001[snorts] A notice as prescribed by law for a public hearing was published on December 4th, 2025 for the proposed property tax levy increase for 2025. Compliance with the truth and taxation law requires the district to publish notice and hold a hearing if the estimate for the proposed aggregate levy is for more than 105% of the amount extended or estimated to be extended plus any amount abated prior to extension upon the final aggregate levy of the prior year. The estimated tax levy was presented and approved by the board during the November 25th, 2025 meeting which must be done not less than 20 days prior to the adoption of the aggregate levy. Mr. Wilson will present a summary of the proposed tax levy and respond to questions by those attending the hearing as well as members of
002the board of education. >> All right, good evening everyone. Uh so for tax year 2025 tax levy, I do have some information on the screen. Um just to take you quickly through that this evening. Um so just a little bit about the school district funds and what we levy for, where we levy at, which funds we are levying, which ones we do not. Um, if you're not familiar with school district funds, uh, I'm going to give you a quick rundown on those. So, we have our ED fund, which is, you know, the 10, student activity 11, operations maintenance 20. Not going to read it all to you, but you can see our different funds. The one in orange, and those right there, those are part of the tax levy. So, the ED fund, O& and
003M, transportation, those are three funds which we local uh, levy local property taxes. Continuing on with different types of school funds again all part of our our nine different funds we have to operate from. So you have IMRF which is fund 50 capital projects working cash tort immunity judgment and the fire prevention and safety. So IMRF and tortunity those are two other funds that we additionally levy for. So when we're levying and doing the tax levy these are the five funds that our district levies. Um, we don't you can't utilize the capital projects to levy there. You don't for fire prevention and safety because there's only so much money to go around. So, we don't utilize this fund enough. There's a nickel that's automatically a working cash fund that just stays there. I'm not actually
004leving for that. Student activity is clearly just student activities and debt service. Any bonds that we have will go in there. So, what are we levying for? Again, a little bit fun descriptions. Ed fund is the big one. So much stuff comes out of the ed fund. This is kind of the uh one that holds the the most uh of our cash at any given time. Uh the general fund used for transactions not required to be processed through any other fund. So ED fund is where we like to put the bulk of our money because we can transfer out of the ED fund to if necessary. Student activity fund straight up exactly what it says. It's the student activities. Um it's it's money that's being raised at ball games, concessions, whatever it is, those are
005our student activities. O and M anything building related is going to go through O and M. So we try to levy enough in there to take care of anything we have going on. Um basic building maintenance items, debt service, I already talked about that. Transportation is transportation only. We can't do anything else with transportation money. If I have excess in transportation, I can't do anything else with that. It has to stay in the transportation fund. Um I it's pretty limited is what I'll say about transportation. Uh IMRF Illinois mun municipal retirement and social security 50 that's the retirement for our support staff. So IMRF social security and for Medicare um capital projects used for construction projects working cash again an inter fund loan type of uh category. TOR and judgment fund. Anything TOR related. So,
006um, anything insurance-wise, we can take out of our TOR and pay for that. We don't put a ton of money in our tort. Now, we're a tax cap county, too. Williamson County is tax cap, so we're limited and how much we can put into any one of these funds. If you go to a non- tax capped county, um, let's say you go up the road to Perry County and they can put as much as they want in this tort fund. They can levy as much as they want. We cannot. We're limited overall. Our tax levy is limited. We can only increase annually by CPI plus new property or 5% new property and new property whichever is less. Okay? Whichever is less. So this year CPI was less than 5%. So that's what we're going to
007be getting this year is CPI plus any new property. So a little bit about um requirement here for audited fund balances at the end of June of this past year. So, in June, here are fund balances for the ED fund, O andM, debt services, transportation, IMRF, capital projects, etc., etc. Across the bottom down here, um, making sure that you're aware of where our fund balances were at the end of June. As we stack up our local taxes, the black is what our local tax revenue is. The entire stack in each of these columns is basically what our annual total revenue is for the district. So you can see all the way across there's 20% all the way across our local our local property taxes only make up a little less than 20% of our total
008revenue. Most of our revenue comes from the state. About 50% of our revenue comes from the state. Um there are the years that I've got along with it. Obviously, I don't know what uh my exact intake is going to be on taxes yet because I don't have um all the 25 stuff ready yet because taxes aren't coming in just yet. So, to figure out what we're going to do and how much we're going to get in taxes, we get what's called an equalized assessed valuations, EAV. I get the EAV from the county. We have three counties at Herren School District. We have Franklin County, Jackson County, and Williamson County. Pull all three of those together and shows us what our total EAV is. How much is the value of all the properties that are taxable
009in the counties? You can see we've had a little bit of an uptick. Remember last year, everybody was pretty upset with their tax bills. Why were they upset? Because it went from 190 million EAV to 218 million EAV. That was about an 18% increase in the EAV. Did heron unit 4 have anything to do with that? No, it had nothing to do with us. That was all done strictly by the county. So, we've had another increase again this year. We're probably looking at roughly a 10% increase in EAV. That has nothing to do with the district. That is all to do with what the county says the assessed valuation is of property in our school district. We have just a little tidbit over in Jackson County and just a little bit up in Franklin County.
010So, we take the EAV and then I look at how much new property we're getting. So, here's an idea of how much new property has been in the um in our district over the last few years. And so, using the 2025 tax year, this year we've estimated to have $3.8 million in new property coming into the district. So, it it's pretty much we're a little over three, not quite the four most years in the last few uh for new property. So it's a consideration when we're looking at the tax levy. So when it all rolls up, we're [clears throat] trying to come up with the tax rate as a school district. What's our tax rate going to be? So here are the tax rates for the Aaron unit 4 school district over the past few
011years. You can see last year the tax rate went down. Remember EAV went up, tax rate went down for the district. This year the tax rates going down again for the district. So you might think that's going to translate to a lower tax bill for heron unit 4 taxpayers. That's going to be false. Okay? Because the EAV continues to go up. Not something that we have any control of. I'm actually maxing out. We are every year, the last couple of years, we have maxed out how much we can levy for because a tax levy is just a request. We're requesting the county give us again CPI plus new property consumer price index CPI plus new property or 5% plus new property because we're a tax cap county. We're capped at a 5% increase max every
012year. So that's what's happening is I can't begin to keep up with what the EAVs are doing. So that's going to drive down the tax rate. unfortunately does not translate to a lower tax bill for property payers, property taxpayers. So our tax rate looking to be about 365 is the projected that I'm offering for this year. Now this is a 25 tax year. That will be the rate that'll be on the tax bills next year about late summer, early fall next year when you get your tax bill. This will be the tax rate that's used to make that calculation. This is actually FY27 money. So there's another tricky part about the tax levy. We're doing the tax levy in 25. The taxes will be payable in 26. That would be the school district's FY27. So
013we're always working a couple years [clears throat] off in the tax levy. Just kind of show you a little trajectory there with our tax rate. Uh our tax rate factored in there with CPI. So our tax rate is in the columns here and then the CPI is here. CPI did get uh bumped up there at 5% for a couple of years. That was postco. Remember inflation that's what that was from. So our property tax revenue at the end of the day when we get all of the tax levy done, all the levy business done, our property tax revenue for the district has incrementally increased each year. It's going to increase about the same amount yearly because again we're capped as a county. That's all we can do. Here's a a picture of the levy history.
014Again, just what we're trying to do. So, the EAV is in the black columns, how much we're levying for in the orange, and then how much we're actually going to get collected in the solid black line. I don't know how much I'll actually get to collect for FY26 or 27 because this year's FY26 taxes aren't in yet. I going to tell you it's going to be right on that orange line. And then FY27, of course, we don't know yet either because that's down into next year. So everything stays pretty consistent with our tax levy. We're not trying to raise the the tax levy high. I'm maxed out anyway what we can do. Is my tax bill and your tax bill going to increase? Yes, it's going to increase unless you get some kind of exemption
015on your taxes. Maybe you enter into a new racket, you get a exemption. If you um do something different on your property, something's destroyed on your property. That could make a difference in your tax bill. And not every tax bills, not everybody's tax bill is going to incre increase at the same increment either. It's all depending on your property valuation as well. So, that's a little bit about the tax levy. Uh overall this year we do have to have a truth in taxation because we are going above the 5% request ballooning that just for the chance that we can get any revenue that I'm not suspecting of you know new property coming into the district. I don't forecast any new property, but this year's property tax uh revenue is going to be um projected to
016be at 8.97 million and that is our tax levy for the district with a rate of about $3.64. So, it's a confusing thing and how it all fits in there together. Uh but that is my short presentation for the tax levy and I will try to answer any questions I can. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Wilson? Seeing none, um the proposed total levy without bonds totals $8,970,587 which is made up of the education fund of 5,450,000 operations and maintenance fund of 1,300,000 the transportation fund of 1,10,60 nothing within the working cash fund for the municipal retirement fund $361,700 for the Social Security Fund $434 mill,525. The TOR immunity fund $414,32 which again that all totals to $8,970,587. This is the amount that's needed to operate the district and fund the increased services, insurance
017costs, and salaries. This amount will also extend the ability of the district to have the necessary assets to operate the district for the next two to five years. We will adjourn the he hearing and let the record show that we're adjourning that hearing at 5:43. And we'll move on to the regular meeting of the board of education. Items to be considered at the regular meeting of the board of education held Tuesday, December 16th, 5:30 p.m. in the unit office conference room, 500 North 10th Street, Heron, Illinois 62948. If everyone would please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> At this time, Mrs. Hastings will
018call role. >> John Hutchinson >> here. >> Susie >> here. >> Sydney Miller here. Kelly Green >> here. >> Steve Young >> here. >> Brad Blakey >> here. >> Steve Robinson >> here. Before we proceed into our business for the evening, I'd like to make uh just a a statement. We lost an important part of the Heron CUSD family last week. Dr. Edwin Tresnick passed away. He will be greatly missed in the Heron community. I would ask at this time that we observe a moment of silence in his memory and to lift up his family during this very difficult time. Thank you so much for that. Moving on with our business. Need a motion, a second, and roll call vote to adopt the certificate of tax levy, fund balance report, the affirmation of adoption of
019resolution, their certificate of compliance with the truth and taxation act, and the risk care management resolution. >> [snorts] >> Sydney Miller. >> Yes. >> John Hudchinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> This time we will recognize anyone who wishes to address the board. When [snorts] recognized, that person should give their name before making their comments. Statements are asked to be limited to five minutes in duration. We have anyone who would like to address the board at this time? Val, >> if you'd like to step on up. >> Yes. Valerie Cludy, the school district's grant writer. Um, but I am speaking on behalf of the seizure grant that the city of Heron received. Uh, they
020received $347,2424. It was um a collaboration effort with the city of Heron, the school district, the Heron Park District, and the Heron Civic Center. So each entity receives 75,000 uh $75,52127. So we um are obliged by the SE grant in phase two to make a formal um an open session about what we're going to do with our $75,000 portion. and Nathaniel and I discussed several different options. And what we found to be the most um successful and most active or proactive approach to safety and school safety was um doing a remodeling of the Heron Elementary um entryway so that we can do a vestibule so it's a little bit more safer for families and staff and students. Uh as you enter, you don't go to the main doors and then through the hallways. you're actually
021required to stay in a a vestibial area limiting the access of actually getting into the building. So that I think was our agreement and our plan that we have had for the last couple years on school safety. Our focus >> fit the budget >> and yeah, it's been uh very tight. Let's just say um 75,000 is a significant portion, but it doesn't cover for everything, but we tried to make it best we could. Um and then the city is going to be demolishing houses that are abandoned so they can help with that um new buildings, new housing so we can have taxes. Her civic center is going to do um painting repainting their u outside areas their parking lots. [clears throat] The heron park district is going to do the ball field light at field
022one and then we are planning on another application process to do this again in May. So, we're hoping that the school district will be um wanting to go on that as a sub awardee and we will go in for another round and continue to do so until CJ settles us now. So, >> and CJ is the center for >> it's the climate equitable jobs act. >> Um that is until 2035. We have access to that funding uh up to six years after a closure of either a electrical um organization like at the lake of Egypt or a coal mining like in Franklin County. This year we were able to get uh four entities to sign on on behalf of the city of an application. So Franklin County, Williamson County and Steven County as well that
023were able to join us on that. So any questions, any concerns? We have other injury ways we know are concerning too. I know Mr. Johnson and I talked about the high school. Mr. Be knows is, you know, wide open when they come in there. Mr. Hearing and Mr. Low actually has a target on the back of his head when you come into the junior high. So, it's a piece by piece type thing. Like I said, this one uh high school is a little bit more expensive than sure. North side, I don't know where to start. North sides. Um, so this one fit the budget pretty well. [snorts] >> Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to adopt, accept, and approve the items listed on
024the consent agenda and not extracted for Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. >> Green, >> yes. >> Miller, Steve Robinson, >> yes. Brady, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. John Hutchinson. >> Yes. >> Does anyone have any questions or concerns with regard to the press policies for Mr. Wilson? >> Not need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to adop approve and adopt the school board press policies as presented. >> Second. >> Steve Young. >> Yes. >> Blakey. >> Yes. >> Hutchinson. >> Yes. Robinson. >> Yes. >> Kelly Green. >> Yes. >> Etherton. >> Yes. Yes. >> Moving on to special reports. We are very proud to recognize accomplishments of all of our students and faculty in here in unit 4. Letters are going to be sent out to those individuals on behalf of
025the board. Um with that said, I want to direct a very specific um note of recognition to Mrs. Tara Whitley and Mrs. or Miss Adrienne Hardwig for achieving their national board certification. their dedication to the profession and to HS shines through in everything that they do. We uh wish them much congratulations on this outstanding accomplishment. For the record, Mr. Wilson and I are going to be doing something different with regard to all of the different achievements at the different schools. So, it's a surprise. Your um information is greatly appreciated and it's going to hopefully get out to where more people will be able to listen to it and see what our good things well the good things are that we're doing in our district. So, we did not forget you. It's just it's going to
026look a little bit different moving forward. [snorts] Um, moving on to the building level summitive designation reports. >> I will turn that over to Mrs. Cassie Burch, assistant superintendent. Do you want this mouse or do you want me to control it from over here? >> I'll take the mouse button. >> Thank you very much. All right. Okay. So, I know we have a lot to discuss. There's some new folks that are on the board that have not seen kind of this presentation before. And so, the building principles are also going to help chime in, talk a little bit about um their grow and grow uh areas within their school. And so the very first screenshot in this report that you all should have received just kind of gives you the district snapshot of what you
027see when you go on to that Illinois school report card. Um so it talks about the number of schools we have the graduation rate uh our student mobility uh the schools and which schools receive the summitive designations uh the growth uh component for AR as well as the financial picture. um in relationship to EVF and where we fall within that tiered target. Um it also goes into chronic absenteeism retention. So there's a lot of information. So if [cough] you have not had a chance to go in and kind of, you know, review the site, click around because it does give you some really good data. And so I'm we're going to do our best to try to hit the high points here. And if you have more questions about that, please feel free to let
028me know. [cough] >> [clears throat] >> So this kind of gives you a little bit of a timeline in terms of where uh we were when summitive designations first were uh released in the year 2017 2018. And you can kind of see, you know, we started with um a couple of schools that had some underperforming designations and that was due to subgroups uh related to uh special education students. And so when you have a subgroup again that that subgroup has to be at least uh 20 students to be considered a subgroup. And so when that subgroup falls below that all threshold and that's what we're talking about the all students threshold then they you know give you a designation where you are not considered exemplary or or uh commendable. You then fall into um a
029targeted or an underperforming uh designation. So you can see kind of the timeline where we are in terms of you know the year prior to COVID. Um during that 1920 year uh in 1920 accountability was waved. Summitive designations were not calculated. Um in school years 2120 and 21 there was no summitive designation. And then through the rest of the year we've continued to kind of remain steady. So I think that's really something to be proud of to show you know the work that's been done and especially from our teachers support staff as well as administrators. [snorts] So the annual summitive designations and so when you're looking at this uh for the school report card again this is an indicator of school performance. How are we measuring up with other schools across the state? And so
030it's given annually. There's multiple measures. It identifies schools for support and what that means is those schools that fall below uh that commendable designation. If you are eligible for that targeted support then you are identified for status which makes districts eligible for support. Um so we will get you know funding to help us you know bring our designation up and we remain in status for four years. So if you look at this and I'm not going to read all this to you again I want to point out down at the bottom we talked about those subgroups you have to have at least 20 and so these are the various subgroups that a district can have but within each of these designations you have exemplary. So again that's the overall performance in the top 10% of
031all schools. um commendable um not necessarily in the top 10% but they can't have any underperforming uh uh student groups or those subgroups at or below that all student group. And so within targeted support that means one or more of the student groups is performing below the all group. So that's that's where the difference is one of those subgroups is falling below that all group. comprehensive. Again, once schools um are in that particular threshold, that means they're in the bottom of the 5% of title one eligible schools statewide. And that initiates that uh uh comprehensive or that improvement status support. And then intensive basically is a school that's completed the comprehensive support but whose performance still remains in the lowest [cough and clears throat] performing 5%. I know that was a lot. So in terms
032of our district summitive designations and so I know this is a little bit the wording is a little small to see but if you look at uh the designations for each school and kind of where they fell. So we have within like for North Side Primary Center Elementary School the junior high and high school each one of those schools have an index score that they fell in the threshold. So you can see that green box indicates what the school's uh score was for that all student group and then the thresholds of exemplary and comprehensive or targeted. So if you look all four of our schools did all fall within those thresholds where we kind of feel like you know we've got to make some adjustments and improvements. We know that all of our schools with
033the exception of the junior high fell in the commendable range, but the junior high had one uh student group or subgroup that fell below the the all group. Um, and that was for students with disabilities. But again, I want to stress we are always in this continuous improvement cycle where we're working to address, you know, those glow and grow areas um to really get some feedback. We utilize this. We know it's a snapshot. It's not the only piece that we look at, but it is a snapshot where we're measured against other schools throughout the state. And so it just gives us an indicator of what we need to address and work on. This next slide just shows you the summit of designation descriptive statistics. And so uh the first table is showing number of schools
034by designation and their grade band [snorts] and where they fell within each of those summitive designations. And then the second table shows the percent of schools by designation and grade. So you can kind of see here's the exemplary uh band 10% of elementary schools and and 10% of high schools were in the top 10%. And then if you look at the comprehensive and and intensive um and those are falling below obviously that that uh threshold of of 5% or less. So here's the distribution of elementary and middle and high school index scores. And so when you're talking about the index scores um elementary and middle follow that threshold. So they are on those those index scores specific to K to A. And the high schools index scores are on the right side. And so you
035can see there's a little bit of difference between that those thresholds between K8 versus 912. Kind of looks a little bit like a bell curve in some respects at least for K8. So these two uh items that were included just basically give you the breakdown of those multiple indicators of student success definitions and and weights. So if you look at this you can clearly see um for elementary and middle schools the academic indicators which have the most weight um in terms of English language arts growth, math growth, English language proficiency, math proficiency uh and then science proficiency and English learner progress to proficiency. So that means any students who are designated as those who speak a language in the home other than English. Now, we don't have enough of those students to make a up
036a subgroup. And so, that percentage is redistributed um into those other areas. And then high school, I'm sorry, before I go to high school. So, you also have 25% of that pie is considered for school quality and student success. So, that's your chronic absenteeism and your climate survey. And so just kind of as a note of reference on that chronic absenteeism, it's worth 10% uh at the high school and 20% at the elementary level. And for high school, the biggest uh academic indicator is is graduation rate. Okay? And then rounding out the rest of that has to do within that 75 within that the rest of that academic indicator pie is English language arts proficiency, math proficiency at 7.5%, science proficiency at five and then um we talked a little bit about the graduation rate
037which is 50% and then that English learner progress to proficiency uh is an additional 5% but again that gets redistributed because we don't have uh an English language English learner subgroup. And then rounding out um the rest of that pie has to do again with that chronic absenteeism as well as that climate survey uh and and ninth graders on track. And so I want you to know before we move forward, everything that I'm sharing with you this evening is slated to change next year. And so this makes it a little difficult because you feel like you're always trying to, you know, float and move and address and uh respond to this moving target. Uh but having said that, we are always going to adjust. We're always going to do what we can to make sure
038that we are addressing proficiency and and um progress appropriately. But I feel like there's been a little bit of push back, you know, in terms of schools trying to figure out, okay, what do we need to prepare for because they're going to use this year's data to report on uh the accountability system for next year. So, there's some additional changes that are coming. Unfortunately, I feel like we got this [clears throat] down and now it's changing again. >> Is it a new test? >> No. Now the only thing that has changed SAT used to be the assessment uh [clears throat] that we used at the high school. Now last year that was changed to ACT but we're continuing with ACT. So that's a good thing. I will also say the in the previous year we
039were we were looking at different performance indicators. So in the past and we realized Illinois had one of the most stringent benchmarks in terms of you know trying to address performance and so the state had decided they wanted to um level set those benchmarks so that the Illinois assessment of readiness the ACT the Illinois science assessment were all using a four tiered system and so at least that part has happened but the calculations in terms of how we come come up with those summitive designations has not changed. [clears throat] >> Sorry guys. >> Okay. >> Yes. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. John Dr. Johnson for the high school. >> Okay. So, basically this slide just shows uh where we are as far as being in line with our test scores and what
040they're looking for. The one that's marked in yellow there, um that's going to be the chronic absenteeism. And if you go back across, that's the students who are in low low income category. Um but across the board when it comes to the uh absenteeism that's been something that all schools have been fighting this ever since we come back from co it's just been an upill battle and we're very very close to where the state average is when it comes to that and that's one of the things we've been working hard on trying to fix. But you also have situations where talking to a student the other day trying to figure out you know how come you know you have such a high absentee rate and you know one of their I asked about you know
041how come you were here this day it was raining that day and I really didn't want to get out and that's the kind of stuff we're fighting guys. So, uh, but we're doing our best to try to do what we can to get the students there so that we can, you know, potentially educate them and get them to that point which is graduation going. So, last year we switched over from the SAT to the ACT. Um, so last year was kind of just getting a baseline, trying to figure out where we're at, see how the test has changed from what we had been doing before. Uh, so we've kind of got our baseline. We got an idea of where we need to focus with the students going forward. The one good thing that we have
042with this is in the past, our students, especially in math, have tended to do better uh on the ACT than the SAT. And part of it's just the format and how the mathematic equations are set up for the problems. Uh the SAT tends to be more of a word problem type type of approach where ACT is here's your problem to solve it. And so when it comes to that, it's a lot better for them as far as looking at it, showing how they understand how to do various equations. Um on English, uh we did well. um math and science they are very very close to uh reaching the point where the state average is when it comes to the ACT. One of the things that we're doing this year is those of you are coaches
043you know you play the way you practice. So, one of the things that we're working on is having the teachers work on uh setting up their uh tests and [laughter] questions kind of in the same type of format that they're going to see with the ACT so that they're already used to seeing those things so that when they get to that point, uh it's not a big change from what they've already been addressing. Um but with this we're looking trying to um set up the ACT uh prep uh classes in second semester so that by the time we get around to April our students should be ready to go. And then with this also one of the good things that they started with SAT and then ACT kind of got on board and started doing
044the same thing which ha which is having the ACT 9 and 10. So that ultimately you have your students as freshman and as sophomores taking a lower level of the ACT. So we kind of get an idea of where they are so we know where we need to focus to try to help butress some weak points so hopefully by the time they reach the junior year they're able to perform better on the ACT. [snorts] So on this one it's extremely small. Basically, it's just a breakdown showing what the median is for each of them. Ultimately, what you would see with this is that with each year from their freshman sophomore, and then their junior year with the ACT, you see a jump of about two points for the mean. And so, basically showing that they
045are learning and getting better understanding. So by the time they're hitting their junior year with the ACT, they're right in line with where they should be when it comes to being able to meet the state stand. [clears throat and cough] So one of the areas that we have worked very hard on the last few years has been the freshman on track and this past year we were seven uh seven and a half% above what the state average was. Now Mrs. Burgess talks about the idea that things are changing. Well, guess what? It looks like unless something changes from what the plans are, freshman on track is getting ready to go away. The problem with that is by having freshman on track, you're setting that foundation at their freshman year so that you have a pretty
046good idea of, you know, who's struggling and what we need to do to help those students so we can get them through to graduation. Now, with that going away, that's going to be we're still going to work on this, but I think it's a shame that the state doesn't recognize that we're taking that foundation that we originally established and we're taking away when that's a big thing. We get the freshmen where they're passing their classes, they should be successful as they continue on throughout to the point of graduation. Um, chronic absenteeism. um we are right in line with where the state is just a little bit below on that. That's another designation that they're looking at changing the approach on that. So, we'll have to see how that plays out for next year. Uh but
047that's one that we've been working very hard on is chronic absenteeism, trying to get those numbers down and get those students to school. Okay. In the category of students with disabilities, uh graduation rate, you had 90%. Okay. So, um, that is very good when you start looking at across the state where it's been. And then ultimately what we're going to focus on going forward is the graduation rate overall, which dropped this past year. It had been 90% or higher than the previous years. This last year it dropped. Working on trying to get that back up. And uh one of the things that's helping is with having the ALOC workers, the outreach workers and different ones in the schools, helping reach the kids who are having trouble and trying to get them through the tough times
048that they're experiencing that, you know, things that are interfering with their education. So, we're trying to get them past those uh roadblocks, if you will, so in the end they can be successful. So, >> can I ask a question? >> Uh, on the chronic absenteeism, uh, there's other schools in our area, Carterville being one. It's got an exemplary. Have we reached out to anybody to ask them what what methods they might be using to improve u, you know, students with disabilities, absenteeism, or anything else? >> Well, we're always working with other schools through the ROE. I mean, it's not like we're in a silo here working. We go to different events at the RE all the time from a variety of curriculum and trainings and um you know, we were just sharing at the admin
049meeting yesterday something that I'm not say we're stealing from Carville, but one of the things they're using some of the reporting data they're using. Um I I think it's not always apples to oranges. I mean, it's not always apples to apples, it's apples to oranges. One of the first things I'll point at, if you look at the high school's um chronic absenteeism rate, one of the areas it's the lowest is that low income group for us. Um it's it's a very [clears throat] sticks out. Um Cardinal has about half the low-inccome students that we have. So when you look at some things like that, so let's take that absenteeism and translate that to academic performance. But it's hard to do well in school when you're not in school. So we attack chronic absenteeism really strong
050across the board throughout the district because we know we got to get the kids in the school to get them to learn. So I think from the onset, our teachers versus Carbell teachers, our math team kicks Carell's butt everywhere we go, right? >> Yeah. It's not about our teachers not to do it. I'm saying we're using good methods. We're using good instructional strategies. we have good resources. I think that one's the one that sticks me the most is that if we don't have our kids in school versus their chronic absenteeism having kids in school, I don't think it's something that we are not necessarily doing that Carville is. I think it comes back to the population that we're serving and it's a challenge. Then we we can look at Marian and and they have a
051similar demographic in that regard and so yeah, we do um we do compare. We do try to steal ideas. Um I I'll always steal an idea if it's a good one to work for us. But >> for sure. Yeah. And I I think in summary, yeah, we're looking we're working with other schools. Um and and we're gonna we're going to do and take what we can to make it help our >> to help us help our students. >> And I would also look at the number of special ed students in our district compared to >> Yeah. Yeah. That's another part of it, too. Sure. Uh, I do have a question. Yes, sir. On the uh freshman fast track. >> Freshman on track. Yes. Freshman track. [snorts] >> Is that a class? >> No. Or basically
052what it is at the end of the semester what they look at is to see are freshmen passing their classes. And with that they have to be passing the core classes. Okay. So, math, science, English. Okay. Those have to be classes that they've passed. If you're not passing report classes, then >> that's just something they report on the report card or >> that's part part of what we have to report. >> They're doing away with that >> as far as far as the designation when you go back to the pie chart that Mrs. Burgess had earlier. >> That's I think like 6.8 if I remember correctly as far as that's going away. They're going to come up with something else for us to be focusing on. not something we're doing. >> No, we're going to
053continue. [cough] I'm a firm believer that you have to have that firm foundation going forward. So, we're still going to work with our freshmen to make sure that they are passing those classes so that they're able to be successful. Hopefully, >> will we still be giving freshman and sophomores that ACT? >> Oh, yes, most definitely. Yes. [cough] >> Because that's one of those things for us. It gives us an idea of where we need to be working to build it up their skills so they perform better. >> Anything else? >> Yeah, I may have missed it. What What is the definition of chronic absenteeism? >> Use a number. Use a number. So in 180 180day school year and it's not like just the 25 26 school year. We're talking about from this point going back
054all the way to last year. At this point in the school year, 180 previous school days, the students missing more than 10% of those days, so 18 days are considered chronically absent. >> And next year, what we've been told like for growth and proficiency in terms of those academic indicators, eighth grade scores um are also going to count into high school as well as ACT. So again, that just brings up the the point about that continuous improvement, you know, working school to school, especially with our junior high to our high school. That's going to give us another indication of what are some things we need to be doing. You know, we we've got lots of programs. We have lots of resources, but what are the areas that we can best support our incoming freshmen and
055continue those those supports that we provide for freshman on C freshman academy for freshman on track even though that's going away. >> Anything else? Mrs. Miller, go back to your question originally. We do have several incentives that we have at the school to try to encourage um students to be there. You know, we're always having things we're throwing out there to try to make sure that they're there to try to reward those who are coming. >> Yeah. And I understand I understand the unders undererved, you know, the population that we have. >> I do. >> But I think the schools have done a fantastic job, >> especially the lower levels. you no longer get attendance the last couple years. >> It's hard. I've been there. >> And it's not their fault. >> So, just really
056quick, I just want to make sure that as you're going through this report that you're noticing this is a summit of designation report. And so, when we're talking about the subgroups, these are the subgroups that are listed here. And then what happens is they take those scores and um work them against weights and measures depending on you know those p those percentages that I shared with you for each [clears throat] of those indicators. And then this summitive score here is what we're talking about and this would be for the all groups. I know I kind of referenced that as we were talking about the um information as far as those summitive designations and so it gets a little bit confusing because well why would you know you got an E3.52 well that's your all group
057but if you have any of these other subgroups that falls below that threshold um then they're considered targeted >> okay So, I scooted up here a little bit since I turned 50 over the weekend. I can't [laughter] I can see it if I'm a little closer. So, um, as you can see our scores, there are some reds there in the children with disability subgroup. That's a special ed kids that we've discussed already with Jeff's building and everything else. That's the reason we got targeted this year. Our scores, if you'll see there, are 31.7. The the 5% Miss Burgess alluded to with the all group, the lowest performing 5% was at 36. So our special a kids almost did as well as that group. So that's not anything that I'm overly concerned about. That drops any
058further. I would be pretty concerned about it. But as as Miss Burgie said as well, it's all changing next year. So some of this could could fizzle its way out as time goes on based on the new formula next year. But as you can see, we were talking about chronic absenteeism earlier too. it it is that low income group and it is the children with disabilities group that brings that number down as well for everybody. The all group's not quite as bad. Okay, next slide. As far as the junior high at Heron goes, we're still top city county. Got the best score of anybody in the county overall. Uh our score doesn't beat Carterville, for example, and children with disabilities. Our overall score beats everybody. The only one I could find in Southern Illinois that
059was better than us was Hannah. and they're much smaller schools than us. We had 100% proficiency in ELA uh this year almost that math just barely below like 99 or something like that math. So we were close growth is strong in the m majority of our subgroups even with the children with disabilities group. We did have some growth there. Looking to improve those science scores just a little bit more with our eighth graders next year and hopefully that'll bring that score up as well. Uh there's still work to be done in chronic absenteeism although we did improve that by 3% overall this past year from the year before. Uh we are working with uh some programs. Elementary school does timely tigers. We've kind of taken that and adapted it for our junior high kids. So
060we have a timely tigers program at our school as well. Uh our incentives probably are a little different than theirs because we got older kids. Junior high kids don't like Spongebob as much as I do. So, we have to do things like give them a Bluetooth stereo or something a little more expensive, but uh but we do things to try to improve that as well. And it's come down. It's getting better every year, and I think it's going to be even better this next year. So, we'll wait and see on that. Uh last thing, I I'll piggy back on what Jess said. The school social workers, the uh the outreach workers, a lot workers, all that stuff has helped tremendously. The school resource officer even talks to kids about their attendance. Uh the ROE provides
061help with that area too with their try program. Some of these kids parents have to go over to the courthouse and meet because their attendance is that bad and that does help turn some around some it does not you know as well as I do the general public it doesn't always register with certain people but uh that's in a nutshell the junior high. Any questions on the junior high? I don't want to take up too much time tonight. We could talk about scores for hours as much as we've delved into them over the years, but I know that a lot of this is repetitive, too. So, >> I don't have my glasses on, so I'm going to [laughter] have to >> How old are you? >> I know. [laughter] >> Okay. Okay. Um, you know,
062probably a common theme among the buildings that um that all that summitive score we're real proud of. I think our our building did a [clears throat] very nice job. Areas that we need to look at are the children with disabilities category in math growth and science proficiency and two or more races that math growth. So last year we really spent a lot of time in ELA. our writing scores were not where they needed to be and everybody did a phenomenal job. My fifth grade really buckled down. Mrs. Burgess was more than willing to come over and provide some additional resources to really help my fifth grade and they killed it. They they brought our growth scores up. They brought our proficiency scores up and then that math took a dip. You know, it's just like
063I had my hands on it and it slipped out of my hands. Not by much, but enough that I don't we we needed a little bit more to get into that exemplary range for math. So, we spent some time um in math articulation with fourth and fifth grade. Um just making sure that we're hitting the mark where we need to hit the mark. But proficiency in um math and ELA, we hit those targets. We hit the science proficiency. We hit chronic absenteeism. And I think that that's the piece that I'm the most proud of. We got that down to 7%. would be Carterville Elementary. They got 8%. We got it down to 7%. So, just thought I' I'd add that. I was really proud of all of the efforts and I cannot take all of
064the credit for that because it's definitely a team of about seven people that are working on it daily. Phone calls, um, making sure the data is correct in the system. That's a big job for one secretary when you've got people coming and going, "Here's this doctor. I'm leaving. I'm putting this in." I mean, just having that second and third person going behind that data to make sure that it's correct um is something that has helped us out a lot and time tigers and these those other incentives. Will you go to my next slide? I'm sure that I have hit pretty much everything on there. Um Sierra Anderson was hired as a instructional coach in special education and she has been phenomenal in our building. She is working with the special ed department. um significant hours
065to really help um that population um with everything. She's just absolutely phenomenal. And something that we are working on is to make sure that every student with a disability has every single accommodation that they can get on that test. If they don't have every single thing that they need to pass that exam, they're not going to do well. We also are really going to make that testing environment one- on-one. you're with one adult taking that test because if you're put in a group of about 15 kids, everybody knows what's going on. It's click click click click [laughter] click click click. So really making that environment much smaller, making sure every accommodation that can possibly [cough] is in there and um still really working with the math department on um some of our assessments and looking
066at the performance level um indicators to make sure that we are not over assessing or underassessing [snorts] and trying to get that that perfect type of assessment for our students. Any questions? All right. Uh for North Side, um our school is very unique. Uh we only have prek to one. So our kids don't do the I don't do state testing. So the way the way they figure our our scores are is the kids that leave our building in first grade, then they go to second grade, and then they take the IR in third grade, and then that's where our scores come from. Those scores are back mapped to North Side. So if they were at North Side during first grade, then those scores would uh count to our ability. So um for math proficiency for
067the third graders, we we got all of our points and the uh um ELA, we got all of our points as well. So that's a credit to my teachers for teaching uh first graders and the kindergarters the foundational skills. And then it's also credit to uh Miss Miss Harry's teachers for teaching them in second and third grade. Um and if you notice my two red marks again back off of Brad, Bobby, and Jeff is the children with disabilities for the math math the uh math growth um and the chronic absenteeism with the children with disabilities. So our sum of score was 67.54 which was com commendable. Um all the subgroups except for children with disabilities proficiency in ELA and math all the growth targets were average or above except for those children with disabilities and
068our chronic absenteeism 24% which I'm not real proud of. Um but again we have kindergarten and first grade. So >> what is the state average on chronic? >> It's around there, isn't it? [clears throat] >> 20 22 >> 22 23 somewhere there. And and again I I'll say my building's a little more unique in that way because they're still babies. So if they have the sniffles, mom will say, "Oh, go ahead. Stay home." >> Yeah. >> U so we always we are continually making phone calls. We are talking to parents. We're talking to kids, but it's really not up to them if they're >> both in. >> So, it's kind of an uphill battle for our our teachers, our our kids because it's kind of they are at the whim with their parents. >> So,
069so we're going to continue focusing on that chronic absenteeism. And by doing that we celebrate attendance every day with in the classes. We do attendance uh for monthly and quarterly. So we are working but >> through our parents. So >> like I said it's not your fault parents fault. Not kids fault either. >> Right. >> And they're saying next year again I hate to go back. I just want to keep reminding you it's going to change, but they're going to focus on the 90% that are here. So really, it's supposed to help us and not hurt us. That's what they're saying. >> So you do have an idea of what it looks like next year. >> No, we have no idea. [laughter] >> We're just they just finished the listening tour on that. So State
070Board of Education has to set these indicators for next year's report card. Those indicators have to fall under the federal guideline and fit the federal plan. So, state board of education put out some information on the accountability standards is what these are. They had a listening jour. They went throughout the state, invited feedback on this, feedback on that, which we were able to participate in. Um they extended the feedback deadline a little bit. State board is going to present um we think they're going to present something to us in January. what looks like the indicators that we'll be measured against right now and the last four months we've been in school. Um so you know hey guess what this is what you should have been doing the last four months. Um so then they'll roll
071us out and they have to get approved by the federal government too for the state at the point. So that's the process for this. So, no, we bottom line screen, we're going to be in math, ELA, science. Somewhere in there, we're going to have some kind of weight put on us to perform at a certain level. Attendance in some way, shape, or form is going to be in there. >> Attendance, >> will climate be a bigger part? Will, for example, the graduation rate that's a 50% part of it now, will it continue to be a 50% part of the equation? Will it go down to 25%. Okay, where's the other 25 now? You got to shift your weight. You You have so much time, so many resources [cough] in the school day. So, I think
072no matter what they throw at us, we're going to continue to do what we've always done. We're going to continue to try to get our kids in school because we know that's best for our students in a variety of ways. We're going to continue to do what our teachers have always done before there was even a system to be measured against. Our teachers are going to teach our students. They're going to teach them really, really well and they're gonna give our kids a great shot at being successful whatever they want to do because that's what they do. That's what our teachers do. What have we added to it? We've added a lot of supports because now I think a big indicator of your student success in and and really absenteeism is the climate and culture
073at your school. So now we workers, outreach workers, school social workers, all these support staff. Now some students who maybe didn't want to come to school before kind of say, "I got somebody over there that's in my corner. It's not my teacher. They're not going to h me about my math grade after I'm done getting talk to them about my attendance. And those people have a very dedicated amount of time. These outreach workers dedicated amount of time to work with these students who are in jeopardy at risk. And these outreach workers, ALAP workers, they're bridging that gap. They're calling mom and dad. They're spending time on the phone. They're providing resources. They're providing help. So, those are the types of things that we're doing to try to continue um complementing what our teachers are doing
074and and adding a layer there and that promotes that good school climate, a good school culture. It gets our kids a place now like, hey, I want to be at school. That's where I want to be all day. I want to go there. I want to be there. And when I'm there, heck, might as well learn something, you know, while I'm here. So, it doesn't matter what the indicating and accountability system looks like for next year. Will it change our focus? We'll play the game. You know, we're gonna do what we got to do to to try to hit those high points, but the reality of it is we're still doing what we've always done and Heron's always done long before I was here. She's doing a great job teaching. That's what we're going to
075continue doing. >> Do you find that the role of a teacher has changed? And this is no reflection on our staff or administration or anything. Are we moving toward just getting our kids prepared to meet the guidelines? Are we actually teaching our kids so that they learn and have skills when they get out, they can be a productive human? >> What does that look like? >> I feel like that we have a pretty good combination there that we we can take some kids to that level where if you just want to be a machine and you want to crank out some, you know, that's what you want to do. Yeah, we can give you all that. But if you're somebody that's like, man, just give me the stuff I need to be able to be
076a selftaught to continuate lifelong learner. We can do that, too. We can provide we can provide the different avenues for students that they need. >> It just feels like, and I understand the reason why you have to have the standards and everything else. I get that. But it feels like it's just a situation where from the state level, they're forcing you to make our kids perform. as opposed to actually teaching them so that they learn so that once they get out of school as an adult they can still learn and grasp and do because learning does not stop when you graduate from high school. It doesn't stop when you graduate from college or you go through a trade school. You are consistently as an adult having to learn things and that's skill sets that you
077learn while you're in school and it's frustrating. It seems frustrating to me. It's got to be frustrating for you guys. Well, I know at least at North Side, I mean, my teachers spend at least the first five months of school, four months of school, it's just teaching the kids self-control in the classroom so they're ready to learn. So, I mean, they're teaching social emotional skills along with academics at the same time. So, it's kind of a it's a big job. >> I think you take another shift that it's a bigger shift. You know, for a long time was all about college, college, college, college, college. And I think some people have realized that was an error. You know, the the powers of the bee for many years was just forcing cows on everybody. And that's
078not the case anymore. We've really transitioned as a state, as a nation to understanding and valuing the trades and the career pathways. And as we continue to look at that, look at this year's indicators for student success. That makes up nothing in that. And I've got a bunch of kids up here that are going to be able to be great carpenters, welders, mechanics, you name it, in that kind of career field. And that's not even showing up in here anywhere. And that's not I mean, you're talking on both sides of her mouth. It's like, hey, let's provide some good trade options for our students. And then, oh no, you got to come back and make sure you're a really good English language arts. >> Yeah. Right. So, that's that's some of the struggle that's there
079like you're alluding to. It's like we're teaching to the test, if you will. But we're still breaking out of that and we're doing our diligence, getting students prepared for those exams, but we're also doing our diligence in preparing students for for their career occupations, too. >> Mr. [cough] I mentioned that too. You said career pathways. We have six is that the >> more than any more than any district in the county, we have six career pathways that have been recognized and estab established and recognized by the state. >> [cough] >> another feather in her cap that doesn't show up here. Nom Carville has Marion has >> and they've reached out to us. >> They're asking us, "What are you doing? How you getting it done?" It's like we didn't we mentioned Sierra Anderson. We didn't
080mention Steve Priest, right? Steve Priest, the special education instructional coach at junior high, senior high, and what he's doing, what we're doing through our our co-eing classrooms and other districts are coming to us. How you doing that? We want to do more of that. Um, co-eing is basically putting special education students, special education teacher into a regular education classroom with a regular education teacher, combining those and you're seeing better results from it. Um, they take our instructional coaches. My goodness, heron's like good, we're the grandfather of instructional coaches. We we show people how it's done in this area. So, yeah, there's a a lot of that good and do a lot of good stuff. And does it come back to an indicator and 25% 7 and a half%? not always still good things to be
081doing and we will continue doing those things but also shifting where we can allocating our resources appropriately. >> So this is just following up with the really good things that are happening in her in terms of this these initiatives and I mean a lot of this is not new. I mean you should be proud as a board. These are the things that you have helped us to provide uh resources to our teachers, provide resources to our community, provide resources, support to our families, you know, whether it's um tutoring or enrichment opportunities or having a awesome STEM night, you know, it it it just continues to grow and flourish. Are we going to always have these issues where yeah, we're going to have issues with chronic absenteeism. Yes. But we're doing what we can to reach
082out to our parents and help them understand your child needs to be here even at kindergarten. It's not just the old kindergarten anymore. They need to be here and be here every day. And so, you know, these initiatives that that have been put in place um with the board of education for Haron has really helped to um support all of the great work that's being done by teachers and support staff and administrators. [snorts] So, the next couple pages just kind of give you an idea of summitive designations and where, you know, we match up with some of the other high schools in the area. This is just you know for your information only. And then the same with the summit of designation of area and middle schools uh elementary and middle schools just you can
083kind of get an idea [cough] where you know some of those designations felt throughout the area in the region. And so again you know taking all of this information trying to come up with an action plan and figure out you know what are some things we need to capitalize on? what are some things that we need to continue to um celebrate, you know, those successes and then what are those things that we we need to kind of work on, we need to grow from. And so again, that instructional piece um as far as those strategies to increase growth within that uh students with disabilities subgroup, um looking at increasing those efforts, you know, we've got that prek program. We want to see it continue to grow because that's going to help Mr. Verno as kids
084come to North Side and go to kindergarten and first grade to help build that stamina so that we can help kids to be able to learn. Um strategic plan to address districtwide continuous improvement efforts. That's ongoing. Doesn't just stop and it doesn't end in the summertime either. We're continuing to have those conversations about what are the needs, what are the areas that we need to really, you know, hone in on for support for students and our families. chronic absenteeism. How do we continue to decrease that? How do we increase opportunities for college and career pathway endorsements? I mean, we got six of them here. You just heard, you know, other area school districts only have one. Um, address those strategies to support ACT readiness. And again, that family engagement piece is so vital and important.
085We want to be partners with our families and we want to be able to support them. So, just kind of engaging that that relationship. uh more I think no matter where you are, what level, whether it's kindergarten all the way up to high school as we, you know, continue to prepare our students for post uh secondary education. >> Any questions? >> Your light bulb's blinking up there. That's >> It is blinking. It's blinking. It's not flat. [laughter] >> Good work. Um Cassie, administration, teachers, faculty, everybody puts that together. Appreciate that. and uh really good information. We could spend a lot of time talking about the good things going on in the Heron School District and I know you guys want to, but I also know you want to go home. So, happy to answer any
086more questions. Just said exactly what I was going to say. Thank you, Mrs. B. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Thank you to our our administrators, our teachers. It's a group effort. We appreciate you very much. Keep up the wonderful work. However we can help, let us know. Um, are there any questions? Moving on to new business with regard to the Survivor Empowerment Center. >> Not need a motion to second in a roll call vote to approve the agreement with the Survivor Empowerment Center as presented. >> Second. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> John Hutchinson, >> Sydney Miller, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Bradley, [clears throat] >> yes. This time I need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to close the meeting in accordance with
087section 122A of the Open Meetings Act. Citing the following exceptions as contained in section 122C, to discuss student disciplinary cases, consider the approval of closed minutes. Discuss appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, evaluation, and dismissal of specific employees. And to discuss litigation >> C Robinson, >> yes. John Hson, >> yes. Blakey, >> yes. >> Young, >> yes. Cindy Miller, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. >> We need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to reconvene to open session. >> Yes. >> Robinson, >> yes. >> Green. >> Yes. Miller. >> Need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to adopt the closed minutes from the meeting held November 25th, 2025. >> Yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Young [clears throat] Robinson, >> yes. Need a motion, a second, and a roll call
088vote to approve the following personnel recommendations as presented. For maternity leave, Hannah Arv, whose leave will start February 2026. Resignation, James Carlton as a reading aid for North Side Primary Center, Deborah [snorts] Moore as a cook for the junior high school. for employment. Chelsea Kaine is a cook for the junior high school. Amy Amy Emory as an AM supervisor for the junior high school. Mason Kluff as a boys track dollar coach for the high school. And to post the vacancies for a reading aid for North Side Primary Center, Cook for the junior high school and a computer teacher for the high school contingent upon resignation letter. >> Miller [snorts] Green. >> Yes. the other day. >> Yes. >> Steve Robinson. >> Yes. >> Young. >> Yes. >> Daniel put the hat on last time. It's
089my turn this time. >> We just want to wish everybody a very merry Christmas. Hope you guys all have a very blessed New Year. We thank you for all the work that you do for the Heron District. You are truly truly appreciated. We wish um once again Christmas blessings and everything to you in the new year. be safe if you're traveling. And 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 regularly scheduled meeting for Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the unit office conference room. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Miller, yes. >> Steve Robinson, yes. Brad Blakey, Young, >> yes. John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Thank you everybody. Merry Christmas.