001I would like to call to order this board of education regular meeting Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. And I have a roll call. >> Mrs. Lo here, >> Mr. Mrs. Mr. Barfield here, >> Mrs. Theodore here, >> Mr. Bardi here, Mr. I aliance to the United States to the republic for it stands nation under God indivisible state school inspiring for excellence and nurturing life. >> Now to celebrate the success like >> that's right. >> All right. Thank you. As you can see, we have quite the uh audience here today. Thank you all for coming out. Our first celebrate the success this evening is our preschool program, which is why we invited our preschool families out tonight. So, our preschool program was honored with the gold circle of quality through the accelerate Illinois program.
002So, that measures um things like excellence in teaching and learning environment, strong alignment to Illinois learning standards, and a few other things that they look for. And that is the highest rating. So, we're really proud of our preschool program and wanted to bring all of our preschool uh families here to celebrate that. So, let's give them all a round of applause. So, can I have everyone here stand up so we can take a nice picture with this? almost. Wow, that's great. Try to get a picture of all We have a special request. We want to see if all of you can just say your names for everyone here. Do you think we can try that? >> All right, we can try. That's okay. I want >> you want to tell us your name? >> Maybe
003I'll >> Should we start on the other side? >> All right. Don't you want to help us out there? We could start. >> Hi. Say hi. >> Hi. Say I'm Vinnie. I'm so I'm GG. >> No, this is Axel. Please take over. 16. >> Say, >> I'm your turn. >> Yes. Me too. >> I'm Ele. You guys did a great job. Take a photo with our preschoolers. Nice. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Mr. All right, so we're going to continue on with our second celebration for this month and that is that school was awarded the branching mindsum and so why were we recognized for that award? Um we showcase strong leadership and collaboration across our grade level teams. Um they we showed that there was some momentum that was
004built through a shared problem solving process that we do through our collaboration meetings and our uh data discussions to guide our student um learning through our intervention system and uh making sure that we're supporting everyone. So along with that, they uh are sending us a gift card to be able to treat our staff and also they're going to send us a banner that we can display outside as well. So just really proud of the MTSS work that we've been doing here at >> How many schools did they um they looked at for this? So I think they said there was about 120 schools that were looked at for this award and then there was a process where we had to submit some artifacts to show them the types of things we do. So we shared
005some of like our agenda templates and about how we have like MTSS for examp our our story and how we built our MTSS system and um we were chosen for that award. >> Just a as a reminder to the board, MTSS is the multi-tered systems of support, the triangle that we look at often where it talks about uh tier one being the curriculum that everyone has and then tier 2 a little more and tier three a little more than that. So I'm really proud of Lee School for being awarded and being recognized by R& minds for this momentum award uh for their leadership and collaboration towards grade level two. something to be really proud of. CONGRATULATIONS. >> OH, WAIT. There's more. We got one more to celebrate the success and that is to congratulate Mr.
006Saji on being named to the extraordinary educator class of 2026 through Curriculum Associates. Curriculum Associates is the company that um produces the I Ready program that we utilize. So, I'd like to invite Mr. Saji up because we have a little swag bag from the regular associates for him. >> And uh why don't you come take a picture over there and then we can get a picture with the the board as well. >> So, Mr. Si um why did they board you or recognize you? >> Um good question. I love So, I got a reference from Dr. grab viola a couple months ago and then there was like a a process to apply to become medicine. So I went through with that. I think they like looked at I already data and um they also looked
007at some of the essays I had to write up and got chosen. So congratul really really happy to be a part of this >> and this is another award where there are hundreds of applicants throughout the nation that apply for the extraordinary educator program and uh just and actually when uh and we had a representative from curriculum associates who dropped off the swag bag for you earlier today. Okay. So, this is the first time we've ever had backto back with a someone part of the leadership collaborative and the extraordinary educator uh program. So, that's very recognized last year when you did that trip to to Boston and spoken. So, >> well, congratulations. You can invite the board to take a picture with Mr. >> Yeah. >> Can you tell us all your name? That concludes
008our celebrations. We had three and really excited about all three of them. to action item. Consider motion to approve the agenda as modified. That modification being the removal of 16A. Uh all in favor say I. I. All post say nay. Motion passes. Recognition of visitors. Thank you to all visitors. Correspondence. Any correspondence? >> No, nothing. >> Public participation. Is there any participation for your requests? We have plenty. Uh, but they're all published at the district website and you can read them. are found there. Uh two presentations of that system by teachers. Well, thank you for allowing us this opportunity to come speak with you and talk about a system that we're looking at bringing to child school. We're always looking at uh new things that we can uh bring to enhance our programming, our our
009services at GIS and this is one area that we've been focusing on that we would like to uh explain to you. Uh so uh today I brought my building leadership team and I have my assistant principal and um I know you're going to introduce the building leadership team. >> Yeah. So first we would like to thank you all for your hard work that you put into this um over the course of the year and really looking at all the things that this will benefit throughout the building and the students. So first we have Mr. Daniel Nickerson who teaches seventh and eighth grade Spanish. We have Mrs. Smith who is our special education teacher. We have Mrs. Petraki who teaches seventh and eighth grade social studies. We have Mr. who teaches fifth and sixth grade social
010studies. And Mr. Kabora who teaches seventh and eighth grade social studies. I mean science. And we also have Miss Sao who worked on this. Our social worker cannot make it tonight. So that was our wonderful team who put the presentation together and really amazing work. So thank you. >> Okay. So um we wanted to start out with um telling you about why we would want the hall system. So first of all we have a hallway system right now. It consists of this piece of paper that we run off for every student in the school. So basically right now if they need to go somewhere they come up to the teacher um and they have us sign off um when they're leaving like the time and we put our initials and they go and they come
011back. Um at any given time there could be we have 32 teachers or 32 classrooms. So typically we will only allow one student to leave at a time unless there's some type of an emergency um or you know somebody has to go to the nurse, somebody's going to a different room. Um, so that means there could be 32 students minimally out in the hallway at a time, but there could be more. Um, so to us it seems almost more like a safety issue should there ever be some type of emergency. Um, because I would know that there's one student out of my room, but if there's um, god forbid like a some type of an emergency, we wouldn't be able to know everybody all at once. So, um, this would allow for administration to be
012able to see everyone all at once because it would all be on the computer because right now it's all based on paper in each individual classroom. Um, and so it would allow us to monitor the movement in real time. Um, it ensures a safer, more efficient, accountable environment. It reduces negative peer interactions. So, students that should not be in the hallway together because of some kind of conflict possibly, um, we can monitor that better. and it would reduce possibly the um washroom vandalism. We can keep track of that better knowing who is in at what times. Uh the important thing about this too is we are currently using PBIS reward system and it's something that the students are familiar with, teachers are familiar with, the families are familiar with doing this for many years. We
013already use it to award points to reinforce positive behaviors and things like that. It's used as part of our referral system. It's something that as teachers we already have up and going already. Um uh it kind of will help uh provide opportunities probably to explain more of that with that. Um just kind of it's something we already have in the system with it. So, this is a nice add-on that lets us take things out of like paper and get more digitally and provide a bit more privacy for students as well through this. >> So, with the installation of this new digital hallway feature, um this hallway pass feature um it will allow us to continue and expand on our current systems of accountability for students. Um then it this addresses the most commonly and frequently
014used areas in our building. This leads us to the rationale. Um so there are five key components. So the first one being real-time tracking provides a live snapshot of uh what passes are being uh are being used buildingwide. Um also just the reduction of hallway wandering and this is promoting the um the efficiency uh increased efficiency amongst students and maximizing student learning and instruction time. Um enhanced safety. So um promoting those opportunities in times of crisis or times of need. Um having this digital feature will allow us to access that data of where students may be. Um and then also just consistency amongst all grade levels which is very uh important to be consistent as a building. Um and then the data analysis. So if we need to fall back or refer to certain data
015points, uh we we we have that opportunity. And this all um again connects to our uh district goals um as far as a supportive and safe classroom and like I said maximizing student learning in the class instruction. Uh so we look at the benefits of imp implementation for students for staff for administration. Again, clear expectations. We have an understanding of where the students are because we're not just looking at a bathroom caps. We're looking at there's nurses visits, there's social work visits, there's they can to another classroom. So, there are many different places where students can be and we have the expectation that when they leave our classroom, that is where where they'll be. um flexibility. It's it it allows us to know they can go as wherever they need to, whenever they need to.
016I don't need to know how many times Sally went to the bathroom during the day. Again, it's not just a bathroom pass. It allows for student privacy. It allows for less disruptions in my classroom. So having a student bring up a paper pass, I have to stop what I'm doing. I have to look at my watch to see what time it is. I have to initial it out. And then I there's I have to keep kids in line of where like at what point do they need to go to the bathroom? So that's a disruption to my classroom already. So, this is simple as clicking buttons. We already have PBIS rewards up um for different reasons toward points um to check students in and out. So, we this is something again that we use all
017the time. Um cuts down on paper. We're making 130 copies every every month for students plus. Um so, paper usage is a big issue. We um this is going to encourage students to use their IDs more. They already needed to get into sporting events, to dances, they needed for lunch. This will encourage them to also wear it all day long because they needed to check in and check out of their classrooms. Um and RHS Ridgewood High School has this system already put into place. Um again, for us, it simplifies. We already use PIS. It's nothing that is new. Um, it's data points. It's less disruptive. And administration, they have everything already on a dashboard. They know where kids are. It's good data points. It helps with behaviors, um, collecting data, and again, I cannot stress
018this enough, increased safety measures, um, lockown drills, fire drills, like so we know where students are. There's always somebody that will know where they are. Right now, they sign a pass, they're going to the bathroom, like it's on paper. We have all access to this data now. So, we we would like to use the system because it's a system that we already use and it's as easy as going in their face. Um, it automatically uh lets you know where they're going to go. You can click that in there and they go. You can have it on a separate computer. You can have it on your app. Most teachers know how to use PBIS. So it will be a very quick turnar around in order to use this task system for them. Um it's it's just
019a very way so you don't lose any uh instruction. Of course you don't lose any instruction time while we're in school so they get the best education possible. And then so every day every student is expected to be Giles being a great making great decisions. Well, this is allowing them more flexibility. So, it's also allowing them to be more responsible going to their destination and returning uh a little bit more and it's holding them accountable and allowing them to be a little bit more responsible in that aspect. So, to get this going uh this implementation um go ahead and go forward with this. We want to do training as soon as we come back in January. Uh shouldn't require too much on the staff side because like I said, we said we've already been using
020the system. We just got to show people exactly which buttons to press, where to press it, what the robot with this, how to kind of use that part of it. It wouldn't take I expect very long to walk through that here. And we've also got parent communication that are ready to send out. that would also happen at this time. Uh once the training is taken care of, as soon as we're able to, we want to start rolling it out. We would like to just kind of roll it out with everyone at once. As the roll out happens, if people are using it for the remainder of this second trimester here, uh we'll collect feedback on what's from staff, students, what's working, what isn't, if there needs to be adjustments and things. And then start at
021trimester 3, we'll take a look at that, see if there need to be any changes, how things are going. But we expect it will come pretty smoothly and pretty uh we're expected to be a pretty positive system for us. >> I would like to add that they're middle school students. So, you know, middle school students say that they're going to go to the bathroom. Let's say they're a fifth sixth grade student. They go, we're expecting them to go to the fifth sixth grade bathroom and they choose to go to the bathroom by the gym, right? They're middle school students. They make sometimes poor choices. Uh and that's why we're here to to help support them. But that's why we have other resources at our disposal. Uh, you know, first of all, the length of time.
022If you know you're going to the to the bathroom that's the nearest to the classroom and you're at the go to a farther bathroom, they'll know because of of the time frame. It's going to be a greater time frame cuz when the student comes back in, they click the button and then that takes them off of the hallway back into the classroom which documents they were gone for 3 minutes or 5 minutes or whatever the the case uh the case may be. Now, we know if we have students that are gone for 10 minutes or more, we have something that we need to look at. If we have damage in in the bathroom, we can utilize our resources. We know, okay, we can look at who was in the bathroom, kind of have some investigation.
023Was there damage when you went, was there damage? Kind of pinpoint specifically when that damage occurred. We can look at that. We have our camera system. We have cameras throughout our facility, inside and outside our facilities. We can use our camera system to kind of go along with the time. If there's a potential issue or we, you know, a student is supposed to be using a specific bathroom and it's not at that location, we can utilize our camera system. We have the vape system that's in our in our schools that we can utilize to support our students, too. If there's a something that goes off, we can we can use that to pinpoint. So to me and to us, the building leadership team, this is just another tool at our disposal to help support students
024to make sure we're maximizing learning and keeping them in the classroom setting. Uh does anyone have any questions? >> Can you speak a little bit more on how the system works this slide and walk us through what that will look like? >> Right. So you can either choose to use the app or you can most teachers keep a tab open uh with their group and typically that every time a class changes you change your group with uh all the students displayed it's very easy to click on them uh set a destination for them and then they can >> so the student would come up to the teacher >> they would just let us know hey I have to go to the nurse I have to use the bathroom I need to go to this teacher
025u and then we can allow them to go uh based on the situation and then we would just simply click them and destination. >> It's the same screen that they use if uh teachers like you earn five points for being positive today. It's the same exact screen in the same way that they click their face. Um all of their photos from the year are uploaded and then instead of clicking points, they just click all pass underneath. So it's already the screen that they're using um daily in in every class. That's just a side button that says I'll pass instead of you earn five points for being positive. An example like that. >> Yeah, it's tied to their classes. So for Mr. Nickerson, let's say it's his 1A class. Then he has his one A class
026up that's already up. He can go on his computer, just click those students in his 1A. When he's in 1B, it automatically changes to to those students. Uh, another nice feature of this is let's say that Mr. and I shouldn't be in the hallway together because we just do not follow expectations while we're in the hallway. That's one thing that we can do. We can set a restriction in there that when I'm in the hallway, Mr. Nickerson is not allowed to be in the hallway. And so that if I put a pass in and he puts a pass in, whoever is that second would be denied. The nice feature about that is as what we've seen in past years through discipline proceedings that we've had is sometimes students plan things. students may not be in
027the same classroom. They may be in different classrooms, but at 1:00 we're going to go to the bathroom. And so that would eliminate that if we know that that students, those students are not students that should be in the hallway together. I would love to say we know everything, but we don't. It's a learning process throughout the year. We learn that, you know, maybe later on we find out that Miss Fig and Miss Petroski shouldn't be together. then we can add that later on throughout the school year once we learn that information. Um, we want to make sure that we're doing what's best for kids. We want to keep kids out of trouble and this is, I think, a tool that will help them keep them out of trouble. >> Quick question. Sorry. Good. So,
028quick question. How this works, I'm a student. I have to go to the I need to use the restroom. So, am I asking first or am I going straight to the computer requesting the bathroom and then telling the teacher and then the teacher hitting on their screen that it's okay for them to go? Is that how it works? >> So, I think I think teachers have they do it a little differently in class. Some teachers have the expectation if they see a student already out, the students know not to ask to go. So, if it's the first student who leaves the room, I think the teachers may have different answers when it comes to that. They may have a separate computer or they may not for the student to go up um or they'll have
029to use the teacher's only computer to use the >> for me for every teacher but for me I don't want to teach student session my computer they already know to so they request uh to use the restroom for me >> and then I allow them to go and then I would know that I don't have to >> so it's so student wants to go to the bathroom you said it's like timer is it I'm going to the bathroom it's a 5 minute check box that's all it is after that but it's just unlimited you just clock them out clock them back in so right now with this system only they only allow a student for a restroom or for other needs once in the morning once in the afternoon and of course during lunch this
030gives them more flexibility to use it more times than not >> sure >> um because we're not tracking it by paper it will just be a digital thing and clock in and clock out. >> It's on the teacher to clock the students in and out. >> Yes. Okay. And then I don't I don't think I got I understood the answer. Is when the student requests it, are they requesting it by walking up to the teacher, raising their hand or on their own lap on their own computer? Are they are they doing it? >> No, they would request it um either by raising their hand or walking >> whatever whatever the standard is in class. So instead of doing the paper, you had to go. Yes. >> And don't forget too, this is not just a
031bathroom pass. >> It's for the nurses office anywhere in the building, social work, like regular principal's office. >> So >> I think the most amount of phone calls that we get is when the bell rings and somebody's in the nurse's office and the bell rings and then they transition to the next class and then that teacher's like, "Where's so and so?" and they don't have that knowledge of where that student went. So then they're calling all around like where's this student and they just so happen to be in the nurse's office but there's no transfer of the information. Um so this will be the greatest benefit to them that I can see so far and I can see looking up Susie Snowflake and seeing that she's in the nurse's office because I can click on
032her face and see exactly where she is. So that'll that'll be really nice and it's timeconuming to look up a phone number or call wait for somebody to answer and somebody doesn't necessarily answer all the time. So that'll be helpful too as an administration. It's very simple like if if I want to get over here at airport and I see all the planes in the sky, right? It's pretty much what we see on our end is we'll see in the hallway. We'll see. We have 32 kids in the hallway and we'll see when they get checked in and checked out so that we know that, you know, they're they're at where they should be. If we see something that doesn't seem right, we're going to look into it. We're going to check into it. We're
033going to investigate it and hopefully everything's good. But if not, we're going to use our tools that we have, correct it, educate so that it doesn't continue. And if you restrict two students for going out at the same time when that specific student requests to go wherever on the teacher screen it'll show that they cannot go at that time. >> Yeah. It'll be a restriction because we've put a restriction in place regarding particular students. Absolutely. So when that one student, that first student there with gets checked back in, then that student would then be eligible to then go to the bathroom because we know that that student's now back in the classroom. >> So the teacher would have to be watching that. >> Correct. And the screen's already up, >> right? It's on our own
034physical computers. It's not projected on the board as we would. >> It's information that it's not hard to see. It displays it pretty easily. It's not something you have to hunt down and it's not something that's if you know what you're looking at it's fine but it's not something that's going to be like blazing either future over the years I've looked at different systems uh this system by far is the one that it would be the best because it's a system that our staff is already trained in. They already use it for multiple other areas as you've heard. Uh so it it's an easy it's an easy piece just to get uh put in place. Obviously we need to educate the students. We have a letter prepared that we're going to send out to uh
035to parents informing them of our new digital health pass system uh if approved and uh and go from there. But it's constant where we're going to evaluate it as you heard in our plan. Our plan is to make sure we want to make sure we're we're meeting the needs of the of the system. And if we're not, we need to figure it out, make adjustments. If we are good, it's doing its job and we're going to continue to do our job. >> Now, if the student leaves to go to the nurse, is the nurse notified to be expecting that? >> Yes. So, the nurse at her at her station has a computer, too. It would let them let her know that a student is coming because that student's name is up in the in that
036hallway chart area so that they know. And so then would she would then issue a pass back to class for that student. So that teacher then knows. So the teacher will know that the student got there cuz she'll click and then she'll send another pass issuing that kid back to class. >> Does it prompt that to the nurse or does it just show that student in the hallway? >> So in the in the main system, what you do next to the it says hall pass. Next to hall pass is a person and then there's three lines. You would click on those three lines and then you would see them running board almost like O'Hare airport. You see all the airplanes in the sky. You see all the people that are in the hallway and it
037lets you know bathroom. Oh, social work. >> So it doesn't prompt the nurse. >> Well, the nurse is talking to her. >> The nurse it doesn't send a message to her. No, it doesn't email or text her. Yeah. Doesn't do that. Okay. You're waiting for something like that. uh that the nurse like something telling the bathroom that that person would be notified that so and so that Billy's coming to you because >> we would have that on her computer but she wouldn't get a notification you said right? >> No, but she's at her computer unless she's dealing with the student crisis. >> Sure. >> But is there a way to maybe notify that so so they know to look for what she is? I don't think you could select just a nurse's office, but right
038now she doesn't know if kids are coming to her. They just show up at at her desk. So, she's kind of getting a a little benefit by having that screen up. If she's at her computer, she can see if somebody's on their way cuz right now they just show up at her desk with a written pass. So, either way, I don't think she's getting truly like a pro. >> Yeah. I just what if there's a way to say there's new technology put a proper to the students going. >> Yeah, that's something we can look and ask. The technology that goes through it could be many of the systems we can put features that you know that they don't have in place that we see as as a possible benefit. We can always recommend something like
039that and then it pick it could happen and it maybe it doesn't happen. It just depends on on the need that they see overall with their users. >> Is this something that substitutes would have easy access to as well or would there have to be a different system in place if there's a sub in the classroom? >> So our subs do have do have access to can have access to PBS rewards. The only thing that they can't do is they can't uh issue referrals. So a student a substitute can issue points for a positive behavior and a substitute can issue a hall pass but a substitute cannot issue referrals. >> Obviously this will be utilizing a system we have in place. Is there an additional cost for for this specific tax? >> So this year
040I've worked with the company and they're they're not charging us. We've been with the company for many years seeing that it's it'll be January. So there is no fee, but if this is system that we continue to use down the road as an add-on to what we currently use, there would be an additional fee for this uh service. >> You know what that is? Well, >> at the No, because they're still in the beginning. It's a with P rewards. This hall pass is a new s a new system to their current system. So they, you know, they want people to use it. They want us to give them feedback and and share it uh with them. So at this time I do not know what that what that rate would be for next year. >>
041April board meeting progress presentation >> if we move forward with this >> that decision hasn't been made yet moving forward with it. Any other questions? >> Yeah, I have one more. Sorry. >> It's okay. >> Is there any way So, I'm going to the nurse's office and I Is there when they get there like a check-in where you can say it took them 4 minutes to get to the nurse's office or is there any way or is it just I'm out when they get there? Is there a process where I leave the classroom? So you see that when I left the classroom, I get to the nurse's office. Is there a way that they can, you know, so you know the time of when kids are getting and leaving? >> There's always a countdown. So
042from the moment a pass issue, the timer begins. Okay. >> Then when the when the individual, so for the nurse, you you leave the classroom, you go to the nurse, the nurse would check in, that timer would stop, the nurse would then issue a pass back to class, new timer would start. Now bathroom would be different because there's no one on the other end issuing a pass. So it gets issued uh the timer starts when they return the a button gets pressed the timer stops. >> Gotcha. Are there any other schools in the district or area surrounding that use this? >> Richmond High School uh is is using it. Um I'm not sure about Penoyer or um or Union Bridge. >> Okay. I I was >> anyone like surrounding even like that district. >> No.
043Just curious. >> I I did not look into park bridge or anyone or park. I didn't look into >> Did you speak like Bridgewood's not even the system but something similar? something similar to using a digital hallcast system. Yeah, >> this is very new for PBIS which is as as they mentioned the system we've been using for uh probably the last four years and um referrals check and check out that all goes through. So there's there's a plethora of data that we can get out of this. So this would be another piece of of data. So could, you know, on the administrative side, Mr. Becki look at a report every month that says, you know, Susie Snowflake was took 10 minutes every time she went into the bathroom, 15 minutes. That's possible. It wouldn't be
044something they'd be looking at on the daily, but that is something they can look at the at the on the high level and see what's going on. And certainly with the a pass that goes somewhere, social work, the nurse, you can see that time when the student comes back, but you couldn't look back or that if they go to the correct place. >> Any other questions? Okay. Thank you all very much. Thank you for your time. Thank you. When would this be? >> So would we position my approval not your approval? You know, I hope that doesn't. >> Okay. >> Then we would be looking in January, >> but we just got the last month. that >> you can think. >> No, I'm just thinking like the only down like what are some downfalls, right?
045I mean, at the end of the day, it's you really didn't acknowledge what >> the challenges are. >> Yeah, the challenges are. And I'm only concerned is if I really need to go to the restroom and it says I can't because Jimmy's at the same time we're not supposed to. And Although you can't really do a >> Well, it's possible. You're right. It is possible. >> One's at the nurse and the other needs go back. >> I don't think >> it's also not a a failsafe system. Like we >> there are sometimes that are stu that students meet up that we don't even know would meet up, >> you know. So there there's that issue too. Mr. Becky, any other challenges that you'd like to share? I mean, as we as we once we begin
046using the program, I'm sure we'll learn uh challenges. Uh but that's why as a team, we want to be able to have those discussions and kind of figure them out so that we can we can put a solution to any challenges that we have. Again, it it's not going to be perfect. We're not going to be perfect. We're going to figure it out. But at the end of the day, what I think the best thing about the program is that it's making students accountable for themselves. If I know that I have a timer and I'm going to the bathroom, then I'm going to go to the bathroom. And each person is different. It may take me a little longer in the bathroom than it takes you in a little longer in the bathroom. But if
047I'm there for 10 minutes or longer, right? Then that's something that could be like, what's going on? We need to make sure that you're not distracted. You're not spending a long time at the drinking fountain. And that's why we would utilize other resources such as video camera to kind of figure that out and and put a stop to that. >> Right? You wouldn't know that unless you're pulling reports on that. So like um you know when I look at it, you know, couple to me is is when they say it's, you know, disruptive in class, it's the same really. They're walking up on a piece of paper, they have to sign, they have to pack, they have to go to the computer, they have to click it. So that's still going to be the distraction.
048I like the fact that what you said about bell rings, we don't know where the next kid is. That makes completely sense. I mean, I see that. And traceability. Um, but in regards to still going to be a distraction because the teacher still has to control it, go to the computer, even if they have it up, stop, do, you know, click it, you know, click them back in. It' be nice to have a timer on there if it starts going off after 5 minutes, right? say all right the student hasn't been back in 5 minutes rather than you know them coming back 10 minutes yeah >> it just takes hold I think April give three about 3 months to see how >> good reports >> and obviously my recommendation is when you when you put
049it out to the parents to to explain it because it's you know a control thing I don't know it might be look at a different you parents might be alert. So weary about this whole thing, you know, >> it's tracking >> if I may if I may say >> and it's I mean it's >> Yeah. No, I mean so that's kind of >> as long as expectations are being followed then we have no issues. It's when we have vandalism, right? Then what what we currently have to do is I have to go to the junior high teachers. If it's a let's say it's a seventh eighth grade student, I have to go to those teachers and say, "Okay, I need everyone to look at your hall pass. Who was at the bathroom from this time
050to this time?" I don't have to do that. I don't have to contact all the teachers. I go into the system. I see, okay, here's the time frame. We start pulling kids. We start having conversation. What do the bathroom look like? Kids talk. You know, if you didn't do it, you're going to be honest and you're going to say, you know, what you what you witnessed. We piece all that together. We kind of pinpoint to where we are, what what happened. And then what we do if we can pinpoint, we currently have some kids that are vandalizing the bathroom. We pinpoint who those kids are. We put a restriction in place for these students. These students can still use the bathroom, but now they're using the nurse's bathroom. They have to come to my office
051and go to the nurse and use the bathroom right there. And when they get out of that bathroom, the nurse goes in, checks, okay, you're good. You can go right back to class because they've set themselves up for that. You know, now when they can prove to us that they can follow expectations and and be a good school citizen, then they get they they get privileges back. So, we're never going to deny them, but we're going to find an alternate location for them to do that. I truly can care less when people go to the bathroom. With the paper system, they really can go once in the morning and once in the afternoon. However, if there's an emergency, right, you're going to go, right? And the teachers know if the student says, "I need to
052go," then they're going to go. This system it you can go if you have to go three times, you may not be feeling well. You may, you know, the the flu is going around. Uh you may be sick. You you go to the bathroom three times, four times, it is what it is. As long as you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, there's no issues. It's when you're not doing what you're supposed to be do doing, that's when we have a problem. >> Yes. chargeable. So, I'm trying. So, with the paper, you're only allowed to go twice a day. With with the system, you can go as many times as you want to. >> Does that make sense? Cuz it's just a restriction of the paper. Then, this should be >> So, what I'm
053saying is this. So, student, we want to make sure students are are in the classroom. Some students will abuse the system. Not all students, but we have to put systems in place so that students know student goes to the bathroom, you have to go to the bathroom. We're not going to deny you to the bathroom. But if you know, okay, I can go once, I can go in the morning, I can go in the afternoon, then then you can go. We're not trying to make things difficult. We're just trying to keep you in the classroom. We're trying to keep our building clean, and we're trying to keep people safe and make good choices. I mean, that's simply all it is. It's not a people with the pass with the paper passes go to the bathroom
054more than once in the morning. They currently do it. All right. >> But what we tell them is you go once in the morning, once in the afternoon. But does that really No. But majority of the kids will follow those expectations. I got you. >> Okay. >> On to the George School District B facility plan and summer 2026 work review. >> Yeah. So I Mr. sellers who is our supervisor of buildings grounds and maintenance is going to introduce our brand new architect that I think only I think maybe only Mr. members I met. So meet you guys. Um so I here to introduce Mike. He is the lead associate with architects and engineers. We've been working together with the building facilities assessment and uh here is no problem. >> Um yeah, Mike Iorn uh with
055architects engineers. As you may know, we were uh hired by in June through a selection process and we've been our first endeavor here was to complete a facility assessment of your schools. Um and we started that in July and have gone through the fall and tonight is really the result of that. W Architects is a full service company architects engineers uh so that full gamut of services was provided as part of this assessment. Um, Wool really believes as a company to become part of your community, uh, to really get to know you better, become part of your family, and you'll be seeing me a lot more, maybe almost too much to go away, but I will be coming back to you with updates throughout the years, uh, with project updates and and bid results that
056we have here. Um, so the the facility assessment, uh, it's really a 10-year road map for the district for your two facilities. Um, it's a living document, so it'll be updated every year, you know, coming back to yourselves and and showing you what's the progress that's been made. Um, it really lays out your budgets for the facilities. It's it's that's with the critical part is to get ahead of your improvements so that you're not constantly putting band-aids on things or getting to a point where there's an emergency and then you're spending that much more money trying to patch something. So, it's really ideas to get ahead of it. And the assessment kind of ranks prioritizes um you know over the next 10 years what should be done first. We're working we've been working closely with
057with Michelle, Kimmy, and Derek also to look at what types of funding will be available over the next few years and then further out some strategies of how we can potentially improve this. So, uh the condition assessment here you can see and also on your laptops the same thing. Uh we really look to go from the outside in. So, we look at the exterior, the pavement, the this the grass in your courtyard here, um the railings, the the ramps, um the masonry, um brick work, the roofs. Um and then getting into the interior, all of your classrooms, the flooring, the condition of the ceilings, all that. I'll get into some examples. Um accessibility is is some a challenge here at least. So, you know, we thought about that solve that uh light safety, you've heard
058about that over the last few years that was submitted uh to the uh um and so you have 5 years to complete those items. There's there's a few left down there. We have this as part of this mechanical electrical pump and some are. So, as you know, the building here ranges from 58 to 67 years, which sounds like a lot. It is a lot. Um, but they've been well maintained. Um, you know, you come in, they're fresh and they're light. And I think, you know, that's the testament to Derek's work. um you know with the heating cooling and keeping up with that. So they're not in poor condition in any way, but there are areas that are more critical that building up to kind of rough today versus back. So that shows the the areas
059and you can see those little triangles all around that's really identifying there's going to be plans that you'll receive that identify you know X1 is here X12 is there so you can see specifically plan and then there's budgets that's associated with this. So the classroom improvements, it really when districts look at this, what they look at is trying to establish a standard so that the finishes when you walk through your schools, you feel like it's a consistent feel for your buildings that not one has got more with the other one or behind you haven't thought about is really how can we start to standardize the finishes. So with Lee, you have the ceilings, the doors, the kind of the entrance of the classrooms that are not ADA accessible. Um you have some hooks and shelves
060and whatnot that need to really be improved and bring you know some proper cubbies so that things are stored correctly rooms. All the woodwork again is is delaminating in some cases. You really can't just paint it. it just, you know, it's not something has to be. Um, so that sets out the scope and that would be to classroom. The toilet rooms haven't really been touched. There's in some cases are not accessible. Uh, just general finish that needs to be upgraded. that some exhaust fans need to be replaced and added in some cases. Uh in this room here, the gym floor is kind of planned to be refinished. The bleachers uh you know the the original ones in some cases to pull out. So proposal we can put new ones in that are motorized just less,
061you know, take down and and set up condition, you know, safer, a little faster. um look at, you know, using this space potentially as a performance space. So maybe the bleachers could be higher, you know, get more people in the audience and kind of think about this as a performance as well. Right now basketball um the walls here some point above there. It's not the structure. We want to make sure that it's up to par. Um the uh the LMC next door here, it really needs to be refinished and you know a future ready situation there. So this is like it's a destination really looking at how you can predict zones within the space. story zone or a little STEM area or you know just yeah there's there's ways to lay out the LC that's
062going to be more attractive and more conducive to the teaching uh the exterior uh the point stone is kind of on the edge of being I think it's especially school very high priority the tough showing that this building is is in is in need of building the brick. It's the most important component on the exterior. Joint sealant. That's something caul is something like nobody really thinks about, but over the years it just needs to be stripped off. You want us to spend money on a lot of the stuff cuz you know, you don't walk up to a building and say, you know, break out of your building, but it's critical to to the overall your assets. These are assets the school district has to maintain. Um, and then the roofs uh are in general good
063condition, but we need to be planning that for the next 6 years to replace them or restore them. There's different methods where you don't necessarily tear it all off. You can restore the membrane. Um they're kind of like dog house uh kind of duct covers, metal covers that were put in as part of your um your abatement acoustic abatement for later. Those are rusty. The exterior of the courtyard high use playground recess every day. A lot of foot traffic. So looking at providing new asphalt potentially like a artificial turf which is becoming a lot more popular because there's no maintenance and it drains better kids in there. There's a button for that. Uh so ADA the building here is not accessible. uh you get in the front door, but there's kind of two wings here
064that don't connect. Um going down over here, there's a set of stairs. There's kind of a handicap lift there, which really, you know, the new school, most schools are taking those out. They're not like repairable. In some cases, the equipment is just not been the lift company isn't even business. We can't replace it, but it's really not a good practice to put those in. And when it comes down, it's somewhat you want to create an equitable route for all students. So one is seen as student seen as getting in the way or takes you know 20 minutes or half hour to get to his or her class. So there's a budget in there to build a new elevator here. Um and also to link the two sides of that bridge that the second floor mechanical
065systems uh electrical panels need to be upgraded the toilet that replaced um it's all about air quality to help the environment for students. Outdoor air is very critical. There's so many studies that talk about the amount of fresh air things that nobody wants to see it but you know sort backs up all so the total cost here uh again kind of creating a couple buckets here one of the five years you have 6.2 2 million 6 to 10. Most of those items are at the six year uh 5.5 million and then the total 7 that includes escalation every year inflation takes the cost of 34%. The life safety which you were aware of is 27,000 that's not. So you've done a great job and your team addressing all those. And then um when we talk
066about funding you know you have different funds right you have 120 6090 uh so 190 is the life safety fund and with that you would submit to for life safety um bonding capacity and um so looking at that list life safety eligible uh for amendment is really you a large majority of that um almost half $6 million could be eligible for fire prevention funds. These are uh I would say interpretable meaning that they weren't on the original life safety list. They weren't that high critical but they could be going forward. you start to clip those in and start to as as materials and things become at the edge edge of their life then those become life. So it's another funding source obviously >> funding question. So the diet school uh ages are 60 to 76
067and um the original one which I'm sure you probably there was the 1949 the original schoolhouse there >> that's the main the main building >> the main kind of masonry That 76. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> Well, like we're in 25 right now and that was 29. It's almost 100. >> You probably just thought of 49. >> Definitely. But the main part is in >> it is in there. So we did get that. Um but you can see there in the pictures there's a brick facade and the windows brick is a project for next summer which I'll get into. So again the classrooms original uh we've got original sinks in there but they're not accessible. are hiding another kind of edge of their head stand that up. Might be able to replace that with
068flexible furniture rather than sliding doors and things you get your fingers caught in that are not. You do want to note these pictures are mostly taken in the summer. So when you see something like a garbage can sitting on top of the thing, that's not the school. >> Yeah, good point. >> Um Kyles, you're aware that there's a wood ceiling um that is going to be planned to be covered um provide fire barrier and then toilets saying a high priority there to you know create basically kind of a pressure environment and also create a you know supervisable let's say writer that you replace the stage in front of the safe. There's doors underneath there that are not part of life to replace those doors properly. I think it's important to note too about the bleachers
069specifically at Giles when we have so many sports events there when we pull those bleachers out which they they are difficult to come out um there aren't any brave you know so when people are trying to climb up them um it's difficult you know when we're expecting parents grandparents to come in and and climb up to the top of them that's that's a It's a difficult situation that we're in. They're very >> Yeah. You want to be able to put on >> and little railing system >> railing system. And then same thing with the seats. >> Can I just remind you that that is recording? >> Oh, yeah. >> You make sure you talk loud enough. So, I think I probably >> is it back. >> No, just just make sure you're talking loud enough.
070That's okay. >> Uh, >> thank you. >> So, the cafeteria, uh, this is a project potentially for next summer. Again, I'm looking at funding for that, but you know, new flooring, new ceiling height, and potentially new cafeteria tables. And then, uh, same thing for the roof. You're also looking at provide overflow. So there's no overflow drains which is the main drain is blocked by code that secondary that's not necessarily high priority. Um but we do want that. Okay. So on the east side of the building, the brick is failing. So we have to replace that brick next summer. Um pulling away from the building um not tomorrow. So we do fix it today, but you do need to do it next summer. And that's kind of in the picture there. >> Yes. stays in the
071courtyard area. This uh the board has approved the initial um piece of this although there is a second approval tonight with some additional work which we'll talk about. >> You can see definitely doing in this picture you can see how there's a it almost looks like the window is moving back but it's actually the brick is coming forward. >> Yeah. So that'll be taken down. So we have a brick that's going to match that and um and then just a point in that whole area. >> I mean, at this point, we're about an inch and a half, almost 2 in pulling away. >> Yeah. So, inch and a half, 2 in. Once it gets to 3 in, that's where it become. It is. It's hard to see on in this picture, but it is like
072that wall around that section of >> Yeah, >> it's actually much larger than our initial look of. >> Yeah, that picture actually is the front that we're looking at on the circle. >> But for tuck pointing planning over the next season, six years, we have that on the schedule to do essentially the majority of the building. Okay. All right. It's all asphalt that consider um mechanical electrical plumbing. There are sinks there that were from the original kindergarten building. So basically that needs to be renovated, replaced or taken out. And then there's also air handlers and pumps that place that fail exhaust fans pumps water and LED lighting. So the total here cost estimate for the whole work um you're at 9 million on the first 5 years is the 3.4 10 again almost headed that
073six year range 5.6 six and um the life saves still remaining 200 over 200,000 work which you have years. Uh and then of that again I kind of went through the list the ones that would be eligible for life safety fire prevention funds. Again it's relying on the approval of Disney but given that these components primarily have to do with property maintenance. So the condition of things that over the next 5 years that's the summary of Giles and any questions about that >> I'm just surprised to see that this one came in at night came in given that this school is much old or Giles is much older than >> Giles. Yeah, the age is, >> you know, the age is they're older. Correct. Um, again, both schools have been continually kind of improved. Here
074at Lee, the courtyard is at a large expense. >> And then the elevator link the second floor that picks up that's picks up the difference there. >> The Giles noise abatement project was done four or five years after the Lee one, too. So, they did a lot of other upgrading, not just blocking and noise, but they did, you know, electrical systems and air handlers there. So, there was it's a it's a little bit newer upgrade than this building, too. So a little more picture and then there's all kindases need to be replaced. the fact that you know that's critical that um there's also the other fac Um the stone is deploying on the bottom with the steel being cap. It's not so catching some bottom ling. >> And it does look like there was some
075patching done to that at some point. Yeah, I think uh some kind of additional mort. >> So, this will be completely removing that limestone, cleaning that all up, replacing the bricks that are missing. >> Yeah. >> Hoping we're not finding anything else in there. But but like you said, the steel beam seems to be intact. >> Yeah, steel beams >> that's holding that up. >> Clean that all up and then putting all that back together. Now, this project has some money in the DCO grant. Um because if you recall, the DCEO grant that came from um the state was for Giles infrastructure. So about $35,000 of that was put towards this. This is actually going to cost more than that, but that is what we projected at the time um for the brick work that's
076being done. >> Yeah. And the picture here, this is just you can see this stone. Again, it's not doing it next summer is is just in time. And you can see here some patching and whatnot. But on the long-term list, you also see on the right here the stone limestone that can be power washed and kind of clean that up a little, but does need to be replaced. All these joints need to be resealed. Um, so that's part of the the long plan. Again, it's something that hasn't been addressed for many years and thousand time towards that. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Can I just go back real quick? This area that Mike mentioned here with the ceiling, we've talked about the wood ceiling quite a bit. We're just looking at kind of finalizing our options
077with that. We haven't brought that to you yet, but we'll we'll be working on uh we're still looking at three options. The one of painting with a paint that is fire rated, putting up drywall, um or looking at a drop sign. We have to examine those. say >> um above that we actually don't believe there's a spec. >> However, the >> the wood the deck is resting on that wood. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> The the um >> the wood is you can't just cut it out. No reason to. So, we're >> like there was some ideas to try to raise the ceiling, but you know, we're looking at closer, but there's a couple options whether it's a the very lower end to kind of refinish it. Um, and then you get into like drywall
078kind of finish, >> which has its challenges because drywall that's in and that long of a hall of a run is just going to look buckled or or look sagged at some point, you know? So, why not be the best option is probably the middle cost option. And then the other one is to put a drop ceiling like a 2x2 acoustic ceiling with new lighting and that'll allow a space above the ceiling to run if you need to run additional wires or um Wi-Fi. You can do that. >> That's the ideal place. >> Is it already a low ceiling over there? >> It is, but it's not. Yeah, we would need 2 in probably clearance. We would need two in uh inches of clearance for a drop ceiling or uh you know drywall would be
079pretty much almost right up right up to it. Maybe 1/2 in gap you know the drywall. >> So it will be lower. I mean the lighting we'll put lighting in. maybe think of a way to give it some design so that it doesn't look so um but you know think about kids they it's all relative right they don't ceilings are higher low higher than that lower >> thank you >> so the next steps you'll get a copy of the full report and then like I mentioned before has been submitted and um the project is already ready to go for 2027 and then 2028 talk about some potentially some work for the cafeteria. Well, thank you so much. um follow up with any questions with Michelle and um we're going to continue to work with Derek
080and his team be coming back here in February with the bid results for the tough pointing and then asking for your approval um awarding those projects in March and then um updates to bring those forward. Thank you. So, we did propose to add. So, when we when we brought you the proposal for the port, which was about 183,000 in some changing um and then what we decided to do is take the state maintenance grant that's just opened up and take that that's a $100,000 grant, $50,000 from the district, $50,000 from the grant to add in some tiny work. For example, that wall that they are looking at doing the work on here at Giles, they can do that work. They're going to take those bricks out. They're going to put new brick in, which is
081just a fascinating process. They look at the different shades of color with that brick and then make a, you know, a sample like, you know, 82% of the brick is this color and 10% of the brick is this color and they make it match. Um, but the rest of the wall up there wouldn't match that unless we tuck point the whole wall, right? So now tuck pointing that whole wall is going to add about $80,000 onto the project. So we don't have to tuck point the whole, but then it won't look uniform and it won't look nice and done well. So we decided to um ask for your approval tonight for the state maintenance grant to go towards tuck pointing. about 40,000 of it will be that wall about 37,000 miscellaneous tough pointing which we'll
082look at on uh on the bid. >> Yeah. >> On the more priority areas and do that. So a lot of um tuck pointing just the thing. So Giles will be probably under that construction from the day we get out of school up until >> Yeah. I you know um you know we're looking for an opportunity we can do work obviously start most of it school and there's anything we can do ahead of time we'll try to coordinate that try to get a couple days >> we just can't be taking down break >> thank nothing said that we didn't expect or but it's I think the biggest thing is is how you pick those those dollars 9 million 11 million 20 million over the next week 5 years or whatever that is on paper. So
083that's going to be >> well I mean I I'll make two points to that. Um, one point is that had nothing to do with reunifying the school also. So, do keep that in mind. That's not the prettiness that you see in some other buildings. Second thing is we did anticipate that we were going to be able to do an amendment for life safety dollars for the new maps at Giles. The state did deny that and being life safety. So, as Mike mentioned, as far as the funds go, we were hoping to use money in life safety, which is fund 90 for that project, which wasn't a lot of money, but like money, right? It's $8,600, and the state denied that. So, I think it's important, as Mike stated, we're estimating $6,000 of the 11 million
084might be able to go into 90, but it might not. Also, we're really at at the mercy of what the state is going to approve. We did buy the mats out of out of 60 because we needed them for jobs for safety for the basketball games. But I believe if I'm explaining this well, the way that the that um Illinois State Board of Education looked at that is the mats are an addition that we put onto the space. Now, they're for safety, but they didn't feel they were necessarily fire prevention safety money could be used towards that. So that's an just an important thing we need to keep in mind as we look at that money and how we're going to move forward with budgeting is that as Mike mentioned in the plan, you know,
085we can look at approximately 6.8 million of the 9 million of being out of life safety funds. Um but then if we put the amendment through and if he doesn't approve it, you know, and if we put the amendment through and if we does approve it, we need to do it. >> It's a five life safety is going to be 5 years. >> So that's a life safety uh list that we do five years. >> We did it early if you remember in order to try to kind of get ahead of things. So really, this is $24,000 at Giles. I think it's $24,000 at the We We don't have a lot left on the life safety plan. We've been doing well with that. And I and I agree with my guy Derek and his team
086taking care of um a lot of a lot of things themselves. I mean, my goodness, over Thanksgiving break, they replaced a pump that was like larger than than they were, pulled it off somehow and replaced it themselves. something that would have cost the district thousands of dollars if we would have had someone committed to it. 24 just cont my exper but I mean outside of that I just what's to be remembered is even a 15y old school it's a 15 15y old school is going to have a lot of things you said roof you have to maintain your roof that's not just as old school uh asphalt as pumps fixtures all that stuff. So I mean absolutely you look at this vast majority is even new schools have these things that keep coming up so
087>> replacing something that's 15 years old versus something in some cases almost 100 years old. Oh yeah, but most of the vast majority of this is Yeah, this is one of those things I think we're going to look at, okay, what's considered life safety that needs to be done and then look at everything as a whole and say how we can fund it where how and I think a presentation like this should be to the community, right? No one really comes to these meetings and you know it needs to be addressed because it needs to get done and it needs to be paid for. So how are we going to do that? I that's the biggest and the community needs to understand is that we're not trying to beautifification, right? These are stuff that needs
088to get done >> and it's still going to be 100 school in the end. brought this right building. >> It's so huh it's nostalgic though. >> You know, Giles was was given a historic stateligible >> but is important to note to that point. um Mr. Trabisio that the plans that we'll put together for that can of labor do meet those needs >> that keeps the aesthetic and keeps that limestone and keeps that look. That was the point of the historical. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank youelcome. administrative reports. >> I just had actually one thing to uh to mention to the board today different from my discussion items. We did learn uh yesterday that Darlene Leen, some of you may have heard of that name before. She was a teacher here for 35 years
089at the school. Uh she passed away. So I wanted to share that. Um and also that uh Wendy Shrink also who was a teacher here at the school uh 35 years about has also also passed away previous I let the board know that already. Um Darlene Leman interestingly her husband also will Leman uh those of you that might have gone to Giles might know him. He was the industrial arts teacher at Giles for many many years Mr. Leman. Um and his he and his wife met here in the district when they when she was teaching and then we started the industrial arts program. Um and they met and found fell in love and ended up getting married and then his sister also Gussy Pan worked in the district as well. >> She was a PE
090teacher. So she uh Darlene has has passed away. So, just want to mention that to >> Thank you. >> special education, Mr. Masters. >> Yeah. So, just a couple of quick notes for us. Um, so the first thing is our multilingual department is actually hard at work preparing for access testing. Um, just as a reminder to the board, an the access testing is basically something that we require all of our English language learners to have as an assessment that's per Illinois uh Illinois requirements. So, we are making me we are measuring our students growth in their speaking, listening, reading, and writing really determining what the eligibility for those services moving forward. So, already well underway with that. Um, we're also doing some preparation with Ridgewood High School to do some of our transition meetings. Um,
091I know I've spoken about this in the past, but at 14 and a half years of age, we have an obligation to make sure that our students are actively participating in their post-secary planning. So, we already partner with Rididgewood as they start to make that transition to the high school. So, we will be having those in February and into March. Um, so we're already well underway with that. Um, we did also send out progress reports for our IEP goals. Those went out with report cards. Um we did do our data days analysis to kind of determine how our students are doing. Um we did have 78% of our students meet every single one of their goals. So again, many of our students have more than one goal. Um this is actually a little bit of
092a decline from previous times we've I've shared this with the board, but the we have kind of done a little bit of an analysis. The biggest component we see is that there is um a lot of student absences that are contributing to that. If they're not here, we're not getting some of those same results. Um the final note is that in preschool we did uh have back in November some opportunities to go to do home visits just to build out our strong uh kind of trusting relationships with their families and it is also uh preschool for all requirements for the program. So that concludes my report. >> Thank you. >> Building reports tri school Mr. >> Yes. I have some few things to celebrate. We had 64 students uh that had perfect attendance for trimester
0931. So that's that's huge. So we were very excited. We celebrated with a pizza party uh for them. I also learned today from Rididgewood High School, one of our eighth grade students has completed the Rididgewood High School math program and is now will be starting statistics. So that's the first for us. So we're really excited to celebrate this student. Just learned it this afternoon. So, I'm excited to share that with you. And then we are finishing up our winter benchmarking assessment. We're starting to look at the data and be putting in supports for our students uh that we can put in place upon our return from winter break. Uh that's through the MTSS process. And that concludes my report. >> And the principles will be sharing that winter data in J with the board. um
094Lee School, Dr. Raga. >> So, uh I would like to just thank the North Schools Foundation for uh supporting some teacher grant requests. There was uh uh an opportunity for teachers to submit grant requests um to the foundation and uh they u provided some funding for some items like sensory bins for our kindergarten classrooms, some science enrichment supplies for first grade, steam bins for second and third grade, snap circuits for fourth grade, um and some materials for one of our self-contained programs to run a a store um through the the school for, you know, teachers to purchase some things for them to work on some uh like daily life skills. So, we're really grateful for the for that opportunity and for continued supports, trials, >> I am happy to share there is no report. uh
095le school. >> I will second that. No report for leave here. Uh board committees uh education report policy and development. Um the policy committee met a couple weeks ago went well. We went through the 700's policies and its updates are in the agenda to approve tonight. uh building grounds. You we all just uh went through that overwhelming report and I still read from it. um behavioral intervention to report negotiations and human resources. Uh we will touch on in close session finance it over to >> so last month Mrs. for uh presented the draft levy and this month um in the action items is the approval of the final less assistant will speak about that. So first thing we're going to start with is our fund balances which we always start with with both the budget
096and the levy. So at the end of November our fund balances were at about 5.1 million and at the start of the year we were at about 9 8 million. So from the start of the year to now we went from 9.8 to 5.1. And if you notice if you look at them um educ the working cash fund is down because this includes the transfers we did last month. So we did the transfers um after the board meeting. So then that covered the second payroll and brought us into December. So our working cash fund balance went down, but we had a balance on in transportation in the ED fund to pay the start of December's bill. Currently after the first um December payroll and the AP run today that you guys will approve, we're at
097about 4.1 million in the ad fund. The reason why we have such a drastic drop is because of the wonderful tax dollars that we have not received yet. But I will um touch on that a little bit more later for my presentation. Okay. So for the levy there's some legal requirements and everything that we do in the business office is all connected. So, the first legal requirement I have up here is that by September 30th each year, the district has to pass the budget. And within 30 days of that, of the approval of the budget, we have to submit a copy of the budget to the county clerk. And we also have to submit a estimate of revenue. And what that estimate of revenue is doing and how it's tied to the levy is it
098says this is how much money we're going to get in this year and this is how we're going to get it. And that's why we can budget or spend all of this money. So when we're creating the budget, we are already looking at the levy and saying, "How much are we going to levy and where are we going to levy that money?" Because I got to tell the county clerk in September, this is how much money I'm going to get this year. The next legal requirement is by the last Tuesday of December, the board has to adopt a tax levy and we have to file it with the county clerk. So, that's a little bit different than the budget. There's not that 30-day window. You have to adopt it and file it by the last
099Tuesday of December. The next one is if our proposed levy, which we talked about last month, was 5% over the previous year's levy, we would have had it gone through the truth and taxation process. Our proposed levy, which our final levy is exactly the same, was a 4.92% increase. So, we did not have to go through the truth and taxation process, but we still have to certify with the county that we followed it because by not having to do it, we didn't go through those steps. We still went through the process of saying, is it over 5%. No, it's not. That is still part of the process. And we also have to pass a resolution, which is one of the many agenda items you have from me tonight, on how to instruct the county clerk
100to basically reduce the tax levy. So, we know we're leving for 4.92%. CPI is 2.9. We might get a 4% of new construction. So, we're going to levy 4.92, but we're probably going to get 3.3. So I have to tell the county clerk, how do we want to lower the levy? So what we do is we levy in each of the other funds except for the ad fund how much we think we need. Then all that extra I put into the ad fund. So when we tell the county clerk where to reduce it, just reduce the ad fund cuz that's when we put all of the extra for the lobby. There's really three things, and I know I say this all the time, but it's really important to remember. The levy is what we ask
101the county for. We are asking them for a 4.92% increase. The extension is how much we can actually get. So, I'm going to ask for 4.92, probably going to get 3.3. The collection is what we actually receive. So the exemption is what we get and that's what they put on all the tax bills in the county. But the collection is how much of that money do I actually get? Because in every year does every single person pay their tax bill on time? So that's what the difference is between those three words. This property tax cycle I'm going to go through with you guys is the traditional tax cycle. So in a perfect year, this is how it would work. In any given December, by that last Tuesday, we do our levy. You guys adopt it.
102I file it with the county. Then in January, the tax cap CPI is published. So in January, we will get the CPI number for next December's levy. Then March 1st, I receive 55% of the previous year's extension. So the tax extension from 2024, those bills, I'll receive 55% of it because the county is still processing this levy we just submitted. Then by June 30th, they figured out everyone's EAB, equalized assessed value, our equalized assess value, and they've now taken our levy and given us the extension and said, you ask for 4.92. This is what your bill, this is what you guys are actually worth. This is how much you can increase. You're going to get 3.3. Here's your extension. Then in August we get the second installment. So we got the first installment based on
103last year's amount. So now this second installment once they figured out what it really is is the balance from what they did in March. And then once again in December I'm going to file the levy. We're going to start the process all over for next year. Currently what happened was last December 2024 we filed a levy January we found out this year's CPI March 1st we got 55% of the past year's extension June 30th came in with we did not have our EAB or our extension that's something that we have to always give to our auditors because they use it for the AFR and the audit. Then August 1st, the second installment is due. Well, I didn't get the EAB or the tax extension to late fall. And at first, it was a draft for
104a very long time. Now, the second installment of bills are due December 15th, which is wonderful. I'm so happy everyone's got their bills and paid their taxes, but we now have another issue with the county. They have not yet sent out the collections. So, even though tax bills were due yesterday, we have received zero in tax collections. That is not normal. Normally last year if they were due August 1st, the week before August, I start getting tax collections. By August 1st, I have a bunch. The first week of August, we get a little bit more. So now, even though they were due December 15th, we still received $0. We have not received tax dollars since March. We have received every year you get slow like during the year you'll get maybe some refunds or this
105or that. So not that we haven't received any. We've received a little bit of tax collections but not that big bulk amount that we need to go on. So, we're hopeful that the county is going to figure that out soon and start sending out the collections that are actually new to us because I'm not sure what's going on with that right now, where those funds are. Um, so we're very hopeful. What that means so for January is if we don't have any money, we may once again have to look at resolutions to move money from that little bit of working cash because that 1.4 that was in my ad fund, that's going to be gone. Um, and the money in transportation will be gone. The other side of that is I have about $4.1 million
106right now. We have about 3 million of that is out in investments. 1 million of that is due uh February 9th. But if I don't get any tax dollars between now and January, we may have to look at breaking those investments early. because we won't have the cash flow. So, that is not something that we like to ever do. It's not something we want to talk about. It's not something we could have ever planned for because even um in the past when tax dollars were late when we had this issue before. We've never had the issue where they didn't have the collections figured out. So, this is a new issue that we're going to work through together and we'll figure out. Um just hopefully we don't have to get to that point. If I can
107just add in there that the issue is Cook County has a new system and the rumor we're hearing and I'm going to say it's a rumor at this point. It's not official from Cook County is they don't have it worked out on how to get the money to the school districts. Now, we offered to take a box and drive wherever we have to go to pick up. So, that that is why this is a little bit different of a situation. Typically, we would not worry about this. We would think the 15th the money should start coming in, we will be fine. But if it doesn't and if they don't have that worked out, um we'll have the funds if we do a a fund transfer. However, we may have to stop an investment which you
108do investments in order to to um you know make money on an investment, right? So when you stop an investment, you are no longer making money on an investment. It's possible, but we would like to not do that. So, we're hopeful that Cook County will figure out how they're going to be paying uh school districts, but right now the the word that we're getting is not very positive. Again, nothing official, just a lot of rumors around. Um, just not having the right venue of getting the money to school districts, which is crazy, but that's where we are. So, this is um our certificate of tax levy. The CPI is 2.9. Um, our cap funds, like I said, is 4.92. With the debt service um is probably a 4.82% increase. And then if you go to
109the next slide, it shows it cleaner and prettier. So our 2024 extension, which we found out late fall, and you guys have now all paid your bills, but I just don't have them yet. Total in the cap funds about 11.2 million. My bonds are 141. I can take mine $90. And then the total is 11.3. Um our 2025 levy um is 11.75 which is a 4.92 bonds are 136 brings us to 11.88 4.82 2 increase. What I actually think we're going to get is 11.56 with the bonds 11.76. And if you look, all of the numbers are exactly the same for what we're asking for what I think we're going to get except for the actual because that's where you guys have the resolution where we're going to reduce that amount. Anybody have any questions
110on the levy or anything? So you have a a couple of action items today. 69 was not moved. So we did pull down other action items after consent for the levy. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. communications committee like the next few months be working on another newsletter. >> Um new park district there's a topic but it will be discussed in close session >> contract issues um discussion items. >> Great. Thank you. So just a little update on my superintendent advisory committee. We met on December 8th. We review we met at this time. We reviewed the Illinois report card data. Similar presentation that uh I presented to the board. Uh just went a little bit a couple of different little things we looked at. But good meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 26th.
111Uh we're going to review the student care handbook. Uh we're going to talk about curriculum fees and the registration process. We had a a lot of discussion at our last meeting and a lot of things um which is good to follow up on with that. I enjoy meeting uh just a two slides of an update of where we are this time of the year. Usually update the board on where we are in a collection of our 2526 fees. Um, as you know, we have in policy the full day kindergarten must be paid by December 31st where the student will move to the half-day program. We currently have about $51,000 in full day tuition that is still owed to us in the next 10 days or so. So, we are making phone calls. This is not
112something that is new. When parents f signed up for full day, they actually sign a disclosure that they understand that they it has to be paid. Uh Mr. Cynthia's making phone calls. We've sent up bills after bills after bills. So, I'm very confident that we will have that 51,000 paid by the end of December. Just a reminder, full day tuition is um um is $3,000. And that to-do list right there should think about a story. And I was like, um, >> can I work for you? >> I know last year you weren't listening, but was it less last year? >> Yes, I think we're about 26,000 last year. >> It's very as well as curriculum fees. So, here's our outstanding curriculum fees. Um, $59,517 outstanding. So really, if you look at both of those sections
113of fees of revenue, we're missing about $100,000 moving in on fees right now. Um, which makes a difference as you know, Mrs. Dor shows us where we are. Um, much less in first grade. So, kudos to the first grade parents. Thank you for getting those fees in. Uh, 14,000 in 8th grade that, as you know, have to be paid before people leave uh, child school. So looking at collecting those >> and these are fees the 14,000 could have been left over fees from 67. >> Okay. So as Dr. Rabiola um took my thunder on this obviously we didn't talk about this before Dr. >> It's okay. Absolutely good. We want to be very uh thankful to the Norwich Park uh Norwich Schools Foundation. About 11,000 almost $12,000 in grants were um given to the teachers.
114The teachers had an opportunity to pro to plan for one of three different grants, grade level, subject level, um building level even. and uh really excited about these different areas like the you know for example in seventh grade they received thermal imaging camera which they've actually already received so Mr. Aorta is working um on some plans with that um and with the other science teachers as well um going down to the band the band and Mr. Maro actually spoke last night at our concert about the new materials that NSF tuners and tuba stands that were provided for the band. Um, as Dr. Rabiola mentioned, this is probably one of the coolest parts I think is the um Lee special education department that's being uh also helped by related services is putting together store. So the
115students can be selling things actually to adults in the building, not the teachers. So, they have a cart and just some cute little things where they're going to work on money and they're going to learn about um selling really great practical uh skills. And then they did uh agree to fund at Giles us updating the 3D printers. This the uh printers technology changes so quickly. So, just updating the printers over there. Everything else there I think sixth grade has some uh um kinetic energy sets. Other than that, I think Dr. So really excited for the Norwich schools. So I I will take a moment to mention here that the Norwich Schools Foundation, every scent that they receive comes right back to Norwich School District 80. So please support them. Please come to Bingo Nights um
116and support them because they are here for us. They are here to help the students um get these kind of exam these kind of um experiences. Uh also want to mention the draft 2627 calendar to you. I am going to bring the calendar to the board for approval in January. So the calendar committee um has been I think they had three different surveys that went out about the dates. Um and this is what we're proposing that teachers institute days would be the 19th and the 20th which are a Wednesday and Thursday. Then the students first full day would half day sorry would be the Friday the 21st and then they would have their first full day on uh Monday the 24th. This is not completely in line with the within schedule. We're not usually in
117line with Ridgewood's schedule at the beginning of the year. They are much earlier. They're like the 10th they start the middle of the year. We're we're proposing keeping the same holidays that were observed this year. Uh we would be adding an election day as a complete non-attendance day for everyone on November 3rd. Um then we have fall break the week of Thanksgiving. We have winter break pretty in line with completely in line with Richwood but in line with what it typically is. And then spring break is actually a little bit earlier. Richwood went kind of the week that starts March and ends April but um for next year they are taking the week earlier. So we are following and then the ending time student attendance would end on a Friday June 4th and then we
118would begin summer school on the Tuesday after June 8th. Teachers have a planning day on the Monday June 7th for summer school. The students would come back on Tuesday. We've been averaging about 185 190 students in summer school. So would recommend we continue that program. This uh calendar aside from the spring break week is uh pretty much mirrored to what the calendar is. Put that a little bit of a later start. Spring break week. We just follow Bridgewood whatever they do. Any questions about the calendar? >> Is the first day being a half Friday? Is that new? >> No. >> We've always had half the first day the last day there. Uh technically the school institute uh school group I guess >> right >> so the teachers are here just >> no I understand starting
119on Friday >> starting on a Friday is that new yes that will be new this time >> cuz the day is all moved over. Yes. The preschool calendar that they're current they are currently working on a little bit different. So the preschool counter as was mentioned earlier by has a different kind of qualifications. For example, the teachers have home visits. So on those days, the kids are not in attendance. So your typical calendar is 180 days with 176 student attendance days and four teacher institute days. Uh the a preschool calendar is 168 student attendance days. So the the makeup up to the 180 are the screening days, the visit home visit days uh that they are required to do and we are completely in compliance with that obviously because we know the goal of work
120with that program. So we will have both of those calendars for approval next month. Just to review, I think we've talked about this quite a bit, but I do want to remind you of the summer work. And I am going to look for approval on summer work um in January. Uh so Giles interior uh that wood ceiling which as I mentioned we don't have exactly what plan that is um but we will we're working on that getting some uh quotes the south hall classroom. So this is the current seventh eighth grade classroom. So, if you think of um well, you think of as the eighth grade wing, but where the steam and science rooms are that hallway um that's where we're starting the Giles projects for the interior classroom. So, in those rooms, we'll be
121painting. We'll be looking at some addition some new furniture in there. We're doing the LED lights. We're going to be removing the sinks from those classrooms just like we did here at Lee. Um, and then we will be putting in additional storage where those sinks work, big storage cabinets, walkable storage cabinets for teacher supplies in that area. And then obviously, as we talked about many times, some brick work, about $284,000 in brick work for jobs for the summer that includes all that pointing that will be discussed the east one. Speaking of exterior jobs, uh do you ever have a request to add something repainting all background? Um so there is one we will I'll present to you on that next month. There's one issue with the repainting of it. There are really sections of it
122that should be replaced. So we that's probably a bigger discussion. We can probably paint something but it probably needs replacement but we can we can uh bring that along with the summer project. Thank you. Okay. Any questions about summer? Um and then as Mr. Trigio mentioned uh the policy committee met um read through the 700s. I did have a detail for the board and board book today on all the changes here. Nothing really that substantial. We were more like u changing around some words a little bit and also just um meeting our current practice. So a couple of things to change there. We are meeting um I'm gosh I have it in my in my other session notes January 15th I think it is um to start looking at um the next press. >> I
123just wanted to say as we were reviewing the 700 there were parts that we realized already did some revision on past disciplines that we've gone through the last couple years. support. >> And that is my report. >> Thank you. >> Um to the consent agenda, I need a motion to approve 15A through 15F. Can I get a motion? >> Second. >> Lauren, any discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Mrs. Theodore, >> yes. >> Mrs. Urban Barfield, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lava, >> Mr. Pierre, >> yes. >> Mr. Bardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Jacuzzio, >> yes. The motion passes. I need a motion to approve 16B through 16. >> I need a motion to approve 16B consider resolution. and certificate of the tax levy. Can I get a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Okay. >> The
124roll call, please. >> Mr. PJ, >> yes. >> Mrs. Theodore. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lala. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Urban Barfield. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bardi? >> Yes. >> Mr. Juzio? >> Yes. The motion passes. 16 C. Consider approval of the resolution to levy 2025 taxes for certain purposes. Oh, can I get a motion? >> Motion second. >> Lenzo call. >> Mr. Bulj, >> yes. >> Mr. Bardy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lama, >> yes. >> Mrs. Urbfield, >> yes. >> Mrs. Theodor, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. The motion passes. 16D. Consider approval of the resolution to instruct the county clerk how to appropriate 2025 tax levy extension reduction. Can I get a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> F. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Irvfield. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Theodore. >> Yes. >> Mrs.
125Lala. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pulier. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bardi. >> Yes. >> Mr. Trabuzzio. >> Yes. The motion pass. 16e. consider acceptance of the fiscal year 2025 district audit and annual finance report motion. Motion second roll call, please. >> Mrs. Lala, >> yes. >> Mrs. Theodore, >> yes. >> Mr. Fulljack, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irbach Barfield, >> yes. >> Mr. Barardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Trausio, >> yes. The motion passes. 16 F. I consider approval of the revised bid proposal for structural work in child schools for the summer of 2026. Can I make a motion? >> Second in roll call, please. >> Mrs. Theodor, >> yes. >> Mr. Bardi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lala, >> yes. >> Mr. Puler, >> yes. >> Mrs. Irv Barfield, >> yes. >> Mr. Trabuzzio, >> yes. The motion
126passes. 16. Chief consider approval of the Illinois State Maintenance Grant for tough pointing at child school. Can I get a motion? >> Motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. PJ, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gerb Barfield, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lama, >> yes. >> Mrs. Theodore, >> yes. >> Mr. Barardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Chuzzio, >> yes. The motion passes. >> Board comments. Any comments from the board? really quick. The snow removal at over >> Well, we can't we don't have access to that area. >> I'm sorry. >> That area over by the handicap spots by the gym down. Those spots are not designated Giles parking only. District 80 parking only. So when residents are parked in there, we can't get in there to clean out the road. And actually there's there's a lot of snow
127this year. Um and it did take us um some time to even get the other section cleaned out, but we we couldn't get you can't get in there. When you have the cars up magically up to the fence, it's very difficult to get in there. You can't sweep the truck past there. You can't get the plow past there. >> No. Yeah. Cuz the one snow I remember there was a Monday. We had a Monday night came I think or Monday and I have to say it was terrible walking >> to get into the gym. >> Yeah. >> Like you could just see the shovel that went shovel >> because they're it's harsh. It's impossible for them to get to. >> You can't get there. >> But on the but on the sidewalk >> because of
128the cars. So that's where the village the people who live in the neighborhood. All right. But this was this was before. >> Oh. In our section. >> Yeah. I have to say it was really bad. I would say the rest of the village removal. There's cars need to be removed in order for snow. So >> I don't believe there is a sign there about that or is that just in general like everyone knows that and certain days get certain days? >> No. Isn't it when it's over? >> I don't think there's a sign that says it there. that you're not allowed to park in the street nor those res. Okay. For top favor. Okay. Um consider motion to adjourn to close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, participants or dismissal of specific employees, collective
129negotiating matters between public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. to discipline cases and review of close session minutes. Can I get any roll call, please? >> Mrs. Barfield, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lala, >> Mr. Goldjack, >> yes. >> Mrs. Theodore, >> yes. >> Mr. Bardi, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. The motion passes. It's 9:08 and we will meet in close session. Now back in open session at 10:55 p.m. I will move on to action item 19A. Consider approval of memor memorandum agreement with the Norwich Education Association of Teachers for LNAC tournament supervision. Uh all in favor say I. I. >> All say n. 20. Personnel action item uh a employer to consider approval of Andrea Mlei Child School 7 8 ELA
130teacher. All in favor say I. I. >> I'll post a motion passes. Um and now to adjourn. I need a motion to adjourn this meeting at 10:56. All in favor say I. >> I. Okay.