District 96 Board of Education Regular Meeting 04-16-25

001Okay. All right. We are back in open session. Um, thank you everybody for joining us tonight. Uh, we will start the meeting, the open session with public comment. Um, I do have two I will also throw out for those of you that are not familiar with our agenda, we do a public comment at the beginning of the meeting and we do a public comment at the end of the meeting. Um, I have two people signed up on a sheet that I will call up. If anybody else didn't sign the sheet, you're more than welcome. I'll I'll just double check on that. Um, but we will jump in with public comment from Megan Leel. And we do um just just to throw it out there, we have a threem minute time limit, but we we're not

002super packed tonight. So, if it goes over a little bit, thank you uh to uh Dr. Ryan Toy and the District 96 school board for your service to our district and community. My name is Megan Leel and I'm the parent of two students at Ames Elementary School, both of which have attended the Riverside Park District before and after school care programs for three days a week for the past three years as well as many cabin days for those days off school. Their experiences have been positive for many reasons and I hope to share our family story and lend our support to their current proposal for their continued contract in district 96. Three weeks after first registering my children in 20 22 20022, I was contacted by a park district employee who had read my application

003and noticed I had mentioned my son as a student with special needs. She stated that she was a liazison between the park district and the WSS. She assured me that he would be fully taken care of and they would work with them to help him to be successful in their program. This meant a lot to me. I was grateful for their time and the care they took to get to know him, what he needed, and to also work with me as his parent to help him get through that first year. This support has not stopped even three years later. Both of my children are always happy to attend the current program and the consistency of the personnel and the program brings us all a sense of safety and security. Whether it's the outdoor play, organized

004sport time, crafts, socializing, and even snack time, my children enjoy this program and tell me the counselors are fun. Logistically, the Riverside Park District is a very well-run and affordable childare program for working parents. I appreciate the ease of how online registr registration and payment works along with the flexibility of the programs. The administrators are very attentive to any questions I've ever had and immediately responded to my concerns which have been few. Overall, when considering why the Riverside Park District program is the one I would support, I refer back to all the positive experiences that both my children and I have had in in addition to two final considerations for the board. The funds I pay towards the current program go directly to support the Riverside Park District, an organization that plays an integral part

005in our school community. There are many benefits to supporting the local people who serve our children as well as the organization behind it. Based on my past experiences, I would definitely support using their services for the complete duration of my children's education in district 96 and would absolutely recommend them to any other parent. The counselors are all would also make the program. My children and I see the same faces year after year, which is a testament to their program. Tatiana has been with the program since we started, and my son refers to her as a good leader because she is. The love that she shows for the children can be seen every time she's with them. Briana is another counselor who we've seen year after year, and she has always approached me with professionalism and

006compassion, even when my son has had a bad day. She's dedicated to helping him try again and to do better, which is something I am always grateful for. Just this past week, I picked up my children to see Emily playing alongside a group of kids smiling and laughing. That same face is the one that greets us all by name in the morning when I drop off my children and wishes us well when she says goodbye. We know these names because they have become part of our lives the past three years. We have built relationships with them. I entrust them with the safety and well-being of my children because I am confident in doing so. These counselors choose to work in the program year of year because they love what they do and it's obvious to

007anyone who sees them with our children. I believe that both of the proposed programs will offer our students a safe and nurturing environment and I truly truly appreciate the district's willingness to sign these contracts with childcare organizations to provide before and after school care within the buildings. And I do know that as a school board you'll select the one you truly feel is best with our children. And with that, I just want to speak on their behalf. and I thank you again for your time and consideration and wish you the best in your decision. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you coming out. Uh second, I have Marian Beer Co, I think if I'm reading this correctly. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to all of you. I'm the executive director for West Suburban

008Special Recreation Association. We have 13 partners which includes the town of Riverside. um all of those communities. We provide recreation services for children through adults with disabilities. Um we provide support uh not only through the recreation programs, the 70 programs that we offer seasonally, but also through inclusion training. Um as mentioned, I couldn't follow that uh any better. Thank you. Uh West Suburban does provide an average of support for two to four individuals with disabilities in the before and after care program. We've worked closely with the staff of the recreation department and um they have done an incredible job continuing to support all persons that are in the afterare program. Uh as consumers you are already paying for the services for WSSR to be a part of this. Um and we can only provide the

009inclusion support if it's Riverside Parks and Recreation. anyone else you would hire uh would mean possibly the community would be paying double for the support uh for individuals with disabilities with special needs or not receive support at all. So I highly recommend that you continue because it's working and it's working like a very welloiled machine. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. All right. Thank you for coming out. Um, is there before we move on to the rest of the agenda, is there anyone else that would like to give a comment? And it doesn't have to be about before and after care. Just any comment? Nope. All right. If that um concludes public comment, we will move into any Well, I'll ask any changes tonight's agenda from proposed by any of the board members. Nope.

010Okay. And uh Dr. Antoy, hand it over to you for the superintendent report. Thanks. And my first item on the superintendent report is our wonderful group of students that are here from Ble Park. And I see that a lot of our Ble Park staff members are here and our principal Casmir Gorman. So Kasmir, maybe you want to come up and introduce what what you are all going to share tonight. Good evening, Board of Education. Dr. Ryan Toy. Um thank you so much uh for having the Blake Park students and staff and me here. We're very excited to present um to you this evening. Uh Blake Park School opened its doors in 1949 and so we are celebrating um our 75th anniversary this year. Um additionally uh 20 years ago in 2005 the students and staff

011of Ble Park um created a time capsule and they put all sorts of artifacts from that time period into the time capsule. And so we thought it was very fitting that this year that we open that time capsule and let the students look at the contents of the cap capsule and what life was like way back in 2005, which doesn't seem that long ago. I feel like that just happened. Um but then also um be able to come up with ideas for what to place into the time capsule um this year that will then be looked at and admired and aed in a by a future generation. Um, so if I can have um all the grade level time capsule students come up. Um, so starting with Lahi, why don't we have all the grades

012coming up? Maybe we can stand right over here. And in addition to that, we also have two very special writers. If we can have our our writer winners come up as well. We just have all stand here. Lad is in fifth grade and she is going to go first. She's going to explain what the fifth grade um submission was. Hi, I'm Ly Lyster. Fifth grade chose to take pictures of our school to show what it looks like in 2025. We split up into groups and took photos of the library, gym, art room, music room, main hall at entrance in the outside. We also included a picture of our classes. We hope these pictures will show the future students what a great learning place park is and will continue to be in the future. Now we

013have Julia from fourth grade. He's going to share his fourth grade submission. All time capsule items snacks, candies, and foods from 2024 to 2025. Alpha food classes shows to put representations of our favorite snacks, candies, and foods into your time passing a super fun topic that we all love. Let's be honest, kids love junk food. together be cool to show what kinds of sheets we eat now in 2024 to 2025. A lot of our snacks are new versions of old ones of peanuts used to eat even tasty and more fun like we know are shi and crunchy at the same time. We also love ill dried candies frozen fruit covered in chocolate and other cool snacks that didn't even exist before. This project reminded us of something we don't know eureka reading adventures. That means

014one idea can lead to another. And that's exactly what's happening with snacks. Old ch inspire new ones. Now we have all these awesome choices. We baked this to show what kids our age love to eat and how snacks have changed over time. These kids in the future think it's awesome to see what pop them out. Third grade representative. Okay, good evening. My name is Jonesy Jordan and I am a third grade student at Life Tech Elementary School. For the time capsule, third graders are submitting a persuasive essay where they are trying to convince you to agree with their opinion about whether or not it would be a good idea to go to McDonald's across the street from life. I'm going to read a part of my essay to you. My McDonald's essay, do you like

015McDonald's? I am against having a McDonald's across the street from life. One reason why I don't want a McDonald's because the food is unhealthy. They put poor ingredients in their salt. They put a poisonous brand of potatoes to make it taste better. Their food has a lot of sugar. I think those would be great persuasive essays for 20 years from now if anyone wants to put the McDonald's on across the street. Okay, now it's Catherine. You'll see. We're so excited to tell you about our second grade time capsule at Life Park School. Inside our time capsule, we each put something very special. Our all about me posters. These posters tell all about who we are right now as seven or eight year olds. Our favorite colors, foods, hobbies, and even what we want to do

016when we grow up. Someday we'll open this time capsule and remember what it was like to be our seven or eight year old selves. It will be so much fun to see how much we've changed and how some things might still be the same. Thank you. And I have their all about me poster of packets that I'll pass around. And then we finally we had in first we have Preston talk about our first grade submission. I probably Hi, my name is Preston Higgins and I'm in fourth grade at Boy Park. For the time capsule, the four squares designed to show the things that we currently like such as our favorite food, food, sports, and animals. We also took a picture of our shoes that we wear out to school. In the future, life park students

017can learn what shoes what in style and what other things the force for us is left in the year 2025. Thank you. Popular shoe trends happening right now. And then finally we have um Henry and Ael. Hello, my name is Henry and in Miss Bassy's kindergarten. Hello, my name is Osa and I am in Mrs. Kamigo's kindergarten. We have Pippa P to put in the box. Pip has helped us learn about coming to school and working at W Park School. Thank you, Pip. We love Pip. Thank you. Thank you. But we're not done. We also held a writing contest this year. Uh, and the students were asked to write what was special about Bike Park School to them and how it was special to the Riverside community. Um, and we had many wonderful submissions, but

018we had um two top winners from our primary and from our um intermediate. And so first it's gonna be Quinn Delajki. She's going to read her writing submission. What Ble Park School means to me by Quinda. What Ble Park School means to me is kindness. I love my kind teachers and friends. Bulldogs represent kindness and spring. They stand up for themselves and others because that's what Bulldogs do. I love Ble Park. Nali Delaney Ble Park's 75th year. Ble Park is a work of art, a major part in Riverides and and all of its students hearts. While its students have fun with the staff, when you least expect it, they'll make you laugh. Fly Park also has a lucky park that has many trees. Oh, wait. Do I hear a school mascot barking? Our school mascot,

019the bulldog, I want to name Bob. Makes sure that everyone does their job. BL Park also has nurse Hyel. She also she always makes kids feel well. Also, with music, library, and art, they don't make everybody feel tiny, but mighty in their heart. With Miss Gorman as our leader, don't worry, you don't have to fear. Have you heard? It's surprising to hear the Spike Park's 75th year written by Nali Celestine Del. So those are just are some of our most important submissions to our time capsule this year. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments from anybody before they leave? That was really thorough. You shared a lot about your time capsule. So I didn't hear what you got out of the time capsule. So it was we have news clippings um the yearbook. We

020have lots of writing submissions pictures that the kids on um uh there teachers here that that have seen. Am I missing any other things? I know there's like little similar similar to what you're very much because it's like it's pretty it was pretty compact and so we got a a chest that was about that same size. Um but it was just really interesting to see like everything was obviously like handwritten um the pictures the styles and the trends. So we use that to have um our ideas. We have a cultural heritage night that's happening next month. And so we're going to put all of the artifacts from the old time capsule on display. So that's so we'll have people that all families will bring in things about their culture, but then that will be like

021White Park's culture. So we're excited to kind of share that with the whole community. That's the idea. Yeah. And the idea is the one that is being prepped now will be opened in 20 years. 20 like Yeah. So another generation. So 2045 sounds like a really all the recent renovations 20 years from now. Well, it's just the building in 20 years. It's not a renovation anymore. So it was in our library like on like a top shelf. It was just kind It wasn't We didn't bury it or anything else like that, but I mean it was it was there. So, I think that we're just going to find probably and it probably will be in our library again just like in a very like like special spot where the kids can kind of, you know,

022reference and see it. Um, and then we can refer to it and talk about it. Um, but just it's a fun thing to do. I I think all the grade levels have really gotten into it and all the children worked with their teachers to decide what they were going to submit. So, you know, it really truly was like their decision about um the ideas that they were going to contribute to the time capsule. Last question. Sorry, I saw one of the fifth grade class pictures. Everybody was holding paper airplanes. Was that any was there any particular reason or you guys write on those to put in? We did. We read a story. We read a story that was about um like how something as simple as a paper airplane can help you connect with someone

023else. And so then we did it as a team building activity at the beginning of the school year. We brought both fifth grade classes together and just tested out flying different papers. Oh, that's beautiful. Okay. All right. Well, thank you to all of the students that came out and uh the two that read your writing samples. Those were also very good. So, thank you for sharing all that with us. We really appreciate it. If I get up all the students over here, we're going to take a big picture together. Okay. Thank you again. Thank you parents for bringing your children, your teachers for being here, too. Really appreciate it. I'm glad there's it just wouldn't be accurate. One of those. Oh, I didn't look that close. My high school, we buried ours. We went to

024our 20-y year reunion and it w wherever it was buried did not resurface. So it was like wo so we stole it. Thought they got some buried treasure in ran with the baby cuz I was like I was assuming you have to bury it. Yeah, that's what you're supposed to do, right? I guess it's easier to find if you don't bury it. Yeah, that was that was 30 years ago, Marlo. That's not how you do it anymore. Yes. Now it's We do have one other student presentation tonight. I know Julie Chco is back there. one of our Hower teachers and Zachary, one of our Hower students. So, Hower has recently started composting in grade six lunch periods. This has been work a long time in coming and I want to thank Julie as part of

025our evergreen club, but also all the students involved and just thought um kind of unique to have both, but I thought it was really important for all of you to hear about our our new composting program. Good. Thank you, Martha. So, I'm Julie Choco, a sixth grade um ELA and social studies teacher at Hower. And with me here today is Zachary Kasmarek, a sixth grade student. And we're going to talk to you a little bit about our composting program. So, back in the fall, Martha contacted the Evergreen Club and the green team to let us know about the Illinois Green Schools project, which is an initiative to support sustainability in the schools um with the goal of implementing a personalized um program. So, fellow educator and I, um, Mary Pascola, we decided to take on

026the challenge and over the course of the year, we've been completing, um, sustainability workbooks to identify um, needs at Hower and um, we had a mentor assigned to us that help us to help us to identify those needs from an engineering firm, Arab Engineering. And with the help of our mentor, we determined that reducing food waste in the cafeteria was the most attainable goal. And with also being able to involve the students the most, um we got the great news in February that we um our our project was accepted by the Illinois Green Schools Alliance and they awarded us a $1,000 grant. Um so we were pretty excited about that. And Zachary is going to talk about the green um the green people group. Take it away. Hi, my name is Zachary Kishvaric and I'm

027a part of the Green People. The Green People are a group of 16th sixth graders who chose to be a part of the composting team at Hower. Right before spring break, a worker from a company called Wast came to Hower to present about composting. They talked about what happens to the compost at Wast and what to and not to compost. Here's a video that the greed people with the help of our library librarian Miss Maron created to teach houses students about composting. Did you know more than 60 billion pounds of food go to landfills each year in the US alone? While US schools waste 530,000 tons of food annually. Wasted food is harmful to the environment. When food waste rots in a in a landfill, it releases harmful greenhouse gases that trap the sun's heat

028in our atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Food is the single largest category of waste put in landfills. Food in landfills emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Composting is so easy. When our food waste from houses combined with carbon rich materials like dried leaves, moisture and heat from the sun, it will quickly break down and turn into compost. A company called Waste Not will pick up our food waste and turn it into composting through this process. Instead of throwing your food scraps and compostable materials into the trash, you can now put them in the green compost bin. This includes compost, plates, applicants, and food scraps, and wooden spoons. If an item can be added to the share basket, like a whole banana, put it there. All the foods on this tray can go to the

029compost. But first, we need to take the sticker off the orange. Do not put anything into the compost bin that doesn't belong. This includes trash, recyclable materials, produce stickers, milk containers, and the red and white pizza serving trays we get on Friday. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out. These needs to go in the trash. The spoon and the package can go in the compost bin. Food containers need to be emptied and then thrown out. We have been composting at Hower for one month. There are two composting bins in the lunchroom on opposite sides of the cafeteria. And each day, two students are selected, one at each composting bin to help tell students at the end of lunch what to and what not to put in the composting bin or the trash can. Next year,

030we plan on composting in all three grades and not just sixth. I'm Zachary Kitcharrick and thank you for listening to our presentation. Uh, do you guys have any questions? Zachary, I feel like I looked at your Brookfield Zoo science project and that had to do with composting, too. So, you are like really into this. Yeah, I love it. Maybe you could maybe even next year you could do a little bit more with some of the food composting because that was like coffee ground. Yeah, that was really that was a super cool project first of all. Um, this is a great initiative. I love this. Yeah, thank you. Nice job. What food ends up most in the compost bin? Well, usually it's like the the wooden spoons cuz like basically everybody gets them and they're like

031really easy to throw away, but like whichever food is served that day is probably the one that ends up in the compost times. Are you going to get the composted material back to use for something or so gardening or Yeah, wast they evidently because it's a on a larger scale they don't do that. They did a one-time um delivery recently for um the Evergreen Club and they put they're going to put the compost in our native garden. Um, so I don't know, maybe in the future we could try to work something out with them so we could get the composting back. I'm not saying you want it bad because it Well, do you have is there you you found one use for it and that's that's the hardest thing is to create that whole cycle.

032Yeah, definitely. So, what got you into the composting? Because it sounds like you're doing this more than just as a side hobby, side hustle at school. When we found out about the science fair, we needed an idea. Um, and it was just kind of the one we came up with. It was a bit random, but it was the one we picked and that kind of got me into composting. Do you think Do you think it would be easy to like compost at home? I don't compost. Are are you now composting at home or have you are you trying to No pressure. What we did for our project was we just bought like some bin. Like it was like $6 maybe. It was just like a regular uh bin from Home Depot. And we put it

033in our basement cuz it was during the cold season. It was like winter. It'd be hard to put outside, but it's definitely better to put outside. And like like once a week, we just go up to the pins and just like mix it like grab it on the side and just shake it a bit. And we also had added water. And the experiment was to see which one did best. And the compost that did best had like leaves is what we were trying to compost. And it had water and we'd mix it every week. So that would be like the best way to do compost if you mix um the compost every week with water at the start. So that was what I recommend. And it is easy to compost. It cost us It will

034cost you like maybe $10 to set up, which is pretty cheap. Okay. Well, if I ever get into it, I know who to call now, so presentation. I think half of that 60 billion comes from my house. Feels like it anyway. So, well, thank you for coming out. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thanks to our teacher leaders, but to a group of students that are really invested as well. All right. And then I just had two other quick announcements and we'll continue on with the rest of the agenda. Just a reminder that we have our WSCIE student art fair coming up on May 3rd. It's a Saturday that's held at the Cheney mansion in Oak Park and it's our coming together of our West Suburban Consortium Districts. It's a really lovely art show

035and I always like to remind you about that opportunity. It's um whether your children have art in the show or not, it's just it's it's really a great art show. So, and then uh How's your graduation May 27th? hard to believe that it's time to get that on our calendars, but it is time to get that on our calendar. So, we'll be reaching out to all of you soon about uh whether or not you can join us, but we certainly hope that board members are able to join us. And that is the superintendent report. It is definitely hard to believe that school is almost done for this year. Um yeah. All right. Uh so, we are going to move on to the consent agenda, which is pretty quick, and then we've got two presentations on

036the before and after care for the two finalists that we had. Um so let's go ahead and jump into the consent agenda. Uh could the board secretary please read tonight's consent agenda for us? Sure. Um consent agenda consists of uh meeting minutes from the following previous meetings. is the March 5th special meeting, the March 5th close session, the March 19th regular business meeting along with the March 19th close session meeting and the March n that's that's double March 19th close session meeting two uh session two that we went back into close session the personnel report as presented the payables pre-list as of March 31st along with the payables pre-list as of April 16th. All right, thank you. Uh, does any board member wish to remove an item for further discussion before we vote? Nope. Okay.

037Uh, is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? Second. Second. You got that? I do not. We'll give it to Dan. Give it to Joel. First, Joel. Okay. Oh, all right. Joel went first and then throwing the kindness out there. Joel Joel gets his last second. Maybe. Maybe. All right. Call the roll, please. Okay. Mr. Marhole, some of this. Yes. You got two more shots. Hi, Mr. Hunt. Hi, Miss Gun. Hi, Miss Kaylor. I Miss Class. Hi, Mr. Mir. Hi. All right, motion passes. Sorry, you got three more shots to get that right at the bottom before. All right. Uh, okay. So, we are going to move into the main component of tonight's agenda, which is the before and afterare presentations. Um, so just to set the stage here, we're going to ask each

038vendor to come in independently. Just we're trying to keep this as um equitable as possible throughout this. We're also trying to bring a lot of transparency to this because we know this is a a big issue for the community. Um, in order to control the the the general constraints of this, we did just to level set real quick, we um there was a lot of internal debate before we even made this decision. Uh we did make this decision due to a number of different factors within the district uh that brought this up and we decided to just go out see what our options are, collect that feedback, ensure we're making some good decisions uh within the district and some of the opportunities that we have beyond this. We are going to limit both presenters to

03930 minutes so that each have an equal amount of time. We've asked for I think it was what 10 to 15 minute presentation, no more than that so that we could then ask some additional questions. Um, but uh, Stephanie Gunn and Dan Hunt were part of a broader committee that included parents and some other people from the staff that vetted four total vendors, picked these two as the top runners, and we've asked them to come in and just do a public presentation so that if anybody in the community wants to go back and listen to this feedback, uh, whether they like or or dislike the decision that we make next month, at least everything's out there and people uh, feel that they have the information as to how we came to that decision. So, no

040decisions will be made tonight. These are just presentations. So with that, um, we are having right at Start, I believe, come in first. Right at school, sorry. Yeah, right at school is going to come in first. And I know Wesley, you mentioned about I think each one will have about 10 to 15 minutes to present and then another 10 to 15 20 minutes depending on how long the presentation is. So I am going to set a timer for 30 minutes. That was something the board had suggested just as a way to keep things structured and objective. Is Yeah, Kathy's got music. I mean to follow those kids. I mean, all right. Hi everybody. Thank you so much for having us tonight. Um, quick introductions then we can kind of get started. So, I'm Emily Keith.

041Um, I have the privilege of serving as a senior vice president for partnerships at Right School. I come to you as a former local special education teacher. I taught in Chicago public schools as the RTI coordinator um there as well. And um I'm also a mom of two school age children, a six-year-old tomorrow um and um rely very heavily on high quality after school programming. So excited to be with you here today. Thank you for the opportunity. Awesome. My colleague Max. Yes. Hello. Uh I'm Maxwell Belligan. Uh I serve as the regional operations manager for right at school. Uh I had the pleasure of working alongside many districts right in your backyard including Brookfield, Western Springs, Lraange 102 as well as Lrange 105. Um been with Bright at school for a little bit over a

042year now. Uh and I have to say that um it is a pleasure to work with an organization who is inclusive and collaborative. Um, I really enjoy working with this organization and working with school districts, superintendent, um, all of you alike. So, uh, thank you for having us here and I look forward to answering any questions that you may have. So, I always love to start from the beginning, right? Um, it sounds like you all have had a really wonderful program right in your district already and that's great. When Right at school was started, it was started about 14 years ago and it was really started by our founder who's still an active part of our organization today. He walked into his daughter's afterchool program and as the legend goes there she was eating a

043bag of Doritos watching a movie and he thought to himself wait she's here for a lot of hours right it's actually about a thousand hours right a year and he thought to himself she's safe she's coming home with her homework done right there's caring adults and right how can we make this time even more beneficial for our kiddos um the continuum of sort of the the care world, right, is a long one. And we aimed, right, to grow an organization that provided not just the safety and the care because that's just table stakes, right, but to really move that needle and move that continuum to high quality programming. Our mission has not changed since our foundation and since our beginning. And it's really quite simple. It's really based on inspiring a love of learning. It's

044about supporting schools and the community around it and giving our parents peace of mind. What sort of what supports our mission, right? Is really what drives our collaboration, our work, our innovation every day, which is these four principles about, you know, leading every day with our mission at heart. Being innovative, right? To think about just because it was done well before doesn't mean it can't get better. We've done that with our curriculum, with our inclusion, with our hiring practices, our training, etc. We're efficiency obsessed, which is where we're able to keep costs really quite low for our families. Um, and locally inspired, right? We are, you know, a national organization. We do support 65,000 or 60,000, one day 65, but right now 60,000 students across the country, but we are truly locally inspired. One of

045my favorite stories is actually one of my son's doctors. Um, I brought him to the doctor's appointment. and I was working outside of um the the office and she saw the right at school sticker on my computer and she said to me how she knows I don't live in her community it's an Illinois doc she said how do you have this sticker and I said oh well I work for right at school and she was convinced that we were only in her district because that is how sort of local and tied to the community that it was as Max said these are some of our neighboring partners and we look forward to the opportunity to join me here as well. As we bring our mission and that vision into life, it's really rooted in a

046promise, right? We look at our students, our families, and our leaders as all of our stakeholders and our partners as we continue to move forward into the partnership. The real core is what is our program, right? Kiddos are going to come. How are we moving along that continuum? And it's really with this integrated, joyful, safe program that is rooted in academic achievement or I'm sorry, academic enrichment as well as social emotional learning. Yes, we're on site at your schools. And yes, we have dedicated staff. Yes, we have, you know, time to get the wiggles out, right, and whatnot. But it's really about the intentionality behind the programming that keeps our students not just safe, but engaged and eager to continue their learning. So what does it look like? Well, it's first of all, as we've

047said, it's locally inspired. So the way that your principles may build the program here might be different than the way it looks in Lrange 102. Sometimes we even see it different school to school because of the different needs demographics make us up make up of the of the schools. So first and foremost, we start with a town hall, right? Yes, it's a time for our kids to come in and um have their snack and socialize a little bit, but it also allows us to ground the day. We ground it with an essential question. It's an opportunity for our staff to do check-ins with our kiddos around were Bobby and you know, uh Billy always sitting next to each other and now they're on the opposite sides, right? Was Susie always raising her hand and now

048she seems withdrawn? It's those opportunities that we're able to use that to build those intentional relationships and drive some of that um social emotional learning forward. Right? Moves. Yes, we get our wiggles out when it's nice outside in these fine, you know, worlds of Illinois, right? We get outside and we move. And if not, we've got lots of activities inside that are structured, right, that really build on that kind of collaboration language. New this year, um we've speaking of innovation, we've added um American Sign Language as our way to um help sort of build this idea of communication and ongoing language development with our kiddos. Why ASL? Well, the reason is is that one, it talks about and teaches about inclusivity, right? We may not all speak the same language, but we all sort of

049can communicate and learn different ways with each other. And it also does help with some of the communication. I was so impressed with those students that spoke up here today and they were confident and poised and eloquent. Not every student can do that, right? And so this idea of getting up and finding and building your communication skills is a great way for us to be able to do that with our kiddos in the program. The next is a flexible enrichment block. Core to our program is disguise learning, which we'll talk about in just a moment. Our other promise to our educ or to our families is that they will come home with their homework done. Right? As a full-time working mom myself, there's nothing I love more than sitting around the dinner table and not

050having to think about the homework afterwards. I just want to spend that time with my kids. And so that's the promise that we make is that when they come home, the homework, the extra reading, whatever that might be, is taken care of. Also, as a former educator, I know that the time in the classroom goes like that in a day. There's never enough time. We're in a world of, you know, MTSS and, you know, other in uh interventions, right, to help maximize this time with our kiddos. And so, our amazing field and operation staffs works diligently with school districts, with principles, with whatever curriculum you all are using during the day. we can bring that into our program to provide additional facilitated minutes on any type of in-person tutoring or um you know sort of

051uh asynchronous learning tools and it's a way that we really try to bring that um during school to afterchool connection. the disguise learning. We uh you know sort of joke about this that say well if we invited you know all of our kiddos to come to write club after school and learn for three more hours they would run in the other direction. So we have conveniently disguised it. Um so it is just that after we said you saw the flexible enrichment block even as part of it we introduced disguise learning. Each day, our educators actually have the choice to pick between two to three activities. So, again, locally inspired. Have they been seeing that by Thursday the kids just like need to get up and move around? Maybe they'll pick, you know, more of a

052movement disguise learning activity than one that's seated um uh on the ground. And so, in this disguise learning, the main goal is to build the durable skills, right? When you ask any employer what is it that they're looking for right in new hires, it is these durable skills, empathy, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and that's what we're trying to build here. So, a great example, I was actually just visiting a school not too long ago. was actually uh over in Elgen and we were or the the kiddos were having a competition to see who could make the loudest wind instrument with paper, pencil, scissors, tape, string, right? I was dumbfounded. I was like, we can make music with this. Very interesting. Well, the kids got right to it. They were in multi-age groups working through

053it. Best part was at the end of the activity, the facilitator said, all right, who's is the loudest? Well, none of the children wanted to be done until theirs was the loudest, right? So, they went back and they iterated and they talked about why was one, you know, louder than the other and what made that difference. And it's those moments where when the parents come in, the kids say five more minutes, right? And that is when we know that that true joy of learning is happening there. We also take it one step further. You all are working so hard on those hours from 8 to 3 on the objectives that you have set out for your district. I love this idea empowering learners for life, right? It's the same thing we were just talking about

054about, you know, the learning doesn't end, right? Uh when they graduate from your district here and so we want to thread that same type of ideas into our program. And we're quite aligned already between the durable skills, this idea of inclusive environments, authentic learning, and whole child development at right at school. A key theme that you'll see is just because the bell rings doesn't or ring doesn't mean that enrichment and engagement has to end. And so that includes the non-school days, right? when there's a teacher institute day or there's an early release day if that comes into your scheduling or I I should have looked this up I'm sorry but Kashmir Palaski day because we still have that off in my district um I don't have that day off from work right so my kids

055need somewhere you know uh engaging to go and so that's the non-school day uh that we offer we can do that over you know any type of break time we support the principles in that work um and then also non-school days extend spending also is when we again bring that local inspiration into each district is what else does the fabric of your community want and need. So in some places we're hearing more and more we want clubs, right? We want the afterchool care and support and engagement and we want soccer club or we want art club. Great. We can facilitate that by working with local vendors right around your local karate instructor, your local music teacher or even local teachers that want to, you know, host a club after. We can work to support that

056and bring that into our program. We also know that you have some local organizations that are also providing clubs to your schools right now and we love to play nicely in the sandbox with other folks. And so if there's local organizations that are already providing those clubs, we are happy again to sort of be that connector. Kidos will come after school. They may come to our room, right, as a housing place, right, to be able to support uh where all the kiddos are going. Again, our amazing operations and field team will be able to seamlessly bridge those children to those clubs. It's a great way to kind of keep that local footprint, right, from a community uh partner while also expanding on. We can talk all day and all night about our curriculum and our

057program and our safety and our joy, but just like in the classroom, if we don't have highquality educators, it doesn't go anywhere, right? And that is what we focus on. We This is all we do as an organization. We do before and after school programming. So all day, every day, we have nine full-time recruiters that are out there searching, finding, recruiting, hiring ongoing for two reasons. One, they want to continue to find the best staff. Two, we also don't believe in weight lists. Our philosophy is that if a parent needs or wants care, they should be able to do that, right? And so we are constantly hiring and growing and training to make sure that we can meet those needs. The training of our um educators is deep. It's job embedded. We have um learning

058and development coaches that actually come into the programs, right, to help train the educators. Yes, we do the onboarding and the beginning training as well. Um but it's also about those ongoing touch points over time, right? because we know just like you do with your teachers in the district like one and done never works and so we're constantly working to ensure that it's ongoing. Flexibility is another part of our promise to our families. So flexible enrollment again is a piece that's really important to us. Precoid, postcoid, the working world is just a different world now, right? People sometimes need five days of care, sometimes people need one day of care, right? Or any option in between. And also that shifts within the year as well. So the way that our registration works is that it's

059really to make it what families need. Families can register for anywhere between 1 to 5 days. They can change it from month to month, right? So if a there's a job change, right, in a family, they need a different level of care or maybe they don't need as much care anymore. Those changes can happen. Um we also offer drop in care. Some families may not necessarily need the full-time, but they get a punch card, right? They can purchase the punch card, they can drop in, and there's always that support uh to be able to have it. Inclusion, right? As I said, I'm a former special education teacher. I could not stand and be a part of an organization that did not believe in inclusion and the acceptance of all children. This is such a key

060component of what we do at Wright at school. We have an inclusion team uh at Wright at school that works across all of our well individually with our districts to provide ongoing training for educators that we um hire depending on the specific individual needs of the uh students in that program. They will come out and provide additional on the ground training as well on top of our learning and development coaches. We also have been invited and participate in IEP meetings, right? Because the same type of goaloriented focus and language that's happening before or I'm sorry happening during school is the same type of focus that these kiddos should receive after school. And so a lot of times because of the strong relationship built from the educators to the students and the families, we'll participate obviously

061with parent permission, but we will participate um to be able to to try to meet those needs. And then also the equitable pricing. We want to make sure that every student that needs care or wants care again can have care. That's obviously beyond the weight list, but even from equitable pricing, sibling discounts, staff discounts. So any staff within your school district would receive a 50% discount. We have free and reduced um rate prices as well and we accept state subsidy. Again, have a subsidy team that works with families one-on-one to be able to ensure that we're meeting that care. Ultimately, when we start a partnership with a district, we look at this that we are in this together. We are in this for the long haul. We believe in consistency. We believe in transparency. We

062believe in making the needs very um reflective of or I'm sorry the program very reflective of your needs and we want to take the headache completely off of you um and your families so that we are here to just do what we do best which is provide that high quality programming. So I will leave up some thoughts here and pause there and would love to open it up for questions and a discussion um to see what we can do to help you understand more about right at school. Anybody want to jump in? You want me to go around the room? Where we Where we at? 13 more minutes. I guess I just I actually have a couple questions. Sure. Um you're talking about um like uh you you do constant hiring. So can I ask

063what is your what is your turnover? What is your attrition rate? That's a that's a great question. You know, I will say that um we're not like I'll be we're not immune, right, to the hiring macro like you know, environment, right? I can say that we have a very focused retention um culture focus on our team, right? um max yes is here for you know only well although it feels like so much longer than customers um for a little over a year but that doesn't that's not because of turnover that was because of growth right um so I don't know if you have any like specific sort of metrics that we can speak to but what we look at is you know from a parent from a partnership um perspective and our feebased programs we

064have a 98% retention rate from schools that's continue to stay with us, right? And so while that doesn't answer the question about the staff necessarily, right, it speaks to even when we do have turnover, we really work on that quite diligently. There's anything more you want to add? Yeah. No, absolutely. And Emily kind of summed it up. It, you know, a lot of times, you know, kids are going to to college or, you know, it is part-time um in a lot of cases. So that's why our our talent acquisition team is always out there looking to to build those connections. And in some markets, you know, Elgen is a is a great example. We see very little turnover. Yeah. You know, it I could say I I don't have an exact percentage for you, but

065well below half. Uh well below half. So it it just depends district to district. Uh it can vary. And I'll just also say too that we really work to retain staff that has worked in programs before um to be able to come to our program um and under our umbrella if there's ever a transition in the district. We also work really closely with your schools to try to hire any pair professionals, aids that may want the extended hours or even that additional time. Um, we go to local colleges and you know around to really try to find those that are passionate about education. Also thinking about how do we build your teacher pipeline, right? Um, I'm sure you also are not immune to the teacher shortages that are out there. And so, there's nothing better

066than, you know, for us to be able to find. Um, I will just also share this one story that I just love. It was just shared across our organization that we actually just hired our first former student uh that participated in our program. And funny enough, she is now um an assistant recruiter on our team. Um, and there's no one better qualified to be looking for candidates than someone who went through our program. Could you maybe speak to the regular communication that you have with families? Like is it weekly? Is there communication anytime there's staff turnover at that specific location or Great question. Absolutely. Yes. So, uh, our program managers are required to reach out to families weekly with a newsletter. So, just summarizing what we've done during the program during the week, what we

067have coming up during the next week. Um, we do send out regular communication through line leader, which is our guess our parent portal, I guess you could call it, family portal. Yeah, RAS family portal. There you go. Um, so communication is always ongoing. You know, anytime a parent has any concerns, they have my contact information. I do have a number of area managers as well that are local to the area that will support them as well. So, the that's a a great question. We can build on that a little bit. So the way the structure works to ensure that quality and consistency is every building obviously has their educators. Each building will also have a program manager, right, that kind of oversees the day-to-day of the program. Terren have the program manager's information, obviously sees

068them, that individual every day at pickup. Line leader or as we call it the RAS family portal um is a check-in checkout electronics. It's a big safety measure for us, right? to ensure that parents or guardians have a PIN. They have to come in. They have to enter in their PIN. There's express options, right, that we can share with you, but nonetheless, um that's we always have sort of that name to face kind of recognition, right, with the parent each day. And then sort of overseeing the district is what we call an area manager. That person is sort of like the next level, right, of support. The area manager really does two things. one, they are the person that hires all the local staff. They're somebody that's local here, right? It's not some central office

069that's hiring the staff for your schools. The area manager really takes ownership of that. They're also um the main communication communicator to your principles along with the program manager and then also to the parents. So, if the parents did have a challenge or did have a question, um, if we're really working on like an inclusion situation with the child, the area manager will usually come into support. And everyone has the area manager's like personal phone number, personal email. This is not a go to a queue and, you know, wait there. And then do you all provide the snacks for the program as well? And how do you think about like nutrition and allergies and all of that? Yep. Yep, we do provide the snack for the children and then they have a uh program managers

070have a list of snacks that they can choose from. So, prove like try to stay away from processed and the sugars and the fatties and all that kind of stuff. So, um help me out. I'm blanking out a little bit here, but uh juices, sorry, I don't deal too much with the snack side of things, but um pretzels, those kind of things. Yeah. And we follow the the guidelines, right? The USDA guidelines for what happens for snack after school. Um you're not going to see like gummies as, you know, Max was saying, right? Like it's usually um some type of a grain um a drink. In certain cases, if a district wanted, we've actually worked with the food service company directly that you work with to supply the obviously it comes out of our, you

071know, pocket, but we're happy to work with your food service company as well if that's something that's easier. What typically happens is once we engage in a partnership, right, that's one of the questions that begins with onboarding is what has snack looked like here, right? like what how can we again facilitate it to make sure that it's meeting the needs of your families and what you want in your district. Thank you. Um how many program managers does the average area manager supervise? Great question. Um average I'd say probably right around 10 to 12. Okay. Because in your um material it says they give each of your program managers an evaluation once a month which is Oh yeah that's our safety and joy assessment. We actually and we have refined that somewhat. So once a sorry

072kind of it's multi Yeah it's multi-tered. So uh anytime a area manager is in program which they're required to be in program at least three to four times a week um they are to do a safety and joy assessment and then once a month they do a safety and joy audit which so daily we're always checking those those boxes to ensure that we're following protocol and then we also bring that information back to the principles. Right? So, what we're constantly doing, again, we speak with each principal based on what it is, the cadence that they want, but typically our area manager when they're in the building, they're going to meet with the principal, either it's formal or an informal check-in, you know, at the very least once a month that just says, "Hey, here's some

073really great things that happen in our program. What are you hearing, if anything, right? And what can we do to improve upon?" Um, again, we handle all of that, right? The whole idea is that the principal has enough on their plate. They should be able to leave the building at, you know, shortly after the bell rings or at least attend to their principal duties. We are there to do all the afterchool duties from behavior management to the licensing to all those components. And so again, it's really about, you know, that communication back and forth. And if they have the ear to the ground, we want to listen and we follow that continuous improvement cycle as needed. So I guess what what is the average ratio of um to like students from um so state state

074guidelines is 1 to 20. However, our ratio is 1 to 17. Yep. And then part of that too is that we that's also how we hire. So we always want to ensure that we're in compliance. So in any given program, right, we will typically see one program manager and one educator even if there were 17 kiddos because we always want to make sure that we have the backup, the transitions, the walks. And then I guess sort of a followup to that is how do you hand I mean what's the pol I mean I I don't know much about this, but what's the policy then for like kids with special needs? Is that how's that handled? Yeah, it so it starts starts with our registration process. Um there is an opportunity for the parent to to

075share with us any any needs that their child may have. Um if they have an IEP, they can upload that documentation to them um into that portal and then our area manager will contact that parent directly and and have a one-on-one conversation with them. And then they'll take it a step further, connect with the principal or if there's a social worker within the school or or whatever the situation may be, you'll work with parents as well and just make sure that we're providing the child with adequate care. So I wonder, do you see your enrollment as as children get older? Does your enroll enrollment decline? Do you have compliance with some of your educational opportunities? Does that decline over time? And how do you deal with that? It hasn't. We don't really see a decline

076over time. It you'll see some fifth graders, right, start to sort of peel off for a couple of reasons. One, more you sometimes see more competitive sports take place, right? In some cases, they may have older siblings where they can go home, you know, with those siblings. Sometimes we'll see that. Funny enough, speaking about our innovation, I was actually just on a call today and we were brainstorming um how do we actually create more um like leadership opportunities for our fourth and fifth graders, right? Does the fourth and fifth grader like need or want something? And so that's something that we're actually like asking ourselves. What we do have that our kiddos look forward to is in fifth grade we have uh what we call our junior educator program. And so that's what a lot

077of our kids look forward to. Um, I can see a lot of the kids that were just up here tonight being future junior educators. Um, but basically there's an application. They all get in. Uh, but there's an application process, but it's a way for them to start to understand, right, what it's like to sort of put your hat in the ring and, you know, fill out an application and talk about your own strengths and skills and then they become sort of like the helpers, right, within the program. Um, I was in, oh gosh, I'm going to forget which program it was. It might have been lrange and I saw an older student that, you know, was going over as they were getting in line to go outside and helping, right, like the little kiddos with

078their gloves and their, you know, getting their hats on. And it was just like the pride and the leadership that she felt in doing that was really strong. And so a lot of it is with the leadership and some of the facilitation right now that we're doing and we're exploring what it could look like beyond. We have one minute, one minute and 8 seconds. one question I want to get in and I did not want to lead with money. I wanted to end with money because I know it's on the top of everybody's mind. I've had people just p like in individually just cost. So, and it's less about this and I'm more curious how often that's fun stuff. That's a good one. Um and by the way, I'm very familiar with NPS. That is

079an extremely high score. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Um what is your process of evaluating cost to come up with that chart? Like one, how often do you do that? Is it an annual thing or whatever? Just annually. And then what goes into that? How do you determine what you need to raise like and how is that looked? And so such a great question. Typically we follow So how do we set the price? The very first thing we do is we look at the community, right? Our very first at like request to our finance team that models all that out, right, for us is we want to keep costs either at or lower for families. and we were able to do that here. We're able to do that in most cases and that is because

080of the economies of scale that we have. It's what allows us to do the flexibility in those different pieces. From there, I'll talk really fast. From there, um, from there each year, we'll typically follow sort of like the CPI index, right? It's a typical, it can be a 3%, but we really have that conversation with our field team and our operators to say, what does the community look like? Right? like is this something that can work for them, can't work for them? Is it are we having trouble hiring certain staff because we're keeping costs so low? Do we need to do that? But it's a partnership. I mean, you have calls with what each district in February depends. Yeah. But yeah, usually monthly, very minimum, quarterly. Yeah. and to especially from the pricing thing around

081February, March to look at the pricing for next year um you know and have that open and honest conversation um about it. The more enrollments we see, right? Usually we can keep the costs really at. And so that's something that we work on, right? Also a little different than some nonprofit organizations is we just have the ability to scale where it is that continuous hiring. It's not the weight list. It's built into our model to be able to take more kids and that in turn helps the community. Yeah. Okay. No, that's helpful. I just was curious how you went through that process and what that looked like. So, um I just know it's especially with the current environment being very uncertain. That's top of mind for Well, thank you. I appreciate it presentation. You should

082be very happy with that 80% NPS. Thank you. That means a lot. Mine is currently 19 on your my We do intern. So, is this your uh is this parents? Is this districts? That is both. Both both. We do two separate ones. We actually we do it twice. All right. I don't need to take up anymore. Uh we do them twice twice a year. Fall spring. One with the district partner, one with the parents. Okay. Mine's my employees and we just went through a major transition. It's not very good right now. I love Thank you. Thank you so much everybody. Nice. All right. Bye. Bye. the cost comparison chart big difference right now everything's internal they don't see it yet I'll bug you about that later yeah share more my prior team was 50 and

083I went from 50 to19 I was like that's a gut punch what you go negative on that oh yeah because you take so it's on Well, I assume it's all the same. It's a scale of 1 to 10. And everybody that's a nine to 10 is a promoter. Everybody that's six or below is a detractor. And you take your promoters and you subtract your detractors. And so if I have zero promoters, 50 detractors, it's a negative 50. Oh, okay. It's not great. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. It's a new team. I'm new to everybody. All right. All right. Thank you. Good evening. Um, you got it. Yeah, I got it. We're setting a timer just to be objective and structured here. 30 minutes. So, great. Thank you. Well, good evening members of

084the school board. Superintendent Brian Toy. We are excited to present our program to you as it will highlight benefits to children within the school district and the entire community. My name is Ron Malcode. I'm director of parks and recreation in Riverside and I've devoted the last 22 years to serving this community and providing high quality programming to families. Joining me is Megan Cisco, our program coordinator, who has overseen and helped craft this program since its inception. As long-standing partners with school district 96, we have navigated institute days, emergency days, and even a global pandemic. We did this by working with the district to accommodate every request either in advance or last minute. We are invested in this community and the school district. We've developed relationships with these families that transcend the before and after school

085program. We've watched these children grow. We've shared memories with parents, and we've become part of their lives. These families are with us in other programs, special events, and our summer camps. Because we are based here, members of our full-time staff, including myself, are on site every day to ensure that the program is operating at a high level and continuing to build relationships with those families. Our program blends recreation and educational enrichment in a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment. A program that promotes friendship, individual learning, and socialization while supporting academic growth. We are a service-based agency, not a business. We offer scholarships to family in need, and they are absorbed within the program. We have worked with principles to provide this program to children who critically need it, sometimes at no cost at all. We will

086never leave a child behind. That philosophy also includes inclusion and accommodation. As partners in the West Suburban Special Recreation Association, we are in the best position to provide additional training to staff and provide one-on-one aids to serve any child that has special needs or requires accommodation. This allows every child to not only participate but thrive. Another aspect unique to our program is the accessibility to our staff and direct contact with public safety officials. This allows us to not only provide the highest level of safety policies and procedures, but is essential to respond quickly in case of emergency. Safety meetings and on-site trainings for school faculty as well as our staff provides a consistent and cohesive safety plan between our agencies. Next slide. Our staff is assembled through working with the education departments of local colleges

087and visiting local high schools to provide valuable experience for a career working with children. Staff undergo background checks and fingerprinting, then receive extensive training prior to being scheduled at any school. They shadow veteran staff while being audited by full-time staff before even being assigned to a school. Training is ongoing throughout the school year, as are ongoing audits. We have site supervisors at every site over the age of 18 in addition to our full-time administration staff. Our counselors are future childare workers, educators, and social workers. And we are very proud of the fact that some of our counselors have gone on to become teachers and paraprofessionals in district 96. Now, feedback is essential to crafting our program, and it has been overwhelmingly positive. These are results from our semester survey sent to participating families. The question

088was asked, did your child enjoy the before and after school program. 100% of respondents enjoyed the program or enjoyed the program very much. Did this program meet your expectations? 92% of parents said the program met or exceeded expectations. How professional are parks and recreation counselor staff? 100% of respondents believe staff are professional. How would you rate counselor communication at the program? 96% of parents are satisfied or extremely satisfied with counselor communication. Rate communication with the Riverside Parks and Recreation Office. 96% of parents are satisfied or extremely satisfied with communication from the parks and recreation office. At this point, I would like to turn things over to Megan Cisco, who provide an in-depth look at the curriculum and structure of the program. Our before and after school program has been really thoughtfully designed to support students

089with diverse interests, needs, learning styles, and energy levels, ensuring that every student really has the opportunity to thrive, learn, and grow in a really supportive environment. We have a deep understanding that each student in our program is unique. So, we've crafted a program that's able to serve each and every student every single day. While we primarily operate our program out of a gymnasium or a multi-purpose room space, we ensure that our program has the ability to adapt to the needs of each individual school. We understand that there's a lot going on in the district 96 school buildings. So, being able to adapt to each school and their staff while continuing to provide that engaging and enriching program to our students is really of the utmost importance to us. Our program's daily schedule includes time for

090homework assistance, free play exploration, physical activity, snack, and engaging projects and activities. This blend of structure, creativity, movement, and social interaction help support the well-rounded growth and development of our students. The core pillars of our program are safety, academic reinforcement, enrichment, and exploration, and social and emotional learning. and our daily schedule has really been crafted to encompass blocks of time that follow each of these pillars. Many of our families highly prioritize that homework completion and assistance. So, we've ensured that that's within our first block of our program schedule each day. However, we understand that there are students that don't receive homework or may not receive homework every day. And we have received some feedback from families that they prefer that their children do their homework at home with them or they prefer that their um

091children engage in other activities during their time at the before and after school program. So for these students that block of time also allows for that free play exploration. The students can choose from STEM based toys and activities. They can choose to do art based projects with coloring sheets and craft supplies or they can engage in social play with things like classic board games or classic card games. This free play exploration really fosters the imagination and creativity. It encourages those social skills and collaboration with peers and it supports independence and emotional well-being for our students. Each day before snack time when the weather permits or gym space is available, we do offer an additional opportunity for some physical activity to the students who may benefit from that. We recognize that after spending much of their

092day in a classroom, some students need extra time to move and release energy. So many families have expressed the desire for more time for that physical activity during the day. And this extra block allows us to meet that need. While we do prioritize offering that free playtime each day, we also recognize that some students do thrive with more structured activities. So we ensure that those are available to meet their needs as well. Within our daily schedule, we offer projects and activities or games of the day that promote innovation and critical thinking as well as teamwork and physical fitness in a structured way. Our projects of the day really turn learning into an adventure, ensuring that students are developing those critical thinking skills while having fun by incorporating steam learning into our projects. The activities and

093the games of the day are more than just play. It's an opportunity for our students to build friendships and stay physically active in a fun and structured way, whether that's through something like a competitive team game or some sort of collaborative group project. Overall, Riverside Parks and Recreation understands that every student has unique needs and interests. Our before and after school program is designed to provide opportunities for all students to engage in activities, projects, and games that align with their individual passions. Through a balanced mix of steam enrichment, which is both structured and unstructured, physical activity, social interaction, imaginative play, and homework support, we really strive to offer a comprehensive program that supports the whole child. Our philosophy is simple. Our program is grounded in the belief that every child deserves a safe, inclusive, and

094nurturing environment where they can learn, grow, and thrive. We are committed to fostering meaning social inter meaning meaningful social interactions, building self-confidence, and encouraging teamwork and mutual respect. By offering a diverse range of activities that promote creativity, problem solving, and skill development. Through this holistic approach, we empower students to explore their interests, develop lifelong skills, and build a strong foundation for future success. Now, we know a program has to develop and innovate to serve changing needs. So, beginning in the 202526 school year, we are rolling out the following enhancements. Additional administrative staff to work directly with the before and after school program and provide assistance to our recreation supervisor. specialty offerings including cooking, sports, yoga, performance art, and engineering at no additional cost to participants. Utilizing existing technology available to create more streamlined processes, including

095paperwork and sign in and sign out. Expanded registration options, including one-day and four-day registration to expand on our already flexible weekly and monthly registration plans. continued expansion of steam-based projects, games, and toys to incorporate even more play-based and activity- based learning. The department is also committing to a threeyear freeze on all program pricing, providing the opportunity for families to participate without having to worry about rising costs. As you can see by the slide, the price you are paying in 2025 is the same price you'll be paying in 2028. Our program offers a multitude of registration options to maximize flexibility and convenience. And while this slide shows our monthly 5-day options, the price freeze applies to any of our registration options. Our program is not cookie cutter, nor should it be. We have a wide range

096of ages, interests, and skill levels at every location. So, our program has always been highly adaptable to consider those factors as well as changing needs. So, in closing, why should you choose Riverside Parks and Recreation? Well, we're committed to inclusion as partners in WSSR. We are a wellestablished and reliable community partner. We are a service first agency that prioritizes keeping costs low and providing ample scholarship opportunities to families in need. We are an agency whose primary focus is on serving the community. Our staff, from counselors to administration, are ingrained and invested in this community. We are flexible and adaptable in all circumstances. We have strong collaboration with public safety that ensures the safest and most secure program. And any revenue generated is reinvested in the community. That's right. Every dollar generated from this program is

097reinvested back into the program and into additional recreational opportunities for the community, including new playgrounds. Now, we believe that our proven flexibility and adaptability over the years, along with our unwavering commitment to the school district, sets us apart from any other provider, and our resources are essential to the success of the program. But don't take our word for it. Look at the parent testimonials. Those are just two of many. Listen to the people that spoke tonight. Look at the fact that we've accommodated every request that the district has ever asked of us. Look at our positive survey results. and look at the fact that our enrollment has grown every single year. Serving every child within the district is the goal of this program, but also serving the community. We are not a for-profit business. We

098are committed to building community, not clients. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. We have about 17 minutes for questions. for help. Do you want to jump in or do you want me to call people? I can I can go either way. Yeah. I mean, Dan and I had Well, I don't want to speak for Dan. I had the opportunity to sit in via the committee and and ask my questions. I thought it was a great opportunity, of course, for other board members to use this time to do so. So, that's that's where my silence is coming from tonight. I if you can just expand upon um your scholarships you said how do you determine I mean do you look at free and reduced lunch application process what how do you determine who who's eligible

099for scholarships? We will use anybody who's approved for free or reduced lunch as kind of an addition to our process. Um but the way that we've created our scholarship application is actually by using the Illinois SNAP income guidelines. Um so we utilize those numbers so that we're using accurate numbers. Those are updated each year and I actually update that scholarship form each year to be in line with that so that we're ensuring that we're taking the income of the family that's applying for the scholarship and utilizing a a good resource to determine what the scholarship requirements are and guidelines are. Um at the current year we have provided scholarship from about 10 to 75% for families depending on where they fall within that guideline and wherever they fall um when it comes to the SNAP

100income guidelines is the percentage that they will get in program fees reduced from their costs. We'll work with every family. We have some people that fall just outside of the range but obviously have a need. So we'll work with them to figure out some kind of discount. Does the program ever fill past capacity and need? Do you just add more um uh like counselors to the school if there's more kids that need? Yes, we have been very lucky that we've had a really low turnover rate for staff. We have a lot of staff that stay with us throughout the year. They work through our summer camps. They'll help out in other programs and special events. So providing those additional opportunities for them to work really keeps them involved in the parks and recck department because

101they're getting those additional opportunities for more hours and to get out in the community. Um so we've never had to have a maximum on our program. We have not anticipated ever having one. We're always able to adapt to however many students register for our program. And on the flip side of that, we've also never had a minimum at our program. We actually currently run the morning program at Hollywood with only two students enrolled. But we will not be cancelling the program. We don't have a minimum that we need to hit. We will be staffing and running that program like we would at any other school no matter how many students enroll. Thank you. As you have more kids in the program, how do you determine what kind of staffing ratio we So the maximum staff

102ratio is 1:20. We currently work to be at a 1:10 ratio and as of our schedule right now we are averaging about a 1:8 to 1:9 ratio at all of our schools. I have a clarification question. So, my kids haven't participated for a couple years. They're at Hower now. And um as they got older, they just they had more they were looking for more independence and stuff, but I had signed them up for like chess scholars and a couple other things. And that's different than the before and afterare, right? I think that sort of gets conflated sometimes even in my own head. So, I just wanted to call that out with the before and after care piece. I think one of the biggest pieces of feedback I hear um is related to kind of that

103structured unstructured time and some parents just thinking it's maybe a little bit too unstructured. I mean, it sounds like when you went through the slide of kind of how that daily schedule it is, there's feedback from parents and stuff. Um, I think the other thing I'll throw out too is I reading through all the packet of information you guys uh I don't remember the year 2017 I think is when you guys took over. Is that 2017 is when we first started. We started with Central. Then in 2018 had Central and Hollywood and the 2019 2020 school year was the first year where we had all four schools. Yeah. Okay. So I think I was I think I started maybe two years in. And so I'm curious on two things. Just the parent feedback piece of

104it. How has that how have you kind of ingested that information to improve over time? And then just kind of what is that history or that evolution of like starting and building a program from then to now kind of how does talk me can you talk me through that journey of what that's kind of looked like for the program growing into what it is today? Yeah, if you want to start kind of conceptually I guess I think the the pilot process actually helped us because it was a good kind of introductory uh process. So we we con we were able to concentrate on one school, build relationship with those parents, build our brand and our program uh word of mouth around you know within the district and then as we expanded we were able to

105just build on that. But as you know each school is completely unique. So while we get feedback a lot of it is unique to the schools and a lot of it is unique to the participants. So we get a ton of feedback on both sides. As Megan mentioned, we get as many parents that say, "I want all of their homework completed before they come home." There's just as many parents that say, "They've been sitting at school all day. I want them to run around, you know." So, it is, uh, you do have to filter through all of that. But, uh, I think we've kind of refined that over the years. We've also taken the time. I know I can say from experience being there that one of the first years we were at Central, we

106had kind of tried out doing some physical activity right away. So as soon as the kids came in doing some physical stuff to get their you know release that energy and we had seen that that was potentially we do have some parents that do pick up very early some parents that pick up as early as 3:30. So even that initial amount of physical activity might delay them getting their homework done or doing other activities that their parents want them to be a part of. So we've adapted from that structure. We've moved on to allowing for that homework time and then again being on site. I know that there are students that'll say, "Hey, do you have homework today? Have you gotten your homework done?" And they'll come back and say, "I don't get homework. I

107didn't get homework today. It's Friday. We had fun Friday. We didn't do anything that had homework. Um, so when you gather kind of all of that feedback together, we've really crafted this schedule that we have based on things that we've tried, trial and error, based on feedback that we've gotten about the different activities that people like to participate in. So, we've used the time that we've been in the school to really develop and craft that schedule that we've got currently. Uh will the so will will the I don't know what you call is it the is it enrichment? I don't know what the title of it but like the extra stuff that I was mentioning like the chess scholars that doesn't have anything to do like that would still continue like this. Yeah. That would

108continue no matter what. Those go from 3:00 to 4:00. So those students that do come to the after school program after that still come to they can still participate in class. they do get a discount on those classes if they're in our before and after school program because we understand that it's taking them away for an hour of the program. Um, but then they do they are able to enroll back into our program. Our staff will ensure that they get from the class to the program as well as the instructor from the class ensuring that they get there through that transition as well. Okay, cool. Um, and then I guess my last question would be kind of the supervision part of it, the 18 plus piece of it. just what does I'm having a hard

109time just picturing because I haven't I haven't participated in a while. I hear a lot of like the high school kids type thing, right? And I I'm like, well, it can't just all be high school kids. So, could you just kind of help me maybe bridge the gap between some of the chatter that I hear and like what you're talking about? Like what does that actually look like? Like how do you find those supervisors and um like what's the responsibility of the supervisor versus, you know, maybe the high school kids or whatever that are coming in? Could you talk me through how you guys structure that, manage it, coach people? Yeah, I know Ron touched on it a little bit in our presentation, but some of those are found through educational departments at local colleges.

110So, we'll work with those that run those education departments to see people that are interested in a field in child care. Um, and additionally, we have had some of the students that may have started or some of our counselors that may have started as high school students who have shown extra leadership. They have decided that they want to go into childare. We've had that happen a handful of times that counselors may not have that thought that they want to do that in college and then with their experience, you know, working at our program, they decide to kind of transition to that type of career and then we'll provide that additional training to them to be one of those site supervisors. Um, right now of our overall staff makeup, 41% I believe was the number are

111how many 18 plus, so college older staff that we have in our entire staff directory. Um, on average there are two to three 18 and older kind of site supervisors at each of our locations. Those are always senior staff. Those are when we have those older counselors who have that interest in child care. Um, and then we do, you know, we have gotten feedback that there are parents who really like that we also have those high school counselors because they feel like they are able to relate to their children more. They might have some higher energy levels. They're local to the community. They see them around. So, we do have a nice balanced mix of those 18 and over college students or postgrad um and then those high school students as well. Eight more minutes

112if you'd like it. A couple times you mentioned close relationships with local public safety. Is that just because you're a village department and you've got just those institutional connections or are there special uh procedures that you guys have developed? 100% it's being a part of the village. Um and I you know next week we will attend the annual safety meeting along with uh all of the public safety officials. the our program and our department is held to a higher standard because we're a part of the village. So we not only answer to the families of district 96, we answer to the school board of district 96, we answer to the parks and recck board and ultimately the village board. So being a department of the village definitely allows us to tap into those resources and

113be cohesive with the school district is getting as well. I thought of one more if nobody else has one. You just mentioned the growth. I was just curious, do you know, and I don't want to put you on the spot with like hard numbers, but what is that growth curve kind of look like? I think I saw like two unfortunately it didn't get handed out. We have a sheet that has all there there is a hand out. Um, but I can tell you just from last year to this year, uh, it grew 75 children and from 2023 to 24 was I think over a hundred is pretty exponential. Okay. Yeah, that's Sorry about that. That's on me. That's okay. So, I just maybe somewhat random. I did see on your your website that you had

114a couple positions posted. Is that the positions that you were referencing up here or is that in addition to what's already out there? The the program manager position that is um I don't remember what the title was, but is specific to the performing. Okay. We're actually hiring that this year in anticipation to get them trained up for next year. Okay. We're passing these are They're all the same. Oh, I got it. It's a stack. Those are for David, one for Marlo. I I wonder if you can go into a little bit more detail about the activities that the kids are are doing during the day. And, you know, you mentioned some of the steam activities. Uh, you know, what what does that work out to? what what what are the kids doing for that active

115part of the day? Yeah, we have a variety of different activities. Um, so some of the examples of things that I know that we've done this year, we've done paper airplane contests, so that really involves some of those engineering and math principles. We do art projects so that the children get a chance to kind of delve into that creativity. We've done making their own masks um as well as doing kind of holiday based crafts. Um we have done paper chain contests to see between the schools who builds the most um the biggest paper chains. And then we've done kind of community- based projects as well. So for anybody who has been to Holiday Stroll, we do a holiday stroll decorating competition. So when the kids come to Holiday Stroll, they can see all the stuff

116that they made and they get to see it in the community. We have done disguise a turkey contest. So you get just a sheep of a turkey and you get to decorate it and create it however you want and then we put those up for a vote in our office. So that again it's that sense of community that we're helping build within those projects too. Those are just a few examples. Um but we do offer those and we offer that opportunity for choice for children because we understand there are some kids who are super into art and they will do every single art project but then it's going to come to a building or map-based project and that is just not their jam. That's not the way they learn. That's not the way they engage.

117So we do ensure that they're still engaging in some sort of activity during that time. you know, that's not just a continued full-blown free play, run around, do whatever you want, but we want to make sure that they're still given kind of that freedom of choice to make those decisions based on the things that align with their needs and interests and passions. Could you maybe speak a little bit more to the training program? You know, I know you're often hiring young kids who don't have too much experience managing large groups, right? And so there are sort of unique challenges when you're managing large groups relative to maybe what you experience as a babysitter or somebody managing you know just a few group a few children. So um would just love to hear about you know

118how you make sure that the kids are really equipped to handle these larger groups to keep them engaged to be attentive to their needs. Mhm. Um, our training is completely designed and crafted by myself and our recreation supervisor who's in charge of the program. Um, and we really gather together to come up with those all of the general training. So, behavior management, sign in and sign out procedures, kind of those policies and procedures, but we delve more into how to deal with certain situations. Between myself and our recreation supervisor, we have over 25 years of experience working in childcare programming. um we've both done it up until we got our positions here in Riverside. So we we like to dive into some of those unique circumstances. So how would you handle a behavior issue with

119a kindergarter or first grader differently than you would a fifth grader because those two groups and age groups are different and you have to manage those differently. How do you engage a large group of kids? How do you handle a group where maybe there's a handful that are, you know, you have to deal with some behavior and the rest of the group is acting appropriately and you have to make sure that there's time to address those students who might need to sit and kind of, you know, take a breather but not have that affect the rest of the students that are in the group. So really, our training goes over multiple days of inhouse training between me and the recreation supervisor. And then after that, they will shadow those senior staff. So they will not

120be counted towards the ratio at those points. They will just be in addition to the ratio that's already in place so that we're not pulling anybody away, but it gives them the opportunity to shadow. And we will ensure that either myself or our recreation supervisor is on site for those first days to answer any questions, go through what the day looks like, ensure that they've got that on-site training. And then we do training throughout the year, too. Typically, it is bimonthly or monthly training where we go over any particulars that have come up, specific situations that we might need to address or feedback that we've received. Um, or overall just regoing over all of that information so that we ensure that it's fresh in all of our counselor's brains. And so, if if a somebody

121comes in mid year, do they go through the same initial training that everyone else does? And is there more of a structured curriculum or is it you all just sort of this is what we've come up come up with and these are these situations? like how how does that work? Yes, all of the um counselors that will come in mid year will get the same training. It won't be in a larger group setting. It will be more one-on-one because they are coming in outside of that large group whereas all of the counselors that we have leading up to the school year will do it as group training and then we will break off into smaller groups based on which school they're scheduled at. Um and we do provide it as a structured training. So we

122ensure that we go over all of those policies and procedures first. we will then kind of delve into again those particulars when it comes to behavior management and managing groups and stuff like that. Thank you. So I I I appreciate I know you said in the presentation that you've worked with us and I very much appreciate that. I guess one thing I just if we were to like need sometime in the future like uh like we had early dismissal or something or late start would how flexible would you be with that and would you be able to staff that like accordingly? we'd be in a unique position to cover that. Uh we do have the required staff to uh man that any of those additional coverage days in the schools, but we also have the

123unique ability to have off-site programs as well. Since we're in town, we off have off-site facilities. We could transport if needed. So, because we know if you're going to do professional development or training in the school, you may not want to share space. You may want that more secluded. We do have the ability to take the kids off site and still supervise. All right, I think we're four seconds. Yeah, no more questions. All right, got the last one in, David. Um, and honestly, we're part of the time boxing is because you give us enough time, we're going to keep coming up with questions and so just put a check on oursel and just make it equal through the process. But thank you very much for coming down. Um, good presentation. Very much appreciate your time.

124Thank you for engaging in the process. Certainly happy to be a part of it. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Just use the restroom. Okay. You okay if we continue to move on with that? Okay. Uh we might be done by the time you get back. Um do we have any Let me see. Uh yes. Moving on to Riverside Education Council. Do we have any comment from REC tonight? Nope. Okay. looking at my uh designated person over there. Uh any board member comments. We haven't had anything as fun as that Willy Wonka play happened for a while. Yeah. Any kind of candy off of that. I'm disappointed. Well, you should have tried harder. The fifth grade, sixth grade band concert. Oh, the band contest. It was terrific. you know, like we we're so lucky to have such

125a great music program and staff that are so dedicated to that program. And I think it was inspiring, you know, like it this week it also came out for fifth graders that they needed to select what their extras were going to be in in the going into junior high. And so I think you know the the benefit of seeing how great the sixth graders are and how they progress in just a short year was sort of motivating for a lot of the fifth graders. So it's just a great program and it's great that it sort of bridges that fifth to sixth grade as well. And just thanks to our our band group for putting and orchestra group for putting all that together. It was really really great for the kids and for the community. Yep.

126I think orchestra is next week so the pan the I remember going last year as a fifth grade parent and thinking oh my gosh this is how good and it's exactly how good they're going to sound like now my son is a sixth grader plays trombone has learned so much wants to branch out to other instruments like we are so and my dad came to the to the concert and he's very musically inclined or at least he thinks he is and um he was like blown away he was he's like this is incredible and I can't wait for the pops concert coming up uh in about a month. I think the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade um pops. It's like they play it. Is it music? Uh sorry. Music from movies or something. Mainstream music

127that Yeah, it's mainstream music they play. And then the choir sings also. Yeah. And they sing mainstream songs. That was around when Mr. Black was picking some of the music that he's looking at for this year's pops concert. So Oh, yeah. I'm excited. I don't think I have that on my calendar. It's going to be great. Yeah, it's going to be Yeah. Cool. No, I was just going to say my daughter yesterday or both of our kiddos, right, went to the seventh uh seventh grade Springfield uh field trip. So, that's always a fun and exciting day at that time in the kiddos's lives. Uh the feedback thus far was about the McDonald's and the bus ride, but she did come back with some facts um about uh Lincoln. So, but I think it's an overall

128fun day and of course, you know, educational as well. My daughter said there was too much education. She wanted she wanted more fun time. She thought it was just a fun field trip and she wanted Well, I'm hoping Yeah. It didn't contribute to our any any of our absenteeism because there were rumors that the next day everybody takes a day off. Mom, I'm like no, nobody had Friday off. Nobody. So today I was like, so who was gone and who who give me the list? But yeah, there were rumors that everyone takes the day off. I'm like, you go home at 6 p.m. You get home later from your activities. Like, yeah, you're fine. I think they come up with that rumor on the bus. We should tell our parents every parents buy it. Yeah,

129that sounds fun. Did they Is uh Are they They're in session right now. Did they actually get to see like they Oh, they're not Easter coming up. I don't know. This week it was an odd week. I don't think they got to meet like governor or anything, but um yeah, I know there's just so much right now. We jam-pack in in April and May. Field trips, game nights, you know, transition for the fifth to sixth graders. Just so much amazing work that goes on in the district, especially here in the home stretch. So, yeah. All right, I will move us on. We got three more items and then uh we do need to go back into close for a bit. I'm sorry, three, four more items. Um, okay. Old business. Approval of the DUP DuPage

130West Cooperative DWC member school district resolution. Is there a motion for the board of education to approve the resolution approving proposed amendments to the DWC intergo intergovernmental agreement as presented? So moved. Second. All right. Um, this is something we've talked about, I think we talked about last meeting. It's kind of an ongoing contract. Um, is there any additional commentary, questions, or discussion before we vote? Nope. Okay. Kathy, would you please call the role? Okay. Miss Clap. Hi. Mr. Marhold. Hi. Mr. Barcati. Hi. Mr. Hunt. Hi. Miss Gun. Hi. Miss Kick. Hi. And Mr. Mirhead. Hi. Motion passes. All right. The next item is uh the village/board of education resolution for Cook County paid leave ordinance. And uh we've talked about this one in the past as well. Uh summary of this is there's I I

131can never get this right. Can you help me? Sure. So there's a Thank you. Um it is helpful to for the villages to have passed a resolution that exempts school district employees from this additional Cook County paid leave ordinance, which the village of Riverside um did support us with that, which we're very appreciative of. and was the recommendation of our attorney that the school district also pass a resolution accepting the ordinance by the village sort of a double coverage transmit. So there's also legislation being introduced that this whole thing may go away but again um after all this. So, we'll we'll see where that lands, but for now, I think it's it's valuable to us um to have this ordinance from the village and then to have this resolution uh by the school district. And

132the and the thing that it's doing is our collective bargaining is already not part of this Cook County thing, but it's the substitutes that kind of get lumped into it and it just doesn't quite make sense. And so, we're just passing this resolution to make it clean. Yes. Yeah. All right. Um so, is there Did I already do a motion? No, you do not. Is there a motion for the board of education to approve the resolution accepting the village of Riverid's resolution exempting Riverside School District 96 from the Cook County paid leave ordinance as presented? So moved. Second. Kathy, would you please call the RO? Okay. Mr. Marhal, I. Mr. Barcadi, I. Mr. Hunt, I. Miss Gun, I. Miss Kick. Hi, Miss Claps. I Mr. I motion passes. All right. Next is the approval of

133wireless upgrade proposal and um I think I did have a question on this one so I'll just throw it out there. So I not just under the guy what is it the lowest responsible bidder. I know this isn't the lowest bidder and so is there I know Romesh usually kind of gives us a overview of why we were able to not pick I don't know the right way to phrase that why we didn't or why we were able not to right and that it would actually be more to Don which I know is why Don is staying here with a bad back as he walks over here slowly right and sorry to make you move Don I'm not opposed to I'm just curious as to because the price differences were kind of all over the

134place I was just kind of curious yeah Well, what it does, it it keeps us within the same uh technology vertical that we're in terms of uh with Moro um which we're considered like a full stack Moroi environment. So, we really didn't see a point of making a change at this point. So, of the two Moroi bids, it was the lowest of that. Okay. With this um proposal evaluation process is is actually process. So, and it followed Evate guidelines and uh yeah, it met their bidding spec. So, okay. I made an assumption that it was brand. I'll just lump it into like not switching to a whole new system, right? Yeah. They were actually of the four bids, two of them were Moroi, one was Ruckus Wireless, and one was Arupa Wireless. Yep. And those

135are completely separate systems. So, we Yeah. Okay. All right. That's what I thought. I just wanted to confirm. So, thank you. We're here for questions. Thanks. Um Yeah. Any others before I move a motion? No. Okay. Uh, so is there a motion for the board of education to approve Cisco Maro MR46 wireless network replacement proposal utilizing longtime Cisco Moroi partner Downer's Grove based midsight as presented? Some moved. Second. Kathy, would you please call the role? Okay. Mr. Barcadi, I. Mr. Mr. Hunt. Hi, Miss Gun. Hi, Miss Taylor. Hi, Miss Class. Hi, Mr. Marhole. I Mr. May. Hi. Motion passes. All right. Last item is new business, so no voting uh tonight. Additional physical education full-time equivalent. I'll hand this one over to you. Sure. So, um there's a memo there from Angela, and thank you

136for providing that, Angela. Uh we had um a three-year com five-year compliance review. The issue came up that um elementary schools it is recommended required essentially that uh we have three days a week of PE. We actually had a waiver uh to not provide as many school districts do um to not be able to provide the full extent of the the PE services. Really over time since we've added full day kindergarten, we've added staff, we've really added to our facilities. There really isn't a facilities limitation. Uh the only limitation for us in providing the three days a week of PE is a personnel limitation. Really, we do need additional PE staff. And as Angela calculated out there, it's really a.7 FTE of a PE teacher to be able to round this out. We actually also

137have feedback from our principles and from our teachers that we really think children would benefit from that third day of PE, just the the physical movement opportunities. So it seems that it's a good time to to move this process forward. Again, we're as I said, our only real uh area to improve on then would be the PE. So the proposal here is for a recommendation actually for a 1.0 FTE. It's it's often hard to hire somebody that wants to work a threequarters schedule. You've always struggled with that. Yeah. So it's it's helpful to round it up. Uh we're very good at finding other things for teachers to do in our buildings. It's often just other supports and interventions for students. So, um, again, it's our recommendation that we move to the 3-day a week PE

138schedule for our elementary students and that we hire this additional PE teacher. I know Wesley, you're mentioning it's new business. Um, when we add personnel, it's always kind of an interesting uh sort of process in terms of how we do this. If if directionally the board is comfortable with this, of course, we would love to post for a position and then your formal action would be the actual approval of a new PE teacher. Um, obviously, if there's reservations and you want more time to sort of think about it, discuss it. We can put it on as an old business action item. It's just sometimes personnel, we move right into a a process for hiring. You'd rather get the posting out sooner than later. Just the time of year and everything, we we would Okay. Um,

139I have no reservation. Neither do I. Um, it makes sense and specifically after the whole Matt Lo situation with uh trying to partner with RB, we we've had our challenges as Joel points out. So, I think the 1.0 makes total sense and I'm sure you'll find things for that person to do. Yeah, correct. You're good. Okay, I'm good. Good. Good. Good. All right. I think you've got Okay. a unanimous vote. So, hopefully the board action becomes a newly hired PE teacher not too far down the road. So, all right. Thank you. Uh, that brings us back to public comment. I still see a couple people in the audience. Do we Does anybody want to add public comment? Yep. If you could just state your name um up here and you have a general threem minute

140time limit. No problem. Yeah. Hi, I'm Aaron Greenfield. My son Colin is a first grader at Central and my son Henry will be a kindergartener at Central next year. Colin goes to aftercare every single day. He goes to a lot of um cabin days and he goes to summer camp all through Riverside Parks and Wreck. Um, I'm in education. I understand a lot of things in terms of hiring and quality of program and all of that. Um, what I didn't hear tonight and I goes back to our core value of inclusion of feedback from our kids and what are they finding in the programs for the kids that are there? And I'm curious maybe that came through in other ways, but really for our students, what is that experience been? And as we continue to

141want to iterate and evolve, can our current provider provide that or could another? The other piece I didn't hear hear and I'm really curious about as a parent is just what is the discipline approach at both programs and how does that align to our approach as a district um and is there tension there in either of the program but appreciate being part of the space and just appreciate the thought and care that goes into um making these decisions around who's around our students. So thank you you thank you for staying to the end to make that comment. Uh, okay. With that, um, this this the others were there others. I'm sorry. I thought I heard Did you No, I thought I saw you shake your heads now, but um Okay, so future meeting dates May

1427th. Uh our next meeting will be purely a bianual organizational meeting where we will seat a new board member, swear all the elected officials in and vote on committees and all that stuff and that will be it. May 21st will be a regular business meeting at 7 PM uh in the Hower Auditorium. June 4th, that will be a self assessment. That'll be a full closed session for us to just do a self assessment with the IASB representative. June 20, I'm sorry, June 18th is a regular business meeting at 7 p.m. here in the Hower Learning Resource Center. Uh with that, the open session is done. We are going to go back into close session um for a short period of time here. Uh, is there a motion for the board to enter into close session

143for the purpose of collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees? So moved. Second. Kathy, would you call the role? Okay. Miss L. I. Mr. Barhal. I. Mr. Barotti. I. Mr. Fun. I. Miss Gun. Hi. Miss Kick. Hi. Mr. Mir. Hi. Clarify. There will be no uh voting action after any of this commentary once we go back into open and closed.