001school district 2 board meeting for May 28th, 2025. And we should stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Normally we would go into roll call but we have to do our oath as we have two well one new board member and then uh one uh previous board member that'll be joining us for another term here. So we have to say this in unison where it is blank you do say your own name. Uh and it's rather lengthy but let's get this started. It is lengthy. All right. I, Joseph Quinn, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education
002school directors of Denver State School District 2 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability. I further swear that I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. I shall abide by majority decisions of the board while maintaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through
003ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality of education of every student in the school district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for school district 2. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law. I shall serve as education's keyate on behalf of students and community schools to advance the vision for school district 2 and I shall strive to work together with the district
004superintendent to lead the school district towards fulfilling the vision the board has created fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills knowledge citizenship and personal development. Well done. So, welcome Katie. Thank you. Joel, welcome back. All right. I think then that moves us on to roll call. Joel Johnson. Nelly Milfeld here. Joseph Quinn here. Tom Schwarz here. Mary Shufeld here. Ali Stanbury here. Katherine Casey here. Terrific. That moves us on to consent agenda. And we need a motion to approve the consent agenda items as submitted. A motion. Second. A paper. Johnson. Yes. Milfeld, yes. Quinn, yes. Casey, yes. Schwarz, yes. Shoefeld, yes. Stansburg, yes. Terrific. That moves us on to item number four, uh, the fun part of the evening, which is recognition. Uh, to kick this off, we have student recognition.
005and I'll ask uh Principal Pitman to stand up. Thank you. All right. So, today we have um our FPS students. So, if they can go ahead come up and also Mrs. Richards who is our uh FPS coordinator for [Music] Springrove right here. We'll face the board here. So, um, so we have, um, there's actually eight students that we have and so we have five tonight. Some have baseball and softball and other activities going on. But we want to, um, congratulate Alex Shufelt. Thank you. We have Vivian Crane. Vivian, we have Cody Hearnquest. Thank you. We have Ever Barrett Smith. Thank you. And we have Norah Jane Viva. Thank you. Um, so they just, um, finished their competition down in Bloomington and Mrs. Richards is going to say a little bit how that went for them.
006I don't know how much you know about FPS, but it's a big thing in fifth grade because they've never done it before. So, we spend the majority of the school year um, learning new vocabulary and terms and looking at futuristic scenes and scenes that could affect us both here and globally. Um, so they learn a whole lot of information and then they need to apply it to a six-step process. They need to come up with they're given 18 different uh categories that they need to see that they can find um problems with the future scene that they see and then they need to find the underlining problem that one problem that they really think they could solve and then they need to come up with 18 solutions for that one problem. um find criteria to
007judge that that those solutions and then choose one to that to develop into like a five paragraph essay and then they need to culminate that with a skit that they do on their own with props. So then they have three minutes to present their action plan in front of judges. So it's uh it's quite overwhelming that they can probably attest to how stressful it was. Both regionals and state were stressful for them, but they did really, really well and I was super proud of them. It looks like we have a Cody has a medal here. Yep. Cody was They all earned medals. Um Cody was able to bring his today to to kind of share that. That's fantastic. What was your favorite part? Um the skit. The skit. Yeah, I think I'd have fun with
008that, too. So, what was your skit on? What did you do your skit on? Oh. So they're two different teams. They're teams of four. And so there's two different teams that kind of came together. So what was the future scene about? It's like wait state was what was the topic for stateology? Swimsuit and like a spray. So kind of how to um let the swimmers be more effective in the pool while keeping their body temperature regulated so that they can do well. So it's all like kind of wearable nano technology kind of things. It's exciting stuff. And regionals was what do you remember topic for regionals? Agriculture and agricultural industry and farming futuristic kind of farming. How to sustain the world um population with food and feed them. um vertical farms, um robotic farming, all
009kinds of fun things, right? I I saw those kids. Yeah, that's fantastic. Congratulations to all of you. [Applause] Oh yeah. Why don't you turn around for a picture? picture. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, so now we have the next agenda item which is some retiring staff recognition. And so I will ask that this educator do come forward to receive their party gift. And then I'll ask the principal step forward and say a few things. And we'll start with uh Jim L. [Applause] Thank you for all your ears. I know my son loved your class. For you? Yep. 30 30 years. 31 years now. District Middle School and uh we are excited to see you go. Yeah. Thank you for all your years. [Applause] John, what do you teach? Oh. Oh,
010yes. What did you teach? I mean, I know what he taught, but what did computers? Yeah. Thank you, Tim. Congratulations. All right. Vantage started in 2000. Yes. At Denver Middle School and uh ELA teacher. I got to know her last year as a union president and uh value her opinion very much. Me too. [Laughter] Thank you for all your Pauline Walker joined us 15 years ago from Kerry Girl uh school district. Uh she is one of those folks that likes to go up quietly. Um that's why she's not here. Uh but we're excited for her. The building has been celebrating her quietly uh throughout the month, giving her little gifts. Uh, but she I know is looking forward to spending time in your garden and doing a lot of reading and so thank you to
011all her years. Thank you to ask. All right, Denise Christensen. [Applause] Um, so Denise has been teaching for 30 years, 28 of those years at Spring Grove. Um, since I've been there, she was fifth grade teacher. Then the last two years, um, she wanted to try something new and, uh, was fourth grade and she got to spend two years inside the building, which I think is your best. So, just want to thank her for everything that she's done. Um, I've known her for 17 years, obviously. solo town and remember when her son was a little guy. So, so we're going to miss you and we're going to have a big party Friday afternoon for Oh, congratulations. [Applause] Thank you again to all those who retired. That moves us on to item number six, which is
012public input. Uh we do have a few people that have signed in to speak. Uh we will call your name. Um if you do choose to still come forward and speak, uh we ask that you please keep your public comment to three minutes or less in respect of the meeting. Uh and first up on this list is Taylor. Taylor H or Tyler, sorry. You're right. Taylor. Taylor. Okay. Hi everyone. My name is Taylor. I have um two girls in elementary school right now and I'm here on behalf of them and on behalf of the Spanish program at the elementary school. I don't feel it's my uh voice that you should hear so I'm going to play a recording for them if that's okay with you guys. Short and sweet. I love this song where it
013goes [Music] say, [Music] "Wow, I love this for We hope we love you, Mr. Emma, and we hope we see you next year. I hope I see you next year because if I don't, I'm going to miss her forever and I will not forget her. Okay, that was very, very nice. Thank you very much. Thank you for playing. Next here, Jessica. Hi. Um, I also have a kindergartener. Um and um she goes to RGS. It's regarding the Spanish program. Please take him away as well. Um thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Jessica. I'm a parent of a kindergartener at Richmond School. I'm here to respectfully ask you to deny the proposal to discontinue the Spanish program at RGS. Removing this program would be a serious loss, not just for my
014child, but for every student at our school. At just 5 years old, my daughter comes home excited to share new Spanish words and songs. I've watched her grow in confidence and curiosity. And it's not just a proud parent moment. Research shows that children who start learning a second language in elementary school are four times more likely to become fluent than those who start in high school. And the benefits go far beyond language. Bilingual children consistently outperform their peers in reading, math, and problem solving, and show stronger working memory, attention control, and cognitive flexibility. Skills that set them up for success in every area of learning. The advantages only grow as they get older. From 2010 to 2023, bilingual job postings in the US have tripled. Spanish is by far the most in demand language. Bilingual
015candidates are twice as likely to be hired in fields like healthcare, education, law enforcement, social work, and business. Since 2020, remote bilingual listings are up 30% and LinkedIn reports a 24% increase in bilingual roles in tech just last year. By the time my daughter graduates in 2037, Spanish fluency could mean the difference between landing a job or being passed over. Richmond Grey School stands out because of this program. That's something to protect, not eliminate. In fact, while some districts are cutting language programs, others are reversing course, reinvesting in dual language instructions after seeing what was lost. Personally, I believe Spanish is more essential than many other subjects because while job duties can be taught through ch training, the ability to speak Spanish fluently offers something no training program can replace compared to what most students
016retain from history, science, or even art class. The long-term effects of Spanish are far more impactful both for their daily lives and their career opportunities. Isn't that what school's for? to prepare our kids for the real world to help them be first enlightened for the jobs they want. This program gives them a powerful edge, especially compared to students in nearby districts that no longer offer Spanish early Spanish instructions. We trust that you will represent parents, not just make budgets or respond to pressure from administration. And while I respect the need to make difficult decisions, I believe we deserve more input before the program before a program this meaningful is taken away. If there's any doubt in your mind about whether this is the right move, I ask you postpone the vote. Let's have a properly
017noticed meeting where families can ask questions and be heard before final decisions are made. Um, just so you know, I found out from a Facebook post that it was tonight. Um, so I I really didn't have much notice. I I didn't know this was even being voted on tonight. I'm sure there's families at home who wish I could be here today as well. Um, this is more than a class. It's the foundation of our children's academic success, career readiness, and global understanding. Please keep Spanish at RGs for our kids, our community, and their future. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next up, Erin. Hi. Um, my name is Aaron Omi. I am a parent in the district. I have a seventh grader and I have a kindergartener and a fourth grader. Fourth grader. Yeah. At Springrove.
018Um, I am not here to complain tonight. I am just here to be a problem solver. Um, I'm I'm an educator of 15 plus years and I know how hard teachers work. I know how hard administration works. All of you guys work for the school district and itself and for these kids. Um, and I know change is hard and it's not always welcome. Um, but when it's not best practice anymore, I think, um, something needs to give. So, I'm here to express my concern about the current grading policy at Nippersync. Um, for those of you who do not know, 90% of the the, um, grades come from test and 10% come from homework. This approach is not in line with the best educational practices and it does not support the diverse needs of our students.
019To my understanding, um, the Bernnink adopted Rick Wormley's philosophy, and I'm not sure how long they've had it, but which states grades should reflect learning, not just performance on a single test. Um, he also believes using multiple forms of assessments to truly measure the students nose to show what they can do. And right now, our grading um system does not reflect that pol that philosophy. This heavy emphasis on tests is especially harmful for students who deal with test anxiety or have OI, which is other health impairments. Um, if you're not aware, 20 to 40% of kids do have test anxiety. My son being one of them, that's why I'm here and I'm being an advocate tonight. Um, but these students may not under they may understand the material and he very well does, but he
020freezes up during a test. And um, this is something that happens very commonly to a lot of lot of kids. And yes, there is the um retake policy. However, what's the purpose if they're having test anxiety for the first first time around? So this is a problem when your entire grade hinges on that moment obviously because we're not giving them a fair chance to succeed. So also this policy does not align to my understanding with the high school or the surrounding middle schools in the area. I've did my homework. Um we're setting our students up for difficult and unfair transition to the high school. Um and if they fail here, it affects more than just their grades. So eligibility of sports and clubs, I had to witness I had experienced that this year. It was
021very tough on my son. um which are key motivators and support systems for many kids. Um so I'm asking are we here helping learn or we setting them to fail? I spoke with Mr. Kson about a month ago letting him know I was coming to the board. Um I didn't want to step on any toes and at that time he told me he's got to go through the chain of commands whether it be the curriculum um committee um department heads. Um so he didn't he did see he he agreed with me. he thought my I was valid and um however he didn't think this was going to happen until like two more years 26 27 school year um I saw the gone by then. Um so one of the reasons being that the student handbook
022was already written so I'm not really sure if that was the case but like I said I'm willing to be a problem solver and here to work with whoever curriculum committee um department heads administrators to make a change. So is it possible could we amend the the current system? Could we do an amendment to this handbook? Could we maybe raise the weight of homework and projects to show an understanding over time, more of a decaying average? Um, or can we offer to support students with anxiety and learning differences? give them like a multipitude of ways to show PowerPoint presentation um a project maybe a verbal assessment something that's more that makes them feel more ownership I would say and let them allow them to show what they really do know so let's work together to
023create a system that's fair supportive and based on real learning and not just high speed testing thank you for your time and please let me know if you uh would like my help thank you so much thank here. Uh, next up, Josie. Hi, my name is Josie Bosworth. Um, I have two current students at Richmond Grey School. Um, just a little bit of a backstory, I come from a town, two towns over. I lived there for 25 years. And the reason I came to Richmond or Springrove actually was because of the school districts. Um, I am an educator, a high school teacher. I teach English in LA County High School for the past 17 years. Um I constantly talk to my boys. They're in second grade and um kindergarten about this idea of learning, exploring,
024and knowing the cultures around you. Um the the discontinuation of the Spanish program. Um I just have to be an advocate much like some other parents said here tonight. Um I'm not here in a negative way. I'm just here to be an advocate. Um, I talk to my sons often about their experiences at Richmond Grade School and it's been wonderful. Um, putting aside the teacher because I know we all can say she's great, right? Um, and we don't want to take that from her and that opportunity or even a salary, anything like that. But I just think that we have to kind of be a little bit um, I don't know, aware that we have a oneup over other schools who don't have this. Um, being in the same school I've been in for the
025past 17 years, I can tell you what another friend had said is true. People who don't have it at all are trying now to find the funds to be able to have an opportunity like this for kids. Today, I recently gave a speech at a local conference for about 17 schools in the Lake um Lake County districts and it was on Jonathan Height's recent novel, The Anxious Generation. And in this Anxious Generation book, he talks about how knowledge is power. And he says, "You can say this all the time, but really the power comes from this opportunity and cultural awareness. Most of the book is based on social media and how to be able to explore that, but really he talks about how it starts when they're peanuts and their sponges and their brains are
026ready. And right now, I just feel like it's a disservice to take that away from not just my two boys, but kids moving forward." Um, I had reached out at the beginning of all this and sent you a very kind, positive email. about six of you responded back and said that it was going to be tabled. And I went to all of my, you know, local friends and said yes, you know, at least they our voices were heard. So, I have to be here today just for one last push to continue to let the kids thrive and look at the cultural diversity. Much like the audio that was played earlier, they're coming home and saying, "Hola, hola." And it's just little things. I mean there are some people right even like my dad 71 years
027old who doesn't know all of the colors all of the animals the numbers conversational just readiness right my kids five and seven and a half right they know these and that is power and I think that even with setting aside Jonathan height I really think that the exploration at that young age is necessary and I hope that you take that into consideration as you move forward. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh, next up, Ellen Hok. I'm going to read off paper so I don't miss my words. Good evening, board educators and my community. My name is Alan Hogle for those who do not know me. We've lived in Spring Grove for nearly 17 years and we have five children, all of whom are going to the nursing school district. Last year, I found myself
028in this exact same position, coming to the board of education meeting, advocating for the importance of a foreign language program in our schools. Advocating for the incredible Spanish program our school has offered our children with one of the most incredible educators. I've had the pleasure of having my teach my children, Mrs. Zeremba. I'm here again tonight to express my opposition to the discontinuation of the elementary Spanish program. Last year, the superintendent said that the goal was to have conversational Spanish in freshman year of high school. What incredible disservice we would be doing our children by eliminating this program at the elementary level. Experts have stated and proven that learning the foreign language at the youngest age possible is when children are going to retain it. That is best to have kids start learning a foreign
029language no later than 10 years old. And sooner they start, the better their chances are to achieve the fluency of a native speaker. Middle school starts at 11. We live in a country where Spanish is the second most common language next to English. 43 million people speak this as their primary language. Here in McHenry County alone, 50,000 people consider themselves Hispanic or Latino and Spanish-speaking people. Saying the goal to have conversational Spanish by high schools proves just how important the language is to our kids and our community. In choosing to discontinue Spanish, you're denying our children an opportunity to have Spanish class once a week to better ready them for Spanish at the middle school level, moving on to the high school, all while keeping in mind the goal of conversational Spanish, and to have
030them ready to communicate within the world we live in. Should I not be looking for an opportunity? Should we not be looking for an opportunity to increase the Spanish program they're receiving each year rather than getting rid of it? I ask you to please consider the disadvantage you would be giving our children and choose not to eliminate the Spanish program at our elementary schools. In addition to that, I also had somebody reach out to me in the community that was unable to be here. So, I'd like to share her words as well. To the board of education of school district, it is with deep disappointment that I learned of tonight's meeting regarding the potential discontinuation of the Spanish instruction at the elementary level. As a retired educator with 31 years of service, I find this
031decision incredibly disheartening. It seems we too often underestimate the value of language education, particularly at a young age. Spanish, the second most spoken language in the United States, plays a vital role in our society today. The late Steven Sanheim once emphasizes in his work on the rem westside story, highlighting the growth and influence of the Spanish speaking community within our country. Introducing Spanish during early childhood has countless proven benefits, enhanced cognitive development, improved academic performance, heightened global awareness, and greater cultural sensitivity. It also supports stronger literacy skills in a child's native language. More importantly, it prepares students for a future in a diverse and interconnected world. Eliminating Spanish from the curriculum sends the wrong message. Instead of investing in our children's long-term educational and cultural enrichment, we're prioritizing projects like another football stand, concession stand,
032where are our values when it comes to the arts, language, and inclusivity. To the members of the board, I say shame on you for considering the removal of such an essential program, especially one funded by our community's hard-earned tax dollars. Although I am unable to attend the meeting in person due to health reasons, please consider this letter as a formal statement of support for keeping Spanish and all arts based education alive in our schools. I've lived in Springrove for 28 years and I fully stand with the families and educators who understand the lasting importance of language and culture in our children's education. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Karen Novak, proud resident of Spring Grove, retired educator, 31 years of service. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next up, Lydia Bllandon. Hi, I'm Lydia Bllandon. Um,
033I am a substitute employee at Bridge Grade School and I have two children in the district, one kindergartener at Richmond School and a sixth grader at Interync. And I did come here for two reasons, so I will speak directly and quickly. Um, the first was to retain the Spanish program at the grade school level. um I know how important it is based on my current sixth graders's interest in Spanish now. Um she felt confident going into a challenging new class at a new school because she had five and I want to say a half years of because co of Spanish um training with a beloved teacher and it was so interesting just before this meeting I was about to dinner with my kindergarten son and Mrs. Reba walks in and she's picking up for dinner.
034And she looks and says, "Hi." And she pats right around his sweaty head after wrestling practice. And um I said, "Oh, are you going to the board meeting?" And she's like, "No." And I was like, "Well, I am." And the look of gratitude on her face. I just wish you could see all the support that's in this room. And it's not just for her. She's a wonderful educator, but the program itself is what's really important to our children. Um, the second reason I came today is um I know I've been a big pain in the butt for some of the people um in the room probably, but um I had questions. I just like to put bugs in your ears about these things regarding um how emergencies are handled at our schools. Um, so, um,
035recently we had a weird day at Richmond School where there were two maybe lockdowns, soft lockdowns, maybe not. All I know is my kindergarten son was put in a storage bathroom, what used to be a locker room in grade school during this time. I was not told about that during the day. Um, I actually didn't even know until the next day, hearing from other parents. And so my kindergartener five, he doesn't really know how to come home and tell me, "Yeah, this happened and it was weird." We got two pretty vague emails and then some clarification, which didn't actually change any information from the previous emails. Um, my question is, are we willing as a are you willing as a board to pay attention to this, potentially make changes to be more prompt? I'm not
036asking for names of who's involved. I'm not saying we need to know who did what and where and why and when. I'm saying I want to know when my kindergarten son is put into a bathroom and hide. I want to know and that's very important to me. Um and and that's just touching on it because I've had issues, you know, just where I feel like I'm not getting clear information and I'm not alone. So it's emotional for me because my kids school, you know, we really care about this safety. So, I would like to see some change in the um protocol and I'm taking it very seriously. But, you know, I don't know. I feel a little powerless. My voice doesn't seem to get heard. So, that's why I'm here today because I'm speaking on
037behalf of many parents who are fearful of not knowing what's going on with their children at school and making sure maybe there isn't, but um I would like them to be discussed and changed. Thank you. Okay. I don't see anyone else on the cited sheet here to speak today unless there is someone else here to speak. Okay. So, thank you all for coming today and speaking. Uh that does move us on to item number seven which is reports. I believe I just run through these to see if there's any questions. Uh stop me in the process and uh let me know what your questions might be. Okay. So starting with item 7.1 revenue and expenditure report 7.2 Two, fund balance comparison report. 73 special education revenue expenditure report. 74 impact fees report. 75 impressed report.
03876 transportation report. And 77 that moves us into administrative reports. And Dr. Yeah. Good evening everybody. Glad everyone's here. Um, just a couple updates on our maintenance project. So, our chair lift at SGE, very excited that it's completed. Uh, that's been something that we've been wanting to complete, get done, uh, for our students that need that. It'll make a big difference in the lives of those those students. So, uh, that is complete. Um, our NMS summer project uh, with the Brook as well as the back overhang at NMS. Uh we are at the point where we have done the abatement on the asbestous removal um which clears the way for us to go in and do some structural um fixing as well as then begin to do the the roof as well. Um couple things
039just to report on. We do meet with the Richmond Police Department, fire departments and spring road departments on a regular basis, trainings and all those types of things. We are going to a a new program. It's a a national program called I Love You Guys. Uh you can look that up. It's pretty pretty spectacular. Um and uh we're looking forward to doing that. We do um trainings with multiple county agencies. Uh of course, if there's a confusion or there's a misrepresentation of anything, we need to clear that up and make sure that's taken care of. Um if there's any reports that we had a child in a bathroom at that time, that's got to be looked into. So, if you could do that because that is not uh what took place. It was a hold.
040Students were asked to be held in their classroom while we had a medical emergency taken care of. So, we'll follow up on that because that should not have happened and I didn't have a report of that, but we will find out. Um, but I I think you're going to really appreciate the love you guys program because not only does it do the best to secure our students and our staff, but it changes the wording of things. It it is clearer. is more concise and um we'll be doing that with the Springrove Fire Police, Richmond Fire and Police as well as we're going to try to organize that with the county through the summer. There's quite a bit that goes involved with it. Richmond Burton will also be involved in that as well. So, looking forward
041to making some significant changes there. Um the rest of the summer projects we'll update in June when we do the state of the district and take a look at the financial uh different accounts, different things that are going on and kind of get an annual review of it. Terrific. Any questions for Dr. Lind? None. Right. Thank you, Dr. Lynn. That moves us on to 772 assistant superintendent report. Dr. End. Good evening, everyone. I welcome new board members. Few updates to our board goals that we have. So developing our accelerated learning, we've gone through the data that we have available which is I ready Kat and we're getting our teacher recommendations. What we don't have yet are the AR scores and the state reached out to me and let me know that hopefully they're going to
042get them to us by June 3rd. So we have a little bit of time on that. Um any students that uh meet the threshold for accelerator will be placed into that um into that opportunity as well. um academic curricular experiences for transitional grades. We have our reveal mathl and common lit uh trainings that we've uh already happened and we have more planned for the start of school year and some over the summer. And for next school year, uh sorry talk about next school year already, but we do have our SIP date and TI day scheduled and our summer PD is uh working through with our PLC's and we're currently in the process of renewing all of our um curriculum material for next year. Terrific. Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Enry? Okay, thank you. That
043moves us on to 773 NMS principles report and principal pre. Good evening. Um so on the end of April, uh the admin was approached by a grade level team at at NBC about taking a look at grading policies uh at um at NMS. On May 7th, the building leadership team met. Uh they agreed that we need to probably review our policies, taking a look at putting stronger ones in place, late work policies, retain policies. What do we not have in place? We have lots of teachers doing this, but what is the set policy? Okay, what are we looking at as the guideline for what we do? So, uh we've looked at sample policies from other districts. Um our building leadership team has met with grade level teams and conducted a survey and we have moved
044forward with that. Nothing has been said though at this time. We have begun the discussions. Uh school celebrations um our Special Olympics athletes uh competed at Prospect High School on May 10th. Uh we had one seventh place place finish, two fourth place finishes, two second place finishes, and one first place overall finish, and that's NMS eighth grader Savannah Link finished first in the 100 meters. She qualified for the state meet and will run at Illinois State University June 20th and 22nd. I included pictures there. I I do like the one RB and uh side by side um for special Olympics and then the students uh and the we have that are volunteering their time to help coach and then of course Sam medal I believe. So that's it. Thank you. I do have a question.
045Um, this goes into the grading policy and I know this is just now being looked at. It's just really a thought. Is it question one is is it the same at the high school where it's 10% homework 90%. Okay. And so I having a child in two children right now in the middle school and um and having seen the teachers, they've done a wonderful job allowing for late work. They've done a wonderful job allowing for retakes and things of that nature. Has there been thought around maybe we should be at a point where we have to have retakes and thoughts of having late homework and if there was a different type of grading policy in place because I just think from a teacher standpoint um it's a lot of work to go back and do
046homework and do retakes. So just a question is as to what's what are some of the things right now that are being looked at when it comes to the grading policy. I think everything. Okay. You know as as what would be a policy for a ret. Yeah. You know what are teachers doing? Many are doing you know we have some that have a meeting with a kid. We'd like to see that more. Yeah. That you don't you know what we what we don't want to have happen is a kid takes a test doesn't do well because they didn't study and then automatically gets a retake. You know what incentives do we have in place to reward a retake that you have struggled with this and you've done this this and this and now you meet
047with the teacher show what you've learned. Those discussions on the value of homework. Um I think you can find a lot of different opinions uh everywhere on on the value of homework and what it should be worth. Um so we have started that. I think a lot of it too ties into the new schedule and kids adjusted now the importance of study hall which I think for our seventh and eighth graders is new. You know they didn't realize that hey you you really need to use this time now. Um, so I mean I honestly we are discussing that. Okay. I'd like to see more of a uniformed approach between both districts. You know, obviously, um, I value retakes. I value alternative assessments. You've got to meet students where they're at. Every student's different. Um, but
048you also have to find a way to do it for a teacher that manages maybe 100 students a day. But there's ways to do that. And and I think through collaboration between everybody, I think we'll get there. But certainly, we want to make sure that every child is, you know, being met where they're at and the ones being left behind. Doesn't do any good, right, if you fail chapter one math and go on to chapter 2 math because you're not going to build on what you should have learned in chapter one. So, do all the teachers allow retakes the high school? What about never? I'm I'm not aware of anyone who doesn't who has a standard I do not. There might be different situations and that's what we want to look at. You know, I
049we want to be able to answer that here is right. So, it's kind of up to the teacher on if they're allowed to do it or not. Right. Yes. Okay. So, it's not standardized. I've experienced different time frames like you can't go six weeks and then has to do a retake. But there are some teachers that say a week, some teachers that say within two weeks. I think teachers been pretty they've been pretty good. Yeah. Well, thanks for looking into that. I just think, you know, the 90% focus on testing um 10% on homework. I think there's a lot of value to the work and and that should be looked at providing more of an emphasis around the actual work being done heading into a test. Um but thanks for looking into that. Any other
050questions for principal? No. That moves us into 774 RGS principal report. Principal Talbury. Good evening everyone. All right. So, uh, last month in the last couple weeks, we've celebrated the excitement of our fifth grade band concert. Uh, it's really cool to see how much change happens in such a short amount of time, even from the winter concert to now. Uh, so they sounded terrific. Um, as somebody who lives in a neighboring community where we also have fans but doesn't meet as frequently, you can tell the difference. So, it's really cool to hear what they can accomplish and it's going to be exciting to see them next year at what they can continue to do. Uh, and looking forward to hear the growth over summer during band camp. So, we're hosting that. Uh, we also had
051the art show with Mr. Ratz. Uh he's had an incredible spring here being part of our talent show MC and then putting on this great display of student work throughout the building. Uh really cool to see what Mr. Stacy's classes got to do with their free printing. It was absolutely incredible. We also got to host the battle of the books versus SGE and it won. It was a tie. Baltimore set of winners just kept tying it. Uh so that was really cool as well. Also, uh we had our last minute to win it fun games of the year celebrating during the lunch hours and there you'll see Mrs. Brown uh in the pictures demonstrating how that goes. It was very exciting to see staff get involved with that. We had the opening of our little
052library in collaboration with Delta Capagama uh Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Ratz opening that library. our battle of books winning teams uh got to pick the books that went in the library and then our winning most team got to pick up the red ribbon to share the library with our uh school. And then lastly, we also have the ride to school day on May 13th. We got some really warm weather and shortened our ride. So, we did end up going uphill one way, but it was warm. It was like 80 degrees in the morning. Uh, and so we work partnered with the village of Richmond to have a little breakfast snack and head up the road to school riding everybody's bikes. It was really it was an awesome ride. Really look forward to doing it next
053year. And then um, as you see listed, there's all of our folks with years of service starting with one year and going up to 35 years. Um, we do have two staff members in the audience tonight. I believe Jen Hamlin's here celebrating 25 years with the district and Janing celebrating 35 years. [Applause] Thank you for your report. Any questions? Having seen a lot of band concerts, I just do want to say this. The band program in this school district is amazing. And it goes to watching all the way up to watching what the middle school does. You can see them progressing tremendously at the grade schools, but having seen a few middle schools perform this year, it's incredible how good the eighth graders are at the precinct middle school when it comes to band. Yeah,
054it's just so kudos to the band program and all those that you have involved. It's really cool to watch. Very good. I think there was 80 members in band or something like that at the large. It's crazy. Good. Yeah. Um, so that moves us on to 775 SGS SGE Principal Report and Mr. Pit. Thank you. Um, just for the record, I hired Mr. Prior. Well, thank you. Um, but no, like uh at RGS, May is very busy um over at SGE and our month started with our concerts. We had a fourth and fifth grade concert. Um, Pirates the musical. Um, it was they did a wonderful job. Again, band participated um as well. Um, Mrs. Hartnet. Um, not only did she do that concert, but we had grandparents day the next day with another concert.
055Um and so uh we had um K3 uh participated in that and it was just good to see all those um smiles on the grandparents faces or if they didn't have grandparents there they were able to bring a special person. So um it's just a really good time. I always look forward um to that concert the most um just because um we get to bring in a group of people that normally can't come to school and uh participate. um and some that are very happy to hear that the uh chairlift is going in as well too. So that would help a lot of them. Um some other art celebrations is um girls in the run. Um this group um starts early in spring and we had oh like half a dozen or so girls um
056that participated in this and they um they run a 5K in Woodstock on May 18th and it's just good for them to build friendships. um they develop these life skills um just kind of helps build their self-esteem and we have volunteers that um that lead this and uh they meet every Tuesdays and Thursdays um at the building and they have a partner then that will come and and run with them as well. So, it's just a great program for our young girls and um and you know, as you can see from the picture, they just they enjoy being around each other and um they ask me to run and I'm like, "Yeah, that's nothing." I use my baby for that. But, no, they just they really enjoy it and I like seeing seeing the girls
057um doing that. We also had our early childhood graduation um as well last week. Um we had field day yesterday. So um as things it's been very very busy. Our field day was phenomenal. Um we had great weather for it and uh just happy and thankful for all our volunteers. Great. Thank you. Any questions for see none. So then that moves us on to foyer requests 78. We don't have any. Great. Any old business? No. No. No. So that moves us on to 91 new business and approving the appointment of treasur and treasuries bond re. Yeah. So this is an annual appointment. Um Denise Laminowski does it for us. So we recommend that we reappoint her to that and we just need board approval. Okay. questions or do we have a motion to approve the
058appointment of Denise Levandowski as treasur and renewal of treasures bond? Second. Shufeld, yes. Stansbury, yes. Johnson, yes. Mayfeld, yes. Schwarz, yes. Casey, yes. Quinn, yes. Motion is approved and moves on. That moves us on to section or item number 92. The approval to donate or sell Nippersink District 2 items. Do we have any questions or a motion to approve the donation or sale of Nipperync district 2 items as presented? Any context? This is the same thing we do. Same thing by law. We have to have uh yeah public be approved and we'll sell it if we can and if we can't sell it, we'll donate it. If we can't donate it, we'll get rid of it. Yeah. motion. Mfeld, yes. Johnson, yes. Stanbury, yes. Casey, yes. Shoefeld, yes. Schwarz, yes. Quinn, yes. Item is approved
059and moves on. That moves us to 93. Approve the discontinuation of elementary Spanish. We have questions or motion to approve the discontinuation of elementary Spanish. to go into a little more discussion for what what it is we're doing. I think we need to make sure we're discussing, you know, if this does, what does that mean? What is it? So, going straight into a motion would not be very good. Yeah. Um so overall I know we've discussed in the past you know like this 30 minutes a week you know what does that mean what is the benefit that need giving these students um you know the overall thought then that we brought forward you know it's this move towards more reading more math intervention services things of that nature um I mean is there is there
060any other items that we feel we're missing. Yeah, I suppose it's a good question in providing some context around this. It was a few years ago that we had discussed we were kind of looking at borals I think at the time and what were some of the things that we wanted to focus on and we wanted to focus on more conversational Spanish by the time kids got to high school but there was also a focus on we we had a great need to have a more robust accelerated reading accelerated math program continue to support future problem solvers but then also we noticed that there was a growing need to support students that needed mediation or had a 504 or an IEP and there was huge challenges at the time when it came to calendaring all
061of this with the resources that we had and so there was a lot of research and analytics that went into this and I'll try and keep this somewhat short but I'll ask answer any questions someone has and it was all right knowing all this and these are our board goals what does it look like and what are some things that we could do to accomplish um all these things all these things happening and so in short the calendaring of the schools the great schools it's pretty challenging we tried plugging in different things and what could we do here and maybe maybe it would be you know Spanish and second third fourth grade or fourth and fifth grade or doing all this but can we still accomplish accelerated math accelerated reading without adding new teachers to
062the mix and things of that nature could we still support future problem solvers could we have more support for IEP and 504 and calendaring. It made it tremendously difficult. And then we also asked that we kind of look at the surrounding schools because I agree with a lot of folks and what they said we do have something that the other schools don't have and that is this 30 minute per week, you know, Spanish program at our uh in our great schools. So um my children have been through it too. They love it. they love Jod and everything that she's done. Uh it but it's also something the other schools didn't have and that was what was glaring from that because the way it was sort of presented to me and information that you guys want
063to be able to provide too schools when they go into this like you have those that are like full immersion and I came from a district that had full immersion but that is a district that was extraordinarily well funded same size as our district as far as this one school and you combine our two grade schools twice the funding from the state when it came to those types of programs. Right. But aside from that, in our area, there really isn't schools of our size that have that program. Um, there were some that had they they considered full immersion as you literally just speak Spanish in those programs. Next in line was what they called true academic Spanish and that was where you had a curriculum. I think it was dedicated to like two or three
064hours per week. Then you had exploratory which was sort of labeled as like 60 to 90 minutes per week. Those were like three categories of the schools. And so that's where the idea was how do we shift the resources uh within our district to better support um accelerated math, accelerated reading, more support for those with IEPs and 504s. Um and it was discussed at the time potentially looking at the Spanish program as it exists today. So that's where that conversation and and you're right, we had that discussion then last year we decided, you know, let's let's continue on, look for ways to do our interventions and are accelerated to do all of that. And then at Richmond School, our students with IEPs and 504s didn't meet state standards. So we're under a four-year window to
065improve students with 504s and IEP scores in reading and math. I believe it's three. Is that correct? Both. It's five years. What's that? Five years. Okay, we're so four after this. Um, so how do we take that's a large number of students? By the way, IEEPs and 504 is a significant number. So, how do we find that extra half hour, 45 minutes, whatever we can get to take that number of students, give them the interventions that are required in math and in reading to get them up to meet where they need to be for the state so that at the end of this 5year window we no longer are under the state's you know um direction as to how we have to go forward with some math and some reading. Uh so we are getting
066some extra grant money uh to help with uh training and and things like that to better meet those needs to better meet those needs for the students the 504s but you know it trickles into the with all students and then uh it got back to well how can we do the accelerated how can we provide other opportunities too so that's what renewed I think the discussion among the people the educators involved in it how do the how do we get to where we need to be for these students and it comes down to time and so then you start looking at okay what do we give up because we have to give something up do you give up art do you give up Spanish do you give up you know what is it that you're
067going to give up and so there was a lot of discussions around that I don't know if there's a single correct answer on that because everything has significant value in our children's lives Um, and my kids went through the program. They loved it. Absolutely loved it. Loved the the instructor as well. So, that's the quandry we find ourselves in. We have to do some things different. We have to improve in uh reading and and math for our 504s and IEPs and we have to find the time to do it. So, that's what renewed the discussion. The other thing is I want to make sure everybody's clear. No one is going to lose their job in this because certainly I don't there's personnel issues we don't discuss publicly but um there's been discussions everything's taken care
068of there there will be no loss of work for any single employee they'll all be full-time employees in our district so uh Dr. Enight I know you also worked a little bit on this with the principles and others do you have anything you want to add that perhaps hasn't been added I think uh Mr. Johnson, you asked about what are some other things that go along with it. It could be additional library time. It could be additional science and social studies time along with the additional intervention time for students who are struggling um to uh meet some of our standards. Um does fall into part of effective use of facilities so we could have small group um uh access a little more quicker than we do now as well. And it's important to note too
069that when all this was occurring it wasn't this was after all the analytics was done that was the recommendation brought to the committee that brought to the board based on everything that they looked at calendaring what is it that you would have to if you can't increase resources right what was the recommendation that was brought to the committee and so um that's sort of where all that stood in and it was put on pause for a little while so you may have a lot of questions can I ask you a question because I know you're on the curriculum committee or maybe um Dr. Hofflin could answer it. Um but I know people talk about loving the Spanish program as my children did also um going through it and still in it, but what is the
070curriculum look like for that Spanish program for K through five? Like um is it progressive? Do they keep learning more? I mean, how is it currently structured? I know it's not immersive, no, but is it the same thing year after year? I mean, what is what is that curriculum structure like? And what what do some of those other schools look like that have different Spanish pros because you talked about the different tiers maybe? Yeah. So the way I understood it is it's very exploratory here. Ours says exploratory. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because I I think even for the recommended like exploratory it was I don't think technically we would actually fall under one of those definitions but it would be exploratory. Yeah. And so uh yeah. Do they increase it progress? I'm sure they get into,
071and I can't really speak to it, but I'm sure they get into, you know, tougher conversation of speak or maybe words and things of that nature as they get older, but it isn't something that's considered a curriculum from what I've seen by any standard. Like the sixth grade middle school teachers aren't saying there would be a big loss in Spanish without starting Spanish one or whatever in sixth grade or anything like that. I I think are they seeing a benefit or I don't know where they're starting for sixth grade versus ending. I guess it's basic language that also includes the cultural component. So colors, letters, uh salutations, those types of things and they scaffold from year to year to year. I think the challenge is that because it's only 25 or 30 minutes a day,
072one day a week and Mondays and Fridays kind of miss out on a lot of those. the studies for that particular model doesn't show any specific proficiency for students that go through that particular model. We talk about immersion where they're being taught half the day in Spanish, half the day in English. Those students will definitely walk away with a higher level of proficiency of speaking a foreign language. And one of the things we've talked about too within our library, it looks like we may be able to lengthen library a little bit. um bring that cultural aspect back into that time where we're we're teaching those things. So obviously it's not the same as having a 30 minute dedicated time but um bringing we don't want to in any way shut that down. We want to
073encourage that. Um, so that'll be part of what we do next year as well as bringing that in to the library lessons as well as, you know, other classes that'll be working on that. Um, we've also talked about strengthening our seventh or our eighth grade Spanish program. And I think that's the next step that we've had a lot of conversations on. In fact, we we did some research on it. Do we want students in eighth grade to take high school Spanish, get high school credit, and then move into high school already with that? And what we found is that no. Well, if they take it in eighth grade and they don't do well, let's say they get a D, but we're glad that they took something like that difficult. They tried something. The problem is
074if it's a high school credit, that D then follows them into high school with no option with no option of retaking it. What would be better for us to do is move forward in eth grade with a more rigorous high school one Spanish but not give high school credit. In essence, you're starting level one, your your high school Spanish, you're starting at middle school, but it gives that child a chance. Let's say they get a C and they're not real happy with it because they want that A or the B. They can then still go to high school, be very well prepared. They can go into Spanish one. they can go to the honors program and they're more prepared. So, as we look and again I go back as superintendent in my mind I go
075back to where we are right now with our reading and math scores for our 504 and IEP kids. We have no choice but to find a way to get them more intervention time. That's just a fact from the state and finding the resource to do that is difficult. this is one option, the strongest option that recommendation that came back to us. Um, but that doesn't mean there's not significant value in this program and it doesn't mean that we don't look for other ways to go forward into the middle school and do a better job of really strengthening the program and preparing those students for more rigorous content than they have now. Right? And that was sort of a demand of mine because if we're going to get to conversational Spanish by the end of middle
076school, how do we do it? Right? And to answer your question, I have no doubt there's a benefit to children in the grade schools, you know, learning Spanish, even if it's just 25, 30 minutes a week. Um, it just comes back down to resources. So again, it's one of those difficult decisions for time. It's a resource thing. Where do we get that that time to meet these needs at? And in middle school it's only one semester quarter that they have Spanish. It's a quarter I believe through pre eighth grade. It's a semester. So what we'd like to do is eventually go through the process of the curriculum committee with Dr. Enight and the middle school um instructor as well as the principal and the board and create that one full year. You know, but there's
077always moving parts. If you if you increase something, yeah, something has to give. Then something somewhere has to give. Yeah. Or those students take a year, but then they're opted out of something else. And there's solutions to all these things. Just like a grading scale, there's solutions. Collaboratively, we'll find them. Um, and this has been the best solution that's been brought to us in order to meet those needs. Other questions? So, so my question would be um preparedness for high school. How does the the reduction in elementary affect preparedness for high school? I I appreciate that, you know, we'll be looking into, you know, ways to improve the middle school program, but will they be equally the students be equally prepared for high school with the reduction elementary? Will we be able to fulfill that
078at the middle school? Yeah. When we look at what high school Spanish one is and what they learned up to in in K or 1 through fifth, that won't have any impact. It's it's very surface. It's important, but it's um it's a it's exploratory. So, it it doesn't have the impact that if you like you said, you had an immersion or you had every day you had 30 minutes of it, it would be it would be a different discussion. Okay. Yeah. I think the way it was presented what you do at the middle school will far better prepare the person in Spanish in the middle school to get the conversational Spanish by the high school. But there is a chance that since you don't have it introduced schools unless they're interested and so um that
079is that is always a possibility there too, right? But I think it's how you change the curriculum at the middle school as it was presented to us is that's that that's what really affects driving conversational Spanish by the time they reach high school. So you say interest is it not mandatory then in the middle school? Once one semester. Okay. Yeah. But what we would like to do is take those students who really want to pursue, right, that foreign language and give them a year of of instructional everyday Spanish. Other questions, thoughts? I mean, it's hard to say we're going to give more time for interventions for the students with IEPs and also extra library time when we're just looking at 30 minutes. It will have to it'll it'll be not individualized, but there will be
080certain students that in order to get the extra intervention time, they're going to have to lose some time other places. And that'll be based on an IEP. That'll be based on performance. Not all 504 students do bad in reading and math. Many of them do really well. But we have a a new program that we're going to be using that allows us to see exactly every kid where they are and what they need to improve on, what is the the um skill set that they're weak on. and it gives you who to pull in, how it it'll allow us to do that better than just a everybody who didn't score this, you're getting an intervention. So, there may be some students that get an extra um you get that extra library time, but some students
081that are really struggling will make the decision to give them the extra help in reading maybe one-on-one or with math. So again, getting it more into an individualization of how we do education. And it goes back to when you look at children, everyone's different. How do we grade? A straight 9010 doesn't work. A straight multiple choice test doesn't work. It has to be different. And that's where education's going is that diversification, not just in interventions, but your whole educational experience. Every kid's different. So there will be differences based on the need of that student, the data that we have, other thoughts. Okay, back to the question. We have a motion to approve the discontinuation of elementary Spanish. Motion second. Milfeld, yes. Shoefeld, yes. Stansbury, yes. Johnson, yes. Casey, yes. Quinn, yes. Schwarz, yes. Motion passes.
082That moves on to 94, approving the position of shared services director of buildings and grounds. Yeah. So, this is a position that we've been talking about. Um, there were some things that had to take place at the other district before we could bring it forward and kind of flush it out. The idea of going to a shared service director building and grounds is that it's going to allow us again to more unify how we do things. And what I mean by that is share equipment, buy the chemicals, uh lawn services, all those types of things now come underneath shared services. Salary is a 60/40 split. Um it provides a a additional coverage of an additional person between both schools. So when we look at the position, we're excited about it because when Mr. link came
083into district 2, he was able to save us hundreds of thousands of dollars simply by doing things in a systematic way. Now that we can spread that over with 157, one of the things that we run into is, for instance, we have a a grasshopper lawn mower. It's 22 years old that they're 30 $40,000 new. Yeah. Um we have we probably need about 50 $60,000 in in equipment. we don't need to purchase that under a shared service because we have that equipment already purchased. Yeah. Um at 157. So that's another example of two districts coming together, sharing things that we should be sharing in in a manner that falls under shared services. So I'm excited about it because I think we're going to see um more savings. uh we're going to see uh increase in
084in available equipment, manpower, and those things to maintain our buildings. And and you know, we have an older middle school, and it takes sometimes everybody we have on a cold winter day to get the boilers going and get all that other stuff. So, I've given you the cost assessment um of what the savings will be. Uh I've given you the the flowchart as well as um uh the information about Mr. Wink. So my recommendation is right now it's just the approve. Right now what we're doing is approving the position 157 already approved that we approve the position then we will discuss the person. So that's what this is now. Now now with the shared service what comes with it um is an additional what I call a swing person. and they go from district to
085district. Uh so if someone calls in or they're sick or we're short somebody at RGS, we have that person who's highly skilled to get over there and fill in. Um there's a lot of different uses that person could be. If we need that person at RB, it's a Friday, there's a lot of games going on. They'll be up at RB. Again, going to the director's position shared and then this swing position, you still save money um between the two because you go to a 6040 split in the salary. Uh the last 60% D2 40% 157. Yeah. And I've told you we that's a that's a something that does need to be looked at. Uh-huh. Um, but I'll say this, this is since oh, 2008 when we started shared services. This is the last um piece
086of it. Meaning that we put together our maintenance uh under a single director where we don't have to use engineers and all this to fix things. you've now created a system that when the eventual consolidation of both districts does occur and it will eventually someday um you streamlined it. It's one more thing that's been streamlined and doesn't have to be you know addressed at that time either. So that's what we have it my recommendation is that we move towards this and um I'd be glad to answer any questions or any discussion on it? Is there a reason this is coming up now as opposed to years prior? Yeah, that's a good question. Something that had happened. So 157 um each system was completely different and 157 recently had the openings meaning that the person or
087people that were in those positions left and so they're open. So the best time to make any kind of change with a shared service system is when one school district that personnel is gone because then you can now come in, analyze it, go through it, and you're not dealing with two directors, you know, and who's going to be the director. You have one that that's the timing of it. Well, I I really appreciate the cost breakdown and uh you know, it's nice when you can see you can gain the swing person. Um I know it's a real challenge with coverage, especially for absences and things like that. It sounds like this will really help. Um and I think you know anything we can do to increase the shared services especially with maintenance. Uh Chris has
088definitely demonstrated that uh he can bring savings you know throughout um I I just I think it is a a step in the right direction. Uh I do have a question on this uh the spreadsheet the JBT summer. Yeah. What is that? Because that's that's a major savings there. It's a huge savings. So we use a not at D2 although we do use JBT at D2 because what happens and just so you know JBT third party landscape lawn mowing company okay and it could be any that's just who we had used and that's why it's on there but we just didn't have the manpower at D2 to always get all the lawns mowed you know or keep up with it what because there's so much going on inside that we would have to call in
089a third party to do it. If you notice that price I gave you, I didn't give you the D2 price. Um, but I showed you what 157 spends. Okay? So, you're looking at a savings at 157 of around $50,000. It's summertime lawnmowing, landscaping, and upkeep because we don't need to necessarily call a third party to do that because we have the manpower and system to do it. Um, D2 relies much less on a third party, but still does. I do want to note this won't change our ability or our need to have a third party when it comes to plowing. So in the winter time with the large plowing of snow, we just don't have the manpower or equipment to clear out all those parking lots. So we still will be using a third party
090for that for now. Any other questions? Okay. So, we need a motion to approve the position of shared services building and grounds attended. Motion second. Melffeld, yes. Johnson, yes. Stanbury, yes. Shoefeld, yes. Casey, yes. Schwarz, yes. Quinn, yes. The motion has passed. That moves us on to 96. First reading of press policy update. I'm sorry. We have to go back to 95. Sorry. It It looks similar. That's why. So on 94, you'll see it's a director shar. I see. I see. So 95 is actually going to be hired by 157. It'll be a shared person back and forth. We will pay 60 the 60/40 split. This will be the person that goes between the different districts. Okay. So we do need to approve. We don't have anybody for that position, but we do need to
091approve it before we can So I think you just approved that one. And so we need a motion to approve the position of shared services director. Motion second. You can fight between whoever did the first. Mel, yes. Johnson, yes. Schwarz, yes. Shoefeld, yes. Casey, yes. Stansbury, yes. Quinn, yes. Motion has passed. All right. Now that moves us on to the first reading of the press policy update 118. Yeah. So, for any new board members, press policy is a service that we use through, I believe, the Illinois Association of School Boards. Their attorneys um go through every new law that comes out. They um will make changes to the policy. You'll see that in red letters. Red letters indicate those are the new things that have been changed in that law or policy. And then they'll
092submit it to us. Um, and then we have a first reading. Ask any questions, read through it. We'll have a second reading. Um, and upon second reading, if we approve, it then goes into our policy manual with the legal updates. There are are times though when if you see a policy that um is something that you may not agree with or you have question on, make sure we we discuss that. Let me know. I will also bring sometimes if something controversial will be there. I'll bring that to the board because although this is best practice, we don't have to as a district as long as we're compliant with law, there are some things within policy we can change to fit what the district wants in policy. Yeah. 99% of the time we follow best practice
093what the attorneys are saying, but occasionally to fit whatever it is we need in our school district, we can modify that policy. Any questions? It's a lot of reading. Just be forewarned for that. It's a lot. Uh, okay. That moves us on the committee updates 971 buildings and grounds. Do we have just the stair? Oh, yeah. The stair lift at SG that was completed. And and the the only thing other thing we're going to add to that, we'll be working this summer coming into August, and we've talked about it a lot. We have our 10-year life uh safety study, right? We have our priority A's. Those are things that we have one month or one year, I'm sorry, to fix. One month, and we have the majority of them taken care of. We're starting to
094work on some B's, priority B's, which are not as serious, three to five years. They need to be fixed. But moving from that, we have a long-term facility plan that we did prior to CO, right? As you know, after CO prices have skyrocketed. Our buildings have aged 5 years. So, building and grounds will be meeting through August, September to finalize that final long-term facility project with our engineers, with our our um architects and have new pricing. And then that could lead to other conversations as how do we meet these needs? So that's really what I think we'll be working on for the majority of the next four months. Okay. Any questions for Philippines? Perfect. Uh moving on. Uh 98 first reading of shared services job descriptions. Yep. Just first reading. These are job descriptions. Um
095we'll we'll approve them next month. Okay, that moves us on to 10. Close session to consider information pertaining to the appointment, deployment, dismissal, performance, discipline, compensation of employees of the district. Do we have items for close session? Two. Okay. So then we need a motion to go into close session. Second. Johnson, yes. Stansbury, yes. Stacy, yes. Mel, yes. Shoefelt, yes. Schwarz, yes. Quinn. Yes. Five minute break. Five minute break and we'll meet in the conference room. I got a lot. So,