001I'm going to call to order the April 9th, 2026 meeting of the Forest Park D91 Board of Education. May I have a roll call? Here. Andrea Marullo. Monique Cotton. Here. John Lyons. Steve Rummel. Here. Shannon Wood. Here. Monica Angelo. Here. For those who care to participate, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Rummel, will you read the mission uh statement, please? Our mission in partnership with home and community is to educate each individual child in a safe and nurturing environment. We will foster respect and self-worth, teach skills relevant to contemporary life, and promote academic success and creative expression. We will encourage an appreciation of the rich cultural diversity of our community and instill a sense of wonder for the future to enable our students to become lifelong learners and responsible citizens of the world.
002Thank you. Vision statement. Forest Park Public School District 91 will be acknowledged by all as a safe, nurturing, and diverse learning community that establishes the highest standards for innovation and continuous improvement to achieve academic excellence and global citizenship for each individual child. Uh Miss Angelo, the equity statement, please? Sure. Recognizing that some systematic bias has plagued our education system, we commit to nurturing dialogue around all issues of inequity, including culture, race, faith, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and different abilities as they pertain to classroom practices, school and district structures, and the policies and procedures. We support actions removing barriers to opportunities that allow children to reach their full potential. Thank you. And Mr. Brewer, the statement honoring Native American land, please. Certainly. We, Forest Park Board of Education, would like to acknowledge that this
003meeting is being held on the traditional lands of the Peoria, Potawatomi, Miami, Sioux, and Kickapoo people and pay our respect to elders, both past and present. Thank you. Uh number four, consent agenda for the board. Is there anything anyone would like removed? May I have a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second? Second. Roll call. Jed Brewer. Aye. Monique Cotton. Aye. John Lyons. Aye. Steve Rummel. Aye. Shannon Wood. Aye. Monica Angelo. Aye. Number five, correspondence? No? Okay. Thank you. Number six, matters of consideration from the public? Okay. Number seven, uh interim interim superintendent's report. Dr. Hubbard? Good evening. Um starting off with some recognitions. On March 27th, we had Brody Brody Roybal Roybal, son of Betsy Ross staff member Michelle Roybal, make a special appearance at Betsy Ross. Brody is a four-time Olympic gold medalist
004in sled hockey. He traveled 7 hours non-stop overnight to come visit and make sure he was there in the morning to see our students and answer their questions. So, shout-out to him. Our students asked questions about how Brody mentally and physically trained for the Olympics, who his best friends were on the team, and which win was the most satisfying for him out of the gold medals. And he did say it was beating Italy. Um students walked away with the message that there there were times Brody wanted to give up, but he sets goals to be accountable to himself and to his team. Brody also said he reminds himself that regardless of what happens in the game, he's proud of where he is on and off the ice. Um we just want to give a shout-out
005to him and his mother for making this happen for our students. So, thank you. The President AI Challenge. Congratulations to Josh, Owen, and Yaya for being state championships in the President AI Challenge with their project School Infobot. As part of the project, they were asked to identify a problem and use AI to address it. Their choice to create an AI bot to help families navigate the D91 website. Their project is well of it relevant because our website will be revamped over the summer, and we're looking forward to exploring some of the feedback on on we doing the website. Josh, Owen, and Yaya will find out on April 16th if they're also national winners. So, they submitted their project and they're up to the national competition. So, best of luck to them. Um the President AI
006Challenge is a national challenge where K to 12 youth, educators, mentors, and community teams come together to solve real-world problems in the community. Also, congratulations to the challenge teacher, Miss Finn, for being an educator state winner for her app entry National History Day topic Matchmaker. So, not only did our students um win, our um their teacher and their coach won also. So, shout-out to both of them. >> [applause] >> And happy Bacon Day. Let's hear about There's one name that makes every panther smile. Mr. Bacon. He's the assistant principal who keeps FPMS sizzling with school spirit, laughter, and leadership. Whether he's greeting students in the morning, cheering at games, or keeping the halls running smoothly, Mr. Bacon brings the perfect mix of fun and focus to every day. To prove it was not a chicken.
007Mr. Bacon makes our school feel like a community. Mr. Bacon makes me [music] feel like I matter. Oh, he wants Mr. Bacon wants every student to be happy, successful, and healthy. There's one name that makes every panther smile. Mr. Bacon. He's the assistant [music] principal who keeps FPMS sizzling with school spirit, laughter, and leadership. Whether he's greeting students in the morning, >> [music] >> cheering at games, or keeping the halls running smoothly, Mr. Bacon brings the perfect mix of fun and focus to every day. Mr. Bacon makes our school feel like a community. Mr. Bacon makes me feel like I matter. Oh, he wants Mr. Bacon wants every student to be happy, successful, and healthy. He always greets us with a smile. Mr. Bacon makes us feel safe at school. Mr. Bacon cares every single
008day. He never gives up on us, no matter what. Mr. Bacon always leads with his heart. And I just wondered if that was Mr. Bacon's coat that the jacket that they all kept wearing. >> [laughter] >> But just shout-out to Mr. Bacon and thank the students and Mr. Amali for making the video for him. Um moving on to the interim superintendent report. Our first pillar of learning and achievement. Letters is more than training. It's empowering teachers with the knowledge behind how children learn to read and spell. Where research becomes classroom impact. Hi. My name is Jamie Stauter, and I am the principal of Garfield School here [music] in Forest Park, Illinois. We'd like to welcome you to our primary school, [music] where we work with our students on foundational skills in reading and instill a
009love of learning. Last week, we learned Y can make lots of sounds. >> [music] >> So, what is the normal sound of Y that we've learned? This word is Yes. Very good. The Y says Yuh. Okay. This word is Y we learned can say also can say I. I or E. E. at the end. Ice cream. We learned I can be spelled I-E, I can be spelled with an I, but today we're also learning it can also be spelled with a Y. Y. Good. Point to the sound What picture are you pointing to? Sun. Very good. You guys are too smart. Where What's What's the picture? Ice cream. Ice cream cuz Y can say I. We know there's how many sounds in sky? [music] Three. Three. Very good. Let's write that in our boxes. One
010sound mmm. Very good. What's the next sound? Go. The C if it has A. A or uh. No. No. What's this K like again? K like I E Y. Yes. How about that? Yes. All right, let's hear it. >> Go. Go. So, today [music] I'm going to show you how to use this with the silent E cuz you and I have been working on silent E. Can we do that? No. Why not? What's this? >> Because it's in the it's silent E. >> That's our silent E. >> in the middle. >> And you're going to take an [music] arrow and go like this and point to the I. Because what does that silent E do? Make the I Makes the I long. [music] And now let's write it here again and as we're writing it
011let's make our sounds. Ooh. I. Mhm. Clove. Tap sounds. Ooh ooh e. It's next to an M. It is next to an M. So, what sound will it spell? Am. Let's highlight that word. Is it touching [clears throat] an N or an M? No. No. All right, Alita, what sound would that A spell? A. A. There we go. Okay. All right, ready? E. Here we go. A. M. Uh. M. You heard the fourth sound good. Ooh, we found it. Awesome. Our next word. Alita, what vowel sound would that A have? Yes. Are we going to separate our C and K into two boxes or we going one box? One box. Rush. Rush. Let's tap sounds for rush. R. Uh. Sh. How many sounds? >> Three. With sound. This is a sound. Phoneme means sound. Grapheme
012means Writing. Writing. Yes, okay. E. Sh. Sh. Sh. How many? E. Sh. A. Ch. Betch. Why do we have two letters in the first box? Lauren? Because they're one sound together. Because of letters, I feel that my instruction in my classroom has been more routine and more centered around phonemic awareness. I've seen great improvements and growths [music] in my students with their word segmentation and it's also been an opportunity for me to target struggling readers and get them the help >> [music] >> quicker. Letters for me and my classroom has helped my instruction in terms of learning how students read, analyzing their data, understanding how important [music] the science of reading is. It's helped me analyze their work in order to make academic decisions [music] to better help their growth. Yeah, I agree. [music] I
013feel like it's helped build collaboration amongst teachers. We've been able to help not only our students in our [music] classrooms but students outside of our classrooms. Since we're both in special ed, we know, you know, the science of reading but it's pretty much built that foundation of what phonics is and how to teach phonics and help those students with um you know, their struggles and what else they need. And yeah, I think it's really helped me grow as a teacher and I'm excited to see what else I'll learn in volume two. Agreed. Um a big takeaway has [music] been the ability to better meet the needs of my students in my second grade classroom. [music] Um so, we used the letters screening um spelling screener. Uh at the beginning of the year I used it
014with Andrea's uh tier two and tier three students um and we just kind of looked at that data and compared it to what we saw in FastBridge and from our UFLI assessments. And that spelling screener's really given us the opportunity to identify those deficits and um really, you [music] know, take some small group times and really work on those so that they will be able to apply these skills. Yeah, >> [music] >> and we have seen good results so far. >> Yeah, and I do think I think the students' confidence has really increased. They're really proud of themselves when they can do certain [music] things. During letters, Sabrina and I found the Beyond the Bell collaboration time very helpful. And so, we got the opportunity to go through a session together a couple times after
015school. >> Literally the next day, we actually had a great conversation about one [music] particular intervention and I did it the next day and then we were able to talk about it the next week [music] um and to see how successful it was. To like throw ideas with and then we yeah, off of each other. So, it was just a nice and hopefully [music] we can continue that through the next volume. >> Yes, cuz that was very helpful. >> [screaming] [cheering] >> We wanted to share this video with you because the board made a a large investment to invest in this program and invest in the staff and we're seeing a very positive return from it. Um not only is it a large financial investment but are the teachers that chose to join the program
016it's a lot of them large investment of their time. Um a couple weeks of training, ongoing training on a regular basis that they're going to and getting and they're really seeing it transform their teaching and we're seeing it in the results that we're getting for our students. So, we wanted to share this video with you cuz make sure that we're getting a return on our investment on how we're allocating our funds. And each month we showcase a different grade level. Uh this month it is our seventh grade so we have a video to showcase them and what they've been learning. Um and next month to wrap up the school year it'd be showcasing our eighth graders and them summing up their year of the things that they have done. This year we have been on
017a credible journey of learning, growing, and discovering what we are truly made of. In social studies, Mr. Caesar taught us the power of finance from budgeting to making smart money decisions that will last a lifetime. We learned that understanding your finances isn't just a skill, it's a superpower [music] that sets you up for a success. In science, we put our detective hats on to investigate what was going [music] on inside a middle school girl's digestive system. We traced every twist and turn [music] of the digestive process solving the mystery one organ at a time. We stepped outside the classroom and visited [music] the world-famous Argonne National Library lab. We engineered batteries [music] to power the cars of tomorrow. At Argonne, we also explored the science of DNA and used it to pinpoint identity just like
018real scientists do. We discovered that the answer to life's biggest questions can sometimes be found in the tiniest strands of genetic code. During Black History Month, we took the stage for Readers [music] Theater giving powerful voices to the stories and heroes who shaped our nation. We honored those who came before us reminding ourselves and everyone watching that their legacy lives on through us. We also laced up our shoes [music] and stepped onto the volleyball court competing with Forest Park community with heart, hustle, and teamwork. Some of us had [music] the honor of visiting the Northern Illinois Food Bank where we rolled our sleeves and packaged great meals for families in need. We also did such an activity during the MLK >> [music] >> Day of Service cuz giving back is what great leaders do. And
019because we showed up with great behavior and character, we earned our PBIS rewards catching Zootopia 2 on the big screen and sharing courtside at a Windy City Bulls game. From the laboratory to the stage, from the classroom to the court, [music] we are seventh graders and this is JUST THE BEGINNING. >> [screaming] >> YOU KNOW, AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS SCHOOL YEAR we said we're going to showcase a different grade level each year. Didn't know what that was going to look like, didn't give any direction to the staff, just said come up with something. And these videos that they've been making have become a really good marketing campaign for the school and district and they're getting a lot of views. It's really just engaging people on what's going on. So, um we got them all
020housed together in one location on the website. Look forward to just continuing to build and add to that. Um these photos are taken using a green screen in the hallway during the Field Stevenson STEAM and math night. That was one of the stations that was going on there. We want to thank Ms. Bravo for setting up the station and Ms. Harrington for helping our students lead and run the station. But the families had fun with it. If you've seen any of these photos that were going around social media, they just had a great time with the background and just reacting to it. But it was a nice engagement station for them. Moving on to our talent recruitment and development, we have our wellness screening on April 14th and 15th for our staff for the biometrics.
021I I am pleased to say we have 80 people sign up. That's the most we've ever had. Um we still got a few more spots. If any staff members want to sign up, they're welcome to sign up. They are some of um our at 6:00 in the morning cuz no one want to take the 6:00 a.m. spot. But there's spots still available. Um this is one of the things that we do to help make sure that our insurance cost stays low um and the more people that take it really gives a positive feedback to the staff. All the information is kept confidential. The staff knows none of the information is just shared with the individual um and their health care provider. We are planning for next year. These are the current open positions we have.
022Principals are working hard to do interviews right now and make recommendations. So, some of these positions are um being interview Candidates are being interviewed right now or they're going to be starting being interviewed in the coming weeks for these positions. The one that I will highlight is we have two permanent sub positions available. Those positions have really worked out well for us. Any newly graduated educator with a teaching license that is unsure if they want to get into field and still want to take a year to get into it and and and dive into it slowly, it's a great position for them. I believe three or four of our permanent subs have transitioned into the classroom. Um so, anyone's interested to do that, if you know a recent graduate in the field of education that
023is at 22, they still don't know what they want to do, but they want to get into the field a little, please encourage them to apply for the position cuz we have two available. May 15th will be our early dismissal for our students so we can provide our end-of-year professional development for our staff, celebrate our retirees, and give out our year service recognition pins. Um it's a great time of the year. We've been using that last PDD for that, so we're really looking forward to that and planning the day for the staff and honor those that are retiring cuz we got a handful of people retiring this year. Moving on to our final pillar, family community and engagement. >> [music] [music] >> So, I think last year the fire department was a little embarrassed that
024they got beat. I think it was like we won 4 and 0 on them, so they brought their all-star team this year, brought people from the police department, the village, everyone came the public works, everyone park district, everyone came out. Um and they beat us 4 and 4 0, so um I think they tried to get a little bit of their revenge, but it was a great community engagement time, had a lot of fun with it. Want to thank all those from the village and community that came out and just engaged with our students, but um we're already planning for next year to see how we could beat them, you know, so now next year's going to be the tiebreaker cuz both teams are 4 and 0 um each year, so we got to see
025how that plays out next year, but thank you to everyone who put that together, the staff here, and those that came out. FOIA requests, um we did have two of those um this past month. The Illinois Retirement Teachers Association requested the list of certified staff that are retiring. They do that every year to make sure that they get all the retirement information, so we provide them with that list. Uh and then Justin Winnegge requested purchase data from 2000 from 2025 to the present. We always get requests like that um throughout the year. People just want to see what we're purchasing, so we sent that information over to him. And that is all I have. Thank you. Number eight, committee reports, CAC, Mr. Rummel. Next meeting is in May, so after that I will come back
026and report back. Thank you. Policy Committee, uh Mr. Brewer, Ms. Cotton. It's on the agenda for today, right? No. It's on the agenda later on to approve the policy 120. >> it was. Um earlier this week we did send over the information in terms of what was some of the highlights for it. Uh nothing major was in there. Thank you. Superintendent evaluation, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Lyons. Sure, absolutely. So, the superintendent evaluation committee has been working for the last few months, and I want to present to the board today a few recommendations. Uh they're based on a few best practices. I'm not seeking for us to take any kind of formal motion today. Uh these are suggestions really to plant seeds for an extended conversation. So, the first best practice, as John and I have researched,
027is that at times of significant transition in a school district, so for example, when a new strategic plan is being issued, uh it is considered a best practice not just to to review, but probably to deep dive and overhaul the evaluative metrics that are used for the superintendent. And that's kind of best practice uh number one. The second best practice is that when that kind of deep dive is done, when that kind of significant overhaul is done, it's considered a best practice to consider retaining the skills of an outside firm that focuses on evaluative metrics. That, of course, is a specific professional skill set. Designing evaluations is something that people do for a living. Could the school board do it internally? Probably. Should we consider the contributions that an outside firm could make? Probably as
028well. So, the first recommendation of the superintendent evaluation committee is that the board consider extending an invitation to a few key firms to come and simply talk to us about what they do, what their value proposition is, the kind of services they can offer. We are not suggesting that we retain anyone. We are suggesting that we extend an invitation to hear from people who do this professionally, including IASB, um who can give us uh their perspective on the latest best practices. Speaking of best practices, that leads us to our second recommendation. Uh one of the tools that a number of evaluation companies uh use today is something called a 360 eval, which is short for a 360 degree evaluation. Uh many of the in this room have heard of this before, but just in case,
029it's a very simple concept that can be implemented in a dozen different ways. And the idea is to solicit a collection of anonymized confidential feedback not just from board members, but from a collection of staff and community members and other stakeholders. But why would one do that? The reason is that the fundamental nature, the paradigm with which a board and a superintendent interact generally takes place right here. There is a very specific structure where we interact. As such, our visibility to any superintendent is by definition limited. This is a small part of Dr. Hubbard's day. Um it's a small part of his week, it's a small part of his month and his year. So, the point of a 360 eval for any superintendent is to give greater visibility into how they're doing the rest of
030the day, the rest of the week, the rest of the month, so that um they can be supported in the areas where they need support and they can be cheered on in the areas where they deserve to be cheered on. Um it is my recommendation and the recommendation of the committee that the board consider inviting uh should we invite some vendors to come and speak to us about what they do, that we uh ask them to speak about their 360 eval options as a part of that. Again, I want to be crystal clear. Uh the committee is not recommending that we use a 360 eval or any metric at this point. We are recommending that we um assemble best practices, that we hear from professionals in the field, uh hear what the the latest best
031practices are. Uh again, we are not seeking a formal motion today, uh and we are not asking anyone to make a decision today. This is food for thought. Um I'm happy and John is happy to hear any questions you might have, but really the point of this is to plant a seed for a further discussion over the next few weeks as we consider how best to construct um a an evaluation that is tied to our new strategic plan in a way that is effective and ongoing. What questions can I speak to today? So, I think I don't understand the first point. So, the first one you said bring someone in to like not to look at the eval, to do the evaluation or The point the the first suggestion, the first recommendation to the board,
032is just as uh Mr. Rummel brought in some vendors for superintendent search a few months back, they could describe their process. This is, you know, we are firm A, here's how we approach superintendent search. We are firm B, here's how we approach it. These are strengths, our weaknesses, what we're good at. Similarly, our recommendation is that we bring in some firms that focus on designing evaluations for school districts and superintendents. There are a number of firms that do that as their bread and butter. So, I think it would be beneficial for us to hear from them. We don't have to hire them, we don't have to do anything with them, but I think it would be beneficial to hear from them to get a sense what is the state of the art, what are the
033current best practices, are there things that are worth D91 considering? Okay. I'm just trying to get to get it. So, it would like you said something if we if we went that route and we brought them in um they could say like give you example the 360 eval that's the way they do it. So it's not like they're two separate things. They could come in and say this is what we do. Okay, that's where I got confused. I like wait, they seem like they should overlap. Okay, got it. Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Hi. Hey. Are there vendors that do both? Yeah, there are. Okay. Um I did a little bit this has been brought up before so I I did a little um internet searching and then I looked at SuperEval is one of
034those companies that uh doesn't eval and they have a blog. And so um in regards to the 360 evaluation um there are some hiccups. Uh feedback often focuses on negative and not the positives. >> Sure. Anonymous feedback destroys accountability and produces unreliable data. Um also people might put in their personal biases not necessarily based on their superintendent's performance. Yep. Um so those are just some of my concerns with a 360 evaluation. Valid concerns. Are they concerns that you'd like me to speak with or are you noting them for the record? Either is fine. Um for the record. I have more and I can email them to the board and share the links to the the one blog where they explain some things and I'm happy to hear the other perspective as well. Sure, so >>
035Sure. Well, as a as a quick thought um I would offer two things. The first is any evaluative tool is only as good as how well implemented it is. Some chocolate cakes are delicious and some chocolate cakes are terrible. I have made the second category personally so I know from experience. Um implementation is everything. That's part of why it matters. If you're going to do something like a 360 eval, it's probably a good idea to work with a firm that does that um because if it's done poorly it um it can be a negative experience for for a lot of people. If it's done well what's the upside? If it's done well it provides visibility into aspects of leadership and community dynamics that are not available really in any other way. If you if one
036wanted to consider the strongest endorsement for 360 evals today, it would be that a very large number of very large corporations use them. Um and they use them because they need business intelligence. They need intel on what's actually happening. Um you're right. Uh people let their own bias get in the way. People lie. People distort things. A well-designed instrument of any kind is uh designed to take that into account to balance that out uh and on the other side to produce information that is actionable and that is hard to get at through other means. Two questions. One and just you said and I I just want to be clear for myself is that corporate stuff does not always transfer into education stuff. So it may not work as well but um I I'm willing to
037hear more. Um and then I know this is just a preliminary discussion. Are there any prices on um how much of these companies charge or they would tell us? I didn't know if you'd gathered any of that information yet. I think there there is pricing. Um what I would say is similar to uh what we heard from the search firms. It varies pretty considerably. Um IASB is going to be uh dramatically more affordable than you know uh a firm like uh one of the big ones is Rayburn Associates or uh McPherson and Jacobson. Um they're going to be more expensive and so I think part of the reason you know uh when we brought in the search firms previously, what we heard is yeah, all of you are clearly good at what you do but
038not all of you are perfectly uh aligned to our needs. I think we will find a similar thing with these vendors where there there's probably a Cadillac option that is quite expensive and also more than we need. Um so Absolutely. Uh superintendent search uh Mr. Brewer and myself uh three candidates have been identified. Um we are waiting on one more response for the Doodle Poll. Thank you all for responding so quickly. Um there are three dates depending on the one last person to contribute and as soon as we have that date uh Mr. Brewer and I will get back to you about the um date of the interviews. So keep checking your email. Anything else to add? No? Okay. Um and teacher negotiations, Ms. Angelo? Thank you. The teacher negotiation committee has bargaining session tomorrow
039and we are excited to work together. All right. Uh items for discussion um board member Connie Yentes' report March 24th, 2026 IASB advocacy day held in Springfield, Illinois. Ms. Cotton, could you let us know how that went and what you learned? Um well, I boarded a bus at 6:15 a.m. in Lombard and did the 3-hour smooth drive to Springfield came back at 8:00 p.m. Uh but it was pretty great. So um the day started off with breakfast. We had some IASB I A S B some of their leadership spoke. Um we also had representatives that came to speak to us. Um the deputy governor for education Martin Torres, President Don Harmon which is one of our representatives, House Leader Jay Hoffman, House Minority Leader Senate Senate Education Chair and House Education Chair. Um so when
040they were speaking, they just came and just talked about basically what they're working on and every single one of them reiterated that they want the voice of who's in their district. They want the voice if you're not in their district and you have a feeling of it. Um they gave like different pathways of doing that. Um they talked a lot about um pending bills that are out there that week I guess the schedule this year is weird for the House and the Senate so they're not really in Springfield at the same time but that week they were. So it was very busy so they spoke briefly. Um they took questions. Um Jay Hoffman talked a lot about what's going on with the pensions. Um and the tier one and tier two pensions and basically the
041consensus was that when they made the tier one they cuz he's been there I think he's like the longest serving person right now that he was like when it was created he's like I'll admit like I was new but there was problems that they knew then that it was going to come down the line and it just the can kept getting kicked down the line. And so it can't go back to that cuz there's no money for it. And part of the problem with solving those pensions is that they still have to solve like other pension state pensions. So it's we solve one, we screw over the other one. So it was just talking a lot about that and just actually seeing what's going on with that and learning more about it. Um also hearing
042like what's going on in the education space, bills that are coming up. Um I have some paperwork. There's different things that are um part of the reason I wanted to go go down there because there are some concerning things that they didn't really make it out of the house but there's discontinuance bills being brought up and that are that they're meeting on and they wanted as many people as possible on school boards to go there and show a face so we're just not you know random people showing a united force. Um they're from our board like I was the one only one from our board but I since we have the same representative Proviso High School they had four or five people. So we obviously partnered together. Um after that initial meeting we actually met
043with our representative so we met with Speaker of the House Chris Welch and Senator um Kimberly Lightford and then we ran into Norma Hernandez. Um and one big thing which I noticed is that um even Don Harmon knew who we were. I think he looked up our names cuz I don't know that guy. I don't know how he knew me. But it was like the other board members were kind of shocked like you guys know them. We're like yeah. And it was kind of a good feeling of like our board members are involved in other ways in the community and it didn't seem like any other board they were kind of more it was like a kind of a nerves with them. We were like it's Kim. Like it's fine. It's Norma. Like yeah, of
044course. I was just at dinner with Kimberly Lightford two weeks ago. It's fine. Um so saying that but also the other message is that I walked away with um kind of knowledge is that as a whole I don't think people are doing enough. There's a lot of things that can easily sneak through and if you think you're doing enough I don't think like you're not. I don't think I'm doing enough and it's different areas and they talked about way there is ways that you have time. Like there's not an excuse to not have time. You can write emails. You don't have to go to Springfield even though it's lovely and it was a great day but it's just reiterate the important importance of us being present and visible. Um like when we talked to Chris
045Welch they talked he broke down about more information about TIFs like Proviso with Maywood um and affecting the high school that our kids feed into TIFs that are going on. Um we talked about state tax um state property taxes and how that's a monster that can't be fixed apparently. So it's just getting that information like on top level you'll hear like oh, that's not something but it's like yeah, it will. If they make these laws it will trickle down to us and it will affect us. So being able to sit in a room with our elected officials as an elected official and have these very frank direct conversations um and I would say everyone that we spoke to didn't try to sugarcoat anything. They told the truth. Like not the truth, they told like how
046it actually is. They didn't try to make it seem more dire to get us on their side. Um and it was just really eye-opening and I think um I know some of them some of the representatives not necessarily Chris, Kimberly, and Norman cuz as I said like our supervisor we're in contact with them anyway, but we did get emails from IASB that some of the other locations cuz it was for all Illinois, they did reach back out like, "Hey, you guys brought this up. Tell me more about this." So, just from spending those Some meetings were 30 minutes. Some of the speakers spoke for 15 minutes. Just speak sending that time and hearing our direct voices, they were like, "Hey, tell me more. How can I get involved? How is this affecting you?" So, it
047was like within a day or two. It was an immediate impact on bills that they were literally voting on that Friday. And so, it was just that importance of getting there and also speaking with other districts. Some things didn't affect us, but just hearing them and hearing what they're going through. Um for example, there's something they're trying to like with FOIA, there's a district that was severely harassed by one person about they received hundreds and hundreds of FOIA requests from one person due to a disagreement between a board member and that person. And they were able to speak to a representative about maybe getting some legislation or getting something out there to stop that and making it be seen as harassment cuz right now it's not. And just doing that and get that board member
048protection so they don't have to deal with that. So, is our district affected by that? No, but it's still interesting to see that hey, we're not an island and that's the and learning like these are things that we can back. No, it doesn't affect us directly, but there's no reason we can't back our other fellow school board members. Our kids are going to go out into the world at some point. Forest Park is not the end of the line. Knowing that other kids across the state um are getting these needs and getting them met was like just that good feeling of coming together. [clears throat] Um and they had good food. To sum it up. >> [laughter] >> Um did they so um do the representatives say the best way to get in touch with
049them? Is it like are they willing to meet? Uh email, phone, any way? Yep, so they um it would be email, calling, um they were very excited cuz this is the first time that IASB has brought just school board members in. I think they said they partnered with superintendents years prior, maybe it's been a while, but they were very excited to have us there. And as a as just a regular person that's not elected, they said still call. Like a lot of them in your district, they'll have local offices. So, they said they're available. Definitely set up those meetings. They want to hear from you. And they said like we're one person. I have my experience. I have my ideal. If I don't hear anything, I'm going to go forward assuming this is the best
050way and they may be wrong or maybe it's good to hear other opinions. So, they said follow every avenue. They're available. Um if they're busy like that week, they're like, "Yeah, we're not responding anyone cuz we're in meetings, but we have staff that can acknowledge it. If there's something comes up, they'll get it to us." I don't I don't remember where they come from. Um occasionally we get emails about filling out witness slips for certain bills, so we can um check our inboxes and you can always look at what legislation's out there and you can put in a witness slip whether you um agree or don't. So, that's another way um to be helpful. So, well, thanks. Sounds like a fun busy day. It was one day? Yes. So, it was like it went from
0519:00 to 5:00. So, we boarded the bus at 5:15. We're back We hit zero traffic. We're back in Lombard by like 7:55, 8:00. Nice. All right. And then number two, uh CASB Federal Advocacy Conference September 21st through 23rd in Washington, D.C. Um I know if you wouldn't mind talking about it again, Ms. Cotton. This is um similar, but on the federal level, correct? Um I was kind of leading up to it when I was talking about people in Illinois coming together. So, this is taking it further [clears throat] because again, everybody may not say this is affecting the whole country. So, with IASB, um it is talking to our federal leaders. So, they're doing They're having a conference there and they're also going to try to um save time for us to actually get in
052and speak to our direct representatives so we can one um talk about what's affecting our state, um [clears throat] what's affecting our district, um and getting that same one-on-one Well, it's probably not one-on-one on that scale, but those same small conversations. Um And I asked for some pointers like what is what it would be the benefit of of people sending um board members. Um And part of it was like given like we don't get a ton of revenue from federal dollars, but there are bills out there that are currently being proposed or going through House and Senate that will affect a lot of funding. Um there's like they're trying to like one program they're working for is is called the getting more funding for the individuals with disability Disabilities Education Act. Um And just getting
053more money in there to get those tools to get these money to schools that need that extra help. Um It's also sending board members there to gain knowledge of federal programs cuz there may be some that we're not taking advantage of because we just don't know it exists. And at CASB, that's what they will be presenting. Like a big chunk of it is what is out there? What can you do? What what do you need? Um I talked about, you know, building relationships with congressmen and senators and their staff. Um And then they do hone on like like I said, some of the other representatives that didn't already have that connection, they were emailing IASB back saying, "Hey, what was that person's name? How do we get to it?" And they're hoping to build that
054on a federal level. Um So, we can do that. Like so, you feel more comfortable and it's more of thinking of like they'll something comes up like, "Oh, I remember Monique from Forest Park. She brought this up. This may be a good thing that she can look into. Let me send out Let me have my staff send out an email or this is affecting my district." And maybe they'll speak louder about this. Where maybe they were neutral about it. So, it's just getting them to engage and IASB is um doing a bigger push to do that on a federal level. Like they've already had advocacy ambassadors which I've been I joined maybe 2 years ago. And it kind of started off kind of slow. And I've done some local things like emailing some of the
055representatives and even those like got responses back right away. And they want to push that more just at a bigger scale. Thank you. Um Dr. Hubbard, uh FY 2026 end of year April financial projection. Um yes. Uh couple things go over there put any year projections and then the medical, vision, dental, and life insurance benefits. So, just talking this through um I came up with this slide to a little bit go over and talk about the financial projections. We know that the county is delayed on sending us our revenue. Um so, the color boxes there, the blue, the green, and the orange, that's a a year, 12 months, from January to December. Well, our physical year and our school year does not follow that. What it follows is that like the red box there, it
056goes from July of 2023 to June of 2024. That's our school year. That is also our physical year. And each year goes that way. So, what that means for funding for us and what that means for this year, so for this school year, started July 2025, we're going to end June 2026. That means some of our funding comes from 2025, but the other part of our funding comes from 2026. Funding for 2025 is spread out over two different school years. That's the green box. So, it it's a delay. Um last year, no, the year before, I don't know if you remember, in May, we got a large sum of money and I was like, "What is this money?" We never We had like $2.3 million. We looked into it and all the county said it
057it was prior year taxes we noticed we owed you. We looked at our system and we owed you $2.3 million. So, they sent it. Okay. Right now, they don't know how much they owe us. They They They just don't. They also don't know when the money's coming. Um so, we got to look at okay, how can we project and look out for that? So, does this somewhat make sense on where our funding comes from and how it's spread out over different years? So, looking at the end of this third quarter, what is our fund balance? Fund balance is $29.8 million. That's a little bit under what we started in July of 2025. Okay? We still have about $7.5 million in expenses for this school year in terms of salary and gas and light, water bills,
058and other expenses that we already know that we have to pay. Um and we have to expend that. Well, if we go through those expenses, that's going to drop our fund out balance significantly. And we don't know when more revenue's coming in. I tried asking when more revenue's coming in. I got no answer. Um but from estimates and going back and looking at prior years and what has came in and I worked with the township to do this, we're missing about $7 million from the county. Now, they're not saying that's about how much we're missing, but that's our estimates based on our levies that we've projected and what we're looking at. And we don't know when they we're going to get that $7 million. Um and there's been given no time frame of when that's
059coming in, but I did I I'm explaining next. I didn't want you to think, "Oh, well, we're pretty good off right now." We are, but we're going to expend about $7.5 million by time June 30th comes. And right now there's no projection for additional revenue coming in cuz normally around this time we don't get any additional revenue. We may get 80 90 thousand dollars here each month, but that's about it. That's nothing close to $7.5 million. So, I have no time frame on when that's going to come in, but as you see the fund balance keep going down, I tried to explain that's why it's going down and hopefully the county will give us our our revenue in a timely fashion. We don't know when they will and they haven't put out any timelines in
060terms of when they're going to give out that money. How long will our reserves cover us? Um our reserves cover us right now. We should cover us about 10 months, 11 months. I'm hoping we won't have to go that long. I feel that I know the answer before I ask this, but it's important that we have it on the record. Do we have any levers of any kind to compel the county to take action? We do not. We did send out that um board of proclamation that you did the prior months and that a lot of counties have done that. I know that coalition is still looking to suing Cook County um and they're projecting the losses around 150 million for all the districts and looking to sue for that because someone earned that interest.
061That money's sitting in a bank account collecting interest for someone. It's not the school districts. So, who's getting that interest? Is Cook County going to do an amendment and send out interest payments? We don't know. Um but we just got to wait and see. So, there's system that caused all these issues and the backlog. That's fixed? I don't know the answer to that. >> Okay. From my understanding, no. They're still in the process of switching it over from a DOS based system to a new mainframe. >> Yeah, they they they bought a Lamborghini software and put it in a Toyota Camry and it's not working well and they got to fix it. Did any of these conversations come up when you were with any of our state legislators down in Springfield because this is a
062it's impacting not only our school district, but I'm assuming it's our park district, our village, and other Yes. entities that are taxing bodies Any taxing body in Illinois it's impact I mean in Cook County it's impacting. So, yes. And I when you said I was like, "That did come up." And the way you put it it was another thing like with the pension where when they did the software, they were told this is not going to work. You're going to have an issue. I don't think they No, it was told it was given grace like they I forgot who said like I would hope that they did not they were not told this is going to be the downfall, but there were definitely warnings, so they are aware. But it's gotten so far there's nothing
063that can be done. That's why I wasn't sure if it got fixed in between that time and who we were speaking with they weren't sure what the status was, but they had warning well before it even started that there was going to be issues and the person speaking wasn't sure the extent it was told and it's like everyone's aware it has been brought up, but it's just the issue. >> they spent all the money on the software and they have no money for the hardware. Um just to let you know, ISBE is also projecting to transition to a new software program over the next 3 years, but they are completely aware too that they're going to try to put a Lamborghini software and a Toyota Camry hardware. So, they're trying to see how can they
064also find funding to update the hardware. And maybe all these entities are doing this to push on federal government or other taxing bodies to say, "Hey, let's update all of our infrastructure because it's so dated and so old. If we really want to utilize the all these new software programs, we got to update the hardware also. But ISBE is walking down that road also to change their whole system and their goal is to have it done in the next 3 years. That's just the software component that we they haven't submitted a plan out yet of what the hardware plan is. But they've cuz cuz they say over and over, "We have to address the hardware problem also. Otherwise this software is not going to work." I just want to say it is unacceptable that the
065county does not know how much they owe us or when they're going to pay it to us. And to Mr. Lyons' point, it's not just the school districts, it's the villages, it's the it's not any governments, but we have to pay our property taxes on time. Yes. Okay. And unfortunately, there's been a handful of districts and other taxing bodies that had to take out loans. We were considering taking out a loan until we got a payment. So, Um for our medical, vision, and dental, um um so, this year PPO premiums are going up 20.2% and our HMO premiums are going up 17.4% based on the current contract. Um here they're preliminary preliminary rates for next school year. Going to be asking the vote the board to vote on them um later on in the meeting.
066We are currently under negotiations, so these uh rates may change based on how negotiations go, but we have open enrollment that starts May 1st and we have to put out rates in order for open enrollment to happen. Um so, I do want to say that open enrollment after open enrollment and after contract negotiations are done, we're most likely going to have to have a special um opening session to allow people if they do want to change plans and give them that opportunity to do that based on the new rates. But based on the current contract, um the board will be covering the cost of the Blue Cross HMO for any single coverage individual because that is the one that falls under that we would have to cover. So, just to be clear, the rates that
067you're asking us to vote on tonight is a ceiling not to exceed hoping that you'll still be able to negotiate something maybe a little bit less. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions? May I have a I'm sorry. May I have a motion to go into closed session to discuss the employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of employees and collective negotiation matters. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. I. We are now in closed session. All right, welcome back. We are back in open session. Uh number 11, approval of personnel items. May I have a motion to approve the April personnel agenda. So moved. >> I mean personnel report, sorry. Thank you. Second. Uh discussion as discussed in closed session. Roll call. Jed Brewer. I. Monique Cotton. I. John Lyons. I. Steve Rommel.
068I. Shannon Wood. I. Monica Angelo. I. Number 12, may I have a motion to approve the employment of Lindy Parvin as a director of student services for 2026-2027 school year. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. Um we went through a vigorous process identifying next candidate and we're pleased to have her here joining us tonight. Um so, we look forward to um talking with her and moving forward with her and really transforming our department for our students. May I have a roll call? Jed Brewer. I. Monique Cotton. I. John Lyons. I. Steve Rommel. I. Shannon Wood. I. Monica Angelo. I. Welcome, Ms. Parvin. We look forward to working with you. Under items for action, may I have a motion to approve board members to attend the CASBO Federal Advocacy Conference September 21st through to the 23rd in
069Washington, D.C. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. Um so, this will be open to any board members. I know Ms. Cotton has been the one that asked, but it's out there, so we would just be approving if board members wanted to go. Uh Ms. Cotton, how can we help you succeed at this conference? What support can this board offer to you to make this not just a good thing, but a great thing? Go with me. You know what? I see that challenge. Let's do it. May I have a roll call? Sorry. Jed Brewer. I. Monique Cotton. I. John Lyons. Nay. Steve Rommel. I. Shannon Wood. I. Monica Angelo. I. All right, under Dr. Hubbard, um may I have a motion to approve the FY 2027 consolidated district plan. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. Um this is
070an annual event and in order for us in order for us to apply for our federal funds, we have to submit a consolidation plan. So, this is approving the the plan so we can submit it to the federal government. Roll call. Jed Brewer. I. Monique Cotton. I. John Lyons. I. Steve Rommel. I. Shannon Wood. I. Monica Angelo. I. All right, number two, may I have a motion to authorize the preparation of the FY2027 annual budget. >> So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. Another annual event, so we start preparing and planning for next school year. We already begin looking at the data in January, but in order to prepare the budget, you have to give the authorization for us to start working on it. Roll call. Jed Bur. Aye. Monique Cotton. Aye. John Lyons. Aye. Steve Romo.
071Aye. Shannon Wood. Aye. Monica Angelo. Aye. All right, number three. May have a motion to approve the proposed FY2027 budget review {slash} adoption and 2026 tax levy review adoption schedule. So moved. Second. Second. >> Discussion. Another annual event, um, for us to approve the calendar for the budget and the tax levy. I will note that for the tax levy, just like in prior years, where our December board meeting will have to be later to allow for 30 days in between the November and December meeting. So, just please note that for the December board meeting. May have a roll call. Jed Bur. Aye. Monique Cotton. Aye. John Lyons. Aye. Steve Romo. Aye. Shannon Wood. Aye. Monica Angelo. Aye. Number four. May have a motion to approve the press bundle policy issue 120. So moved. Second. Discussion.
072Um, as I shared with you earlier this week, it's a quarterly bundle that comes out. Looking to approve it so we can update our policies and stay current with the new school codes. May have a roll call. Jed Bur. Aye. Monique Cotton. Aye. John Lyons. Aye. Steve Romo. Aye. Shannon Wood. Aye. Monica Angelo. Aye. Number five. May have a motion to approve the FY2027 rates for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance coverages. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion. As shared earlier, these are the rates so we can have open enrollment and most likely we're going to have to bring them back to you after negotiations to have our second open enrollment. Roll call. Jed Bur. Aye. Monique Cotton. Aye. John Lyons. Aye. Steve Romo. Aye. Shannon Wood. Aye. Monica Angelo. Aye. And number six. May I
073have a motion to approve that May 29th, 2026 as the official last day of school for school year 2025-2026. So moved. Second. Aye. Discussion. Second. As ISBE requires, we have to identify the last day of school year since we've had no emergency days, so we can take those five days off the calendar. I'm sure everyone will be pleased to end on May 29th instead of in June. All right, may have a roll call. Jed Bur. Aye. Monique Cotton. Aye. John Lyons. Aye. Steve Romo. Aye. Shannon Wood. Aye. Monica Angelo. Aye. Number 14, additional matters of consideration from the board. All right, short and concise this month. Number 15, may have a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Second. Did you get them? Jed won, [clears throat] Mr. Romo the other. Yeah, photo finish. Okay, all
074in favor. Aye. Aye. It is now 8:12 and we are now adjourned.