001regular meeting of the board of education scheduled for Tuesday, August 26, 2025 at 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. >> Mrs. Hastings, would you please call roll? >> John Hutchinson >> here. >> Susie Etheton >> here. >> Sydney Miller >> here. >> Kelly Green >> here. >> Steve Young >> here. >> Brad Blakey >> here. >> Steve Robinson >> here. At this time, we'd recognize anybody who would like to address the board. When recognized, that person should give their name before making their comments. We ask
002statements to be limited to five minutes in duration. Would anybody like to address the board at this time? If not, going to move forward into the consent agenda. Need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve, adopt, and reaffirm items. presented on the consent agenda and not extracted for August 26, 2025. >> Oh, hold on. I do have uh B under the designate depositor banks in the point. >> Um we need to somebody to explain the transfer for First Southern to farmers. >> So that's different. That's the higher high school activity fund. That's separate from the >> Is that separate from >> correct? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. >> We just want to >> Yeah. impacting an item later on the agenda. It is separate from that. >> Okay. >> No
003problem. >> Cindy Miller, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. Stevia. >> Does anybody have any questions with regard to the press policies that are presented for Mr. Wilson? >> If not, we need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the press policies as presented. >> Second. >> Kelly Green. >> Yes. >> Indy Miller. >> Yes. >> Susie, >> yes. Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Brad Ley, yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. Seeing no old business, moving forward to special reports. And I'm going to apologize right now. My voice is squeaky. So, I'm going to do my best to get through all of this and not lose
004it completely. At the prek center, um the start of the school year was amazing. They were thankful for the wonderful parents and dedicated staff who helped make the transitions smooth and successful. And they are excited to share that the program has already reached full capacity. And the terrific tiger awards for August. Um, two students were recognized for exceptional kindness and that's Ellanar Wharton and Rowan Ronquil at the junior high school web where everyone belongs was a program that's held and this was their fourth um annual welcome back for all the sixth graders that was held on Thursday July 31st. Selected eighth grade leaders guided around 100 sixth graders through large and small group activities as well as a building tour. The coordinators of the web group, Mrs. Apple, Mrs. Freeze, Ms. Kaine, and Mrs. Mohab
005are also proud of the eighth graders leaders, enthusiasm, their kindness, creativity, and adaptability that they showed throughout their days of training. The welcome and while helping the sixth graders navigate their first week at Heron Junior High School, these leaders will continue to support their sixth graders throughout the school year. They would also like to thank the custodial staff for all they did to help prepare the building for the leader training and welcome. And thank you also to the staff who volunteered their time to the welcome to help welcome our new class of students to Heron Junior High School. The Heron Junior High School softball team is currently undefeated with a record of 8 and0. On August 16th, the team is slated to play in the semi-final game of the Marian tournament before the tournament was
006called due to heat. And for cross country, Saturday, August 23rd, the junior high cross country team kicked off their season at the annual Early Bird Invitational. boys varsity team won the overall first place award with Max Mazine winning first place in the race with a time of 1106 for the 1.92 mile course. The girls varsity finished in second place overall on the same course. While the JV courses are not scored, two fifth graders won their respective races for the 1.26 mile course. Sheay Schloppy with a time of 9.47 and Abram Jolof with a time of 9008. These were the first races ran by these fifth graders. Congratulations our Heron junior high school students and staff on their continued success. Moving on to the high school, August 4th, Heron High School held their annual Frostf Fest.
007This is a wonderful evening for incoming freshman and transfer students to meet faculty and staff. Mrs. Allen held anformational meeting regarding all the clubs, sports, and activities available at Herren High School. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Anderson met with parents and students to discuss expectations and roles at Heron High School. We had a huge turnout for the event and it felt like it was a a huge success. Meet the Tigers was held on August 22nd at the Heron High School football complex. All fall teams were introduced along with their coaches. Cheer, flag, and dance performed along with the band. Football team held a preview of their offense and defense. The outreach program along with athletic activities department made this a huge community event. They gave away over 300 hot dogs and snacks for the evening. Buffalo
008Wild Wings came to support the Tigers by giving away 500 wings. And that wasn't just for the football team. All our her future Tigers had four bounce houses to play in as well as receiving free snow cones. Mrs. Allen would also like to thank the her and fire and police departments for attending the event. And last but not least, Mr. Wilson and Mrs. Burgess presented at the uh Chamber of Commerce membership lunchon today and did an excellent job of presenting the state of the district. So, thank you to everyone for all their efforts in August. Welcome back to school. We appreciate everybody's efforts. We're hoping for a wonderful school year. Moving on to new business. Mr. Wilson, would you like to do um or provide some comments with regards to the bonds? >> Yeah, so
009this is our our bond refunding. This is our alternate bonds or sales tax bonds. They've been on the books uh for 10 years or better. Um this is the group of bonds that is coming up. When it starts coming due, the amount of the payment per year is going to exceed the amount of sales tax money we have per year, which is what the alt revenue bonds are bonded against. So we have to refinance those is a nice way of saying it. Um, this is the preliminary piece. This is just getting the ball rolling to get the groundwork done to get the underwriters on it to start getting the pieces in place so that we can actually reissue the bonds and uh refinance for whatever term we deem as necessary. So, tonight that is the
010only thing we're acting upon is a resolution authorizing the issuance not to exceed $19 million of the refunding alternate revenue bonds of the district. This is not taking and adding anything new. This is all old debt that we're restructuring. >> So, do you have any questions? >> I had a question about that. >> We got the documentation. It talks about what we're going to have. The 15-year option will add approximately 4,160,000. I know we're not talking about doing this tonight, >> but we didn't give what the 10-year option will add in interest. >> Well, that's from the 10 to the 15 in that five years going from 10 years up to 15 years. That's how much more interest it adds on between year 10. >> Okay. Five years. It's going to add another $4 million.
011>> Correct. Yes. >> And the interest rate will stay the same on either option. >> On either option. No. No. The the 10-year option will be a better interest rate as well. >> Okay. >> Mhm. And I don't know what that rate is yet because we're not to that point yet. >> Thank you. >> Any questions for Mr. Wilson? Not need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the resolution authorizing the issuance of not to exceed 19 million of refunding alternate bonds for the district. >> Second. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Dizzy Athetton, >> yes. >> Cindy Miller, >> yes. >> We need a motion, a second. Well, I want
012to actually say something. Um, the the teacher salary and benefits report, there's a report that gets pulled together. I know Rachel works really hard and presenting some of those different things. So, there's a full accounting of everything for all the staff. That takes a lot of works. Rachel, where are you? Thank you for pulling that all together because that's a true vindication of what compensation looks like for everybody. I know that's a lot of work. Thank you for doing that. Um, moving on. We need a motion, a second, and a walco vote to approve the EIS administrator and teacher salary. The benefits report and position detail roster report is presented. >> Second. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Sydney Miller, >>
013yes. >> Ellie Green, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Okay. Mr. Wilson, would you like to have your >> Yeah. Um so on the transfer of some of our activity and our cafeteria funds from First Southern Bank to Farmer State Bank, we'd have some conversation as a board um that may be a time to do that. Um what we're looking at doing is issuing um taking our cafeteria fund, which is approximately at the time that I received the balance last week, $468,000, moving that to Farmer State Bank, as well as our activity fund, $122,000. That activity fund is North Side, elementary, and junior high activity funds combined. High school is a separate fund, Steve, which goes back to your question from earlier. That's why it's still at First Southern. So, these amounts I
014would uh recommend the board move to Farmer State Bank and utilize their services. Um, you have the FDIC piece that normally 250,000 just like right now at the Bank of Heron, we have $5 million maybe. Let's wish it was more than that, but we'll pretend it's five million at least, right? So that money is in the same kind of thing. It's pledged to different securities because anything over 250,000 FDIC is the same concept. So um we'll continue to have the same securities pledged for the funds at Farmers Bank that we would have with First Southern. >> And we still have funds at First Southern Bank, too. >> Correct. >> And we have funds at Vantara Bank. Yes. From what I understand. >> Yes, we do. Okay. >> Uhhuh. And we still have our main account
015at Bank of Aaron. >> Does anybody have any other additional questions or statement for Mr. Wilson? >> Not motion to second and a roll call vote to approve new accounts with Farmer State Bank. [Music] >> Robinson, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> Susie Etherton, >> yes. >> Cindy Miller, >> yes. Kelly Green. >> I abstain. [Music] >> At this time, we 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, the semiannual review and disposal request, discuss appointment, employment compensation, discipline, performance, evaluation, and dismissal of specific employees, and to discuss litigation.
016>> Second. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Susie, yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Grade, >> yes. >> Cindy Miller, >> yes. Steve Young, >> yes. A second and a roll call vote to reconvene to open session. So moved. >> Second. >> John Hutchinson. >> Yes. >> Susie Etheton. >> Yes. >> Sydney Miller. >> Yes. >> Ellie Green. >> Yes. >> Steve Young. >> Yes. >> Brad Blakey. >> Yes. >> Steve Dave Robinson. >> Yes. >> Need a motion to second and a roll call vote to approve the closed minutes for July 29th, 2025. >> Second. Cindy Miller, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Susie Athetherton, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Y,
017>> yes. >> Need a motion, a second, and roll call vote to declare the closed minutes as presented as open. >> Second. >> Ellie Green, >> yes. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. Need a motion, a second, and roll call vote authorizing the clerk of the board to destroy verbatim records of closed minutes held prior to February 2024. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> Bri Blakey, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Susie Eton, >> yes. >> Sydney Miller, >> yes. Need a motion, a second, and a roll call vote to approve the following personal recommendations as presented. For retirement, Mora Engel
018to retire at the end of the 2028 2029 school year. Michelle Lville Johnson to retire at the end of the 2028 2029 school year. Matthew Mcmanowway to retire at the end of the 2028 2029 school year. For employment, James Carlton as a reading aid from North Side Primary Center. Christa Casey as a reading aid for North Side Primary Center. Ava Capagreco as a dollar dance coach for the high school and non-ethnic athletic extra duty as presented. >> Second. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> Steve Young, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, >> yes. >> Sydney Miller, >> yes. >> Kelly Green, >> yes. >> Brad Blakey, >> yes. A public hearing on the budget for 2025 2026 will be conducted at the beginning of the next board meeting. The tenative budget for
019Herren Community Unit School District number four will be on file and conveniently available for public inspection at the unit office on the 27th day of August 2025. Having completed the items on the agenda, we need a motion, a second, and a roll club vote to adjourn the meeting until the next meeting of the board of education scheduled for Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the unit office conference room. >> Second. >> Steve Robinson, >> yes. >> John Hutchinson, yes. >> Brad Blake, >> yes. >> Steve Young, yes. Susie Etheton, yes. Sydney Miller, yes. Kelly Green, >> yes.