001I have one. >> I have two older brothers. >> Oh, okay. >> I'm like remember that one, right? But then sometimes >> okay >> I was just saying I feel like I'm miles away. >> I'm not used to that. >> I have not yet. I was just doing over like what was that? >> Yeah, they're low. I feel really low. It's not just you. >> Okay, I can do that. >> Sure. like to call the reading to order. You all please stand for the pledge. May I ask our lakes ambassadors to please lead us in republic of the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Would you please do a roll call? >> Miss Nixon. Nixon or Gibson? >> Gibson. >> Hi. >> Miss Pritchard. >> Mr.
002Szac. >> Present. >> Mr. Pagney. >> Present. >> Miss Jacobs. >> She's out of the country. >> Miss Dixon. >> Yes. >> Miss Carol. >> We have a quum. Thank you. We'll begin with a statement. Bullying, harassment, racism, sexism, and hate speech have no place in Community High School District 117 is committed to creating a rich, equitable, and respectful learning environment for all. We believe in our mission statement, which you heard was ignite passion and discovery in every student. We'll continue to develop ways to extend the thinking, learning, and other opportunities for all of our students, our staff, and their families. To that end, it is critically important that we are expressing and stating that bullying, harassment, racism, sexism, and hate speech of any and all kinds are not acceptable and have no place in
003our district. Please work with us to discourage, report, and address these hurtful behaviors. Next item on the agenda is public comments. The opportunity to speak to the board is provided for members of the public who have a comment to make about the business of the board. The board appreciates hearing from stakeholders and values your thoughts and questions. The board strives to make best decisions for the district and public input is very helpful. The board must protect the civility and decorum of this meeting. Please be respectful of the duties of the board and the democratic process in your comments tonight. Please state your name and address and address your comments to the board. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Please be factual and courtous and the request that you not make statements that are personally
004disrespectful or condescending to members of the board or to staff. To the extent that there may be multiple speakers addressing a single issue, I reserve the right to limit the number of speakers making public comment of a repetitive nature andor limit the amount of time for public comment. The board does not respond to comments or attempt to answer questions during the public comment period. So, at this point, anyone care to make any public comments. This is the opportunity. >> Okay. >> You can come up and stand in the middle here if you'd like. >> Yeah. Anywhere in the middle there. And Dr. Barry has a Chromebook with a threeminut timer so you can kind of see how you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you for having me. All right. Uh ladies and
005gentlemen of the board, esteemed colleagues and fellow community members. Um, I come here tonight as a former educator, current resident, and taxpayer of the district. And, uh, I'm here in regards to a deeply troubling social media post made by, uh, current board member Sue Dixon. Uh, the post was part of a keep New York City trash-free campaign, and it depicted, I suppose, stereotypical conservatives, including a woman just holding a Bible, uh, with a slash through it, labeling them as trash to be kept out of public life. The implication of this post is pretty clear. If you have traditional, conservative, or Christian values, um, like many people in this room, including myself and many people in the community at large, then you're unworthy of respect. And much like literal trash, you should be discarded. Um, you
006just read the message to everybody here and the website as well. Bullying, harassment, racism, sexism, and hate have no place in this school district, but Miss Dixon's post suggests otherwise. uh placing that rhetoric quite literally on the board itself. Um if the alternative were to happen, if a board member posted a crude stereotype of somebody who was maybe black or gay or Jewish or any other group depicting them as trash, the outcry would be swift and justified and immediate action would likely be taken. Hate is unacceptable regardless of who it targets and this double standard undermines public trust. It's not about politics, but it's about professionalism and fitness for office. Under 105 ILCS510-16.5, members swear an oath to encourage uh free expression and promote the district's reputation by publicly disparaging a portion of our community.
007Miss Dixon violates that oath. Uh school board members must model civility and fairness, especially for the children uh who look to you for examples of respectful discourse. I urge the board to take decisive action including publicly declaring misconduct unacceptable and inconsistent with the district values in Illinois school code. Uh consider a formal censure of Miss Dixon to reaffirm impartial governance and strengthen policies on board member conduct and social media use to preserve public confidence. Our community deserves better leadership. Leadership that makes decision free from bias. ensuring every citizen, regardless of viewpoint, can approach the board with trust and fairness. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Anyone else like to make any public comments? >> We don't have a I'm sorry. We don't have a room microphone. So, >> we'll just listen. >> Oh,
008that's for the video so people at home can hear. So, >> I will do my best to project considering I have my high school theater teacher right here. My name is Sarah Gillette. I um am a district parent. I have two students at Lakes. Um, and I'm really here just to embarrass my AP government student who's sitting here. Um, but I really was thinking of what I wanted to say and what the school board is pretty much the mo one of the most important institutions in our democracy. It is local government that directly impacts our children and our community. Um, I didn't vote for all of you, but all of you won your seats in a contested election. We had a choice as a community and we continue to have a choice. And what's amazing
009about a school board is that people come from different walks of life. They have different views. They have um different values. And you all come together for our students to make good decisions. And I want to thank you personally for being good stewards to our community. As a taxpayer, we've seen um news reports of how great you are fiscally, how great you are keeping our debt down and making sure we have beautiful facilities and just really taking care of all the pieces of the pie. um opportunities our students have that the board takes care of or the district takes care of other schools don't have such as um my family's taking care of or taking advantage of counseling in school um as well as even what you help out with the AP students. It's amazing
010that you're able to reduce that cost and that also the other part that you have as a parent. You take care of our students and the decisions that you make in here. You have all made great decisions and have given all three of my students, even the one who just started in the district, wonderful opportunities. I had a student who came in, my current sophomore in college, is at the top of her class, um, partially at Twain, partially in New Orleans, and she almost didn't make it through her freshman year, but there were people here at this school down to someone in the tech department catching a message that was showed that she needed help that got her through. And I will always come and thank you guys for it because just this whole this
011this whole organization takes care of students. And again, I didn't vote for all of you, but I thank all of you for taking care of our students. You do an amazing job, and I'm very proud that my students get to come to District 117 schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Any other public comments? >> Yes. Hello. >> Hello. >> My name is Michael Swornaco. I'm a Republican committeeman in Antioch, but here I'm a father today. I've had three children go through this high school. One has graduated, two currently attend. I am very concerned. I'm concerned because a board member here thinks I'm trash. So, if I'm trash, my friends are trash. which also makes my children trash. That's not okay. It's not fair. The rhetoric that was posted, if you change
012the color on the faces, the race, there would be uproar throughout the district. But because it's white conservatives, it's okay. Even though we make up the majority of the school district, Antioch is one of the most conservative towns in the state of Illinois. I worry for my children here. It's It's terrifying. It's demonic. Demonic what was posted. It's evil. That's all. There. Any other public comments? Hi there. I'm also a community member and I would just like to um point out that the Chain of Lake Patriots is here. A Mikey Mikey Mikey posted uh a post that said no Kings protest 10:18. Our words only normal people stay home please. That is inappropriate language and I really don't think that word. >> It means >> I'm not talking to you. I'm not talking to you.
013>> I'm not talking to you. >> You can only have one person talk when you're every time. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, I just wanted to point that out. So, grain of salt with everything that's said. Also, whoever's in the handicap parking space, please move your car before you get towed. Do we have any other public comments? >> I would just ask that you direct your comments to the board, not to other people in the room. So, thank you. >> Uh, good evening everyone. My name is Randy Herner. I'm a Lake Villa resident. Thank you for the clock. Appreciate it. I want to take a minute to talk about something that's bigger than any one person and that's the first amendment. Maybe there's been a lot of conversation about something Sue Dixon shared online.
014People have strong feelings about it and that's okay. In fact, that's what free speech is all about. Being able to express ourselves and also respond when we disagree. But I think it's important to remember that same freedom that lets us speak up also protects her right to speak. The first amendment doesn't just cover the things we like or agree with. It also protects the things that makes us uncomfortable or start tough conversations. If someone says something you don't like, the answer isn't to silence them. It's to use your own voice. That's how healthy communities work. We talk, we disagree, we learn from each other. I'm not here to defend what was said. I'm here to defend the right to say it. Because once we start picking and choosing whose speech gets protected, none of us
015are truly free to speak our minds anymore. We hold each other accountable. Absolutely. We can expect respect and professionalism from those who serve. We also have to protect the basic right that allows all of us, parents, teachers, board members, and community members to have voice in the first place. Free speech isn't always comfortable. It's the foundation of open dialogue and democracy and that's something worth standing up for. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do >> you have any other public comments? >> Hello everyone. I know some of you new faces to me. However, I would like to address the post in question. We don't need to decide or reiterate here, but we do want to address the previous comment made about freedom of speech. I don't think the first amendment or violations of the first amendment
016are at question here. Uh just to recap what the first amendment truly stands for, it's to ensure that a government cannot arrest or imprison those for your you have the right to say what you want to say. However, there are consequences to your speech. The posting question, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many parents in the community, as well as students, goes far beyond personal opinion. It was inflammatory, divisive, and unacceptable for someone in a position of leadership within the school system, especially those that have influence over our children and the hiring decisions of those that manage and watch over our children on a day-to-day basis. Parents and families place great trust in school leadership, administration, and teachers to model professionalism, respect, and inclusivity. Publicly sharing rhetoric of this nature undermines that trust
017and calls into question the very judgment of those within the community as well as with those within the school body. We want to ensure that we are placing the best in the leadership positions within our school systems to ensure that we have a bright prosperous future for our next generation and to ensure that despite what party our parents might vote for that they can comfortably send their children to school without fear of retaliation from an administrator, a teacher or a leadership uh individual. And lastly, I would like to address the importance of every voter, I'm assuming everybody here is a voter, to ensure that we are properly vetting candidates that are running for local offices. It can be hard, especially when we see a name on a sign, but it's imperative to and every one
018of our responsibilities to ensure that we're voting for the right people. We're putting the right people in leadership positions to ensure that our communities will continue to prosper moving forward. With that being said, I do want to address that overall we do have a strong functioning school system. We have great parks. We have great facilities. We have great operations. However, there are many other areas that we want to address as well. Especially, and I understand my time here, especially when we address the most important KPI, key performance indicator of all, and that is the education and the test scores that our students are receiving. We understand that we have not met precoid level test scores. That should be the primary focus of our at this school board. And that's what I would like to see
019focused and shared in social media, not personal opinions or matters that attack our community members. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> There any other public comments? My name is Alex Caner. I am a precinct committeeman of of uh precinct 2, which is Channel Lake. I'm also a former Aniac High School graduate of 2018. I've gone to district 117 for my last two years and hearing the comments of school board members and of most of the of some of the community over the last six, seven years that I've lived in the town of Antioch has really been disgusting, disheartening, and honestly not making me want to have any of my future kids or any of my friends want to attend any of these schools. because of these school board members who think they can say whatever
020they want just because they have a differing opinion. And for the two years that I went to Antioch, I withheld my opinion after having a vocal one-time opinion of saying if I was a registered voter at the time, which I was 16 or 17 at the time, and I couldn't vote, I would vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or Ben Carson. And Ben Carson was my first choice. That was until Donald Trump spoke up for people like me, my family, and my friends, the silent majority, the people who are patriotic Americans. And I'm showing up here speaking for one of my very few times at only 26 years old, showing anyone, any of the students here to not be afraid to speak up. Sure, it's may get some hate, may get uh
021a plagiarism accusation, you may get some hate from your teachers, may get some grade deductions. It doesn't matter. Stand up. Speak your voice. You can't trust on anybody else. And you will find friends that are just like you. They will stand by your side through thick and thin no matter what. And I'm glad to find people that same have that same opinion or respect my opinion enough even though we are different. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comments? Moving on the agenda then we will go to our presentations and I believe this hearing. >> Yes. So I am pleased to introduce our curriculum and instruction leadership team. So if I could have Alan Waller who is our assistant superintendent and then our building level assistant principles, Dr. Jacqueline Borlov, that's at Antioch and
022then Sophia Leia Rockos here at Lakes. Um you may recall uh board members and public that in August that we provided you with different um updates that we would be providing these updates throughout the board as far as or throughout the school year as far as goals and the metrics that we have chosen. So um the first one which we will highlight is centered around the competency of courageousness and specifically the goal is to integrate instructional supports into practice to improve student performance. So, I'm going to leave the details up to these three experts here, but basically um what we're looking at or what we did look at look at is sophomore level took a major assessment um and they identify students that were not reaching their potential. So then just like this board uh
023goal says of integrating instructional sports supports that's exactly what we did and again they'll talk more specific about that but um we and we um integrated those instructional supports. Then their junior year they took another uh large assessment and we were able to then look at those students that we had identified to see if they were meeting or exceeding their expected benchmark growth their junior year. So again, I will leave it to our CNI experts here to provide more details about the board goal along with they will also share some of the other incredible things they're doing in our schools. So thank you. >> Beautiful. >> So uh for this evening, uh Sophia and Jack and I are going to discuss a couple different things. As you can see with our agenda, Arian noted that
024we're going to take a look at our board metric goal, which is quite intentional. We're going to take a look at uh last spring, how we fared um in our ACT data. We'll also take a look at AE analysis, looking at our advanced placement classes and how our students performed in those um our kumla uh data as well as looking at some of the things in the future that curriculum instruction are going to focus on. So, what you're looking at here, um, it is hard. I apologize for some of you in the back to be able to see, but this is a scatter plot. And what we did, as Arian talked about, is when our current seniors were sophomores. We looked at their PSAT 10 scores and if they had not met expected growth, we
025identified those students. And then what Sophia is going to talk about momentarily is how can we intervene? How can we support them? How can we help them grow? And so you can see on this scatter plot here, this bottom blue line, you can see the dots that are below that blue line. Those are the identified students and those are who we honed in on in 2425. And those are kind of the students we want to talk a little bit about today. I do want to just briefly mention because it's easy to get confused about two words that are up here because um they're on the same slide and yet they tell different stories. So over here you see the idea of growth and when you see growth think of those students and how they're being
026compared to their peers in the district in the past. Okay? So think of those that came before them. Are they growing or how are they growing compared to those students that came before them? Propensity is different though. The easiest synonym I can use for propensity is potential. So propensity is comparing a student to themselves. How are they growing compared to how we expect them to grow? And so we're going to kind of tell the story of both propensity and growth a little bit. >> And Dr. Waller, I might be thinking how how could you possibly know the individual's potentials based on their previous test scores that eth grade. >> Thank you for saying that and I should have said that Dr. Floyd. So the way we get the propensity score is um with our consulting
027partner ECRA they take a look at the historical uh assessment data on those students and they can literally quantify for each individual student based on how you've performed the last three or four years. This is how much we think you can grow and then another student their potential for growth might be different just based on the historical data. So thank you for bringing that up Sophia. >> So knowing that goal we have to make sure that we implementing approaches that it's not a one-size fit all model, right? So, we had to tackle and look at to help our students reach that potential. So, in the fall of uh 2024, they took the PSAT and MST. So, we could see a little bit if there was self growth from sophomore to that fall um the fall
028date, but we're looking from spring to spring. Then, because as you guys know, last year the state decided to say, you know what, we're not going to do ACT anymore. We're going to go back to ACT. So, we're starting back from scratch. So, we wanted to make sure gave our students the opportunity to be exposed to that assessment. So, we did a January practice ACT so they could model and look at the format of what the ACT is going to look like when they take it in the spring. Now, we also used that data. So, not did we only take that ACT in January, we used the data that showed where the kids needed the most those benchmarks, right? And the teachers, the core departments took those skills and they implemented it silently. If you
029see some of the students that are here, they like implemented skills whether with whether versus like see no red ink. We have these platforms no red ink or social skills where they use a DBQ project. So we were the four departments were intentional on how they're implementing the skills that they saw our our students needed to grow when they take the assessment in the springtime. We also have our ACT prep course, the operator students ACT prep course which starts from February all the way to March. So there's a couple like there's a week you know they finish in March and then they can do another practice before it starts. We also have an ACT boot camp which is like crash course ACT a 4hour uh ACT boot camp course which is all about not the
030skills but uh test strategies for the students to be able to take the test right because it's not only skills but it's also those strategies that's going to get you to finish the test answer the questions uh appropriately. If you look at this, right, the ACT practice test, ACT practice, ACT boot camp. When we go to the practice test, we wanted our kids to have another opportunity in the spring before they take the practice. They before they take the ACT, we partnered with Compass and they gave us a free code for our students. So, this was optional for the students to take on a Saturday whenever they decided. We got free for them to sit at home for four hours to take a practice ACT and then they get a score from Compass and an
031analysis to also see if they grew from January to March before they actually take it in April. So they had that opportunity as well. We had 100 kids from both buildings take up take us up on it and um Compass shared that analysis as well with us. So it was great and with the students so they could kind of target where they wanted if they were you know they had that pace and they could figure that out. All this with our the students that we identified would have not been possible from our student achievement committee. They did a lot of work to reach out to the students that we identified. They went up gave them invitations to the ACT prep course, the ACT boot camp. They um kind of they were like their cheerleaders in
032a way to know that these are the opportunities for you. Please take advantage. And they talked about the propensity. They Hey, not you didn't get, you know, not that they didn't talk about scores, you didn't meet your potential, right? And we want, we always talk about to the kids, I'm like, we want to make sure that we give you opportunities to meet your potential. So, that was the goal. That's the student achievement committee. We did some snack and learns for juniors to come in and again know about all the resources available. Our teachers did a great job implementing, like I said earlier, into their courses, but also like after school tutoring. So, they it was targeted to not students that we targeted but also all of our juniors and then like I said the class
033meetings and the snacks. So these are all just the platforms I talked about but it was very intentional work. So now we talked about all this intentional work like to hand it over to Dr. Wall to talk about whether that worked was gave us some results. >> We also do a drum roll there. So again, I take you back to the original slide of the scatter plot where you see these 91 students and then this is for you to be able to see those darker dots and you can see how these students moved up. Now what I want to qualify and explain is on the right hand side for growth out of all of those students of the 91 there were 10 who ended up not really um ended end up taking the ACT in
034spring of 2025. There's a variety of reasons why that is, but of those 81 students, all but three ended up growing when compared to their peers in the past. Because remember this box on the right hand side is the growth indicator and that is measured about how they grew compared to students that have come through D17 in the past. So that is an amazing number, right? When you think of all of those students, many of them grew a great amount. And that's what you see that upward movement on the scatter plot for the propensity for their own individual growth. It ended up going up to 56% of the students that we in we highlighted. 56% of them ended up meeting their individualized growth. Now is that as high as we want? No. I mean like
035we aspire for more. But you can see the result last year in October of 2024 when the CNI team stood here and talked about this metric. You can see it was at 47%. We set our goal at 55%, we actually were happy to surpass that by 1%. So, there's still more work to be done. We we don't stand up here um saying that, you know, we're going to rest on our laurels. We will never do that until that number is 100%. Because our goal is to support every single one of your students in the entire community. But this is definitely something to be proud of in terms of the growth. >> So, Dr. Wallet, this is kind of a complicated goal. So, I just want to clarify why 56% is a great number because that's
03656% of the kids, just the 90 kids of the whole district that we identified that weren't meeting their growth, >> that weren't meeting. >> So, if it was a painting contest, we weren't targeting all the great painters and the okay painters, the average painters. We were targeting the kids in the painting class that were the least ready to paint. >> Correct. >> So, to have more than half of them exceed their personalized program, I think is very Sorry to interrupt. >> No, not at all. That's a great point. So, so this is just kind of condensing the the earlier scatter plot data points as you can see. So, um we ended up having 56% of those students end up meeting their propensity or their potential growth. And again, um 97% of them met growth compared
037to past school uh past students within the district. And so, this is a little bit of just a little bit of a table that makes a little bit more clean for you to be able to see. 91 students were identified. 10 for a variety of reasons did not test in the spring of 2025. 45 or 56% of them actually met or even exceeded the growth within themselves their propensity. And then um there were 36 for whom there's still more work to uh to be done. And and the one thing I would say is even for those students even though they're seniors there's some of them who since we collected this data have taken ACT again. They might have taken it in June. they might have taken it a month ago. So that's that's something that
038um you know my guess on those students while I can't quantify it for those 36 my guess is many of those students um have probably seen an increase uh in their ACT if they chose to take it again. So >> this is the final slide uh in terms of what we wanted to talk about. Um, when you look at that switch that Sophia talked about from SAT historically to ACT for here and so the the the shift to ACT, what's really really powerful about this is >> it is a state requirement to sit junior year for the ACT. Historically, the last nine years, it was a state requirement to sit for the SAT. And by that, we mean you don't graduate. You have to be able to sit for that. from an equity lens, they
039want all students to sit so they have that score in their back pocket should they want to pursue higher education. So if you take a look, this is how we did in our composite scores compared to the state. So the state average April of 2024 uh five was 18.8 and we were at 20.3. I'm actually confident that in April of 2026 our goal is for that number to increase even more. Over here, you heard Sophia talk earlier about the state benchmark. So, you have the sub scores or the subtests, excuse me, of the ACT. And each of those subtest, they have like what's considered a a a state benchmark. What's meant by meeting a benchmark is it indicates that a student can be successful in a higher ed class like a 101, fill-in- thelank English
040101, math 101, that they can be successful. And so we were at 24% when the state average was 19%. So 5% higher. Again, are we happy with that? No. There's more work to be done. But compared to the state, we started off with this kind of re, you know, returning to the ACT, we started off in a really positive momentum and and our goal, the three of us is to continue to build on that. >> Dr. So as Alan said with testing, we are confident that all of those interventions that Sophia talked about, we're going to continue. So, all of that work with our staff and the student achievement committee and this work on ACT doesn't just stop after this one year, we have built up to this point and will continue to build up
041to that. Um, and now our students have test familiarity and now all of their practice and all of their benchmark testing every spring is going to be an ACT. So, we're confident that as our students continue to be more comfortable with the test and test recognition, they're going to continue to increase that score with all these supports. So, we're excited to see what the future holds there. Um, I get to talk about our support of our students taking rigorous coursework and several areas that we have focused on are providing a wide range of courses for our students that include the ability to earn college credit. So, we have two areas that we do that in. One is dual credit, which we partner with um College of Blank County and also W Ashkosh. And then we
042also have advanced placement. So, we have some really, really exciting data to share about our advanced placement courses and the students success in AP courses. So, last school year was the first year that we opened up access as much as possible to these AP courses. The Accelerated Placement Act went into effect as a law in Illinois that said we are required to place students in the highest level course that they are capable of doing. And so this changed how we looked at students ability to be placed into those AP classes. And of course, when you change the way you put people into advanced courses, there's a little bit of worry about will students be successful? Will students feel supported? How do we ensure students not only have access to the AP and advanced coursework, but
043also are successful once they're in it? And so we put supports in place. We had mentorship happening and we get to share some really, really positive, exciting data as you can see here from our chart. So, I'll tell you what each bar means because I know they're kind of hard to see, but first is our total number of AP exams that were given historically in the district. It's the highest number of AP test we've ever given. We gave 1,87 AP exams and that is with the support of the board and the district. Our district covers most of the cost of those AP exams. Our students pay $10 for a $100 exam because our school district is so dedicated to supporting our students in taking that academic challenge and having the chance and access for that
044AP test. We do not want money to be a barrier there. So, our students pay $10 for that $100 test to hopefully get college credit. We had the most students ever enrolled in AP classes. So, again, because of this accelerated placement, we have we had 1,62 students across the district. Each building has about 12-,300 students. So, if that gives you an idea, half of our students took the challenge of taking at least one AP course. The yellow bar are passing scores. Um the number of students that got a three or better was 796. If you look at the yellow bar, we have certainly recovered from our COVID slump. We had a couple years where we had to share some kind of sad data where our students didn't have access, our students were struggling. We've clearly
045rebounded and then even exceeded. And again, we've had our highest success passing rate ever in recent history in AP courses. We had 74 95% of all students that took AP courses and exams got a passing score of three, four or five. All of those students, every college in Illinois has to accept AP credit. So any student that got a three or better has already set themselves ahead for their college work. Yes, Dr. White. So, we had a great comment from a community member earlier talking about nationwide a lot of districts are struggling to get past uh the dip that we saw during CO and have not recovered. On this one data metric, I was going to ask you what does this say? Have we recovered from CO? But you said highest ever. >> Highest ever.
046>> The answer would be yes. >> Yes. So I've been in this role now six years and started this job prior just prior to co and again seeing those scores go down was very disheartening and it's from the work of the community and our staff and our students the dedication to our students. We've seen this improve and the comment earlier about looking critically at our test performance and making sure our students are competitive amongst everyone in the nation they're competing for if they're collegebound. We are supporting our students in that way and they're showing us the numbers. So, we've set it up. It's a communal effort, but here is the raw number that shows you. We were so excited to see these results. And again, we expect to continue to see this trend with this
047higher number of students accessing AP coursework and also then having success on the exams. It's it speaks volumes to our community support around students taking risk course work. >> No pressure. You're going to increase off alltime high. We are going to we're going to do it. I'm I'm gonna manifest it. I'm a positive manifesttor. >> One of the things I want to just mention really quickly is um having been um this is my first year in the district. It is not uncommon for district communities to be concerned when you start to open up access to dual credit and AP, will students be able to continue to be successful at that high of a rate? And I mean, you guys look at that like more kids accessed it and they still had tremendous success. So that
048shows that kids have grit, they have perseverance, they're resilient, and it shows that they have teachers that help them from August to May to be successful, right? And so I I do want to give a shout out to the students and teachers like you did, Dr. Orof, just to give everyone credit for that because you're adding all these students and they're showing they can be successful. They can do hard things and I think that's really really impressive. So a couple of other celebrations by the numbers as you saw that chart we had by the numbers we had an increase of 370 exams. So 370 more students took AP exams than the year prior. We also had that increase of passing rate. So to see it here, we went from a 69% pass rate to 74.95
049which I rounded up to 75 um because again of that support that we've put in place. Um, we had fewer ones and twos. There were many AP courses that had zero ones, which is amazing. And even if a student gets a one, we want them to take the exam because some students on their very first AP exam, they might get a one as a freshman, but by senior year, they're getting those threes, fours, and fives. And that test exposure and familiarity with AP and rigorous coursework, the research shows that does help them be more successful their first semester in college. Um, also one new test was given. So, one new AP course was added last year to the catalog of College Board. It was AP pre-calculus. We have historically had regular pre-calculus and pre-calculus honors.
050We added AP. We said, "Let's give it a try." We sent our teacher to the national training. We also had 54 students take the exam and 80% of those students passed. So we are continuing to look at ways to expand not only our AP offerings but also ensure the students success. So we are able to show that with these numbers here and this year we have five sections of AP precal running instead of two. Um and we anticipate again having a great level of success as we've continued to open up access to that course. And then this is another one. It's a little bit hard to see, but one of our goals in our strategic plan board metrics is to reduce the um the equity gap among students and to have our makeup of our
051district students mirrored in our participation in highle courses. So last year you can see um on the top in 2024 we did a really great job and we opened up access and our FS were very very similar, but they weren't exact. So, we still had work to do when it came to underrepresented students, students of minority in our AP courses. Well, with continuing to have conversations with students trying to build their confidence and tell students about, hey, we think you can do this. Like Sophia talked about, you have the ability, you have the propensity, we believe in you. We this year have actually surpassed that goal and we not only have par, but we actually have better representation across the board with our different racial and ethnic groups within our AP courses. So, what that
052means is our students represented in those courses represent the makeup of our schools as a whole, which is what we were aiming for and really trying to hit and we we have. So, um that's another really exciting thing where we get to celebrate. Yes, >> that's incredibly rare nationwide. And for the people in the back, basically in most suburban school districts, the chart on the left look is your representation of your race in the school. The chart on the right would be mostly green with little slivers of color. If the two charts look very similar like they do here, you're in the back. You're like, they look the same. That's very rare and that means we're achieving. >> Yes. and College Board recognizes schools that have accomplished this and also has have accomplished a high
053pass rate. And so because of this and also our high pass rate, we've been awarded a silver designation from College Board as a repres representative school in the nation. Um, and we started out as bronze, but we moved up to silver because of this work. So we're still going. We're going to get gold. But >> promising gold. >> I am promising gold. again manifesting >> but also the AP access award which that's the representation both schools got the AP access >> so when we went to college board when we go to the conference Sophia and I presented at the conference last summer and sever of our other teachers also presented we got to add buttons to our lanyards that said not only silver schools but also that we have this open access. We are providing
054the opportunity to all of our students to take advanced coursework which we believe in and have put that energy into to ensure that that's an opportunity for our students. >> Sorry for all my interruptions. This is exciting day. >> We're excited about too. Feel free. So beyond the test scores, we want to make sure that our students are well-rounded citizens and I think a lot of that corner store commitment that we have. So it's scholarship, character, uh volunteer responsibility and excellence and pride, right? going beyond those scores and make sure that our students are wellrounded. It's beyond the grades. So, looking at the the trend, right, for the commodity, we had an upper trend. I think a couple years back, Jacqueline and I had to be like, we don't see that trend as it was
055a downward trend, right? But if you just change there real quick, if you see, we're almost back to that 2020. So, you're having that upward trend from 2022 to 2025. We had 193 students earn kumla in last year. So that means all those students met the requirements of scholarship 26 credits volunteerism 40 community hours in the district pride being part of an activity through activities or sports. So all that putting it together that's mean they're wellrounded right they're not just in the classroom focus it's focuses in the community and how they participate in school. So, we were excited when we saw that number last year. We were trying to like pick what's the number going to look like and it was 193. So, speaking of that too, like a student that's wanted that earn money
056has the opportunity the last couple years um Raymond Pia Chevrolet has given opportunity to students to earn a scholarship $5,000 scholarship last year for both buildings. So, that's been great and kind of like a little carrot for the students as well. So that's been great to see them kind of do what so right I just we as a team want to thank because if you see all the data that we've talked the data told the story and we it shows that we have dedicated teachers we have courageous right we talked about it we have courageous students that are willing to take that chance we have a supportive board and community so that story that we give is because of all those pieces put together. It wouldn't can't happen without all that put together. And as
057you know, curriculum and instruction is an evolving process, right? So, our future focus at looking at this, we're going to examine our course catalog. It's constantly right that evolving focus is looking at the courses and how it aligns to career pathways and the portrait of a graduate. So, not just we say college ready, but it's like career ready as well. We're going to continue to focus on that equitable access to all the courses. And again, the data show that when we looked at the AP scores um that accelerated placement act and then intentional about the proactive outreach of of courses. I know the last couple years we've been looking at too like AP potential and telling the students that hey according to this test that you've taken it looks like you should be taking AP
058human geo course or AP pre-cal course. So those pieces of data helps us have the conversation with the student to be courageous to take the next level of those courses. enhance focus. We always talk about that active student engagement in the classroom. That's always a process and looking at what strategies and instructional strategies that we could use to make our student to have our students engaged in the learning. And then of course we talk about alignment of courses for the college and career readiness and Jacine talked about the dual credit AP courses that um trying to make sure that we're offering everything to our students that we could that possibly could be offered. So, we would like to thank you and like I said, the dedication of our teachers, our students being courageous. They're here
059listening to us today. Um, and our board and our community. So, if you guys have any questions, >> I'm done with my question. >> Are you sure? Not even one. >> Board members, any questions? >> Thank you for really good presentation and one with great detail and congratulations on the successes. I'm happy too with the opening up of the AP courses to more and more students. So, we're trying to bridge that gap. I think that's really >> and it's hugely the encouragement to um for those kids that might not have the confidence to jump into an AP course. They not they just might not have that. And to encourage them and then to support them once they get there >> is is fantastic. >> We don't want any of our students But I don't think
060I'm an AP student. And that's what this work in connecting students and teachers setting up mentors of previous students in the class. Um especially our freshman level course APGO, they have sophomores that mentor the freshman so they build that confidence because it is scary coming in as a freshman and adjusting to high school and then also taking an AP course. So we don't want to give students any sense of the the the thought that they are not an AP student. We believe a student should be taking rigorous courses and challenging themselves and putting themselves in a competitive world when they leave district one as graduates. >> I think it's phenomenal what you guys have done but I want to go back and that's awesome but for the 36 are we further helping them try to
061get back. So, as Alan said, um some of them continue to take prep over the summer and then also um they're they're able to use like the resources we have. So, um no writing was one of the examples that Sophia talked about. That's implemented in all of our English courses, including at the senior level and math. So, even if they're not in ACT prep anymore as juniors, they're still getting exposure to those ACT skills and those college readiness skills. So, they get those built into the curriculum. We also like um organizations like Compass Education, they can still take more ACT prep if they need outside of school. Um we also share with them the um with our intergovernmental agreement with the libraries. They have a lot of free resources. We make sure the students know
062about that and the families know about that. That goes out in our newsletters. Um so they still have access to a lot of different resources if they still need prep to take it again. And many of our seniors still took um the September test or um will take the October test as they're getting ready for their college applications. So >> we we want to create a culture where just because they sit for the ACT in April their junior year, the support doesn't stop. Jacquine just identified a bunch of different ways over the next six to nine months that we can continue to support them not only within our school, but the greater community. >> Other questions? I appreciate excuse me >> we don't take questions from board >> yeah this is a board I'm sorry
063this is a board discussion it's not an open forum but you're certainly welcome to reach out to any administrator and they can answer any questions I would just like to say having the history for some time that there's a lot of information here to take in a very short period of time and even as a board member we probably don't catch it But this is an evolving situation as you indicated. This started some years ago, but it's it's reaching the peaks finally. And what what really hit home to me because it was it was me in school was you are now identifying specific students and working with them specifically instead of just throwing them into a batch of D students or C students and let them go through their course and see what happens. And
064that I I don't think we would find that districts if any. So, the fact that we continue evolving and and making it better is is wonderful and I appreciate all the work from the from the curriculum and instruction staff and administration. Thank you. >> Yeah, I have the next one. I'll be quick. Uh, next week is Illinois Principles Week. We have a declaration, a resolution that was passed by the Illinois General Assembly, I believe, from the governor, and it's uh like 500 words. So, I'm going to read it all. No, I'm not going to read it all, but it's going to speak to the heart about uh Jory and Mike, Dr. Barry, Miss Bowen. They are amazing principles. They're the only principles I've had since I've come as superintendent of the district. I felt so
065lucky to come to a district with these two principles. And I'm just going to highlight one real thing quickly and that is the teachers. So that amazing data you saw on the screens, I would guess Dr. Oroff, Dr. Waller, Miss Le Rock would agree with me. The number one most important factor that that kind of student performance is the teacher in front of the students in the classroom. So Miss Bowen and Dr. Barry have hired. They spend a lot of time hiring. They go through a lot of rounds of interviews, spend a lot of time calling references, hired excellent teachers, and they work every day to build amazing cultures that retain teachers in a very, very competitive market. So, I just want to thank our amazing principles. We'll celebrate them more next week during next
066week. So, I'd like to have a round of applause for Miss B and Dr. >> Okay. Thank you. How many government students are still here? They got some back. >> All right. >> I like to see that. And sometimes some of you folks leave early and we don't really interact. But you're here tonight and you're witnessing a government meeting. And you're probably witnessing a government meeting for your educational purposes that is pretty good because it's been reserved. There are some that go off the off the cliff and I just want to mention that. But the next thing I'm going to talk about is the next item on the agenda and it's called our consent agenda. And just so you know what this is is we have the opportunity as a board by law to approve
067a number of items on the agenda that we have specific items with one motion, one vote. So we don't have to sit here from tonight until next May approving each of these items. We do that every every month. So, we'll talk about that in just a second, but we're going to do the consent agenda now, and you'll hear what we're talking about. So, all items under the consent agenda are adopted by one motion, unless a member of the board or the superintendent wants anything removed from the consent agenda. If any member of the board or the superintendent wants something removed from the consent agenda, we vote on that separately. We are allowed discussion on that as well. Um, tonight's consent agenda would include items that that are the approval of the regular meeting minutes from
068September 17th, the approval of the closed session meeting minutes from September 17th, the approval of the hiring of certified staff, the hiring of non-certified staff, the hiring of long term substitute staff, the hiring of increment positions. It also includes the hiring of volunteer positions because those folks have to be hired as well. It also includes any resignations of staff members and any requests of any of our staff for extended leaves of absence. It also includes, and this is the big one, the approval of the bills and payroll. That's the long thing. And that includes any of the bills in payroll that are in one of four funds. Fund number 10, fund number 20, fund number 40 and 50. Fund 10 is the education fund, fund 20 is the building fund, fund 40 is the transportation
069fund, and fund 50 is the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund SLocial Security Fund. We also have on the consent agenda three foyer requests. That's Freedom of Information Act requests which have been received and responded to. So with that, I would entertain a motion unless any board member wants anything removed of the superintendent. I would entertain a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> We have a motion. >> Second >> and a second. Motion by Mr. Py, second by Miss. We will do a roll call vote. Miss Dixon, >> yes. >> Miss Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Pritcharder, >> yes. >> Mr. Pagney, >> yes. >> Miss Simpson, >> yes. Wayne secess. That motion passes. Now we're going to move on the agenda to our business office. >> Okay. Thank you.
070I have three items on the agenda for the business office tonight. The first being the approval of the tenative levy for the 2025. Um I do have some definitions there. you can see in the board packet, but I'm going to go um jump down to the um the chart as far as where it says fund descriptions, tax 24 tax extension, 25 projected extensions, and then the 25 levy request. Again, this is the tenative, so it's just talking through these numbers. So, um as far as thinking about an extension versus a levy, so extension is the dollars that we actually get back from the county that paid by the taxpayers. The levy is the money that we ask for. So, for example, when you're looking at, it's a big equation. Some fun math if you want
071to see it. Um, not too many people request that, but if you're looking at the 24 tax extension, we know that number when we're looking at these equations. We know some numbers and we don't know some other numbers. They're estimates. So, if you take the 24 tax extension um and you uh multiply it by CPI, CPI is another number we know because it comes out in January and that's what we use for the levy process. Um, so if you take that those numbers and then again if you use these estimated numbers of EAV and then new construction and those numbers we get from Lake County then we are able to figure out the projected extension what we think we will get for tax dollars. Okay. So that is a total then for 2025 you see
072there as the 47 million 383111. But then you have And like I said, the levy, so the very right hand column where it's a total of 47,928300, um, you want to make sure that you ask for a little bit more than what you think you might get only because there could be changes between now and the spring. So we call this the balloon levy. So in case something happens where um there's changes in either the new construction or EAV changes. So there's some um the levy or a a balloon a little bit more built in to what you think you might get. Um so the difference between um the 24 extension and the 25 extension projected extension I should say is about 1.6 6 million um in additional money. Now just to compare and look
073at the overall increases um last year the 2024 extension you might remember we had this discussion of um you have to have a um a levy hearing if it's going to be over 5%. That's the law PEL property tax extension limitation law. You have to have a hearing. However, we went we didn't go over that 5%. We were just under even with that balloon, with the levy, the ask. But we discussed here and decided we still wanted to have that hearing because we wanted to be transparent with our community. So, we did that and we are um going to be in that same boat again this year that we're not going to be over that 5%. We're going to be uh the ask of an increase of the 472. However, again, that's what the the
074balloon is. what we think the actual will be closer will be a 3.56 which is the smallest increase in the four years that I've been doing this. So, and that makes sense that it's the smallest increase because it our CPI keeps decreasing. The first two years that I um did this position and did the levy, we had CPI of over 5% when our economy was booming. Last year, you might recall was three 3.4%. 4% in this year than the 2.9 and we'll see what comes out in January for the following levy. So, um overall two I don't know if I said this the new construction is the highest it's ever been. Um or I think anyway I went back 12 years and it is 11.8 million. Um so that we continue to see new construction
075in our in our area as well. >> And when you're referring to the We're referring to our high school district. >> High school district. Right. >> So overall, um, now I know Wayne had asked last board meeting. Uh when we were talking about I was just when I said we had a 2.3% increase from property taxes from fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26. That was budget numbers, right? So we were just looking at the actual budget numbers. And Wayne had brought up, well, we just got our assessment papers right in the mail or right around there. and um it was 8% a little over 8%. That doesn't mean your your um taxes are going up 8%. That's the value of your home that went up. Okay. Um feel like there's one more thing. Oh,
076so I just um Wayne would probably know this better than me being a realtor of the median or average cost of an ANIC home. I was looking at Annioch today. Um, but I threw in 350,000 for an average, which this would equate, if we're looking at the projected numbers, it would be an increase of $102 for a home of that value. Again, the smallest that we've seen. So, I'm very comfortable with those numbers. Lake County does a great job um in the assessor's office in the county with getting us numbers. Um, I was just at a seminar, a finance seminar last week, which I don't think There's some other counties that are uh quite so lucky that is Lake County. So, I really appreciate that work, their work. I mean, they were off like $4,000
077last year. So, that's pretty impressive when you're talking about 45 to 47 million. So, so it is my recommendation to approve the tenative 2025 levy levy as presented. With that recommendation, I'll entertain a motion to approve the tenative 2025 levy as presented this evening. >> So moved. >> Motion by Miss Hips. >> Second by Miss Dixon. Discussion, questions hearing. None. We'll do a roll call vote beginning with Miss Carol. >> Yes. >> Miss Pritchard. >> Yes. Mr. Pagy, >> yes. >> Missperson, >> yes. >> Miss Dixon, >> yes. >> Wayne Sabet votes, yes. That motion passes. >> The next thing is just an annual housekeeping uh item where it's the approval of the annual statement of affairs. We just prepare this document from information that we get from our annual financial report that is provided
078by or um prepared by our auditors. So this is just and a housekeeping event. So, we make sure we have to publish it and then we also have to put it on our website that's new this year. So, it is recommended to approve the 2025 annual statement of affairs for publication as presented. >> With that recommendation, I would entertain a motion the board approve the 2025 annual statement of affairs for publication as presented. So, move >> motion by Mr. Peggy. >> Second by Mr. Pritchard. >> Questions or discussion? Hearing none. We'll do a roll call vote beginning with Miss Pritchard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pag, >> yes. >> Missperson, >> yes. >> Miss Dixon, >> yes. >> Miss Carol, >> yes. >> Wayne Southside votes, yes. That motion passes. >> And then next is the
079capital projects update. So you will see or you should have seen in the packet and then again on the chart that's uh provided there attached there. We did have a big payment for the roofing work that did that happened here at lakes that included the work and a lot of materials of 1 million291513 and 39. Uh, additionally um we have been working on um the Antioch turf and track replacement project that will happen this summer as you know. So we've been looking at three different companies looking at the products. We've been doing site visits to go and look at some of the different products and colors and everything else that they do. Um so you will have a recommendation for um or at the board meeting next next month. We it'll be a cooperative purchase.
080It will not go out to bid. So we're getting competitive numbers and looking at the designs and then we'll make a recommendation that month or next month. I will as soon as I get final renderings um because we're looking at maybe like color colors and such. I'll get those out in the board packet um that Jeff sent out. Additionally, uh we unfortunately I did put in there that we were supposed to start the lakes cage baseball cage project. It has not yet. Um the company has said it's delayed because of weather. Um but they have promised it will be done by Thanksgiving. So um that should still be coming. We did finish the Antioch wood shop ventilation project. So, we'll see that come through for board approval to pay next month. Uh, and lastly, we
081have our district office renovation in progress where we had a bid um meeting this week where we had 13 different contractors there. Um, and so that's exciting to see. We'll have the bid opening on October 30th. So, that will also come to the board for approval next month. So the next next month will be heavy. It'll be a lot. And of course the final ten the final le levy. So >> are you going to announce the donation yet or are you going to wait on that district office? A great donation. >> Oh sure. Actually that's due to Ryan not Miles and his connection. So kudos to him and the fact that um we are getting furniture uh free of charge from the Lake County roe. they have um taken over a building. I don't know
082the exact location. I know it's Lake Forest. Um but there's furniture that um they are allowing some of the different schools to take. So instead of going and buying new furniture, we're going to be able to get that and be able to use it. Um so that's exciting. >> We're not just talking furniture like tables and chairs. These are fancy modern cubicles. Entire cubicles, like a bunch of them, right? >> We're very excited. need to recite for you. >> And then one more thing. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And then one more thing, I don't have this um as a separate agenda item, but I can say I can tie it to capital projects because um I'm not so sure if you saw behind you here on the the in the Lake County is that this
083was earlier last month actually in September. Um, I'm happy and proud to hear when people talk about how fiscally responsible we are and our great facilities. Um, this I think just capitalizes on that as far as really hones in on um how fiscally responsible we are. If Ryan keeps scrolling down, um you can see this article basically hits Lake County schools and it lists from highest to lowest debt in the county. Make sure the students hear this. >> This is the debt that the district would have. Okay. In other words, how many bills are outstanding for anything pretty much. >> Correct. Right. >> Okay. >> So, you can see here the very top in some of those some of those schools probably won't say them, but >> um but if you keep scrolling down, I'm
084sorry. >> What's the red? What's the mode? >> One's a fiscal year 24. No, 23 and one's 24. >> Got it. >> Um, so if you keep scrolling down, keep scrolling down, keep scrolling down, keep scrolling down, >> keep scrolling down, we are at the bottom. It wouldn't show on the bar graph. However, I can tell you that this is fiscal year 24. >> Ryan, Ryan, why don't you start at the top of that? So, because we have numbers there. >> Yeah. So, if you look, you're talking about 128 million. >> That's at Lake Forest. >> Forest. >> That's how much they owe. >> That's how much debt they have. >> A lot of these, right, are renovation projects or new buildings, things like that, right? We would have had that when we haven't paid
085for. So yeah, if you scroll all the way down, I want to say we're at like 2600. Again, this was fiscal year 24. >> I think it was 2062 to be exact. >> Okay, 2062. Okay. Either way, it's zero now. >> Oh, you're right. 262. >> It's zero now because this was 24 and we paid that off um in 25. So we have zero. >> Hey last. So that's we're we're excited to be at the bottom of this. >> That's the work of administration and staff. It's not the work of the board. It's the work of administration and staff. >> We just get to take the applause. >> No offense to John Price, but it shouldn't be his photo. It should be Arian's photo. >> Right. Right. >> I will provide this in the board
086update the link so you could have the full story in in share with the community members. >> It's fun. >> Very awesome. And >> thank you that oh no actually I'm still going. >> Sorry because I have the first couple of things in governance where these are just second readings of the couple of policies that we talked last time or talked about last time. So policy 455 is the use of credit card or credit procurement cards. So again this is the second reading. This is the one where we just took out the limits. We we had it at 500 um and then a thousand for a month months. We just said we were going to take out the limits because a lot of times when uh if we're going that high, it's because of professional
087development opportunities. And so it's things like hotels, airfare, and registration. So um we were fine with taking off the limits and I mean we have very few cards in the district anymore and um we're monitoring them anyway. So, and people, you know, when we know that there we're sending a lot of people to a a conference, we know that, you know, we're always giving a heads up whether it's going to be used um here in the buildings or if it's really big, we use a district card. So, so um it is my recommendation to approve the revision to policy 455 as presented. >> With that recommendation, I would entertain a motion that we approve the revision to polic 455 the use of credit and procurement cards as presented. >> Oops. >> Miss second and second
088by Mr. Peggy. Any questions or comments? >> Just to refresh the board's memory, this is our policy. >> Okay. And there are fail safes in place so that there could not be credit card abuse. Uh if there's any credit card abuse of something that Some for some reason an administrator didn't know something was being charged, they know it right away. >> Yeah. Internal control. >> Yeah. >> So, and with no other questions or comments, we'll do a roll call vote beginning with Mr. Peg. >> Yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss Dixon, >> yes. >> Miss Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Pritchard, >> yes. >> Wet coach. Yes. That motion passes. >> And the second one is policy 480 for accounting and audits. This revision was just changing the capitalization threshold from $10,000 to $2,500.
089So, it is recommended to approve the revision to policy 480, accounting and audits, as presented. >> With that recommendation, I would entertain a motion the board approve the revision to policy 480, accounting and audits, as presented. >> So, moved. >> Motion by Miss Dixon. >> Second by Miss Pritchard. questions or comments? It's going down too folks. So, just so you know, it's from 10 >> 10 to 2500. >> We'll have roll call beginning with Miss Ipson. >> Yes. >> Miss Dixon, >> yes. >> Miss Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Pritchard, >> yes. >> Mr. Pen, >> yes. Wayne stops votes yes. That motion passes. >> And now I'm passing it over to Dr. Waller. I'm done. >> Are you sure? >> Thank you. So the intent in September was to be able to come forth
090with all of the new course proposals. I gave it the old college try but then there were some that came up came up after our last meeting. So the first thing I want to request is um for the second reading of the new courses um we can do a strike through which I did in in tonight's uh board packet for the coding in Python 3 class. We don't really need to approve that. Um I think I was a little quick on the draw for that class and there'll be a course I'm talking about alternatively for our first reading in a moment. So really the only thing I'm seeking formal approval on uh for the second reading is the uh dual credit Spanish 4 class which if you think about Dr. Orof and do Miss Leakos
091and myself that we talked about tonight always trying to offer new opportunities for students. Dual credit is just as important as as AP. um we always want to have those career pathways and so um that's the new course that I'm I'm requesting approval to be voted on this evening. >> Okay. With that recommendation, I would entertain a motion that the board approve the course for 2026 27 um proposal as presented this evening. >> So moved. >> Have a motion by Miss Dixon. >> second by Mr. Pegney. Any questions, comments? >> Excuse me. What was the Spanish 4. >> Dual credit. Spanish 4. Correct. >> At le Thank you. >> Other questions? Do you need a clarification on dual credits? >> Okay. Other questions? >> If not, we'll do roll call beginning with Miss Simpson. >>
092Yes. >> Miss Dixon? >> Yes. >> Miss Carol? Yes. >> Miss Pritchard? >> Yes. >> Mr. P? >> Yes. S yes. That motion passes. Okay, on to overnight futures >> actually uh actually on to u the first reading of some additional new course. So um I had mentioned the strike through coding in Python 3. The reason why um in in our partnership with techsmart um as you know we've done a lot of really intentional work led by Ryan Miles Dr. FO around um AI and so we are really excited to be able to offer a new course next year called AI foundations and it's a semesterl long course and it is rooted in really really broad exposure for students to be able to learn more about AI not only how it applies to them here
093in school but in the real world. Uh and the the thing that I really like about this course is students can take it anywhere along in their high school experience. So if a rising ninth grader this winter and and you know uh fall and winter with us uh as they build their schedule as a freshman if they'd like to take this course that might be a great way to dip their toe in the water to see if it's a a career in in in you know it or compsai that might interest them. So that is one course that uh we're requesting for a first reading. Additionally, me being new, one of the things that I've identified is our multilingual learners, also known as our EL students, a lot of times when they're in the the
094beginning or foundational math class, their first math experience, they often have struggles with it. And we're not seeking to create a remedial course that puts them behind where they can't access the full array of math offerings in 117. We want them to have the same access that any student would have. And so what we decided to do as an alternative is create a half credit course that's almost like a support course. So they'd be in their regular math course, but this course would run only half of a period and they would be able to not have additional curriculum. It would be more about pre-teaching, pre-teaching, um further remediation or practice. Um there's a lot of work that needs to be done with our multilingual learners around vocabulary acquisition. So this would be a course that
095would still allow them to take the same number of electives as their peers, not put them behind in math, but kind of give them like a supplemental support next to their math course. So that's the second course. And then the final one is is kind of an easy explanation. Historically, we've taught probability and statistics as two separate math courses. We want to just merge them as one uh year-long course just called data science. So that's a pretty easy explanation. So that's the the first reading for those three. So for the government students, the first reading gives the the board the opportunity to review these and then take action on them at the next meeting. >> For my for our benefit, for the students benefit, how many multilingual students do you have in off? >> Yeah,
096I mean there's about 60. >> Okay. Um, and so, you know, the idea that we can help them accelerate um and continue to build on on their their lingu English language acquisition um and access a full array of courses is always going to be our goal. >> Good. >> Making sure they feel included and and are given as many opportunities as possible. >> All right. Then we're going to overnight field trips. >> Yes, indeed. So, uh, we have two, um, the Antioch, uh, boys varsity wrestling team is seeking to go to Coralville, Iowa, which is just outside of the University of Iowa, and attend the the Dan Gable, uh, invitational tournament. That's on December 4th to the 6th. Uh, and then secondly, this is a new opportunity within the district. the uh Antioch uh cross
097country coach uh is seeking to take a group of athletes um in the middle of November to Terote, Indiana for the Nike uh regional cross country championships. That is a big deal. That is literally the biggest cross country race in the United States. So giving our athletes exposure to that opportunity is is pretty unique and pretty exciting. >> So with that recommendation, I would entertain a motion that the board approve the Antioch Community High School boys varsity wrestling team to go to Coralville, Iowa to participate in the Dan Gable Donny Brook tournament from December 4th to December 6th of this year 2025 and also the Anniac Community High School boys cross country team to go to Terode Indiana to participate in the Nike NXN Nike regional cross country championships which will be from November 15th
098to November 16th 2025. So move >> motion by Mr. Peggy. >> Second by Miss Ipsson. Any questions or comments at all? Hearing none, we'll do a roll call vote beginning with Miss Dixon. >> Yes. >> Miss Carol. >> Extension. Miss Pritchard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Py. >> Yes. And I think I'm >> Oh, Miss Simpson, I'm sorry. >> Yes. You make the motion. So we have four floor and one extension. Motion passes. >> Okay. We go to the review of the IASB resolution committee recommendations. Right. That's you. >> Okay. Um the ISB resolutions committee met in August to review proposals submitted by school districts from across the state. These proposals are not policies or laws being voted on, but rather ideas and recommendations that local school boards are asking all boards statewide to consider and
099potentially support. Each year our board reviews the full slate of these proposals and determines whether we agree with the resolution resolutions committees recommendations. The packet in front of you includes detailed description of each proposal. Those receiving a do adopt recommend recommendation as well as any do not adopt proposals that have been appealed uh will be voted on at the annual delegate assembly during the joint annual conference in Chicago on November 22. Um, did you guys get to look at all of them? >> Okay. I didn't I didn't think they were anything earthshattering. It's just kind of how they do business, bylaws and stuff like that. So, um, so, um, here's what is written in the board packet that board members see on their Chromebooks. The ISB resolutions committee met in August and proposals submitted by
100districts from all of the state. Details of those proposals and the committee's recommendations for each can be found in the attached new resolutions document. Using the attached report, our board of education should discuss the proposals and determine if we agree with the resolutions committee's recommendations for each proposal. The proposals that received a favor favorable recommendation do adopt and proposal received a do not adopt that have applied for appeal. So, um, like I said, I I didn't think anything was anything that I couldn't agree with. And, um, those were as far as like the bylaws. And then the only resolution was, um, financial help for three point harness for school districts that can't afford it for their buses. Right. >> And that was a that recommendation was not. >> It was a due. >> It was
101a disapproved. >> Yeah. >> Said we would advocate for the state to provide grants for districts that couldn't afford to install those buses. >> Yeah. >> So I I don't see any problems with any of them. >> Yeah. It's just discuss. So >> actually we have to take action. Give her feedback. >> Yeah. We'll give Miss Carol feedback for the do or do not. We could do it formally at the next meeting which is prior to this. Yes, >> she will be the delegate at the assembly to cast our vote. The dos or the do not support. And again, looking through, if you look through thoroughly, it's really just housekeeping for the most part. A lot of the verbiage is eliminated on most everything. And that's all it is. Just cleaning that up. Okay. Thank
102you. Any questions? Okay. All right. All right. Now, >> you want to show the good news now? You could share it. >> Oh, I'll show the share. >> Okay. Well, I will brag about our board. Our board already knows about this. But for people in the audience, we found out last week that this school board was one of only 42 school boards in the state. That might sound like a lot, but it's not a lot because we got more than 850 school districts in the state. 42 received the ISPA school board governance award. What that means is we filled out a big long application in the spring to talk about all the great work this board does. How they do a workshop every summer with a consultant to build themselves around the six foundational principles
103of board governance. This board presented at the statewide try eye conference to board members from across the state. Last year they were selected to present on the topic of board governance. We applied in the spring. We're selected again. So we're selected to present again this November. And this award is given and I'll quote the acknowledgement to acknowledge school boards that have engaged in activities and modeled behaviors that lead to excellence in local school governance supporting quality public education. So congratulations board and believe me the board could not do it without administration and the staff that we have. >> Exactly. Right on. >> It's It's all of them. We're just here. >> Well, thank you. >> Right on. >> Um, next item on the agenda, superintendent report. >> I just have a brief comment, but first
104I want to turn it over to Dr. Barry, Miss Bowen, and our amazing student ambassadors that we shared with before the meeting. Do you want to give some updates on Antioch and Lakes? Who's going first? >> Sure. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, school board ambassadors. >> So far, Athletics updates. Our girls varsity flag football team won regionals semi sectionals defeating Round Lake High School with a high score of 26 to 12 and won sectionals against Harlem High School with a score of 32 to7. And then tomorrow we will be competing in the IHSA state quarterfinals at 9:00 p.m. at Willbrook High School versus Chicago Whitney Young High School. boys and our football team on Friday with conference. And then both the boys and girls golf team turned in outstanding performances, finishing second overall
105in the NLC this fall, awarding the sportsmanship award to St. girls and London boys reflecting the true spirit of sequetics and the all conference honors to Marley Tyler and for girls and Carol recommended for boys and it runs from 9th started going about a group of young women from the 1920s working with >> school today the secret sidekicks hosted the students came there was a great crowd at hand and fun had all look for the to travel to Grace Park next month on the 11th for a game against Grace students. Special recognition to celebrate qualified as a semiinalist for the National I'd like to introduce you to Nick Waterman. He was not here at the board meeting last month because it was a Wednesday and he had evening football practice. So, I'll give him the
106floor to just introduce himself like we did with our board ambassadors earlier and then the two of them will share the national that I want to share, September 30th. Official record. October night football as well AJ school records baseball. celebration speakers period and they had a movie called cultural appreciation. where Chicago's global headquarters found at McDonald's headquarters and at the foundation they learn about far and sustain Then we had field trip on Tuesday. There's a ton of trails, jumping obstacles for um at least one stranded something. a great experience that >> I would just add I want to thank everyone for navigating our building today. I know it was incredibly busy in full. Um fall play opened tonight. It's open during the weekend about 39 steps. Uh we also just clinched our fourth fall conference
107title this evening with volleyball winning rounds. We won flag as a conference title and then both our boys and girls golf took conference titles and Brady cross was sixth in the state with next year still to come. So this is a great place to be and thank you all for everything you do for district 17. >> Awesome. >> Wonderful. Uh I just had one more other item to add for the people at home or in the back. We had our parent teacher conference day on Friday. So, you might have wondered, hey, my kids home from school, the teachers are at school. They're doing parent teacher conferences, but nobody reached out to me and emailed to schedule a conference with my students teachers. That's because for the last four years, we have targeted those student conferences
108for all students that have anything lower than the C in their classes. So, our goal is to get one of our schoolboard metrics for our courageous goal is that 95% of all the grades that are lower than a C have a conference with that parent, with the teacher. So, uh, I just want to clarify, we have some great students in the back that don't have any grades that are lower than a C. You can have a conference at any time with your teacher and your parent any time during the year. They are happy to do that and eager to do that. So, just shoot them an email, say, "I'd love to have a conference." They can do a phone call, a Google Meet, or in person, before after school. So, the fact that we did
109invite you during our Friday day, please know you can conference anytime. Just shoot your teacher email. And that's all I have. >> Great. Then we move on to board comments. Do any board members have any comments to make or I I would like to make a comment. I want to thank our ambassadors again. These are some of the busiest students that we have in school and they take their time to sit in this boring meeting once a month, but they bring us up to date on what's going on at a student level rather than hearing it from the principal or or a teacher. And I I think I appreciate that. I also appreciate the opportunities that all of our students are given. We have so many opportunities and we will give them to any student
110that wants them. No one will be excluded ever. So, and we'll continue giving them more opportunities as much as we can, as much as the budget allows us. So, know that and pass that on to your fellow students. Make sure that they know that we appreciate your whole student body and whole schools. We do appreciate you. So, thank you. With that, the next item on the agenda for our government, how many government students left? >> All right. Thanks for hanging up. >> So, the next item is called close session. And what close session is, it's items that can't be discussed currently in public because they might involve some things that should not be out in public. So, we go into close session. and I'll identify what those are and then after close session today we
111will have action afterwards. So if anybody wants to stay after close session they can do that and after our action after close session we do a journ. We will not have action. >> Oh it's not good news. >> Oh so that's good. All right. So we're not going to have action. >> We had a possible student discipline action that is not required because of that student's decision. So okay it was going to be student discipline. >> Good. So we'll talk about other students. So I would recommend that the board enter into close session for the purpose of discussing the following exceptions to the open meetings act. I say exceptions to the open meetings act. Everything else we've done is in is not accepted. We have to do it open meeting. A the appointment, employment, compensation,
112discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational or education setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including employees, I'm sorry, including volunteers of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee or public body that is subject to the local government wage increase transparency act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and pulled posted and held in accordance with this act which is 5CS 120C1. Also tonight we'll be uh discussing student disciplinary cases which falls under five CS120C9. I would entertain that motion. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Pegney. >> Second by Miss
113Dixon. We'll do a roll call vote beginning with Miss Pritchard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pegney, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss Dixon, >> yes. >> Miss Carol, >> yes. >> Wayne stops votes yes. That motion passes. We will go into close session. When we come out of close session, it'll only be to adjourn. So, thank you all for attending. We do have the item to practice our >> Oh, I take that back. When we come out of close session, if anybody wants to hang around to see us practice our our presentation in November, you can stay and watch that. But there'll be no action. >> No action other than What?