Urbana School District 116 Board of Education 06 03 25

001All right, it's uh good evening everyone at 6:01. I'd like to begin this uh study session of our band school district 116. A roll call, please. Uh, member Hixon here. Member Amarabu here. Member Jones here. Member Langorf here. Member Baxley here. President Palowski here. Um, there are some modifications to tonight's agenda. Uh, study topic uh 8.2 is being postponed until June 17th. As is uh in the study topic 8.3, we're going to be moving discussion of the sixth grade center also to June 17th. Are there any other modifications or corrections for tonight's agenda? Okay, hearing none. Um it is now time for citizen statements. If anybody wishes to make a statement before a formal statement before the board, uh please fill out a sheet in the back of the room and hand it to a

002recording secretary Lori Johnson. Uh going once, going twice. Uh no assistant statements uh this evening. 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 modified. So moved. Second. We are also moving our track recognition because they are still in practice. So at some point they're going to arrive probably around 6:45 for their accommodation and rec recognition. doesn't require a modification of the agenda. We'll just do that when they show up. Yes. Okay. So, it it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda as as modified. Um any comments or questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? We have an agenda. Uh we'll we'll do the middle school track record when they're when they're here. So, we'll just go right

003into our first study topic of the evening, which is the farm to school end of year presentation. there. Leave it there. Okay. Hi, I'm Jenny Flowers, the farm to school coordinator here at the district. Um, I just finished up my second school year. Um, I've put together a presentation to kind of let you know uh what happened over the school year. Um, the farm to school sign that you see, we had those made out of aluminum composite. And so now each school has that sign two or more or two or less in their school gardens. um facilities and grounds put those up for us. I'm very nervous. Um if you speak French, you will notice that the last rung in that basket says welcome at our garden. So we got stickers and changed that. So

004now they are all correct. Uh okay, cool. Um yeah, facilities and grounds is wonderful. They mounted some on on stakes and put them in the gardens. And here is a list of our garden coordinators. Um it's more than previous years. Uh we have um Tory Harvey and Lisa Styverson um at King and Jody Miller and Cara Mariti at Le. They're sharing the position. Uh we have a new garden coordinator at Dr. Preston Williams. That's Tim Tuy. Um he and Mitsy at UCS are garden coordinators at schools they don't work at. So we love that. they were willing to take on a school that that wasn't the one they were at. Um, I want to start out by talking about um some fabulous collaborators that we've had this past school year. Um, some of you might

005know or have heard of Bakti Verma. She is a grad student at the U of I and she worked very closely um with Katie Roland last year or almost two years ago now on um researching RFPs for schools in other states for their food service provider because when the law here got changed that we didn't have to take the lowest bidder, we were able to incorporate other things into our RFP. And so she did a lot of research and helped us with that. And then this year, uh, she wanted to expand her research a little bit and, um, she worked with us on the wellness committee that Maryanne is in charge of. And uh she started this process last year, but she finished it around or finished part of it around Christmas time and then

006early spring um where she pulled Katie Roland kind of resurrected our wellness committee last year and we wanted to keep that going forward. So, um, she created a a document that could pull a lot of key players at each of the schools and, um, kind of find out where each school was at with regard to their wellness policy and implementation things like, you know, is unflavored drinking water available throughout the school day? Is physical activity being used as or the lack of physical activity being used as punishment like away, recess, that kind of thing. Um, she created a report for us and I won't get deep into that. Um, that's something that, uh, Maryanne will probably talk at some point to the principles about. Um, and then we have Dr. Carmen Blueb from the U

007ofi. She takes on a summer project with her undergrads where um, they brought two raised beds into three of our schools last year. They provided the lumber, the soil, and then the plants. And they did an experiment where they planted zucchini in both beds and one received a vermma compost treatment and the other didn't. And then as part of that, they have a service component. And um so not only did her undergrads do that experiment, the service compon component was that they maintained the the surrounding garden. So all the garden coordinators whose job it is to maintain the gardens had some guaranteed help. Well, the three schools that participated had some guaranteed help for weeding and watering. So, that was really useful and it was a success. So, we're working again with her this summer.

008Um, UHS has joined. It's Le Yankee Ridge and Nava High School and they're going to do okra this year. Uh, zucchini was great, but by the time the students got back, the zucchini were this big. So, okra sets fruit later in the in the year. So, um, that's going to be really good because I didn't discover okra as a food until I was in my 20s. And here we're going to have elementary kids that are going to get to experience that early on. Um, so help in the summer. And her undergrads also um kind of come up with some curriculum things that if teachers want to do things with their students with her undergrads, that kind of thing is available. she doesn't want to push it and you know we don't ask anybody to absolutely

009have to participate but it's something she's developing and then that brings me to Emily who is wonderful um as far as farm to school is concerned she's been a huge help with getting local food into the school lunches um and she does a harvest of the month got a little wonky there in early spring with the changeover with them but she's a real joy to work with and we help find local farms that have product and then she figures out how to incorporate it into a recipe and we're able to put local food most of the year. We were able to put local food in school lunches at least twice, sometimes more. Um during the winter it's very hard to find local food. So, uh, there is a a distributor out of Chicago that would

010make deliveries here, um, called the Common Market, and she was able to purchase local beef and local beef patties and local yogurt and some tofu and some other things from them, which allowed her to put burgers and um, like they have a yogurt parfait. I will scoot ahead so you can see those pictures. These kids were too cute eating their local burgers. Um, and compliments from all of them. They were like, "Oh, this is better than usual." Which is really nice to hear. Um, and then at the middle school and the high school, she's done local yogurt. We're hoping to expand that. Um, so there's a process we were able to get, it's called LFS money, local food for schools, and that's grant money that we can buy local food with. and that program um

011will go through January 2026 and then another uh grant cycle was going to come into play but so far that has been cancelled. So our ability to buy a large amount of local food might disappear after that unless that particular federal grant is reinstated. But um Quest did a great job with the local yogurt and the parfait bar. It was just a big hit. I would go over and just watch kids take big scoops of strawberries and put them on their yogurt. It's like great. The more fruit the better. I planted eight things right here. Okay. I learned that you could put video in Canva and I didn't know that once that it would autoplay the second the slide comes on. And this is my final project. I planted eight leaves right here. And then

012for right here, I planted two layers of onions. Okay, just to explain a little bit about this, I've got about seven um videos, all 30 seconds or less, and I'm going to play them for you. But this class is um it says there it's uh animal and plant sciences class. They um Miss Jack is the teacher of that class. She's also the garden coordinator. And for their final, they had to plan a garden bed, plant, um and then maintain them. And so, uh my video taking abilities get progressively better as you will see. This first one is very hard to hear, but um John, if you can play. So, I've got Jaylen here on the left in the middle is Kirsten. And then on the right is Aron and Marley. And if you can play

013their videos, I planted eight piece right here. And then for right here, I planted two layers of onions. And then these are flowers are called nersiums. They haven't really grown yet. There's supposed to be corn right here. Not sure what happened. And uh I'm kind of blanking on what I put right here, so forgive me for that. I put broccoli right here. This and then I put radishes right here. And um I like this class because it's very calm. You know, you get to just plant stuff. So you don't really have to stress about what you're doing. And he was really shy. um outside of class, we're planting um my own strawberry plants. Um and so with those techniques, um strawberries are growing really well so far. And yeah, and for our final project, we

014planted this garden. In our garden we have carrots, dalas, um some onions and some broccoli, arugula, zenyas, salt basil, and some scotch. And you couldn't see, but Kirsten in the middle said that she um the strategies she learned for growing strawberries in school um helped her plant her strawberries at home. Her strawberries at home are are thriving. And then let's see, we're in class. It just seems like a lot of work do we learn about animals and we learn about plants. Out here is a small part of what we do. This is the gardening area and it cons right now it's consisting of multiple finals and everything. In the classroom what we do is we learn about plants. We learn about the different type of plants like monocots and die cuts. We learn how to

015identify and basically honestly a lot of this is outdoor stuff. semester was mostly about animals, but our second semester focused on plants. Um um I personally really love like the uh community and uh like outdoorsiness of this this class. like you feel like you especially with like how small our class is, but um uh you know it's you feel more connected as a class because we're all working together and learning everything. And like Robert said, we went on a lot of field trips. Okay, one more on this page, but I recommend it. Yes, in any class there's going to be a lot of work, but the lot of work that I'm talking about is hands-on work. Half the time we're doing hands-on stuff. You're going to learn more doing hands-on than you are not taking.

016When you're not taking, you're copying down what a teacher is putting on the board for you. That is nothing you're going to learn experience or skills from out here growing our own little garden right here. In the entire garden in general, we've learned how to grow plants. We've learned when and why and how to take care of them. We've learned in general a lot of outdoor stuff that we wouldn't have known if we never joined the spots. So that was Robert and Kirsten. Um they were my high school video people. Um, hi Rose. My name is Rose. I like gardening club because it's very it's like a very big stress reliever for me and it helps me a lot to calm down. And I used to do a lot of gardening when I was little

017and I still like it till this day. It's like a therapy for me because I get to play the dirt, get dirty, and it's like a carefree activity for me. Um, when I went over there was a very small garden club because most of them going to the eighth grade dance that night, but she was really really sweet and helpful. And then Yankee Ridge um they are doing all of the things um because they are very close to Solradia Farm. So I took this picture. This was their they do a Tuesday after school garden club and then they do uh Mondays and Wednesdays towards the end of spring they were doing uh lunchtime 11:30 to 12 gardening club. A lot of kids were choosing to skip their recess so they could shovel dirt, which was

018pretty amazing. I told them to give me their toughest look as they posed here with their shovels, um, which was pretty sweet. And then I've got three videos on the next slide, which are all going to start at the same time. Um, and they're very short videos, but they're very, very nice. Um, oh, I forgot to talk about this, not the next slide. So, because they're so close to Solradia Farm, um some of you may know, but approximately two years ago or a little bit more, they bought 29 acres at the end of Mumford Road and or Street. And the four acres that they were originally using um has become their community classroom. And so, their outreach person, Fiona, who is in the white hat in these pictures, is in charge of their community classroom.

019And so she formed a a partnership with the garden club at Yankee Ridge. We did Fridays on the farm. And you can see after school we would oops we would all walk to Solradia and then they would do activities where um they're watching a video about different uh early spring crops that they could grow and then they chose what they could grow. Um they planted some things. They harvested dill um and parsley and taste tested things and made ranch dressing um and then put it on some salad leaves. So it was just you know all aspects growing, choosing um harvesting a little bit. So that has been a really great experience. It got started kind of late in April and they only met maybe four or five times because we had a rain out and

020then a holiday. Um but that's something that I think we'll continue to do. That was a really nice program. And then now three videos at once. Nope, still not. Um the other thing that Yankee Ridge did is um they bought tower gardens which are quite an expense. Um Hannah, the garden coordinator there, I believe, got grants to buy those. Uh they run about 1,200 each and that school has two or three of them. And that's what they did during the winter. And like six, eight weeks, you can go from seeds to, you know, a big plant like that. And so, uh, the garden towers sort of rotate to different teachers. Um, and then like at the end of each cycle, they have a salad day where the kids get to harvest what they've grown. Um,

021so that is a great activity for the winter when it's hard to do any sort of gardening activity. But, uh, oh, testing water pH. So, that was a good activity, too. You have to fill the bottom of it with water. You have to test it. I don't know, a couple of times a week and then you have the acid and the base and you know, however it is, you have to match it to the color. It was great science. Grow more plants and be healthier. That was a Stefania. In the middle is Theo. The best thing about garden club is that we help the earth grow more plants and be healthier that I joined garden club is because it's a nice just getaway um to get away from like all the things that is happening.

022Also like you can just garden all you want. I really like digging up the dirt and mulch um putting it in the wheelbarrow and then just spreading it out over there. Um, but for me, just gardening club overall has been a really fun experience. And then Verna and I love being outside. And uh I'm just tired of doing the same thing at recess. So I joined garden club because we can do different things like plant seeds and dig up soil and stuff like that. And it's just really fun. And I like garden club because I get to meet new people that is also in garden club. And I was and um I saw Theo later that day and I said, "Hey, your video turned out really good." And he said, "I did it all with

023a sprained ankle." Um I'm gonna go back here a little bit. Hi. Sorry. So, this picture was taken the same day they had kindergarten graduation. And I don't know if you can see the girl in the back. She's got white shorts on and a white top. And there was a big pile of compost. And all of these kids are digging and like, "Okay, it's noon. You got to go back to class." They were in the pile, hands in the pile. The garden or the farm to school coordinator in me loved that we couldn't tear them away from digging in the soil. And the mom in me was like, "Please stop it. you're wearing all white. Quit. But it was it was it's really sweet to see kids get so excited about that. And I'm gonna

024fast forward there. Oops. Okay. So, currently, uh, we were fortunate in that the farm to school grant that got cancelled for this year was not us. Um, we got funded in 2024 and it was a two-year grant. So, we are good through June through 2026. And then we currently have a city of Urbana Sunrant that will pay for uh garden supplies and um we're going to incorporate some field trips to pay for buses or entry fees, that kind of thing. And um we've been told that pending city council approval, we also will receive a community services grant which will pay for garden coordinators. Um which is huge because we have what you saw on the previous slide that we have all of those garden coordinators. um the ones that split, they just take half the

025stipens. We don't do extra there. But um that really, you know, I think a lot of these garden coordinators would do it even if they didn't get paid, but it's really important to show that we value what they do because they really do a great job. Um I feel like I've left a lot of stuff out, but I've had a very long presentation, so if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Board members, any any comments or questions? Gosh, my mic's turned up. that really really fantastic. It's just so much fun to see something like this. Um, see the kids so engaged and and learning in in uh interactive and playful ways. It's it's it's awesome. Thank you for doing this. Are you doing anything at the high school to recruit more students?

026They said that the class was pretty small. Um, so Joan is the garden coordin coordinator there and she uses that garden for all of the classes that she teaches and then she has work days which get advertised. So, if more kids want to come help out on a Saturday morning um or other times, they're certainly welcome to. We try to put that word out there. Other classes besides that particular Yes. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And and every garden coordinator does it different. Like Hannah at Yankee Ridge, she had that after school program and a lunchtime program. Um like Tori is here and she just takes uh students out when um there's an activity to do and um a lot of the garden coordinators will do an afterchool thing with the afterchool program kids and just

027kind of however works best for that school and that teacher. Anyone else? Thank you so much. And next up are school improvement updates. All right, good evening everybody. Um, I'm going to just get us started for school improvement goals for today. Uh, one thing that I wanted to do was to start with our two schools that went from targeted to comprehensive this year in order for me to kind of lead the way. um and start with just some highlights from their needs assessment that was completed at both schools uh as well. So once I go over some of the some of the highlights of the needs assessment and then King will go um and then Thomas Payne will go and we'll keep continuing with this the designated schools. So the purpose of this is really

028just so they didn't have to put a bunch of this in their um in their slide decks. they're following a template that everybody had, but I wanted to just highlight some things so that you all understand why you may see some of the action steps um in their plans as well. So, uh the air assessment gave us like a district view of how we can support these two schools and the first kind of key point was leadership and vision. And so some of the findings was we need to kind of like widely share the mission. um of the school district which you know we just completed a strategic planning but also as schools are rolling out their new SIPs as well to make sure that all their staff and their community members know their um

029goals as well. So, some of the things that we're doing to implement that is really um having more frequent SIP meetings, making sure that teachers are signing up for committees that um are directly aligned to the SIP goals, and just more training for our leaders as well on kind of some systems thinking and continuous improvement cycles, which we just wrapped up our two days of school improvement planning. And so I would say the teams did amazing work these past two days to really like plan out thoughtful um goals, key activities, and then they also completed their quarter 1 PD plan. The second one um highlighted in the needs assessment was curriculum instruction and assessment. Um and they found that of course we have now curriculum in place but it's inconsistently implemented. Um there are gaps

030that still exist in some of the collaborative planning and we need to increase our instructional rigor but also provide that differentiated support. So some action steps from that you'll see that schools have smart and smarty goals to really help with that differentiated support. Um there are some schools who also have some observational um tools that they'll use to um inspect what we expect right in a sense of are we consistently um teaching with our curriculum with fidelity and we'll have some PD around some high yield instructional strategies that are going to push the in um the instructional rigor within the classrooms as well. culture and climate came up. There are positive classroom environments observed, but there's limited student voice. Um, we need support with increasing family partnerships and how do we ensure that our administrators

031um are supported as well. And so, as we've discussed in previous talk um especially in the last strategic plan presentation that I was here for, how do we lift up student voice? That's always something that we're thinking about. 612. It used to be more of a um high school kind of goal, but with the new MEP role, we're trying to make sure that that is a 612 role. But we've also had teams think about in their culture and climate voice, I mean culture and climate goals as well. How are they going to um keep an eye on sense of belonging and what students are saying through our panorama survey? And another thing is we are going to um make sure that whatever they their goals that are art are culture and climate that they have

032a way to check those whether they are looking in panorama whether they are um creating their own kind of tool making sure we're having morning meeting for SEAL explicit instruction we have seven mindsets that we're kind of rolling out for SEAL um instruction and that is K12 as well. So really trying to build up student voice and making sure that we're engaging families through that process um with relationship buildings as well. And so some family partnership activities with through our like face members are also um a part of the school improvement plans as well. Targeted instruction and support. Um so really thinking about our MTSS frameworks um that multi- tiered system of support um how we're thinking about enrichment college and career readiness and how are we supporting inclusive and inclusive and consistent practices. So

033this is work that we've definitely already talked about throughout this year with trying to decrease the dis disproportionality with um our discipline data in in particular. But I would say this is also the work we've done on an academic level as well with tier 2 meetings. Um we are also working to restructure our MTSS frameworks and teams have this as key strategies as well within their academic and some of the behavior goals too. So, making sure that we have alignment across our strategic plan um based on this feedback, but also what you'll see in everyone's school improvement plan. And the last thing too, um the support that they're going to receive from district office and so making sure that the the coaching and support is intentional and that we are providing um support as they

034roll out their quarter 1 PD plans to their staff with resources um with tools. We have some resources already uh available to them specifically around those high yield instructional um strategies as well. and that we're there to support them um through some quarterly data reviews too that we will do as a team. So there's now also like a benchmarking uh tab on their school improvement template where they have to make sure they're inputting data and so we can see um across the year. So, right now they have baseline data in, but then there's a fall, winter, and spring um tab that they'll have to continue to put data in that we always have access to, of course, in order to look at how we're doing, have thorough conversations, and provide that support for teams. Any

035questions about what I went over before we start specifically King and Thomas Payne? so that you all kind of see these key strategies and the goals um implemented based off of this feedback. Please go [Music] ahead. So good evening the board members. I am so excited to tell you about the end of the of the twoday school improvement plan training planning and how um it all came together. Um I want to give some shout outs from to the people from district office that made it all um a smooth process. Uh one miss chassity did a huge work. uh the amount of planning that went into it and the document that she has mentioned is a beast and uh we are all appreciative that it really walked us through the process. Um she also created an

036excellent example to follow and it was easy to collaborate with the teams and come up with this plan. Um and I want to give a shout out to Miss Yanda Smith and um Miss Lisa Hoing who joined us for the first um day of planning and um also Miss Christina um all of them were uh were in and out uh of small groups and made sure that our planning was going smoothly. Um my wonderful team um with King uh sat down and did a fantastic work. Um so uh first we have really dived into the data from the previous school year and unfortunately we didn't have a a whole lot of good progress to report on ELA and math. Um the last uh school year goal of um ELA was that the 80% of 21

037targeted African-American third through fourth grade students will meet or exceed their projected uh student growth goal. on MAP testing, we got only 40% of those students to meet or exceed um and the math goal uh that also targeted um the same um group of people but uh grades second through fifth. Um only 32% of those students met uh or exceeded their projected growth goal. Um one thing is um with the attendance there was some movement from uh with the positive movement from the chronic abstentism. Uh so from from 50% uh so we'll uh from 30% to 15% was the goal. We saw some decrease in 28% uh but still a lot of chronic absentism. So looking at those goals um the team has come to a conclusion that uh the root causes of uh the

038lower performance on math and reading were due to abstentism. The lack of culture of learning uh staff turnover including administration. Everybody agreed that was uh really deeply impacted the um the learning. the lack of buildingwide student behavioral management system and lack of MTSS procedures for academic and behavioral support. Um so uh we have also looked at a lot of different data to uh come up with the goals uh and the smarty goals including the uh AIR uh results that Miss Chassidy went over uh five essential survey um and um the MAP testing. So, um, the goals for the next school year that the team has set up is the attendance goal for chronic absenteeism. We hoping to see it going down to 20%. And our smarty goal is to focus on third through fifth grade

039students where we have seen the biggest issue in chronic abstentism and um getting that percentage from 33 to 23%. Um we're going to achieve this by doing attendance data and um tier 2 and tier three attendant attendance data and interventions. Uh specifically we went into further um key strategies uh related to our uh creating panorama attendance um plans and working with the sea. Uh the next goal is the culture and climate goal. um that has reflected the uh AIRIR um recommendations about uh strengthening of MTSS framework that were emerging but not quite consistent. So the um the culture and climate goal is focusing on a reduction of suspensions uh from 55 to uh we are hoping to cut it in half or more. Um and the focus group on our smarty goal is we're going

040to focus on fifth grade students uh by implementing MTSS supports with fidelity and strengthening classroom behavioral management. Uh we will be using CHAMPS and tier 2 and MTSS procedures to achieve that. and we have picked um the fifth grade to uh focus on due to the data on current fourth graders that were was a disproportionately large amount of suspensions. Uh the next uh goal is literacy and again we have taken into consideration the um suggestions from AIR uh about um more need for collaborative planning, instructional rigor and differentiated support. Um so our goal uh will be um that by the end of next school year second through fifth grade students will meet or exceed their projected growth uh goal in literacy. that is um followed by a smarty goal specifically focusing on African-American students and

041um we want to see 40% of second through fifth grade students exceed uh or meet their projected growth goal. Um we are going to follow that cohort from current um year to next year. So uh the baseline data that we have for these students are for the current first through fourth grade student that going to be second through fifth grade students next year and we're going to achieve that by really diving into CLA lesson planning with fidelity. uh we have created a master schedule that will allow uh collaboration for all grade levels and uh we will be uh pursuing PLC's to really help plan and implement uh some some supports to achieve these goals. Um the last goal is a math goal and um it is similar to our literacy goal in terms of we

042are focusing on the same cohort of students second through fifth grade next um school year and we want to see at least 50% of those students meet or exceed their growth goal. Uh we have uh also focused on specific group uh of students um which are African-American students and we want to see 36% of those second through fifth graders meet and exceed their goals. We're going to um focus on two strategies non-llinguistic representation and cooperative learning to help them achieve their math goals. Um so based on all of those goals that I have just gone over um we have created a first uh quarter PD and we're are focusing on essentials um such as CHAMPS which is framework to create consistent expect consistent expectation for classroom management. We're going to um dive into CQLA curriculum

043and have a PD on co-eing strategies. Uh we will uh explicitly go over non-linguistic representation uh and cooperative learning strategies in uh to increase the engagement in math and um focus on procedures throughout the whole building specifically MTSS and uh panorama. Any questions? or if there's any questions. I know one of the questions we to ask is what else do you need and how else can we help your school? I know throughout the school year students come and go. Um and that's something that's just been accepted. But one thing that I've noticed at King School is that there are a couple grades that have pretty high um attend um student numbers in their in their grades. And I was just wondering how that's affecting your goals and if um there's hard to make a projection

044for next year, but is that something that that that needs to be addressed? We definitely watch those numbers. Thank you for your question. Uh right now we have three classrooms uh for all grades except uh third and fourth. And so we are focusing on those students. the the third and fourth uh grade uh currently were larger classes. However, with being such a transient population, we are watching those numbers of uh enrollment for the next school year. Uh one one way that um we going to support those students other than consistent administration and uh presence in the classroom is um we are more staffed this year in terms of uh tier one intensive teacher support. So we will have three um three um tier one intensive teacher support instead of one that we had last year.

045Those teachers um together with the CIT will be supporting primarily grades uh K1. Uh but uh for the new teachers that are coming into the district, we are also going to focus on helping out those teachers who might need some extra help with the CQLA. Um the other way to um to help those students is just establish those procedures too that right now are lacking. And we really felt like with establishing the correct MTSS procedures and have more like a wraparound approach that the students can feel more supported in the classroom. Anyone else? make a comment to Chassity and Yolanda and the others that worked on this plan because I think it's definitely needed and really appreciate you all implementing and I think looking forward to seeing it work. Anyone else? Go ahead, Jennifer. Your

046mic's off. Thank you. Thank you. Can I just give a shout out to her team for coming today, too? So, they did two days of work and then they were like, we'll be there at 6. So, shout out to her SIP team members as well who are part of this planning process and we're dedicated to coming with her today to present. Are all folks here in I was going to see Paul, Mr. Douglas, are all your folks here yet? Not yet. Okay, we'll keep going. while they're sitting down, could I ask my question? Oh, yeah, sure. Um, I'm and I think this could be a question for everybody when um because in many of the programs you talked about um projected doing better than the projected growth. Does the projected growth mean one year's worth

047of growth for each student across the board or does each student have kind of a projected growth target and you want them to do better than his particular projected growth? So, if somebody could answer that question during the Sorry. All right. Well, good evening. My name is Andrea Jackson, principal at Thomas Payne School. Melanie Firch. I'm the assistant uh principal here at Thomas P. All right. And we're excited to present um the progress on our 2024 2025 school improvement goals and to introduce the newly developed ones for 2025 2026. Um we share um this collective um information with our school improvement team. So we were here on behalf of that team that um worked really hard over the past couple of days. We also want to recognize Jesse Bradford um curriculum director and Maria Elvier

048as uh the facilitators um with uh their contributions were very instrumental in shaping these objectives. Um we also want to thank Mrs. Beckas as well um for her call to action to ensure that um there was equity across the board with the school improvement goals um and that there is some shared leadership when it comes to all of the plans. All right. So, uh, with the, um, sticking with the mission of, uh, Urbana District, we, uh, at Thomas Painter committed to, um, creating this plan that, uh, is going to be supportive of the community, equipped our students, and nurture all learners and and have them have, uh, success. So, um, in our MAP reading assessment, our goal was to, um, increase that percentage of our first and, uh, through fifth grade students meeting their, uh,

049projected growth objectives from 39% to 50% when comparing fall 2024 to spring 2025 data. Um, we surpassed that goal in the winter, achieving 53% growth. However, when that May benchmark came, um it had declined to 45%. Looking at uh MAP math uh assessment, our goal was to increase that percentage uh for our first through fifth grade uh students meeting their projected growth targets from 33% to 50% when comparing uh fall to spring. Um again uh we had got just shy of that 50% mark at 49% um and then it declined as well to 44%. Um and finally last our um attendance data um we looked at that chronic um absenteeism students that are in that critical category. Um and as shown on Panorama from fall to winter it dropped down. we got to our um

05010% goal, but unfortunately that uh that uh chronic uh absenteeism had risen to 37%. And while we're encouraged by the progress from May to May of 2025, the data still shows that there's a lot of room for growth um both in academics and attendance. So, we took a deep dive into our root um cause analysis. We identified several different barriers that prevented the school from uh meeting its uh school improvement goals this year with um absenteeism being a primary factor. Um discipline measures such as uh exclusionary disciplinary measures actually uh feeds into that student um absenteeism as well. So, uh, whether it be time out of class or in school or out of school suspensions, that also adds into that. Next up, uh, disregulation or lack of coping skills, their conflict resolution. Um, those, um,

051lack of skills definitely impacts a student's ability to focus on their academic goals. Um there are also cases where instructional time was lost due to classroom disruptions um including uh teachers having to stop in order to help students uh either regulate or um make sure that uh students were um focused and safe. Um definitely with a new curriculum uh there were some academic frustrations due to the gap uh the achievement gap for uh many of our students and the rigor of the grade level curriculum. And finally um we saw a great need for strengthening systems within MTSS uh framework. So, in reflecting um we definitely leaned on support from our I read and I count um tutoring for especially our younger students. Um we felt that the administrative walkthroughs were really helpful in uh making

052sure that CKLA and illustrative of math were implemented with fidelity and we definitely saw that data reflected um from our CKLA coach that came through. Um this year there was a lot of professional development to help support teachers whether it be from the district or um in-house within our building to support CKLA. Um the co-eing model was very supportive um in helping student uh helping our teachers to implement um the new literacy curriculum with fidelity as well. um we felt that the progress monitoring tools embedded like MClass intervention um paired really well with CKLA and helped um our students to develop some literacy skills based upon where they um were developmentally. And then finally, um the restructuring of our tier 2 and tier three systems um was helpful in identifying students that um in particular

053had challenging behaviors um whether that was need for their social, academic or intervention groups or um behavior plans or um check-in checkout systems that was really helpful in decreasing those um challenging behaviors. So we'll get into uh what you just uh saw earlier. um in regards to taking a deeper dive uh our achievement gap analysis. We analyzed our strengths and and uh areas of weakness. Um we came up and created our smarty goals um through our four priority uh areas, our key strategies for each goal. You'll see our assessment targets um as well as um adult and student performance measures and then our action steps that we'll take. So our first goal is uh around attendance. And so our smart goal using attendance reports from Panorama, we're going to increase the attendance percentage from 93%

054in May of 2026. Um our smarty goal, breaking that down, will reduce chronic absencism rate of our uh black students from 51% to 41% using attendance reports from Panorama. We're also going to increase our family connections through postcards, uh making uh phone contacts. Uh we're going to do that quarterly. Uh we're going to provide families with attendance expectations. We're also going to form attendance a form form an attendance committee to create and implement schoolwide attendance celebrations uh quarterly celebrations uh monthly trophies uh explicitly teach students attendance expectations and engage students with high- five Fridays. Let us know if you want to be a part of those high- five Fridays to come and meet uh students as they arrive. Our second uh goal is around culture and climate. And so, uh, our, uh, May 2026, we're

055going to reduce the number of major discipline referrals by 35%. Uh, we're going to focus on decreasing that number, uh, for our students of color uh, by 25%. And then we're really going to strengthen our tier one supports uh, around uh, PBIS and um, the new implementation of CHAMPS. And then strengthening our tier 2 and tier three supports and systems. Next up is the goal for literacy. So the smart goal is that for 2025 to 2026 school year, 50% of students in grades first through 5th will meet or exceed the projected growth on MAP reading. And then um digging a little bit deeper into that um data into our subgroups, by the end of the year, um 20 black students in grades 2 through 5th who fell below the 40th percentile will meet or exceed

056their projected growth in spring. And so that's going going to be done by more targeted small groupoup instruction and create um our professional learning committee protocols just a stronger framework for that collaboration. For math, for the smart goal is that for the school year, 50% of students in grades 1 through 5th will meet or exceed their projected growth uh goal and map math for fall to spring. Digging a little bit deeper into that disagregated data, um 30 black students in grades 2 through fifth who fell below the 40th percentile will meet or exceed their projected growth goal in the spring map math uh data. And this is going to be done through cooperative learning, making sure that students are um having discussions about math and learning from one another. And also creating that PLC or

057that professional learning collaboration um strengthening that so that um all of our teachers feel supported as we're pushing the needle forward. So the quarter one um PD focus is definitely going to be um focusing on PBIS and CHAMPS which is that new framework that was also uh discussed in the previous presentation. ongoing data analysis and goal setting. Um we also know that you know your school improvement goals is something that is ongoing process that is uh revisited throughout the school year and also reinforcing reinforcing that effort and providing uh recognition for our students whether it be for their academics or their attendance and a stronger family uh school family and community partnership. uh making sure that our schools are feeling welcoming and um that collaborative uh responsibility for everyone. And with that, we'll take any

058questions. Board members, any questions? I say Chassity, I don't know if you want to be maybe Yep. to respond to member Hicks's question. Sure. So, if I'm remembering correctly, it was the latter of what you said. And so, each student gets their own individual um growth target. So, they assess them in the fall and they're saying if you're in class and you are learning, you are expected to grow by this many points by the spring. And so, those growth targets are used for our information. So, that's how we determine who made those growth targets. And we're looking at 50% of the students making them, right? And of course, we want to aim for higher in order to close that opportunity and achievement gap because when students are exceeding their goals, they're getting closer to closing

059that gap. I will say that that the goals don't they're making their growth goals doesn't necessarily determine that they're on grade level though, right? It's just them showing growth. And so are most of the growth goals a year like even if they're in fourth grade but they're working at second grade level by the end of the year they'll be working at third grade level or do they vary very much from that? They do vary. Right. So it is adaptive. Um and so if you um recall their data like there was some spikes and like yes by the winter kids were doing well because their growth goal in the winter is smaller, right? So it might be only two or three points versus their overall goal might be 10 points. And so they're saying within that

060point of time, yes, you've grown the way that you're supposed to, but then we have like five or six more months in the school year where it kind of dips. Um, and so students, it is adaptive, so it will work with them. The questions will get harder or easier depending on how they're responding. Andrea, you mentioned that you appreciated the tutors that came in and to help the students. Is that something that um is going to continue for next year and how can we get some more people in to help you? Yeah, I certainly hope so. Um, I think I count I ready has been in the district for a while. So, yep. I I believe it's going to continue with all of our buildings. Any other questions? I have a comment. I'm glad that

061there is a blueprint for this and so that the parents and the community can be on the same page as the school and I think it'll be very helpful to have something documented and so that you can reference back to. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, Principal Jackson. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, you're ready, Miss Douglas. Okay, we're going to go ahead and let the students do their coaches come on up and however you guys wanted to as they come up. They're wearing their state qualifier t-shirts. So, yay. We'll let them explain all their hardware and metal that they have. Well, um I'd like to say thank you to the board. Um thank you to Dr. Avertatum, the administration for allowing us to have this chance um at coming

062up and it acknowledging um these accomplishments of these student athletes. Um, we had a really tough uh, season as um, going through track, the weather can definitely uh, do certain things to you. And for our boys, they actually I think they only ran about three meets because every meet for them was being cancelled due to the fact that inclement weather was coming in. So, um, sectionals was really um, impressive. Um, overall we've we did have a solid season. Um, I know this isn't the full team right here, which um, Jack can go through the uh, individuals. I have it right here, but um, I'm just going to do the recap in regards to um, leading into sectionals. So, Unity, which is a big meet for us. Um, our boys went and won the whole Unity

063meet. Uh, eighth grade boys, which was huge for us. um at that time we have individuals that uh podium uh pretty much in every single event and that's what you really are striving for to compete with um a lot of these teams uh when it comes to a team title is making sure you have individuals um that can uh bring points to the table. um our girls seventh grade team uh they took second place and at that time Jimma was injured which that changes things when we have long jump and in certain other events that we uh miss out on points. So we really speak about team uh versus a I because we go after team titles. We really try to focus in on where can we put the best athletes um in the best

064positions to bring um points to the team. So um they had a great season. Um we went into sectionals um on high um but I mean for there was 30 40 mph winds crosswinds and we still came out um on top uh especially with our seventh grade girls but also with our eighth grade boys of um you know either qualifying for state um by winning the event or qualifying for state by making qualifying time. And that's what we preach uh as we go through. Um I know all the other coaches aren't here, but thank you to them because they also put in a lot of time. We have we have two volunteer coaches that do amazing jobs. Um and then uh we also had two um staff that are not here as well. And so

065I just want to say thank you to them as well. Um but I'll let Jackie go ahead and go through that. All right. So when I say your names, you guys are going to step forward so the board can recognize who you are, okay? Because it's just a name to them, but we know you guys. All right? So the first individual we had, um, believe it or not, this is his first year doing track. Um, I recruited him in the hallways. He was a basketballer. And I said, "Hey, what do you think about track?" And kind of looked at me like, "Who are you?" but he eventually figured out it's coach Douglas and I'm persistent when I see an athlete and see someone who can do some things. And um this individual is Jaden. Go

066ahead and step forward, Jaden Bell. Like I mentioned um he is a basketballer, so he is a multiport athlete and academically sound as well. He is an eighth grader which um he will be moving on to the high school um this year. Um he competed initially in the 100, the 200, the long jump, and the 4x1. As coach mentioned, as we got closer to sectionals, we had a conversation with him and said, "Hey, your 100 time was just not getting to where we needed it to be. Um they have to run like an 118. That is really fast to qualify." And he was at a 121. We couldn't get him under that 12, but that's still fast. So kudos to him for that. So, we had a real conversation and say, "Hey, would you be

067willing to try high jump?" And he just said, "Okay." Which is what you want from an athlete. And so, believe it or not, three weeks, two weeks. Um, he had two me well, a meet and a half to get ready. He had a meet and a half to get ready um before sectionals. And he went in and he jumped the qualifying height for high jump. So, he qualified not only in high jump and only did it twice really. and in long jump. Um, and in long jump he only jumped once cuz he still had his running events, qualified and was sectional champ. Um, he went to state and again first year during track he got third in high jump at state which is fantastic. And he also placed in long jump. He received seventh place.

068Is that correct? Seventh place in long jump. Um, which is fantastic as well. He also um recently as an eighth grader they give an athletic award and he was the male athlete of the year for Urbana Middle School. So kudos to him and his future is so so bright and we are excited to see that. All right. All right. The next one we have is Kaden. Go ahead and step forward. All right. Kaden, he holds a special place in all of the coaches hearts because um this is our second year having um Kaden on the squad. Last year he missed state by I mean a tenth of a second. And um he still was one of our leaders. And so one of the things that we um do is we bring somebody with us to

069state who was really really close and is definitely a leader of the squad. And last year he had the opportunity to come to state and see it and feel it and be a part of it. Well, this year at sectionals, he got to punch his own ticket to state. So, we are very, very proud of him. So, he qualified in long jump and um went out there and did what um he needed to do. Um he didn't get to where he wanted, but we are still still so very proud of all of his accomplishments during the season. Yeah. And I I'd like to just piggyback on um when we talk about the hundred um Kaden was just on the outside, but even that day, not one person in sectionals ran qualifying time, so then they

070just take the number one runner. So, um it's just one of those things. Um I'd like to also recognize Kylin, who is not here this evening, but she qualified in the 4x two. Franciscoca qualified in the 4x4 and the 4x1. Um Kayn also a firsttime trackster um who is a volleyballer as well, so a multiport athlete. She qualified in the high jump. Olivia um Boatright, she qualified in the 4x4, the 4x1 as an alternate and she is a seventh grader, but when you're at sectionals, you only get two spots for each event as an open. So the 100 and the 200 and 400 and so on and so forth. So we had Olivia because we had three girls really really quick in the 200. We had her run the 200 as an eighth grader and

071she won eighth grade sectionals as a seventh grader and qualified for state. So kudos to her. Miss Braxton, go ahead and step up. I always call her Miss Braxton because she is a true leader as well. Um she also um has qualified um at state for the last couple of years as an alternate and it is an important job to be an alternate because you never know what could happen when you get to state. She's always focused, ready, um willing to help, practices handoffs as if she's going to run the race. So, we really appreciate Miss Braxton and she qualified this year as an alternate in the [Applause] 4x2. Like to recognize Tara Davis, who is not here, but she qualified in the 100 meter hurdles and was sectional champ as well as the 4x

072two. And last year as a seventh grader, she missed qualifying times for state in the 100 meter hurdles by again a tenth. And this year she came out on top and was sectional champs and she placed at state. She placed seventh at state this year. And um um going into sectional she actually um did not run any qualifying times. We just kept telling her, "Hey, you're getting there. You're getting there." And then she took off, ran a 173 at sectionals, um won sectionals. Then she got to state, ran a 17.04, forced her way into the um finals and ran a 17.02. 02 which placed her in seventh. And I just the way she dropped time going into state is just crazy. [Applause] We'd like to recognize Kennedy who is not here. She actually transferred in

073this year. She came from Tulono and has been an asset and multiport athlete. She does volleyball and ran track this year. Um she qualified in the high jump, the 4x1 as an alternate, and the 4x4. I'd like to recognize Charlie. He's that guy. Charlie is one of those kiddos that you just look at and he works every single day, day in and day out. And at sectionals, he ran his PR and qualified for state. I think he might have shocked himself. We were all really, really excited. And I honestly blame Charlie, who also got a PR when he was at state, for me losing my voice the next couple of days because as he was coming down the stretch, he knew he had to run around like a 215 to place. He ended up getting

074a 220, which is a PR and that's 800, so it's just a sprint nowadays. But he looked up at me like, "Coach, I don't know if I can do it." I'm like, "Keep going, Charlie. Keep going." So, we are so proud of him and what he has in store as an eighth grader. [Applause] Um, we'd like to recognize Aaria Jackson who was at softball. That's where we were before we came here. Um, she is a sixth grader and qualified for the 4x4. Um, we have Amiia Johnson who qualified for the 4x4, the 4x1 as well. Um, Janae, who is not here with us, she qualified for the 4x two. Miss Dana Meeks. This is her second year. She is an eighth grader, so she'll be moving to the high school. Um, she qualified in the

0754x two this year and was the anchor leg and was really um pivotal in their success. I I I would just like to say even with that 4x2 team, um we had some conversations because actually they were a 4x1 team and uh we just kept looking and we're like our times aren't there, our times aren't there, but on paper you guys look like 4x2 you can get in. you guys run a 285. All of you, you get in and um they got in on their first try on 4x two uh through qualifying time and then they PR again at state. Um we'd also like to recognize Valdi Nana who is a seventh grader will be is a rising eighth grader. She qualified in the 100, was actually the sectional champ, the 200, and the 4x1.

076If you guys remember her from last year, she also qualified in those same events last year as a sixth grader and came back with medals. So, that is fantastic. Um, last but not least, we have Gemma Douglas. Go ahead and step up. Gemma this year um she was actually out for three and a half weeks before sectionals. And if you know um some of you guys know her. Yes, she is our daughter. But um she she loves to compete. She loves to compete in anything in the classroom um on the field, on the court, on the track, it doesn't matter. So being out for that three and a half weeks was tough as parents and as coaches, but she did what was best for her body and the longevity of it. She um qualified at

077sectionals in the 200, the long jump, and the 4x1 and as well as the 4x4 as an alternate. Um just kind of talking a little bit about that 4x1 team because I know you guys heard it. Um that 4x1 team, they were sectional champs. Mhm. Um they are currently the school record holder and going they they ran 52 flat at sectionals which um at that time would have ran that had them ranked number four in the nation going in um into state as the number one. Um so when they got to state we were we were the team to beat and everybody knew it. Um, and that's a good feeling, but also it's a very um can be a daunting feeling. And I know they don't like to talk about it, but when you guys

078review and rewind this tape, it's going to make you better and stronger and want it more. Um, when they got to the meet at state, they ended up placing as runner-ups. Um, it was a technicality. When you get to state, everybody has the same baton, everybody has the same markers. We just picked up the wrong marker this time, but we will learn from it. we will get better. But believe it or not, um Jimma is the anchor leg and when she got the baton, we were in sixth and we ended up in second. So if that tells you how fast our team is, they they have some nothing but great things to look forward to um as eighth grade squad. But um Gemma actually she is the IESA 7th grade 4A state champ in long

079jump. She's been battling um all season a lovely young lady um from Mount Zion who for all of the meets that we faced against her, she got her. So, she knew going into state that she was going to have to go after, as we say, Naomi. And um, believe it or not, Gemma was the fourth person. She jumped a 4.97, I believe. And Naomi on her last jumped a 4.94. So, all of us were on pins and needles watching those jumps, but she came out on top. So, we are very, very proud of her accomplishments this season. [Applause] Uh the one thing out outside of all of the accomplishments that um would love to highlight is one we had over about about 140 kids come out for track this year. Just a ton of kids.

080Um, and by the end of the season, you normally have around 80, um, that you're, you know, you're working with. As you try to work through A and B schedule. Um, and then as you go into sectionals, you to, you tend to get down towards about 60 to 70 kids. Um, just because you only get two entries per event. Um, the team responded very well. Um, you know, it's exciting time and the one thing that, um, I want to say I appreciate facilities, they made some training poles for us. You don't understand, those helped us so much. Um, you see things and then you want to try it out and, um, the facility guys made some poles for us to work out with. Uh, had them over there and we used those all season. So,

081I just want you to know we did use those and they definitely help us. Um, but we just want to keep, you know, getting our hands around the track and not just track and field, all athlet athletics within Urbana. We have so many student athletes that are excelling at the highest level and we need to just make sure that they're being honored. Um, we have a lot of records. Um, we have a we have a lot of individuals that um have podium and we have not gotten it up on the board and I really think we need to get those up on the board. um and celebrate these kids because um some are twotime uh podium. Uh some are for the first time. There are definitely um Jaden is is uh the record holder I

082believe in probably high and long jump. So those are things we definitely need to keep celebrating so that it's starting to um push to other kids when they walk into the school and they say, "Oh, that's where I want to be. I know him. I know him. He played basketball. He went out for track and he did that in one year. Maybe I need to jump on board with what he's doing. And we've seen so many positive things. Um I would say our ineligibility list was for having 140 kids. I would I probably could list maybe 10. Um that was on there and um you know and and just overall just having that ability to support have that support around us. Um, Miss Karns definitely helped support, so we appreciate that and and Mr. Russell.

083Um, I want to make sure we shout out the individuals throughout the season that definitely supported us. Um, and one thing I will close out with is, you know, I hope we have the opportunity going into next year to one host our own invitational. We have the facilities for it. Um, teams now know Orurbana is here. It's not we're coming, we're here. Um, so they look forward to running against us and then having the ability to host a sectional because that's all funding. We have not been able to go out and fund raise. We haven't had that opportunity. Um, we've are only typically our meet gets cancelled because of weather. So, um, hosting a sectional and invitational would only pump funds into us allowing us to get more training. Um, we have things that we

084need to buy for for the student athletes in regards to, you know, sleds, just being able to get faster because as we got to state, the one thing we did realize is girls and boys are getting faster. They're not getting slower. When you watch a 100 for seventh grade girls and they run 128, 128, 128 across the board and it used to be if you can run a 13, you may have a chance to win it. you can't run a 13 anymore. You have to run 128 to have a chance to win state. Um so I I think you know just having that opportunity to get in front of the board. Thank you. Get in front of you Dr. Iver Tatum and just having that conversation of of how can we help um get more

085funding. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for representing the the district with pride on and off the track. Thank you. I do have a comment to make just for encouragement for the for the team. Um, Diamond Asia Taylor, that's my granddaughter. She actually was on ESPN this weekend. Yes. And she's from Urbana. So, she started just where you guys are right now. So, she did qualify for nationals. So, she'll be going to Oregon. Awesome. So, you guys keep it up. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations, you guys. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So, we can pick up now with our school improvement updates for Le. Oh, first. Sorry about that. It's a different order in our agenda, but yeah, first. Sorry about that. [Music] Good evening everyone. Before I get started, I would be remiss to

086not give Gemma Douglas an extra shout out. So, her new administrative team got her a small gift just to say that Urbana's future is bright. And we're really excited to have a state champion in our space. And so, we've got some work to do in terms of banners and plaques and things to update because we want to show off all of the great accomplishments for the team, but more specifically for our state champ. [Applause] All right. So, Urbana Middle School 78 building. I'm Melissa Karn's principal. Um, we're here tonight to just kind of talk through some successes um from last year, the 2024 2025 school year. And then obviously we'll do some foreshadowing for 2526. Um I want to echo all of the great sentiment about how great the last two days have been in

087terms of um planning with our administrative team. Um central office chassis has done an amazing job at creating tools um for principles and school improvement teams to use as guidance um as they work to create really intentional plans that are going to drive all of the things that we want to see for our students. As an Urbana graduate, I can understand the importance of wanting to be proud of what you've accomplished academically and in all other areas. And so, the school improvement process is is key to that success. So, thank you for all the work that you've done along with your team. All right. Um, so the first slide here is going to talk a little bit about the goals from this year. Um and so we had a goal for by spring 2025 we

088would increase the percentage of students meeting their projected growth um from 42% to 50. Um for math we looked at by spring increasing the percentage of students meeting their projected growth in math from 41% to 49. And then goal three was centered around chronic absenteeism. Um and we looked at decreasing the percentage of chronically absent students um using our panorama data by at least 8%. What you'll see in slide two is the progress for that. So overall our reading growth goal was 50%. We surpassed that goal and achieved 53%. So that's a huge win. Um for map math growth we our goal was 49%. We surpassed that goal as well and achieved 54%. So that's also amazing work that's being done. Um just showing the growth and and where we're trying to take the building.

089chronic absenteeism was an 8% reduction and that was the most exciting one um because they actually achieved a 19% decrease overall for students who are chronically absent. So those three goals were um surpassed this year. So we're really excited to create some pretty lofty goals to try to push ourselves forward. Um and so with that, um we did some work around discussing what even though we made all three of our growth goals, um in terms of reading, math, and attendance, we wanted to continue to push ourselves. So we looked at still what are things that are keeping us from meeting even more broader and loftier goals. So we definitely center around absenteeism. That's still a very big and um consistent issue we're experiencing. Student engagement. Um with that also comes school climate, right? the ability

090to um have instructional quality that's consistent. Um and then making sure that our teachers are toolled with the ability to use datadriven instruction um as consistently as possible to help drive academic outcomes to the right spaces. Um, and by doing that, if we're going to use the datadriven instruction, we need to make sure we have tiered interventions and supports that are going to wrap around kids where tier one is just not as um adequate and we need to do something different or more with that. Um, the school improvement components that we're kind of going to use as kind of anchor points um for this year is going to be data review. Um, we did a lot of work in the last two days about achievement gap analysis. We're actually going to present a little bit

091of a different style goal than you've seen tonight. Um we're going to talk about identification of strengths and weaknesses of the building. Um we've done some staff surveys, um family and community surveys, our five essential survey results, um to kind of build our four priority areas. Um and then making sure that those key strategies are really succinct, really clear, and are well supported within the building. Um not only from the teacher perspective, but families, stakeholders, also administration. um really wrapping around our school community and trying to um bring us together even closer to achieve more overall. And so with that, I'm going to dig into the fun stuff, which is this year's goal. Um and so one of our goals is by the 2025 um school year, we want to reduce um the percentage of

092chronically uh truent students by at least 10%. With targeted strategies to support and engage students with disabilities um who are also underperforming academically. One of the things that we notice when looking at our panorama data is our students with disabilities um when one of our largest um subgroups in which they also um are part of the absentee rate. And so we really want to build some intentional plans um not only to focus on our entire building, but more specifically looking at um individualized um education plans and how can we build attendance goals in there um to help our students come to school more frequently um to make sure they're able to also meet the goals as their general education peers. um some key activities that we want to kind of shoot for. Um we're going

093to do some fidelity work with school attendance data um and do some daily verifications to making sure when students are marked present or absent, they actually are present or absent. Um we want to do some targeted attendance interventions. Um we're going to do some work around Panorama and helping teachers use it more frequently um to identify students who are chronically absent and then the their ability to respond respond will be greater and hopefully more frequently. Um, we also want to make sure we address student perceptions about school. We want our kids to come to S and want to be there. And so that has a very big driving force in terms of getting kids to school and the attendance rate. Um, so we want to do some events, some incentives, things that will bring not

094only families um to the table in terms of getting their kids to school, but also their kids can have that voice at home to say, "Hey, I want to come to school and I want to go to um and so hopefully those things will allow us to um create an environment that's attractive um and will build a narrative that we can all be proud of in terms of attendance. Um the next goal is looking at culture and climate. Um, one of the things we really want to focus on in 2526 is reducing exclusionary discipline actions. Um, primarily out of school suspensions and expulsions. Um, we definitely want to go for higher than 10%. However, we recognize we got a lot of work to do. Um, our numbers were pretty high this year in terms of

095our response rate um, for suspension. And so, um, more specifically for physical aggression. Um, so that's going to kind of be the area that we focus the most. Um, because we know we have a disproportionate number of students. Um, this being an impact for them, more specifically, our students with disabilities and our black male students. Those are the two subgroups that are likely to be suspended more than any of their other subgroups of peers. And so we've got to target that. Um, so how are we going to do it? We've got to use some internal systems like Skyward and Panorama. Um, the district is going to be wrapping around um, Champs, which is a great behavioral um, classroom management support system for our teachers to utilize to build good culture and climate in their classrooms.

096Um, we're going to utilize restorative chats. We're planning on some really cool training with Dr. Ire Tatum for our SRS staff um, so that they can support our teachers and helping with that restorative practice process. Um, we're also going to do a substantial amount of work around trauma-informed practices. We've got kids that come to school with all kinds of um makes, models, and creeds, and we need to be prepared to respond um when they need our support. Um and so part of us being trauma informed is really essential to that work. Um we also want to build some alternatives to exclusionary discipline. We have refocus and RU as part of our building structure. So we want to better utilize those supports versus using exclusionary discipline um outcomes for students. Um, as was a mentioned earlier,

097we are using the seven mindsets curriculum. The 78 building will have an intentional 30-inut time daily in which we'll engage our students in SEAL work. Um, and so that will be a huge buyin um for our teachers and our staff. It'll be a great opportunity to connect um and hopefully deter some of those disciplinary events. Next one is going to be our literacy goal. As I mentioned, this will be a little different than what you've seen. Um we recognize that the projected growth um goals are really important, but we also know that our still we're still not taking our kids all the way to proficiency. And so what we want to do um in literacy and in math is we want to increase the num increase the number of students who are in the green.

098Um and for us, the green is the 61th 61st through the 80th percentile. And that's kind of a a really good ontarget um rate for students to have in terms of their score because that will help them be more college and career ready. It will help them have a higher level ACT score, SAT score, whichever way we decide to go in the state. Um but it will help us make sure that we are adequately preparing kids for high school and beyond. And so we want to go from a 7% progress last year to 10. Um, and we want to specifically focus on students with IEPs, our black students, and our multilingual learners. Um, how are we going to do that? We're going to use some very targeted, intentional, um, instructional strategies. Um, we want to

099use annotation, marking up the text, which is an AVID strategy. Um, we also want to implement graphic organizers, and then using intentional academic language. One of the biggest things that came out of school improvement today was talking with the teachers about what it means to get professional learning and having it go beyond the session, right? The time that we spend. And so the teachers talked a lot about understanding the strategies, implementing them, and then coming back and reflecting with their colleagues about how did it go, how can we continue to to do better and look at data to see is it actually working. And so that will be something that we'll follow that same mindset and mantra through our literacy and math. um SIP goals. Um obviously we're going to do some progress monitoring as

100I mentioned. That's going to kind of be the the center point of how we know if what we're doing is working. Um and then obviously students will need tier 2 and tier three interventions that are going to be designated to support them as we want to meet those goals. Our goal is going to be for ELA to move 39 kids from the red, the yellow, and the orange, which are the three lowest performing categories under the 60% um into that green. It doesn't sound like very many, but I think when we think about how red or how yellow or how orange a student might be, it's actually a pretty lofty goal. Um, so our teachers are really excited about working really hard to move students into that direction. Um, and we're excited to also see

101more kids hopefully help us close the achievement and opportunity gap. The last one is math. Um, this one we're also really excited about. We're going to use MAP to help ourselves move from a 6% to a 10% growth percentage um for students achieving proficiency. Um our target focus is going to be fact fluency and problem solving and critical thinking. As you know, fact fluency tends to be the one skill that holds a lot of students back. Um we tend to, you know, focus on being calculator dependent um and other things. And so we really want to make sure our students are able to kind of hang with their peers um in terms of knowing their math facts and being able to use that to access higher level math pro um classes and coursework at the

102high school level. And so to do that, we're going to work with our teachers to specifically monitor the curriculum that we're using. And so what that means is we're going to kind of create a key activity that's going to support the SIP goal, which is 75% of a classroom of students in math will achieve 80% or greater on their curricular assessments. So we're really going to push teachers in the classroom to make sure that when they're giving these summitative curricular assessments within the curriculum, we're actually trying to achieve proficiency. Um, you know, a 70% 60% a 40% is not enough. We want to be pushing for the 80% or higher. Um, and so how we're going to do that is we're going to work on visual representations because that works with fact fluency. Um, we're

103going to use thinking classrooms. So a whiteboard is going to be a very large friend to our students and our teachers in math classrooms. And hopefully we'll be able to also include some fluency um fact interventions um and boot camps to kind of help boost some of our students abilities coming from elementary and even in the middle level um improve their fact um use and fluency. Um and then as I said before, we'll also do some formative formative assessments um in between those summitative assessments and we'll record those and reflect around those and do some item analysis work with those um that will help us adequately place kids in interventions um and be able to monitor their progress. And so that is our goals. just to give you a really quick um kind of snapshot

104of our PD plan. Um we kind of have built this in four different um areas. Obviously at being an AVID school working on the portrait of a graduate that's going to kind of be our overarching umbrella, but then underneath those things are some essential skills that our students are going to need. They're going to need academic language. They're going to need the ability to summarize text. They're going to need common language around expectations for student behavior. They're going to need a good trauma-informed response to an event. Um, they're going to need fact fluency interventions and supports. And they're also going to need a year-long focus on attendance. And so, we're going to work with our teachers all year long and not just quarter 1 at trying to teach them some new tricks and strategies um

105to hopefully continue to monitor data and see our data continue to go in great directions. So, that's our zip plan. Any questions? Well, it's a lot. Board members, sending questions. Go ahead, Jennifer. I really like the idea of working on fact fluency, and maybe that's because I'm old, but um it seems like it's important. And I've wondered if you've spoken to the elementary buildings about that. No, but I think because I think that working together and and talking about that together would be a good idea. Yeah. And our math curriculum currently has math talks built into it, which is opportunities for kids to dialogue and discourse about facts and understanding the visual representation of them. And I think we just have to give our kids more opportunities to practice. And so that's what we're going

106to do is we're going to anchor really heavily on that to hopefully help them, you know, continue a pathway um with higher level mathematics at the high school. Great. How do you feel the uh yonder pouches have been received anecdotally from the teacher side? From the teacher side, they they're very well supportive. I think the students, you know, obviously don't love the pouches as much. Um I think they're a great um structure and system for us to make phones not a priority. Um especially with these lofty goals, we need a focus to be on instruction and not other things. And so for right now, I think the Yonder pouches are definitely a huge win for Urbana. Um and so I think you know we'll continue to support them at the middle level. We've got some

107cool ideas about how to incentivize you know using the yonder pouch um this year and so yeah I think the feedback is really great that I've heard so far from teachers and and even from families too. Good. Thank you. Yeah. What has been done with regards to the reconfiguration of your physical space um in order to help you meet your goals? Yeah. So, um, we drew a completely new map, um, of so, thank you to Mr. Ashman for getting me some really cool big maps that I can like use dry erase markers on. Um, but we basically are completely redesigning the building in terms of making sure that seventh graders and eighth graders don't have very many interactions. Um, we're also reconfiguring where our elective and exploratory courses are in the building to make sure

108they're accessible but not like randomly, you know, placed within the building so students aren't, you know, overly interacting. Um, we're also going to have some spaces that are going to be closed off at certain times of the day to assure that kids aren't just going in locations and hiding and not going to class. And so, we're going to have a new kind of structure and system for um, classroom placement. Um, and the staff I know was a little apprehensive at first, but I think once they saw the maps, they've kind of figured out like, oh, that makes sense. And so, we're really excited to welcome a new infrastructure. Um, and I think staff is really excited about some of the changes that we're making um, especially in terms of like the organization of the building.

109So, it'll be hopefully really good. Is that going to give you an opportunity to consider changing the length of your passing period? Probably. Um, right now I think we slated it at four minutes. I think that's generous. I think if the classes are right next to each other, we can definitely shorten it. Um, and so that's something that we will definitely consider in the future in terms of like looking at some data this year to try to see like how quickly we can get that time down. I know, for example, it will be difficult when students go to exploratory if they're in the seventh grade wing. It's a pretty far, I guess, you know, gallop all the way over to exploratory. So that's the longest time. Um, so we'll have to do some thinking. Maybe

110those periods could be longer and maybe core classes where they're right next to each other could be shorter. Um, that's definitely something we can do. Um, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, there is a lot of interaction before and after school outside. Are there any plans for to eliminate some of the commotion out there? Yeah, I think first and foremost is adequate supervision. And so one of the things we've talked about is making sure people are in specific locations after school um so that we can assure that kids get dismissed from the building and onto buses and to their transportation quickly, efficiently. Um I know one of the other challenges has been to kind of keep high schoolers away from the middle school area. Um and so we've got some plans already drawn up with the maps

111um on where to kind of locate supervision. Um, and then I think in general we're going to do a lot of talking with our kids around school expectations. Um, we want to redesign our MTSS system. We've been redesigning our schoolwide matrix for PBIS and really centering it around like community safety and what it means to be responsible, what it means to be respectful or even kind and what it means to be safe. um and making sure that all of the adults in our space are showing up are having eyes on our students and then they're, you know, having positive conversations with them and encouraging them to do the right thing. Um and with that also comes like if students are not, we will have consequences um for some of those behaviors, but we want to

112work on the restorative side of trying to get them um to positively, you know, interact with their peers and staff first. Um, but we have some good plans um for that and hopefully we'll have a chance to update the board here about um some of the things we've been putting in place and how it's been going. Anyone else? Before you leave, I just want to acknowledge uh Mr. Cooper for his work this past year and helping us achieve uh what was a great report card here. You guys at the middle school hit a lot of your goals and I'm really excited about what's what's going to happen next year. Yeah, same. Thank you. Yeah, I I just have a comment. I've known you for a long time and I know what you can implement, you're

113going to do it. So, I really appreciate everything you've done. Absolutely. And I want to say thank you to the board for giving me the opportunity to come to and to lead. And so, I'm really excited about our future, not only athletics, but with all the things we have in store. Thank you. Last up is Leil. Thank you for your patience. Your mic's off though. Push. All right. Thanks. All right. Well, uh this is a Leo Elementary uh school improvement plan. We're we're excited about doing this. I think the big picture is that we're connecting the dots with everything. Right. Next page is about strategic plan. Um Jenn uh Jennifer Dr. Ivy Tatum's goals, our leadership team's goals at the district, the school's goals and the teachers goals and the students goals should all be

114the same type of thing. So we're we're trying to cohesively put that together and connect the dots for our teachers and then also our community and our staff members and most importantly our students. So I think that's uh key to look at when we were going through this process because you see some of the same things going on. Also a lot of the work Emily and I are we were pretty good classroom teachers at the time. I haven't been in the classroom for 20 years although I've been in the classroom pretty much every day um as an administrator. So uh Kristen Dodie is a first grade teacher. She's part of our school improvement plan. Um Ellen Archer Puffer is a co-teer at uh Leo school as well. Katie Platner is a curriculum implementation teacher. Um

115Max Smith is our one of our is one of our third grade teachers. Matt Terski is our new student engagement advocate this year has done a fantastic job with attendance. Uh Lean Matson, now named Sanford. Lean Sanford is a fifth grade teacher has been our district for five years. And Hannah Kessinger is a fourth grade teacher too. So just to take go through that process, those those people are uh an important part of our school improvement team and it represents all of our team at LE. We've all had all of our staff members be part of our school improvement team this whole entire year broken into three great uh three teams this year and we'll we'll talk about that in a second as well. So we think it's uh leading is like an organizational emphasis

116on everyone leading. It's just not the two of us uh doing everything. So um obviously we talked about stronger together, leading for the future that I was in the strategic team. Um Jennifer, I think you asked a good question about me uh fluency for math. you'll we'll have a little part about that and collaborating with our middle school in the future. Um but we we know that we have to work on fluency for a variety of levels. Um our school year end of the year data is from last year. We didn't make these goals but you know we we're pretty good at looking at them. Um for you know we fell shorten a little bit but fall to winter growth we had 52% for our for our students in English language arts for first or

117fifth grade. Um and then fall to spring growth was 50%. In math, we did a really good job from fall to winter for 61%. And then fall to spring was 52% of our students meeting um their growth targets. Um we also know that it's important that achievement is part of this as well, just not the growth. Um going forward, our chronic absentee rate is kind of fuzzy math because many of our students weren't at least last year or at Yankee Ridge is a combination. Um we did it is 22%. It was 26% according to the Illinois school report card, but it's really kind of apples and oranges. So we know we now have a baseline uh chronic abst rate of about 22% and that's pretty good from what we've seen in the past and in

118arena. So we're we're doing a really pretty good job of that and making relationships. Also I just want to say like lots of these root causes and reflections. It's a thousand little things our staff members do, right? It's a thousand little things our PTA does, our parents do every morning. Um it's just not one thing. It's not just a school improvement plan. how we make students feel welcome and how successful they can be at school. The root causes are the same root causes everyone struggles with when we have difficulty in um certain areas. Our chronic absenteeism is something we want to uh reduce continually. We like all of our students here every day except when they're sick. So um and then classroom disruptions and then you know in Urbana and then other communities too is

119a lack of tier one and tier 2 conrict uh instruction or at least consistent instruction over the years. So when we implement a new program like CLA our fourth and fifth graders haven't had that program since they were in kindergarten first grade. So obviously we're going to have to see some hiccups there. Um but reflecting on it and similar success this school year is our CKLA program with MClass which is the old school way is divvils. Um but it really shows how students learn to read, right? Talks about letter name, letter sound, phmic segmentation, um phonic development and then uh reading accuracy and then obviously fluency and comprehension are the our important parts at the end when we hope every student's really a pretty good critical thinker about that and our MClass data has really

120shown positive hugely positive um growth this school year. So, we're excited that's going to translate to MAP and then eventually it translates to our students college ready um or are they ready for being successful in the middle school, the sixth grade center and the high school as well. Uh Champs program something I've used in a former district of mine is very successful has a common uh a common way of looking at behavior for all of our is a common vocabulary for all of our staff, all of our students and then we can share that with parents as well. Um, as I said before, we have specific SIP action teams this year. Every certified staff member had to be part of an action team that we met monthly. We're going to continue that process next year.

121And then legal expectations was a pretty huge success as well. Um, we're proud to say we didn't have many suspensions this year. Um, if uh kind of just over 10 and then the amount of days was 21. So, we we did a lot of good things. We we shared a lot of good expectations and took action if we needed to help a student with their behavior. Um, oftentimes it's not the behavior in the student. The student's trying to communicate with us, right? And how do we help that student get through the whatever problems that they have. Um, our school improvement components, I won't bore you with reading the slide again. It's the same types of things that everyone else has repeated today. But I do think it really is important that we have the equity

122piece in involved as well. Um while sometimes our achievement gap um isn't so great lately, but it's still it's still a considerable opportunity gap for many of our students um across um our areas for attendance, for math, for reading, for writing, etc. So that being said, hello Mrs. Ryland. Oops, sorry. Um so I'm going to present to you our four uh goals that we have for the 2526 school year. So starting with attendance um by May we would like to reduce the chronic absenteeism rate by 10%. So going from 22 to 19.8 um and that is comparison from this current school year of 2425 and we're going to use Skyward to measure that. Um we also are going to reduce the number of days missed by our black female students um by 20% from this

123current school year and we're going to use Panorama to measure that. So some of our key activities or things we're going to do to support these goals are our tier 2 attendance day and inter data and interventions. We're going to have those individual attendance plans, but we're also going to target um some of our whole school attendance. So we know that before and after breaks or those long weekends or times that we see a lot of our absences. Um and then their specific months like February um is a challenging month as well as May was a challenging month for us. We're going to increase that family education and communication really um using our classroom teachers because we know a lot of the communication goes through them. No matter what we push out or the district

124push out um that relationship is there with the teachers, those nudge letters, postcards, also increasing family visits kind of goes along with that. But then also con constantly doing that weekly or daily review of attendance data and then also including that in our uh CLA collaborations with our grade levels. Um because attendance is a whole school initiative. Um and then just increasing those attendance celebrations individually by classroom and by whole school. And then we're going to continue to improve and document our systems such as MTSS. So then our second goal is um focusing in on culture and climate. And so by May the total number of classroom based office discipline referrals will decrease by 5% from the 24 to 25 school year. And we're going to use um our school referral data to judge that.

125And by May, we're also going to the total number of classroombased office discipline referrals for our black students will decrease by 10% um from the 2425 school year. And we're going to also use our school referral data. Um so some things we're going to do, Craig already talked about and we're going to ensure that that is being consistent throughout all of our classrooms and all of our school spaces. So not just our classroom teachers, but all of our support staff too are using and implementing that. And that'll be like our tier one. and then the implementation of our seven mindsets seal program which will be our tier 2 to support a lot of the champ stuff too. Um we're going to continue to do those LE expectations in the PBIS and that'll be universal. It's

126really about that language, the consistency across all the spaces and then training all of our staff in the use of Panorama. We have it but making sure we're all using it in the same way. um and then continue to refine and monitor those MTSS, our PLC's and our collaboration systems. Our third goal is surrounding literacy. So by the spring of 2026, 55% of our students will meet or exceed their projected growth in first through fifth grade um through targeted intervention and enrichment. And we're going to continue the implementation of CQLA in collaboration with our CLA coach. And then also by spring we're going to have 60% of our black students will meet or exceed their projected growth in first through fifth grade through the targeted intervention and enrichment as well. Also using CLA and our

127CKLA coach. Um so we're going to continue that support of our CKLA implementation. I think our teachers have a really good grasp now and I think we can dig a little deeper. Um and so we're going to utilize our co-eing and coaching to support that. We're also going to continue our UFly tier 2 interventions for all of our students um and identifying using the MClass, also known as Dibbles. Also tracking our unit assessments um using that data to inform it. And then differentiating instruction for all of our learners during our intervention time. I think some intervention times sometimes can get used in different ways and so we're really going to make sure we're you're we're utilizing that time in the way we want to. Uh and then globalizing or globally utilizing Ccla boost. um and

128in menum programs for those individual needs of students when they can't always work one-on-one with a teacher identifying similarities and differences in that background knowledge, those researchbased strategies, those are embedded is throughout Cala. And so we're going to hone in on that and help um use those to really support these goals and then continue to refine and monitor those same systems of MTSS, PL, PLC, and collaboration systems. And then our fourth and final goal is our math goal. So by spring of 2026, 60% of our students will meet or exceed their projected growth in first through fifth grade through the consistent tier one instruction with our IM illustrative math and targeted intervention for number sense and fact fluency. Also, by the spring for our black students, um 65% of our black students will meet or

129exceed their projected growth through consistent tier one instruction with illustrative math and that targeted intervention, also through number sense and fact fluency. So, we're going to continue to differentiate instruction, but we're really going to hone in on those last 15 minutes of math instruction to make sure we're doing that. Um, we're going to train staff to utilize admentum appropriately for the individual needs, but then using extra math to focus in on that fact fluency. um there's a lot of support. So that 10 minutes a day of that practice of fact fluency can really support the growth that we want to see and then continue to refine and monitor those MTSS systems, PLC and collaboration systems. So um we know that the living out the plan was really a focus on quarter one, but we really

130are using this as the whole school year too. So, we're going to do it throughout all four of our quarters and hopefully have a strong emphasis in the beginning of quarter 1 to really set the expectations and standards. And so, that way we can build this community of all of us working towards these goals. And so, Craig had already brought up how we have been using our school improvement teams this past year. And so, we're going to continue that. And so, we have our teaching and learning team, our PBIS and our family engagement and attendance team. and they will work um together to work towards these goals, but they're going to be the ones who are really making sure that those those key actions and activities that we're doing are going to be implemented and

131that we're circling back to see if they're working rather than letting it get through the whole year without checking back in. And so our professional learning community is also going to be part of that in those collaboration meetings. So I guess we're at questions. Go ahead, Jenn. I didn't understand what you meant in the um bullet point sim similarities and differences and the effect size. What what I didn't exactly understand what you meant there. Um it's just one of Marzano strategies there. Marzano has researchbased strategies just like John Hattie does. And so the average effect size is uh point4 I believe it is. And so it was like 1.6. Um so it's a it's a greater effect size. We're just going to focus on that on that strategy as we embed things in our reading

132and math programs as well. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. No worries. Anyone else? All right. All right. Thank you so much. Uh that concludes our school improvement updates for the evening. So we'll move into our administrative reports. Uh first up is a discussion on our board meeting calendar. Okay. So you have a I was going to say chassity as you go. Thank you so much. It is so wonderful to have a director of school improvement who distributes leadership and just used all of our cabinet members to support our principles and our school teams. Yeah, phenomenal work. You're doing a amazing job. Okay, so calendar. So you all have an outline and it is very much um in alignment with what we did this year. Um, and um, let me see. I'm just going to pull

133up this year's calendar. So, I had it in front of me, the actual school calendar. There we go. Um, so the couple times a year where we have to make adjustments are fall break, which this year is October 13th through 17th. Um, so you see we've um kind of gone outside of our first and third Tuesday um routine for that um month of October. Um, and remember just very similar to what we did this year, um, we want all of our staff members to be able to enjoy their fall break and because prepping for board meetings and all the work that goes into preparing for a meeting involves so many different people at central office and at the buildings that we want everyone to just be able to enjoy their break. So, um, that is

134why we are having our first and fourth um, Tuesday meetings um, which is what we did this year. I'm going to go back to August. I know traditionally this board maybe doesn't even remember that but um years ago we would talk about whether we would have that first meeting in August but it has um since I've been here it has been um something that we have um not really discussed as an option because we really need that August meeting um for hiring to approve um new hires and um just a lot of administrative and personnel appointments and things like that that happen early August um will be having um a lot of discussion probably about the sixth grade center opening at that time and we also have another press packet um that is due at

135the end of August. So we'll definitely need both of those August meetings this year. Um winter break fell very nicely with our winter break um calendar. Um winter break is um January I mean sorry December 23rd through January 2nd. Um, and so our meeting schedule really does fall very nicely in line with um with the winter break. Sometimes we have to make adjustments in December and we don't need to do that this year. So that's awesome. Um, spring break is one of those months we always have to make a change um because we are continuing to follow the university calendar for spring break which is March 16th through the 20th. Um, also we have those two meetings um, back toback in March instead of doing the first and fourth, which is what we're doing in

136the fall. Um, we like to have those two meetings in March, so we can make sure if we have any reduction in force needs. Um, I know the state law and the there's some changes in school code around reduction and force where we don't have to meet that 45 days before the end of the year, but it's still been our practice to do so. Um, so we give our staff plenty of time and notice and conversation and we we're not waiting um until the end of the year. Even though we have a little more flexibility to do that, we want to keep that um those two March meetings as our goalpost to make sure that if we are doing any reductions um based on grants or um any other positions that we are um needing

137to make changes, we're doing that at those two March meetings. I think those are the only areas I really wanted to highlight. Um, we kept our time the same unless there's um a reason why board if board members want to talk about the 6 pm time. I think it has worked really well um especially for having students um come to our meetings more. I feel like um it is been a little more participatory in terms of when we want to celebrate and recognize our staff and um students just having people come in person more often. That earlier start time really does help that. Before we start start time, I'd like to make sure that we're going to have a quorum in those August meetings. So if people have have known travel plans for August that

138conflict with these proposed dates, now would be the time to let us know. Yes, please. For August 5th in August, especially the August 5th date, which is normally one of the reasons why it's been discussed. Traditionally, the reason that had been moved is people taking kids to college or whatever, they would they would we would struggle to get a quorum some years, but um yeah, I'll be here, but I don't know about any of the rest of you. Okay. Okay. First day of school is um for teachers is August 13th, which is why that August 5th meeting is important if we've got people we need to hire and approve. Um and the first day for students is August 18th. So, it is kind of right in the middle of that. Yeah. Yeah. I I really

139appreciate the the November dates this year because going to Chicago for the uh conference and then having to come back and have to go back in two days. really works out really well this year. So, it'd be nice to continue that, but we can't um because of Thanksgiving. Yeah, we can't control when Thanksgiving falls, but it is perfect this year. Yes. And I probably won't be here in September, so all right. I guess there major conflicts that people have or see or No. Okay. Hopefully, we'll have a seventh board member by then. So it won't be as critical. We will. I know. I'm just kid. I'm kidding. Well, one will be chosen for us if we don't get it done. Yes. Um Mhm. All right. I mean, as far as the dates are concerned, anyone

140else want to make a comment? Okay. So, we can pivot now to the time is six o'clock has worked, I think, well, the past couple years, but if people want to discuss, you know, a different start time, now would be be the the point to do that. It works. It works. It works especially well for staff. Um so they don't have to hang out for an extra half hour, hour before our meeting starts. Yeah, that's been nice. And we can get out of here maybe a little earlier instead of having midnight meetings. So, all right. Um yeah, I think we've got a a tenative um meeting schedule that we would vote on next time, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Okay. Um, our last administrative report of the evening is the tenative budget. Okay, turn it over

141to Maryanne is going to lead this. Thank you. Okay, good evening. Tonight I'm presenting to you a very tentative budget for fiscal year 26. Um, the tentative budgets brought to you every year um in June. So, we have a budget in place to operate our new fiscal year which starts July 1. And then the final budget, which will be a lot more data driven and have a lot more hard facts, is going to be brought to you in September. You will see um in front of you as I'm going through just kind of reviewing things, you'll have your summary of the tenative budget changes for the ED fund, your tenative budget assumptions and notes, and the budget summary. And as you can see, I'm presenting a slight deficit budget based on the current information that

142we have. Um there's a lot of unknowns right now. I'm sure you've been seeing some of the things in the news. Uh and so with all the unknowns in the revenue, I've been very conservative with our revenues and have it's very tentative. Um the focus right now is all on the ed fund and so you'll see all of the other funds will reflect no changes until the final budget. As I was budgeting the revenue, again, I was very conservative. you'll see that I only put in 600,000 increase for property taxes. Um, and I think last year at this time when Carol was presenting the tenative budget, they didn't um, budget any of any revenue for real estate taxes at this time just because our property tax revenue is received in two portions of two tax

143levy cycles. And so I'll have a more definitive number for you at the final. Um, we received documentation that we're resolving the refund liability with Presence Hospital, and you're actually going to be voting on that tonight. This is a one-time payment that has been set aside in our fund balances, and it should be resolved and due to the final documentation that we just received today. It has to be resolved by June 25th or within 10 days of you guys voting tonight. Um, so this will be reflected in the final budget and it's going to mainly impact the district's cash flow and our fund balances because it's been kind of set aside as a reserve. Um, you will also notice that TIF 4 is expiring on December 31st of 2025. After conversations with the city, we've

144missed our deadline to file for an extension on that TIF. Should the city decide that it wants to apply for an extension, it'll be during the fall veto session. And as of right now, this will not impact our FY26 budget, but we will want to balloon levy to be able to capture all that possible EAB property. And it's um anticipated that this will be the last year that we'll receive that 50,000 for the technology from TIFF 4 with it expiring in December, but we will be able to offset it with the increase of tax revenue from that TIFF. I was also very conservative with 350,000 for the um state evidence-based funding. The state approved the FY26 budget which included an increase in evidence based funding which is excellent for us. Um if the district remains

145tier one, we should see a significant increase in that revenue and so I'll adjust it for the final um budget meeting. And in the state budget, it there was discussion about some lowering of the um evidence-based funding model, but that was really just for the property tax relief grant. They're putting that on pause for FY26, and that doesn't impact us because we've applied for it every year, but we don't get it. Um, so all of the other mandated categoricals for the state's budget remain flat and it will re be reviewed in the final budget. The district's also receiving um revenue in FY26 from some energy incentives and credits. The solar project at Thomas Payne has been completed and the anticipated revenue is reflected in your summary sheet. It is anticipated that the three projects that

146we are completing or that we're implementing which there was two at the sixth grade center with geo one was geothermal and solar and we had solar and then geothermal that we've but the geothermal at um Thomas Payne has already been completed. So we're anticipating that the three remaining solar and geothermal um projects will be completed and we should be able to receive that revenue in FY26. We're waiting. I think we're in conversation with Amarind about kind of giving us that stamp of approval by June 30th. So, we're really hoping that we can get that in time and then working with IGW to ensure that the geothermal is ready to go for the um uh geothermal at the sixth grade center as well. And these are just a one-time revenue allocation, but it should help us

147with our um supports with our I'm losing my train of thought. I can't think of the word. It's our energy like utilities. Thank you. Oh my god. Sorry about that. Yeah. So, it will um still help us with our utilities. Thank you, John. As for um the expenditures, these reflect a snapshot in a moment of time. It includes salary increases from the collective bargaining agreement and board approval. I'm kind of going through the um budget assumptions. This is our first year with the sixth grade center, so there's a lot of unknowns and without any historical background. So, administration has made the best estimate of additional cost which has been discussed at previous board meetings and we'll continue to make adjustments once we occupy the facility and have more data available. And I've also been in

148communication with the park district as well about the district's portion of the indoor aquatic um c center's estimated loss. It is currently estimated to be about 266,665 which is what we allocated last year at this time. Um, we are entering our second year of a three-year agreement and I've been looking into the history of the pool and we'll be having further discussions with the park district and then this very tentative budget will be coming to your approval on June 17th. I know that there's a lot of information there. So, the way that I kind of did it was I took the um increases in the revenues which we kind of discussed about. you'll see on your summit uh summary page and then those are reflected into your tenative budget summary. But again, the majority all

149the focus was on um fund 10 which is our ED fund and then everything else was kind of carried over from last fiscal or FY25 for the revenues and expenditures. a lot of information for folks. Um any any questions for Mary? And this is pretty I mean I've done this I guess third my 13th time with this now. This is pretty typical um going in from year to year that whereas we tend to be very conservative both in our revenue and our uh expense estimates. So coming out with a 1% deficit in the tenative budget is not out of the out of whack. um you know, would we be more concerned in the fall when we get the real numbers in and things kind of look like we're de, you know, we're deficit spending? At

150that point, we'd have to make a judgment as to what we would do for the following fiscal year with regards to structural deficits. But, um, this is from my eyes, this is fairly typical from what we get in in June. And if you do have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me and we can have like a one-on-one conversation or I can even walk you through it. We can schedule something. Y exactly. Just be prepared to vote on this in two weeks. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And expect it to change too. It will be very different in the fall. So this is just a tenative and it's so we can continue with the next fiscal year and so um we I'm kind of looking at Lindsay too. So it we have to

151approve a tenative budget so we can start with the next fiscal year. Okay. Right. It's it's part of our board policy as well. I mean some some districts do it differently than we do but uh it's part of our board policy to do this before July 1. Um, all right. Moving on to action items. Um, it says consent here, but I don't think we should do them in consent. No, they should be individual action items. So, let's let's take them one at a time. Uh, first up is a resolution authorizing and directing the sale or disposal of personal property in accordance with state law. Uh this is uh student desk, student chairs, teacher desks, tables, office chairs, homemade shelves, miscellaneous plastic storage products, and library books from Leo. Um is there a motion to approve

152the resolution for disposal of personal property? So moved. Is there a second? Second. So moved and seconded. Any questions, comments, discussion? Uh roll call, please. Member Hixon, yes. Me me member Maru, yes. Me. Uh, member Jones, yes. Member Langodorf, yes. Vice President Baxley, yes. President Palowski, yes. Uh, motion passes. Uh, next action item is a settlement agreement with President's Hospital, county officials, and taxing districts. So, this is the longstanding um uh disagreement with uh regards to um monies that were held in an old tiff for years that uh were subject to a pending question from uh from presence hospital at the time. um uh agreement has been reached with uh with presence and all the taxing bodies, not just their banana school district with regards to returning the the money uh that was held but

153not spent. So when the tiff closed years ago, the school district received those funds that we've been h holding them in escrow um pending uh settlement of of uh disagreement. So um we're basically returning all the money back to presence. That's that's the the short um summary of it. Back when we had the the initial settlement with Carl, it was a much much much different situation. The the court had hadn't really adjudicated the matter. So, the school district was able to get a much more favorable split of those proceeds. Um but now that um things are different now. Um, so it's all going back to presence and uh we're just glad that this kind of 20 plus year saga is is going to be um behind us. Um so I guess uh before I guess

154we have a group discussion on it, I the chair would entertain a motion to approve the settlement agreement with present hospital. I move to approve the settlement agreement with presence hospital county officials and taxing districts resolving pending property tax exemption litigation subject to final review and revision by council. Thank you. Uh is there a second? Second. Been moved and seconded. Any any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. I was just going to say that I'm just glad that that we can close the door on this and start planning for the future. I think it's really been prevented us a lot from different things that we want to do and seeing the future in a different way. So, okay. Um, member Maru, yes. Member Jones, yes. Member Langdenorf, yes. Vice President Baxley, yes. President

155Palowski. Yes. Member Hixon. Yes. Motion passes. Um, also accompanying this agreement is basically intergovernment agreement for all the other taxing bodies that are party to this settlement agreement. So, we've got got verbiage to basically uh describe what the taxing bodies are doing in concert with one another. Um, is there a motion to approve the inter the accompanying intergovernmental agreement? I move to approve the intergovernmental agreement with county officials and taxing districts regarding President's Hospital property tax exemption litigation subject final review and revision by council. Is there a second? I second. Moved in a second. Any further questions, comments, or discussion? Roll call, please. Sorry, it's fast. Could you just give some more information about what that means regarding subject to final review um in the motion? Oh, so you have an email um that I

156sent you about an hour before our meeting because the attorney sent it to us around almost 4 o'clock. Um it so as of where we are right now the agreement that you have in front of you is um basically where we are but um it sounded like right Maryann there's one more meeting possibly and all the other taxing bodies also have to a agree and have this and do the same um intergovernmental agreement. So, if there are any tweaks, um, as of right now, we have our final allocation. We have the dates that we're supposed to, um, make the payment, make the payment, and, um, so if any of that were to change based on presence requests or based on some other negotiation that may not have happened yet, um, we want to be able

157to not bring this back again, um, because it has to be taken care of by June 25th. So, um, if there are any little minor tweaks that the attorneys have to make, um, we we only have one more meeting this month, so we'd be outside of the scope of being able to bring it back to you guys anyway. Um, so, but we're already guaranteed that the district the amount of money the district is paying won't change. Yep. That's been locked down. Absolutely. Okay. Member Jones. Yes. Member Langadorf. Yes. Vice President Baxley. Yes. President Palowski? Yes. Member Hixon, yes. Member Maru, yes. Motion passes. Uh there is a call for a special meeting in two days for uh for board training purposes. It's going to be held at the at middle school room 1520. And this

158is our module three requirement that we have to meet um for the state for having an intensive school designation. So, thank you for that extra clarification. Yes. Um superintendent report. Okay. Oh yes, there will be. Yes. Um yeah, we will have we will have Are we being fed basically? Yes. Yes. Yes. Lori will reach out to you about your food choice. Um I just wanted to highlight there was a really nice article um or news story from WD about our summer meal program. Um, but I also just wanted to highlight it for our families that might be watching or staff members communicating with families um to make sure that people know when they can come and get um free summer meals. Um you don't do anything. You just show up to one of our school

159sites at the times listed here um on this flyer. Please share it. Um people who can eat, we can't feed adults. We only feed children 18 and under. Um you don't be have to be enrolled in one of the programs that are happening. And um so it is it is a great opportunity for families who may be concerned about food security, food, food insecurity. Um we also have a lot of um kind of programs that uh like inh home daycarees and people who are um watching kids in the summer who um tend to bring their students out to take advantage of the free summer meals. And so, um, it's something we've done for many years and I just want to make sure we highlight as much as we can and we only have this meeting

160and one more meeting to do that. And next is um I also wanted to just uh shout out for board members. I'd encourage you to visit. I know summer maybe is a little more um relaxed in terms of maybe your work schedules um if you want to pop in and um just see any of the programming that is going on. So the big one at King is see you around town. Um last count we had almost 180 students signed up for that um program which is the largest we've had in a really long time. So we're very excited about that. Um it is uh for first through fourth graders. Um and then Camp Invention is a um oneweek uh camp that we've uh hosted for several years. This year it'll be at Yankee Ridge. Um

161it's been at King, it's been at Leo. Um and then has a couple of different programs happening that are open that were open to anyone who wanted to participate. Um but this list is not exhaustive. You know, we also have other programs that are invite only like um the special education extended school year programming. Um, we have some middle school transition programming um in basically summer school um that happens at the high school that our um our uh high schoolers sign up if they need to repeat a class maybe that they didn't do very well in during the year. Um some of our high school students work ahead um and earn credits in the summer. So um those are not listed here, but um summer school at the high school starts next week and goes

162into that um the week of July 13th. Um and then again, we have no programs on June 19th on um uh June 19th. Um and that is a day off because of the federal holiday. And last but not least, uh Randy, um as requested, uh we're going to try to bring you a sixth grade center update, um as much as we can. So here I'm going to turn this over to Randy so he can talk about some sixth grade center construction updates. Okay, just quick update. Um brick work is finishing. Um the finishing brick brick work is ongoing. Um painting continues in the new addition. The old section is complete except for some minor touch-ups. Um most of the windows are installed. Um the storm shelter windows uh have been delivered scheduled for installation this

163week. Kitchen equipment is scheduled for installation on June 17th. Uh the epoxy flooring is complete throughout the building except in the locker rooms and I believe that's supposed to be um starting this week or maybe even finishing this week. Um I didn't go in there today uh to see where they're at, but uh um should be getting close. The case work um which is like the cabinets and stuff like that is uh complete. I think we're waiting on like one piece to come in, but um it should be in here shortly. uh flooring, BCTs installed in classrooms uh in the hallways on the north end. Uh we're just waiting to get them cleaned and waxed. Uh corkboards and marker boards installation is nearly complete. It would have been complete if we hadn't uh if I

164hadn't added about I don't know 10 or 12 more uh geothermal system uh the uh boring is complete. horizontal line installation uh will begin next week and is expected to take approximately three weeks to get the system hooked up um flushed out and uh make sure that there's no leaks and stuff. Um have it tested. Uh heat pumps uh were delivered and placed in the rooms. Um they're just waiting insulation, but I think we may try to wax before we install those, but they can go ahead and u make sure all the plumbing is there just so they can put them in place and hook them up. Um, we're hoping to have the new electrical service u maybe by the end of this week and uh any of the doors that we had to um

165purchase are currently being hung in the building. Oh, and the library shelding um is in it's in our warehouse just waiting to be uh waiting for the library to be ready to uh accept them. That's a lot. Um that's it for super uh board reports. Um we do have one matter I think we need to discuss as a board and that is we did receive uh three uh people who were interested in filling the board seat. So I we needed now to kind of discuss a process uh by which um we select um a candidate. What what typically happens when we've got multiple applicants is the League of Women Voters comes in and questions are asked, you know, in public session. The board interviews the candidates in private section and deliberates in private and then

166comes out with with their selection for um who's going to take the seat. So, can I be clear? We have three people that are interested, but we don't have their applications as of yet. So, they all have applications as of Friday. These are Yeah, these are people who have indicated interest. Yes. Is there a deadline for completing the applications? So, um the they were told that they'd become they have questions. So, um I think the request was that a board member reach out to them um and just answer their questions and um I think they would want to know a little bit about the process as well. basically what we're talking about right now. I mean, so we've got we had 45 days uh since the first meeting in May to do this before the

167regional superintendent um is powered to select for us. So that would be June 14th, 15thish. But I think he'd be um because we didn't have any applicants or even interest until Friday. So, but yes, so when I talked to him, he basically said, "I can't appoint anyone if you don't have anyone interested." And so, now that we have three candidates that are interested, um I think just if somebody I don't know, Sherry, it sounds like you're nodding. Are you willing to call? Okay. Um and these are all King um parents. So, um, if we do have multiple candidates, so I think we need to to pencil in a date by which we could do the interview if there's only one, the league the league wouldn't participate and it's kind of pointless really for us to

168hold a interview for one person. So, um, we have a meeting on the whole Yeah. What's the agenda looking like for the 17th? So, we'll have the remainder of the um school improvement presentations that we haven't seen yet and um we'll have a couple of action items. Um and that is about it. The That's what I mean. We got vote on the budget. We'll have a couple of action items to approve and I mean that is it. Just our end of the year. We've done all of our grant um reports. It'll be outside. So, but so the regional the regional superintendent would have the ability to do it, but they I think if we talked to him, he'd he'd allow us. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, um when I talked to him, he was giving us

169a lot of leeway and grace because we we haven't had anyone to even appoint. So, yeah. Um I'm sure I'm I'm confident that he would rather us do it than than he do it. So I I think that if we had two or three candidates who wish to go through the whole process, that wouldn't take us more than an hour or or at most 90 minutes. So adding that to what sounds like a a you know fairly light agenda wouldn't be burdensome, I don't think, to do it just two weeks from today if they're interested doing that following the meeting. Is that what you're saying? Having Uh we could do it following or we could do it up front. Um probably easier on on admin if we did it up front. I'm sorry that at

170the end. At the end. Yeah. So we will have another whole group of people come to do presentations kind of what we had tonight. So that will probably be starting at approximately 7:30 7:30 7:30 the the you depending on the length of the uh improvement plans. which can take a while. So, are we going to reach out to the league to ask them to come? That's that's that's a harder thing is saying, "Well, it'll start kind of around this time." Um, so, uh, I could do that part of it. I'll just coordinate with you, Sherry, with regards to if we have multiple candidates or not. And then I'll I'll I'll see if I can we can get like I'll tell them, you know, 7:30 on in two weeks from today. Court pros. I'm not sure

171who's doing it now. Oh, it's not Trisha anymore. It's Oh, that's okay. Okay. All right. Is the central office closed now on Fridays? Is that um not until next Friday is the first first Friday. So, would it be reasonable to have if they're going to uh submit an application that they would have it in by next Thursday and that way we would know June 12th? That'd be great. Okay. And I think we should give a date, you know. Sure. Got to have it in. And if Right. If there's anybody else in the public who wishes to to uh apply by by June 12th, um they would also have that ability, not just these three people. Right. Absolutely. Okay. I think we kind of have a agreement. All right. Any other board reports this evening? The

172other thing I wanted to bring up regarding calendar is that we had talked about different times when board members would meet with the public so that with outside of this room and I'm hoping to have something more in place when we begin in um the fall so that there's specific dates so the community knows that on the second or the fourth what particular day that one of us would be available or two of us would be available to have just a private chat. Anyone else? If if uh we are done with reports, the chair would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed. We're adjourned for this evening. Uh, see you folks