001I asked Luke, too. >> No, he said everybody. >> Yeah, I said Luke, too. >> Jennifer or Lind? >> You might have said Luke first, actually. Anyway, it's it's after 6 o'clock, so I'd like to begin this study session of Urbana School District 116 uh of our secretary prom uh standin. Uh read uh the roll call, please. [Music] >> Member Cheryl >> here. >> Member Hixon >> here. Member Marvu here. >> Member Baxley >> here. >> Member Palowski >> here. Uh thank you. We have a quorum. Uh are there any additions, corrections, or modifications to tonight's agenda? U and uh there is no call for an executive session following tonight's meeting. So we'll move right into citizen statements. Is anybody here present wishing to make a statement before the board? Please fill out a golden
002rod sheet in the back of the room and hand it to our recording secretary, Laura Johnson. We haven't received any yet. So calling once, calling twice. No cent statement this evening. The chair would then entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda as published. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Uh there are no com combinations of recognition tonight. So we'll kick off uh our meeting with the student ambassador report. >> Hi. Here's our report for September 16th. Um, so sport updates, soccer beat Uni High and they also beat Mohamd. They beat Monaceel also last night five to zero. So they've had a very good season so far. Hope to continue it. Um, volleyball, they JV and varsity both beat Uni High and then JV beat Normal
003West. Um, football, last Friday night they had a game against um, Normal Community and this Friday they'll have the homecoming game against Central. Um cross country they placed fourth um as a team at the Charleston invite. Swimming has placed first in backstroke and second at the medley relay in Centennial. And they've gotten many personal PRs um at that meet. And tennis, they won against STM. So very good sport updates so far. And then for spirit week, that's this week. Uh Monday was generation day. The seniors were um senior citizens and the juniors were adults. And I know the freshman were babies, so a lot of people dressed up. It was really fun. Um, today was twin day. And there was a home volleyball game today and a home swim meet. And then Wednesday is your
004favorite season day. Um, there'll be float building. And then Thursday is sports day and there will also be float building then. Um, and then Friday is class color day and there's the pep rally and then there will be the homecoming parade and the homecoming football game. And then Saturday of course is homecoming. So very exciting week. And then our senior sunrise that happened um two Fridays ago now. The senior class held their senior sunrise on the football field and the civic engagement club organized it and they earned $150. Um in the middle there is a picture of everyone who showed up. So as you can see a very good turnout. Lots of people came. Um so it's really fun. And the NHS induction happened last Wednesday. um they were inducted into the National Honor Society
005and on the right is a picture of all the new inductees. And then some responses to our student survey that we sent out. Um there's a question there that says, "List UHS does right." And we actually got multiple responses um saying that students feel the phone policy is a um is a needed change and they like it. So that was pretty exciting to hear. Um, we had a meeting with Miss Emily Lane, the manager of Quest Foods. Um, so we told her about some concerns we have received with the student survey, um, about students not necessarily loving the food, um, the portions not always being the biggest, sanitary concerns, and some concerns about crosscontamination. And she is going to look into many of the concerns, and I believe she has already talked to her staff
006about multiple. Um, and then we also shared some student preferences for foods, what students like to see. And she shared with us that they have passed two inspections since um, the one last February where they received a yellow card. And I know personally as a student, I was not aware of that. And I know many um, students are more hesitant to eat the food um, ever since hearing about the yellow card. So I actually went to the UHS newspaper and I believe they'll be writing a article on it now um, to encourage students that it's safe and it's good to eat. Um, and I believe they'll also be interviewing u Miss Lane with that. And then looking forward, homecoming is Saturday and so the homecoming football game will be Friday night. Um, next meeting we'll
007have an in-depth look at responses from the student concern survey. And we also have scheduled a meeting with Waller to discuss a boys volleyball team um because we've gotten lots of responses from the survey asking for one. So, thank you guys. Thank you. Uh it is now time for board reports. Does any board member wish to make a report this evening? Once going twice. All right, then we'll uh go right into administrative reports. Uh first up is Anna from Steve presenting a report on uh refinancing tax refunding school bonds. I tried it. I didn't push hard enough. All right. Well, thank you. It's also my homecoming in my high school and we're having a reunion um this weekend. So, I'll be joining in homecoming madness myself, which is a little frightening actually. Anyway, gonna go
008embrace that. So, um I'm here tonight just to share some um some positive news. Um, the district does have some bonds that you sold in 2017 which were actually the the bonds for the Yankee Ridge project um that are eligible to be refinanced and they do currently save money. Um, you only have seven years left on these bonds. So, it's not an excessively long period of time to capture savings, but it does it it does generate savings. And we are recommending at this time you do have a resolution before you tonight that will authorize the possible refunding of these bonds. We will only do so if it saves money. Um and it it is very much on the bubble as far as um generating savings or not. We've been watching this for a little while.
009Interest rates have actually come down about 4/10en of a percent in the last month and that is what has pushed us sort of over the edge into positive savings zone. So these bonds that you see on the left hand side are the ones that we're talking about refinancing and the total amount outstanding is about $9 million on those. Actually I think the amount we're re refinancing is only about 7.8 million. So, these are all the district's remaining outstanding bonds. None of the rest of these are eligible to be refinanced right now. So, we're only talking about the 2017A bonds. Um, this is just the district's uh statutory borrowing capacity, which has nothing to do with refinancing, so we don't have to focus on that today. Um, refinancing um is just one board action to authorize
010because you're even you're selling new bonds, you're just refinancing bonds that you've previously sold. So, it doesn't require a public hearing. It doesn't require a public notice. All the things that we have done many times when you've sold bonds don't apply if you're refinancing. Refinancing is pretty straightforward. So, the action you would take tonight would be the only action you would have to take. This is the summary of the proposed refinancing. It's about $7.5 million of new bonds and the savings are highlighted down at the bottom. So about $26,000 based on current interest rates. That's um net of the cost. So that's actual um savings to the district after the fact. The savings will just come off your property tax levy because these are these are bonds that you levy for. They're not sales tax
011backed bonds. So the savings just go directly to the taxpayers by a slight reduction in your levy every year. It's very small on on on your tax base. It's it's not not much that people are going to going to feel because it's $26,000 over seven years. So it uh does not make a huge impact on your tax base, but it is still $200,000 of property tax revenue. Um this graph shows you the interest rate sensitivity. Um and that green bar is where we are currently. So if interest rates go up by a quarter of a percent, we drop below the savings threshold where we would recommend that you move forward. So that's how interest rate sensitive it is. So we we can authorize it tonight and that authorization is good for months. So, we we
012can we can just sit back and watch, see what happens. Um, we expect the Fed to lower rates tomorrow. We expect there's a likelihood they may do so again um later this year. All of those things um present some positive opportunity that hopefully means the refinancing will will make sense, but it is very interest. Um this is the tax impact after the proposed refinancing. So if you look at the blue highlighted columns, the column that says tax rate, which starts with 331, then 332 uh two times, and then look at the same thing in the green column all the way over the far right of the green section. That's the tax rate after we do the refinancing. So the 3332 which is the proposed tax rate for next year would go to 329. So that's
013that's how much impact it has on your tax rate. It is it is out into that second decimal. Okay. But it does have a positive impact and you can see um I mean the district's repayment on your bonds on the levy is is relatively short. um you have 11 years left on on those bonds and then you're uh you're free to move on to additional projects. Um we do have still built in here um the rolling working cash that we have been doing with you every three years. So you that's um shown on the far right hand side there that every three years we would continue to do that to give you money for technology and other capital projects. Are there any questions so far? >> Board members, any questions? >> No, this this is
014all straightforward. We've done this in the past. >> Yes, you have. Um I included the sales tax uh bond coverage in here just in case somebody was curious. In general, it has nothing to do with the proposed refinancing. Um this is the process we would use. We will bid the these bonds out to banks um just to keep the cost down as minimal as possible. So beauty bank's been very supportive in the past. Perhaps they will give us another good bid, but that's the process we would use for the refinancing. And this is an interest rate graph just to show you that we are on a little downward trend right now, which is why this makes sense. And again, we will only move forward if it saves money. So that I will answer any questions,
015but probably you don't have it. >> Yeah. One last call for questions. Okay. Again, this is this is on our agenda uh for a vote this evening. >> All right. Uh thank you, Ann. Have a safe drive home. >> Thank you for your time. >> Our second administrative report this evening is on summer facilities and health life safety projects. Um Randy. >> Yep. Good evening. Um I'll start off with the uh safety survey. um met with uh IGW architecture quite a few times um starting last year about this time um to try to put this list together. Um just recently came up with a final um list to submit to um I guess the the state is whoever else this has to go to. Um and you guys have a copy of the list that
016uh we have um what are our urgent items which is we have one year to complete. Um many of the items on here have already been done. Um we kind of completed them as we came across them. Um some of the other bigger items um like the door on this building um and the um Martin Luther King uh BFDs and DOAs the heating cooling system basically um we will uh attack this summer um this coming next summer sorry um and get this whole list will be done by then. So, um, a lot of the smaller stuff on here, there's, uh, um, that have a big number like, uh, uh, the fire doors, um, like in corridors and for the, um, high school library, we we're pretty sure those are fireproof, but, the, uh, label has
017been removed or, um, painted over, and, uh, so we just have to do a little research, see if we can find them. Um, and if we can't, it's uh, actually cheaper to replace the door than to have it uh tested for um whether or not it's fire rated for the right uh uh class label they have to have. So, might be replacing quite a few doors, but um yeah, you guys have any questions about anything on that list? Any questions for Go ahead, Jennifer. Um that was a two inch rain in 20 minutes. So it just came up so fast and came into the thing. We have replaced repaired what we think um may have been the issue up there. But yeah. Yeah. Well, we hope um when we get the next two or three
018inch rain in in an hour or something. But yeah, we think it's uh been patched. That was Well, um, yeah, we I think it's been taken care of. Yeah, we think it was just a like a roof latch and there's like a a lip. Um, Chef's the resident roofer, she knows. But the the lip comes up so high and the there's so much water that filled up the gutters and the the roof drains weren't able to take it fast enough, so it just came up to that and kind of trickled in there. So, um, we think we've got that repaired and we will continue to monitor that. Okay. Then, uh, no other questions. Okay. Um, on to the um summer project summary. Um, it was a busy summer and productive summer for us. Um, our
019team successfully packed and re relocated the sixth grade materials from Nurbana Middle School to the new sixth grade center. Um, in addition, we moved the entire middle school offices, classrooms, storage rooms, everything. Every space got touched. Um, and pretty much every piece of furniture or book in that building got moved except for like the library. Um uh we were still able to complete all the uh most of the um projects that I told you we would do back in May. Um there are a few smaller ones that uh were also added on towards the end. Um but I I shared that list with you guys so you can see what uh was completed and what was not. Um, the only big thing, not really big thing, but uh I did want to uh work on
020our cold storage building in our shop and uh we just couldn't decide which way we wanted to go with that. If we just wanted to um put like lipstick on the building or actually start over and so I just it's good enough for now. Um so we just kind of held off on that repair. Uh and then the first student parking lot. I was hoping to do some uh seal coating and striping and that did not happen. Um but other than that, we completed everything on this list. And then uh including Yankee Ridge, we added um for the kindergarten classrooms, we added kindergarten size sinks and counters. Um we did some uh landscaping in a few buildings. Did some uh Thomas Payne, we did some playground painting. um added some four square hopscotches, uh different
021games. Same with Dr. Preston Williams, Le uh Le, we also removed the sandbox, um and put a little landscape area up there where the sandbox was. Um we still had to work on the uh Dr. Preston Williams, the room that had the fire. We had to complete that over the summer. Um and then uh pretty much every um building hallways um got repainted, doorways got repainted um and quite a few classrooms that most of the buildings got uh repainted this summer too. Anybody have any questions about that? >> I guess with you at least nine or 10 I guess buildings in our in our in our district, right? We're a rotation for roofs, I guess. You know what? I guess you know which roof is is probably going to be next that needs to have
022uh >> middle school. >> There's still quite a bit of work to do on the middle school. Um that's in the uh um safety >> the rest of the tenure survey. Um that wasn't urgent. Um, but to do the roof, let me see if I can find that number they have for that for you. Sorry. I won't hold this up, but I can >> Yeah, the number isn't really isn't so important because it's going to change by the time we bid it out. >> The roof at the um high school was just done a couple years ago. Um and um all the other roofs have kind of been touched. we did this roof this year. >> Um, but yes, I'll I'll email you guys the >> I appreciate I mean that that's typically the big
023ticket item that kind of sneaks up on us or not sneaks up on us but just kind of can throw your budget out of whack for a year. Well, and the good thing is with the state budget, they still have the maintenance grants, the $50,000 maintenance grants this year for FY26 and FY27, which >> is how we've been doing a lot of our roof work in the last few years. So, we pay half and then the state pays out of that. We pay 50 and the state pays 50 and we're able to do a much bigger, much larger project. So, so that's how we've done a lot of the roof work, I'd say, at the middle school in the last couple years, right? Is through the maintenance grants >> applied that grant towards that >>
024and we plan to do that again since the the state has said that money will be available in the state budget for the next two years. >> That's smart. >> We have to match it. Thank you. >> Well, see, yeah, but but still it's it's free. Might as well use it if we can. So, >> absolutely. >> All right. Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you very much, Randy. >> Thank you. Uh moving on. Uh just I want to make it clear uh our secretary and secretary prom are absent this evening. So acting as our secretary prom is is Lindsay Marabu. Um so we have a set of action items uh on our consent agenda. I'll go ahead and read these, but if anybody wishes to remove one of these action items for consent agenda,
025uh please indicate to the chair. Uh first up are our meeting minutes uh from the August 19th business meeting, the September 2nd study session, and the September 11th executive session. 11.2 two or bills and checks. Ed fund bills to the tune of $1.7 million on&m fund bills for $265,000. Transportation fund bills for $71,000. Working cash bonds for $1.3 million, uh tort for $59,000, school facility occupy tax for $39,000, payroll and benefits for just over $4 million, and abandoned adult education for $89,000. There's a set of personnel items in our uh published in our packet that are need approval in 11.3 11.4 is a new activity accounts uh for the class of 2029 and family career and community leaders of America FCCLA. Uh both of these uh activity counts are at the high school. 11.5 is
026a resolution authorizing and directing the sale of disposal of property. Uh these are uh Leo and Yankee Ridge multilingual library books and uh the well read curriculum. Um does anybody wish to have one of these uh action items removed from the consent agenda? Seeing no indication of that, uh the chair would then entertain a motion to approve the entire consent agenda as read. >> I move to approve it. >> Second. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. >> Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. >> Member Baxley, >> yes. >> Member Maru, yes. Member Palowski, >> yes. Motion passes. Uh, moving on to individual action items. First up are our gifts. Urbana High School Winter Guard received $300 total to support sponsoring and entry to a competition. And donors were Sports
027World, Cam Wallace, We Love Bana, Canita Fay, and Dr. G's Brainworks Admit family. Esther Redden donated $100 to the Bena High School volleyball program. Uh Steven Higs, Steven Higgins donated $125 to the Bana High School cross country program. Jerry uh Jeff and Mary donated $1,500 to the Urbana High School boys and girls tennis program. The UHS batters club donatedund donated $1,000 to the Urbana High School baseball program to help with new uniform costs. Order of the Eastern Star Hope number 104, Dolores D. Staley donated $500 worth of school supplies and backpacks to Thomas Payne Elementary School. Uh Natalie Danner donated a 16 inch viola worth $300 to Urbana High School or another school if needed. Fiser National Bank donated $650 to the Abana High School golf program. Philip and Fran Demar uh donated Chair Smox
028to a Thomas Payne classroom valued at $100. U is there a motion to receive these gifts and send out the appropriate thank yous? So moved. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded. Any further questions, comments, discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Uh, thank you all the donors for donating so generously to our district. It's really, really impressive. 12.2 is a resolution of bond refinancing for interest cost savings. Again, uh, maybe you provide additional context more than was provided um, by >> Stifel. I I really don't think there's much more I can add than what Ann already did. I think it's an easy win for the district. So, >> is there a motion then to uh put out a bid for refinancing our 2017 bonds that originally financed the renovations at
029Yankee Ridge? >> So moved. >> Second. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. Member Maru, yes. Member Baxley, >> yes. >> Member Palaska, >> yes. Motion passes and keep your fingers crossed for an interest rate drop. Uh 12.3 is a fiscal year 26 school district and adult education budget resolution. So, this is discussed at our last meeting, the the budget resolutions that were uh presented by uh adult ed and by the district. Um, is there a motion to accept the the budgets that were presented at our last meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. >> Member Maribou, yes. Member Baxley, >>
030yes. >> Member Palowski, >> yes. Motion passes. Uh 12.4 is press plus 18. Again, this was uh covered in in presentation at our last meeting. It's uh new re new or rewritten board policies from the press plus issue 118. Um is there a motion for the floor? >> So move. >> Second. >> Move to second. And again, any questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. >> Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. >> Member Maribou, yes. Member Baxley, >> yes. Member Palaski. >> Yes. Motion passes. 12.5 is a resolution fund settlement agreement that I am excited about because this has been hanging over our heads for the entirety of my board service. We are finally uh this is a resolution uh intergovernmental agreement basically uh with the with county taxing districts to uh
031settle up uh uh repaying uh presence for uh tax monies that were held uh in abance until uh you know litigation uh potential litigation was uh was resolved. So, is there a motion uh to accept the recol reconciliation funding agreement settlement? >> So, move. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Second. >> Can I ask a question though? >> Sure. >> Um the um >> I know that Oh, what? >> Oh, no. Is this a questions discussion or this? You're you're fine. >> You're fine. Go ahead. >> Okay. Um, we know all know how it happened and now that it's been voted on, is this something you talk about or not talk about? >> You can talk you could you can talk about it. Um basically the the there was about six and
032a half million dollars that were was held in originally in TIFF fund 4 and when tiff the fund four expired the district received its portion of it uh because the it was held in oance though held held held >> tiff three was it tiff three I'm sorry it was tiff three that that closed and then and the presence that's where presence was located and then uh But uh while the you know there was a potential court case between all the taxing bodies not just the district with regards to what to do with those funds that the district kind of put them in escrow until everything was settled and resolved which was just kind of negotiated between all the taxing districts and Presence Hospital. Um, so the district uh paid that out and there was a
033complications with regards to accounting depending on on on uh different ways of accounting it. The different taxing bodies could assume a different level of financial responsibility. The difference I think the district versus one method versus the other was around $60,000 and and the all the bodies came to basically an agreement on on how how to how to divvy that up. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Um, any further questions, comments? Roll call, please. >> Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. Member Maribou, yes. Member Vaxley, >> yes. >> Member Pilowski, >> yes. Uh, and finally, uh, 12.6 is, uh, the naming uh, facilities committee. So, uh, thank you very much for the administration for doing the leg work, which I didn't have time to do during my my workday to hunt down, uh, a
034group of people to, um, sit on a committee and, uh, help us come up with an official name for uh, what we're calling now the the sixth grade center. So um received in our sorry in our packets was basically a structure for the committee and a charge for the committee. Um >> so you want to just discussion now I can >> I guess yeah I mean you can provide additional context before we we make >> before you do that. Okay. So, you have a charge um and I shared via email with board members um last Wednesday. I'm looking at the email where um I felt like we had enough people to go ahead and get together. Um I sent emails out to um several people that were either um part of the current sixth grade
035uh community or were part of the 2023 facilities committee. And um the deadline for those folks to respond to me was Monday. Um, and so, um, having heard back from everyone, I sent, um, I today I sent everyone an email saying, um, the board would be voting on this tonight and, um, moving forward, they would be communicating with Lori as the board recording secretary to help create agendas and notice the meeting. And, um, that the facilitator who um has the person who's agreed to facilitate is Immani Carr. Um the current principal at the sixth grade center has agreed to uh be the moderator facilitator of those meetings. Um and as I shared with the board uh we have kind of two groups. We have a community the community member who petitioned the board. Um we
036have a sixth grade center teacher, a sixth grade center parent and um because there are a lot of logistical issues in terms of keeping the former WY name which was um one of the major impetuses for us in terms of changing it is um there's just a lot of data concerns with confusion with data and technology issues. So we are going to have a technology person in what someone from the IT team will um participate in that committee as well to explain those um back in kind of logistical things to the the folks uh on the committee. And then um from the 2023 facilities committee, we had responses from a um WY parent, a former WY parent. um a s teacher um a sixth grade well the teacher when she was on the committee was
037there to represent um secondary but now she's at the sixth grade center and a parent uh slash community member who has uh children at very at several different um grades in our district right now who will have a future SGC student soon. Um our two board members are Lindsay and Ben who are also um parents. So I think they will have a unique perspective um to bring to the community. So um to the committee sorry um so you have a charge which basically I I have um pulled some language out from our policy about um naming um and then the areas that the committee will examine and consider. Of course we're not limited to these. if the committee um starts to meet and comes up with other things that they would like to consider. Um
038but these are the ones that have been brought forward either to the board or discussed. Um so renaming the current Urbana Sixth Grade Center um that what like Paul said what we're calling the Urbana Sixth Grade Center to the Flossy Wy Sixth Grade Center keeping the um what we're referring to as the Urbana Sixth Grade Center. Keeping that name um because it follows the district's naming conventions of what we do for several of our other schools, Urbana Early Childhood, Orbana Middle School, Orbana High School, Orbana Adult Education Center. Um all of our other secondary campuses follow that um that uh style and naming. Um and if the building um name of the Urbana Sixth Grace Center is continued then the committee would consider um naming other areas of the building to honor Flossy Wy. Um
039specifically the library has been discussed community garden and um we opened up the gymnasium at the sixth grade center this week. So, um the gymnasium is another naming opportunity. Um but there may be others that the committee um thinks about or comes up with. So the we're of course not limited to these options. Um the committee will uh be chaired by the current principal as we mentioned. It will include representatives from as I've said sixth grade center, middle school, uh wy um we do have members of this committee who are part of the um Urbana Education Association. or our union, we'll have at least um one maybe district administrator, which will probably be the IT person, and then we have our two members of the board of education. Um the committee's meetings will be publicly
040noticed um and held at the sixth grade center. Um following tonight's meeting, the um Lori will work with Miss Carr to get her availability and um hopefully they can uh through a doodle poll come up with the next few meetings and get this taken care of in the next month or two. Um several of the people have asked me how many meetings do I think it might be and you know how long and I I really can't answer that. So, I've just said um at least a minimum of two to three is what I'm thinking. Um other naming committees with the exception of Dr. Preston Williams um that one really did uh go on um much longer than expected, but um in other instances where we've done some naming um it has been able to
041be handled in a couple meetings and it may go longer than that. I can't really predict that so I don't know. So, I've been saying at least two to three, maybe more. So, so that is what you have on your charge and um I know there I've communicated with the folks who have volunteered, so they will then be waiting for next steps after tonight. >> Well, thank you for doing this. This was a load of work off of my personal plate. So, thank you. Um I guess the chair would then entertain a motion to approve the the charge and then panel the committee to ex uh to execute the charge. >> So moved. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Been seconded. Uh further questions, comments, or discussion. >> So I'm wondering would the technology
042person be on the committee as an expert witness with a vote or without a vote? Um I would say as an expert witness for sure. >> Right. I think >> because they have a lot of the knowledge that I think the people in the committee >> because you thought that was important about the data. >> It is important because the way our data is going to be represented on the school report card forever more um is is important information and the way we have that information entered into Skyward is very important too. So, it is an important part of what I think needs to be discussed in terms of considering what the name would be. >> H I don't I wonder why that would be so important. We didn't rename Yankee Ridge when we changed
043the whole >> But Yankee Ridge was already an elementary school. This building is a secondary school. So, their schedule is very different. The tests and assessments that they take are very different. But you just you just changed that with the state in the RCDTS. >> We changed it in Skyward. We changed it everything within. >> So changing the name is not that >> changing the RCDTS code is >> a very small part of this. Okay. >> In terms of what hap I mean we upload data for the national school lunch program for >> basically every grant everything that we do >> involves our the back end of all of our data. So, I don't know, John, if you want to add anything to that, you can. But >> yeah, and the scheduling, everything's completely different.
044For sixth grade center, it was a very different change from changing Yankee Ridge, which also was a huge undertaking. Uh, >> I'm not going to bore you guys, but just trust me, there's like so many things that we can talk about more at the committee. >> Yeah. Okay. So, so to answer your question, it is important Okay. And and but the voting >> um I it doesn't matter to me whether that person gets to vote or not. >> And and I want to say that we did get a description of the um committee members, but we did not get um we did not know who the moderator was that you sent us on on Wednesday. >> Yes. But we didn't get the charge or who the moderator was until 3:00 today. >> Okay. >> And
045um just because I'm busy on on Tuesday afternoons, I didn't see it until 4:00 today. >> Okay. >> But um I thought that was late. I'll be honest. Um and I have a problem with the charge. >> Okay. >> So I did very quickly write something up. I wish I had had more time to think more positively about it, but this is these are my thoughts. Okay, I have a problem with the charge. The name of the building is currently Flossy Wy School. In the charge, it states that the name of the building is Urbana Sixth Grade Center and we're changing it to Flossy Wy School. The board has not changed the name. Therefore, the name is still Flossy Wy School. To me, this committee was obviously set up to accomplish what the administration was
046hoping to accomplish by fiat. If you want to know why the WY community has foyed so much material, here is your answer. It's a lack of trust brought on by a lack of trustworthy behavior. The superintendence told us that she acted to change the name of the school with the state because the board had not acted. Well, the board did not have to act. The people in the community did not have to act. We told them that they did not have to act to keep the name the same. It was the people who wanted to change the name that had to act. No one came forward to request a name change, including the superintendent who knew what the community had been told. She sat here and listened to the president of the board tell the
047community what the pol policy is. It was basically at the meeting, not reading the policy, but just saying it off the top of his head. Don't worry, you don't have to act. The board must act if someone requests a change and then you would be able to respond and bring your case to the board at that time. Then the name was changed by the administr by the administration without so much as a by your leave to the board. I take no pleasure in saying all that. I've tried to keep the conversation cordial, but this is sort of outrageous. The superintendent sent a message to the board at the last minute at 3:00 this afternoon telling us the charge of the committee and the name of the moderator. That is hardly enough time for board members
048to digest the materials and make positive substantive ch suggestions to the charge. I think the superintendent owes the board and the community an apology for how this has all been handled. And I did figure out if there are 11 members on the board, there are four parent, this is from what you sent on Wednesday, four parent community members, 36%. Four staff members 36%. Two board members 18%. And if the moderator is a staff member would be 45% is would be staff members. I would like to see the the committee made up of more community members. This is a comm a community school and we should have community input. I would like to um I would like to see more community members, people who are not tied to the district, particularly with a salary. Um so
049this is how I feel. I feel bad saying it. >> Well, let me tell you how I feel. One, I feel very personally attacked by everything that you just read. on the advice of our attorneys, we had three public hearings officially closing WY School. So for you to say that I that all of this was done with some nefarious back I don't know what our attorney at the time Dennis Weedman advised us to have the closings. We met with our Gary Lewis from the ROE and in my view and in the view of um many people WY Elementary was closed. We went through the process to do that. That to me the building was closed and it was did not exist. Let you got a lot of time to talk. It's my time now. >>
050Yeah. >> Okay. So just let me finish. >> Okay. So all of the foyers and all of the mistrust, there was no underhanded. It was simply the building did not exist anymore in terms of being called WY Elementary School, which is why we move forward for lots of reasons. And Jennifer, I'm not going to sit here and debate every single one of them with you and Tom Schroeder and whoever else you're communicating with, but just know there are a lot of backend and a lot of other things that are are that go into these decisions that are not as cut and dry as I think people would like to think that they are. Okay? And you can believe me, you can believe John, you can believe whoever you want about that. So, um, the reason
051the Urbana Sixth Grade Center name was chosen is that is what we call all of our other schools that don't have official names. Urbana Early Childhood, Urbana Middle School, Urbana High School. There was no let me pick, let me go out and find something and make something up. We followed exactly what we have done for all of our other buildings. So, I take issue with the fact that you and Tom Schroeder and all these other people in the community continue to say that there is some um that I have some nefarious plan in all of this. We follow the same conventions for naming this building as we would any other building. The purpose of the school is it is full of 300 sixth graders. That is why it has been being called the sixth grade
052center. And the reason we did not continue with the WY name is WY Elementary School closed at the end of the third public hearing that we sat right here and had two years ago in 2023. That's it. There was no hidden agenda and no there is no I I know you guys would like to think that there is, but there isn't. That is it. That is the only reason why we move forward with a different name. Um, I know there are lots of people who have opinions about this and if you'd like to go out, um, we can drag this on forever and ever, but because of the comments that you just read and because of the lot of the the the, um, negativity that people are putting forward with this, there are a lot
053of people who don't want to be involved with this. So, I'm sure you can fill the committee with a lot of people who think like you and who think like Tom, but is that really the purpose of what we should be doing? This building is serving sixth graders. We should have parents on this committee. Of course, there should be teachers on this committee. There should be me union members on this committee. I don't doubt that there could be more community members involved if that if that's what you'd like to do. But there are a lot of people who don't want to be associated with the negativity that is is continuing to go on in our community around this. people didn't even want their names to be mentioned, including the moderator, until it was time for
054this vote to happen. That which is why her name was kept out of this discussion until tonight. So, that's all I have to say. >> Well, I do feel bad if people feel that way because certainly there I don't think I've never heard anything say anything about the moderator. Um but as a board I can remember the meeting and I I w I have to admit I wasn't on the board at that point in time but I feel that as a board member now I am a part of that board history. So I feel that we as a board misled that community. I'll be honest. And um I don't like that feeling. And I have had people who have no interest in WY or the school, you know, the name, but talking to me about
055other things about, you know, the teachers leaving the high school for the middle school, blah blah blah blah blah. And this person who actually supported the teachers leaving the high school said, "We know that has to happen." She said, "But why can't you just be honest with us? >> I was just honest with you. And the fact that you're telling me that I wasn't I have a real problem with that. You don't know. You can't tell me I wasn't being honest. And and the fact that everyone So, I'm I'm gonna stop talking right now." >> Okay. May I say something? >> This mess is on me. It really is because I I agree with with with Dr. Avery Tatum that when the board officially created did voted and closed WY school, Wley School was closing,
056name included. But board policy basically has two conditions for naming. One is is when something new is built and I consider the sixth grade center to be a new thing. I know there there's there's there there's interpretation on this and people lots of people disagree with me that that's how I'm reading it. We probably should have created this committee when we had planned to build that thing. We're doing it late. That is on me. Everybody direct your eye to me, not Dr. Eric Tatum on that. Okay. I would really like to focus on moving forward. This is a path forward and ending this once and for all. We can have disagreements on the composition of the committee. We can have disagreements on the charge. >> Let's just focus on what's how we can fix this
057instead of how we got here because >> can can we change the charge? >> Of course. >> Okay. Okay. If we can change the charge. >> Are we just changing the charge because you're disagreeing with it, though? >> I I believe that the charge is set up, >> but that's >> to >> That's one opinion. >> Yeah, you're right. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not saying you we should change the charge because >> set up in what way? >> I I don't believe we should change the charge because I disagree with it. That I'm not saying. I'm saying we should discuss the charge >> and if and if other people disagree with it then we should change the charge. That was my question. >> Yeah. No. So, uh you know I guess formally at this
058point the chair would entertain a motion to approve the charge as written and if we could accept then friendly amendments to to edit it at that point. That's one way of deal of doing this. Another another would be to entertain a motion to postpone a vote on this for for two weeks so that you know people can can sit on it uh you know for that that period of time and come up with recommendations. I I'm prepared to vote on the charge as written I think it's fine but if anybody has you know wishes to either make amendments to the to to the charge or to postpone for two weeks to have more of an opportunity to do so I'd be happy to entertain those motions. But I just I'm I'm seeking the will of
059the board here. >> At a minimum, I would like to see the charge be ch the wording of the charge be changed to include the language that Paul that the president of the board uh mentioned that the building that we are currently calling the sixth grade center rather than referring it >> that's written in the very first paragraph. the future name of the building currently called the Urbana 6 Center >> but but later on it isn't and I think it should be called repeated that way. >> Okay, you're right. >> I can change that in the first bullet then renamed the the building currently called the Urbana Sixth Grade Center >> in the for the first bullet but it is in the first line. And then and then I would say I you know ch
060when you use the term change the name change the name of to Flossy Wy or change the name it it's like this is the name and that to me is giving weight to the fact that you're asking people to change the name to something else when actually the name to me the building is still there. If I walk by the building is there >> but it was closed. >> It was closed. So >> it was closed. It is no longer Flossy Wy. It is now the Urbana Sixth Grade Center. When my kid goes to school, he goes to school at the Urbana Sixth Grade Center. That is what he knows. He doesn't know that it's Flossy Wy or it used to be. He goes to school at Bana sixth grade center. That is what he
061knows. So whether you may identify with it as our children now identify it as until we come up with a plan and we come together as adults and get this figured out correctly. But arguing about it right now about how you feel is not okay. So you do you have >> well I'm just trying to capture her intent in a possible amendment to the current charge. >> So I have renamed the building currently called the >> well I I I'm phrasing it differently. >> Okay, >> which is basically that's that's >> establishing a name. Let's say it it's it's nameless >> to try to offend the least number of people possible. >> Let's say you establish the building's name as Flossy Well Sixth Grade Center as the first bullet. >> Got it? >> Establish the
062building's name as the Bana Sixth Grade Center, etc., etc. For the second bullet, and then go and then the third bullet doesn't need to be changed. >> Yeah, I like that. >> Is that acceptable? >> That is. Do the other, this isn't an official vote, but do would the other board members object to changing the language of those bullets as I just described? >> Okay. >> And we can write rewrite this and make sure this is the charge that the committee gets for their first meeting. >> Okay. >> The rewritten version. >> All right. So, we're we're still just just chatting here. There's no motion on the floor. Um, is there anything else I guess you want to want want to cover with regards to the language in the charge? Okay. With regards to the
063the committee chair, that is pretty much established policy that whenever something is named in a building, the the principle of that building shares the committee. That's not out of bounds in terms >> No, no, no, no. I wasn't saying it was out of bounds. I was >> I'm just informing the public of that more than anything. >> Yeah. I'm just >> Yeah, I wasn't saying that was out of bounds. Um I'm wondering does does the moderator have a vote? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. >> Generally they would, but um the the I mean I respect the committee and I will give heavy weight to the committee's recommendation, but as always with committees, the board has a final say in what's done. So >> I mean we have two two of us sitting on the
064committee. They can choose whether or not to vote in that forum or not because they're going to be voting in this form on it. Um, I think what I care more about than than the actual vote is is carrying basically getting a sense of the will of the committee and the the qualitative sense of that was discussed and I'm hoping to report back along those lines from the two board members attending >> and we'll invite the um the moderator and if andor a member of the committee to come the night that they make the recommendation and share basically like we did with the facilities committee kind of share their process, share what they um considered and why they considered it and um so there would be a full presentation for the board to consider at
065once they reach a point that they feel that they have consensus to bring something forward. >> Okay. All right. So the question I have for my fellow board members is are you prepared to vote on this charge as >> amended >> as amended uh tonight? If so, I would hardly entertain a motion to that effect. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any further questions, comments, or discussion? >> Um, let's do a roll call, though. I'm not sure if it requires a recall or not, but let's do it just to be careful. >> Just to be sure. >> Member Cheryl, >> yes. >> Member Hixon, >> yes. Member Marvu, yes. Member Baxley, >> yes. Member Palowski. >> Yes. And thanks in advance to committee. This is this is uh obviously a
066stressful thing to to to take on and and you have my sincere thanks. Um moving on with our agenda. Uh that's our last action item. There is no call for future special or executive meetings. It is now time for a superintendent's report. very short because Mia covered all the I saw your report early enough. So, you covered a lot of things that I didn't have to cover. So, um if you want to know all the upcoming happenings, check out the student ambassador report again. Um a couple things that weren't covered there though is um since our last meeting, we found out that we have two National Merit semi- finalists. Um we haven't had um National Merit semi- finalists for the last two or three years. So, um, congratulations to, um, Kavi Patel and John Lee
067for, um, being named, um, from their PSAT scores. They're juniors. Um, so there's a, um, they take a test when they're juniors. Um, and they compete. I had it here. I think there were gosh, I want to say like six 20,000 high schools enter this contest um, and this preliminary. and it is a if they um if they are named future finalists then there is a significant scholarship that goes with it. So um so congratulations to both of them and we wish them good luck in the next step of the process. Um we have been sharing out since uh just Thursday Friday that um I've been working with our ASCCP program and they have agreed um to host a schools day out um for our students. Um if you remember when we approved the calendar
068committee um and there was a lot of discussion about Yam Kapor um being a religious holiday and and we decided to take that day off as a fall holiday. However, because it falls on a Thursday, there was concern about child care and working families and what were they going to do with their um kiddos since um you know that isn't a uh state or national holiday where daycarees are not closed and you know places where people um people need to uh take their kids that day. They need to just have stuff to do. So, um, the ASCCP program is going to host a, uh, out schools day out at each elementary school. Um, we've created a signup sheet. So, if you know of people who, um, need to work that day and don't have anywhere
069for their kiddos to go, they can go to their regular elementary schools. Um, we'll provide breakfast and lunch. There won't be buses running that day, however. Um, and there is a uh $25 cost, but if you cannot um pay the $25, then if you reach out to uh Chad Harper and Terry Napper, they will work with you on that. So, we're excited to do that. We we uh want to see what kind of participation we get from this because we're, you know, we're not quite um we may get a 100 students at each school, we may get 10 or 15. Um, but it'll give us a measure at least to see if this is something that families want us to do in the future or not. So, this is something new that we're doing. And
070then lastly, um, homecoming. So, this is new information since, um, I think the next slide, John, is um, new information since, um, since Mia shared all the events with homecoming. So, we've been talking a lot about capacity. Um, anytime we are playing a cross town rivalry game or um just a um when we play Centenn Centennial or Central um we tend to get a lot of folks who show up whether they go to Central Centennial um we have uh you know just other high schools who kind of come. Um it happens in Champagne 2. So they um kind of did the same thing last week when they were playing um a a in town um school. So due to capacity concerns and you know this is because um we have a certain number of seats
071on our side on the visiting side um there is it's a lot smaller than um the home side and we tend to u run out of space over there and especially when it's central or centennial. So, um, we're following, uh, kind of the, um, what unit 4 did for their last game and only allowing USD116 students and Champagne Central students to attend the game. That doesn't mean, um, adults and community members and um, folks like that cannot come or parents. Um, it just means that only students who attend those two schools will be permitted. So, we're um, asking them to bring their IDs. Um, and we're also reminding them that no bags and backpacks are allowed um, into the game. Um, we also usually have our metal detectors out there as well. Um, so we're
072going to be sharing this out via social media and um, you know, we hope that all the students get the message, but more so we really want other students who are planning to come from other high schools um, to know that they won't be admitted on Friday night. So that is it. >> Thank you. Um there's a series of foyer reports that were published in our public agenda uh that were all processed successfully. Um we have board report on here again on the agenda, but we've already had that earlier. We should probably remove that in general from our from our uh agenda template. >> Um the chair would then entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. Let me >> see that. >> Second. Move in second. All in favor say I. >> I. >>
073And thank you everybody for the um See you in two weeks. >> Two weeks. >> Hey Lindsay, tell you this. You got a little