001Good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting being held on Tuesday, September 23rd. Thank you, 2025. We're calling the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Can we please call the role? >> Mrs. Arvanites, >> here. >> Mrs. Assass here. Dr. Henry >> here. >> Mrs. Lewinsky >> here. Mr. Breznahan >> here. >> Mrs. Hustler, >> Mrs. Troutman. >> Thank you. We have um five board members present, two absent. Can we have a motion to go into close session? I move for the board to move into close session for the following collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. 5 ILCS122C2 the placement of individual students and special education programs and other matters relating to individual students.
0025 ILCS 122 C10 and discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purposes of approval by the body of the minutes or semiannual review of the minutes as mandated by section 2.065CS 122C21. I'll second motion made by Mrs. As second by Miss Sinsky. Can we please call the vote? >> Mrs. Asb. Yes, >> Mrs. Lewinsky. >> Yes, >> Dr. Henry. >> Yes, >> Mr. Breahan. >> Mrs. Arvanites. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Troutman. And Mrs. Hustler. >> Five A, zero Naz, two absent. Motion passes. The board will now move into close session. Welcome and welcome to the board of education meeting on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025. The board has been in close session for items listed on this agenda since 5:30 p.m. We have six board members present and one
003absent. At this time, I ask that we all stand for the pledge of allegiance. All right, we'll open up with our spotlights and recognition. I'll turn it over to Dr. Campbell to introduce them. Thank you so very much. Before we hear from our school leaders and kick off our first school spotlight for the 2526 school year, we would like to just share a brief update with you regarding our school spotlights. In the spirit of continuous improvement and to ensure the important work happening at the board table and district office is meaningfully reflected in every school and in every classroom. We've asked our principal leaders to share spotlights when possible that align with board presentations and content. Tonight, you have the privilege of hearing from two phenomenal dynamic leaders who will be highlighting how the strategic
004priority learning environment is being brought to life in their schools. These presentations will directly connect to the presentation you'll hear later, which we will take you through how the district monitors and evaluates various factors to assess and improve learning environment systems wide. Here tonight to share how this important work is unfolding at the school level, I am pleased to introduce two of my wonderful colleagues. You will first hear from principal Kalissa Smith. She is the proud principal of Lincoln Elementary, followed by principal Jackie Dipio, who is the proud principal of Brian Middle School. Miss Smith. >> Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Hello, board. All right, so um we at Lincoln um just alongside of all D205 believe that school should be a place where everyone feels like they belong. where everyone knows your name. Our work
005around the learning environment is all about creating safety, belonging, and engagement so that every single child is set up to thrive and learn. This connects directly to our district missions of educating, engaging, and empowering our students. We call them our Lions. So last year we continued to refine our pride values and think about how they come to life. Everywhere from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade um at Rex Station and through all of our clubs, we talk about how our pride values come to life. We make sure that they're not just words on posters on a wall, but they're taught, modeled, and celebrated consistently. every classroom uh now has a calm corner that when we feel like we are disregulated, we have a spot to be able to go and support our management of
006our emotions and being able to get right back to learning. We had intentional learning with all of our staff around what it takes to make our classrooms feel warm, safe, and welcoming for all. We have additionally elevated our students voices through our pride ambassadors and supporting many creative ideas of all of our students while they bring to life things like our recycling project, our pet philanthropies, our coin wars, and so much more. We also have something called grade level buddies where each grade level gets to partner with another grade level to build friendships across the school and create a stronger sense of belonging. Whether it's reading together, working on projects, cheering each other on, our body program is another powerful way for students to feel connected with their classrooms and all around the school. Beyond
007the classroom, we've partnered with our incredible community. We have partnered with our PTA to expand our co-curricular offerings for four days a week uh where students can explore uh through their uh athleticism uh in our run club where over 300 Lions participate every single week and we celebrate the accomplishments of what we can do when we all come together. These opportunities build connection, creativity, and joy and keep our school community tight and inspire students to keep showing up and trying their best. In addition to that, we can hear what our students reflect on as they think about what Lincoln is to them. 99% of our students say they feel safe with their teachers. 97% say they're treated with respect and 94 say that teachers notice each time they need help and explain things in a
008different way. One student summed it up perfectly that says, "I feel like my teacher really cares about me." These reflections tell us our environment is working for our students. In addition to that, we think about our social emotional learning environment as the soil in which all things can grow. This strong foundation translated into our growth on both IR and MAP. Last year, we saw some of our greatest gains. You can see on the left, sorry, it's a little bit small. Um, but you can see that we had 88% on the new norms for I AR meet or exceed for reading and 90% for math. On our panorama, we saw the two of um students reporting even higher levels of grit and self-efficacy, two of our best indicators on their long-term success. When students feel safe,
009connected, and supported, their personal and academic growth accelerates. As we dig into this year and continue our hard work, we know that when students feel heard, feel like their ideas are welcome, and get a chance to engage in um interactive pedigogy that our students now know that their learning can be active, engaging, and very student ser focused in each of our classrooms. We're capturing this evidence in our classroom through our walkthroughs and using real-time information to guide our professional learning. As John Hadtie reminds us, students learn best when they're actively engaged in making meaning by thinking, talking, and creating together. This year, we're further capitalizing on our human resources by having our teacher leaders for both math and ELA, as well as our multitude of other teams engaging in coaching series where we're getting a
010chance to see how learning is coming to life across every single grade level and in every single classroom. As we tie it all together, we reflect that Lincoln is a place where every child is known, every child is safe, and inspired to grow. Our work continues to be tightly aligned to the district mission of educating, engaging, and empowering students. We are so proud of the progress that we've made together, and we're excited to build on this momentum as we move forward. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Jackie Dipio. I'm the principal of Brian. This is my 11th year um here in our district and I am so excited to share some highlights of our ongoing work related to school improvement with our specific focus on our learning environment goal. My hope is that these examples
011will help illustrate and complement Dr. Rubenstein's presentation on the learning environment later this evening. School improvement planning is a structured and strategic process designed to enhance student outcomes and strengthen overall school performance. At Brian, our school team engages in this process collaboratively using data to inform our decisions and set purposeful goals. Each year, we identify a specific focus area that includes math, ELA, and a goal dedicated to fostering a positive and supporting learn positive and supportive learning environment, which is the focus of my update this evening. These goals serve as the foundation for our continuous improvement efforts and guide the strategies that we implement throughout the year. As many of you may recall from the committee of the whole presentation last spring, our school improvement efforts at Brian have been closely focused on strengthening student
012teacher trust, a priority that emerged directly from our five essentials student survey data last year. Recognizing the critical role that trust plays in student engagement, we chose this as a targeted area for growth within our learning environment goal. To support this focus, all of our exploratory block teachers developed specific goals aimed at building and fostering trust with students within their individual content areas. This intentional approach allowed each teacher to tailor strategies that aligned with their content area while contributing to a cohesive schoolwide effort to improve the overall climate and culture in our classrooms. A few key highlights from our work last year included the revival of our student advisory committee which played a pivotal role in helping us better understand the student perspective on trust. Through this committee, we gathered authentic student feedback on what
013trust looks like, sounds like, and feels like in the classroom. This feedback was then brought to our school leadership team where it was analyzed and discussed. From there, leaders shared the insights with their respective staff teams, creating a shared language and understanding around trust across the building. In particular, our exploratory block teachers engaged in deeper reflection by unpacking what trust means within the unique context of their subject matter. This allowed them to develop content specific strategies for fostering stronger student teacher relationships. Additionally, we took part in learning environment walks intentionally focusing our lens on identifying and reflecting on the presence of trust building practices in our classrooms. These walks provided valuable opportunities and helped us identify next steps for further strengthening the culture of trust at Brian. I firmly believe that what you focus on
014grows and our intentional efforts around building student teacher trust truly paid off. We were proud to see our increase in the studenttoteer trust metric on our five essential survey. This growth reflects the collective commitment of our staff to creating more supportive, respectful, and trusting classroom environments. While there's always more work to be done, this positive shift affirms that our focus was both meaningful and impactful for our students. School improvement is a continuous process. It's never truly finished. As we reflect on past progress, respond to data, and set new goals, we are constantly evolving to meet the needs of our students. At the end of the last school year, our leadership team and our student services team engaged in review of multiple data points during a series of reflective planning meetings. There was much to celebrate,
015most notably our consistent and strong performance on the five essential survey, which affirmed many of the positive outcomes of our collective efforts. However, as we dug deeper into the data, one area emerged as a clear opportunity for growth, academic engagement. While many indicators were trending positively, our scores and academic engagement were neutral. This finding stood out to us and sparked some important conversations about how we could better support student participation, curiosity, and ownership of learning across all classrooms. Also, we thought that this goal paired nicely with our second year of implementing our high quality instructional resources in Illustrative Math and Amplify ELA. We saw a timely opportunity to deepen our understanding of these resources and were able to also make connections to the castle framework. With the various data points we reviewed and the noticings
016from our five essentials and then the reviewing of the castle framework, our teams identified interactive pedagogy as our focal area for the year. This dimension of the framework emphasizes learning experiences that are collaborative and cooperative and align closely with our goal of increasing academic engagement across all content areas. One of the unique strengths of a middle school is the wide variety of exploratory offerings. As a team, we reflected on how to establish a shared instructional focus that could be applied across all of these unique learning spaces. interactive pedagogy stood out as the powerful rallying cry, a common thread that connects all the classrooms across all contents. As we continue our work this year, several key priorities lie ahead, each designed to deepen our collective focus and move our school improvement efforts forward. One of our
017primary goals is to build a deeper understanding of the castle look fors related to interactive pedagogy. These observable practices will help us sharpen our lens on both teacher and student actions that promote engagement, collaboration, and meaningful learning. To ensure alignment, our teacher goals have been intentionally connected to our school improvement plan, creating a clear and cohesive path between individual professional growth and our broader schoolwide objectives. Throughout the year, we will continue to engage in classroom visits and provide feedback specifically aligned to the interactive pedagogy indicators, supporting our staff in refining their practices and fostering growth. Additionally, we will elevate student voice through our student advisory committee where students will have the opportunity to share insights and reflection on what high levels of engagement look like from their perspective. I can confidently say that none of
018this work would be possible without the collective efforts of an incredible team. I'm truly honored to work alongside dedicated and passionate educators, including our talented teachers, our committed department chairs, and our highly skilled instructional coaches. Their professionalism, collaboration, and student- centered mindset are the driving forces behind the progress we made and the momentum we continue to build at Brian Middle School. School improvement is not quick work. It requires time, intentionality, perseverance, and a growth mindset. For me, it's a lot of learning alongside one another and creating the conditions where both students and staff can thrive. I'm incredibly proud of the work we've done so far, and I'm energized by the direction we're heading. I believe that our collective efforts this year will lead to even stronger outcomes for our Bri and Bear students. Thank you
019for your time and the opportunity to share a glimpse of the learning environment we're having at Brian. I'm incredibly proud of our progress of our staff and our students are making, and I'm grateful for the continued support from my D205 team. >> Thank you. [Applause] Thank you both for being here tonight. It's exciting work going on and really the true essence of what happens or what impacts student student learning through their experience, right? And how do we build that environment and continue and maintain that environment that creates that positivity for kids and the energy. So, thank you for your time tonight. I'd appreciate appreciate you both being here and thanks for speaking to the board. On to public comments. We have um do we have public comment? Yes. Okay. Give me one second. The public
020comment section of the board meeting provides an opportunity for community members to share information and perspectives with the board of education. While the board does not respond during public comments, we are listening and thoughtfully considering the messages being shared. Each of us have a high expectations for our community and ask that public comments are respectful and do not mention any individuals by name. There will be up to 30 minutes allocated for public comments, up to three minutes per public comment speaker. The board secretary will give you a reminder when you have 30 seconds left. We can begin with our first speaker, Armalene Moretti. Thank you. Um, my name is Armalene Moretti. I've been a resident of Elmherst for 31 years and a bicycle commuter for many more. Uh, 10 years ago, I enrolled in a
021bicycle safety course through the League of American Bicyclists. The course taught me how to ride safely on my bike. And more importantly, it gave me the tools to use that will be helpful from being severely injured when vehicles do things unexpectedly near me or when there is danger on the roadway. One of the tools actually saved my life when I was hit in Elmherst at Walter First a few years ago. Most youth learn how to ride a bike or a scooter, but never learn how to ride them safely, especially when riding in the street. Um, today there is a state law that requires some form of bike safety be taught in our schools. In light of some of the reckless riding on scooters and bicycles this past summer in Elmherst and across the state, I'm
022asking the district to please take the initiative and add bike safety training to the curriculum. There are proven programs that would not require additional staff to implement such as safe routes to school or for students enrolled in u driver's education. And there is a free online quiz that teaches drivers how to share the road with alternative modes of transportation safely. Bike rodeos are another fun way to teach younger children how bike safety can be done on ride your bike to school days. These are just a few ideas for the district to consider. I'm vice chair of the Walk and Rollers, a cityapp appointed group created to help promote safe biking, walking, running, and mobility for all in the community. I'm here to offer our help to put a bike safety program together with the district,
023and I look forward to hopefully working with you soon. Thank you for all you do for our district 205 students. It is really appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns, support or perspectives with the board of education. As I said before, uh common practice of the board is not to respond in the meeting, but we do follow up with public commenters after the board meeting as needed. So, thank you. We're moving on to our public hearing. The public hearing on the annual budget for the 2526 school year. I'm formally declaring this meeting hearing, sorry, open. I'll pass it to Joe who can give us an overview of the item for the hearing. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Arvanites. Uh today's presentation is a culmination of over six months of work
024in developing the district budget uh for fiscal year 2026, which spans from July 1st of 2025 until June 30th of 2026. Our goals, our guiding principles throughout the process have been around creating and sustaining the great things going on in district 205. Uh there are three components of that. Maintaining our highquality student uh programs and offerings, highquality facilities, and ensuring a stable uh fund balance and financial structure. You can see here uh that uh we've we've been working to identify uh uh efficiencies that ensure that our fund balance stays sustainable all the while while making sure that our buildings are functional and our programs are um of the utmost highest quality. As I mentioned in the last several uh uh finance and and operations committee meetings, uh an unodudited result of our fiscal year 25
025uh budget to actuals yields that we actually had a savings of about $5 million compared to budget. Uh it is still in a deficit, but that was intentional. We have uh an intentional additional scope of $7 million put forth towards the referendum. That is the last of our $7 million payment uh uh of three seven million payments over the last three years. In addition and we annually provide $4 million towards capital projects which we will present to you later on this year. So I distributed a lot of the the same documents that are going to be on some of these slides so that you can see it in greater detail. I'm going to start with revenues. revenues are primarily driven by our local revenues. You can see 91% of our revenues are driven at the
026local level, which includes not just property taxes, uh but also includes registration fees, ticket sales, food sales, um and other items. You can see here this is uh this is a summary of both the last four years. Um again unodudited for fiscal year 2025. We are in the middle of the audit process right now. And then on the right hand side you'll see the tenative budget along with the dollar and percentage change from the unodudited results from last year. We are impacted by several factors in terms of our revenue. our state and federal funding is seeing a drop uh both in terms of of what we expect to receive through uh grant funding um including idea and our title grants um but also in our categorical payments at the state level. Uh because of that
027we're seeing a negative impact on our revenues here in the district. We also anticipate interest rates will pull down. Uh we've already seen uh just this month uh interest rates uh the Fed did decrease interest rates by by uh a quarter of a percent. So that's going to have an impact on uh our interest on our earnings on interest. This diagram outlines uh the the last six years of revenues including our anticipated revenues for this coming year. You can see the green is our local uh source of funds and that amount for just the local source of funds is due to increase about 2.7% which is in line with the inflation rate or CPI. Now turning to expenses uh we uh I want to remind you that our goal throughout this budget process is to
028ensure high quality programming and high quality facilities. You can see that all of our focus um is driven by our education of our students and you can see that in the percentage that is devoted towards our education fund in this diagram. This image shows you the breakdown by object type uh which I will go go through u each object type very briefly. You can see that salaries and benefits make up 75% uh of our of our total expenditures um across all funds. And this uh expenditure summary is the third page of uh what I have provided to the members of the board today. And you can see that uh expenditures are due to increase variably between the different objects. uh salaries will increase by about 2%. Uh some some salaries are are increasing by more
029than that but it is also impacted by retirements and and other objectives that we are doing throughout the uh throughout the district. So first starting with salaries our focus this year on creating those efficiencies in salaries. We are maintaining the same level of of of staffing um as we have in the previous year, but we're going to really focus on uh monitoring our overtime and our extra duties to make sure that we are making the best use of that time. Uh not only uh for the budget, but also in ensuring that uh uh we are allowing our staff to get home at a reasonable hour and not have to spend extra time um doing those extra duties or overtime. On the benefit front, I'm going to gloss over this because we're going to be talking
030about that uh specifically as we talk about the insurance uh plan design uh coming up just a little bit later on in this meeting. Purchase services is anticipated to go up by about 7% this coming year. mostly driven by some of those purchase services that are negotiated through contracts like transportation but also items such as energy which we have some control over uh but but they are driven uh by the market as well. So we anticipate a total increase of 7%. However, uh we we are taking steps to make sure that uh we don't uh uh we don't experience a higher amount such as energy. When we look at our supplies and equipment, they are going to increase uh about 5%. Um some of the some of the features that we are bringing forward is
031we are being very intentional about some of the products that we are either renewing or we are seeking opportunities uh to find cost savings through some of our equipment and our larger scale supplies. All of those elements go into this budget and it ensures those three key priorities of this district to maintain a high quality fund balance so we can support the programs, highquality programs uh that we offer to our students prek all the way up through 21 plus and maintaining highquality facilities for our students to learn and grow um in these final two slides is a summary and this is the first page of of your handout as well is a summary of the entire budget. Um in addition to the uh the standard operating budget, you will see some transfers that's in the
032middle of that page and you can see that in past years our transfers have have ranged from 12 million to $19 million of transfers. that included those additional co additional scope items, intentional transfers into our referendum fund that we are no longer transferring. We still do have a $4 million transfer into capital projects for ongoing activities that include both life safety items as well as highquality uh facility items uh to help us help our students be college, career, and life ready. Here I highlighted the one column so you can see this is the actual budget that you will be approving and all of the specific program and function items are posted on our website so you can see every program and the budgeted aotments u separated by object code. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.
033Hold, please. I lost my place in line. Thank you, Mr. Bloomquest. Are there any public comments related specifically to the annual budget for the 2526 school year? Seeing none, uh we are now going to declare this hearing closed. 7:32 p.m. Item seven maybe, yep, on our agenda is the approval of regular board meeting minutes from August 19th, 2025. Are there any changes to those meeting minutes? Seeing none, those meetings stand as those minutes stand as presented. And the approval of the close session minutes from August 19th, 2025, those meeting minutes stand as presented. On to the fun part, reports and presentations. As we have our first report uh on the learning environment, cultivating positive culture and relationships, I will turn it over to Dr. Rubenstein. >> This is definitely the fun part because there is
034a lot going on in the learning environment. You heard uh two of the spotlights this evening directly related to the learning environment and the intricate work that is going on um in each of our schools uh related to the learning environment. and I'm happy to talk about how we are measuring that and how we're utilizing some of our data this year. So, um we're going to talk a little bit about why the learning environment matters. Um some data used to monitor the learning environment and then um all throughout really talk about uh how we're taking action um on all of the data that we have gathered and some of the objectives for professional learning over the course of this year. So um when people really think about the learning environment, there is a great deal
035of research that has been done about the importance of student belonging um as a as a human need but also a need in schools and um that being fundamentally linked to learning and well-being. Um that student perceptions of uh supportive learning environment helps to um increase um their uh outcomes in challenging courses and in STEM courses in particular. um and that improvements in student perceptions of a school climate over time are really closely associated with attendance improvements, academic achievement improvements, and graduation rates at that school. Um and so you are going to see some of that data and how it directly impacts this evening. So um when we talk about attendance as you know in this district we have been um laser focused on improving student attendance over time and um we are happy to
036report that uh our chronic absenteeism rates have really come down um at the elementary schools really specifically we are seeing prepandemic rates a little bit lower than prepandemic rates uh which is something to be very excited about and um virtually no change year-over-year uh from 23 24 to 24 25. So students are staying um in school in the early elementary years. When we move on to middle school, we saw um some improvements in our middle school programming. Um and while that's not at preand prepandemic levels yet, um it is something that um I will show you in just a second how we are focusing on that year-over-year. Um and at York High School, um our uh uh student attendance rates have improved significantly over the last several years. show that the uh percentage of students
037who are chronically absent or listed as chronically absent um has decreased by about half um in the last couple of years. So really some um great work year over year. So um what you're seeing right now is um uh it is not live but this is a snapshot of what um our monitoring attendance looks like in Nexpath which is the program that the board approved for use in all of our schools uh back in uh July and August. And so uh when we think about um monitoring attendance through next path very easily and very quickly um I can see as a district leader and each of the school leaders can see broken down for their school uh some really great pieces of data. So this is um a snapshot from about a week ago about
038where our students are in terms of uh their attendance. Um if I click on any of those links here um you can see that it expands out a little bit more. So this is focused here on Brian Middle School as an example. uh where it looks like there uh are about 4.6% of the students um who are presenting with some level of risk uh for being off track on attendance. Um when I click on that button, it takes me to a list of those specific students um and exactly what they look like. Um I can also then drill down um when I look at those specific students um it will give me their attendance history over the last five or six years in the system right there and it will plot out visually exactly the
039periods that they're missing. So um and the days that they're missing and so that we can as a school team really work to see any um important patterns. Uh it just it has enabled educators so far to really efficiently identify any patterns um in student absenteeism by year or by day or by course or by period just to really drill down into that. Um and then uh some of the other pieces here, all of these are live and interactive um sidebars. Uh and so you can see uh here that our attendance trends are improving. Um that it calls out um on the third uh portion there on the left hand side where it says district comparison. 91.9 of student percent of students are not chronically absent. Five schools, five grades, three races are below the
040district percentage. And so it calls that out for us. we can click on those buttons and it will show us exactly where those students are and where that disproportionality might be um so that we can really target the students to make sure that they are getting back in school and really identify the causes uh behind that. So really exciting work um for those of us who like to uh focus on attendance um when we are thinking about uh and I do I do uh and uh when we are thinking about co-curricular involvement which is another lever that we are pulling to make sure that students feel um welcome and affirmed and engaged in their own learning environment. Um we've done a lot of work over the last couple of years to really add clubs and
041activities um that are focused on specific student needs and we know that students who participate in extracurricular activities in middle school and above exhibit higher levels of academic motivation and achievement. Um so we have added uh this is a partial snapshot of the clubs and organizations we've added about 20 uh along with sports. Um our most popular new sport this year is girls flag football. Um and uh in talking with some others that is the um the trend in the area and I learned last night that it will be an Olympic sport. So um girls flag football is uh leading the way and we have lots of other sports and uh activities that are there for our students. And the reason that that is so important is because we really want to uh see some
042increases in co-curricular participation. We know that um that continues to be an area of focus for us. Um and so we're doing that through some pilot programs, some uh new clubs and activities and all of those uh things that I showed you on that last uh screen there. Um when we are looking at um both of our school leaders talked about their results from their five essential survey. Um it is really exciting to see the results of the five essential survey um and also the panorama survey which is administered two times per year. Um when we're talking about the five essentials, these are the five essentials. So effective leaders, collaborative teachers, uh supportive environment, involved families, um and at the center of that is ambitious instruction. These are measures that we give to our students
043um and to our teachers. So like the collaborative teachers uh bucket for example, the that essential is only measured by the teachers. um effective leaders uh is mostly measured by the teachers, but supportive environment and ambitious instruction is really driven by student feedback and student voice uh in each of those surveys. So something that's really important um uh the state of Illinois really enjoys keeping all of us on our toes. So there are new norms uh with the five essentials uh this year. So five essential scores are are norm referenced um in this school year in spring of 2025. University of Chicago five essentials um established new norms based on 2024 responses and so we saw many more schools uh and districts across the state falling into the neutral category. Um and so uh and
044they've also recalculated our uh spring 2024 scores using the new norms. Um D205 uh across the board um is neutral or strong in all areas. We improved in four measures as compared to spring of 2024. we saw no declines in our scores. Um and on three measures uh we are within two points of the strong rating. So um being in the green level and so we know again that that's really important because schools who are strong on at least three of the five essential supports um are 10 times more likely to show substantial gains in student learning um as we've been seeing across the board there. So, um the panorama survey is another way that we measure. Um it is administered in the fall and spring and it really focuses on some of the student
045experiences and helping us to monitor student growth. Um and it's focused on those areas there uh related to self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. Uh parents and guardians can opt uh some of our students out. Um and so that's a choice that people can make every year. Um we added some questions this year to the uh panorama survey. Um five essentials data is anonymous and so we really wanted to see um like uh from directly from our students and be able to identify um how often do your teachers ask you to explain your answers? How high um are your teachers expectations of you? Uh when you feel like giving up, how likely is it that your teachers will ask uh that you keep trying? So um really trying to drill down into
046some of the data where we may have um run into some challenges before on the five essential survey or uh where we would be able to give some more uh supports related to um rigorous expectations and identify some trends and um data pieces there. So um uh there are some newer items on um these are some sample items from the grades one and two survey. So if uh this student fails to reach an important goal, how likely are they to try again? Um and then grades 3 through 12, to what extent were you able to disagree with others without starting an argument? And so um just a sampling of some of the survey questions that are on the panorama survey. Um overall uh we have seen and continue to see some uh really tremendous growth
047uh in all areas and we still um even on the areas that we continue to work on um still compare very very favor favorably to our national comparisons. Um, that's one of the values of doing the Panorama survey is that you can really dig in deep um and see where your school and district really compares uh with other schools across the country who have taken the assessment at the same time. So we're seeing some really nice uh positive growth in all areas there. Um and so for this year uh and and both of the principles reference this in their um work around the learning environment. So we are focused on um four different areas. So um Mrs. Lishel and I as an example did a learning walk um this afternoon um at one of our
048buildings focused just on student teacher relationships. So how does that uh how do individual teachers in that building create trusting respectful connections where um teachers show that they care and have high expectations um and that they're helping students to feel seen and heard and motivated to learn. And so as an example, um one of the key lovers that we look for there is a warmth that's created in the classroom. Um that can you feel a sense of excitement and warmth from a teacher? Um our teachers identifying students by name. Um and so uh really some exciting things happening. I'll go back up to the top. Um uh Mrs. Dipio talked about the interactive pedagogy piece um and the work that they're doing around that. And really what we're talking about there is uh the extent
049to which the teacher really actively engages students through discussion and collaboration. So how do they do that? Really focusing on that. Um fostering academic mindsets is about helping students believe that they can grow their abilities um and really holding students to high expectations. And then we have a couple of schools that are really focused on um consistent procedures and expectations that create a really strong supportive environment so that every student walks into the classroom um knows what to expect from each of their teachers and is ready to go um dayto-day. So um we are doing a lot of work here um and it started um really it started last year but um in May and June we did some data gathering and goal setting for the learning environment uh and um as uh both of
050our principles talked about um this is a part of their school improvement plan. So every school has a learning environment um goal associated with their school improvement plan um and that would be in one of those four areas. Um here in September we are um leading uh Carrie and I uh some guided observations in all buildings um to gather some additional data. We're um administering the panorama survey right now. Um in October we are providing some professional learning um to uh schools uh and school leaders associated with um those uh the interactive pedagogy and um fostering academic mindset pieces there. And then from November through February, we are really working with building leaders to make sure that we are doing some targeted work in classrooms to really foster welcoming, affirming and engaging learning environments. Um
051that's also when the five essential survey is administered in February. Um and then in March and April, we do some wrapup uh district-led guided observations so that we can do some goal setting um in May uh for the following year. The panorama survey is also administered then. So this work um as um Mr. Dipio talked about the work that is ongoing related to school improvement planning. This is exactly that. So um we are always working on the school improvement plan. It is always something that we are focusing on and we are doing it um student by student and classroom by classroom to make sure that students are are feeling seen and heard um in each of our schools there. So um we are utilizing and I talked a little bit about this before but this
052is just another piece here where we are able to um pull all of that um for example panorama survey data um into um uh a data wall um to help educators to quickly identify um students at risk for um concerns um and really charting that uh quite easily um and then able to track and um monitor student counseling and other services and sports which we just started doing this year in the system um in a really unique way. So we'll be able to see um when a counselor starts meeting with a group of students about a particular issue um at uh York High School um what is the impact of that and is it having um success in their panorama goal surveys? Is it having success in um supporting them in each of their academic
053learning environments? So, we are really proud and very excited of the work that is going on in our schools um all across the district and that is a small snapshot of the work that is happening on a day-to-day basis. So, thank you. Happy to take any questions. >> Open it up to board members. Kelly, >> thank you for the presentation. >> Um on the very last um thing, >> is it Yeah, it is just not close enough. Sorry. Um ah hold on this uh data wall that you just went over. Um for example, you were saying you know you can measure um where student needs are and what things are being like what exactly do we measure for students seeing counselors and how to um assess them? are how is there like a pre and
054post test before they're seeing their counselor or before a group is started and then when it's ending and then is that entered into this data somehow or or into this you know the system >> um so some students are self- selecting into groups and um and so that would be something that we are working on there um there are other students that we would identify from the panorama survey um that we know that we need to um actually do specific specific work with them. So, um this is an example of all of the like all of the students on a data wall, but we can also filter for um students who had um limited strengths in the area of self-efficacy um as an example and um do a tiered group or some sort of intervention
055with that small group of students um or maybe drill down um by grade level or something along those lines um and then be able to um administer this survey. again obviously in the spring but um we are collecting data all along to monitor our progress over time. So >> so the um the data you're collecting is from the panorama year to year. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Nikki, >> do we have um specific thresholds that we're looking at in which we then start interventions or how do we assess that? I'm assum I'm I'm assuming you could easily get lost in the data. There's a ton here which is amazing. Um but what how are we determining when do we actually implement interventions? >> Yes. So um when I showed this
056slide before you can see that our students are actually doing remarkably well um compared to our national counterparts. Um and so what we are looking for um uh on a slide like this would be um students who have more red or orange um and have some continued warning signs. Um there's also a um question that we ask every year on the panorama survey related to um whether or not they have an adult uh in their life at the school um to make sure that uh they have connected with an adult um if they have problems. Um and then there are variety of other informal measures that we are tracking um at York High School and at our middle schools really specifically um uh to make sure that students are staying on track. And is that
057primarily sit with the teacher level or like your level like >> uh some of it is uh starting with the teacher. Um our team in um York student services like the counselors and the um social workers and school psychologists does a lot of work um with these data and to make sure that students are feeling um included. So um they are meeting regularly to uh talk about um students who may need an additional level of support, what that support is going to look like and plotting things out from there. >> Thank you. Can I ask >> and that's you you mentioned how you know the pre the panorama from one year to the next year is measuring that but is there any measurement maybe it's not in these charts but um in those types of
058groups for like if there's any improvement in >> their so um our counselors and social workers have their own um internal progress monitoring benchmarks some of that would be a part of this that they are building um on a screen like this uh about how they would be gathering some data. Um some of the data that's already in there are some of our more uh standardized assessments. So like uh for our students with disabilities, we have our fastbridge assessment. All of our MAP data is in there. So we're going to be able to closely monitor um and track a student's progress over time in an intervention group and um in our schools uh really there. So to to um hammer home the point um we uh uh I don't see it as students fall there
059shouldn't be students falling through the cracks that that's the whole purpose of this tool is to make sure that um we are identifying students um providing the support and providing um every bit of um necessary services to make sure that they're doing well. I I would also add that we this is our first year implementing and we wanted to make sure that um we're being thoughtful about the data and and right now we're looking at a lot of the universal systematic data that we can upload to then be able to see how the various tiers of support is being provided. How is that impacting that? And I think to your point, um, our our our hope is that over time as we still build out some of those more, um, dynamic and fluid assessments and
060measuring of progress that we'll get to a point where that will also be included in there. I think though for our entry level, um, that's why you will see we're really looking and utilizing the tools and assessments we now have available across um, systemwide. Just one quick thing. Um I'm excited to see about all the additions to co-curricular activities and I'd love to hear in the future about ways that our teachers and school leaders are helping to get kids involved who maybe aren't as likely to join a club or a sport and um student to student or teacher to student. Um just to like to hear about some of those efforts to help those kids get involved in one of these activities. Absolutely. >> I'm going to wrap a couple things in there because I
061had quite a few idea thoughts I should say. Um, one is just around uh this question of that um kind of what Dr. Campbell was just alluding to around this is your entry point. I'm wondering specifically for the high school, is there a um grading like an overlay of student performance that's not standardized assessment that's just current how they're doing right now in their classroom? And so that you could see commonalities or disconnects between students who may be struggling in the social emotional realm but are doing well academically or both down both you know up down all around. >> Yes. So that is one of the great pieces about Next Path um is that it is it updates every evening um so at midnight um and it pulls all the data from P school, all
062of the data from our other sources to make sure that um we have the most accurate and up-to-date information in there that we can then pull into a data wall that we can really identify the students who are in need of more support and the students who are excelling. >> Yeah. So is that like a report that's coming out to leaders in in campus admin on a basis a certain frequency or >> so um the school leaders that I have seen um in using their next path in using next path um are logging into next path fairly frequently um and so um we have shown them how to do that um we have provided professional learning around the use of next path and we are um regularly talking with them about those data. >> Yeah.
063So Yeah. So, um, our team at the district has built data walls, right, that to Kevin's point are pulling both summitive data, academic data in real time, right? So, you know, SPRS for students who are getting those, but then also daily grades for our high school folks and um and so able and attendance metrics, right? So, looking at the totality of the student and so once those data walls are built, they update every single night. And so then leaders right in their cadence of data reviews are looking at you know setting those thresholds filtering let's look at all the students who are maybe attending school under 80%. Okay, what are we noticing maybe about SEAL um indicators? What's the root cause? Right? So, they're able to kind of look at the totality of a student
064and really identify what the best support would be for a student as opposed to having to um look at many spreadsheets, which if you remember from the committee of the whole last year, that was the previous way in which people were kind of self-compiling all that data. >> Yeah. So, the way I'm thinking about it is a little is similar but a little flipped. So, especially as you can probably tell from the high school lens, the the f just kind of looking at student performance on a regular basis and then seeing what those other indicators are that you're using like attendance and you know all those other indicators where where those rates are compared to their performance. So, if a student is not finding success uh academically, right, that that would automatically be kind of
065what's brought to me and then I can look and drive into that student and say, okay, what is their attendance rate? Are they seeking supports? Have they been to the math lab? Like whatever it is that you're using to monitor, but that that focus is really on them being successful, of course, socially, but also academically um and how how frequently do we know that, you know, is but I think you answered my question on that. My next one is just around at what point then do we engage or what does that look like engaging the student and or parents once we have kind of our um monitoring list I'll call it. >> Yes. So um students uh and their families would be engaged uh really relatively quickly as soon as we notice a risk. Um
066and uh really again the the whole purpose of um making sure that we have school improvement planning and a strong learning environment plan for the school year is to make sure that when a student um is in need of additional services and supports that we are already putting those into place. But uh that's the first purpose but really to make sure that we are setting up strong classroom learning environments all across the board. So they um will need less support um in a tiered way. >> Yeah. Which is leading me to my next part. Sorry, I'll be done soon. Uh that slide where you said further inquiry. There was a slide that said further inquiry and you have some questions you're adding. Are those questions for this year's assessment or were they last for this
067year's? >> I really enjoyed those questions because I think it gives you a brighter look into the students perspective which I think has been kind of a little foggy for us um in the past. Meaning, you know, kids, they're they're not that one, this one. Yep. Do you have a teacher or adult? Of course, we know that that's primary importance that you have that trusted adult in the building. But this when you feel like giving up, how likely is it that your teachers will ask you to keep trying, right? So that that's really these questions are focused on that student teacher trust that our lovely principles were talking about and how do we extrapolate that from the student perspective which I think is going to be a big bonus for for you all moving forward.
068Um and seeing you know again another overlay of not just grades not just social emotional data disconnected but this compilation of all three of those student perspective teacher effort right absolutely district professional development and how all those things work to create that environment. Um my last thought is really around, you know, those qualitative efforts that I think we're talking about a lot. You're talking about a lot in your presentations and we heard them from the principles too so eloquently stated. you know, kids that qualitative piece of are they excited to be in school? And not every kid's going to come up every day, especially those high schoolers thrilled to be at school, but that necessary piece of engagement and how do we do that in every classroom for as many kids as possible every day
069is so important to their active learning. and um and really feeling feeling supported and building that confidence to be strong academic strong or at least to take risks academically, right? And so important for that academic classroom. So really hoping that we hear or see a little bit more later on about sorry kind of that how do we build those classrooms that PD around the qualitative pieces of education not just the quantitative piece of data and what it tells us. But overall, very good, very in-depth, lots of information really about what we do with it moving forward. Nikki, >> one one last question. I'm just curious. I know this is fairly new, but any surprises? Anything that surprised you so far looking at the data? I'm sure you went in with your hypotheses and assumptions, but
070anything that's surprised you so far? >> Um, so the data itself is not new to us because we've had these uh measures before. What is new to us is how it's pulled together. um very easily in some of the um pieces there. And so I would say um for us just the ease of um uh uh putting all of the data together and just seeing um a student very uh quickly in depth um at a glance has been really remarkable. the efficiencies, >> anything in terms of outcomes like, oh, I didn't realize that this impact would this would have as much of an impact on something else, or are we not there yet? >> I would say our school-based teams, right, we're at about the six week mark, which is usually when we're going through
071our first data review cycles. And so, something that's not surprising, but I would say is exciting, is their ability to respond to the data because we're no longer trying to do the technical components as well. we can get right to the actionoriented to really to Athena's point really dig into what we now can see all these aspects of a student if a student is struggling academically right we might have had to then go to a problem-solving meeting around what do we see where now we're seeing there's an attendance um concern let's respond to that attendance concern so not necessarily surprising but um leaders and school-based teams have been very excited about their ability to move to more supporting students because all the technical components are compiled for them. >> Actually love that. I mean because
072I think your ability to um really isolate root causes happens so much quicker that you're able to respond. I love that. Thanks. >> And I and I will also add is I mean we cannot take away from this has been a multi-year journey. Um and we oftent times talk you mentioned too that there is a lot of data that has been available to us but making sure that we also have the enabling conditions as well as the structures in place to then create the space to um have the analysis and then the action planning to take place. So we're, you know, this is this is still new in terms of how we are going to continue to maximize this particular platform in a way that has triangulated and curated so much information that in the
073past we've been looking at um and trying ourselves and spending as my my colleague has said spending a lot of time with that. So, I I look forward for us to come back and to update um and share with the board um at the end of the at the end of the year in terms of how this journey has continued to allow us to to really be actionoriented in terms of how we're responding to the information that we we've received. But so much has been put in place, so much groundwork. um the fact that our staff and our teachers um have really embraced um both the qualitative and the quantitative side of the work. Um we still have um implementing high quality um very rigorous curricular resource materials um as well as having them think
074about how students feel. And I just want to make sure that we understand and don't take away the science um that happens for a for an individual when we step into a school environment to make sure that not only our students engage um intellectually and making sure that we're putting in front of them the right text and the complexity of of of of text and task, but that we also care about how they feel, that we're reading the cues and the signs um from the non-verbal cues, that we're making sure we're connecting. what we ask staff members and educators to do um is no short of something that is highly um uh dynamic um and and takes an an an immense amount of effort. And I'm just so proud. I want to say again um
075not only to the educators that sit around this the table here um but every educator and staff members in our schools that have been on this journey with us over the last few years um from the adoptions to the reflection of their practice um to making sure that they've been open and receptive to feedback to our learners to our administrators being learners themselves to make sure that they're then able to support like this. We sit and we share and we give these presentations and it sounds wonderful, but I just want to again say thank you uh to our educators. Thank you to my team that is sitting around this table. Um and thank you to the board for supporting this work and and and being really um uh championing us uh behind the scenes and
076we continue to see um the results um that's impacting all of our students and our families. So, thank you Anything else? Anything else on learning environment? Okay, thank you. Lots of good work going on there. Um, we'll move on to item B, the medical dental benefit contracts. I believe I turn it over to Mr. Blumquist. >> Thank you. And um I'm really proud to be part of this committee and this team that has engaged in some really hard work um and has taken a different approach this year and engaged in really deep and meaningful conversation to really tackle um the the the issues and the circumstances uh we we find ourselves in in our medical insurance fund. So, I do want to outline uh the shared interests of this entire committee that really guided our
077work throughout this summer. Um, and I first want to uh particularly I'm not going to name them all by name because uh undoubtedly I'm going to leave somebody off the list, but um I know Miss Manuel is is here in the in the audience and I appreciate her being here. um as well as uh various members of PSRP, ETC, uh SEIU, uh district and school leaders, uh schoolboard members, um all of us engaged in this uh really uh worthwhile endeavor uh to get to a place uh that we are coming confidently uh with a recommendation for you tonight. uh our three core interests uh we we made uh every effort to uh provide the highest quality benefits for our staff. uh our conversation engaged in uh a process to ensure that uh that all of
078our staff members have options to get the care that they need to get the attention that they need and impacting them to the to the any negative impact is is uh comes with some options for them to still get the care that they need. We also address the fact that we need to maintain um an adequate insurance fund balance um to make sure that this program is sustainable uh for for our members and for this district. And then the third core interest is to bring a recommendation uh to this board uh that is mutually agreeable and beneficial. Um and it was it was no small task but the recommendation that we are bringing to you tonight uh did receive a unanimous vote. Um and so I once again want to thank every member of the
079insurance committee uh for engaging in this conversation to get us to that point that we feel confident that we are achieving all three of these objectives uh through the proposal that we have for you today. We went through a number of different colored models and the model um so we did put up that it was the orange model uh that uh was the one that received 12 uh uh votes of support. Um and to walk us through that process, uh we are uh happy to have Melanie Gru from Alliant um um here with us to walk us through all of the components of of this model. I'll turn it over to you, Melanie. >> Thanks, Joe. Um, yeah. So, the components of the orange model that the committee unanimously decided upon includes a variety of
080different modifications to the current benefit offering that's in place currently for the district. So, the first bullet point that you'll see on the list is a pharmacy carveout with an organization called Vital One. Um, Vital One is a pharmacy benefit manager. This will be a carveout for the PO and the high deductible population. the HMO pharmacy benefits will remain with Blue Cross and Blue Shield due to contractual obligations that the pharmacy cannot be carved out on the HMO side. We also be eliminating for that same PO and high deductible health plan population um the weight loss um weight loss cover weight loss pharmacy coverage for GLP1s will be removed from the offering effective January 1st. um through Vital 1, we'll also be participating in a variety of additional programs um that will, you know, also
081provide reduced costs for the district and then also just some additional management and safeguards um over time um but also not, you know, having, you know, substantial impact to the membership that's um covered under um the PO and HSA plans. We will be eliminating the district covered biometric screenings um both the event and the screening mandate for staff. that'll provide some additional cost savings in the cost of the coverage to host those screenings on site um that was in place currently. Um the retiree dental benefits are going to be removed for those that do not have that obligation under their collective bargaining agreements. And then also um it was agreed upon that there will be some plan design modifications to the PPO1 plan. Um, so there will be an increase in the deductible on that
082plan from $800 currently for single up to $1,300 for single of 2,600 family. So that's an increase of eight of $500 for the deductible. For single coverage, a,000 for family coverage. The out- of pocket is also going to be increasing up to $2,400 for single and $4,800 for family. An increase there of $800 for single coverage and $1,600 for family. Overall, the net result with these modifications to the current plan designs is a premium increase of 8% overall um to the costs that will be um implemented effective January 1st. And then this will also provide safeguards from un unanticipated changes moving forward. There is also a mandatory compliance obligation on the high deductible health plan that is going to increase those deductible thresholds to $3,400 for single, $6,800 for family. That's a $100 increase for
083single coverage, 200 for family. And this is just to stay compliant with IRS mandates associated with the high deductible plan. So, a couple additional details about who Vital One is. That will be the new pharmacy benefit manager. At Alliant, we partner with a variety of different pharmacy benefit offerings. Through the evaluation process, we did a a pricing analysis and disruption analysis of the current utilization that's in place. Vital one came on top as both limited disruption to current utilization as long as well as providing um additional discounts and rebate offerings with the best pricing option between the different pharmacy benefit managers that we did evaluate. Um by the one was previously known as Maxur Plus if it's just not a household name but it has a you know large network and a large um you
084know access points for all of the members. Um we do feel that they have have provided a transparent model um as far as for pharmacy benefits you know are concerned um with you know they're flexible and also willing to work with us as far as engaging in new programs and solutions um for the district and their staff. We do have a three-year contract but with the um you know option to term after one year um if you know if necessary. Um and then we will be working aligned closely with the vital one account team um providing additional consulting through our own pharmacy um benefit team myself and our team that is works closely with the district um and providing that ongoing review of the of the program as we are engaged. So looking here is
085what the um overall cost analysis would be um for 2026 effective January 1st with just an um a 8 a% increase across both the PO the HMO and the high deductible health plan um for the overall expected cost based on enrollment as today. This can shift based on final you know enrollment in tiers um of that $20 million um expected cost um on a gross spend. This is prior to any employee contributions need out from those costs. And then the final one is on the dental premium equivalent rates as well. This was a two-year strategy that we put into place last year. We had found that the dental rates were underfunded against what was in place um as far as utilization on the dental plan. because there was a significant need of roughly about 23%
086needed for going into the 2025 plan year, it was decided to take that into a two-year approach. Um, rates did go up roughly about 12% last year and then this will be the second year of that modification to bring dental back up to current with an 11 and a half% increase to the dental premium rates or the equivalent rates, excuse me. And I do want uh to add that uh the the amount listed here of the 8% increase is in line with our budget that has been presented to you tonight. Um I also uh do want to express that uh industry trend is about an 11% increase. Um so uh we are closely monitoring that. We are closely discussing that on a regular basis of um how do we maintain high quality benefits without uh
087without causing additional additional strain on the fund balance and that concludes our report. Thank you Melanie. >> Great. Thank you. We'll open it up to the board for any questions or comments. I can start by just saying and maybe no one really has any questions or comments because we've discussed this topic at finance committee. Um but the insurance committee is made up of you know our representatives and Kelly and I had the honor of of being on the committee. Um and really just want to note and highlight what Mr. Blumos was talking about the committee's challenge of containing escalating insurance costs like that 11% that we're anticipating for the near future every year. um building contingency to cover continued overbudget spending while maintaining competitive, strong and attractive benefit package. It's a really tough goal and
088uh I really want to say thank you to the committee members. There are peaks and valleys when you're discussing of course people's benefits. Um, as as an employer, you want to make sure you're maintaining attractive packages so that we're able to meet one of our hallmarks of attracting and retaining high-quality staff, but also providing for them and their families if and when they are in need of their insurance. A special thank you to Miss Monique because she's here in the off in the room today. Uh, she and her counterpart Dolores were so creative, thoughtful, and collaborative. just really want to say thank you for your effort and time and energy that you put forward into the committee. But I think Kelly and I are agree that we're super pleased with the outcome of the work
089of the committee and thankful for the really collaborative experience. Um the committee shared ideas. They came up with creative solutions all while being realistic um in trying to identify a pathway forward. So, thank you to all and especially Melanie who's also here and I can't believe it because after the rodeo we've put her through to show up is really nice and I appreciate your presentation tonight. It's difficult work and we're navigating through them with solutions that will maintain attractive benefits for all and I just appreciate you all for doing that. Kelly, do you have anything you want to add? >> Gonna add that Melanie, the whole time everyone's been talking, I've been thinking about the fact that you were sitting in the audience waiting to present. So, thank you for being here. Uh any questions
090from board members? Sure. >> Just one question. I assume that care will be taken to make sure that our staff members that utilize these benefits will um get all the information about these changes and make sure that they have support when choosing a plan that's right for them and you know talking through that with someone. >> Yes. Uh first of all, the insurance committee's work is not done. We have another meeting next Thursday where we're going to kind of talk about that those next steps of of rolling out these plans and and forming them. Open enrollment takes place in the month of November. Uh we also have an incredible benefits coordinator uh Jessica Romero who is very experienced and um and can educate um our our staff um and and and we are committed to
091making sure that we engage uh with them to make sure that uh we assist them in making the best possible choice for them and their families. >> Great. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Thank you for that presentation. Moving on to the consent agenda. Is there anything anyone would like to pull from the consent agenda? Seeing that there's nothing to be po pulled, uh, can we have a motion for the consent agenda, please? I move that the board of education approve the following consent agenda items. A, personnel report. B, financial report. C, FOYA, Freedom of Information Act requests. D, adoption of out of district meal reimbursements. E, approve compensation compliance reports. F. Special education supplemental staff contracts. G. Incident IQ IT and facilities work management platform. >> A second. A motion made by Miss Asf, second
092by Mrs. Hustler. Can I please call the vote? >> M. Mrs. AsF. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hustler. >> Yes. >> Mr. Prosahan. >> Yes. >> Dr. Henry. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lewinsky. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Irvanites? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Troutman? Six eyes, zero nays, one absent. Motion passes. Item 10 is our agenda action items. We have item A, the approved resolution adopting the budget for fiscal year 202526. Mr. Blumost. >> I think you've heard plenty from me over the last two months. So, I turn it back over to you. >> Thank you. Can we have a motion? I move that the board of education adopt the fiscal year 2026 budget as presented. I'll second. >> Motion made by Dr. Henry, second by Mr. Vanites. Can we please call the vote? >> Dr. Henry, >>
093yes. >> Mr. Eranites, >> yes. >> Mrs. Asv, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lewinsky, >> yes. >> Mr. Breznahan, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hustler, >> yes. >> Mrs. Troutman, >> six eyes, zero, one absent. Motion passes. Uh, next on the list is the approval of the medical and dental benefits contracts. >> I move that the board of education approved the 2026 medical and dental insurance plan changes as recommended. >> Motion made by Miss Hustler, seconded by Miss Lewinsky. Are there any comments from the board? We just kind of talked about this, so we're just Right. Okay. So, we'll call the vote. >> Mrs. Hustler. Yes, >> Mrs. Lewinsky. >> Yes, >> Mr. Breznahan. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Asive. >> Yes, >> Dr. Henry. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Arvanites. >> Yes, Mrs. Troutman. 6 I zero nays,
094one absent. Motion passes. Item C is the resolution declaring the intention to issue $ 8.5 million in working cash bonds for the purpose of increasing the district's working cash fund. Uh, I will turn that one over to Mr. Blumquest. >> Thank you. uh we have discussed this uh to some great length o over the last two months at the finance and operations committee meeting. I do want to make sure that everybody understands there uh there are there are two sets of bonds that we would be bringing to you in October. The working cash bonds is the is the one set of bonds uh that requires a notice of intent uh for issuance and that is why we are uh bringing this to you today. This would be to uh to publish in the paper that
095on October 21st we will be having a hearing on the issuance of working cash bonds but we also intend u to discuss the issuance of life safety bonds at that time. Uh we are joined as well today by um Angelie Vidge uh from Chapman and Cutler who will answer any questions that you might have related to the uh the notice of intent to issue working cash bonds. >> Can we have a motion first and then we can ask questions? Can we have a motion? I move that the board of education adopt the resolution de declaring the intention to issue $ 8.5 million working cash fund bonds of community unit school district number 205 DUP page and Cook counties Illinois for the purpose of increasing the working cash fund of said school district and directing that
096notice of such intention be published in the manner provided by law. >> I'll second motion made by Dr. Henry, second by Mrs. ASF. And are there any comments from the board? I will just ask because we do have some newer board members and sometimes the community likes to understand just what is that timeline? What does that look like then? If this is approved tonight, what happens next? >> Sure. Sure. Uh process-wise, if the board adopts the resolution of intent tonight, um within, you know, short order, a notice of intent will be published in your local newspaper, the Umhurst Suburban Life. Um, and that notice will be in the form that is on page three and four of this resolution. >> Um, so it's just uh two paragraphs which notifies your registered voters, the public of
097their right to petition the working cash fund bond issue. Um, as soon as that notice is published in the newspaper, that starts a 30-day window where the registered voters of the district do have the opportunity to sign a petition. And if uh you get 3,423 signatures on that petition within that 30-day window, um then the issuance of the working cash fund bonds would go to referendum for voter approval at the March 2026 election. Um, if the board does not receive a petition within that 30 days with the requisite number of signatures, then you can proceed to issue and sell the bonds without referendum. Um, in addition to the 30-day petition period, there is a separate public hearing requirement which Joe described um for both the working cash fund bonds and the life safety bonds. Um
098but this part of the process only relates to the working cash fund bonds. Um so it's after that 30 days lapses again starting from when the notice is published in the newspaper 30 days after that um then the board can proceed to sell and issue the working cash fund bonds without a referendum. >> Okay, great. I also want to highlight does anybody have anything? >> Thank you for that clarity. I want to highlight that the board has discussed this or at least through finance and operations committee where we did have some I think every board member was present at both of those meetings where we went into some great detail about our financial um stability right now and and the impact of these working cash bonds and health life safety on our community. So, I
099encourage anybody in our community who has questions about what the board is proposing, the intent being proposed by the administration, um, to please reach out to board members or Mr. Blumquest to get some clarity or at least to understand uh, what our financial position is and how this is the best way forward for us um, as a district in a community, especially with minimal, you know, there's not an increase or decrease impact on the overall taxpayer. So, um, if there's community members out there who are interested, please reach out to one of us and, uh, we can help answer any questions. Anything else from the board? Okay, with that, we will call the vote. >> Dr. Henry, >> yes. >> Mrs. Asive, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lewinsky, >> yes. >> Mr. Breznahan, >> yes. >>
100Mrs. Hustler, >> yes. >> Mrs. Arvanites, >> yes. >> Mrs. Troutman, >> 6 Z Naz one absent. Motion passes. Thank you for being here tonight. >> Oh, thank you all. >> Uh the next one, D, we have the approval of energy services agreement with NA Energy Advisors. I will turn this one over back to the Joe Show. >> I you might be getting uh tired of hearing my voice. Um September 10th, uh at the finance and operations committee meeting, we uh had Becky Thompson from Nineia Energy um uh consultants or NIA energy adviserss come out and explain the process for uh securing natural gas and electricity rates uh to the maximum of our ability to lower the cost or at least stabilize the costs so that it has the least impact on on our budget.
101So that way more dollars can be invested um into our students. Uh it is the district recommendation that we engage with NIA energy uh advisors uh specifically uh for our natural gas uh rate which has currently expired uh and so we are at a variable rate until we secure a a new fixedterm rate. >> Thank you. Can we have a motion? I move that the board of education approve the master agreement with NA energy advisors for the purpose of natural gas procurement. >> I'll second motion made by Miss Lewinsky, second by Miss Hustler. Um are there any comments from the board? I will say another topic that was spoken about in great detail at finance and operations by the board. We had a presentation from the consultant and um seeing the future trajectory of expenditures.
102You know, this was uh obviously brought to the forefront for the board and we appreciate that work. Joe Beth, you had something. >> I just wanted to say that I appreciate all the work that's being done along with all the great work being done directly with our students every day and making sure we're supporting them the best that we can. um the work that's being done by our team to just really delve into every line item of our budget and make sure that we're taking great care and how um our funds are being spent and looking for ways to for cost savings for district 205. Um saving money on energy services is one. Our incident IQ IT and facilities work management program. I know there was a cost savings there by just looking at a
103better way to do that work. Um, anytime there's a vacancy, I know that our team is looking at departments and how we're doing things and they don't just jump to fill a vacancy, but look at is this the best way that we're using our um, you know, staff and people across our district to support our students the best way possible. So, I just appreciate all that work. I know it's ongoing and it's been we've approved so many things that are um helping us to be as responsible as possible with our funds that we get from our taxpayers. So, thank you. >> Anything else from the board? Can we please call the vote? >> Mrs. Lewinsky? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hustler? >> Yes. >> Dr. Henry? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Asip? >> Yes. >> Mr. Breznahan?
104>> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Vanites. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Troutman. >> Six eyes, zero nays, one absent. Motion passes. Moving on to item 11, superintendent communication. I will turn it over to Dr. Campbell. >> Like there we go. Superintendent communication. Um, first up, uh, Tanya Daniels is going to share about our 13th edition of the community connection newsletter. 13th edition. Kind of mind-blowing, but with the 13th edition that is hitting homes any day now, we're excited to showcase a slightly updated design of the newsletter and uh a lot of helpful like information and um kind of stories and updates in this uh edition. There's the recap of the Madison Early Childhood Center renovation. the important dates uh graphics was in there. We did that last year and it got really good um feedback. And then
105we're also excited to launch I I believe I talked about this last meeting. I was say last week but it was not last week on our last meeting where we're launching the D205 podcast. Uh and then with this we there is a Q&A with Dr. Hurt and this Q&A with Dr. Dr. Hurt launches the first of a series of what we are calling the we are dukes um video series with Dr. Hurt throughout the year. So similar to the um video uh series that we have with Dr. Campbell that's hall pass we are doing a we are Dukes with Dr. hurt to take you inside uh York High School and everything that happens at York High School uh York High School to give you a little bit more information on the day-to-day activities there, the
106services that we have for students and how we support um a rigorous curriculum as well as um throughout the high school. We're really excited to launch this series. So, I hope you're all able to uh listen to a couple episodes and uh enjoy this new uh edition of the newsletter. >> Excellent. Thank you. We are super excited for our 2025 state of the district. I think Sultana is already receiving some RSVPs and guests um saying that they will um be attending. Um the district annual state of the district will be held on October 30th. Um, you are allowed to wear a Halloween costume if uh just in case you want to be prepared for the next day. Um, it's okay. No judgment. Safe space. Um, 700 p.m. at Lincoln. I know elementary. Uh, we look
107forward to sharing data and information and reflecting um on this uh past school year. Uh speaking of um the past school year, um we want to share um that ISA uh ACT um reports, student reports will be um coming to families on October 17th. Um with this um as one of my colleagues has already mentioned the state loves to keep us on our toes and there is um some new unified performance levels. So I'm going to ask uh my colleague Miss Lishel to just um share um a little bit about um what's on the horizon. >> Sure. Thank you Dr. Campbell. So we will be digging into several changes that the state made for the Illinois school report card data at the committee of the whole on October 21st. But because families will be getting
108both IR and ISA reports um probably the week of or week prior to the committee of the whole and that's again for last year's for I last year's third through 8th graders and then ISA was fifth and eighth graders of last year. So you'll be getting those reports sent through the secure send of parent square around October 17th. There'll be much more information about the changes to state reporting with that that again we'll review at the committee of the whole on the 21st. But just wanted to highlight one of those shifts is new unified performance levels. So on the screen you can see that previously ISA and SAT had different thresholds the a different number of performance levels. I had five SAT had four and so what the state has done is they have created
109four unified and consistent language around benchmarks for performance to kind of unify that again across a student's entire experience through summitive assessment data. They also have changed um the performance ratings. And so they did this by analyzing how Illinois compared to other states and how proficiency ratings align with evidence of student readiness for college and careers. Again, we will discuss that in detail at October 21st committee of the whole, but just wanted to give a slight preview about one of the shifts that was happening with the performance levels as our families get that information prior to that meeting. And I'm going to kick it over to my colleague, Miss Lions, who's going to just do an update on our October 10th Institute Day. >> Yes, we have another day of learning coming up on the
11010th. And as you know, over the past several years, our educators have partnered. Tanya, who's moving it? Who's in there? [Laughter] Okay, Rudy. It was Rudy. We're just gonna keep moving. My screen is moving as well, so uh we'll keep going pretty fast. But um as you know, through many presentations, you've heard me talk about the different research and standards um that our curricular resources really embody and that we have engaged learning alongside our leaders and our teachers um to really manifest in their teaching practice. And so we're excited that on October 10th, we're really going to engage our teacher leaders in providing professional learning sessions that they design and that they facilitate um that they share with fellow colleagues. Um so we what you see on the screen is a call for proposals for
111our educators um to submit proposals for sessions and I'm excited to you know update you on on the sessions that our our teachers lead for each other um and really support and promote that you know teacher leadership um opportunity on the 10th. No, we have one more surprise. Tanya Daniels >> surprise. So, we have talked a lot about the uh finishing the referendum projects, and we thought that it was only appropriate to go back in the archives and have Garrett put together one of his fantastic videos doing a recap of the work that was done with the referendum to really just take a moment and take a walk down memory lane and really celebrate the tremendous progress that was made from that referendum. So tremendous thank you to Garrett Garcia for putting this together. I
112every school is represented and you know we're really excited to kind of showcase the work that has been done. So please enjoy. In November of 2018, the Elmherst community overwhelmingly approved a referendum committed to enhancing safety and security, expanding learning spaces, and addressing maintenance and infrastructure needs across all District 205 schools. Now, following the ribbon cutting on the newly renovated Madison Early Childhood Center, we are proud to share that every project included in the referendum has been completed. Thanks to the commitment from the D205 community across all of our schools, students and staff are benefiting from new and modernized facilities, the complete rebuild of two brand new school buildings, remodeled and expanded learning spaces, modernized classrooms with updated furniture and equipment, increased safety and security throughout all D205 schools. and the addition of a brand
113new transition center to support our young adult learners. This work completed during the referendum also included partnership with the city of Elmherst like improved flood management, further protecting our facilities and our community. The referendum totaled $168.5 million. The board of education added an additional 21 million in scope to meet evolving needs. And today, we can proudly say that the referendum projects were completed on time and within budget, funded solely through capital project dollars. This is an accomplishment we share together as a district, as a community, and as a team. Thank you for your trust, your investment, and your partnership in ensuring a bright future for all District 205 students. Great. Thank you. And it is so nice to once again commemorate. I just thought it was the best. I I mean, we didn't know what
114we were doing, you know, 5 years ago when we started project, but to end with Madison and that ribbon cutting, I think was like the perfect toast to such a great uh all-around effort for the board, the district, the community, the kids. It was just really nice. So, thank you for putting that together and thank you to Garrett. His work is always I see he's got a drone specialty now. It's wonderful. always expanding those skills, making it better, always evolving that, Garrett. Okay, thank you so much for that. Um, our upcoming meetings, we have October 8th, 2025, we have a parent teacher advisory committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. And then October 21st, 2025, we have the regular board of education meeting and committee of the whole meeting at 5:30 p.m. Both meetings will be here
115at district 205 center in rooms 215,16, and 17. And with that, it is 8:41 and this meeting is adjourned.