Committee of the Whole & Board of Education Meeting - October 21, 2025

001Good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting being held on Tuesday, October 21st, 2024. It is five o'c 2025, sorry, it's 5 o'clock and I'm calling the meeting the order right on time. Can we please call the role? >> Mrs. Mrs. Arvanites >> here. >> Mrs. Asv >> here. >> Mrs. Troutman >> here. >> Dr. Henry >> here. >> Mr. Brezahan >> here. >> Mrs. Hustler. >> Mrs. Lewinsky. >> We have five board members present and two absent. Can we have a motion to go into close session? >> I move that the board of education move into close session to discuss the placement of indiv individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students. 5 ILCS 122C10. >> I'll second. >> Motion made by Mrs. Asv, second by Mrs.

002Troutman. Can we please call the vote? >> Mrs. Asv. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Troutman. >> Yes. >> Dr. Henry, >> yes. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> Mrs. Arvanites, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hustler, Mrs. Lewinsky. >> Five eyes, zero nazs, two absent. Motion passes. The board will now move into close session. Welcome to the board of education committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. The time is 5:33, I believe. My eyesight is going bad. We have seven board members present and zero absent at this time. I ask that we all stand for the pledge of allegiance. Okay, since we are in a open meeting, we are top public comments. I don't see anybody in the audience in Sultana or Kelly. I don't believe we collected any public comments, right? Okay. So, we'll

003skip public comments and we'll go straight to reports and presentations. And for that I will turn it over to Dr. Campbell. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um this is our first committee of the whole meeting for the 2526 school year uh in which we will share results from last spring state and national assessment. Uh we will also be analyzing um various um data uh that is included in the Illinois uh report card as well as summitive designations. Uh tonight's presentation and the committee work that we're doing here um is just one part of a year- round cycle of data review in which we aim to guide um you the board as well as our community towards a deeper understanding of the measures used to monitor progress and and success of our schools. Um tonight

004we will focus on some data um that is currently not available publicly but will be um on October 31st in which uh it will be released in the Illinois uh report card on the Illinois ISB website. Uh we also will be sharing um some of this uh data at our state of the district which is scheduled for next Thursday, October 30th. As a learning um organization, we remain committed to continuous improvement efforts. And so tonight's present uh presents an opportunity for the board to uh review some of the achievements from the 24-25 school year, reflect on the impact of some of those u specific board governance actions. um identify how those actions align um to some of the uh results that we will see and then just continue the discussion as well as how we

005will continue to focus and align supports um in alignment with our current uh 2526 district-wide priority priority objectives. Um as always, I I like to give a public announcement uh that growth isn't linear. Uh so what does that mean? That means that growth doesn't always happen at a consistent pace or in a straight line. Um instead growth is unique. It's multi-dimensional. Um there's sometimes some learnings, there's some pauses, there's some plateaus. Um, but one thing that is consistent is that everyone here tonight and across our entire school district works intentionally um every day to continue learning, to continue growing so that more students um are meeting the rigorous goals that we've set out for them to meet. So there has been some changes to uh the Illinois uh school accountability. Um as we can see

006that's highlighted on this graph. Um last year there were new tests. We moved to the um ACT. Um this particular uh school year which we will share. Um there were uh new proficiency benchmarks that were set. Um and then next year um there is an anticipation um of a new accountability system. Uh and so there is an anticipation of summitive um changes to how school designations um are are given. Um but that is still to be determined and as soon as that information is shared by ISBY, we will definitely share that with our board and our community. for this particular school year. Um our current summit of designation formula um has remained the same. Um I just want to give attention to um for our elementary and middle schools. Uh that green box is around

007um 25% English language arts growth as well as 25% um of school designations is uh also contributed to from the math growth. So, for all of my math wizes in the room, that is a total of what? All of my math wizes in the room. It's not a trick question. That isif Thank you. There we go. There's 50% of school designations for our elementary and middle schools um is con is is consistent of growth. And then as you can see um what the other um academic indicators as well as school quality and student success indicators um are for both elementary and middle school. And then if you look down below you will see um that same distribution in terms of academic as well as school quality for our high schools. >> So just can I

008just clarify that one just so we're all on the same page. So you're saying that we are our designations in the acade in the elementary and middle school levels 50% of the designation is based on our English arts growth math growth. >> Correct. >> Compared to at the high school those design those breakdowns are different. >> There you go. Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> And you can see at the high school just for for uh purposes where do we see the largest? >> Yes. It's graduation. So graduation at the high school um is worth 50% of school designations. Okay. So because growth is such a um significant um weight in terms of the indicator for school designations, we I just wanted to level set um student growth percentile um is not the same as percent.

009So this is not about 50% of of students are meeting a certain threshold or benchmark. U percentile actually shows how much a students achievement grew in one year compared to other students with similar sca uh scale scores. Okay. So um for student growth measures uh 50% is considered that average growth so students improved at the same rate as their academic peers that's had a similar starting point scores above 50% show higher than typical growth. And then obviously on the um on that little box there we can see that scores um at a 40 uh or lower is where there is some concern. Okay. Later on in our presentation um we will uh share grade level growth percentiles for both IR as well as ACT. for IR in um one of the updates is um there

010has been a unified alignment around there being four um performance levels. Um and so now you can see um previously um there were five um if you can see on that top bar uh and now ISA as well as um uh I um has aligned to SAT and so we now consistently see um four performance levels across all third through 8th grade state assessments. One of the updates that we shared previously is that there are new performance levels um and proficiency benchmarks that correspond to postsecary expectations. um there this uh new benchmarks as you can see from the old benchmarks let's take look down at I for example um our older benchmarks had a a standard um cut score across all grades and across all content level um now is created some vertical and horizontal

011alignment from grade to grade as well as across subject matters um this per ISBY will now provide families and educators with more reliable and useful indicators of student readiness for college and career as they engage on their journey beginning at third grade. Last I would like to just share is that um schools receive um all of this data is rolled up. Um and then schools are actually just put in a ranking from top to bottom in terms of where and how they have performed on those indicators as we saw in the pie chart and then based on where schools um land within that ranking um then a school designation is then provided. So schools that are that um actually are in fall in either the top or the bottom um they are placed in those

012exemplary as well as or the the intensive support. Um and then based on those other indicators can land anywhere in between. Um we just like to note that um this is kind of similar a moving target if you will um because it can vary from year to year based on just um various indicators in terms of how schools um perform. um based on that pie chart that I showed be um earlier. So the school designations um will not be shared tonight as I mentioned. It will be uh be shared um at our state of the district um which is a little bit closer to the release actually the day before ISBY releases this information. And so just out of a abundance of caution of there being any potential um schools and districts are combing through

013this data and working with Illinois um state board of education, we do not want to prematurely share any designations that might have um the propensity to change. Um so therefore we are going to wait a little bit closer to when this data is officially shared by the um state board of education. So, with that, that completes my overall um just review um tonight. I'm going to now pass um the microphone to my colleague, Dr. Rubenstein, who's going to take us a little bit further. >> Thank you, Dr. Campbell. So, I um am going to just review some district-wide data um and then my colleagues um Katie Lions and Carrie Lel are going to dive deeper into our data over time. Um so on this uh table that you see on the screen um it indicates

014the chronic absenteeism rates for each grade level um in district 205 for each of the past four years and over the past several years as you all know as we've talked about um there's been a national trend of increasing chronic absenteeism and Almhurst was not immune um to that but due to the focused actions of our leadership and uh teachers across the district um and our strong partnerships with families and community we saw reductions um again in the levels of chronic absenteeism in the 24-25 school year. Um our elementary schools, as we shared earlier, are now below the level of chronic absenteeism seen pre- pandemic. Um and we continue to focus our efforts on improvements at the middle school and high school levels. Um with that said, we are proud of the nearly 50% reduction

015um in chronic absenteeism at York High School since the 22 23 school year. Um leaders have continued to ensure that instruction is engaging and that students from all backgrounds feel safe and supported in our school programs. Um as more of their efforts and systems roll out again um this year, we anticipate further reductions in chronic absenteeism at York High School. Um on this next slide um is our uh beginning look at um access for ELLLs uh which is uh the annual English language proficiency assessment used in Illinois and many other states across the country to measure how well emergent bilingual are developing their skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing um in English. It's required by federal law and it helps us to determine um students continued eligibility for English language supports um and their

016progress towards exiting the program. There are two ways that we really look at these score reports. Um the first, which is on your screen right now, um is to look at the proficiency levels of all students with an interest in seeing more students reaching higher proficiency levels. We're pleased to report that more students scored at the proficient level this year than in any previous school year. um with 78 students meeting the benchmark to exit from EL services. Notably, York High School experienced an 8% uh increase year-over-year in proficiency levels. We continue to closely monitor the supports and services for our students with EL programming across the district to ensure that all students um are uh supported appropriately. The next way that we um look at our EEL scores is what's called EEL progress to proficiency,

017which is a measure of how quickly our students are growing in our EL programs. The state sets an individual growth target for every student based on how long they've been receiving English language services and their current proficiency levels. Um progress to proficiency reflects whether a student is on track to reach full English proficiency within the expected timelines. So this measure is used to ensure that students are making steady and appropriate growth um in their language development. It's not a pass or fail score. Um it's a progress measure that helps schools tailor instruction um and determine the level of support each student needs to be successful. Uh this year we saw improvements in our progress to proficiency for our elementary and high school programs and we continue to focus on supporting our middle school students in

018growth over time. Next, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Mrs. Lions who help us to dive deeper into the scores for our Illinois assessment of readiness. >> Okay, thanks Kevin. >> Thanks Kevin. >> So just to frame this next section I want us to note that for the Illinois assessment data in grades three through eight for ELA math and science historic scale scores were used to calculate proficiency rates based on 2025 benchmarks. So those were the adjustments that Dr. Campbell had previously shared. While this information is not reflected on the official ISBY report cards, it provides valuable internal data for us year-over-year analysis um for our district and school improvement efforts and for that reflection. Additionally, unlike Isby's official reporting, our calculations include all D205 students who took the assessment, including EL

019newcomers. While this has minimal impact on overall proficiency rates, it also offers a more comprehensive view of student performance and progress across the district. So, just a quick note um on framing those slides as we move forward. As it relates to proficiency rates in English language arts for grades three through eight, as listed in the green bar graphs on the left side of your screen, D205 has demonstrated consistent upward momentum across both elementary and middle grade levels. In grades three through five, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding proficiency increased steadily from 72% in 2022 to 77% in 2025, reflecting continued academic improvement and effective instructional practices. Grades 6 to 8 performance exhibited particularly strong growth, rising from 59% in 2022 to 78% in 2024. With that level sustained in 2025, this represents a 19

020percentage point increase over four years, underscoring substantial progress in literacy outcomes at the secondary level. As it relates to growth performance listed on the right side of your screen, cohort growth percentiles provide additional evidence of positive student progress for the 2425 school year. Growth percentiles ranged from 49 to 57 across grades 4 through 8, positioning D2 D205 within the average to above average range. Grades six and seven demonstrated the most notable improvement, increasing from 55 to 57 and 49 to 55, respectively. Grades four and five maintained stable performance at 54 and 52 while grade 8 showed a modest gain from 48 to 49. As Dr. Campbell mentioned, according to state benchmarks, a mean growth percentile of of 50 plus or minus 3 is considered average with scores above 54 classified as above average. D205's growth

021profile therefore reflects healthy academic momentum particularly in the middle grades. Overall district-wide ELA performance demonstrates a clear trajectory of improvement in both proficiency and growth. The steady increase in proficiency rates indicates that tier one instruction is impro is approaching the target benchmark of effectively meeting the needs of 80% of our learners. With 77 to 78% of students currently performing at or above proficiency, the district is nearing this critical threshold, signifying that core literacy instruction is increasingly strong and well differentiated. These results reflect the impact of highquality teaching, targeted supports, and sustained attention to student literacy learning outcomes across grade levels. ELA performance among specific student groups highlights areas of progress and continued opportunity for targeted instructional support. For emergent bilingual students, proficiency declines slightly from 30% in 2024 to 26% in 2025. While below district

022averages, this group continues to show growth in language acquisition, indicating that stronger integration of language development with tier 1 literacy instruction will further support achievement. For students with IEPs, proficiency increased from 40% to 42%, reflecting steady improvement and the impact of inclusive practices and targeted interventions. For lowincome students, proficiency decreased slightly from 46% to 43%. Continued focus on equitable access to highquality instructional materials and differentiated supports remains key to accelerating progress. Overall, while proficiency rates for all three groups remain below the district average, highlighting the importance of differentiated tier 1 ELA instruction, scaffolded language development and consistent, highquality academic supports aligned to meet diverse learner needs will support acceleration. We'll transition to math proficiency and growth percentiles. Math proficiency continues to show positive and consistent improvement across grade levels with notable gains in both elementary

023and middle school performance over the past four years. In grades three through five, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding proficiency increased from 66% in 2022 to 75% in 2025, representing a 9 percentage point gain. This steady upward trend reflects ongoing refinement of core math instructional practices and materials. In grades six to eight, proficiency rose from 54% in 2022 to 63% in 2024 with that level maintained in 2025. This reflects a 9-point increase over time and sustained progress in deepening students conceptional math understanding and elevating teachers use of high-quality instructional materials and practices. As it relates to growth performance, cohort growth percentiles for math indicate above average performance in most grade levels with particularly strong results in grades four through six. Grades four, five, and six posted growth percentiles of 58, 59, and 61, respectively.

024All within or above the above average range, with grade six reaching the excellent threshold. Grade 7 reported a percentile of 55, consistent with above average growth, while grade 8 declined slightly from 42 to from 52 to 49, but remaining within the average range. According to benchmark criteria again as Dr. Campbell mentioned a mean growth percentile of 54 to 60 is considered above average and 60 is above and above is excellent. The district's math growth data therefore indicate strong overall progress and continued improvement particularly within the elementary and lower middle grades. Districtwide math results demonstrate steady and meaningful improvement in both proficiency and growth. The upward trend in proficiency, particularly in grades three through five, suggests that tier one instruction is increasingly effective and nearing the target of meeting the needs of 80% of our learners.

025With 75% of elementary students and 63% of middle school students currently demonstrating proficiency, the district is closing the gap toward towards that benchmark. These outcomes reflect the impact of f focused instructional alignment, data-informed teaching, and a commitment to ensuring high levels of mathematical understanding for all students. Math performance among specific groups reflects both progress as well as continued need for targeted math support. For emergent bilingual students, proficiency declines slightly from 21 to 20% in 2025. While below district averages, students continue to strengthen foundational language and math reasoning. Embedding math language within tier 1 instruction will support accelerated growth. For students with IEPs, proficiency rose from 34 to 35%, showing steady improvement tied to inclusive and differentiated practices. For lowincome students, proficiency decreased from 30 to 28% indicating stable yet slightly lower performance. Continued focus on

026equitable access to rigorous core instruction remains essential across groups. Proficiency remains below district averages, underscoring the need to strengthen tier one math instruction through integrated language supports, high-quality materials, and consistent academic interventions. And lastly, we'll highlight our science proficiency performance among specific Oh, I'm just jumped ahead. My apologies. The Illinois Science Assessment or ISA is administered in grades five and 8. Results reflect strong and consistent growth across both grade levels. In grade 5, proficiency increase from 60% in 2024 to 67% in 2025, continuing a steady upward trend in reflecting effective tier 1 instruction that engages students in hands-on inquiry based learning. In grade 8, proficiency rose from 65 to 70% and the highest of in four years. This improvement highlights strength and alignment of phenomenon based curricul curriculum and literacy rich science practices. Overall science

027outcomes again show sustained district-wide progress with proficiency rates nearing the 70% mark. Tier one instruction is is effectively meeting the needs of most learning learners and approaching our goal of 80% proficiency. With continued focus on inquirydriven instruction, we will ensure equitable success for all students. And finally, performance among specific student groups in science science shows stability growth as well as continued opportunity for targeted supports. For emergent bilingual students, proficiency remains steady at 9%. While below district averages, this stability provides a foundation for growth through stronger integration of language development and visual supports. We will increase our tier 1 instruction for students with IEPs. Proficiency declined from 35 to 29% indicating a need to strengthen accessibility and differentiation through hands-on, scaffolded, and co-taught learning experiences. For low-income students, proficiency increased slightly from 30 to 31, reflecting

028modest but positive pro progress toward closing achievement gaps. Overall, while district science achievement continues to rise, subgroup performance underscores the need for inclusive inquirybased tier one instruction that integrates language development and differentiation. I will now hand it over to Carrie to highlight our data from York High School. Great. Thank you, Katie. Um, as Katie mentioned, data we are sharing this evening, it was calculated internally to provide context to you all and then also be able to be used in school improvement efforts. And so just want to highlight that some of the data that you'll see will not be on the Illinois school report card and we'll talk about that. This will close out our kind of large-scale data overview before we have a second to process. So first and foremost, as Dr. Campbell mentioned, last

029year was the first year that our high school students took the ACT as the state summitive assessment in grades 9 through 11. Because of this, the state established benchmarks that were highlighted at the beginning of this presentation. This slide shows the percentage of students meeting both ISBY and ACT benchmarks in ELA proficiency. Every student who takes the ACT receives an ELA score. That is the average of the students reading, English, and writing score for each of those tests. As seen in the green bar graph, the class of 2026 had 79% of students meeting the ISBY benchmark of 18. The historical data that you'll see for for years 22, 23, and 24 demonstrate the percentage of students who met the SAT equivalent on the evidence-based reading and writing assessment. From 2022, there has been a 13%

030increase in the percentage of students meeting Isby's new benchmark. If you remember from the SAT, ISBY and College Board had different benchmarks. The same is true for ACT and ISBY. On the right in orange is the percentage of students who earned a 20 on the ACT in ELA proficiency. ACT's college and career readiness benchmarks are the scores that represent the level of achievement required for students to have a 50% chance of obtaining a B in a credit bearing college level course or 75% chance of earning a C. We have populated SAT, EBRW data as well to see an increase in the percentage of students meeting proficiency in ELA of 10% since 2022. On Illinois school report card, what you will see is that 2025 green bar of 79%. transitioning to proficiency across grade levels and

031growth in the high school. For the first time this year is will also be publishing 9th and 10th grade proficiency rates. And so on the screen and the table on the left, you see um sorry, the percentage of students who met Isby's benchmark in ELA for grades 9, 10, and 11 with approximately 84% of 9th grade students meeting, approximately 80% of 10th grade students meeting, and about 80% of grade 11 students meeting. Just for clarification for summitive designations, grade 11 proficiency is the only grade utilized in calculating for summitive designation. Also, for the first time at the high school, ISBY has calculated that average cohort growth percentile. So, we don't have multiple years of this, but you will see in grade nine and 10, we are meeting that above average growth with 54 and 56

032respectively. and our grade 11 in ELA surpassing that 60 mark of excellent cohort growth. Lastly, for ELA, we also want to review specific student groups. On this slide, you can see an increase in proficiency in ELA proficiency for the three student groups highlighted. Our emerging bilingual students increased from 16 to 28% meeting proficiency. students with IEPs increasing from 40 to 45 reaching proficiency and lowincome students increasing from 31 to 41% meeting proficiency in ELA. This data demonstrates a steady upward trend and reaffirms the continued focus on language development, differentiated tier one support, and access to highquality instructional materials for all students. as we continue to close opportunity gaps. We will now transition to math proficiency at the high school. And so the slide is set up similarly. On the left in blue is the percentage

033of students who met the ISBY benchmark of 19 on the ACT math section with 67% of the students in the class of 2026 earning that score or or higher. On the right, you will see the same data but utilizing ACT's college and career readiness benchmark. This shows that 55% of students in the class of 2026 met ACT's benchmark of 2022, which is an increase from prior years. While we are encouraged by this trend, we also know there is work to do. Looking at math proficiency across grade levels and also growth, we see that the percentage of students in grades 911 who are proficient utilizing Isby's BA benchmark on the math section on the right. So 67% of students in grade 9, 56% of students in grade 10, and 68% of students in grade 11. On

034the right hand side, you'll see those growth percentiles with a range of 54 to 59 all showing above ad average growth for each grade level. Lastly, when looking at math and looking specifically at student groups, we see a decrease in the percentage of emerging bilingual and lowincome students meeting the math benchmarks and an increase in the students with IEPs meeting the benchmark. This data continues to be an area of focus for teams and ensuring that our programming and tier one different differentiated supports are meeting all our students needs. Lastly, for ACT data, we will continue to science. You will only see one year of science data because this is the first year taking the ACT science test and they do not produce ISA to ACT concordance tables. So, we're only able to look at this

035year's data. You can see that utilizing Isby's benchmark, 76% of students in grade nine met the threshold, 74% met the grade 10 threshold, and 77% of grade 11 students met the Isisby threshold of a 19 on the science assessment. The shaded purple bar, fourth row on the last um portion of that col or that table on the left demonstrates the percentage of students meeting the ACT college and career readiness benchmark of 23 at about 55%. Lastly, on the right hand SL side of this, you will see that our emergent bilingual and students with IEPs and low income are below the district average. Closing these opportunity gaps remains a continued focus across content and grade levels. Transitioning to de other metrics, we're going to start with composite graduation rate, which is the largest portion Dr. Campbell

036highlighted of York summitive designation accounting for 50% of the overall score for York. This number is calculated by weighting the four-year graduation rate at 50%, fifth year graduation at 35% and six-year graduation at 15%. As you can see on the graph presented, we had a slight increase in our composite graduation rate. As a reminder, our students who participate in the transition center partnership with the College of DuPage are not included in the graduation rate until they accept their diploma. However, this year, ISBY will be identifying the percentage of our students who are continuing with an IEP in that type of programming where before they were just viewed as non-graduates. Next we have freshman on track which just which is just over 8% of York summitive designation score. Students identified as on track have earned at

037least five fullyear course credits and have earned no more than one semester F in a core course. Freshmen on track is a key predictor of high school success. As students who finish the ninth grade year on track are almost four times as likely to graduate from high school as students who are not on track. York's freshman on track in the 2425 school year was 98%. This is an increase from prior years. Although not an ISBY indicator, an important data point that we review is the percentage of students taking an AP exam. the total number of AP exams taken and those who pass an exam. York had a total of 1,99 exams completed last spring with 89% of those exams earning a score of a three or higher. This p this increase in the percentage of

038exams administered and passed demonstrates that more students are accessing and demonstrating proficiency on college level coursework. Lastly, we will look at the percentage of students from York High School that enrolled in a two or four-year college within 16 months of graduation. This is not an ISBY indicator, but is shared on the school report card. So, you'll see that we're looking at the class of 2023 because 16 months have to pass for us to be able to access this data. This data comes from the National Student Clearing House for Higher Education Enrollment and the ISBY Student Information System for High School Graduation. Clearing House captures data from more than 95% of institutions nationwide and its data is commonly used across states. For the class of 2023, there was an increase in the percentage of students enrolling

039in college within 16 months and the highest percentage in the last four years. I'll now pass it back to Dr. Campbell to facilitate some processing. >> Thank you so much to my colleagues, Dr. Rubenstein, Miss Lishaw, as well as Miss Lions for sharing. I'm sure our brains are full right now of a lot of data and a lot of information. So, we're going to just pause before we go into our next section and just allow you just to process a little bit of what you have heard. Um, we have a a timer. I'm going to give us a about a five minute processing time within our table groups and then we'll come back together um and just kind of share some of those highlights out. Okay. Yeah, we're Yeah, we're going to come back together.

040So, can I just have each um can I have each table share out one celebration and then I'm going to have each table share out um one maybe thought or wondering in terms of next steps. And so Tana, are you gonna can you take notes for us? Make sure you count uh capture this. Okay. So do I have a table that will start off with just sharing one celebration? Thank you, Dr. Henry. >> Might as well take the easy ones, right? >> Okay. So we are celebrating over here on the AR math and ELA proficiency um increases we've seen over the last four years. >> Excellent. Thank you. Just >> just getting right to the point. >> Just get right to it. Thank you. >> Miss Troutman, you want to share a celebration? >> I'll

041I'll share the celebration. And it makes me very happy to see the continued increase in the number of students taking AP classes at York and not only taking the classes but taking the exams and passing the exams um to get them additional or jump on college credits for when they ch if they choose to go to college. So I love seeing that trajectory continue to improve. >> Excellent. Then our last table celebration Um okay. So uh we talked a little bit about you know kind of the big shift that happened last year in our middle schools around adding more minutes to science and social studies year round which then you know inadvertently reduces minutes in math and ELA. But when you look at the eighth grade store scores you see uh you see that students

042perform the same for math and ELA but you see the science scores shoot up. And even though and remember data is a point in time. And so that I think is a big win that we didn't see a decrease when we decreased minutes because that was a wonder for uh people in this room when we made that decision. And I'm just very pleased to see that those stayed uh flat uh math and ELA even though no though kids were experiencing other content uh more and look at the benefit it drew out for students. So, we talked a little bit about that next phase of now, okay, going back and looking at math and ELA and that curriculum and that transition to fewer minutes in instruction and then how do we start to see that trajectory

043again. So, again, very big kudos to uh the staff, the middle school. That's a huge undertaking and to see the students benefiting from that decision is just really, really phenomenal. >> Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing. I know that there were a plethora of celebrations to share, but I appreciate you all elevating those three in the room. Um, moving right on to u a a next step or a wondering. Um, let's go reverse. So, can we start off the with that table? Was there a next step or a wondering? This is just I'm asking Carrie if this is okay. Sorry. Like, Carrie, do I have your blessing? No, I'm kidding. So, you know, data, right? It's numbers. It's We're looking at this every year. We're looking at um numbers, not people. And I think

044we have to always remember how students play a role in their own learning. Um but in this moment, we're looking at strictly numbers. So, I'm keeping students and teachers out of this kind of wonder that I'm going to put out there or maybe a piece of the data that stood out to me a little bit. So when we look at the um the high school and the ACT information and or data, sorry, and we're looking at uh number of students proficient above in in all of these three items or categories. It's it's ELA, it's math, and it's science. >> We're seeing strong performance indicators in ELA and science. You know, those numbers are in the 70s. We even got an 80 in there. Um, and then in math they're they're a bit more flat than

045that uh or lower. And so it just looks like an opportunity uh to to a wonder to look into of of why why that might be or what we can be doing to help students um have the similar experience in the math proficiency that they're seeing in science and ELA because we know they can do it. we they've proven to us they can do it and so they can do it across the board not just in two of the three. So that was our kind of >> excellent really appreciate that and well well stated let's um come to our next table it's us we're okay thank you >> thank you Okay. All right. We built we build consensus on our wonder. >> Yes. >> The instructions were not clear to us despite your best efforts.

046No. Um, I think one of the things that we noticed is that students with IEPs tended to do better than those with emergent bilingual or lowinccome. So just, you know, in terms of next steps really wanting to focus on those particular groups >> for ACT >> for Yep. Now you got >> Well, they're finding another Nikki, can I add something to that? >> And I think the people in this room um that have been here for four and five years now, I remember the donut presentation, Kevin. Yes, I'm looking at you. And that was when we were we were but we were we were we were talking about laser focusing on our subgroups at the time. And um Nikki, that observation that your table came up with, I think is a strong one, a good

047one. It's it is an outcome of where we've been and then where we're going. And it's it's okay. We we're in a continuous improvement. We need to keep doing this, right? And so I think it's still on the docket. Has it gotten better? Yes. Is it where we want it to be? We've got work to do. >> Okay. And our last group wondering, >> table two had a great response. So, I have to find a new one. Um, we looked at the science that's stood out the most and uh that it was 9% and we were just wondering how can we uh reach those students a little more. Oh, sorry. For the for the um the bilingual IEP um low-income students. >> Excellent. Thank you. Thank you all so much for um engaging in that

048reflection um process. We're going to move on to um have an opportunity to kind of dig a little bit deeper in um some uh school specific u level data. Um we're as as you might those that were here last year recall um that each table group looked at a the elementary feeder schools into an elementary school. Um and of course we know all roads lead to York. Um and you explored that summitive designation. um from um that lens. Today we're going to highlight um some of the designations data for elementary schools that feed into a middle school and ultimately York and all table groups will be looking um at the same um schools. Um we felt that it was really important um to highlight the importance of improvement efforts over time um and that we

049understand and know and continue to elevate which also um Athena just mentioned um that it is a multi-year approach um that leads to the work and so the work that we're doing at the elementary school this was also mentioned at our table by Nikki that leads into the experience that we set students up for at middle school and the experience of students have at middle school thinking about how that translates into the high school. Um and so it is multi-year um approach and strategy to our improvement efforts. And so we thought that it would be really helpful um for us to look at the data in that way today. So, we're going to go through a very similar process that we've gone through before um which is through three phases and then after the third

050phase, I will um pass the mic to um Athena for us to do um a quick wrap-up. Okay. All right. We're going to start off with our first um and so just to orient to the materials that are in front of us, we have a note catcher. It is a front and a back that will walk us through the phases and we try to just kind of provide more clarity um a little bit of a fence around each of the phases to guide our work. And so um the first phase that Dr. Candle Campbell will lead us through is just what facts do you see? So you see the phase one as your first listing listed in your graphic organizer. So, if you want to find that in your folder and make sure to have

051that note catcher in front of you as a table and we'll have five minutes to capture some information in that phase and then we'll do a twominut share out. So, you'll see two timers on the slide. Rudy's very thankful for bouncing back and forth. Um, and then you're going to see five sets of data. Three for elementary, one for middle, and one for high school. um they're individually stapled. You're going to see summitive designation data for each of those six schools, five schools. I apologize. You'll see proficiency data as that's really important for us to also look at. We know summit of designation as Dr. Campbell mentioned 50% is based on growth and graduation rate. So we also want to look at proficiency. And then we will also take a look at one component of

052the five essentials survey which is the supportive environment domain. And so we thought that these three pieces of data for each school really provide a comprehensive understanding of the nuanced approach to a multi-year school improvement effort. So we don't just look at summit of designation. We look at proficiency, we look at five essentials to give more of a total look at a school at school improvement efforts. You'll also see two or four years of data to provide a more holistic picture for you. Thank you. So we will begin with our first guiding questions. What facts do you see in the data? And >> when you see the data, are we looking at the proficiencies or the five essentials? Any >> all of it? >> Whatever I want to talk about. Okay, team. Due to time,

053we're not going to report out, but I think there is a tendency to move from the actual um facts of what you see into what the data suggest. So, we're just going to slide on into phase number two because I think many of us just >> happen to do that anyway. Okay. So again, this is where we're now um able to say based on the facts, what does the data suggest? Okay, so let's make sense of what the data says and why and try to begin um to articulate some various interpretations or possible evaluations um against what we are seeing. Not above 80% York%. Everybody. 60. >> So now team, we're going to move into our last um phase three, which is um our trends, our themes, and consideration. So, um, this is where we've

054now taken our facts and our analysis to translate that into potential future considerations or next steps. You can start the clock at 5 minutes. Yes. So, thank you all so much for engaging in this rigorous data conversation. Um I'm going to um now pass uh to um our board president to kind of just give a wrap-up and um reflections on the work. >> Sure. And I'll just start by saying, you know, I thank you to the team. Again, this is a and I think we all feel it on this day every year. We can dive so deeply into the data and really learn about our school, our students, our staff, our efforts as educators. um and working within a community. Uh so so thank you for for embracing this work and and constantly showing us

055uh how to measure what we're doing and how we're doing it. So just for the board members, we'll wrap up by thinking about how our work, this is how we always wrap this up, how our work connects to this work. And I think throughout our dialogue and our uh uh reporting out from our groups, we heard some of that. But any thoughts from board members about either what we're focusing on now, what we have accomplished or decided or focused on in the past that we're seeing uh play out? Um and then are there any other areas that we should be focusing on moving forward now that we are seeing the most recent um kind of state of the district? Sure. >> Yes, please. >> You know, I love this meeting every year. It is actually

056my favorite committee of the whole meeting because it it really does use data to show exactly how impactful our actions are. We're either succeeding or we're not succeeding. And there is a lot to celebrate about what is happening in our buildings. Um, but as we, you know, because we're all perfectionists and we want the best for our students, everyone in this room and in our community do I think there's a lot of things that we, this data shows that we can narrow in our focus to improve upon. I think the data shows um the things that at our board table and in our committee meetings we have talked about over and over again where we want to see the focus and improvement and this data shows it. And I appreciate so much you guys doing

057this deep deep dive into it with us. Um because it reinforces that, you know, the board members, our voices are being heard by you guys, which means that you are all focusing on what's best for our students. So, I truly appreciate it. I think the data supports everything you've heard from us as a board and I know that I have confidence that you're going to keep digging and pushing in the right direction for everything that's best for our students. So, thank you, Beth. >> Sure. Uh we were just talking a lot about um all the work that's been done over time and all of the curricular additions and resources and adjustments and professional development. I mean just a ton of work that's been done across the district that is showing great success and we can

058see that it's impacting our students positively. Um being a unit district, just remembering that we have students that have had exposure to all of those changes. We have students that have had exposure to some of them and we have students that have had the opportunity haven't had the opportunity to have exposure to as many of them just because where they fall in the unit district. Um and you know just that our teams are working so hard to meet our students where they are at as we continue to progress through that process and and pretty soon all of our kids will have exposure to all of those resources. but um we're able to really identify those things being a unit district and meet those students where they're at and offer more resources where needed. So, it's

059just something we talked a lot about at our table. Thank you, Beth. Any other thoughts in closing? I'm seeing a lot of nos. We've said it all. Okay. Well, you know, as we kind of move into our work for the next year as a board, we of course refer back to our six foundational principles. I think um many of us can look at those principles and see how this work is coming into fruition today and can be proud about where we are as a district and uh who who we have here working for on behalf of our kids and for our community. So, thank you so much for tonight. I think we'll close out with that. It is 6:57. I'll mention our next meetings at our uh in about a few minutes after our public

060board of education regular meeting. So, thank you all. At 657, we'll adjourn our committee of the whole now. Welcome. Hello. This is the Board of Education meeting being held on Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. I'm calling the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. The board of education was in close session at 5:00 p.m. for the items listed on this agenda and then moved into our open committee of the whole meeting. So, we were in close session from 5:00 to 5:30. We opened our committee of the whole meeting at 5:32ish off the top of my head. Thank you. 5:33 p.m. and then commenced at 6:57 from committee the whole. Now, we are opening our regular board of education meeting. Can we um please call the role? Mrs. Arvanites >> here. >> Mrs. Asv here. Mrs. Hustler >>

061here. >> Mrs. Troutman >> here. Dr. Henry >> here. >> Mrs. Lewinsky here. Mr. Breznahan >> here. >> Thank you. Seven board members present, zero absent. Uh, we I don't have my agenda really quick. Hang on. Sorry. There we are. Are we will Thank you. We will uh stand for the pledge of allegiance. Okay, so we're starting out our board meeting with our spotlights and recognition. We have one spotlight in recognition and it's been a joy to see the pictures on social media uh in celebration of principal appreciation week. Uh thank you. Sorry. And so I just wanted to extend from the board on behalf of the board a sincere thank you to all of our principles throughout our district and our assistant principles. I will loop them into this group too who work tirelessly

062um to to bring their best every day to work with our students to partner with parents and to really uh uh provide an educational environment where our children in Elmharst can thrive and thank you for that work, that dedication. Um education is an ever evolving industry. It's not an easy one to be in. Uh, and at times it can it can feel pretty overbearing, but we uh always remember the highlights, the smiles, and the hugs uh when we've had an impact on children's lives. So, thank you for all the work that you do and effort you provide um your your local communities and the district. Uh I will read the proclamation from my seat, not the uh podium if if uh I can. So, this is the proclamation from the state of Illinois. Whereas whereas

063school principles play an integral role in nurturing a positive student- centered culture in elementary, middle, and high schools across the state of Illinois. And whereas school principles are responsible for attracting and retaining the best teachers and support staff to ensure that each child receives equitable education opportunities and services to reach their potential. Whereas it is the primary responsibility of the state of Illinois to provide adequate and equitable resources for schools so that all students have access to quality education and foundation for a successful future. The Illinois Principal Association, which represents over 6,900 educational leaders statewide, believes that educators experiences and voices are essential to crafting effective educational policy. And the Illinois Principal Association is committed to developing, supporting, and advocating for innovative educational leaders through highquality professional development, networking opportunities, and legislative advocacy. And school

064leaders face many obstacles in supporting and educating our young people. It is through their perseverance, passion, and hopefilled leadership that Illinois continues to produce quality, career ready students. And whereas we must continue to encourage, support, and recognize our school principles who have a positive impact on Illinois students and the educational system in the land of Lincoln. Therefore, I and I am not him, but this is coming from our governor JB Pritsker, governor of the state of Illinois, hereby proclaims October 19th through 25th, 2025 as principal week and October 24th as principal day in Illinois. And there is a recognition for principles and the IPA for all that they do to help our children. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being there and showing up every day. No round of applause. Just thank

065you, Courtney. Appreciate that. All right. Uh, item four is public comments. Do we have public comments tonight? We have one public comment tonight. Okay. So, give me one second. The public comment section of the board meeting provides an opportunity for community members to share information and perspectives with the board of education. And while the board does not respond during public comments, we are listening and thoughtfully considering the messages being shared. Each of us have high expectations for our community and ask that public comments, are respectful, and do not mention individuals by name. The way in which we publicly engage when sharing differing perspectives is an opportunity to model healthy and respectful discourse for our students and the greater community while creating an environment of collaboration and partnership. We will have up to 30 minutes. the

066secretary, Missf will give you uh three minutes per speaker and will give us a 30 second uh notice when you're approaching three minutes. So, I'll turn it over to Kelly Sarah Jensen. >> Thank you. Um thank you um for having me. I appreciate all that you guys do and I am definitely speaking from a voice of collaboration. Um I am also a teacher. I've been involved with REACH forever. I've sat on the strategic planning committee and I'm here um to speak as a concerned parent about math at York. Um my twins are juniors and for the last two plus years um I have tried to advocate um and math continues to be their once best subject um probably their lowest um scoring subject. And as juniors who are getting ready now to apply to colleges,

067um, one of my kids is going to play uh, water polo and colleges. So, we've already started the discussions with a lot of very elite schools. And um, the concern that um that I have and I I speak on behalf of a lot of other I think parents in the um, district at York is just the amount of effort that's being put into math um, and the grades that are coming back. So, you know, doing homework, showing up at class, participating, um heading to math lab, getting getting resources from your teacher, peer tutoring, external tutoring. Um it's so much work and such a lack of confidence in a lot of these kids for the for the effort that they're getting or for the grades that they're getting back. Um I would really, I guess, ask

068you guys as the leaders of this community to really look at what's happening in the math and do a deep dive. What is hap? How many students by subject, by teacher have grades that are C's and below? How many of these kids are doing retakes? What is the percentage? Um, that to me is an indication of not understanding material. I don't know if it's curriculum. I don't know if it's instruction. I don't know if it's teacher. I'm that's not my area of expertise, but something is broken. Uh, I'm not sure what it is, but something is. Um, I don't I I guess I would ask like the grading and the rubrics. Are we Is it too hard? Are the rubrics too limiting? Um, last year, you know, it wasn't until January that you could even

069get a B, or a D. It was either an A, a C, or an F. That affects your overall grade point averages. And these colleges are telling us it's not just the courses that you take. the first screening is your GPA. Um, if you do an AP class and you get a five on your AP, but you get a C in that class, they're not even looking at that five yet because they're looking at that GPA. So, um, 30 seconds. >> I'm just imploring you to have a look at that. Um, do we have ample and adequate time for relearning and reteing? Where is the small group instruction coming into the class to help the kids that are getting the C's, the D's, and the lower? Um, it's gone for anything. My kids are in

070AP, Calc, AB as juniors, one of them, and the other one is in pre-calc, and there is no intervention anymore. It's only happening at the lower grades, but yet these are the kids who are about to apply to college. >> So, I'm here to help. Where's the bell curve? You know, all those things. Um there's a group of us who are you know very involved parent um but we just need somebody to take a look at this. We've tried we've tried many many times. Um so that's it. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you Sarah. Thanks for taking the time to voice your concern and perspective with the board of education. As you know common practice of the board is to follow up with p public commenters after the board meeting as needed. So

071we'll talk soon. Thank you. Yep. That's it, Kelly. Yep, that's it. Okay. Item five on our agenda, public hearing is taking place, which only takes place when specific items are assigned to public hearing, and this is one of them. Today we have the public hearing on concerning the intent of the board to sell the 8.5 million dollars in working cash bonds to increase the district's working cash fund and 15 million in school fire prevention and safety bonds to pay the costs of certain school fire prevention and safety projects. We are now formally declaring this hearing open at 7:12 p.m. Uh Joe, if you can give us an overview of the item for the hearing. >> Thank you very much. And this uh hearing is a continuation of conversations we've had in August and September uh

072surrounding some of the needs that we have in the district in order to uh uh achieve our goals financially. Those goals center around uh the element of creating and sustaining our three major components of the educational system. Highquality student programs, highquality facilities, and stable financial structures. This hearing talks about two different uh financial options available to us both unique but financially similar in the way that they are issued. The first phase is the debt service extension base. This uh type of of bond allows school districts to access funds equivalent to the principal and interest payments set in 1994 and adjusted for uh inflation. At this time, we have debt service extensionbased uh bonds that are are nearing a close and this is an opportunity uh for us to continue accessing those debt service extensionbased funds

073uh without an increase in the tax rate. The purpose of accessing these debt service extensionbased funds would be to maintain a stable financial structure. You can see here over the last six years our low point which takes place shortly before May 31st before we receive our first round of property tax payments. Uh you can see that it has declined over the last six years. Part of that is an investment in the uh an an additional scope on the referendum that was passed in 2018. But you can see at its lowest point this past May, we reached a point of about $4.5 million, which is still in a in a safe uh zone, but we want to provide additional funds uh to make sure that we can financially uh sustain our our highquality educational programs and

074our highquality facilities. These working cash bonds would be accessed through these debt this debt service extension base or Dub bonds and those would be issued uh we we have to specify for a specific purpose and so those the purpose of these funds would be to support the $4 million capital project uh work items that we identify every spring. We would use that over the next two plus years. uh so that we can use the other operating funds to support our highquality uh uh educational programs. The second component of this bond hearing is centered around our life safety work items. Every 10 years, uh, the school district, uh, goes through a process with our architects to identify items at every single one of our schools that are identified as needs to address the life and life

075safety uh, necessities of our buildings. We conducted that in 2024 and uh we affirmed those life safety items in late August and those have been submitted to the regional office of education which have now been updated by the regional office. Uh they have removed some items. Most of the items that have been removed are category C items. There are specific requirements in order for it to be considered category C. K. Uh just to recap what these categories mean, category A are items that must be addressed in the first 12 months uh because they are uh they are urgent life safety needs within our within our schools. Category B items need to be completed within the next five years. Um and uh those those are elements that that uh are required because uh we want to

076ensure the the the safety of all students and staff in our buildings. Category C are recommended items that are not required for any school district to complete. However, these are recommendations in order to improve the life uh safety of our of our schools. One of those components is energy savings. Uh which some of these items that were removed uh were removed because they don't meet the threshold of energy savings even though uh they would capture some energy savings. So uh in August we estimated uh the total costs of all A, B, and C items to be just over $30 million. Uh with those adjustments, the updated cost is just over $20 million at this time. In order to support the work of uh of completing that $20 million worth of projects over the next five

077years because the majority of these items are now category A and B items, we want to look at it from the scope of the next five years. We are recommending the issuance of life safety bonds of 15 of approximately $15 million. That amount could change slightly based off of the rate that we are able to um achieve through our through our bonding process by coupling our DUB bonds with life safety bonds. This would allow us the opportunity uh to achieve uh uh completing many of those life safety projects. About 71% of them can be achieved by uh by these life safety bonds. The remaining uh amount of life safety work items would then be invested through our annual $4 million capital project list. Uh so approximately $1.2 2 million uh per year would be invested

078towards uh towards those additional life safety items through our annual capital projects. The reason why we are bringing it forward uh for $15 million plus the approximately $ 8.5 million of DUB bonds is it creates um a tax rate that remains relatively flat to what our community is currently paying. So you can see the tax rate is expected to remain the same as our current levels. And to demonstrate that, this is a really hard chart to see. So I'm going to skip ahead a little bit, but this is this breaks down our D subbonds in the middle of the screen and our life safety bonds on the right hand side of the screen. And I'm going to zoom in a little bit by showing it to you this way. These are our life safety bonds

079which would be paid um paid over the next 10 years which is the life of this 10-year life safety survey. And you can see on the far right side it would result in approximately the same amount of debt service payment to the average $500,000 house compared to what uh those community members are paying right now. We do have uh existing DUB bonds that are expiring. So we also wanted to represent what that payment difference would be between what the current schedule is and what the new payment would be. And you can see that difference um in those parentheses, the second column from the right. Uh so there is an increase from not doing anything. However, the the current tax rate that they're paying and the current amount that they're paying for debt service would remain

080relatively flat. Even if the property tax value increases or decreases, it's important to point out that if if the the value of someone's home moves in relation to the community around them, that property tax payment towards that service would remain relatively the same. We gave these examples of an increase of 5% across all home values across the community. Another one where the property values dip. We're they're still paying approximately $72. And then all all home values increasing 20%. It still remains that the tax rate would drop significantly which then in turn because the property values are increased would offset uh that lower tax rate and would be about the same amount in terms of a payment. The timeline for this process, there is no action to be taken tonight. We are in the middle of

081a 30-day uh petition period. Uh but we would recommend that we bring this forward on November 18th for the board to uh to approve a bond resolution for both the working cash bonds and the life safety bonds. Uh once approved, we can uh then close that bond issue before November 18th. Um in fact uh next week we will be working with uh with Raymond James um in securing our our bond rating that will determine the interest rate in which we can secure these bonds and then we can finalize the exact amount uh that we can issue these bonds for while keeping the tax rate the exact same. That concludes my presentation. >> Thank you Joe. I don't think there's any public comments, but are there any public comments related specifically to this public hearing? The

082sale of 8.5 million in working cash bonds and the 15 million in school fire prevention and safety bonds. Seeing none, I do also want to note before we close the hearing that the board has had significant dialogue around this concept that we're uh having a public hearing about tonight. Uh we've had finance committee meetings. We've had a consultant come in. We had Elizabeth Hennessy help us out with understanding the impact on the uh community. And uh just want to reiterate that the $700 they're paying today remains essentially the same with the sale of the bond in the future. I just want to make sure that was clear. Um okay. So with that, we will say the hearing since there are no public comments. Uh we are declaring the hearing closed at 7:23 p.m. Next is

083the approval of the regular uh board meeting minutes from September 23rd, 2025. Are there any changes to the meeting minutes? Seeing none, the meeting minutes stand as presented. And then the approval of the close session minutes from September 23rd, 2025. Those meeting minutes stand as presented. Item eight on our agenda is sorry item seven on our agenda is the 202627 course proposals. We'll turn that over to Miss Lions. >> Okay. Thank you. So in accordance with policy 640 curriculum development, new courses are presented to the board of education and community in the fall for adoption before being implemented the following school year. The course proposals for 20 school year 2026 2027 are planned for presentation tonight as a report and then that they will become a consent agenda item at the November 18th, 2025 meeting

084for TW for school year 2627. One course is presented for adoption in the course of study at D205 York Community High School. There is also one requested shift from a current year-long course to a semesterl long course as well as two updates to the naming conventions of current courses for next school year. The following course is proposed as a new course for the 2627 school year. Recreational games for life. This proposed new course will be offered by current York High School staff with no additional sections anticipated. Recreate recreational games for life will replace the current course dance fitness. Shifting the focus of the course to recreational games for life expands opportunities for students to engage in multiple recreational games and physical activities that can be carried into adulthood such as pickleball, bad mitten, volleyball, kickball,

085eclipse ball, disc golf, ultimate frisbee, and cooperative team building games. This variety increases the likelihood of sustained participation in this course and the recreational games will emphasize inclusivity for all skill levels, cooperative and social interaction and lifelong physical activity habits. Additionally, this course change aligns more effectively with the f phil philosophy and core tenants of physical as education as a foundation for lifetime wellness rather than as a narrow focus on one fitness domain such as was with the previous course or current course dance fitness which we are presenting will be replaced with recreational games for life. The following course offered at York High School is proposed as a shift from a year-long course to a semesterl long course. Manu manufacturing 2H or two honors. Manufacturing 2H will shift from a year-long course to a semester

086long only course. Manufacturing one is already a semesterl long course. So shifting manufacturing 2H to a semesterl long course will provide a year-long sequence. This will also provide students the opportunity to complete the manufacturing sequence in one school year if they choose. Additionally, the shift will provide career and work-based learning opportunities to more students, particularly students with constrained schedules, such as students with IEPs and/or language needs. By changing the course to a semesterl long course, students will have two opportunities to enroll, allowing for more flexibility and options in scheduling. And then the following two courses currently offered at York High School are proposed as name changes only for the 2627 school year. Functional skills is the current course name and the proposed course name is functional life science. Vocation is the current course name and

087the proposed course name is life science of vocation. So recommendation is provided for the board of education to approve the following at the November 18th 2025 board of education meeting. One new course for 2627, one current year-long course shifting to a semesterl long course and two current course name changes. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. Any questions or comments from the board? >> Beth, um, I just wanted to say that I appreciate the shift to the semesterl long course in manufacturing. I think that it's always a struggle for kids to be able to take more electives or to, you know, try out different course content. And I think sometimes by the time they find like a course they really like, they realize, oh, I'm not going to be able to take any more courses in this

088area because I don't have enough time. So, this gives them more time to be able to complete more courses in an area that they might um find interesting. And so, I like that shift. So, thank you for digging into that. Anyone else? Courtney, I actually have one question for each of the courses. Sorry, they'll be easy, I'm sure. All right, so um can I start with the um functional life science and science of vocation? When I was reading the overview of the request, am is it correct for me to understand that the students in the multi needs program who are taking these courses did not receive science credit towards their diploma diploma under the functional skills and vocation class but will now receive it under the life science and science of vocation class. >> They

089have received science credit. This is really a >> different than the certificate though, right? Okay. Yes. And so this is really a renaming of a course to better align with what's actually happening in their classrooms um as we have worked over the last um two years to make sure that each of those students has a four-year plan in place um that will allow them to access all of those credits. >> So this is not adding opportunities for credits, it's just maintaining the same opportunities to receive science high school diploma credits. Correct. >> Got it. Thank you. All right. Next one. Um, and I completely agree with what Beth said about the changing it to a semester. I just about the manufacturing class. My question is when the first manufacturing is manufacturing one and then you

090go to 2H. Um, how does that transition for a student going from a regular level class to an honors level class? And will everybody who successfully passes manufacturing one be able to take 2H? >> So to answer the second part, everyone that completes man one will be eligible to take manufacturing to honors. Um I think that that's a really great push for us to explore what is that transition look like um in terms of the jump of how successful are students going from one to two H. So it's something that I can report back on. I'd like to gather some more information from Bill Lack and the team. Um, but that's great to to a good nudge for us. >> Yeah. So, I just don't want the level of rigor to to dissuade a student

091from taking two. That's all. So, I'm just curious as to what that looks like now. And then the one the last one about um the gym class. So, um, you know, I'm assuming that enrollment has decreased in the fitness class for dance only and therefore we're looking for ways to bring our students into different educa uh, physical education programs. Is that accurate assumption? >> That's absolutely accurate. Yes. Um, and so now this is just a general thing, a general, you know, I don't know, not concern question of mine. Do we pull students at the high school to say if we are taking away this physical education opportunity, what would you like to see in a program that would meet the graduation needs for a physical education um, credit? I I was just curious to see

092if um, we're asking students what they want to see in these classes when we make these kind of changes. So, I can definitely get more information for you about if we pulled students. I know this there was a lot of teacher input based off of historical practice, enrollment, and interest. Um, I think that it was mostly from the teacher perspective, but I'd like to follow back up in the November consent agenda item just to share more once I get that for you. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Can I just I just want to comment on that. I agree with Courtney because I just feel like I don't want to speak for students, but I I I feel like a lot of kids take dance because they maybe don't want to

093do some of those sports sport oriented type classes, ball type classes. Yeah. And so, um, you know, I would just wonder if that's, you know, if there were other options within that that new course. um maybe a section of it is dance or something like that, you know, for th those that maybe don't want to do those other types of athletics, athletic type classes. >> Yep. Thank you. I can definitely share more when we come back together next month. Thank you. >> Anything else on the course proposals for 2627 school year? Okay, we'll move on to item number eight, the consent agenda. Is there anything anyone would like to pull from the consent agenda? >> Seeing that no one has anything to pull, can we have a motion for the consent agenda, please? I move

094that the board of education approve the following consent agenda items. A, personnel reports. B, financial reports. C, FOYA, Freedom of Information Act requests. >> I'll second. >> Henry 1. Motion made by Miss, Dr. Henry 1. Second by Dr. Henry. She won. Sorry. Uh, please call the vote. >> Mrs. Asive? >> Yes. >> Dr. Henry? >> Yes. >> Mr. Presnan? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Zuinski? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hustler? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Troutman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Arvanites? >> Yes. Seven eyes, zero nays. Motion passes. Item nine is a agenda action item. authorization to secure natural gas fixed price. >> I think this is going back. Yes, go ahead. >> Yes, it is. >> So, last month we heard from Becky Thompson from NIA Energy Adviserss. Uh we did approve a partnership with NIA. Uh

095we have done some initial exploration of natural gas rates and this is an opportune time. In fact, we've seen energy prices uptick just a little bit over the last couple of days. uh the parameters around securing natural gas costs for a longer amount of time is we have 24 hours from the time that an RFP is issued to accept that because the energy rates change so quickly. So we cannot uh bring to you a a rate within that 24-hour time frame for you to accept. So what we are asking is that you authorize uh the business office to secure a rate that is acceptable uh to the board ahead of time and we would bring that to you for acceptance the following month. Uh by doing this we can take advantage of the the es

096and flows of the market. Uh we are closely watching it. right now uh it's about an 8% increase over our previous fixed rate which we were anticipating as much as a 20% increase. So it is an opportunity uh for us to secure that and that would start in December before we really start seeing the winter months uh impact natural gas prices. >> Great. Thank you. Can we have a motion? I move that the board of education authorize the assistant superintendent of finance and operations to approve contracts for the procurement of natural gas and to work with NIA Nania energy adviserss to elect and designate the price terms of such contracts for a period not to exceed 48 months. >> I'll second >> motion made by Mrs. or sorry Dr. Henry and second by Miss Troutman.

097Are there any comments from the board? I I I'll just do one. Like this is one of my favorite presentations from last month. I mean, like I just I'm kind of obsessed with this now and I really appreci I kind of I really appreciate you taking us on this journey and um just finding ways to better um utilize taxpayer funds in in our buildings and across the district. So, I really appreciate this. So, thank you very much. And I really am obsessed by it. That and the bidding the whole bidding. Fascinating topic. Yeah. >> So, >> yeah. And just a good segue to remind, we did have lengthy discussion about this in a formal presentation last month, and so it's not brand new to the board, uh, which is why it's on the action item

098list. Uh, any other comments from the board. All right, then we'll call the vote. >> Dr. Henry, >> yes. >> Mrs. Troutman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Asive, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lewinsky, >> yes. >> Mr. Breznahan, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hustler, >> yes. >> Mrs. Vanites. >> Yes. Seven I zero naz. Motion passes. Next we'll turn over to Dr. Campbell for superintendent communications. So, our my first um announcement and update is a friendly reminder that our entire community is invited to join myself and our amazing board of education um next week, October 30th for the state of the district um which will take place at Lincoln Elementary School. Um we are really excited uh to share some of the progress that has been made across our district reflective of last year. We've started that conversation

099um tonight at our committee of the whole um and we look forward to sharing this information with our community on the 30th. There is one um slight adjustment uh during the committee of the whole. I mentioned that Isby will release um on the 30th and not the 30 or did I say the 31st and it will be on the 30th. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Thank you to my team. So, um, we look forward to sharing that information and, uh, with our community as it will be released that evening day on the 30th. It's coming out on the 30th, guys. That >> that's the bottom line, okay? Not the 31st. We don't know when, but it's going to be the 30th. And we're going to talk about it at 7 PM. Meet me

100there at Lincoln Elementary, okay? Um, we also would love to hear um from our community in terms of what they expect. We definitely have um a very robust presentation as we have in the past. Um, but if you go to our website, there actually is a popup um for community members and parents um just to give us some insight and information in terms of what they would love to hear about, what they look forward to hearing about. Um, and we want to continue that two-way communication and be responsive um, in case there's um, individuals that would like to um, share that um, with us, that feedback with us. At this time, I'm going to um, ask my colleague, Miss Lions, um, to share a really, really exciting um, update. Um, in our efforts of continuous

101improvement, um, we have, um, continued, um, to make strides and progress, um, at York High School. Um, we the work is continuing and we are really excited about um, this new adventure that we are headed in and I've asked Miss Lions to share a little bit about that. >> Okay. Thanks, Dr. Campbell. So last year, the York High School leadership team came together for a series of analysis, reflection, and learning focused on identifying opportunities for improvement needed to elevate instructional programming practices and student outcomes specifically in ninth grade English. This year, the learning has expanded to include all nth grade English teachers, coaches, and administrators. This team has focused specifically on evaluating the current English curriculum and York 9th graders experiences with complex texts and tasks that meet meet grade level standards. As part of

102this process, the English 9 team utilized the instructional materials evaluation tool, also referred to as IMAT, developed by achieve the core to evaluate current materials. This evaluation process included an analysis of the ninth grade English anchor texts and their appropriate level of complexity as defined by the standards and according to the quantitative and qualitative demands of the grade level. Additionally, anchor text and supplemental texts were evaluated to ensure that they were worthy of especially careful reading, contain rich academic language, and include a mix offormational text and literature. Based on this evaluation, the York 9th grade English team has identified an opportunity to increase the complexity of anchor texts and tasks for second semester. To support this, the ninth grade English teachers unanimously agreed to utilize materials and resources from the Odell High School literacy program.

103This experience of executing an Odell unit will allow for the English 9 team to provide all students with highquality complex texts and tasks while also encouraging teachers to reflect on future steps needed to improve instructional programming and practices as you approved last year. So you may be familiar with that word Odell. Um Odell is also currently utilized in our eighth grade reach English programming. Thank you. I'm glad you added that because I was like, what's Odell? Sorry. We've approved a lot of curriculum recently in the recent years and uh yes. Okay, that sounds exciting. So, second semester and maybe we'll hear something about how that might have gone uh later on in the spring. >> Great. >> Go ahead. >> I know. I'm just like, so I'm I'm just so excited. Like, so but so

104so you're basically saying, and tell me if I'm wrong, which I know you guys are really good at doing. Um when I am, rightfully, but so the ninth grade teachers have have recognized that this ninth grade class of students, nine and nine students are successfully conquering the curriculum. So, they're upping the ante. Like, they're like they're taking the the rigor to the next level. That is so exciting. >> Sorry, I'm being a dork. >> You're not being a dork. Most people don't know the word dork anymore. You know that. Kids don't even know what that is. I'm I'm glad that you know, not only were you excited about the natural gas presentation, but now we're actually talking about something that directly correlates to the student experience, which is also really exciting to hear that you're

105excited about. >> Save money on spending of our cost of natural gas, then we will be able to put more resources to our student curriculum. So, it's all big. Yes, natural gas and student achievement. That's my >> That's your thing. I love that. Well, thank you. Thanks for the >> comments. It is good. It's big. It's awesome. >> Yeah. Very good. >> And I and I really again, we shared during the committee as a whole that we're on a multi-year um improvement process. And so I know this board also has um several years ago received feedback about um our journey to review curricular resources and um really think about our instructional practices to meet the needs. And so that through line, we are um proud of the progress that we've made, but we also recognize

106that there's still opportunities, but what's most important um is that um staff members are recognizing that and taking uh the initiative um in leaning into those opportunities, which is really really exciting. >> Well, and to pivot mid year, like pivot halfway through the school year. I mean, that's I'm just >> it's really good. Trying something new. Yeah. Great. Thanks. >> You're welcome. And so now it's Tanya Daniels. >> Tanya, >> you had a segue. We rolled out the carpet for you. The red carpet. >> I mean, I Upbeat music should precede anything I say. Uh, so one of our recent um Hall Pass videos that Dr. Campbell did was with our new uh girls flag football team where there were a couple of the players along with the coach and she had an opportunity to

107talk to them about the significance of bringing this sport to York and and kind of just what it means to them to be able to have this and to to see this at York. So, I just wanted to share this video with you. Oh, wait. It's it's Hold on, Rudy. Yeah, I didn't realize it's six minutes. So, we won't play the whole thing. We're just going to play the first part, but if you go to the district's YouTube page and hit playlist and go to the hall pass series, you can watch the full video there. [Music] Hello community and welcome to this edition of Hall Pass. I'm standing right here on York's football stadium with our head coach of our girls flag football team, Coach Bolt. Welcome to this edition of Hall Pass. >> Thanks

108for having me. >> Thanks for being here. I am also standing with senior Josie Junior Claire, two players on the girls football flag football team, correct? >> Yes. >> Welcome to this edition of Hall Pass. So, first I'm curious, this is our inaugural year, our first year of it being uh considered an actual varsity sport, moving from a team. Can you talk to me a little bit about the culture and the energy um around this new sport here for us here at York? >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh energy is high, excitement is high. Uh I think the girls are excited. Uh the the fans have been excited. Like it's it's a it's a new thing for everyone to kind of try out and see if it's for them. Uh regarding the culture, we're trying to build

109uh commitment. We're trying to build discipline. Um, last year the goal was to have fun, learn the game, um, and compete with one another. Okay. >> And now this year we're making sure that we build commitment, discipline, have a positive attitude on the football field and just continue to learn the game and and have some fun while we're out here. >> Awesome. So, I'm hearing some commitment. I'm hearing having some fun, learning the game, all of those good things. So, ladies, can you share with me why why did were you interested in being a part of of this sport? Well, me and my friends would always play football in the backyard or I'd play with my family, but we were never allow able to compete competitively, okay, and actually play it as a sport. So,

110when we had the opportunity to have it here at York and it be a first year, I knew right away that I wanted to play cuz I always enjoyed it. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you. Is that it for communication? Awesome. Okay. Uh board communication. Do any board members have anything to present or share with the full board? I didn't think so, but we can double check. All right. Upcoming meetings. November 5th, 2025, we have a finance and operations committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. November 18th, 2025, a regular board of ed meeting at 700 p.m. Both meetings will take place here at district 205 center in these rooms 21516 and 17. And with that, it is 7:48 and we are adjourned.