we want this." You know, like more so think about the program, think about the activities, think about the domains

053and the areas in which they um in provide instruction and that that should guide the um floor plan of the space. And so, they started doing that. Um they've created some really great documents that we've been using. Um so, we are now to the point of really um we needed to uh have some possible floor plan ideas in order to be able to bring the board um a reasonable assessment of what the approximate cost would be. So, we needed to kind of have some of these conversations so we could get to where we are tonight where we could actually talk about a budget and costs. So, I'm going to before I show this, I'm going to kind of go to this slide and go back. So, some of the desired um space um needs that

054uh the staff and parents talked about in those um engagement opportunities was having an open layout for instruction. Um they want to have a space where they can bring, you know, uh several students together and still do some teaching um and instructing. And also, opportunities for the students to continue to collaborate um together. Um a bedroom area, so the floor plan that we're going to show you has a bedroom that it would stay as a um bedroom space to allow um lots of opportunities for independent work and vocational skills. So, that space, you know, for several weeks it might be set up as a bedroom. Um a few weeks later it might be set up as something else in in order to teach the skills that the students needed. Um I already mentioned this, but

055cooking and kitchen um needs was is something that has been discussed basically in every space I've been in with young adult parents and students. Um so, multiple kitchen supports and stations for multiple learners. So, when you think about the kitchen and cooking and doing those things, there are so many safety um things that could happen like um burning yourself if you take something out of stove and it's too hot. Using sharp um knives and being able to just cut and prepare food. I think we take for granted how we move around the kitchen and the things that we're able to do. Um but our young adult students need more practice with um sharp things and hot things and you know um how do you wash the dishes uh safely and things like that. And so

056um being able to navigate in the kitchen is something that is a really uh big part of their programming. Um flex flexible space for vocational training um with the ability to change um as the needs for the students change. So, um one of the areas that they really want is they just they want to be able to just, you know, um one month we might they might set up one of the rooms as like a stock room and a lot of the um a lot of the students learn how to do things like stock shelves and um uh do inventory. And we've had several students in the program who um before Walgreens closed a couple of the locations, we had students who worked at the Walgreens on Philo Road and we had students who worked

057at the Walgreens in Champaign. So, being able to be in a stock room and stock things and take inventory, that's just one of the examples of like they might set up one of those spaces to uh do some vocational training there. They would like the students to have the ability to work in the gardening in the yard. So, right now I think they already um I Joan is here from our ag program, but they already um kind of go out in that space a little bit. Um and so they want to be able to do things like teach them how to mow the grass and teach them how to maybe plant um plant vegetables and plant things um that then they can have um for their um families um as food. Um and another additional

058something we hadn't thought thought about um price-wise was an attached garage. So, originally we just kind of talked about having a shed, you know, where they could put some of the things that they weren't using at the time, but um the more we talked with them and the more they talked about some of the activities uh they really do need an attached garage where they can store um things. So, they want to have a space at certain times during the year where they can have fitness equipment and teach them how to exercise and take care of their bodies as they get older. Um and so, they're going to need some some spaces where they are going to have uh storage and you know, like a lawnmower and things like that. So, an attached garage was

059something that has come up. So, now I'm going to go back to you guys can stop me if you have questions, you know that, right? So, um the desired uh option that we've been discussing with staff and families is uh the concept of a modular home. Um and the modular home would be um built on our existing district property. So, thankfully uh our this board and boards from previous boards um had a uh uh vision and a plan that eventually that space across the street from Urbana High School would give us the opportunity to grow. Um and we are starting to have some of those conversations. And so, um we're thankful that we we don't have to go out and buy property. We already have property right across the street from UHS. So, that's fantastic.

060Um and so, we've been talking about um putting a modular home on that space. Um one of the reasons we like the idea of a modular home is it's something that we can afford to do right now. We don't have to wait to save money for bonds for 10 years in order to do it. Um, and we can pretty much design it to meet the needs of the program, um, and and not have to spend a whole lot more money um, to build a brick and mortar building. So, this is just an example of, um, a floor plan, you know, to show you a little bit about what they've been, um, talking about. So, you can see, uh, a lot of counter space, a, um, kind of really expanded kitchen. Um, the we would have

061some counters that would be accessible for wheelchairs. Um, they want to have multiple cooking stations. Um, and then we have that primary bedroom over there on the side, and that would be set up as, um, an instructional space. So, we would put a ViewSonic board in there, um, that some tables, so when they wanted to do some teaching and instruction, they could still do it from that space. Um, having that large bathroom is where they would actually teach bathroom skills, like how to clean the toilet, how to, um, clean a bathtub, how to, um, kind of do some of those other life skills. Um, so I think they've asked for a shower, like a walk-in shower in one, and a tub in the other, cuz, you know, it's important to be able to know how

062to take a bath bath and not have the water be scalding hot where you burn yourself when you get in. So, I think some of these, again, some of these are things that are are, you know, our students need to learn. Um, that back bedroom number three would be that that kind of flexible space where, you know, they might set it up, um, as just a regular bedroom, and they might set it up as a hotel bedroom, and, you know, I um, the students how to make the beds and how to vacuum, and um, which are skills that they might be able to do if they got a job at a hotel in town. Um, and then that front area is kind of a flexible space. So, one of the things that the program has

063talked about for a very long time is running a coffee shop. And I think Gerber the Gerber folk folks already left, but if you've been out to Gerber, um, you've probably seen the amazing coffee shop that they have out there that they were able to, um, build from some, uh, great donors who donated, um, money for for the students out there, and they run their own coffee shop. They they make everything. Um, and it kind of is self-funded. So, the money that they raise continues to go into the coffee shop. Um, it's so the so, uh, having a larger scale version of a coffee shop is something that, um, the, uh, the, uh, program really wants to do. Like, really teaching the students, you know, like, they could be future baristas, right? Like, learning how

064to, you know, they might be able to get a job where they could, uh, do something like that. And so, um, that little room is kind of like a flex room, you know, like, maybe 2 days a week people might come in, and it might be a coffee shop. Um, and so, they're just trying to be really creative and, uh, really utilize every little bit of this space, um, in different ways. And so, those are just some of the few things that they've talked about. Um, I don't know, Randy, if you Do you want to say anything about this part? I think the BLDD folks would be working with us to make sure that whatever we, and of course, whoever wins the bid, we're going to go to bid, and, um, whoever we end up

065working with, they would make sure that, um, the house is, of course, structurally sound, because, of course, they want to take out all the walls. We don't want any walls. We just want partitions. We want to be able to open it and So, we got like guys, we got to have some walls because we got to be able to hold up a roof. And so, just kind of having some of those fun conversations with them um have been really interesting. Of course, there's a room back there for the washer and dryer because that again is another skill um teaching the students how to wash their own clothes, um how to fold clothes. Uh those are other vocational skills that they would be um doing in that space. Randy, you want to say anything else? About

066that. Um nothing I can think of. You did a pretty good job. Um but the this desired floor plan is um something that we'll have to work with with the manufactured home people to um we may have to like flip-flop it. It depends on how we put it into the So, it's not necessarily going to be exactly like this. Okay. >> Yeah, this is just to give you did to give the board an idea of some of the things that the staff and the parents have been talking about. So, yeah, this would not be the final, but we just wanted you to see like what we can get for 1,600 square feet. So, it it it would be a nice size space um for the program. A note. No, we usually don't take comments, but

067Ooh, okay. Oh, at the end. Yeah. That's usually for the board, but if you want to email it to me, Joan, I'll check my Okay. So, then um this is a picture from um Nick Henderson who is the department chair of the program. He's been doing a lot of the kind of leader leading the team a little bit. Um he's been working the closest with Randy and I and finding areas of inspiration. So, he sent me this picture and I said, "I will include it in just so the board can get the idea of um, kind of what we're talking about." So, this is a kitchen This is a picture of a kitchen at Parkland. And, um, it's it's a uh similar uh kitchen space to what they would want. Um, and then the mirror

068at the top is where they can kind of be preparing food and they can, you know, they can watch the instructor prepare while they're also making food. So, um, you know, really turning it into more of an instructional space, um, where they're, you know, it's a work space, but it's also um, their learning space. So, this was This is This would be kind of what the kitchen space would look like, but probably just with more more stoves. So, the coffee shop concept I already talked about a little bit, but it would be the student-run, their own little micro business, a great way to have um, to learn some hands-on job skills, community engagement opportunity. We would love to uh partner with anyone who would like to work with us to um, help get something like

069that uh off the ground. I know I mentioned that the um, I can't remember the exact name of the donors who donated out to Gerber, but um, anybody who would want to partner with us to uh make that a reality for the program, we would love to work with you. Um, and then it would be adaptable for multiple uh vocational uses. So, they would not just be making coffee. They would be cleaning. They would be washing dishes. They would be taking orders and giving change. And, um, so there's just so many different skills that would be built into um, doing something like a coffee shop. And then it it's just something that the program has wanted to do for a really long time and it is a um, long-standing uh program request. So, now let's

070talk a little bit about um money and, you know, what we get for um the money that we would be later on. It's on the agenda to, because time is of the essence here, um in order to get them into a space before winter um next school year, we need to move pretty quickly and make some decisions um and get some approvals from the board. Um so, we'd love to be able to work with the teachers over the next few weeks before they uh leave for the summer. So, the desired home size is approximately 1,600 sq. ft. Basically, similar to what um the picture we showed you, but it might just be set up a little bit differently. Um preliminary review of the current sales and advertisements uh reflect a base price of 159,000. I

071know there's there's it's springtime, so there are a lot of specials and um some you know, sales and things like that that we'd want to take advantage of now um with some upgrades and other options of things that we might be able to get included. Um whoever wins the bid um would provide all or a portion of the required site preparation. So, basically, the foundation um depending on whatever final scope we decide to go with. A preliminary site on scene estimate for um a crawl space, which would need to be included, is approximately $21,000. I already mentioned the attached garage um and that cost would range from 25 to 40K, depending on the size of the garage um and what we're able to do on the site. So, anybody who wins the bid and whoever

072we end up working with, um they're going to want a deposit, of course, to start the work, right? So, I you know, anybody that you're working with, they want some money up front. So, um we would have to uh put down a deposit pretty quickly so we could start um planning and doing some design. Um I think Randy's said there is about a 2 to 3 week bid period. Is that what you're looking at? Okay. Um typical payment from uh Randy's research is uh 50% due at the closing and then um 50% due once the home is placed on the foundation. So, they would want about half of the money so they could start designing and building the home um and then for all their materials and the work that they're going to do. And

073then the other half um once they built bring the home out and we put it on the foundation on the site is when um we would pay the rest of the uh balance. So, here's some of the timeline. Again, um just so we can get something in the ground before winter and it gets too cold. Um there's about Randy, I should have said on those last two. Anything else you want to say about the financials? Or any of these? No, the $2,000 would just be a uh check and that would get us started with the them coming out and actually looking at the site and um uh being able to do the drawing that we want. Okay. Um so, timeline and next steps. So, um it takes at least 90 days, an estimated 90 days.

074It could be more based on you know, uh the needs and the the um dreams that the program has for the space. So, um if you know, as long as it stays within a certain scope, it should take about 90 days. Um installation and weather proofing are typically completed um right away after delivery. So, the full project completion would be about 90 to 120 days. Um as I mentioned, next steps would be to start the bidding process and we already have a site that we've kind of we're going to go out and walk it again with BLDD tomorrow with some of the stakeholders, but right now the site is kind of on the um west end of the Iowa Street kind of across the street from the marquee close to the garden. I don't know

075if you the board remembers, but there used to be a home right there that we owned that was demolished. So, you can kind of still see the footprint of that house a little bit over there. Um and the architects will review the scope of the project. They will work with the the whoever manufactures the home to make sure that it is life and fire safety safe. Um so, they'll work on you know, like the push doors that you like if we need push bars in certain spaces, you know, what kind of extinguishers we need or smoke alarms and all those kind of life safety things. Um they'll assist us with the occupancy permit and work with the ROE to make sure that the home passes inspections and all those things. Do you have any questions

076Any questions about that before I move on? >> home is going to be ADA compliant like completely out like Well, oh yeah, it has to be because right now they don't have a student in, but at any point they could have students that would be in will would be needing a wheelchair accessible space. So, yes. One question about the the lot across the street, this house would would be on what percentage of that lot? So, that's why we've had the BLDD folks very much involved because as they are talking with the you know, just kind of their vision of you know, what we might be able to do in the future for other spaces. We want to make sure that this project is not we don't put it in a space where it gets in

077their way basically and so they've been working Randy between Randy and BLDD the space that we're talking about would it's on Race Street. So, you know where the garden is where the Yeah. Would that be like 25% of the of the whole property or 50% or Oh, it would probably take Oh, no, this would be Oh, much smaller than Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, thank you. Um The house footprint is 27 by 60. 27 ft by 60 ft. Yeah, that's pretty small. Yeah. So, over there where we put the concrete pad where the kids were eating during COVID. They still go out there and have outside lunch. It would be over in that general area over there. Yep. Oh, yeah. John's pulled up there. Thank you, John. So, you want to roll your mouse over

078it over to the over go up a little bit. There you go. So, that whole little area there. We hope to be able to expand the garden too. I know that's one of John's dreams is one of our dreams to be able to expand that garden space which would benefit the ag program and would benefit the students cuz they they really want to learn more about gardening and caring for a lawn and lawn care and things like that. So, it would basically be you know, right around in that little Um there's some trees there that's that are still there the concrete pad and then the garden is on the corner of Race and Iowa. So, Um we've also talked about expanding the garden space for the ag program as well. Yeah, thanks for having that

079visual ready. So, we'll continue with the board's blessing after tonight uh collaborate with the teachers and staff and students. Um we've been gathering input from parents as we go. Um keep an open line of communication. We We've been getting emails from Nick about every day. How about this? And how about that? So, that that's been great. Um and then of course we want to engage more with our community partners. I should have probably put a slide in here um listing all the places where our students work, but um in the meetings that I've been in I've found out that, you know, we have about 30 different partners where our young folks go and work. So, um I mentioned Walgreens, but they also work at Salt & Light. And I'm not going to be able to

080remember them all. I should have put them on a slide. But they But there are a lot of uh uh people who are already partnering with the program um to provide volunteer and uh work opportunities for our students right now. So, we want to engage more with those folks to, you know, see if they might want to financially support anything that we're doing um in putting certain things in the home. So, So, our request for the night is um we will tonight in action items um request that the board allow us to move forward with the continued to do some more detailed planning. We can start uh the bidding. Um we uh have given you a price that includes everything that the estimated final cost include everything that we mentioned on the previous slides um

081in addition to um some of the appliances and, you know, some of the We're going to be able to move over quite a bit of the furniture that already uh that they're already using like the tables and things like that from the classrooms. Um but there will be a need to have some additional furni- furnishings like, you know, beds and things like that that they'll need for those vocational spe- uh pieces. So right now I think the the Randy, you said this 250 is kind of on the high range or So I think we were kind of going a little higher instead of lower. Yeah, with all the possible needs they would they might throw at us. We're um they're already talking like a one electric stove top and a gas stove top so they

082can teach kids how to cook both ways cuz they move into an apartment might be gas stove or might be electric stove or Yeah. Um just like one example. Things we had not thought of, right? I had not thought of that they need to learn how to do both. You know, you don't know if you're in an apartment if the apartment's going to have gas or or electric. And so that means we have to run gas in there and we have to have, you know, the the electrical. So that that it is additional cost just with the site. So I think we tried to estimate on the higher end just so we didn't have to come back to you again and ask for more money, but um to build the modular unit and hopefully uh

083do all the things that so far um we've talked about with uh staff and parents, we we think um $250,000 would be a good estimate. And um those funds would come from our uh 1% facility sales tax funds that we get um every month and uh we right now have been earning quite a bit more there than we have um in years past, which um helps to be able to and the fact that we, you know, we can pay half of it when we kind of build the home, the scope of the design, and then pay the other half, you know, when the home is completed gives us a little time in between there as well. Um and as you know, that 1% sales tax money can on- can only be used for capital projects.

084So, this is a really good use of that money. In addition to we use it to pay we use it for for working cash and for bonds and for other things, but this [snorts] would be, you know, not a not a significant um cost from those funds base if you look at what we get in a year for the 1% sales tax. I don't know if Mary Ann wants to say anything else about that, but Okay. Yeah, we're getting about what 4 and 1/2 5 million a year now from that? We're getting about 400,000 a month. To anywhere between 400 to 500,000 a month. It used to be in the three three, you know, Yeah. typical used to be like 350, 360. >> So, it's around 5 million a year now. Yeah. So, it's gone

085up. Okay. Uh Randy, um does site prep include the cost include reconnecting to the city services? It uh includes the running of the Let me check here. Um lines, but maybe not the hookup. The sanitary. Yeah, to the um Sorry, I meant to find that out. Um I think we still have to do the hookup to the Probably sanitary and water and gas. Just curious. >> Thanks. We left the at that site we happen to leave the water hookup out there. Okay. Um in hopes that the garden may someday be able to get water. >> Right. Right. >> Um so, we did leave that one out there. The other ones have all been terminated back to the main line. >> Okay. I I've got a couple questions. One of that I asked you I think

086in in our uh committee meeting, but um just making sure the public is aware that this this this project uh have to follow school building code when it's yeah. Yep, and I've talked to the ROE about it. Okay, good. And you >> have to have We just have to have an architect sign off on it. Um the modular home would already have the engineering um permits and stamps that it would need. Uh but we just have to have a architect sign off on it and BLDD said they would do that for us. Uh yeah, it's pretty hard to build anything under school building code for that amount of money. Just putting that out there. Um >> A stick house would be closer to 300,000 for the same house. Yeah. A stick building. >> Um the

087other question I have though is is is there any concern with this being a modular home that it won't last as long as like traditionally built Uh building. No, I asked um the people at Riley's about that too. This is where I got my information from. Um and they said they have homes that have been uh for 40 years and still look good. There was one that just sold um north of Urbana up by the airport. Um I don't remember the guy's name that owns it but um he bought it 20 years ago and it sold it just sold for half million dollars. So, we know he didn't pay half million dollars for it 20 years ago. Um and they're putting them up out at uh Stone Creek. They're up at Baringer. Okay. Um they're

088putting them all over the uh the city's allowing it and saying they're fine. Makes sense. Um another thing that I think Jennifer mentioned something about um like a sale price. That sale price goes through the um uh I believe it's the middle of next month. Um and but once we put the $2,000 down, we're in for that price. It's going to It'll go up uh like 30 35,000 dollars if we don't take advantage of that. Okay. Uh thanks for that context. A- Anyone else have questions? Um, so would this be connected to the school communication system? You know, the U H communicate I don't mean like what? I don't know. They We used to you know, like you'd have a button to push and the it would it would ring in the principal's office. That

089That kind of thing. >> a district phone and beyond district network. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear. It'll have a district phone that they can call >> Oh, okay. It will have all of that. >> and beyond district network. >> And fire alarms and stuff like that. And or or red alert alarms and all stuff like >> Security cameras and that would be up to Mr. Goetzinger. If you want to put camera over there. Probably. Yeah. >> Let's just just curious. Whatever the program is. And does it Maybe a stupid question. Um, but does it include like painting the rooms and They would come out and set whatever color we pick, it would come as in in that color. Yep. So we if we wanted it white or light gray or tan, whatever, they would the

090whole building would the whole house would be painted the same color. Oh, it just comes that way. >> Yep. We would choose the colors, but yeah, then they do that for us. >> We would choose colors, counter tops, counters. >> I didn't know that. Yep. Sinks, faucets, everything, lighting. Anyone else? So I'm reading Jones' email about the house and the connection of the house to the garden. And so I think these are all things that we can talk about with with BLDD. Um, so yeah. So thank you for sharing those in writing so we can talk about them. >> [snorts] >> Last call. Any questions or comments right now? All right. All right. Thank you for that administrative report. We'll be voting on that later. >> Right. There's there's action item later in our agenda

091Uh uh to progress with this. Uh 10.2 is an administrative report around our district crisis team update. Yeah, so that's me. Uh so uh we held a reunification drill uh earlier and I wanted to give you a little bit of information about what we've been changing. Uh I know we had talked about some of this at a previous meeting, I think in October, uh but just as a reminder, we've been working to align the district's crisis response with the national I love you guys protocol. Uh so at the start of this year, we had kind of lots of buildings were doing lots of different things and we've wanted to kind of unify the entire district under one system. So, things are really consistent from building to building. It helps us uh it helps district administrators,

092it helps law enforcement uh when everything's consistent. So, we've uh for the standard response for the initial crisis, we've kind of moved from code pink, code yellow, hard lockdown, soft lockdown to these five things, which are hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, and shelter. Uh and then each of those uh kind of actions comes along with uh some directives. So, you can have like hold in your classrooms if you're in the east wing of the building, which might be if there's a problem in the hallway, or lockdown, locks, lights, out of sight is what our crisis go app says. So, this is all also tied in with our crisis go app. So, when everybody uh initiates uh emergency or drill, like it has the same consistent thing throughout the district. And I will say administrators in buildings

093have been doing a exceptionally good job of using CrisisGo and all the new response protocols. I know probably Dr. Ivory Tatum, wherever you are on an airplane, in a dinner at Luda, your phone is going to go off and beep really loud and let you know Oh, mine went off on an airplane. So, So, that was the standard response. The standard unification plan, just to remind you, is if we have an emergency where students need to be out of the building, we're going to take them to somewhere else where we reunify them with their parents. If there's a fire or something bad happening in the building, we don't want to also running our reunification from that same building. So, we have a different place that we start to take people. So, some of the changes

094we've made this year to the reunification system. And if you've been here a little bit, you may recall we did a reunification drill with one team at the middle school back in 2022. One team is 100 kids. So, since then we have done a complete overhaul of the reunification system to again align with the I love you guys standard reunification method. We've integrated this all with our CrisisGo system. The initial one we did 4 years ago, we had some paper forms and then we also had kind of a homemade by me system in Google Sheets to track kids. So, this is a lot more robust system that pulls things directly from our student database, pulls guardian and parent information directly from the student database. So, we can make sure that kids are getting connected with

095the right people. Uh we also ran you'll see a little video here in a second of full drill with students and parents to identify issues and areas for improvement. We did this with the sixth grade center. So instead of the 100 kids we did last time this was with 300 kids and if you're not a math major that's three times more. So it was a lot of extra kids and extra problems but we conducted multiple trainings and walk-throughs with the district crisis and reunification staff. We did a walk-through at the site. We did a couple different table top exercises and then we had kind of some training videos as well as some individual trainings for those people. Uh so why we did this? It is important which we learned to practice the entire system from

096start to end. It's great to practice it when it's not an actual emergency and parents are only at kind of like a five or a six instead of already up at a eight or a nine. We wanted to test the new I love you guys protocols. We wanted to test the parent communications the way we were getting information out to everybody. We wanted to practice using kind of a hybrid paper and with the crisis go reunification. This is important Dr. Ivory Tatum got a lot of feedback from people that if there's an actual emergency you can't always count on the cellular network being up. You can't always count on the network being up. So to always have that backup. And then we wanted to identify additional needs for our response and what we had. So

097a lot of staff had a lot of new roles. We have a lot of new staff since 2022. So getting everybody familiar with what they're doing and familiar with the site where we're doing all the reunification at. So, we also, since we had an entire building that was empty, we had a great opportunity for law enforcement to do some drills as well. So, they did some drills in the school while all the students were at the reunification. So, I have a short video here I would like to share with you. Get that over here. Over the past year, Urbana School District has implemented the national I Love U Guys crisis response and reunification protocols. On April 7th, 2026, Urbana 6th Grade Center conducted a reunification drill to reunite students with their families after [music] a

098simulated disaster at the school to practice and improve on crisis processes. As part of the drill, students were bused to the district's reunification site. Upon arrival, teachers led their students to their designated area inside. Prior to students and teachers arriving, the reunification [music] team set up, briefed staff, and distributed supplies. Greeters were stationed at the entrance to guide parents and guardians as they arrived. They were given a form to fill out and directed to the check-in table where their identity was confirmed. Once checked in, parents and guardians proceeded to the waiting area and their [music] students' names appeared on a video board. This board signaled to the staff inside the student waiting [music] area to bring the student out to complete reunification. Once reunited with their students, parents and guardians proceeded to the exit table

099where their identity was checked a final time before leaving the building with their student. First aid will be available for any students with minor injuries. There will also be counselors on site to assist students as needed. So, that's the video of kind of how everything went. Uh it was Normally in a reunification uh students would have a lot more time at the school and then we would spend probably many hours uh reuniting uh students with their families. Uh this was all compressed down to 2 hours from the start of the emergency until kids had to be back at school uh if they didn't get picked up to get on their buses to go home the normal way. So, it was very quick. Uh some of the key takeaways from going from our last reunification to

100this one was we just need more staff at all the positions uh throughout the process. Uh there were a lot of bottlenecks. Uh every position needs a backup. Uh so, every person there like needs a backup person in case they're not available because a lot of times people aren't in the district. You're allowed to have a sick day. Uh and then also every system needs a backup from our AV systems, network systems, check-in systems. Uh we expanded our parent and guardian list. Uh our initial list just had kind of the primary parents and guardians. Uh and so, we expanded that to kind of all of the ones who might be coming to pick up those students uh for future times we run through this. And then even if it's not a full exercise with 300

101students uh all getting on buses and moving around town, uh we think that every year we need to have like a refresher with our staff just to make sure all of the equipment's still where it needs to be, everybody still remembers their roles and what they need to be doing. Uh so, that was the reunification. I'll pause there for just a second. If you guys have any questions about that portion. I do. Um so my question is is for like the high school, would they still go under this process as well and do we have accommodations to fit that many students in reunificating? Uh our anticipation is that if we had to do a full drill with the high school, a full reunification with the high school, that a lot of those students that have

102their own transportation would just leave on their own. So we would be working with probably a similar number of students to the middle school. The middle school has about 600 uh students. So if we had to do a full reunification with them, we do have some additional areas. We would have to split people up into areas by their grade levels. But how would you know which students left in a vehicle? Uh we would have to be working with the students and the staff to get information about them and some of them, if they leave, they probably aren't going to tell us. So it would be that's one of the challenges, yeah. Yeah, with high school students, they're going to just get in a car and go. And so we have talked about um I think

103the nice thing about using the app that we tried, you know, John mentioned we used the app this time, which was a learning curve for all of us and staff included, but I think having the uh digital capability to be able to do something where a student could check in and teachers can go in and check in um I the student email me, the student put something, you know, like cuz we're going to tell the kids, wherever you go, just let someone know where you are. And so if they do that in Google Classroom, if they send an email to the teacher, "Hey, four of us got in Johnny's car and we're at Johnny's house." And then we know who those kids are, we can go into the app and account for them, that they're

104safe and, you know, we know where they are. So, that's kind of the plan for the high schoolers cuz we do know now that they most of them can drive and um they they have an ability to kind of leave on their own where most of the other students don't, so. And we have, over the last 2 or 3 years, been working to get uh more of the high schoolers to have their contact information in Skyward, so it's not just trying to go through their parents and guardians to find them, uh but being able to contact them directly. So, we can send out that same mass communication uh that we do through Parent Square now, uh we can send that to students with like a little check-in sheet. So, if they're all going to do

105it is still a little bit of a challenge. On the um I love you guys website, it showed um the procedure on what they suggested. It might have been one of their first attempts or first edition, they might have changed it. But what they indicated was that there were different places where the parents go to. Um so, was that confusing or did you did you utilize that? Did they have to the parents have to go to different stations throughout the process? And how many different places did they have to go through? >> Uh so, that's a good question. So, when the parents show up, uh they're met outside at kind of a greeting area by the greeters. Their job is to explain the process. They give them the paper form to fill out and explain

106what part parts they need to. It's the same form for K through 12, so some of the things might not be applicable for middle school students. They don't have like a classroom teacher or things. But then, uh explain the process, then there's a checker who makes sure that they're one of the people who's able to pick up that student. Uh they give them the student name, uh then they check the student as being able to be released. There is a reunifier who gets the student from the kid hold area and brings them to the transfer uh area where they meet up with the parent. Uh, and then their identity is verified one more time with their license uh by an exit accountant who then releases them to go out together. How many different steps or

107places did the parents have to go in order to to complete the whole process? Uh, so the minimum is four if they don't have their ID or we have to verify their identity some other way, uh it could be five. There's an exceptions table where we can verify people's identity a different way if they don't have their uh state issued ID. And then there's some other areas as we mentioned in there first aid and counseling, so on the chance that there's students there, they might have to kind of wait a little bit more. But most of them four. And I don't know, Ben, did you go through the >> through It seemed like two stations. Two places you stop. >> So you had somebody greet you at the door and then they checked your ID

108and then you waited in the hallway. >> like four steps but like two stations. >> That's what I was going to say, it's really two stations. Yeah, I thought it was but though it seemed like complete chaos, I think it went pretty well. That being said. >> That that has been the feedback I've gotten from several people. Necessary chaos. Necessary chaos. Uh, so if there's no more questions about that, I did have a couple other security updates. Uh, this summer we're going to be doing a big uh radio update, not like a stereo radio but our handheld radios. Uh, we have some that the firmware uh they won't take any new firmwares anymore, so we're going to be upgrading some of the older radios, uh reprogramming all of the radios with some additional channels that

109allow us to do, uh, interoperability between all of the buildings. So, if any building in the district has to work with any other building either for sports or an emergency where they have to like go to a different building, uh, that'll be an option that they have. Uh, and then, uh, another interoperability channel for admins if they need to do things together. So, we're also going to be offering some additional radio training. Has been some of the feedback that we've gotten that, uh, since we've done the reprogramming, people aren't always positive what they're supposed to be doing. Uh, we have been performing some additional, uh, random screenings at the, uh, 6th Grade Center for metal detectors and UMS kind of heightened screenings. Uh, throughout the year, we'll continue to do that next year working with

110those building admins to kind of find times to do that. Uh, and then, finally, I wanted to let you guys know kind of where we are with the cell tower. Uh, I know we're pushing into spring and people are getting a little antsy with all the sports coming up. Uh, Amarin, since you guys approved the, uh, easement, did do their final bore. Uh, that finished last Wednesday. Uh, the electrician should be here to reconnect all of the lights and equipment this week. I think maybe either tomorrow or Thursday. And then, they should be doing the rest of that flat work all the concrete, uh, should also be this week. So, uh, probably another They told me 5 weeks before they're actually passing traffic, uh, on that tower. So, when you can expect to see your

111signal be a little bit better. Uh, they told me 5 weeks, so, uh, if it it might be 6 or 7. But, thank you, guys. Any other questions or comments for John? All right. Uh thank you. Uh moving on to our action items. First up is our consent agenda, which I will read in its entirety uh item by item. And if anybody wishes to have an individual item pulled from the consent agenda, indicate that and we'll we'll do so. Uh first up are minutes 12.1 uh from our March 10th business meeting, our March 16th District Facilities Property Committee meeting, our April 7th study session, and our April 14th District Parent Teacher Advisory Committee meeting. 12.2 are bills and checks for February-March, uh Ed Fund bills to the tune of the $3.8 million, uh $3.8 million.

112Uh Operation Maintenance Fund bills for uh $508,000, Transportation Fund bills for $746,000, Working Cash Bonds uh for $336,000, Tort for $111,000, Life and Safety Levy for $587.46. Uh payroll, salary, and benefits for $10.7 million. Uh 12.3 are assorted personnel items, which were published uh in our in our agenda packet. 12.4 is appointment for a school auditor. This is to appoint of Forvis Mazars LLP as auditors uh for the 2025-26 audit at a fee of $58,500 for the audit and $2,600 for the Champaign County Mental Health Board grant. That's an increase over last year's audit. 12.5 is appointment of treasurer. Uh we're requesting approval to appoint Elizabeth Walden to serve as a district treasurer for the 2026-27 school year at a salary of $5,200, which is flat from this fiscal year. Uh 12.6 is a CU

113Mass Transit MTD contract renewal. Um and 12.7 is the Quest Food Management Services contract renewal at an increase of 2.7 CPI increase totals uh for 3 million $591,000. Uh and 12.8 is a resolution authorizing and directing the sale or disposal of personal property of the district. Uh this is disposal of a laminator that's not working, three fryers that are not working, and countertop air curtains. Uh is there Does anybody wish to have any of these removed or discussed independently? Um if we remove 12.7, will we be able to have a discussion later about it? >> Sure. Okay, yes. Okay, so uh then I would entertain a motion to approve the consent items as read except for 12.7. So moved. Second. So moved and seconded. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. Member Marboe.

114Yes. Member Jones. >> Yes. Member Langendorf. Yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palawski. >> Yes. Member Sherrill. >> Yes. >> And Member Hickson. Yes. Uh motion passes. So, let's return to uh 12.7. Is there additional context you'd like to have or questions? >> just like um more information. Um this is like third year. Um Mary Ann, if you could give me some more information about um the renewal and is How many years can we renew it without having to put a bid out again? That's Yeah, so this is our last extension, it's my understanding. So, we will have to take it out for bid next year. Um with there's been some changes in Quest like management and things like that. So, we've seen some positive feedback in the last couple of months since they've added

115to their team. They're still adding to their team. Um they're going to have a chef that's coming on to their management staff with and Monday. And so, um, the overall increase is I just did quick math. It's like 190,000 over this fiscal year. So, I think at this point we are pretty happy with our contractual services and moving forward. I just want to add I I observed and I forgot the man's name who was, um, supervising at the high school. There was, uh, chaos in in the cafeteria and and I really thought that the team at the of Quest team that got together and worked through the problem and did a wonderful job and and made it so that service could continue. So, I was really impressed with not only the quality of the food,

116but also the response to the students and what needed to be done. That's great feedback. Thank you. Thanks, Assistant. Uh, then the chair may entertain a motion to, uh, approve, uh, the renewal of the Quest Food Management Services contract for the 2026-2027 school year with a requested 2.7 CPI increase. I move that we renew their contract. Second. Motion and second. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. Member Jones. Yes. Member Langendorf. Yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palowsky. Yes. Member Sheryl. Yes. Member Hickson. Yes. Member Marable. Yes. Uh, motion passes. Uh, the Health and Wellness Committee is going to spend a probably a large part of next year preparing the RFP to go out for bid for for this contract, uh, for the following year. Uh, we do have a number of individual

117action items as well. First off is 13.1 which are gifts. The United Way donated $500 to support the district's first neighborhood night on April 22nd. The U of I Credit Union donated $1,000 to the Urbana High School of I 2 weeks ago or Yeah. So moved. Second. It would have been seconded. Any further questions, comments, discussion? Um I just I would like to make a comment. It's really hard to read the plan when it doesn't fit on the page. There was no way you could read the end of sentences. Um and then there I thought that people came and talked about the plan. So I had some questions, but I will email them to um I guess it would be to Tanya. Yeah, it's Tanya. Tanya is taking the lead since she's the main main

118grant person. So yes. Okay. Okay. And one question for the board, it kept talking about board goals within the plan. And were they talking about ISBE board goals? Cuz they really weren't I looked back they weren't our board goals. And do we have to coordinate that in the future? >> They should [snorts] have been our board goals. So, the goals that you guys set last year were just like better communication >> at them. I wasn't sure they were the same, but okay. Okay. Okay, that's it. I'll They should be the same. Yes. Yeah, one thing Dr. Aubrey Tatum does actually is she's a good job of actually referencing them in the agendas, too. Um, uh any further questions, comments, or discussions, motion on the floor? Roll call, please. Member Langendorf? Yes. Vice President Baxley? Yes.

119President Palowsky? >> Yes. Member Sherrill? Yes. Member Hickson? Yes. Member Maraboo? Yes. Member Jones? Yes. 13.3 is our young adult program space needs, which was covered earlier this evening. This is a request to solicit bids to proceed with the program space needs that were total cost is going to be currently estimated at 250k, but it's all going to depend on the bidding. Uh is there a motion uh from the floor? So moved. Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any further questions, comments, or so discussion? Uh roll call, please. Vice President Baxley? Yes. President Palowsky? Yes. Member Sherrill? Yes. Member Hickson? Yes. Member Maraboo? Yes. Member Jones? Yes. Member Langendorf? Yes. Uh motion passes. 13.4 is our CUMTD transit lease agreement. This is a for the 1101 East University uh property that we're currently using as our

120central office. This is a an extension uh with half the money going into escrow for uh future project uh with MTD. Is there a motion to accept the lease that we discussed at our last meeting? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any further questions, comments? Roll call, please. President Palouski. Yes. Member Sherrill. Yes. Member Hickson. Yes. Member Maraboo. Yes. Member Jones. Yes. Member Langendorf, yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. Uh motion passes. Uh 13.5 is our cleaning contract bid. Um So I guess uh You guys what could you provide a little context for the board on the on the bidding process and the you know some of the state requirements with regards to accept you know putting out the RFP and and accept and uh accepting bids. Um evaluating them. Sure. Um the Mary Ann can

121help me with this, too, I guess. The um Oh, yeah, it is. A little a little closer, maybe. Sorry. It's all right. When um we take stuff out to bid, uh long story short, we basically have to go with the um the lowest responsible bid. Um while it may not be what we want, it's what the state requires us to do. Um I don't know what um What was your other question, though? Well, I mean uh Were there were there any bids that weren't uh that you broke that came in that weren't deemed as responsible? >> Yes, we did have two um bidders that um we deemed were not uh responsible bidders. They didn't acknowledge the addendums and their uh um uh experience did not meet uh what we had asked. They didn't have school

122any school cleaning experience. They were uh smaller cleaning company that just had a did some homes and some maybe a small business or something. All right. Uh is there is there is there is there a motion for the floor then so we can begin discussion on the on the item? So moved. Second. >> Who made the second? Okay, now are there any questions, comments, or discussion from the board? Just uh piggybacking on the last question, how many bidders were there? There were seven. Seven. >> We had seven bid packages were opened. Five were uh responsive. Well, tonight we heard from Mr. Taylor who indicated that there was something in the proposal for the request for proposal that said price will not be the only factor. Was that included in that? In the bid package? Yes.

123I I think that's more in reference to if they're responsive and being responsive and responsible bidder. And so then we have to go through the next step and the the lowest bids that are being brought to you tonight were the responsible bidders per like we background checks and reference checks and Yeah, I imagine that it would be a confusing statement cuz I'm confused by it, too, so. Um I also was listening to him and he said that there are codes required for companies to be local, uh the office to be local, and the warehouse to be local. We do require that to be local, yeah. Um but like with the company that we had a few years ago, ABM, they just had a an office and a warehouse that was uh or an office that

124they used as a warehouse um that met the requirement that we have in our um, contract. Which ESS cleaned. And and all these companies meet that requirement? They will, yes. They will. They, of course, yes, they said they would. I I had many conversations with them. >> Okay. So, they don't have to meet it in order to be accepted. >> Correct. And they have 30 days once this is, uh, um, approved to be, uh, to meet those. And they they say they already have a, uh, I don't know what, um, Uh, he he he didn't give me a list He said he was going to give me a list of businesses that they do that are somewhat local, but they did say they had a manager that was about 20 minutes away right now. So,

125I don't know if that's like Decatur or I don't know where. Yeah, this is a very difficult decision, um, because of the fact that we are a small community and we want to support our our businesses in our community, especially one where the person has shown up for our schools and for our community in many different ways, but I know there's also an obligation as a board member to follow state law regulation. So, I would like to put that on the table and and get some more information about that. We hear you and know that administration had some reservations and or you know, we consulted with council and did our due diligence of what is our requirement? And so, this was the recommendation. The recommendation from council? >> From council, mhm. Yeah, I mean, we

126were at the risk of of being being sued by the the winning bidder, the winning compliant bidder if if if we decline it and and go with anybody else. Well, in the event that this passes, I'm I'm I'm I'm sorry that we have to that it has worked out that way. In my discussions with um other school districts, um there may be a way that uh the next time it goes out to bid that we don't have to take um the low bid. They They said there's they would work with me on some um wording that even the lawyers will um accept that um we don't have to take the low bid. And when would that be? How much this bid is for how many years? >> years. For what? How many? Three. Three years?

127>> Yeah. Mary Ann, would you be able to share why the attorney um I know you said that was their got but what points did the attorney give as to why Yeah, there there was no disqualifying factors for the winning bid. They're based off of like looking at the bid specifications, there was nothing that would disqualify them as being a responsible bidder. So, even though we don't have the relationship with them, um they have worked for other school districts. They had good references. They were lowest, so it was all of the things that were they met all of the requirements that were in our bid specifications. Okay, thank you. Having worked in school buildings for a long time here and worked when the schools were really well taken care of and sometimes when they weren't,

128it makes a huge difference. And um having a local supervisor who I think you said has to be within 20 miles or 60 I mean, I can't remember. It doesn't matter. Um but having a local supervisor is way different from having a local manager who has substitutes and people who could come in and fill in. Because when people don't show up at school, I can remember days where that was really, really, really important. And so, I'm hopeful that in the future, if if it's true that we've talked we and I I'm sure it is. You've spoken to a lawyer and we have to accept this. What I would like to say is if in fact there is too much lag time before there is an office here or supervisor here or a school doesn't get

129a sub when they need one that then we look immediately into changing um and then we look to write the grant not the grant, I'm sorry. The the proposal, the bid for proposal. Um in such a way that we um honor those very, very important aspects of the work. Because it makes an incredible difference for teaching and learning. And it's it's an important part of the school. Thank you, Jennifer. I just like to follow that up and to I don't think responsible is a binary word. I think there are levels of responsibility that some people can provide. And so, I I would be curious if there's a legal definition of what responsible is in this case or any other case, but um I'm not a lawyer, I guess, so. Um I guess we have to

130take their word for it. When does this have to be decided upon? When does it have to be approved? When does the >> Does the contract end? certain date toward How many days between now and they start the contract or The end of June. End of June. So, what happens um if this company does what a previous company has done before and just kind of goes out in the middle. Um I was not here, I don't believe, when the first company did it. That was under Oda Dossett, the director of facilities. I remember him talking about it. Um I think I came in right after that. I was here for ABM. And um ABM walked out um the day before I got the approval from the board to let them go. So, I don't I

131don't know if they found out or something cuz I didn't get the pleasure of saying toodle-oo. Um but um we would We have a fine system set up in our uh cleaning contract. Um and with the with the ABM, the company that was um that failed last time, we uh just fined them so much that they didn't the however many months they were here, they didn't even make a dime. They actually paid us. Um which I mean, they really didn't pay us because um they just never did, even though they're supposed to, but they didn't we never paid them. Um or we never ever paid them the full amount of their contract because of the fine system that we had set up. Um we did give them a little bit of grace at the beginning.

132Like, "Hey, you're you're new. You're um not fully staffed. We understand. We can't We're not fully staffed, either." Um however, it just kept going on and on and on. And after meeting with them two and three and four times a week, um you know, after the first month, we had started fining them just a little bit at a time. And then finally, it was every day we were giving them thousands of dollars for the fines. Um and then just I don't I don't I don't mean we just couldn't do it, couldn't take it. The building, you know, we were getting complaints from the teachers, the buildings. Um The emails to the board were um about the cleaning. Um so, we just They broke ties with us, but we were I was going to break ties

133with them the day before the day after. So, where would we be at if something like that happened again? Like, to find a another company that would just pick up um and then it kind of runs. Um that depends on um I guess I'm looking at the back of the room. Um I'll if we're able to get a company that isn't um upset that they didn't get the contract. You know, I mean, they're they would have to re-staff um everything. They would have to um you know, possibly get managers, the 15 or 16 people we had re-hire those people because I'm sure that if there if there are people that they have currently, they would either use them at other jobs or have to let them go. Um and then they they would have to

134go through the re-staffing process, too. The last time this happened, we reached out to multiple companies. We had different companies uh clean different buildings. So, it was it was kind of a patchwork of contracts um to get us to the point where we could bid it out again. And we knew only really only one company would be able to handle the high school, middle school, and um myself and Tyler reached out to them and uh had many conversations and before the they were actually the other company was let go to make sure that they were willing to do it and they they were, so probably have to have those same conversations again. And hopefully they would help us out again, bail us out. Um So, in I'm sorry. >> No, go ahead. So, in review,

135we're obligated to take the lowest bid, and the difference was 4.5% um which is, according to my calculator, is $135,000 at least. So, that's what we're voting on. Yep. I mean, we um I had these questions >> Sherry. It was really close to that number. Yeah. Now, we have a motion on the floor. If if if the board wishes, then they want to consult a a you know, consult a lawyer with regards to understanding the the the risks of of of voting no on this. We we could do that. We could hear directly from them and vote on this at a at a future meeting. Um but I mean, from my personal experience, I think we we're kind of obligated to vote yes here. So, even my That was kind of my question. The The

136district signed on to this uh bid and signed on to the contract. But, they have to work with the board and the if what happens if the board says, "No, we don't want to do it." We haven't signed anything yet. There is >> Yeah. This is our spree. We took >> Right. Right. That's you bringing it. But, what I'm saying you There's been a verbal I would think. I don't know. Well, there's it's it's it's more than verbal, right? We We published what's called an RFP, which describes exactly what services we're seeking. We opened that up to the public. We received a number of bids, two of which weren't found compliant with the RFP. And then we're required to go with the the lowest compliant response that comes back from multiple companies out there. So,

137there's there's a contract waiting for us to approve, waiting for us to sign. And you know, we're kind of required by law to to go with the lowest compliant bid, but if the board wishes to hear that from a lawyer, wishes to understand what the risks are of voting no, we can we can do that. We can we can like definitely defer this vote for a future meeting so you can hear that advice. But, you know, I've been doing this for 15 years. So, I kind of know what the what the risks are. But, if you want to hear that from directly from a lawyer yourselves, that's fine. We can we can defer this to a different meeting so you can hear that. But, basically, the company that we we vote no on has the

138right to sue us for for not accepting their bid. The totals are uh for the 3-year contract for the high school middle school is $122,260.83. Uh sixth grade center is $43,479.96. And uh adult ed Tiger Academy is uh uh 3-year difference of $16,777.50. Yeah, I mean it's obvious with the research that I did too. It's that's that's what we have to do. So. President Paulosky, could we vote on each company separately though? Instead of 13.5A, 13.5B. Sure. Yeah, you're right. We should probably do this as two separate votes. So two we should probably uh The friendly amendment to the Cass motion that they should really be 13.5A first for 1.492 million dollars to property Classic Corporation for Central Office, Dr. Luke MOK Leo, Yankee Ridge, and Thomas Paine. So Who made the motion? Who made

139the second? I I did. So I I got to request a friendly amendment to the motion to delimit it to the 13.5A. So moved. So you accept the friendly amendment? Yes. Okay, so now we have 13.5A on the on the floor. If the board wishes to go forward to vote we can or if the board wishes to definitely defer until we can have a talk with with counsel. That's the board's uh I I don't think it's necessary. I have one question. Is this company a local company? I don't think either of them are. I don't think either of them Pardon? Which ones? The Property Classic >> Property Classic is yes. Oh, Property Classic is. Okay. They were one of the companies that when ABM left helped bail us out many years ago. Um During the

140last bidding process they did not get any of the Um bids because they weren't low bid at the time. But um they are They're they are local, yes. Okay. They do the City of Champaign building, um uh the Champaign Park District. So, they do some larger things as well. I I talked to all the companies that we've uh um given or possibly going to give uh um the contracts to and they're all um able and willing to get staffed up and they're ready to go. And are Property Class Incorporated is located in Champaign? Uh Champaign or Urbana, yeah. Um They are Urbana. They're Urbana. Yes. Good. Uh thanks. Thanks for the clarification. Okay. Uh motions on the floor. Any further questions, comments? Motions. All right. Now, I guess it's the time to vote. Uh roll

141call, please. Member Cheryl. Yes. Member Hickson. Yes. Member Maraboo. Yes. Member Jones. Yes. Member Langendorf, yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palowsky. Uh yes. And now for 13.5 B, this is for HES Facilities Management, a 3-year contract for $2.7 million uh covering cleaning uh services for Urbana High School, Middle School, Urbana 6th Grade Center, and for this building, Tiger Academy, and uh Urbana Adult Ed. Is there a motion for the floor to accept that uh winning bid? So moved. Second. Seconded. Any further questions, comments, discussion? Uh roll call, please. Member Hickson. A if you are. No. Member Marboo? Yes. Member Jones? Yes. Member Langendorf, yes. Vice President Baxley? Yes. President Palowsky? Yes. Member Sheryl? Yes. Um, motion passes. Uh, 13.5c is uh, for campus general cleaning. Uh, this is for uh, Dr. Prestin Williams Urbana

142early education and uh, laundry service and warehouse cleaning. Uh, this three-year contract total of $525,600. Is there a motion for the floor? So moved. They are local as well, sorry. Yep, they're um, either Urbana or um, I know that the owner just moved to Mahomet, but I don't think the business is over. I think the business is still here in Urbana. Is there a second? Second. Who has seconded any any further questions, comments, discussion? Um, roll call, please. Member Marboo? Yes. Member Jones? Yes. Member Langendorf? Yes. Member Vice President Baxley? >> Yes. President Palowsky? >> Yes. Member Sheryl? Yes. Member Hickson? Yes. Uh, motion passes. Uh, 13.6 is uh, similar. This is for contracted garbage and recycling. Um, this was bid out and we have uh, two uh, separate winning bids to vote on. Uh,

143is there any additional context you want to give Randy? Yeah, April 13th we had the bid opening. We had a total of three responsive bidders, submitted proposals. Uh, Republic Services, Tysons, and GFL. Uh, after reviewing the bids, lowest responsive responsible bidder ours follows GFL for 96 gallon totes, two yard uh, dumpsters, four yard dumpsters, and eight yard dumpsters. Um, the buildings they will um receive contracts for will be uh Dr. Martin Luther King, Leal, Thomas Paine, Six Grade Center, Yankee Ridge. >> [clears throat] >> Um Urbana Middle School, Dr. Preston Williams, um Urbana Early Childhood, Adult Education Tiger Academy, and for the high school the 96-gallon totes only. And then Tysons will be awarded um facilities and uh the facilities roll off in the district as needed roll off services. Um and the uh Urbana

144High School trash compactor. Uh based on our evaluation all bidders were deemed responsible. Um facilities feels comfortable with the uh recommended vendors and their pricing. Uh we ask for approval. All right. All right. Thank you. Uh so let's go start with with uh 13.6A for GFL Environment. This is for all elementary buildings, secondary buildings, Tiger Academy, and Urbana Adult Ed. Again, pricing is dependent on how much we use it. Um is there a motion for the floor? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any further questions, comments, discussion? Yeah, I have a question regarding price will vary per needs. What is the range or I mean what is the cost or a give any dollar amount? Um the dollar amounts vary depending on how much they get used. So GFL um uh I can just go

145through them real quick. Martin Luther King, um they uh the 96 uh gallon um totes that we use for re- like recycling, um they had a price of $9 for the three. Um like the 2-yard uh dumpster would be $16 and the 8-yard uh dumpsters $31 uh for a total of $56 every time they come to the our or go to uh Yeah, we have that on the back. Is that where you're reading now? >> Yes. So, does Is this like comparable to what we've paid before? Is it more? >> Cheaper. It's Okay, thank you. >> we went out to bid Yep, it's uh it's less than it was last year. Okay, thank you. All right, any any further questions, comments? A roll call vote is in order. Member Jones. Yes. Member Langendorf, yes. Vice

146President Baxley. Yes. President Palowsky. Yes. Member Sherrill. Yes. Member Hickson. Yes. Member Marabu. Yes. Motion passes. Uh last up is um 13.6B uh awarded to Tysons. Uh this is for facilities and district as needed roll-off dumpster services and the Urbana High School trash compactor. Again, uh price is dependent on how much we use these services. Uh is there a motion for the floor? So moved. Second. Any further questions, comments? Uh roll call, please. Member Langendorf, yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palowsky. Yes. Member Sherrill. Yes. Member Hickson. Yes. Mar- Member Marabu. Yes. >> Member Jones. Yes. Uh motion passes. It is now time for a superintendent's report. Jennifer, can I say one more thing? Yeah. Uh about the cleaning contract, when we by taking it out for bid this year, we were able to uh

147save a significant amount of money over the 3 years. Um so getting a company we may not be happy with, you don't know yet, >> [snorts] >> um we did save us quite a bit of money. Thank you. Thank you for that context, Randy. Hm. Yay. So, um we have a little photo op here from >> [laughter] >> Altrusa, which um member Langendorf is um part of, and um to the left there is Polly Hill, a retiree from Champaign Unit 4, who's also part of Altrusa. They donated um $1,000 to the 6th Grade Center library to expand the collection of multilingual books. So, thank you to Altrusa. They're great supporters of Urbana. So, we appreciate you. And um that is Principal Carr and um Mixon the librarian at the 6th Grade Center accepting the check

148on behalf of the the building. So, thanks again. Um this donation will help ensure our students see themselves, their languages, and their cultures reflected in what they read. Broadway on Vine. So, here's a couple of great pictures of those sets that Sherry was talking about earlier. Um so, um Broadway on Vine, it was fantastic. This was um I mean, all their productions and performances are great, but I really enjoyed this. There was singing and humor, and um the sets were amazing, the costumes were great. It was just a really, really well done. You would not think or know looking at this picture that these were middle schoolers. Um so, it it the uh performance that I went to was full and packed, and I drove by on Saturday, and it looked like it was another

149full packed um house there. So, um the elementary students, I think got to go today. Isn't that right, Angie? Today, yep. Today and tomorrow. So, they get to do this for the elementary students, which is great because then the elementary students can see themselves doing this when they're 6th graders and at the middle school. So, um congratulations to the um the all all the students involved and all the staff who after months and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks of practices, um, really put together something amazing. So, so kudos to them. Mariachi Tigres performed this past Saturday at the Bison hockey game, and I don't know if you noticed in the picture all the fundraising that they did that these are their new uniforms. So, yay! This is, um, huge because this is a

150has been a long time coming. So, shout out to Tamara Gringold and the other, um, you know, uh, adult performers and staff who sponsor, uh, the Mariachi. Uh, the look at all the smiles on the students. They have been waiting so long to get these amazing uniforms. So, the orange scarves with the tiger, they just they just look really really sharp. So, um, congrats to the group, and, um, this weekend they are attending the ILMEA Mariachi Festival in Aurora, where they will look great in their uniforms again. Oh, that's right. Lindsay isn't proud mom. Their outfits are very detailed. It's really cute. You'll have to see them. >> I don't know. I haven't seen them in person yet, just pictures, but wow. >> It It's really nice. The only thing is they can't bend over.

151>> [laughter] >> I bet they That's so funny. They can't grow either. Actually, the person that made them, actually, they are custom, like they can be resized, and, um, they can fix them as they grow. So, like alterations are included. Um, if like a button or something comes off, everything is still going to be covered. So, you would just pay shipping to ship it back out and have it fixed. The only thing is is you have to dry clean them. Oh, yeah. Well, it's nice that they can grow with the them as they grow, so they can stay for years and years. >> Yeah, it's they're really really nice, though. >> Yeah. Yay, nice. Hey, Angie, I forgot. Did you want to say anything about Broadway and by I don't know if you knew her

152daughter is right there with her hands on her hip in that picture. >> [laughter] >> Did you want to say anything? No, she wouldn't um let me like try to help her or anything, so I had no idea what to expect and um and it was it was really cute. So, it was um a proud mom moment for my you know former choir fine arts person, so she did a great job. Yeah, yeah, she did. Thanks. Yeah, she loved it, but she definitely kind of was a little Angie Franklin, so Yeah. Yeah, she's a little bossy out there. Little sass, yeah. Lots of sass and humor. She even looked like you, so. I know, yeah. Okay. Um thank you guys for sharing. So, distinguished alumni visit, so um thank you to board members who were

153able to join the CUSD Foundation. I saw member Hickson, member um Langendorf, and I I think President Palowsky was there as well. Did I Did anybody else go that I didn't see maybe? Um so, we had the opportunity to celebrate the founder and executive chef of Evelyn's Kitchen, Ayala Donchin, who uh she is in New York right now and for the last I don't know how many years it's been since she graduated, maybe 30. Um she graduated in the '90s, I know that. Um worked with culinary uh baking and pastry, social media marketing, and cooperative education students. So, she she's uh pictured in that picture below talking to um our culinary students at the high school about her experiences. And then Broadway actor Jonathan Butler Duplicis uh spent time with the theater students. He actually

154plays Aaron Burr in in the current uh Aaron Burr um in Hamilton in Chicago. And so, New York. Oh, that's right. At the New York one. So, even though he was not he is not an Urbana grad, he still came over and spent time. Angie helped coordinate that. Um he came over uh to spend some time with our theater and um music theater students. Uh so, we appreciate both of them making time for our young people. It was a great Some of the videos of them reenacting some of the scenes from Hamilton with him was really cool. >> the video of them singing. It was really good. >> Yeah, it was really cool. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, he did end up rendition at the at the event. Yes. Yes, they did. Yeah. Um tomorrow

155night is our first neighborhood night. So, I don't know if board members realize this, but this is part of the um outcome of the strategic plan um from the uh family um engagement and community advocacy area that um uh Deonna Webster and Janice Nance lead. So, um one of the stakeholders that are part of that group um said that, you know, we're always asking families to come into the schools for events, but why don't we go to their communities and bring the action and the resources and all the things to them? So, we're doing that and we were able to get that uh done this year. So, we're really excited about that. So, the first neighborhood night will be tomorrow night. Um we're hosting it in the um Sunny Crest parking lot um right there

156where the pavement is from 5 on Philo Road from 5:30 to 7:30. Um we chose that area specifically because it will um it it is a space where we can have um people from Yankee Ridge who live in that neighborhood, Thomas Paine, Dr. Williams, Sixth Grade Center. So, it may not be a park, but it is an area um where a lot of our families um uh visit and uh go through every day. So, we thought it would be a great place for them to come. They can uh learn more about programs, uh participate in hands-on learning activities. We'll have a um light meal provided. There'll be resources from many of our um community partners, including the park district and the Bina Free Library. So, come out and support the first neighborhood night and um

157many more to come. Kindergarten open houses have all been scheduled. Um I'm going to attend as many of them as I can. Um I think there might be one that I can't go to because of negotiations, but I might get somebody to stand in for me, but um I'm going to be doing some really fun things with the uh kindergarten families, something new, also from our strategic plan to really help promote the portrait of a graduate. So, um come out to these, bring your family, and you don't want to miss the um fun surprises that are in store for you if you show up to kindergarten open house this year. Summer programs, we've been working really hard to get the um all of this information together so we can get it to families well before

158the end of the school year. So, we'll be sharing this on social media. I know Katherine's been working with um the district leaders that are supporting all of these programs to get this out to families as much and as often as we can. So, um this is just the list um all the dates and times. Um the times will come soon, but we wanted people to at least have the date so they could plan ahead. I know families sometimes have to piecemeal camps and sign up for other things to make sure they have child care throughout the summer. So, at least this gives um some of our families an idea of things that they can do free in the district and um where they might need to supplement other things. So, we'll be sharing these

159um out um and talking about them much more in the weeks to come. Uh registration opens on May 1st, so right around the corner. Um online registration is return for our returning students opens on May 1st. Um I am really happy to share that we are bringing back centralized registration to Urbana Middle School. So, um since COVID, we've not had centralized registration. Um we opened up online registration because we kind of had to, and there were a lot of families who requested online registration, but however, um in the last couple of years, the um online participation has dropped more, and um we are just missing out on the opportunities that we had to be kind of a one-stop shop where families could come in. Um we get that first in-person contact with them. We can

160make that first impression in person. Um we've seen some declines in our physicals and immunizations, and so just all kinds of reasons why we really want to go back to an in-person um registration opportunity. Families who want to register online, please do so. We know many people who have no changes, don't need support, they don't need tech help, are going to be able to do that. But unfortunately, a large percentage of our parents have been waiting until the very last minute to register, which um isn't easy for us when we're trying to plan for uh teachers to be in certain places, and um we need to do our planning, and when we have families wait until the week before school starts or the day of first day of school to come in and register, it

161really um um does present a problem, but we want them to get all the information. So, um July 30th and 31st, we will have everyone back at the middle school like we used to. So, first student will be there, MTD, uh Quest. There'll be information uh for families about signing up for after school care. Um, the school-based health center will be open both days um, with appointments cleared just for our families and the um, Carl mobile health clinic will be out there on the 31st. So, we can really really get those physicals and immunizations um, done. Um, so our students can be compliant for the first day of school. So, um, mark those dates if you're not an online registration person. And just a reminder to our parents that are listening. It's really really important

162that you register by June 30th July 31st um, because you are in jeopardy of not having MTD bussing not MTD for student bussing by the first day of school if you uh, wait much longer than that to register. Upcoming events. So, this Friday is our last staff development day for the year. So, no school for our EC and elementary students and early dismissal for our secondary campuses. And as Sherry already said, we are going to be recognizing Paul and many others um, at the um, annual mayor recognition program. I believe it's at 5:00 at UHS. So, 5:00 to 7:00. Um, we do have a guest speaker coming from the University of Illinois, Dr. Rob Wiet who um, works in the Chancellor's pre-K uh, 12 initiative program to be our key speaker and there will be

163lots of students recognized for all their service um, and of course some other surprise um, people being recognized as well for their impact on our community our school community. Uh, the UHS spring musical um, April 30th to May 2nd. Does anybody know what it is? I don't know what it is. The boy who didn't like musicals. Okay. I I know that. Thank you. The boy who didn't like musicals is the topic. So, that sounds interesting. We're going to have to all go see that. And then May 5th, UHS Spring Art and Jazz Show at 6:00. I think that is it. All right, thank you. There's a set of FOIAs that are published in in our in our agenda that were all processed in accordance with FOIA laws. There is a call for an executive session

164on Monday at 6:00 p.m. at Central Office for student discipline. The four of you who have have committed to that, please attend. But, I guess there's a chance that it that it might not happen. So, so please Yeah, it is going to happen at 6:00. >> Okay, so so disregard that. Uh And they're working on the possibility of a second one the same night. Okay. Uh Okay. >> So, more information about that hopefully tomorrow. Okay. Uh so, yeah. So, the four of you have committed, please attend because we don't have a quorum without you. Um and one other I forgot. Oh, you've all been contacted for your robes and participation for graduation. I think three of you have yet to respond. So, so please do that when you get the chance. Um I think that's

165everything. Uh The chair would entertain a motion to adjourn for the evening. Second. >> Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. All right. All right, thanks everybody. See you in two weeks. Yeah. Tamara, what's Tamara?