001Laura Brickto here. Andrew Charlesson. >> Richard Driver >> here. >> To the F >> here. >> Right. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic of nation. I think we um want to do the mission, vision and motto today. >> All right, Miss um mission ensure academic achievement and personal growth growth for all students through innovative and engaging educational opportunities. Mission ensure academic achievement and personal growth for all students through innovations. An inclusive community of motivated learners who are inspired to change the world through ex exploration and collaboration. Motto excellence in education. Enthusiasm for life every student every day. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. We welcome comments from our staff, parents, and constituents um for public comment.
002Anybody here or phoning in? All right, we will have another opportunity at the end of the meeting. Great. And then we have a student video update. >> Yeah. So, it's a committee of the whole meeting. So, we don't ask our principles to come to these, but Kelly sent a video of the fifth grade kindergarten buddies program. Um, and so she says she thinks it speaks for herself. I think it probably does. At Lake Elementary School, traditions matter and one of our most cherished traditions is the special bond between our youngest learners and our oldest elementary students. Each year, every kindergarten classroom is paired with the fifth grade classroom, creating what we proudly call our kindergarten, fifth grade buddies. What begins as a practical support system quickly grows into something much more meaningful. The partnership starts
003with an important responsibility. Helping kindergarten students with their dismissal plan. For our youngest students, having a familiar fifth grade buddy by their side provides comfort, confidence, and a sense of security during a busy part of the school day. But this relationship goes far beyond logistics. As you watch this video, you'll see these connections come to life in simple, meaningful moments. and lazy buddies walking hand in hand through the hallways, a fifth grader helping a kindergarten student bundle up in winter gear, or even packing their backpack. Sometimes they may even take a moment to ask about their day. These small interactions, checking in, listening, and caring are how trust is built in relationships. Through this program, meaningful connections are formed. Our fifth graders become role models, leaders, and trusted friends. another safe person in the school
004that kindergarten students know they can turn to. These relationships help kindergarteners feel welcome, supported, and excited to come to school and teach kids. The impact is just as powerful for the fifth graders. They take this role seriously, stepping up their responsibility, empathy, and pride. Being a buddy gives them an opportunity to lead, to nurture, and to truly understand the importance of kindness and community. When asked what they like about being a fifth grade buddy, they share some of the following. I like having a responsibility at school. I like how they're happy to see me. When we're leaving, my buddy always holds my hand. I love how my buddy goes to art with me. The buddy classrooms connect throughout the year in many ways. They visit each other's classrooms, share learning experiences, read together, and celebrate
005side by side. In some cases, these connections extend beyond the school day with families meeting up, building relationships, and strengthening the Lake Buff School community even further. This long-standing tradition captures captures the heart of who we are at Lake Buff Elementary School. It reflects our commitment to connection, leadership, and care for one another. Most importantly, it puts smiles on faces of kindergarteners, fifth graders, staff, and families alike. It's more than a program. It's a community connection, and it's a tradition we are proud to carry forward. That sounds good. >> Thank you. That one. We got like a Christmas card. I just lost that just for >> Okay, moving on to our discussion and presentations for the day. Um Jackie, you are up. >> So, I'm gonna start us off and then if we have any
006questions, Jackie and Tracy are here to answer. Um, as you remember in the beginning of the year, we kind of planned out all of the presentations that the board wanted to receive updates on and Ruler was one of those uh programs that we had started a couple of years ago. And we began with implementing it for adults just as the program suggests. And while it's a a great program for one aspect of the castle framework, which is self-awareness, uh we have found as we've moved into implementation with students that the lessons really don't support the other aspects of the framework, which is unfortunate because um there are other parts that we really need to teach about aside from uh self-awareness. However, some of the parts of the program have been really helpful in that we
007we do want to keep them and just kind of bring back some of the programs that we've had in the past that have supported self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and um responsible decision making. So, our our update is really like ruler is a is a good program. It's been helpful for what it's designed for. Um, but we do feel we need to supplement and so we would like uh to let the board know that we're going to be investigating some either past resources that we've used or some different resources that we might need in the future. I don't know if you want to add any. Yeah, I think one of the components too just that um we're recognizing more and more across the board of curriculum is the importance of really explicit instruction. And so
008Ruler is very embedded kind of within the day and provides a lot of natural opportunities to teach social emotional learning. But we really feel like um just to kind of maintain that consistency with vertical alignment and um consistent routines and just even consistent language about um like an example that we've used is expected versus unexpected behaviors and having consistency with that type of language K8. um we need a program that has a little bit more of a foundation in that explicit instruction component um in tandem with ruler which is much more kind of embedded in um natural opportunities to talk about social emotional aware um social emotional learning and self-awareness. And I'll add to that, another piece of ruler that I think um has been really important is that building of classroom community through classroom
009charters and um kind of setting norms within the department. And so it it has a good foundation for supporting students and um helping teachers build community with just some extra pieces um that we need to align. questions. Thanks for >> Thanks. >> So, I would just um loose or um And or Nancy, do you guys What's your feeling about Ruler? Do you like Do you like those lessons? >> I don't think they've done a lot of lessons with Ruler, have they? >> I don't think there's been any. Do you have the meter in any of your classrooms? >> So meter, >> what is that? >> It's something that's rolling in elementary school. So um with with the advisory and schedule adjustment school also we're looking at how we can invent things a little bit more
010intentionally school day. >> Oh the thing where it's like how do you feel today? >> Yeah. We did that a little bit on Zoom and it's like what do you feel today? smiley face. >> Yeah, some of those things have carried over. >> Yeah, >> it's an important part to be able to label your emotions than beyond labeling like be able to regulate the emotion and interact with peer respect respectfully if there's more to it. So, we want to get back to teaching those skills explicitly. >> Thank you. Okay. You want to inter say, do you want me to keep introducing or go for it? So, I just um this one is about uh class placements. So, this time of year, our building administrators and teams of teachers are working hard to put together next
011year's classes already. Even though it's only February, we're starting to think about that. And we've been talking for a couple of years about how that is a really kind of difficult process sometimes to find the right group groupings for kids that are not only balanced um but also going to be effective for each individual student and the classroom environment. Um and one thing that is difficult for us in that process is uh placement requests. So, I I just want to let the board know that we are planning on asking our community um to kind of suspend placement requests uh and those include um like keep away from certain students or keep with certain students or even placing in specific teachers classrooms. Our goal is to build classrooms that function as um true communities where students
012can collaborate and grow alongside many different students. We are a small school. We don't have a lot of classrooms at each grade level. And so when we have a lot of requests to to for kids to be with certain kids or away from certain kids or in certain classrooms, it becomes really really hard for us to honor all those number one. And if we can't honor them to really build the classrooms that are most effective. So, I know that parents feel super passionate about those things and we don't want to limit parents from communicating with us what you feel your child needs in terms of moving forward in their educational career. What kind of classroom? Um, what kind of teacher you think that your child and then just know that our teachers as they work
013with the kids are taking a look at all those dynamics. And if we see that students aren't able to get along here, that's, you know, in a in the same classroom or that's not an effective grouping, that we are aware of that and we'll take that into consideration as well. We have not only our teams of grade level teachers look, we have the current team look at next year's placements, we have the good student services team look at it, we have related arts team teachers looking at it. So, we really try uh to make really solid and good decisions. and the the less constraint that we have on that, the better we feel that we'll be able to make those good placement decisions for kids. So again, we just ask for the communication to be
014more about the kind of classroom that students need as opposed to specific individuals to be placed with or not with or specific teachers in the future. So, we will communicate that um soon, like in principles newsletters, just kind of letting parents know that that's our request for this year. Um and we'll see how it goes. Hopefully, we'll get more of those types of requests, which are very, very helpful. We appreciate the partnership in that. Happy to take any questions on that as well. >> Thanks. I think it still allows that parents want to give input on you know the type of classroom or the you know style whatever without it we are such a small district so it's it's tough yeah there are only so many spots to go on okay well no more questions
015on that move into our LBMS French class discussion. >> Yeah. So, I I I don't have a lot to add. I just know that this was on our agenda last time and I we we aren't going to have any kind of vote on it until our next meeting. So, I just wanted to make sure the board had another opportunity to discuss any feedback that you've had or any other questions that you might have before we have to talk about it again in our next meeting. >> Has Okay, go ahead. Have have you or the administration or they gotten any more feedback about >> Nope. Uh to my knowledge, we've only received one parent email from uh former students. So students who had been through the French program and have graduated >> here a parent, sorry,
016former students. Yeah. Um and I also know that uh Nate received a request to speak with the high school again. So he did speak with all the French teachers and the instructional director did as well. >> I was going to say the email was in support of Ke. >> Yes, in support of K. Yep. Thanks. Yeah, I meant to say something to Nate when he presented, but that was really good um input that he had been able to get and it was I mean it was pretty clear that you know what there just wasn't enough demand to justify it. But you know I appreciate all of that work to get all of that information you know and input. The one other now that you're saying that and thank you for saying that. The one other
017kind of piece of communication that I received while I was at at the PTO meeting um was one parent just reflecting that in if she were asked when her child was in third grade what language they would choose, she would have thought Spanish and then her child chose French. So that was the only piece of feedback was like maybe third grade parents aren't really sure at this point because they're still three years out. Totally understandable. That was the only other comment that I had. So I just want to be clear about that. >> And like in my I look at it like makes sense on paper. We don't have the demand. We'll open up more classroom space for for other language. Um but I do struggle with taking something away from the curriculum for the
018kids that are interested in it. So I go back and forth with the direct I don't know they might think they know in three years but things change. So I've heard from a few parents who do want to keep it and feel strongly or you know it's a small group but they really want the I mean I think it's more about having the option not necessarily my specific child wants Spanish but I want them to have the option when we make that decision. Um curious if there's any alternatives that we can look at that might not that might support if this comes back around. I don't know like maybe like we see cuz right now it's like only like what 10 out of 70 kids are going to do it. So like these next few
019years, it might not be so popular, but if they do the survey again for the previous families, for the kids are like in kindergarten right now, we bring back French in like a few years. >> So maybe we do like French club before meets before. >> Yeah, I'm French. >> I mean, there is potential. That's a great suggestion. Um and we should keep monitoring. Um there we do partner with the high school in other ways for other courses. And so the real limiting factor in not having French here is the ability to get to French five or AP French like that that last course that it takes five years of French to get to. Um, so it's possible that we could talk with the high school about maybe offering French starting in 8th grade so
020that students could reach that end goal and we could potentially partner with the high school for that one section of kids just so that if if people are really uh wanting that and wanting that fifth year option, they're really committed to it. I mean, we have done that with math classes and things like that before. So, if the board is interested in us talking with the high school about that option, we can certainly do that. >> Do we know how many of the our Lake Bluff kids go on for that fifth? I know a lot of them switch to Latin. >> Yeah, I think that we have a good group. >> Good group. >> Yeah, I think our French kids are pretty going into the high school, they're pretty solid in French and they typically
021do all five. >> Yeah. sticking. Yeah. >> Can I just throw this out that if the high school isn't going to have French one, you know, you can you can progress a lot just with spoken French and then and kind of learning the grammar as you're doing it just with, you know, the all these computer >> software programs. It doesn't take somebody that a French, >> you know, >> teacher to be able to monitor that. and kids work at their own pace and that at a minimum they would at least you know be able to have be able to speak some be able to understand. They may not have all the grammar and all the, you know, all of that understanding, but but you pick up a lot of it just through that >> and
022from taking other courses >> for to get it. They need to be in French, too, as a freshman to get to the AP status. They would. >> So, they would. >> I don't mind the idea in eighth grade. I feel like by that time like the child and the parents a reminder of what they're looking for in high school. nice to like have that option and what what would that look like? Because what if by grade's like, "No, we're good." And would that leave us in a pickle of committing to something that we can? >> Yeah. I'm not I do know that the high school is flexible. They would offer French one for kids that wanted to start French and getting into high school. They're comfortable with that. And we could just talk about what
023a partnership might look like for that eighth grade thing. I don't I don't really know. So, if everyone would like us to talk with the high school about that, we can. Does everyone >> I think it's worth at least getting a feel for it if it's an option and what it may look like. >> Like, yeah, >> because I'm assuming it have to be for school. >> I don't know. I don't know. >> The other thing is how one of the I don't know if it was a pro or a con of having Frenches the schedule here how it affects the rest the rest of the schedule and so it is a constraint. So I'm not sure again there's probably different ways we could do it and I don't know how we would share if
024it would be like somebody would come here or we would send kids there. I don't really know and then that would just depend on when the class is offered or when the teacher's free. So those things have to be sometimes worked out actually every year depending on their schedule. Um so it might look different like a situation like that would probably look different every year depending on how many kids whether we had kids um and then what the teaching loads looked like at the high school. So um we would have to probably work that out each year. >> I would love I know we got one email. We didn't really get any others. I would still love to hear from people if there was just an email to the board or if I mean the
025people I talked to speaking out I think they're planning to come to the next board meetings there are again a few small groups who do feel very strongly that we should keep French for all three years not just too >> when are we voting >> the next week okay it would be great if we could >> if we we'll put it on there too vote. If you have to table it until March then we can do that and it's just >> it doesn't necessarily affect staffing for next year. So we're not on a timeline like that. >> Um it's more scheduling >> and just three you know what we're going to offer for our sixth graders really and that's we're not up against a deadline for that right now. So >> Okay. >> Yeah. And
026I can certainly Nate and I know Nate would be happy to start those conversations with the high school as well. So yeah. Yep. Okay. Um we have kind of an exciting new uh pilot program um that we've had a few parents and families request for more support for crossing from our west neighborhoods to be able to get to the bike path. There's some as some areas in our community where it's there's not really a safe crossing to get where they live to our bike path or to our school safely and bike riding or walking and um crossing guards are kind of like they deceptively complex like that is not like a simple project to to have crossing guards. So Jay and Austin have and I have been working on um designing a a proposal for
027a pilot program um that we're going to try we would like to try the first day back from spring break all the way through to the end of the year to gather some data on how many kids are actually walking or riding their bikes from Nwood and kind of that area to both of our schools. We would propose that the crossing guard be at Shag Bark and 176. So, right across from the target, there is kind of a safe way through the neighborhood to get to that place instead of crossing at 176. Um, and that support would be there before school and after school. It would be enough time that both buildings would have access to that crossing guard. Um, we would look to hire two individuals at least, maybe three to share the load.
028So depending on those people, maybe one person in the morning, one or alternating days, but the goal is to get more than one person. So if somebody's sick, we always have somebody. Yeah. >> Um we would be offering training um and uh we would collect some data. We would kind of be looking for at least an average daily crossing of 10 kids that so that we would feel we could sustain it. I still think even if we got that many kids, it would still be a seasonal scenario like from the first day of school until Thanksgiving and then we would take a break during the winter months because probably not a lot of kids would take advantage of that and then start it up again after spring break. So, we were prepping for our meeting
029and both Nancy and Moose had feelings on this. I'm going to give them an opportunity to >> um I think it'd be like very helpful because I go there a lot like especially after school sometimes I'll go to Target with my friends and sometimes we'll cross to go to one of their houses and it's not very like the safest thing. So I think a crossing guard would be helpful. >> Yeah. I mean I think it's great. I take whenever I ride my scooter to school and stuff. I live over there. Like I take that crosswalk and then I go through like the little neighborhood through like the silo area and then I use the crosswalk off while Keegan and Guazi to get home and I think it would be great cuz I've actually crashed my
030scooter on that crosswalk. So um that wasn't so fun. So I think it would be a lot safer and definitely more than 10 kids go on it and it would be great. So yeah, >> who knows? >> So yeah, we'll be I know you've been working on um salary and comps and kind of looking for what what we might be able to offer. People have friends that might be interested in a position like this to help us out. That would also be great. grandparent. >> I feel like a house. >> I kind of want that job. >> It is kind of want to do I can't >> I mean the one thing I'll say is it is a rain or shine scenario. Like if we say that a crossing guard's going to be there, you
031got to be there. So that's the thing. >> I also hope there's some sort of training and or like >> we had equipment and training. >> Good stuff >> because like imagine what we can do with browsing cards this time. We can really build the program big ideas or just like directional with like you know rapid flow things like that. >> Not sure that's really good. >> All right. So I just wanted to make you aware of that. Um we're excited. We hope it's helpful as families and we will report back. >> Thank you. >> Uh for the true north update, I actually don't have a lot to say. So things are running um beautifully. Uh Dr. Nelson and Dr. Mr. Nelson and Dr. Ganell our two from super or executive directors are fantastic. They
032are in the middle of staffing conversations. We know this is going to be the hardest part of the whole reorganization. It's difficult time. However, not however, it is a difficult time. And um they are also organizing a job fair for True North employees for all 18 member districts to come and make sure that those folks who aren't going to have a job at True North would have lots of opportunity to be hired on in member districts or other districts in Lane County um and Cook County even kind of like putting the word out to everyone. So that's um that's been going well. I don't Tracy, no other updates, right? We're they're just plugging along there and moving forward. So, that's all I >> Thank you. >> And then we have uh a ballot consideration to
033talk about. So, we do you want me to? Oh, you got it. >> So, I'll introduce it and then Jay's going to give a lot more background, but I just want to put one thing out there. So, we want to put the conversation out here early. This is a conversation that most districts in Lake County are going to have with their boards. Um, and what it is asking is each board uh will be that talks about this will be voting potentially on a resolution to place a question on the 2026 ballot having to do with this county school facility tax. uh we'll get give a lot of information for you. There's a lot of information in the slideshow. We're not going to go through all of it, but it's helpful for you if you have
034questions. Um but the big the biggest piece is if you are to vote a yes, the yes is just to place the question on the ballot and then the voters would decide whether they want uh this tax in the fall of this year. So Jay, if you want to that great. I'm just going to share some of the slides from a presentation that uh Tammy Shamo who has presented before the board before and Elizabeth Hennessy gave to various groups uh around the county. Um so just an overview, the county school facility occupation tax would um impose basically what it's an additional sales tax. Um but it would be after a referendum that goes on the ballot and voters would get a chance to vote on it. The tax could be imposed in increments of 0.25%
035up uh all the way from 0 to 1%. So, >> my understanding is that we would most districts would be looking to put 1% on the ballot. If if it didn't pass at 1%, we could go back and ask for less, but we would have to go through this exact same process. And in order for the question to get on a ballot, uh, districts representing more than 50% of students in Lake County need to pass. So it's it's not 50% of districts, it's 50% of districts or sorry districts representing 50% of the students um would need to pass the resolution. >> Uh this map of Illinois shows all of the counties with sales uh sales tax referenda that have passed uh or that didn't pass. The white counties have never never had one. The dark
036blue are all counties where these types of referendum have failed. And then the the aqua blue counties are those that passed. There are 58 counties in Illinois with a sales tax, school sales tax um on their books and about half of those failed the first time. So had at least one failed rough round of one that passed. So the sales tax would not be on everything. be following things are excluded um from the what would be subject to the additional sales tax a lot of big ticket items cars boats mobile homes groceries drugs and farm equipment and then all services as well so it's only on goods it's not services but otherwise it basically applies to any items any goods that are sold or stores and those would be a tax bill additional%. The current
037sales tax in Lake County is 8 in Lake Bluff is 8%. It varies around the county based on local between seven and maybe%. And uh it is estimated just based on history based looking at back or looking at the revenues of January 2026 an extra 1% for Lake Bluff would be estimated to bring in about $900,000 a year for construction. It's important to note that 52% of all of the sales tax of all the sales tax paid in Lake County is or generated in Lake County is from non Lake County residents. So half of the sales tax collected is by people coming into the town to shop by Lake County residents, >> which is from what I understand pretty unique. Yeah. Um around the state. >> So what can we use sales tax for? It
038is for school facility purposes, new school buildings, renovations, technology, infrastructure, um safety and security, architectural planning, equipment, parking lots, demolition, any fire and prevention, life safety items that were identified, land acquisition, energy efficiency projects, and roof improvement. Uh it cannot be used for buses, textbooks. It cannot be used for salaries of staff and uh and for for stuff for instruction, computers, movable equipment or furniture. >> The only exception to the salaries is that it can be used for school resource officers or additional mental health personnel. And that is probably that would be included in the ballot language for Lake County. like that is something people are very interested in using the money for. >> I did not see it mentioned in these slides but >> um that is a big distinction too. So uh school
039resource officers or mental health services can be supported in this uh this chart just shows that sales tax does vary from year to year. So it's not as a predictable source of income but it will change. Uh so as Dr. Dr. I was saying earlier the boards of education that represent if more than 50% of the student enrollment in the county approved the resolution it would be placed on the ballot. So if this board were to approve the resolution then um that would count for 850 students and take all the students in the county and you have to have a representative of at least 50%. So we would be some small percent. There's a little over 110,000 students I think in Lake County. So just for scale. >> Um so to pay for capital the
040sales tax could be used to if we issued new bonds we could issue the bonds and use the sales tax to pay the debt on those bonds. We could just pay for capital projects as we go. So if the money comes in, we spend it on capital projects or we could use this money to retire or abate debt services already existing on our books for for school facility purposes. We do have about once our bonds are paid off in 2028, we'll still have a bond or debt service payment of about $450,000 a year going forward for the next 10 years. And at if we did actually get $900,000 a year, that would more than cover our current capital project needs. So we could use some of that money to evade our existing debt service and
041lower than the property taxes for our residents. >> I do think that's an important point. So each district will probably have a different plan for the money coming in with this um revenue fund or stream. Um, and that would be a conversation that we would have to have in terms of like in the short term, what do we think we can commit to? So, would we be able to commit a portion to debt service and then the rest to capital projects, but we would be looking um to kind of let our community know if this were to pass what we would use the money for. So, and each district will be different. So that will be something that voters will be able to see on the ballot. But that would be something we would need
042to decide and communicate and probably have a mechanism to come back every few years to analyze and take a look at where we're at and what that's been looking like and what we >> had a lot of we had some significant capital projects at the beginning. We might want to use all that money for the capital projects, but then once that's done, we would have surplus funds and we could then pay off debt. Because once we get this, you have to get this forever. >> Yes. >> Um, so this just is to say that it doesn't impact the property taxes. They're under PTEL, so our operating levy and it doesn't affect our debt service extension, but it's it would be on the November. But these are the the these are the election dates that they
043could put on the ballot. Either November 3rd at 26, April 6th to 27, March of 28, or November of 28 are the four elections coming up. And these are the dates by So this is an election in my mind. If we if we if the resolution was passed by school districts by August 17, 2026, it have to be certified by the county. um they have to do some other post the election notice then it could be the election could be on the November 3rd 2026 ballot um if that happened um if it passed it would be filed with the permanent of revenue sales tax would go into effective July 1st of 27 and then starting the funds 90 days after that. So the key takeaways are um there needs to be unified support amongst school
044districts in order for the county to be successful both from the standpoint of putting it on the ballot but educating the residents as to why it would be a good idea to do it. What we each district would have to tell their voters in their district what they would be using it for. Um because this is a countywide tax, but each district has discretion to use such funds as they choose. They have found that communities are more engaged when proceeds are issued for capital projects and um we would need to communicate how that would impact our debt service. And then um the big point also is just that 50% of the revenue raised would likely come from um residents. So that you could be swapping out from local residents from for outside. >> I mean
045I do think that we are in a unique position here as a tier four district. We are very well funded as a district, but not every district in Lake County has that. Um, and even though we we are doing well, as we've talked about, in a few years, we're going to have debt fall off the books. School tax rate is going to go down for our residents, which is great. I think this something like this would help us to stay longer within our means without going back to the community for an adjusted school t you know to go issue more debt. Um I think this would really really help us to be able to keep that tax rate low lower for our residents for much longer than even we thought we would be able to
046to sustain for. Yeah. >> Yeah. So it's not it wouldn't necessarily just be debt baiting but it's avoiding issue in the future to be able to maintain because we would not we would have to once the the debt comes off the books we would have to issue more debt or pay for it out of operations which is our current plan but if capital needs become larger than anticipated it's either going to hurt operations or we need we need to defer money out of operational individual I think the other thing that um districts are talking about is uncertainty in federal funds um currently or potentially even state dollars for education also the budget's getting tighter and so >> as as big programs like Medicaid and SNAP are being cut federally the state has to make those
047shortfalls and that's putting pressure on school district budgets. So it's even though it's not directly f federal money coming to us, it's federal money. It's this back to the state budget which then kind of schoolish. >> So it's just there's not many ways for districts to increase revenue to have another reliable revenue stream and this is one of those ways. So um tonight is just an opening education on it. We are not looking to pass a resolution this month or maybe even next month. We just wanted to introduce it so that you've had a good understanding. As more and more districts start talking about it, my guess is you'll start hearing more about it and we wanted to make sure you had enough information for any discussions that you might have with members. who is
048maybe that's not the right word but where's the directive coming from for the rest of the district like >> you know to get that 50% coverage of the students >> I mean each individual district has to >> decide on their own and then the regional office is keeping track of the number of students >> is there conversations to hear where the other districts are landing >> yeah I know state county superintendents have talked about it. Um I'm sure the school business officials have had discussions of just um kind of where each district is at and um everyone's in a different a little bit of a different spot. So, but to Jay's point, I think um it's either all or nothing. So even if a a board votes no to put it on the ballot, but
049there's enough votes to get it on the ballot and it passes, that district that voted no would still have the rep. >> So all of us are talking about how we might use that money even if boards aren't going to vote to put it on the ballot, if that makes sense. Because if it's if it's a big enough group, um then everyone would benefit even if it even if a board vote. I'm having a hard time finding more accounts than criminal. >> Yeah. Listen, >> so I kind of understand this and the impact it would have on us. So for example, let's say we have a capital project out there for a million dollars in next year or whatever and we don't have this particular revenue source. So that would be part of our levy.
050We would be including that in our levy, right? >> Yes. >> So it would be coming out of >> our reserves >> out of our general funds. But if we had this money then would we indirectly be getting extra money into our into our general funds then? I mean is it somehow I don't understand all the you know the legal silos that we have with money coming in that would be earmarked for a particular thing but uh but how would how would that what would >> it would not so if we if this was a revenue stream for the district this would flow into our capital project fund. We would use this to do capital projects which would cause us to not need to try to do these projects out of the onm fund or
051transfer money out of operating funds and the capital projects to do these projects. So it's >> it would indirectly free >> indirectly free up money from those to do other things. I mean, I don't know. Like, I I think it'd be more likely for us to use it for capital projects than even mental health salaries because the unpredictability of this money will is there's potential for it to be >> right >> inconsistent. So we wouldn't want to have salaries tied to it necessarily, but >> and they even the one of the things that they talked about was issuing bonds based on the money and you would need to be conservative with that because >> if you have a recession and sales go down and your taxes go down and you thous payments then you'd have
052to pay that all. Yeah, you know, I'm really conflicted on this. So, I mean, I can appreciate that a district like Walk Keaggan or some of these others, I think we projected like I don't know three or four million dollars for them would be very very important and useful for them. But on the other hand, um you know, this is a regressive text. And so we're basically we'd be getting $50 million, half of it would be coming from people that do live in Lake County. So we'd be getting $50 million from from, you know, and it hurts the people who can least afford it, >> right? >> The most, you know, regressive is it doesn't in it impacts everyone the same regardless of your the money you have like your income. like we have a
053progressive income tax with this that we have, >> you know, affect everybody in the state. >> Lower income people spend greater proportion over on basic items of so whereas >> so when I look at it from like fluff point of view, I feel kind of bad that I'm asking, you know, people many people who can least afford it to be you know, giving us money um when we don't really need it that much. Um, plus if I wear my um my senior hat, my fixed income hat for taxpayers in late in Lake Glove. I mean, it's, you know, um I hate to be adding more taxes to them. Even even if it's not, you know, earmarked and says, you know, property tax for school, you know, it's still um you know, an adverse impact on
054people on fixed incomes. What were you saying that eventually this might relieve some of that property tax burden? >> Yeah, I mean that's really at the board's discretion. If board wanted to, they could use all of that money to pay off the taxes. Want to prioritize what our needs were. Yeah, but that's >> as an example like that $950,000 if that if it were to pass at 1% and that would be our revenue stream, we only have $450,000 of debt service a year after we pay off those school bonds. So, if we took half that money, we could eliminate our debt service to our taxpayers and still have them left over the capital. And that's about I mean I'm not I'm anticipating being without before this ever happened. I was planning on being able to
055maintain the buildings without basic, you know, by spending three to $400,000 a year probably on capital projects >> for the next probably 10 >> for the next 10 years until we got to the point where we could issue more non-referendum debt go out for >> but we would probably not have to even issue that non-referendum debt, >> right? because that would still impact the taxpayers regardless of we have this issue because at some point we're going to need to get this infrastructure. >> So this would alleviate that >> and I I do want to just clarify like you this board or any board voting yes on this resolution is not necessarily signaling that you want the tax. It's signaling that you think it should be on the ballot for the voters to decide. That's probably
056though. >> It does. You decide whether or not to >> It doesn't decide if >> it's just whether or not we think government in the county should have a say. >> Your vote puts it on the ballot for >> Well, if we vote yes, then we do vote it on the ballot. >> Right. But we're not saying >> you can go as a voter vote no. >> Yeah. >> The vote are enabled just as much as the yes or the yes votes. That's all I'm saying. It's very interesting >> and really again I think it there will be more about this coming out and so hopefully this is a good reference but we're here if you have other questions but also if community members ask please we're happy to answer questions too and we would
057just be giving information this the impact and um we can talk more as we if as we get closer and we think it might be on the ballot about what we would want to tell our voters we would do with that money. Also, >> I would love a discussion in the future just to bring more information like that you guys might hear and we learned about since it's like new just to get more perspective. Just did a quick math. 121 million estimated to come in, 52% roughly 52% from outside the county to be $63 million coming to the county from outside sources. That >> seems pretty impressive. >> And as you know, we sustain ourselves a lot through our own taxpayers. Like we don't get a lot of state funding. We don't get a lot
058of federal funding. Our taxpayers >> take the burden of most of our experences. >> And at the end of the day, I mean, there's such a small district relatively that I mean, if if the big districts really vote for this, >> right, >> then they're going to get 50% of the that'll >> get it over the top or 50% of the student. >> But you never know. You know, but you never know that >> extra extra 800 might make the difference. >> Sometimes referendums only by like 12 votes. >> I think so. >> So, what are these capital projects like? What are those to spend this money on? >> Any money they spend on the building and bar systems that keep the building running. So, >> but you can't use it on like school supplies.
059We need to bring back our budget or salaries for teachers or or benefits and things like that. >> It's like when we did our new playground. >> Yeah. >> Maybe air conditioning. >> Putting a new roof on a building, windows, >> new outings. I'm just saying we'd all be locker room. what I like to see. It's the scariest one. It hasn't changed. >> Well, thank you for all that info. >> Uh if there's no other questions, we can move on to the calendar draft. Um this is for next year's board meetings schedule. One, a couple of things to note. I know that November was kind of a hard month this year because we had a board meeting and a joint annual conference in the same week. So, we tried to adjust to that and we
060put the board in a little bit earlier. Um, but other than that, it's pretty much the same as what we've had. So, happy to talk through any additional meetings that you would like to add or think our committee of the whole push to April. >> We lost two. >> Yeah. So, we lo which ones did we lose? >> I think we got >> September. September and February. >> We moved one to April. Yeah. Um I mean it was we I agree. I think we were talking about November's meeting just was really long which was great. Um, and then we have the triple conference. So, it just seemed like a lot of board stuff, but that's just I know we talked the last meeting about adding some more budget presentations. So, I didn't know how that
061might fit in if we needed where that might fit in and um >> Yeah. or if it can just be at one of the regular board meetings. Not saying we have to add an up meeting, but >> we can Well, that's what I was saying. I mean, we do go over like agendas and presentations and things like that. If you think that we have enough meetings to cover everything and not make um go into the hours and it's somewhat unpredictable like we were looking back at the February meetings last year and they were really short. >> Yeah. >> But these two meetings that we've had this year a little bit weaker, right? Like we have more this month or this month this year than we did last year during February. So, it's a little bit
062unpredictable cuz sometimes things come up like this this presentation we just had. I did not >> here. So, well, I can appreciate the one. So, >> and we could always add one if we need to. We just haven't put it out there. >> Yep. >> I mean, it's good to get everything on the calendar. So, what the other thing we could do is have our board presentation planning meeting. >> Yeah. >> And map it out sooner than later. Let's do that. >> We can do that. >> Yeah. Um, and then the last thing we have tonight is just cross packet 120. Um, there isn't much. There's only one question in the packet for our review and it's an additional optional unit of study on the Irish potato famine. It is uh an optional one that
063ISBY is saying we can add to our units of study but don't have to. Um my recommendation is that we not add any mandates before the state tells us that we have to do it because already we have a lot of mandates. So um I don't think we should add when they're optional. Um >> it was discussed at the policy committee meeting >> um not knowing that it was optional in the >> um so it was we were going to bring it to discussion but since it's optional >> the mandate >> we have like I think a thousand mandates in Illinois which is more than any other state and I think that if this if uh the legislators feel it's important it will wind up on the docket um in one of the 9,000 bills
064that have already been filed. >> Wait, what was it called? The potato Irish potato. >> It's like it's very sad. >> We can plethora of fandoms to study this. >> I think they get a little bit of that now in eighth grade immigration. I mean >> like we talked about unfortunately we do there are a lot of scenarios and many times our teachers will offer choice like when there's a situation like a genocide or a famine. There's unfortunately lots of those events and many times students will have a choice of which one they're interested in talking about or researching. Um this is probably one of the options that they have. So, >> but once we put it in policy, then we have to make sure we dedicate time to it. And if you haven't perused
065uh six colon 60 yet in a while, it's great. >> There's a lot to do. >> Oh, that curriculum policy has a lot of kind of >> there's a lot >> funny things in it. >> It's a good one. >> I mean, these What was it? We're supposed to find, you know, like significant contributions to American culture from a couple of very small little countries. And >> that's got to be challenging. >> Yeah. That's our recommendations, the first read. So, we'll bring it to the next meeting for a second read and a vote. That's all I have on that. Right. Well, this moves us into our second opportunity for public comment. Nobody's joined us. So, may I have a motion to adjoin? >> Join January 20th, the board of education meeting at 7:59 p.m. >>
066So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Meeting is called Nancy called work, Nancy. Instead of