District 96 Board of Education Committee of the Whole Meeting 02-04-26

001[music] Um, okay. All right. Good evening, everybody. Sorry, I'm running a little bit behind today. Um, it is 7:01 p.m. on February 4th, 2026. This is the Riverside School District 96 committee of the whole meeting. Uh, Kathy, would you please call the role? >> Okay. Mr. present [clears throat and cough] >> here. >> Mr. Olic >> here, >> Mr. Hunt >> here, >> Miss Claps >> here, >> and Mr. Mayorhead >> here. >> A quorum is present. >> Thank you. Um, with that, uh, we'll do the welcome first. We'll do, uh, welcome or I'll invite Dr. Aaron Dwire up for a welcome to Hollywood. >> Good evening, Dr. Ryan Toy and members of the school board. It's so great to have you here at Hollywood. The last time you were here was October, so a

002lot has happened since then. Um, we actually have had a very busy year of growth and learning here at Hollywood as we celebrated our hundth day of school on Monday. Uh, it was quite fun here. Miss Quas and Miss Ryansky were dressed to the nines as uh 100 year olds, even with their like walkers and such. And we've had our kids dressed up. So, it was a lot of fun here. Uh, Miss Cahulie surprised her third graders with a glow room um as their classroom. They walked in and everything was glowing which was a lot of fun. But it's been a lot of learning opportunities for our students over the past 100 days. Um our ELA curriculum, the kids are really in um intrigued and engrossed in the topics. Some of those topics that they've

003learned kindergarten was nursery rhymes. Uh first grade was the human body. Um second grade was Greek myths. And actually Mr. Murray has just recently found a play that our second graders went to thanks to our PTA um last Thursday at the Irish Heritage Center. Um, and it was called the Mythol Mythomania. Um, so the kids got to learn about all of the Greek myths that they had learned about in their ELA curriculum. It's been really cool to see our second graders walk into school with books that they've gotten at the library or the bookstores on Greek myths. So, opening up topics that second graders probably wouldn't have had if they hadn't had this ELA curriculum. Uh, third grade is onto astronomy. Uh, fourth grade really loved poetry. And fifth grade, Mr. Trimmer actually dressed as

004a knight one day when they um began the Doniote unit. So, a lot of fun um learning in ELA and bringing all of their skills together. Um math has been an area of focus not only for our students here at Hollywood, but our staff. That's some of our PD. We are working on our what I need time as I kind of described in October. Our staff have gone through three professional development days with our coaches um in planning our win time for next school year for um our mathematics time. Um this PD has really opened up the teachers eyes to just some things in I Ready that they didn't really um have time to delve into that really is going to also help their core curriculum teaching. So really exciting opportunities for both our our

005staff and our teachers. Um, SEAL is always the focus here, but I feel like it's really embedded in everything we do here at Hollywood. Um, just recently as we came back from, uh, winter break, we know that sometimes that we have to build our community back up after two weeks off. The kids kind of get out of their routines and so they come back and we have to build their classroom communities and also our school community. So, we um implemented something called compliment bones to go with our huskys. And students would receive compliment bones if their whole class was caught following our expectations. And the um game was that their home room teacher could not give the compliment bone. It had to be a different staff member. So, it could be a visitor. So, if

006Dr. Ryan Toy was in our building, she could give a compliment bone. But our goal was over the month of January, every class had to receive 30 compliment bones. And if they did, we would take part in the Winter Olympics. So, at our February town hall, the students learned that all classes actually went above and beyond 30. Um, they will learn the winning class tomorrow, but they got to see our staff compete in Winter Olympics games in front of them. And then over the past three days, we have had classes come in and student council has sponsored uh Winter Olympics. So, they've gotten to take part in that, which was fun. Um, our challenge now is our kindness challenge. So, every day over the announcements, I give a challenge for them. today was write a

007nice note for somebody in your class. It doesn't have to be long, but just a nice um note of kindness. So, always um embarking in making sure that we're looking at that SEAL component. Uh winter benchmarking was a huge success here at Hollywood. I think it's something that our staff is really excited for and really proud of our kids. Um we really uh focused on goal setting with our students. So, one thing that we did for our second through fifth graders was we gave them a bookmark and it showed what their fall score was and then what the goal was for winter. And then they were able to circle if they met their goal or not. And it was really cool to hear the kids talk about how they met their goal or how they

008exceeded their goal or how close to their goal um they were. And then we talked about how we continue to build on that for the spring. So really bringing in that environment of focusing on their their own growth and talking about what these assessments mean and what that shows to us and how that helps our teachers kind of plan their curriculum for the rest of the year. Um, we also focused on just setting protocols to ensure that students had a successful testing environment um, and that they were prepared for that. So, as we move forward, spring is a really busy time. As I'm sitting looking at our calendar and we had PTA last night and just kind of going through the calendar from now until the end of the year, it's like, wow, things are

009going to move fast. So, um, during February, we're going to kick off our one book, one Hollywood. So, we do have that book. We have not announced what that is, but it's going to be a great one. Um we also are planning for our first um Hollywood cultural night which will be in March. So you will receive an invite to that. And then we have a plethora of PTA events. Um our PTA is wonderful um and provides us great opportunities not only for our students but also our families. We just had a roller skating night at Fleetwood which was a lot of fun. So we're very lucky to have that partnership. Um we're excited too I'm excited to bring some student presenters in April to the April board meeting where they have a surprise for

010all of you. I know Dr. Ryan Toy kind of emailed you. So that's kind of a sneak peek as to what they're going to be talking about. Um and then just kind [clears throat] of um for district summer school planning, I am the summer school principal. So just so you know, that is off the ground and running. We've got a great amount of staff who are interested in um teaching both the enrichment and skill building. So more information to come, but we are set to begin um July 13th and run through August 6th. So, I just want to thank the board for your continued support in what you provide to our schools because it really fosters such a great environment and we look forward to the next half of the year. So, thank you so

011much. >> Thank you. >> So, I'm very curious. What kind of games did you play for the Winter Olympics? >> So, we did speed skating. So, that was you stood on paper. Okay. To >> All right. >> Race across. [laughter] Um we did curling. So, bean bags onto the uh bob sledding, which was quite a hit. Um we have some fun videos about the with that. I mean, some of our teachers were actually practicing in hallways at the end of the school day before. >> Um we had ski jump. And then our fifth one was oh, figure skating. So, they had to come up with a little dance routine figure skate. So, lots of fun. And >> yeah, >> really all of our staff uh were part of that which was fun for the kids

012to see. >> Yeah, >> we do a backyard Olympics thing so it's like a take on so I was as soon as you said it I was like okay I need ideas. Yeah, >> it's fun. >> You might be able to find some pictures on social. >> Oh yeah. [clears throat] >> Great. >> Cool. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Uh so that brings us to public comment. Do we have public comment tonight? >> See if anything um we do not. >> No. Okay. Uh, I'll read the statement anyway because that's the habit that we're trying to build here. Uh, the board welcomes and encourages community engagement at all board meetings. Therefore, time is allocated at the beginning and end of each meeting for audience members to address the board. We

013kindly ask that you limit your comments to five minutes. Please note, this is a board meeting in public and not a public forum or a town hall. The board does not directly respond to questions or comments during the meeting, but may ask the superintendent to follow up with you as necessary. We do not have any public comment tonight, so I will move into the agenda. Before we get there, are there any proposed changes to tonight's agenda? Nope. Okay. And we will kick off with finance. [clears throat] So, I'll hand it over to Miss Claps. >> So, tonight we have Aizian in to present the audit. And so, um, and then we're also going to walk through the budget timeline. So, I'll turn it over to Mark to provide more detail and provide an introduction. >>

014Sure. Uh so you're probably well aware because this is an annual thing that the district is required to participate in annual budget uh sorry an annual audit as well as a budget. Um and to that end uh we have uh Kevin Smith here um to walk you through the most recent audit. Um it's very lengthy. I I think um uh we've gotten pretty good at summarizing the key points and so um if you have any questions, you have a full copy of the audit report in your board book. But with that, I think Kevin will highlight the the key points of Y. >> All right. Thanks everyone for having me. Um I've been out here a few times before, [clears throat] whether it's been at one of the schools or I think last year I

015did a a Zoom presentation. So, um, just like we do each year, come out, just kind of give you guys a quick overview of how things went. Go over some of the fund balance numbers and open it up to any questions. So, um, first of all, feel well. Um, things took a little longer. Just get some of the information. You guys had some transition working through that. Um, compensated absences was a new standard this year, too, that required multiple districts take a little longer. We had to pull a bunch of historical information for that in order to figure out a new approval. Um, so overall things went well there. Um, you guys did get a clean opinion. Um, so best opinion you guys can get unmodified. Uh, no management letter. So each year we go

016through your guys' internal controls, review those, walk through the procedures, make sure there's nothing, you know, we might have some suggestions here or there, but nothing that we thought was um, you know, missing or needed to change that would warrant a management letter. Um, no significant journal entries. We make journal entries each year for you guys, but that usually has to do with adjusting from cash to acrruel. Um obviously the governmentwide entries as you guys only see with your audit report things like that but um we are provided all the documentation to do that. So we don't we don't give a comment for journal entries related to that as far as new standards this year. So like I did mention compensated absences was new this year. The last few years have been things like the

017lease standard and sabidas um for the subscription based items. What happened this year was compensate absences. There were some differences on how people would report it. Um it was only required to be reported for things that were actually paid out. um you guys didn't have that in the past. Now with the new standard required is you have to now acrew for things that are potentially going to be used in the future. So what ended up happening for a lot of districts is a lot of people have a lot of acred sick time. They're going to use a portion of that over time. A lot of it's going to be saved up to be used for things like additional retirement. However, there is a piece that has to be done for for what they um are

018assumed to use. So the way we did that was you pull historical information for a handful of years, see how that's been used over the handful of years, come up with an estimate, that's what the acrruel ends up being. Um, so what we're telling everyone right now is it's going to get dialed in a little more over the next few years because obviously we only took three years at this point. They suggested three to five. Five obviously goes to CO. CO's kind of weird. So we did we didn't use those years. Um, so as as we get more historical information, that should get dialed in a little more. It may change a little bit. that it may fluctuate a little bit, but it should stay fairly fairly um standard there. Um it also isn't any

019additional money you guys are paying if you want to think of it as a way you essentially accelerated salaries. These are salaries you're going to pay in the future anyways. They're just using it as sick time. They're requiring us now to put in a cruel on the books for hey, they've earned the sick time. They can use it in the future. There's an acrruel on the books for now. Um, as far as going forward then, I think we're actually going to get a little bit of a time frame where there's not going to be a significant standard that's going to significantly change your audit report as it has in the last few years. Gatsby 104 is new next year, but it's just requiring a little more detail in the NDNA. Nothing significant. A lot of

020the details already there, so I don't foresee any significant changes there. Um, as far as financial highlights then, so page 17 of the report, uh, your guys' total fund balance for the governmental funds ended at about 20 million, um, which is down about 1.5 million from the prior year. Most of that does come from the capital fund as far as the capital projects you guys spent um down this year. General fund ended at about 17 million. Um and just just so you know, the general fund does include your ED fund and your working cash fund. Um that ended at about 17 million or a little over seven months of current year expense. Similar range to where it's been in prior years. So so no real difference there. ON&M's at about 1.14 million which is at

021about 3 um 25 months. That is getting a little bit on the lower end. Um, so something to at least monitor. Um, based on what you guys budgeted for 26, you are going to spend it down a little more, but there's still plenty there. Um, so no concern just, you know, it is getting on the lower end. So just just to watch that. Um, debt service is zero. Obviously, no debt right now. So, so no reason to have a fund balance there. Transportation funds at about 500k or about six months, which is a good spot. IMRF's a little less than 1 million or about 15 months. Um, again, good spot. Not too too much there either. Um, capital projects, like I mentioned, not really a fund that we look at as far as how many

022months of expense you have in there. You guys go up and down based on your capital projects there. So, it's low, but there was a spend down plan. You guys are planning to spend more next year. It's going to be a transfer in there to cover that. So, so nothing really there. TOR funds at 450K, which is about two and a half years. Um, just to kind of review where it's been, it's it's significantly down from where it was in the past. you guys got up to about seven years in there. So, it's been slowly been spent down. It's getting into a better position. Two [clears throat] and a half years is kind of where they're actually saying for operating funds, you would have to have a spend down policy. So, it's it's getting into

023that range where it's it's in a good spot. Um overall then, like I said, still in good shape. Um financial profile score in the AFR is still shown four, which is recognition. So, so you guys are still good there. Um, when you get to governmentwide then, so governmentwide is when you guys have all your long-term assets, liabilities, that's where all the op liabilities, where the compensated absences thing comes in there. Um, so that is on page 13 of the report. Um, for the current year there, you ended at about 55 million, which was a 1.25 million increase over last year. Um, there's a nice breakdown on page 18 that tells you why that number went up instead of the funds that went down. Main drivers for that for you guys specifically this year were fixed

024assets. So, when you guys purchase assets, it's an expense on the funds. When you get to governmentwide, it gets shifted up into a fixed asset, depreciated over time. Your guys fixed asset purchases this year were more than depreciation expense. So, that increases things. Um other items were THIS. So there's no PB liability related to THIS. That's been going down for most districts over the last couple years. They um had an agreement for a new plan with Etna. That's been significantly coming down. People have been seeing that liability come down. So that actually results in an increase on the statement of activities. The other item is all the contributions you make to the pension funds um and and THIS. Those are all considered reductions in the liability as opposed to an expense like they're in the

025funds. So those are the main drivers there. Like I said, page 18 gives you a breakdown specifically of each item and how they affected that. Um, as far as footnotes, then the only changes you're going to see from last year are related to compensate absence. [snorts] So, there's a long-term footnote in there now for compensate absences. You guys didn't have one for peers because you didn't have any long-term debt. Um, so that's back now for compensated absences. And then there's also a footnote describing that compensated absences was implemented. And then also one that's now required. you have to have a separate footnote in there because with compensated absences, you had to make a prior period adjustment. So, essentially, you had to treat it like that liability was on the books last year, restate uh the

026statement of activities. So, there's a footnote in there that describes that as well. Um, other than that, the footnotes are fairly similar to they were in prior years, just updated for current year activity, current year numbers. Um, so with that, those are the things I don't really like to hit on. So, unless you guys have any specific questions, that's it for me. >> Just one from me. Um, [clears throat] I noticed there's a a part part in there that lays out that the actual versus the budgeted expenses and revenues is off by a significant amount due to the state uh retirement contributions. Is that like something that's pretty standard? Should we be be budgeting for that or is it like every year this is basically going to show up as a spread between budgeted and

027actual? So it depends. Um, so you can budget for it, but you don't know what that number is going to be. The state determines that number, the state doesn't determine that number before you do your budget. So people that do budget for it, um, we usually say you can go off of last year, but it fluctuates up and down like last year. So you could still potentially have it even though you budgeted for it. So some districts just choose not to budget for it and just make the note that hey the only reason that this is in there is because we didn't budget for the state retirement contributions for you guys. It's it's it's an in and out. It's a revenue in because the state's supposed to be contributing and then it's it's an expense

028out because they're contributing to the fund. So from a budget to actual perspective, it's not of any concern necessarily. You're not worried about going over for that and stating that in the report of like this is the only reason why is fine. Numerous districts do it that way. Some of them do budget for it again. Some of them still have it even though they budgeted for it because they budgeted for it based on last year and then it ends up being a significantly different number from what it was last year and you still have a problem. Um sometimes then your budget is too high because the number goes down and you overbudgeted and so sometimes sometimes that covers up other areas. So maybe you overspent somewhere else and you don't necessarily see that on a

029total because you had a, you know, maybe a million dollar overbudget for the state retirement contribution that ended up being lower. So some people don't like it because of that. >> Got it. >> So it's >> so this is actually a more transparent way to do it >> because it's truly for what you're spending compared to what you budgeted. Yes. >> Okay. And then um on page 33, there was a note in there that said that according to the Illinois compiled statutes, it requires the district to utilize the investment services of the township school treasurer. Is that accurate still? >> The exact wording, it's kind of interesting, right? like we we can now leave the treasur's office through board action, but we also assign a trustee from within our own district if we're going to

030which is all a change. So that that's a that's a good point, Selena. I don't know if that's I'd have to go back and read the exact wording. >> So it's you guys would have to get out and go through the process of getting out. Yeah, I just didn't know if it's actually accurate then to say that it's according to the Illinois compiled statutes require it to require us to use the treasurer if that's not actually if there is not actually a requirement from them. >> Yeah, it's no longer a formal requirement, right? There there would have to be board action to leave >> to leave. Right. Correct. So, I mean it's probably something that could be updated. >> Yeah. >> Um but it's still we've left in most districts just because of the process

031it needs to go through. So if anything it would need to change through to more accurately state that is through board action. >> Yeah. Okay. >> That because you would have to get approval. You'd have to go through the process similar to the other districts that have left. >> So okay. >> So it's it's not something that you could just >> tomorrow decide that you're not going to participate. >> Right. >> So >> yeah. >> So there still needs to be something in there noting specifics around. It's it's you're you're in it until you're proved to be out of it essentially. >> Gotcha. Okay. um helpful. That's my only questions. Thanks for coming out. Anyone else? >> I just have a comment. Um well two maybe. I think I mean honestly so last time last

032time we were here in October Mark was actually we were talking about this whole topic and you kind of gave the the warning of like you've been spending a lot maybe chill out very high level summary of what you were saying but something that we've been paying attention to. we had some major capital projects that we had been funding for for a long time and that's been a part of the conversation that you've given us every year. >> Um so I'm not hearing anything different from that. So I think just it's good to continue to remind us like just being cautious. We're kind of getting on some of those lines. >> Um >> I mean one thing I will say with that too though is you guys have no debt. >> Yeah. >> Which which

033is different from a lot of districts too. Yeah. Um and and I will say most districts that don't have debt tend to have lower fund balances because they have less of a cushion because they they've funded a lot of the capital project with debt. Y >> as opposed to you guys have been paying a lot of stuff out of fund balance. Yeah. So >> yeah. And I I remember the tour comment too from a few years ago. You were very methodical and in trying to bring that down. So I took note of that as you were talking too. And I think kind of to tie that to the my main comment that I wanted to make on page um it's 11 as far as your page numbers. Um, but it was the very last paragraph

034in here. I just sort of wanted to call it out publicly because most people are not going to read through this thing if I can find it. I copied it into my notes. Um, the very last paragraph before getting into like all the deep details. District 96 continues to rank among the highest quality school districts and maintains the financial capacity to support comprehensive educational programs and curriculum. Based on current and projected economic conditions, the district is well positioned to sustain and build upon its established tradition of excellence. I just I appreciate that comment for the recognition of the financial side, but we're always talking about the challenges in this district and there will always be challenges, but I mean we I think I think when you look at other districts, we're in a great spot

035and there's always opportunity to improve, but we're just to kind of remind people, we are in a pretty good spot here and we'll continue to improve and we'll continue to push things forward. But I just appreciated that comment just how concise that it was there and kind of recognizing that. So appreciate that being put in there. I think it's like it's a great point and I I think um you know I there's another part in here that talks about all of the renovations and maintenance projects that we've done over the years with like 12.3 million at Ames, 6.3 million at Ble, 8.8 8 million at Central, 2.5 million at Hollywood, 6.3 million at Hower, and then purchase of the administration office. And all of those were done without referendum. And it's because we have had

036a board and an administration that has been financially disciplined over time and has um been careful about the way they spend. And so we are in a good financial spot. Um and um and I I think that um it just should be recognized that you know the the pockets as as you said aren't as deep as they once were, but we're still in a really great position and we've been um and uh you know I've only been here for two and a half years, so I can't really take credit for this, but there's been a lot of uh financial discipline and and Um, it's been really well managed here over time. >> Yeah. And it and it wasn't in the too far past where it wasn't that I don't remember where it was, but I

037read there was a note to 2015, I think it was, or something. There was a period up to 2015 where it was I'll use the word chaotic just it was we we've we've done a lot in the last 10 11 years to kind of rectify a past situation that wasn't that long ago. So, >> a lot of work to to get where we are today. So, appreciate the the commentary in there and just I just wanted to say that publicly because I think just people in general uh you you you tend to remember and you tend to focus on the things that aren't going well and sometimes it's hard to kind of step back and and see all the things that are going going well. Um and we like I said, we got our problems

038and we we'll keep pushing forward to correcting them, but we're in a pretty good spot. I think we we got a pretty good school district in in our hands right now. So, >> thank you. >> Yeah. Well, thank you. >> Anybody else? All right. Thanks. >> Thanks for bringing that up. That was very valid to that comment. >> Thanks. >> Thank you guys. >> Want to go ahead Mark or do you have anything to kick off Selena? um >> for budget calendar >> more than I already shared. We're gonna go through the budget timeline. >> Yeah. >> Thanks, Kevin. >> Yeah. So, uh your board policy 410 um requires the board to uh actually adopt a budget calendar and this is pretty similar to what you've done in the past. Um, so we're bringing the

039calendar to you as a first glance at the committee of the whole. Um, and we'll have that on the board agenda for February 18th for you to approve. Um, we're slated now to have the tenative budget at the July 15th board meeting. You are required then to publish notice that it's on display, uh, which would be done the day after you adopt the tenative budget. uh you do have to hold at least one budget hearing which is uh in your routine done the same night that you adopt the budget. So you open the public hearing seeing if there are any comments and then you adopt on the same night. That has been your past protocol. Uh so that would be the August 19th board meeting and then after that you can see the budget filing

040requirements that your CSBO will have to do um both to file the budget and then send an electronic copy to ISBY. Um and that's 30 days after you approve. So that's gives that process till September 19th. >> Questions? Pretty straightforward. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> All right. And that is it for finance. So we will move to education. Mr. Hunt. >> All right. Well, tonight we have a midyear teaching and learning update which uh consists of student achievement for the midyear updating and showing >> [snorts] >> uh demonstrating via graph where we're at in terms of uh comparison previous years in other districts. Uh CK CKLA implementation update, advanced learning interim update, and grades six through eight math resource review. Take it away, Angela. >> All right. Um, I

041am going to uh actually not start with the midyear achievement report quite yet. Oh, I am going to start with the midyear achievement report. Look at that. >> All right. Uh, good evening and um I'll run through our midyear achievement report and let you know where we're at as of this winter benchmarking period. So, we'll talk about the winter benchmarking, our growth in FastBridge, our growth in achievement in MAP, and then I'll address some key takeaways that were noted. Just a reminder, we benchmark in January as a formative assessment and a way to progress monitor our students progress in uh ELA and math. We it's a temperature check to inform our instruction. It the assessments that we use include FastBridge for kindergarten through fifth grade. and fastbridge is um our assessments are conducted in math

042and reading. We use math assessment for 2 through 8th grade for reading and math as well. And then we also look at the IR diagnostic which is for kindergarten through fifth grade students and that is only in math. So when we look at our FastBridge reading growth um because we don't use MAP for our kindergarten and first graders, we use we look at FastBridge as um our growth indicator for kindergarten and first grade. And so when looking at kindergarten and first grade, you can see um we look at it through an MTSS lens, our multi-tiered system and support lens. And so we look at how are students doing from tier one, which is whole group instruction. kids can access the curriculum at a whole class level, maybe with some small groupoup instruction, maybe with some

043teacher support, but predominantly in the whole class. Tier two being students receive supports in a small group setting. So it might be um a reading or math specialist or a teacher with a group of four or five kids. Um and then tier three being our most intensive level of support. And so that would be maybe a reading specialist or a math reading specialist or a math interventionist. um with maybe two kids or maybe three kids are meeting five days a week. So um the intensity of the tiers is looking at group size but also looking at how many times a week they meet. And so at the kindergarten level when we look from their fall data to their winter data, we had 86% of our kindergarteners that continue to receive the same level of support.

044And that could be students who were tier three that stayed at tier three or tier two stayed at tier two and then tier one that stayed at tier one. What's important to note is that the students who were at tier 1 in the fall were about um were 80% or above um of the kindergarten population in our district which is what you want in MTSS. You want at least 80% of your students to be able to access the core curriculum. So we are doing that. Um and then we had 10% of the kindergarteners who decrease their level of support. So they may have gone from tier three to tier two or from tier two to tier one. And then we had six% of our kindergarteners who increased the level of support. So think the opposite

045of that. In first grade, 85% of our students stay stayed the same level. And in first grade, we had about 90% of our students who were at tier 1. So um that's 90% of first graders who were not receiving intervention services and reading. Of the 10% that were, 4% decreased their level of support and 12% um increased their level of support. And that 12% does take a few f tier one students who move to tier 2. One of the things that's important to note with fastbridge both reading and math is that um the test gets harder in first grade and kindergarten from benchmarking period to benchmarking period. The expectation gets harder. So, in the fall, you'll often see more students um meet the expectation and then in the then in the winter because in the

046winter the expectation got harder because now they've been in school a little bit longer. So, it's not um it's not unusual to see an increase in the level of support at kindergarten and first grade because the expectation and the tests are also changing. In fall for reading, for example, one of the fall assessments is letter identification. That is not one of the assessments than when we get to winter because the expectation is you should know your letter identification by winter. So now we're going to move to something different like maybe um blending letters. So that again it's not unusual to see that increase of 12% in the level of support because the assessment slightly changed from fall to winter and the expectation changed. Um, it is also important to note that in kindergarten, 10 of

047the students who were receiving services, tier 2 or tier three, no longer need support. So, 10 students in kindergarten are now tier one. And in first grade, we did have a couple of students who are now tier one that were receiving services. So then when we look at MAP for the second through fifth graders, what you see on this chart is um the projected growth that MAP provides is the diamond in the bar graphs and then the bar graph is the actual observed growth. So you can see that all the elementary grade levels met or exceeded their projected growth. Um, and what you see on the chart is that in second grade, our average RIT score moved from the 80th percentile to the 94th percentile from fall to winter. In third grade, we moved from

048the 92nd to the 94th and in fourth grade from the 82nd to 93rd percentile. And in fifth grade, from the 89th to 91st. So what that means is that at the winter benchmarking period our median um RIT score average RIT score is in the 90th percentile or higher. So our students are you can see doing very well and >> those percentiles are not like IR is state based right this is just expectations of >> this is nationally normed >> nationally normed so map looks at students who started who are at one RIT score what is how many students they perform higher than or better than nationally. Um, and this is benchmarked off of the 2025 year. So, they took um these are the 2025 norms that they used from the 2023 school year. So, they

049do a five-year study and then they reorm their their numbers based off of that. So, these are 20 based off of what they call the 2025 norms that are from their most recent study of all schools that utilize MAP nationally. How is it that like it seems unusual that a a district would jump from the 80th achievement percentile to the 94th achievement percentile in the gap of like three months? Is it >> It's actually not unusual for second grade. If that was a number at sixth or seventh or eighth grade, that would be very unusual. >> It's not unusual for second graders because in the fall, it's the first time they're taking an assessment on the computer. it's the first time they're taking an adaptive assessment. So even when we look at MTSS services in

050the fall, we don't use for second grade MAP as the primary identifier for MTSS because we know that there's some fluctuation in that. And then in that winter assessment, they're more attuned to it. They've done it once now. So the winter assessment for second grade is a little bit more reliable than that fall assessment. >> Gotcha. Okay. So these are the same it's the same scenario for sixth through eighth grade. Again, you can see that all the grade levels exceeded their projected growth. And then you can see um where we went how each grade level in reading for 6th through 8th increased in their average achievement percentile as well from the 87th to the 88th, the 96th to the 97th, 95th to 97th. This is where you would expect to see a smaller change because

051um as students get older, [snorts] it gets harder for them to have those large jumps that we noticed at second grade. You can also see that students who went like the average percentile went from the 96th to 97th at seventh grade, but the RIT score increased 3.4 RIT points. So it looks like one percentile and that may for some people not be a lot but it is three RIP points and that is significant. So then when we look at fastbridge math looking again at kindergarten through first grade 89% of the students received the same level of support 8% decreased and 3% increased their level of support. In first grade 85% receive the same level of support from fall to winter. 4% decreasing and 5% increasing. And in kindergarten, 96% of our students are accessing the

052tier one curriculum. So that 8% is 8% of 4% of all the kindergarteners in um in our school district. And then at first grade, 92% of our our first graders are accessing the curriculum at a tier one level. So as we know, we are a high achieving district. This data just continues to support that. We had seven kindergarteners who no longer need MTSS support at the winter benchmarking time. And we had 12 first graders who no longer need math support at the winter benchmarking time. Here is our MAP data for second through fifth grade. And again, everybody met or exceeded every grade met or exceeded their projected growth. We have that jump from 76th percentile for the uh average RIT to the 90th percentile. And it's the same situation again. Fall of second grade, you're

053going to see something lower, but then you see it kind of level off. Then at second grade, third grade, they move from the 87th percentile to the 95th percentile. Fourth grade, the 90th to the 95th, and fifth from the 91st to the 94th. And then looking at sixth through 8th, all of our middle schoolers also exceeded their projected growth with the uh percentiles going from the 96th to the 94th and sixth grade, the 96th to 95th in um 7th grade and the 82nd to the 90th. So when you look at just a percentile, you think, why did they decrease? What's going on? How do we handle that? And again, 90th and above percentiles are great. So, it's not that it's a bad thing, but the other thing to look at is what that RIT score

054was. So, at the 96th percentile in fall, it was a 223.2. In winter, 228.8 is a 94th percentile. So, our RIT score, we're still increasing. And you can see that for 7th grade as well. We are still increasing in score. It's just that that number in the winter with the national norms shows not it's better than 94% of the students who are nationally normed. >> Can you did the comment you made on with reading the writ score so the 223 to the 228 is significant. >> So like can you help me understand how to >> comprehend that like what what level of significance is that? when you level of significance. >> So we went from 223 to 228 but we fell in the percentile. So which how should I be thinking about this? Like that

055feels good. Like I'm not concerned about it, but I'm just this is I feel like I sort of ask these questions every year because I kind of forget when we come back to it, but like going from a 223 to a 228 >> is still good. >> Yeah. And so like what [snorts] how should I think about that as being significant? Is there like a layman's way of saying like is it just the percentage increase? Is it five point? Like is each point worth something or just >> That's a great question that I'd like to explore just a little bit deeper on how to answer and not answer off the cuff. Um but that is a good question and I will explore that and get back to you on that >> because the whole concept

056of this makes sense to me but when I get into the granularity of it I kind of lose myself sometimes. I guess one way I sort of look at it and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sort of looking at like the drop also might be that the national averages also went up as well and therefore um [snorts] when we compare ourselves to the national average, we drop a little bit. >> Yeah, >> that is Yes, that's true. Is that layman's terms enough or do you want me to [clears throat] still kind of dig a little bit more? Well, because with the RIT, we can come back to this later if it I I don't need to dwell on it too much. I just the the RIT score itself, I think I still struggle

057with like the meaningfulness of it. Like what is it actually telling me? >> The Rit score is kind of like shoe sizes. So, it doesn't matter how old you are or who you are or where you come from. What they always say is a Rit is a Rit is a RIT. So, I can be a second grader and get a 223. And that's the same as a sixth grader who got a 223, but that means that that second grader is performing really high. >> Okay. >> Um, so whatever that that Rash unit is what RIT stands for, that ROS unit is just consistent across the board regardless of what grade or how old you are when you take the assessment. >> So that's like the standard. >> Yes. >> Okay. So the RIT is the

058standard and then the percentile is what percentile are our our students meet that standard. And so for the most part they're they're in the 94th percentile overall. Correct. >> For the standard, right? So when I look at seventh being at 232 in fall and 229 for 8th, that means the seventh graders were performing slightly higher on the standard than eth. Okay. >> That's that's >> actually a good observation. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> But then if between fall and winter when the RIT score increases, it's still showing improvement. Correct. It's just that then the percentile compares that improvement to the national average or >> it compares it takes that RIT score and it says at this number where does this fall out of all the students who took the test and it's n it's better

059than 95% of the kids who take the test nationally. Okay, at that time of year. And so if we were in the hundth percentile, would that whatever that RIT number is, would that say that every student is meeting that standard or as are at a higher level than the rest of the country? >> Average >> RIT score. So taking all of our seventh graders and figuring out the average RIT score, that score is better than 99% of the students who took the assessment nationally at that time of year >> because you're always going to have people overperforming and slightly underperforming, whatever that benchmark is. Yeah. Okay. All right. That's what I was trying to get at. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, I I do sort of something something Selena said on the last slide, but

060we're looking at the eighth grade. There was a No, >> sorry. >> The eighth grade there was a rich I mean a a major I mean well not major significant jump from like 82nd to 90th and the Ritz score seemed to jump pretty significantly as well. That's actually something. Um, so I'll talk about it in a second about how we're meeting for advanced learning tomorrow. And when I was doing a preliminary data review with um the consultants who are coming tomorrow to work with the team, one of the things they noticed is uh some of our fall scores do look lower. And so we're going to talk about that as an advanced learning team. And I can actually come back and talk more about like that kind of situation once we meet tomorrow. >> All

061right. because that's something that they've noticed when looking at our data. Second through eighth grade is actually consistent for many grade levels that we are performing a little bit lower than you would expect in the fall based off of where they come from in the spring. And um what they were explaining to me and they'll talk about tomorrow with the advanced learning team is that yes, there's such thing as summer slide, but the number the writ score differences don't indicate summer slide. And so that's a conversation we're going to have. And so generally speaking, would it would my general expectation be that the 223 goes to 228 and then [snorts] the 232 to the 236 and then that eighth grade number should theoretically be higher than 236. Like if you're continuing to build >> Oh,

062I see what you're saying. I mean that's >> generally speaking. Yeah. >> Yeah. But not always expectation but like generally speaking that's kind of what you would >> also remember it's the average right? So you could have outliers that pull it down. >> Okay. >> Or even bring it up. >> Okay. >> Because it is an average. >> Okay. So we don't norm Okay. It's a straight average. >> Okay. >> So some key takeaways from our midterm benchmarking data. We have strong achievement as you can see across all our grades and both reading and math. Elementary literac [clears throat] sorry elementary literacy remains a district strength. We have strong math performance in all our grade levels. And we're showing effective early intervention systems and MTSS support practices when you see students re decreasing in their

063level of support. Our middle school students are continuing to perform well above our national averages. But you know, there's always ways that we can improve. Nobody's perfect. And so we just want to continue monitoring because remember at the beginning I did say that this benchmarking period is about informing instruction and it's a temperature check. So um we want to continue monitoring because we see When I dig deeper into the data, what I see is that 54 to 68% of our middle school students are meeting their projected growth. So yes, when you look at those bar charts, on average, the grade levels are meeting their or exceeding their projected growth. But when you dig deeper into individual students, we do have students that are not meeting their projected growth. And so that's something we want to

064continue monitoring and looking because some students may be starting high and thus they have a more challenging growth target or we might just need to make instructional adjustments to help accelerate growth for our already high performing students. And then there were some growth percentage dips in fifth grade reading and sixth and seventh math. So, we want to continue digging into that >> and that may warrant closer instructional review um like what we're teaching, how we're teaching to ensure all our learners, especially those that again are performing at high levels, continue to experience appropriate challenge and meaningful growth. And that is also part of what our conversation will be tomorrow at our advanced learning meeting. So, are there any other questions about the data before I update you on some other teaching and learning pieces? Do

065we do you get sub demographics on this stuff? >> I do. >> Okay. >> And I do dig into that like behind the scenes, but don't obviously publish at all. And that's something that I can provide if if you'd like to start seeing that, too. >> I just we've just been talking about trying to get more ingrained in that to make sure all of our populations are getting what they need. So, I just I wasn't sure if this was the same as I because I know the state's very clear about it. I just wasn't sure if that I figured it did, but I just wasn't sure. So, okay. And if that's something that you would like me to start reporting on both IR and MAP, um, we can do that so that we we are

066watching in a public lens as well and not just something that I observe and work with the building leaders on. >> Uh, I mean I'd be curious if others would be curious about it, but I mean are you seeing anything that stands out where >> nothing [clears throat] outside of what you would normally expect? >> Okay. >> All right. So then just a few other teaching and learning updates. I want to update you on the CKLA implementation and let you know what we've been working on. We've been having what are called learning labs, which is where a classroom teacher um volunteers to work with our CKA consultant. The consultant meets with them for about an hour and a half um usually about a week before uh they're going to teach the lesson. They plan the

067lesson together and then they talk about how they'll co-e or if um the the consultant will take half a lesson and the teacher will take the other half when they have half [clears throat] of a grade level come observe. We've done this for um first grade, second grade, fourth and fifth. We're actually in the middle of fourth grade now. This Friday we'll do the other half of fourth grade. We did half of them last week. We'll do the other half this week. And third grade is going to do their planning session um in a week or two. And then we'll go in and observe. When we get together, we debrief about that planning process so that we're helping the teachers better understand how the planning works in our second year of CKLA, pointing out different

068resources that they may have not have known about because there are a plethora of resources in CLA. And then we talk about what they'll end up observing. Um, for instance, in our most recent fourth grade class, they ended up observing some morphology lessons, um, as well as some, uh, reading of a story that they're reading about in that class. And then we come back together after the observation and discuss what we saw, how students were engaged in the different instructional strategies we have, and answer questions. Chris, the consultant, will answer questions then for the staff members about the planning, the teaching, and then we go into talking about scope and sequence, pacing, and making sure everyone's feeling comfortable with where they're at with CKLA. Um when looking at the data from the surveys from the

069sessions so far 17 of our staff members have responded to the survey and from that 100% of them have felt that the session has um made an impact on their professional growth or their uh student growth and um 11 out of 17 of them have said it has deepened their knowledge in the subject area and 14 out of 17 of the responses have said it will lead to an improved uh improved learning for their students. And so after every [clears throat] half after every session with half a team, everybody gets a link and they're able to take the survey if they choose. And so that's how we got those 17 people. And one person did leave a comment that said they enjoyed working with the facilitator and the coaches because the instructional coaches attend all

070the sessions as well. So, it does seem to have been a positive um situation and like I said, we'll continue it on Friday with fourth grade and then move into third grade and wrap up then with kindergarten. For advanced learning, um the advanced learning committee met in the fall. We met in September and we met in October. And in the fall, we identified three priorities for this year's work. We want to define what advanced learning in Riverside District 96 looks like. Improve program transparency and communication and refine the identification process for services. We also talked about that we're currently having challenges with the way we provide services for fourth and fifth grade ELA given the CKLA curriculum. And so that's become an area that we want to address as well. This year we have a

071full day working session tomorrow with the consultants from the Northwest Center for Talent and Development. And at tomorrow's meeting, we will um be meeting from 8 to 3 with a lunch break in there. But we're going to review the advanced learning data for our district. So looking at who are the students in advanced learning, what are their like what got them into advanced learning, how are they performing now on the different assessments that we give from MAP, I AR, Kogat, as well as um uh MAP, IR, KAT. I feel like I'm missing something. Um, but looking at all the assessments we give and how they how they align to who's in advanced learning, who's been identified for advanced learning and receiving services and when I review that data, part of the discussion will also be

072who are the students that have similar profiles but aren't in advanced learning so that we can see what students are we missing and why are we missing them and how will that then play a [clears throat] role in our program identification redefinition. Um, we'll also talk about service delivery models tomorrow, especially as it relates to elementary ELA. And then we're also going to talk tomorrow about student identification. So, we have a heavy agenda, but we have big expectations. Um, at the end of that meeting, we'll work through a timeline of uh what the next steps are and we have four scheduled meetings. Not to say we won't add any, but we have a meeting scheduled for uh the end of February, end of March, April, and May. And the goal of the committee is to

073address those priorities which again is to show what advanced learning is in district 96. So that's talking about who's receiving services, improving our transparency and communication. So how are we communicating out um to families and staff members and then refining the identification service with the goal of being able to use it for the upcoming school year. And then finally, um, the Hower administration, Chris Harvales and Katie Castle and I have been working with the math teachers at Hower to continue to evaluate whether Carnegie Learning is truly meeting our needs. Um, over the course that we've had Carnegie Learning, we have updated the resource um, when they come up with updates. We've uh, added different pieces as teachers have seen fit and we've taken away pieces that teachers feel they don't really use. But what we

074are looking at now is just is there really long-term alignment still with Carnegie learning because we've been using it for quite a while. And so um we do continue to ask that question, but this year we decided that we wanted to explore if there might be something that might better meet the needs. And so during the fall we had uh five different vendors present to the math teachers. And from that it led to identifying one resource that the teachers wanted to explore for a little bit deeper and that's called edge gems math. The teachers went and observed uh edge gems in instruction at Hinsdale middle school and also talked with the teachers and the curriculum director and the principal there to see how it's working with implementation in hinsdale and now they are all utilizing

075a unit in edge gems to see how students are responding to it. So even today I was in a seventh grade class and they were looking at order of operations and the feedback from a couple seventh graders that were in the math class was that they actually like it better. Um they feel it's a little bit more organized. They feel that um they are a little bit more engaged. Um one student was happy it's not in a book. I did let him know if we choose to [snorts] purchase it, it's going to be in a book again. Um but that's just a couple of kids I talked to as we go through this process. if it's something the teachers continue to enjoy. We did have a teacher who uh is having their evaluation, the formal

076evaluation coming up and during their pre-observation meeting with Miss Kasa, they were raving about how exciting it is for them, too. So, if it is something that we continue to pro to proceed with, we will get more student feedback than just me observing it, doing an informal walkthrough in a classroom and talking to two random kids. Um, if it is something that after the each grade level looks at a unit, it's something that they want to continue to explore, Chris, Katie, and I are looking at the possibility of a year-long pilot next school year. So we would take the spring to provide professional development on the resource and then pilot the resource for the full year and then we'd make a final recommendation comparing that pilot resource with Carnegie to make a decision on if

077we would continue with Carnegie or if we might switch to Edge Gems math and that would be brought forward in the spring of 2027. So with that that's uh teaching and learning right now is are there any questions for me? So with advanced learning, this isn't really like done, right? Because it's not a curriculum, correct? It's it's just [clears throat] pushing kids into more advanced stuff. And so I think I heard you say by the end of this year, all this stuff will be done so that we have it. So is that kind of the end point of this? >> No. Okay. It won't be. Um it's something that would continue on and whoever wants to continue on the committee would be able to continue. If new people want to join, that's open, too. But

078it's not just a oneanddone year type thing. um because we need to then review how's the new identification process working >> and we also want to continue to look at how our program delivery of services and do we need to look at more FTE or is there a different way we want to service students so it's a continuous conversation but there are just certain things that we know need to be addressed sooner rather than later and those two big things are how we identify students because the team will see tomorrow some gaps in student profiles and then also So, um, we need to look at how we're providing services at the elementary level for ELA because it's been a challenge with the new CKLA curriculum. And that challenge is ELA right now is 180 minutes

079a week. For some schools, that's two 90-minute blocks that kids are pulled out of core instruction or it's three 60-minute blocks a week that kids are pulled out of core instruction depending on the school they're in. So, if you think about um at schools that have the two 90 minute blocks, that's two full days of ELA instruction they're missing because the blocks are 90 minutes. So, they've missed all the core instruction when they get pulled out for advanced learning. And when we had Ready Gen, that worked, but now with CLA, they're missing core pieces of the tier one instruction. And it's been really it's been a challenge for both the classroom teacher trying to figure out how not to pile on to kids because you're in advanced learning, but then for the advanced learning teachers

080because they want to continue to challenge the students, but then their hands feel a little bit tied too because um they know their students are missing work as well. So that's something that we we truly need to address. >> I think from Oh, sorry. you know, like last year we spent um we we did the surveys and we engaged with the consultants to review our advanced learning program. And so like >> for you to say this year what we need to do is one of our priorities is what does the advanced learning program look like? Like to me that like check we should have already done that, right? And so I think too some of the what I'm hearing from our community, especially as last year we engaged with our community and we had a

081bunch of parents say what their experience had been and did sort of like these working sessions or I don't know what you called them but like >> a lot of parents are like well when are we going to see action here right like >> um and I think too this sort of feeds back into what is it the educational leadership solutions survey that was presented to us in December as the Like one of the things that was highlighted there is that the academic challenge and rigor need to improve and become more inconsistent. Students rate rigor and engagement the lowest across the five essential student metrics. Parents are repeatedly asking for more challenge and clearer expectations. And I'm sort of hearing that from my community as well is that people feel like their kids need to

082be more challenged. And so, um, I I love that we're sort of at a point where we can prioritize this and, um, would just encourage, you know, if if there need to be more resources that we need to apply to make sure that our students are at all levels being challenged and that, you know, we're identifying um, enough students that are capable of being challenged. Uh I I think that that we um it's a good time to focus here. Um because it seems like the surveys are telling us that >> my community is telling us that and >> the data is telling us that too. Like that's what the midyear data was saying also that we have high performing students that we aren't challenging enough and that will be part of the conversation tomorrow when

083we look at how are we identifying students because we're clearly also missing kids than in some areas. And so that's where that's at. I do want to um a couple of things to what you said. one, I know the teachers feel that it feels like there hasn't been a lot of action also, but it's coming and I feel like it's going to come faster now um than it has leading up to this point in the year. And those priorities we identified came from the the work with the consultants and the surveys. And so we looked at the data from the surveys and that's where they had I think 9 to 12 different suggestions. And so we looked at that in September and October and talked about of these suggestions, which ones do we need to

084address? And so that defining what advanced learning looks like is more about um like who's in advanced learning. I know one of the concerns is also we talk about advanced learning being part of the diamond of MTSS, but we really truly don't have a way to meet those true tier three enrichment students. And so that's one of the things when you talk about what does advanced learning look like? It's how are we ident how are we identifying and meeting tier 2 but also tier three needs and that's that's where some of the the gaps are too. So I I understand what the community concern is and I think the teachers also echo some of that concern. Um but it's we are still moving forward. It just feels like we're going slow to go fast. >>

085Okay. Once there is like the evaluation of students um and in sort of looking at who's getting into this program, what their success has been relative to those who haven't made it in the program. Um you did mention that there's like also a need to look at the curriculum. Are we talking about like next year there could even be new curriculum for the advanced learning group or is that sort of something further down the path? That's a part I'm not sure on because I want to work with the team and especially the advanced learning teachers on if it's a new curriculum or if it's different resources for them or if it's utilizing CKLA but getting training to utilize it in a different way for them. It also depends on how we utilize the continuum of

086service split like what services we provide because again we want to look at how can we stop pulling from core for two-fifths of the week versus having them like so looking at how it's delivered as well. So I don't know if it's resources or time um and that's part of all of that conversation tomorrow too and I'll come back to the board table um with an update from this full day meeting. so that you guys are being updated regularly on our progress as well. >> Yeah, I think I can appreciate the move slow to go fast. Absolutely. But I that's the same sentiment that I have is like I went back through my notes and we were uh I don't remember where we were but we were talking about this in October >> of last

087year of 24 which means I think we probably contracted with Northwestern before that. So I mean it's it just or maybe not. But I went back and looked at some of the notes. you kicked off the team in October 24th of 2024. At least that was part of the slide deck that you presented. So just it does feel like it's taking a long time and so I can appreciate the slowness um or moving slow to get it right, but it's that's why I was also wondering is there really ever an end point either. So we're doing our evaluation, we're figuring out the most important things to tackle first, but then it just it >> it's a continuing evolution to constantly assess this because it's not just a curriculum. It's >> exactly >> how are we

088embedding it? How are we focusing on the students that need it or supporting them? All that too. Okay. So, by the end of I think >> you'll see tangible pieces before the end of the school year. >> Yeah. >> So, yes, it's a continuous process. Yes, there's some of the conversations around it, but you'll see. Okay. And then it'll end keep executing, analyzing, and evolving from that point forward. >> Do we need to continue paying Northwestern for these >> for now? Yes. Let's look at where we're at at the end of this year and maybe not next year. >> Okay. I don't remember how we set that contract up. Is it just hourly services or Yeah. Okay. >> All right. >> But the like the data analysis that they're going to provide tomorrow I wouldn't

089have been able to do. So it truly is a resource right now. And they also have knowledge of different ways to service students as well as things I've worked in other districts that they've seen, research they've done. So right now they're a good resource for us, but again depending on where we're at at the end of this year, we may not need them to go forward for the reflecting and refining. >> Okay. Any other teaching and learning questions? >> All right. Thank you. Thanks. >> All right. Uh that moves us into personnel. So Mr. Versat, hand it over to you. >> Sure. So I'm going to put send this over to Martha talk excuse me regarding goals three. So and then I'll talk about the uh timeline. >> I'll just be brief. Um I'm finding

090that it's it's helpful I think if we bring the action team agendas to all of you under committee reports as a way just to understand where um our different action teams and processes are moving forward. So, as you recall, I um started as the Gulf 3 action team leader this year with Don Tfano's retirement from last year. And um so you have the agenda from our January 14th meeting. And one of the areas that the Gulf reaction team has kind of shifted to and I think it's been part of a board um interesting goal as well is just to use the morale survey in more meaningful ways to look at action steps. Um, as you know, we revised uh or using a revised tool from EAB on a morale survey which actually pulls out sort

091of district level uh morale responses as as a separate area to consider which is I think interesting and helpful to this committee. So again, looking at that morale survey, we've talked before in the past um recognition and value and visibility and communication from the district office continues to be areas for us to continue to focus on and grow. Um this action team is also really interested in the work of action teams specifically and coming up with some kind of standardized process or template that um all committees would use and then also a a better way to communicate out the work that is happening in action teams and we've done that in different ways but looking to unify and solidify that a bit more. So um it was good conversation. The group meets again February 10th

092I believe. Um, our next morale survey will be administered at the February 13th institute day. So, we'll have another kind of midyear opportunity for the board. I'll anticipate either probably March Cow, we would bring it back, assuming we get our results and are able to, um, organize them and make sense of them to bring it to all of you as a summary level data. So, um, I'm enjoying working with this group. uh a lot of really dedicated people that are very focused on just how do we continue to make sure that this is a great place not just for our kids but a great place to work and that our staff feel satisfied and connected and um their own sense of belonging and and being able to participate in doing meaningful work. >> So that's

093right over here. >> Uh so as many of you probably already know we started the search for the superintendent. Um we don't have any candidates. This is a this is a marathon. is I mean not a not a race but a marathon. So we have started uh we've already got some uh proposals in actually from pretty much the five uh vendors that would help us with the search. I'm going through those right now. We're going to narrow it down to possibly two or three who will then come to make pre a presentation here. So the goal for that uh is we're looking to do that somewhere in the March April time frame for their presentations after which around May we'll probably contract with them uh to identify a firm and contract with them. They'll then

094start doing their work uh over the summer. Uh and then in September time frame, we'll post the position should be posted uh and then we will start the interview pro uh process uh in November and December and then offer a contract out uh around like December, January time frame. So that's like very high level of that. Obviously, there's not like firm dates, but uh probably in like I said, probably in the March uh like sometime in March, uh we hope to have like presentations, at least starts presentations. >> Any question? >> Did you say we're going to boil that I'm sorry. Did you say we're going to boil that down to like two or three? >> Right. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, I'm I'm wondering, do we have any notes from previous search firms that

095we've engaged or, you know, previous superintendent searches? anything that might be useful that was noted down and I know that predates both of us so >> yeah that's um we actually did ask that and I don't think there was really much that we could find regarding that >> yeah it's a good question so the search firm [snorts] that that worked with the board at the time that I was hired was kind of a uniquely self-created very district 96 specific it was um the retired superintendent from several times ago uh David Bennett uh who ran that along with a man named Dennis Kelly who was also a retired superintendent and uh had been I believe he still does has grandchildren in this district. So they were both very invested in district 96 specifically but they weren't

096[snorts] they weren't doing searches beyond district 96. >> Um I would guess there's files or something somewhere if we dig a little bit. Kathy, you and I can do some digging on that. Yeah. >> No, it might be an interesting contrast with two superintendent searches ago as well. >> Yeah. And I think >> right I was going to say I think when uh Bob Masharma Lewis was hired there was a search firm in there was >> BWP but we can double check on that. >> I think too like you know we're Hinsdale just hired a new superintendent. I think Oak Park is in the middle of a superintendent search. I suppose district 95 just went through a superintendent search not that long ago and maybe utilized a consultant. So we have neighbors who >> have

097just gone through this and they probably have a really good sense for what the market is and you know we could even observe their process a bit and talk to them about these um different consultants if like >> is IASB one of the five? >> They are. >> Okay. >> I mean there's really only five out there. Then you have like like the one that brought like Martha and it was like sort of there are the ones like I don't call them mom and pop shops but uh we decided to basically focus on the major ones um for the search. So, >> so I I think the IASB search firm when I attended their session at the conference earlier last year, I guess, um they they seem to talk up quite a bit how the

098fees are greatly reduced given their position and that we're already paying into uh IASB for other things and that benefits us on the other side. That said, I honestly couldn't say what their work would be. I know Wesley, I appreciate you sending out that link to the recent uh I I think ISB was the search firm that ran that uh the interview process or public interview process. I I'm I'm on the fence in terms of how that was conducted. I guess I'm not sure there was good points and bad points to it. >> Yeah, I I don't know how they facilitated it, but I think probably some something for us to talk about and like I think that's the main part about the interview, right? Is like what is your process? How do you find

099candidates? Um >> I don't know. You you know more than this. You you you filled me in so you can you take that one. >> So I mean I guess the thing is no those are the those are very valid questions and like I said we right now we have proposals. I'm going through them. Uh I really don't want to bring five proposals here unless people want five proposals but I figure >> I would highly recommend we do two or three. >> Yeah. [laughter] So, um, so I was going to distill it down to like two or three, bring them here, have them do presentations, and that's when we could ask those type of questions. >> I I I would say probably at least three, not two, but that's just me. >> Mhm. >> Yeah.

100I mean, I think I say two or three because if there's two that clearly stand out from the other three for whatever, I I don't I have no idea what I'm walking into. So, >> Sure. Sure. >> But, yeah, I don't think we need five, >> right? That's that's a lot. And we should really just kind of we I think what Dave and I kind of talked about with Mark as well is we we kind of need to figure out what some of our core tenants are and just screen a couple out based on on those things. So I think we can eliminate at least two of them. >> Yeah. >> Um and bring three forward and we'll kind of go from there and then if we're stuck on >> Right. I mean I I've

101like I haven't gone through them all in detail but there's like one that I can just you can always just eliminate but so >> yeah so if we get stuck on one maybe we bring the three if or we can we can reach out to just to to kind of see what people are thinking as well but >> yeah that you said uh so we'll have that screened out by May. I do like Selena's idea though if just if nothing else if we can on a sheet figure out for the districts that are around us what firms they used. >> Yeah. >> Is there anything that's showing you or if they're firms that are showing up repeatedly or is it really just kind of spread all over the place? >> No. And that's something good

102but but I guess the thing is I'd like to us to focus on because that's we need to to what Wesley was saying. We need to figure out what's important to us. What are we looking for in in a search firm? And then also then obviously a candidate as well. But that's we have to sort of distill down that >> I did find myself watching a school board meeting of another district when they were [snorts] presenting on um they they had brought in consultants to present. So because all of this is recorded and online, it is very easy to find presentations by these people who have presented for other districts and I you know >> it's not a bad idea to watch them. Yeah, [laughter] >> if you got if you got the time >>

103if you want to save some time, that's a good way to see it. >> Yeah. >> Or just, you know, preview it. >> All right. >> Any other questions back to you, Wesley? >> Okay, so that brings us to facilities, I think. Right. Yep. Facilities. Mr. Olic, >> um, it was a late agenda. I think the big big things that we voted on already is light park playground. It's happening this summer and the houseser windows voted on also. It's happening in the summer. Um those are the two big things we talked about. Um I don't think there's anything else really big. Security, the camera updates, it's going well. What was the bids update for the playground equipment? >> That was This is from Sorry, this from the January 15th meeting. So that was for the

104bid that you then approved. >> We already approved it. Yeah. >> Oh, I didn't even pay attention to the date up there. Okay. >> And then I think um there was a note that I saw or maybe you and I were talking about it. The village is waving all the the fees and all that kind of stuff. So just just call that out. continuing to work closely with the village or not. >> Oh, >> there I thought that was Okay, my bad. I take that back. I retract that statement. We're talking about that. Okay. I would greatly appreciate that in the spirit of collaboration between our governmental units. It's all the same taxpayer money. Um Okay. All right. So, for that playground equipment, um, is there I I assume we're giving ourselves enough lead time

105for however long it takes to fabricate this as part of the bid process. >> You know, Mark just had an update this week, right? You talked to DA this week. >> Yeah. Um, I think as you know, the the playground equipment was not part of the larger bid. It's a separate bid that has come in through a cooperative approach. Uh so that number came in the beginning of the week. Um and I think the intent was for Martha and I to walk through those with DLA, which I was able to do a little bit yesterday. Haven't had a chance to fill Martha in on that conversation, but then formally bring that bid to you for approval. Um and I I do believe we have plenty of lead time at this point for that. Um, but

106it's something we should be working through over the next three to four weeks, not the next three to four months to bring it to you. >> So, if it's cooperative bid, then that might just be the only bid we see then or >> Yes. So the um the the cooperative what you have done on other playgrounds um for example when Hollywood had to replace some equipment perhaps that was due to damage I don't know why damage but um you went through a cooperative method which essentially is a state omniooperative which allows districts to adhere to the public bidding requirements while getting one bid through the cooperative who have already vetted uh vendors that are very specific like school lockers, school playground equipment, things uh vehicles, things like that. Uh so it allows you to one

107expedite the process and two pretty much be assured that you are getting the lowest bid without taking the time and the money to do bid specs and go to a larger bid like you might have done with the houser windows recently and the playground site work recently. So um that just came in just saw the numbers. They're incredibly favorable. I I I think the question is [clears throat] we I see a quote with names on it and I don't know what that apparatus really looks like. >> So I I think like I said it was early on Monday when we got the the quote in. Um it came to Martha. We talked briefly. I followed up with DA yesterday afternoon. I haven't even had a chance to circle back with Martha on that, but um

108I certainly see that coming potentially as early as February or the cow meeting in March with a approval in March. >> We could make that we could make cow a special meeting if we needed to take action in early March if we need time. >> Yeah. >> Beyond the February board meeting, >> but but that's that's the gist of the cooperative. And I think as I I learned from Ryan when you did playgrounds as part of the larger construction projects that it was all put into a singular bid package at that point. So you were getting competitive bids because you were also getting bids on, you know, the expansion and renovations at your other buildings. But when it came to individual playgrounds by themselves, you just use the cooperative. >> Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Move

109on. >> Stephanie's not here. Uh, so I guess I'll just >> We have family engagement. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I am sorry. [laughter] I am sorry. I didn't have my agenda in front of me. I felt like I was missing something. I apologize. Family engagement committee, Miss Kick. >> Oh, thanks. So, [laughter] um, family community partnerships met on January 20th. Um, we talked a little bit about, um, some upcoming, uh, well, one upcoming parent information session, um, that's being put on at Hower kind of intended for Hower student Hower parents um with that's happening on February 9th at 7 >> Monday. on yes, Monday um with Buddy's Place in the Loft and it's called Let's Not Be Silent and it's a parent workshop on um teen grief um and that was part of the um

110hower social work team also bringing that on. Um and then I'll I'll talk because I have it on my notes from parent leadership team but um some other ideas of parent information sessions as well. Um, we talked a lot about at uh, Family Community Partnerships about the family learning night coming up on February 25th, which is a th I want to say. Um, and it's family math night, which sounds like it's going to be amazing. Um, the purpose of family math night is to give, of course, kids opportunities to play fun games to help reinforce the concepts that they're learning in the classroom. um but also to kind of help parents see um through demonstration how kids are learning these same concepts concepts in the classroom. So um there's going to be options for people

111to take games home and other supplemental learning opportunities. Um there's going to be information sessions in the library. Uh and one in particular will be um provided in Spanish. Um it it sounds really cool. So, I know that um we got Molly sent out the um the flyers for it and so I sent it out in my PTA newsletter um for Hollywood. So, I think everybody's kind of starting to send those out. I think I saw it. It's already up on the website as well. Um so, come bring your kids. >> That's just an ele that's a K5 thing, right? Not a 68 thing. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Yeah, good point. Yes, [clears throat] it's K5. Um, and it's divided by like prek, kindergarten, and first and then, um, 2, three, four, and five and

112up. I mean, I fully intend to bring my seventh grader just >> there's some middle school kids coming to help out. >> Yeah. Oh, that's maybe guide their younger siblings, but yeah, it'll be more focused on the K through five math. >> Um, we talked about the strategic plan and kind of the the plan for the strategic plan coming up. Um, and we looked at the parent that that was when we looked at the parent survey, the draft of the parent survey, right? >> Yes. >> Um, and so we I think the only suggestion was to maybe include how long it would take to complete for folks, but we're going to plan to send it out midFebruary because um it will come out the same time as Five Essentials. Um, but this is going to

113help guide our strategic plan a lot. Five Essentials is also important, so try to push that too. But um I think is the plan still to have a station for families to do the survey at family math night? >> We're looking into that. Okay. Yeah. >> But otherwise maybe the schools can try to figure ways to to get that out. >> Um and then our next meeting is March 12th. And then PLT we had a cold day on uh Friday the 23rd >> on Zoom while our kids were e-learning. It was so fun. Um, we talked a little bit about the school calendar and kind of tried to get the word out about the half days that were there for professional development are not counting against the school days. That came up again last night

114in our PTA meeting. >> Um, just because the calendar is like later and so everybody's kind of acknowledging that. Um, we are thinking that the parks and wreck will are going to put out a survey about parents interest in having their kids um, utilize like afterare for those half days to try to just see like how much they'll need. Um, so we'll make sure we get those out as well. Um, and I'll just interrupt. I'm meeting with them this Thursday. Oh, tomorrow. No, not next Thursday. I'm sorry. Um, okay. to just really start with the planning and and the tricky part is just having some sense of numbers. We just don't know how many kids will >> opt to stay. >> Yeah. >> But we have different ways we're talking about as as Marlo mentioned

115to try to figure that out. >> And I think the PTA leaders are probably the good people to try to get word out to people. So if like something needs to go out fast, I know that's pretty easy >> um for PTA people. Um, we talked about the family math night, family learning night. Um, then also Martha, you talked about a couple of other parent information night ideas. Um, with >> Yeah, since we since then we've confirmed we're going to have Dr. Doug Bolton come in on we actually have a night and we'll um, April 13th. Um, he is a psychologist that spoke at our staff institute day a couple years ago. He's really excellent. He's written a great book on called Untethered. Norah is an expert on it. um has the most recently uh

116the person that's finished it most most recently. But but really this big idea that schools can be this incredibly um supportive healing place as um schools are really this time where kids have this unique opportunity to connect with caring and trusted adults and with each other. Um I think he's a great great speaker and he's going to talk about the myths that undermine childhood well-being. >> Um what's that? >> The parenting myths, right? Parenting myths. Um so we'll start promoting that. We just confirmed that and trying to sort of um h have this a bit have a sense of it separate and aside than like the work of Buddy's place with hower parents all very important work but want this to feel more of a general session. and all parents are absolutely welcome. Um, and

117we'll work with the PTAs and PTO's and our own communications plan to um, get the word out because I think he's an excellent speaker and it's an important topic and um, I would I would we just sort of decided with the conversations we've been having about social emotional learning, the tragedy at Hower, etc. It just feels like doing something that feels very strongly in the realm is a good connection point for families. So, it's parenting myths >> that undermine childhood well-being. >> Childhood well-being. That sounds different than the the last one. That that wasn't what he I think did at institute because whatever he did at that your your kickoff day. I think it was the next year I went to the institutes the the big joint conference thing and he was a presenter and

118I went to it. It was exactly the same material and pretty much the same presentation just as engaging. He he really is a good speaker. It's really good content. This sounds a little different. So when I saw that note come out about him, I got excited about that one. We'll put that on my calendar. >> Good. >> And that will be at Hower likely. >> Yeah, that the auditorium is usually our best pl. Again, it's a hard one to always try to project the number that we would get, but I know sometimes when it's been a small group, we even have moved it into the library just a little more of an intimate setting. But yeah, we'll start with the houser is the best location for us. >> Cool. Okay. Um and then Martha presented

119the dates for strategic planning for those [snorts] participating in the committee. Um and we talked about some different activities that the different PTAs and PTO's are doing and also had a little discussion about fifth grade themes night. Um on the whole individually all that fun stuff. Um, also I will plug because why not that Hower's pasta dinners tomorrow? >> Tomorrow. >> Y. >> Um, and that's a big fundraiser for them. There is um, eighth grade leadership is going to be doing family tours. It'll be a nice way for incoming sixth grade families to get an idea of what houseer looks like. There will be a book fair from Anderson's and it's the first time they're using Anderson's for book fair. Um, and they'll have their famous Domino's cards for sale, which I love and every

120PTA also purchases because we use them for everything. Um, yeah, I think that was there was a lot of good ideas about some events that PTAs can do, but other than that, we were cold and there was e-learning happening. [laughter] >> We appreciated parents joining us while I think the kids over at e-learning in the >> Yeah. other area of the house. >> Well, bandwidth problems here and there, but >> that is it. >> Okay. I apologize again for skipping over. [laughter] >> Now, policy committee. Miss Gun was not able to be here tonight. Uh but really I I'm assuming that was there anything that she wanted to bring up? >> No, there was no additional discussion on the press 120 and we have it all set to go for approvals at the regular board

121meeting in February. Uh any comments to take back from any second readings before we get there or to discuss tonight? No. Okay. >> I'm remembering there were a couple that a couple of the policies had a choice and I'm not sure that we had gotten on the choice on those but maybe we sticking with the defaults. >> I think we had talked Yeah. >> Yes. They're noted on the agenda. >> Okay. Yeah. I thought we were sticking with the defaults. Okay. All right, that's the agenda tonight. Uh, nobody came in, so I'm guessing no more public comment or no public comment. So, future dates are February 18th, as we just discussed, regular business meeting at 7 p.m. in Hower Auditorium. March 4th, committee, the whole meeting at 7 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at Ames.

122March 18th, regular business meeting at 7 p.m. in the Hower Learning Resource Center. And April 1st is cancelled because we will be on spring break. And with that, this meeting is adjourned. >> [music]