001Items to be discussed at the regular meeting of the board of education held Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the unit office conference room, 500 North 10th Street, Herono Herin, Illinois 62948. Everybody would please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mrs. Hastings, if you would please call roll. >> Hudson >> here. >> Eton here. >> Miller >> here. Green >> here. >> D Young >> here. >> Robinson >> here. This time we'd recognize anybody who would like to address the board. When recognized, that person should give their name before making comments. Statements are asked to be limited to five minutes in
002duration. Would anybody like to address the board at this time? If not, we will move on to the consent agenda. Need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to accept and approve the items included not and not extracted from the consent agenda for Tuesday, February 24th, 2026. Miller, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Robinson, >> yes. >> Young, >> yes. >> Having no old business to discuss. Moving on to the special reports. Have just a few things to say. Otherwise, we will do our special presentation that Nathaniel and I have been doing. Recognize everybody and take our time with that so that everybody gets proper recognition. We do want to do a shout out to the junior high girls championship basketball team.
003Undefeated season state champs. Way to go girls. So proud of you guys. And then for the flag team at the high school, they are 2026 state championship or champions in the double A precision flag division and they play second in double A lyrical flag. And coach Elizabeth Elliott was named the IDTA coach of the year for 2026. And we are very very proud of our flag team. Congratulations to Coach Elliot. Thank you so much for all your dedication and your hard work. Moving on to our first item under new business, which is the school calendar. Mr. Wilson, would you like to say something about that? >> Uh, worked with Mr. Harlo, HCA and the school calendar, the administrative team as well, all their input, worked with the area schools. Our very consistent calendar comparing it
004to this year, and all schools locally are starting about the same time. It's a very early start. uh first week of August next year for our students and staff. Um the one little thing that might change in the calendar is there is a bill that would require us to be out of session on election day. Um they've got that bill running in the Senate. If that bill is passed this summer, we will have to amend the calendar possibly before the school year even starts to take off election day and we'll likely just tag that day on the end of the school year. So this point in time, it's not mandatory we take election day, but it could become mandatory we take election day. Other than that, no further comments. >> Any questions or concerns for
005Mr. Wilson with regard to the calendar? >> Not. We need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar as presented. >> Second, >> yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Young, >> yes. We need a motion, a second, and a roll roll call vote to approve the 8th grade celebration for Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 at 5:00 pm with an alternate day of Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. >> Steve, >> yes. >> John, yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, would you like to address the district discipline improvement plan? >> Yeah. Now, the district improvement plan, discipline improvement plan, we were uh notified by the state that we're in the top 20% for exclusionary discipline suspensions
006um for our district. Um that's a something that I've never seen before quite frankly. But, uh the administrators got together, put together a plan putting some thing that we're currently already doing and how we're going to act upon those things even more to try to reduce exclusionary discipline. Appreciate the principles, Dr. H putting that together for us. So, um it I don't know much about it. Don't know where that list was came from suddenly, but that's where we're at. >> Get touched. >> Correct. >> They have a state plan for that now. >> We had to have an improvement plan for that. Now, how are we going to reduce the number of students we're suspending, which we already have been going back to postcoid COVID time. Um, we've been reducing those suspensions each year, but
007we're in the top 20% of school districts in the state. Um, when I compare it to some other schools that I know I'm just going to say are a little rougher than ours and their numbers aren't higher than ours. I have some questions about the accuracy of that data, but that's can't do anything about that. What we can do is address what we are already are addressing, and that's we're going to do better about reducing our groups. This is holds the principle back to my >> if there's a five. It's kind of like Senate Bill 100 when you know when Senate Bill 100 came out that we had to reduce how many you know what when could you suspend and so we're always having to kind of fight that and balance that and and we
008really have made some great strides with our outreach workers or ALOP workers and other staff social workers additional social workers that we put in the schools and and it's not our mentality that we want to suspend students first. It just so happens that sometimes that's the most effective and needed thing to do um in the event of a fight when the best thing to do is get some time and space between some students. So, we're we're not letting it necessarily push us in a different direction. Um we always do want to do what we can. >> I I understand that. I I just hate that it holds principles and then the teachers look at the principles and puts the blame on them. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean, >> you know, it just holds everybody's hand.
009>> As a teacher, you know, sometimes you want your student removed from class because it's the best thing. It genuinely >> all I'm saying is it just makes administration look bad and the teachers look at the administrators, why didn't you do this? I just can't believe they're holding it. >> I I had never heard of this before. I've never seen it in any way, shape, or form. Never heard it addressed either. >> It's brand new. Um, and quite frankly, I wouldn't have brought up at the board meeting if it wasn't >> told that we had to have a board approved plan. So >> who contacted you about that? >> It's Isby. It's the same group person that contacts me for anything related to bullying. Um anything student related like that? >> Can I ask a
010question? >> What kind of what what did you come up with? Is there anything that you guys come up with? >> Well, it's it's a lot of our It goes back to our outreach workers and our our resources that we're using along those lines. Um that that's where a lot of it stems from. >> I think you talked a little bit about the students involvement in this too. Is there a student panel? Does that mean >> So we have Yeah, we have student panels and that could be something that helps us out. Yeah, >> we're losing social workers. >> Correct. >> We we are in a situation that it's a dayto day week to week. We haven't lost them yet, but we could possibly through the grant. received. >> Will we see any changes in
011the handbook when it comes to changing rules and regulations? >> No, I think we've made those changes as we've needed to the last couple of years. Again, our numbers have improved every year. I mean, I I do ask the principles, you know, let's let's not look at suspension first. What interventions have we put in place prior to suspension? and they've done a nice job with that. >> Does that include in school suspension as well on this state report? >> No, this is not including that. >> How's the data that they're looking at to tell us where >> it's going back for um three years? >> Any other questions or comments for Mr. Wilson? >> Not. We need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the district discipline improvement plan as presented.
012>> Second, >> yes. >> Robinson, >> yes. >> Young, >> yes. >> Cindy Miller, >> yes. >> Billy Green, >> yes. >> Need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the agreement with Liberty University. >> Steve Robinson. Yes. >> John Hutchinson. >> Yes. >> Young. >> Yes. >> Miller. >> Kelly. >> Yes. >> So, I need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to close the meeting in accordance with section 122A of the Open Meetings Act. Citing the following exceptions as contained in section 122C to discuss disciplinary cases. Consider approval of closed minutes. semiannual review of closed minutes to disc discuss the appointment employment compensation discipline performance evaluation and dismissal of specific employees and to discuss litigation >> yes >> John Hutchinson >> yes >> Miller >> yes >>
013convene to open session Second, >> yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> Blakey, >> D. Robinson, >> yes. >> We need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to adopt the closed minutes from the meeting held on January 27th, 2026. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. Bradley, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> We need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to adopt the closed meeting minutes resolution as presented, declaring the aforementioned minutes as open. >> Second. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Ezon, yes. >> Robinson, >> yes. >> Brad Ley, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. We need a motion, a second, and a
014roll call vote authorizing the clerk of the board to destroy the verbatim records of the executive session meetings prior to August 2024. >> So move. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> Ley, >> yes. >> John Hudson, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> We need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the following personal recommendations as presented. resignation. Abby Falenberry as an administrative assistant for the grant office. Paige Daly as a family outreach advocate for the prek center, Charlotte as a pair professional for the prek center, and Brandon Shelton as a custodian for the elementary school. for employment. Heather Will as a computer teacher for the high school. Tamara Meer as a library information specialist for the high school. L'Oreal Tucker as
015a girls track dollar coach for the high school. Ryan Colomo as the assistant maintenance supervisor for the district. Vacancies to be posted. Pair of professionals for the prek center, custodian for the district, and an English teacher for the high school. Susie, yes. Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Young, John Hutchinson, Miller, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. >> Having completed the items on the agenda, I need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to adjourn the meeting until the next regular meeting of the board scheduled for Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. at the unit office conference room. >> Steve Robinson. >> Yes. Yes. John Hutchinson. Bradley. >> Yes. >> Young. >> Yes. >> Miller. >> Yes.