March 3, 2026, Committee of the Whole Meeting

001I now call this meeting of the committee of the whole to order at 6:09 p.m. Can you please call the role? >> Miss Pearson, >> present. Miss Chavez, >> here. Miss McCall >> present. Miss Bennett >> here. >> Mr. Carpenter >> here. >> Miss Haley >> here. >> Miss Stanford >> here. With seven present, we have a quorum. >> Thank you. We will now take a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. As we start each meeting, it's important to remember that the mission of Rockford Public Schools is to collaboratively engage all students in an equitable first class education for a changing world. We would like to welcome everyone to beautiful Auburn High School. This is our fifth committee of the whole meeting at a school and we will continue to meet at

002various locations during the school year. I'd also like to thank Kim Person and Aaron Hill who work behind the scenes to produce the broadcast. And I would also like to welcome Stu Superintendent Student Advisory Council member Karina Garcia who's from East High School. We're now on to the regular portion of the meeting. Item 2 A is the meeting minutes from February 3rd, 2026. Are there any changes, corrections, or additions to the meeting minutes? If not, they will be accepted as submitted. Thank you. Um, we'll move on to stakeholders committee and that will be led by Miss Stanford. Thank you. >> Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. It's now time for the stakeholders committee portion of the meeting. Let's start by showing our 12-month agenda. Click. Our feature presentation will be about attendance

003as part of the Brothers for Change bags initiative. We and the board calendar. We want to remind board members of the opportunities available to interact with our students, families, and community each month. Please make sure you check the board calendar on rps205.com on a regular basis for the most up-to-date information. Now, let's look at all the good things happening in our district. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the public open house at RPS 205's College and Career Education Center, the Quad. Student ambassadors led tours of this state-of-the-art building while teachers showed off what their classes have to offer for our high school students. Kennedy Middle School celebrated Black History Month with its annual student projects event. Students proudly showcased black leaders, contributions, and themes learned in class. The school choir also sang. The

004community joined in on the celebration. All RPS 205 high school juniors took part in college and career prep week at the quad. Students rotated through mock interviews, resume building, financial literacy, and ACT prep sessions led by industry professionals, gaining realworld skills for life after graduation. Auburn High School orchestra had an opportunity to learn from Miss Genevieve Smelzer of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Students performed and learned in a masterclass format to better their small ensemble skills. Genevieve also performed the Brahms double concerto with her father Link Smeltzer with the Rockford Symphony Orchestra. Love was in the air and the oven. Students in nutrition alongside their teachers celebrated Valentine's Day in the culinary lab at the quad by making heart-shaped pizzas and sweet strawberry rolls. From savory to sweet, they mixed creativity with delicious fun. Whitehead Elementary's

005house council hosted a week-long kiss a pig fundraiser. Students donated to jars to vote for who would kiss a pig from from egg in the classroom. The big smooch went to teacher Mrs. Ro ro Roma way to make fundraising fun. Next up is items of note with our community partners. Students at Conklin had a special visit as part of the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic. The American Hockey League and the Rockford Ice Hogs brought former NHL players to the school for a fun and inspiring community event. The players joined by several 2026 AHL Allstars worked with students to teach basic hockey skills and share lessons about teamwork, respect, and inclusion. Conklin scholars had the chance to learn from professional athletes who showed that hockey is is for everyone both on and off the ice. And in

006legislative news, the governor introduced his fiscal year 2027 budget proposal outlining a $56 billion spending plan. The proposal includes an additional $35 million in state funding through the evidence-based funding formula. districts would see a $51 million increase in reimbursements for mandated categoricals. The plan proposes a 20 $200 million social media fee with revenues directed toward education funding. The governor is is again advancing a statewide ban on cell phone use during classroom instruction, an issue that was considered but did not fully pass last year. The proposal now moves through the legislative process where lawmakers may revise or remove components of the plan. A final budget agreement is expected by May 31st, the scheduled adjournment date of the spring legislative session. for some internal and external news. Don't miss our enrollment extravaganza happening this Saturday from 9:00

007a.m. to 2 pm. The welcome center and early childhood screening and placement will be open for regular business services including enrollments, change of address, and screenings for all prek through 12th grade. Plus, families can submit their special program lottery applications on this date. This is your chance to ensure a smooth enrollment process and explore all the exciting opportunities available for your child's education. Congratulations to board member Patricia Chavez. [applause] She was nominated and won the community leadership award at the YW.CA's 46th annual leader lunchon women of achievement awards. This honors an individual for her dedication to service and community impact. Way to go, Miss Chavez. It's now time for our feature presentation on the Brothers for Change and their attendance initiative. Please welcome RPS 205's chief of culture and student engagement, Dr. Antoine Reid. The

008floor is yours. You stole this a new kind of All righty. Oh, we didn't need a clicker. It's one up here. Really fancy now. All righty. So, thank you all for allowing us to present again. Uh we are presenting on attendance. Uh we've been presenting on bags and today we're going to focus on the A of bags. And what I want to say is we're recognizing that scholars are not just coming to school because of our great curriculum. They're coming because of the great relationships that we're building. And so in our presentation uh we just want to talk about some of the struggles our scholars are struggling with some consistency and feeling disconnected and we need some new interventions there and there are some outside factors that may influence attendance. So I'm going to turn

009it over to brother Virgil and brother Dominique and our scholar they're going to talk about what makes our scholars come to school. Brother Virgil good evening everybody. want to thank everybody that's been a support and part of Brothers and Sisters for Change. Can't thank you all enough. Um the icebreaker and the connection um that we've been able to connect with these students is by showing them how much we care about them. um by sparking dialogue about their interests in life right now, about their activities, about their needs, not only for their future, but like I said, for right now. Some of these scholars are aspiring entrepreneurs. Some of them are natural-born leaders. [snorts] Some of them are naturalb born supporters and want to make a difference not only in their lives but others lives. We're

010not talking about the future. We're talking about some of the things that they want to do in their life right now. We have pushed the agenda of the value of measurable success to them. Whether it be through this program, whether it be in the classroom, whether it be through some of the jobs that they hold right now, me, whether it be in the resumes that they create for each other, they are starting to understand the value of measurable success. One of the most important things is the consistent interaction that we when I say we, I'm talking myself and brother Dominic and other brothers returns have with these students. We do it during school hours. We do it after school hours. Uh we do it just being visible in the community. We try to be there

011for them as much as we can and that's what builds trust and that's what builds that connection. uh we introduce them to various resources based [snorts] on a lot of times the needs that they they tell us they have not what we think they need but what they tell us they need. We um put them in line for job opportunities and just whatever thing that they might um uh need in their lives in the present time. Hello everyone. My name is Dominique Marshall. I am the attendance specialist at Guilford High School. Uh like brother Virgil said, we decided um in order to improve attendance around the board, number one, we have to start with building that trust with our students. Not only the students, but also with the parents. If we get the parents involved,

012get the parents on track, then I think that can make a better community. So, one thing we've done is not only uh being consistent with the student and uh helping them problem solve the issues that they may have, but we also was able to reward them. So, we're able to create incentives for the students as well. Um I'm at Guilford High School, so some of the incentives we've created were um a list of students um who have been improving their attendance. We reward them every month. For those students that have perfect attendance, we reward them every month with uh we gave away a iPad. We have given away um uh Beats for uh Beats by Dre. We have given away today we gave away a season pass to Great America. So those are some things

013that the students are looking forward to and they want to uh improve their attendance so they can get that. So that's one great thing that we've done within centers. So also I brought today one of my mentees um his name is Brendan Barfield. He's a senior at Guilford High School. He has been with us with Brother from Change from the beginning. So, I'm going to let him come up tell his story of how Brothers for Change has changed itself. [applause] Hey, how y'all doing today? Uh my name is Brendan Barfield. I'm I go to Guilford uh Guilford High School. Uh I'm from Rockford, Illinois. And thanks to Dom and Virgil, I have been attending school more. Um, at first I found no need to attend school. I didn't feel like it was something that really

014interested me. It didn't encourage me to go. I felt like I can learn more outside of school than I did in school. Um, if it wasn't for them, I would wouldn't be here right now. Um, thanks to them, I am. Um, thanks to them, I have figured out what I want to do for my future. I plan on being either a carpenter, heating and cooling, installation or uh roofing. Um, currently I am building a house behind Auburn um with Guilford and thanks to them like I said once again I have I am here thanks to them man can't get um >> um you know at first I didn't really expect much or or expect to learn much from from school. You know I feel like I knew it all. Um I feel like everything that

015I learned came naturally. Um, I went to school. I realized that I had to be in math. You know, a lot of kids don't really think they need math. They don't think they need algebra, geometry, things like that. But if you want to be a carpenter, he cooling installation, stuff like that. You need those type of things in your life. So, I'm doing pretty good in school. You know, at first I wasn't, like I said, I wasn't attending school that much. Now I'm in consistently making sure I'm doing all my work, making sure I'm consecutive and doing what I need to do. Um, that'll be it. Um, thank you guys for having me. You have a nice day. [applause] All right. He he doesn't speak much. He did a pretty good job. I'm proud of

016him. Uh really proud of him. Uh but but what what you're learning is that uh you know students need a trusted adult. You just assume that that is existent. They need that trusted adult and they they need to make school school has to feel safe. It's like a sanctuary for some kids. If you heard them say I I I need to feel safe when I come to school. And I I think that you're seeing this program is allowing those scholars to feel that safety because you can't punish your way uh to improve a tenage. You have to build a relationship like these brothers to build a tennis because I I got a scholar and they have scholars that we call every morning. They not even thinking about getting up until they hear that call and

017it gets to the point that they know that call is coming. They jumping up before us now. So, I'm really appreciate this. I want Mr. Raglin to recap because we're about to start our next cohort in uh April here. So, he's going to recap the program and we're going to close it out. Mr. Raglin, >> good evening. >> I'm Simply Raglin. I'm an administrator at West Middle School and uh I want to go over our program. At the heart of our program is what we call our 4x8 bridge and we identify it as a bridge cuz we taking kids from some place and taking them to another place over going over some challenges and that's what we do and what and what that process looks like is they have 40 days to complete 32 touch

018points. So within those and they're divided by 888 and the first 8 days we going to deep dive with those children and establish a relationship getting to know them on a personal level finding out their faults their flaws find out their strengths and their aspirations. Then the second eight days is we move into what we identify as student accountability and student leadership. During this phase we introduce the kid into the school helping them find their social identity within the school. if it's a club, if it's some type of leadership that they need to connect to, attaching them to the school. Then the fourth, I mean sorry, the third of the eight days is where we recycle or reconnect them back into the classroom and connect them with that classroom process and developing a relationship with

019the teacher. Then followed by the fourth stage is at that point we get to the point where we're bringing the families in because we about to close it out. And at that point we bring the families in because we don't want to leave the kids just we've done all this good work and we just leave them. So at that point we want to bring the families and the teachers in so the kid can have some tools because what we do understand that attendance is not just about numbers. It's about taking it it's a it's it's about taking attendance intervention to the phase where it's attendance transformation. Making our kids come out from what we started with to something new. Thank you. >> [applause] >> That's it for us. Any questions? >> Does anyone have any

020questions? A little close to >> Miss McCll. >> Thank you. Um I just wanted to I have a comment. I just wanted to um again congratulate you you gentlemen for all that you guys are doing um out in the field and in in in your respective schools. I I wanted you guys to know I noticed every single thing. I see Mr. Marshall always uh putting in about his uh attendance uh awards winners and and the the incentives they got. And so for Mr. Hopson as well, um I just want to say keep up the good work. And I actually thought this gentleman was a teacher when I went around and was introducing myself. He ain't say nothing. So So I was like, you know, thank you guys for coming and everything. So, so, um, it

021was, uh, the presentation was really well and I just want to again applaud you and let you know that we appreciate all that you're doing, um, in the schools to help help our, uh, students get to get to class on time. So, thank you, [applause] >> Miss Bennett. Um, I just have a shout out for Guilford. So, I attended the freshman orientation and the I should have been doing like a tally like as a bingo sheet or something, but the amount of times that uh other things were covered of course, but how attendance like that was the number one priority to the point that I was sitting a youth was sitting next to me and they were like, "Oh my god, okay." But um and their parents like no this is important. You need to

022be listening. And so I think just that atmosphere that that is the expectation like before you even started this is before day one. that is the expectation because children rise to the level of the bar that we set, right? So, if that is the expectation, we know you can do it. We're going to give you the tools to do it. It matters to do it. All of you are showing up saying, "We're showing up for you, too." Um, but it came across very strong, and I know that it was very impactful for the parents to hear it, too. Um, cuz there's accountability on their part, too, right? To help our young people get where they need to be, especially our smaller babies all the way up through the grades. And so, um, just a shout

023out, like, great job. I appreciate everybody for coming. Thank you. Anyone [applause] else? >> Thank you, Miss Stanford. Go ahead. >> So, the work that Brothers for Change is doing is is admirable. Um, so thank you very much. And to our student, a scholar. Um, I'm so glad that you reconnected. Um, that makes a difference. And thank you for sharing the impact that it has made on your life. I wish other students uh could be here uh to hear your words because that could be motivating uh to them. Um all of you are doing a phenomenal job. I want to specifically recognize Mr. Marshall because everywhere I go, everywhere I go, um he's there. and it um the effort that he put into everything he does. Um you can tell when his handprint is on

024it. I remember a conversation I had with him. Um he's genuinely concerned about students being in school and getting an education and he will go to the mountains advocating for that purpose. and I definitely appreciate the effort that you have put into to make sure that education is number one for our students. Thank you. [applause] >> Anyone else? >> I have just one more thing I'd like to say. >> Sure. >> Okay. Um for our scholar, I don't know if you had an opportunity or not, but two I think it was two weeks ago, there was a career fair fair for all of the trades. So they had Okay. So you're >> Yes. Yes. more it up. >> Okay, great. So, um, great. I was just going to say we all have lots of contacts

025with trades for any of the different ones that you, um, mentioned. So, if you should need that, like, please reach out and let us know. >> Yes, it was a few that, um, I didn't know about until I went to the, um, to that. So, thanks to that, it did open me up and give me more opportunities to look at. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Miss McCall. >> And I just had one one quick question. Um when you guys spoke about the um par parental piece of this, could you explain or elaborate elaborate a little more as how it is different in the high school ages as far as parent engagement as far as when you guys, you know, come and spoke about the lower grades? Could you tell how the engagement is with the

026high school parents? >> Absolutely. So in the high school, we all know that some of our high schoolers already think they're grown. So a lot of the parents are letting them fall and let them do what they do. But we um explained to the parents, listen, if you are not pushing your child, if you're not here, if you're not uh contacting the parent, watching the grades, being on um home access center, then it's easy for that child to fall behind because that child already thinks they good. They they got this taken care of. So, what our thing is, I'm I'm that extra parent. So, I'm going in there, I'm Hey, why are your grades falling? Okay, let me call your mom. Let me talk to her. let's work out a plan so you won't fall

027any shorter or you know you stay where you are whatever the case may be. So biggest thing is with our high schoolers we have to be that second parent at the school. Um cuz we have a lot of parents who don't show up to parent teacher conferences or don't show up to any IEP meetings or anything. I've seen it multiple times. Um unlike the elementary school, some of my parents are more easy to come because those are their babies. So they want to make sure they're there for them. So biggest thing, like I say, I tell all the teachers and all the staff at the high school that especially the one I'm working at, we have to be that extra parent. We have to be that extra eye for those parents and we have to

028communicate with them parents and not just by email. Call the parents. Let's do home visits. Let's do whatever we have to do to make sure that we are all in one accord. >> Thank you. >> I just want to say to the brothers, keep up the good work. I'm so proud of everything that you're doing. And to Mr. Brendan, I can't wait to shake your hand at graduation this year. >> Oh, yeah. [applause] >> You definitely will. >> Thank you so much. >> So, we're on to board reflections. Do any board members have anything to share regarding any events you've attended or interactions you've had in the community? Miss McCall. >> Thank you. Um I just wanted to um congratulate again on last Friday night um I was able to attend the uh Rockford Area

029Association for Minority Ma Man Management Rams uh 45th annual uh scholarship dinner. Um, and just just wanted to say I think they they awarded 36 um students uh this year with with scholarships. Um I just want to praise the the um the board and and the students who you know were absolutely phenomenal. So it was just a breath of fresh air to just you know sit and hear those students talk about their uh future endeavors and things once they uh graduate high school. Um again on last Friday as well, Friday was a busy day for me. I was able to participate with um Whitehead Elementary School's uh Black History Celebration. Um this this year I was able to to read to several classes and and just enjoy all of the the special guests and the

030the presentations and things that they had at the school. Um and I just want to say go Knights. You know, they are actually in the game right now. So, we're we're hoping that they they win their um the game that that they're playing right now. So, uh that's it. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Miss Stanford, I um want to just um if I get this message, a note of thanks for the recognition that they provided for me. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be in attendance, but I certainly appreciate their efforts. Thank you, >> Miss Haley. >> Um, this past week, I was able to travel down to Springfield to meet with some of our uh local uh area legislators to discuss um the needs for the district and the governor's address. So, I was

031able to speak with uh Representative Maurice Russ as well as uh State Senator Steve Sleman about uh what we have been uh awarded as well the the governor's address and what we'll be getting in the budget as far as uh our district. And so everything is looking pretty good as far as um appropriations are concerned. And so we are still continuing to work with our um our our legislative partners to make the most of money that's available and and then hope hope that comes to the district. So we will continue to work with them as well as our lobbyists to get what our district needs. >> Anyone else? >> Mr. Carpenter. >> Thank you. Um just a couple things I guess. First, I wanted to I know we'll have a more formal recognition later, but

032I did want to recognize uh our golden apple winners, Miss Chelsea Spanelo Johnson at Marshall and Mr. Bryce Thompson Thomas at Guilford. Um we're very proud and excited for to have those winners here at RPS. And I was able to go to the presentation at Guilford was was very exciting. Uh all the students were super excited for Mr. Thomas. Um speaking at Guilford, by the way, they're also playing tonight. They're playing in the next game, I think. >> Yep. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. >> Nice. [laughter] >> Um, also I wanted to or I went last week to the event at Marshall called Towards a More Perfect Conversation at Marshall Middle School. Um, the students put on a um conversation with some community leaders including the mayor and Linda Zuba and uh Mr. Sanders,

033the Rockford um director of public works. Thank you. And that was interesting and the students asked very challenging questions about students first amendment rights and I was um really impressed by their interest and their questions were challenging. Um and also last week we went to the IASB regional meeting which was held at Harlem like uh Miss Pearson mentioned that was informative. The presentation that they had was about AI and education which was a pretty enlightening presentation that I had not spent a lot of time on and it's uh very important. Um and yes, Miss Pearson was recognized for her continuing dedication to school board service and continuing education for schoolboard service. So I she does deserve congratulations for that. Thank you, Miss Pearson. [applause] Anyone else? So, I was also at the Kishwwaukee Division of

034the AASB meeting last week, which happened to be at Harlem High School. It was very nice. Thank you to Harlem for hosting that event. Um, their culinary department created some really nice um orurve type foods for us. It was very nice. Um, also at the Ram banquet Friday night um and our Mr. Bryce Thomas from Guilford, our Golden Apple winner, uh was one of the featured speakers that night. It was also a very nice program and congratulations to all the students who received those uh scholarships. If no one else has anything else, that will conclude our report. Thank you. You will now move on to item four on the agenda which is the performance and monitoring committee which will be led by Miss Bennett. >> Good evening um everybody. Welcome to Auburn High School. Thank

035you so much for having us. Um our first presentation of the night um is going to be from um Principal Knockriner. Um and as he's coming up, if there are any staff from Auburn High School, would you please stand for a moment? >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you so much for being here. We know you work very long days and we appreciate you sticking around and um staying here and showing support. Um Principal Knocker, the floor is yours. >> Just a real quick score update. We're up 4636 at halftime. [applause] >> All right, everybody. Well, welcome to the castle. Uh my name is Ryan Knocker. This is my third year as principal here at Auburn. Um we are going to kick it off with just some results. Uh over the last three years, we saw

036we've seen a significant reduction in uh level two, level three conduct referrals uh within our school. Uh so big picture. Now, how did we get there? Uh that'll come up later in the slide. I'll give a little cliffhanger. Uh we're going to focus on some of our other accomplishments first. Um, we started off in a four-year intensive cycle with this Illinois State Board of Education. Uh, we started meeting uh once a month, once every two weeks with, uh, ISBY school improvement coordinator. Uh, from the go, I told him, I said, "Hey, Nick, uh, our partnership's not going to last very long. Our data is trending in the right direction. This is what I see for coming." And the results have been, uh, two commendable ratings the the next two years by the state board of

037education. uh we've seen an improvement in our graduation rate. We've seen an improvement in our proficiency scores in math and ELA. And then uh we've seen an improvement in our student culture. Um our Panorama survey has given us a lot of really good data uh that indicates that we're doing the right work. Um we've had a 23% increase in students self-reporting over the last couple years that they have an adult to go here at the building. So when things are going um they're having a bad day, they have somebody they can turn to here at the school. Um some of the programs that we're doing is really focusing on our freshman. Um there was a big uh there is a big indicator that indicates if the students going to graduate and our freshman on track

038rate. So we focus on our freshman transitions. Uh we implement nighttime um where kids get with an adult for half of their lunch period and they focus on uh some wayfinder activities. they focus on um some student study skills, some student organization skills, uh some student success indicators that will translate into the workforce. Um we've listened to our students through student listening sessions and come up with um some ideas like um kids that are transitioning back to us that haven't always had a great experience at school. Um we listen to our students. We created a Knights of Armor um program that's just kicking off. Uh we just had our second meeting last week where we have students that always haven't had a great experience at school be the mentors of uh some students that are

039just now transitioning back. Uh we've seen a lot of great smiles, a lot of uh camaraderie built up with those students. Um really trying to focus on meeting the kids where they are, get them the skills to be successful at school and change their outlook. um some of the challenge that we've seen, I mean nationwide, we're seeing teachers uh teacher burnout, teacher retention, uh the recruitment process, but I do want to give a shout out to Mr. Jason Pope's team. Uh his recruitment efforts through uh trying to get us some incoming teachers. I'll be down at the University of Illinois tomorrow with Jason's team trying to recruit some teachers to come back up to Rockford. Uh I'll try and get as many as I can for y'all. I promise. Uh [laughter] uh but then we've

040also seen students coming into school with an increase um increased anxiety, depression, trauma related behaviors. Um so the other partnerships that have been really really been successful to help us meet our students where they are having a Rose CR uh counselor in the building has been a huge support to the schools. Um the creation of the MTSS social worker position and and the support they're able to give students that don't have an IEP. um those same skills, whereas our master's degree social workers typically focus on students with with IEPs and 504s. Um and then through the uh ability to use my discretionary budget to bring in a group, the Antoine Harris group has been a fantastic asset to our team as well. Um closing thoughts, you know, we've made a lot of progress uh but

041we're not there yet. Um there we've had a lot of good success indicators along our path um over the last couple years, but there's still work to be done. So, we're going to closely monitor those uh indicators that'll be included in our school improvement plan and uh give everybody in Rockford, everybody on the west side of Rockford a first class place to go to school. [applause] Thank you. Any questions? Yeah. Thank you. Anybody have any question? Just raise your hand forward. Uh oh, Miss Dandra, I'm like I can't even see whose hand that is. Okay, just me. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um and congratulations on the commendable rating two years running. That's great. Great news. >> Thank you. >> Um can you tell me a little bit more about nighttime? That's a

042freshman initiative. >> Yep. It's a freshman transition program. So, all freshmen in our zone attendance uh programs, 50 minutes is too long for for lunch for a senior, let alone a freshman. So, usually downtime equals bad time. Uh we turn that into something positive, split their lunch in half. So they'll go into a classroom um with a behavior intervention specialist, parent leaison, teacher, somebody that wants to come in and lead them through um study skills, how to prepare for a test, um how to check their grades, what their transcripts look like, how to progress through their transcripts, um all those skills that they wouldn't learn necessarily in an English class or a math class. >> Great. That sounds wonderful. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. Miss Pearson, >> thank you. So, you're doing you're

043doing an absolutely amazing job. And so, you know, our theme, the word at my church this year is progress. And I can definitely see the progress um that you all have made, you and your team, um pulling together and doing what you need to do and make those sacrifice and carefully using your discretionary dollars to [snorts] invest in our students. Say a lot about your vision for for Auburn. So, I want to thank you. Thank you for making the time when I come visit um to bring me up to speed on everything that you're doing. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more progress. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. I have a question unless somebody else does. Mr. Carpenter. No. Okay. So, um, on the slide that has all of

044your behavior data, um, those are significant declines. And, um, I had a teacher, a Auburn teacher reach out to me and to share good news. And the good news was, um, that the building overall feels calmer. The building, there are few and far between fights, right? High schools have fights. That's something that happens. We work through that, you know, fine. But it was really nice to just have somebody call and intentionally say like, Auburn feels good here. And so kudos to your team like those um that's an amazing uh chart to have and so uh yeah just great job on what you guys are doing here. >> Thank you. >> Okay, no other questions from anybody. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Okay, up next we have a presentation from our elementary bilingual

045um uh ROI study. Um I'll let you both introduce yourselves since you're both up here. >> We're a little bit shorter than Mr. Nackriner, so we're going to bring this down a little bit. Um, and as a former Ellis Kennedy West Auburn grad, what time is it? >> Nighttime. Go Nights. Um, so, uh, I'm Christina Perry, director of continuous improvement and accountability. >> Good evening. I'm Joanna Bonesio Jordan, executive director for bilingual services. Um, and we are going to just do a quick presentation of our launch of our academic return on investment for the bilingual elementary bilingual program. Um, and just a reminder that our AROI as well as all of our programs is around our equity imperative of trying to create learning environments that will interrupt the predictability by uh, zip code. And um

046this particular uh AOI is around all of our universal goals. Um but essentially those first two talking about third grade literacy, but as you will see in the presentation, our bilingual program feeds all the way up through um K through 12. So a little bit of background around the AROI. You've seen this before that we do three tiers of PDSA cycles and you as the board select our uh tier three and uh you've already heard about our CHAMPS study earlier this fall and this is our second one our bilingual program. The purpose of an AOI is so that we can see which program is driving student achievement for what works for whom under what conditions and why. And just a reminder of why this was one of the AOIS you could select and you guys

047chose this back in July. Um that our English language learner subgroup is our largest increasing population with a 34% increase. Um this used to be concentrated to a limited amount of schools, but this is now a Rockford area uh concentration for our bilingual education. And with our new transition to our one-way language immersion program, this is a perfect time for us to do an AOI study. So with that, I'm going to hand it over um for her to explain uh what is our new oneway dual language program. Thank you. All right. And so our one-way dual language program currently right now is housed at Carlson, Gregory, Hillman, Lyre, Washington, Whitehead, and then also at one of our special program schools, Conklin. Um, one of the things to note about the one-way dual language program really,

048it's just where all of our bilingual Spanish programs were already housed. What we're doing is we're actually just being more intentional about what our program model is and what our outcomes are. And so the idea now of the one-way dual language program model is that we're using best practice and literacy based for both Spanish and English to make sure that we're teaching both intentionally um to promote bilingualism and biiteracy. And so part of the requirements for the state of Illinois is that we have either bilingual programs or ESL programs. And so the bilingual programs can look in a variety of ways. One of the ways that it can look is via the one-way dual language program model. And so depending on the program that you choose, that's what's going to impact the outcomes that we're

049going to have for us. One of the outcomes that we want for our students is to ensure that we're promoting bilingualism and biiteracy. And so by promoting one way dual language or actually any dual language program model, it's an additive program model, meaning that we're actually going to encourage the students to keep their heritage language, which is Spanish, um, and also add English instead of what traditional ESL programs or maybe pull out bilingual programs are where we take away the native language and just really promote the English. So, you guys have heard a lot over the years, especially from me, about I um but not so much about the access test. So, just real quick, um the access test is the federallymandated assessment for all language learners. Um and it measures their English acquisition um

050in four components: listening, reading, speaking, and writing on a scale of 1 to six. And a 4.8 8 is what is needed out of a composite in order to exit taking the access test and you also get a 100 point scale every year on growth. So 100 would be the most amount of growth you could have and that is going to lead us into why I wanted to tell a little bit about that is because our our baseline data that we've collected and we will continue to collect across this study. The first one we're looking at is overall proficiency on the access test for our students. You're going to see three different groups on each of these slides. Our students in the dark blue, those are the ones in our oneway dual language program. Our

051kind of like light blue teal on this uh slide deck, it it's our ESL support. That's the they're receiving instruction in English. Um, and then we have the gray. That's the opted out, meaning they could have received services and they chose not to. They opted out of it, but they are still required by federally mandated to take the access test. So, that is why we still have uh data on that. So, you can see our proficiency uh average across all of the grades. And then another data point that we want to use to look at how our students are doing in this program. again what works for whom under what conditions is we look at our star scores because that is um given to the students in Spanish. So access is measuring English and the

052star provides an assessment in Spanish and you will see both their score and their growth is right at the national norm of 50th percentile. And then last but not least um year-over-year growth. This is actually the measurement that the state uses to measure our success for our English language learners is they want to see quality yearover-year growth of our students. And we are pleased to uh announce from this baseline data that we as an average were at 72% which is above the state average of 65% growth and 75% growth is considered exemplary in the state. Um so we are this close to exemplary and you'll see we have a few uh grades that are exceeding that exemplary uh status of growth. So, our students are growing in their English proficiency. And this is also why

053comparison data is really important. On this slide, you can see that if we just had our dual language, you might think something might be going on at third and fifth grade, but you can see that this is a um acrosstheboard change, meaning that students are seeing growth and then they're not able to every year continue that same kind of growth. And then exit rate. Um, again, you have to take the access test until you hit that 4.8 to exit. Um, the state average is a 7% exit rate. And we as a district, um, this is just a statistical anomaly that we are as a district, as an elementary, and as a one-way dual language average at 4%. Um, so we're very close uh to the state average of 7%. And so from that baseline data,

054we create goals for this study. So first thing that we here we go um the first thing that we set a growth for is our growth was at 72% and we want to hit exemplary status of growth at 75%. And our exit rate although at 4% is really close, we really want to hit that state average of 7%. So as far as this study goes across the years, those will be the targets we're trying to reach that we will know we're hitting success. >> And so the question is how do we want to go ahead and reach these goals? And so we know that our teachers are the ones that impact um our students and how they are learning. And so we're really focusing on teacher implementation and professional development. And so one of the

055pieces or one of the biggest shifts for us is how do we actually teach our students to bring both languages together. And so one of those things that we're really um working with our teachers is understanding and knowing that when you're a bilingual learner, it's all together. It's not two separate learners in one. And we're not teaching two separate literacy curriculums, but rather bringing both of those literacy curriculums intentionally together through cross- linguistic structures and connections. And then we're also ensuring that our teachers um have more access to uh best practices and knowing how to use anchor charts and how to use visuals in order to teach both the language of Spanish and also the language of English. Um and also knowing that our students at the end of the day, no matter where they're

056at in kindergarten or fifth grade, that they should always have access to their native language, whether that be Spanish and or English for some of our students who actually might be starting in the program and may have more access to English. So we are still collecting data uh for our teacher implementation. The bilingual department has done um a lot of training and they are starting to build up that um observational data of how our implementation is going. And once we have that implementation data, we will establish goals based off of that for next steps. As a reminder, we do segments for all of our AROIs because we want to see what are the different conditions and circumstances which might be impacting results. So, for example, mobility might be one of the indicators that we find

057as um a circumstance that's impacting success. If you may have been looking at some of that data, if we're having such high growth year-over-year exceeding the state average, why is it that our exit rate is not at the state average? Well, my hypothesis would be that segment um that we will look into is that we might be growing at a really high rate and fast rate, but we might be receiving students faster and more than we can catch up to that growth. So that would be a segment that we are going to look at to see if that is a condition for some of the success. And as with all of our AOIS, we have a great staff support team. We have some bilingual teachers that have been joining us every month to give us

058input on where we should go with the study and some professional development plans. And then once we have that baseline data and we've had a chance to look at uh the contextual variables, we will come back to you in May uh to provide the next step of results. So any questions? Thank you very much. Uh any questions? No. Okay, great job. No questions. Thank you very much um both for coming. [applause] Okay, next we have um on the agenda a discussion. Uh our plan is to have some Q&A if um anybody is wanting to. We have representatives from um for charter school authorization. We have representation from Galapagos and Legacy. Um, and then in two weeks we'll have represent uhation from Jackson Charter School. Goodness. So, um, Dr. Gallagher, is there anything else you'd like

059to add? Okay, >> Miss Pearson. >> Yes. So, I actually w I wanted the charter schools to come back um to be able to share what they didn't have an opportunity to share at the last meeting. It it appeared to be a little rushed and and it is my understanding some information may have not been included and I understand legacy is here. So, if Dr. Forte or representative from Legacy. Um the additional information if you have any um supporting the desire to have an extension on the number of years renewal would be um welcomed. >> Good evening. I am Dr. Forte, the executive director at Legacy Academy of Excellence Charter School. And I appreciate the opportunity to just bring to your attention a few other um bits of information and data about Legacy Academy that

060we did not have uh the opportunity to present uh because of the the uh time constraints. Um, part of of charter school law does require that charter schools um perform um at a higher level uh than the traditional public schools because of the autonomy that charter schools are allow allowed. And what I did want to be able to express is the fact that Legacy has actually met that requirement in terms of performing. And I I was able to share a little of this information with um Miss Pearson. And actually in terms of the uh legacy as you guys know is a K through 8th grade school. So we have a middle school as well as an elementary school. In terms of our IAR performance, um when we compare Legacy to uh the middle schools within

061the zip code areas that Legacy uh serves, Legacy actually achieved greater growth in ELA than 100% of the other middle schools. We achieved greater growth in math than 100% of those schools. We achieved greater proficiency in ELA than 83% of those schools. We achieved greater proficiency in math than 100% of those schools. And we achieved greater proficiency in science than 100% of the middle schools in our zip code areas. For the elementary schools, legacy achieved greater growth in the LA than 100% of the schools. We achieved greater growth in math than 88% of the schools. We achieved greater proficiency in ELA than 82% of the schools. [clears throat] We achieved greater proficiency in math than 65% of the elementary schools. And we achieved greater proficiency in science than 94% of those schools. But we have

062lived up to that requirement and that mandate for charter schools to perform at a slightly higher level than the traditional schools because of the autonomy that we are given. Additionally, [clears throat] in terms of the third restatement and extension of the agreement, legacy was required to meet or exceed the growth requirement of the state of Illinois, which is at 50%. >> [clears throat] >> Legacy achieved 58% growth in ELA and 56% growth in math. In terms of the proficiency that was required in our agreement, we were required to at least achieve 5% growth in proficiency and 5% growth in math. Legacy achieved 19% growth in proficiency in ELA and we achieved 13% growth in proficiency in math. So in terms of having met or exceeded their requirements, Legacy has definitely done that and we would

063like to be considered for a longer um renewal period beyond the three years. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions or anything they Oh, Miss Pearson. >> Thank you. Thank you uh Dr. Forte for the additional information. Um that is very helpful. So the do you have the percentage of students that originally began with legacy from um kindergarten and metriculated through or >> we are actually still working on that information but it's not complete yet. >> Okay. Thank you and thank you for the additional information. I don't have any additional questions at this time. >> Mr. Carpenter, >> thank you. I thank you for that information, Dr. Forte. I just wanted to make sure um like the scoring rubric that was used, you you had that when the when the scoring was done. Is

064that right? >> I'm sorry. the scoring rubric that was used to um rate to to come up with the recommendation for how long the renewal should be. >> Yes. Um I don't have that with me now, but I in terms of speaking to that scoring rubric, the scoring rubric um was based on the um handbook for charter uh authorizations and renewals. But that handbook um was not completed or given to us until after we had signed off on the contract. We had actually met all of the terms and the conditions of that the uh contract that we signed off on. >> And so when you say after you signed off on the contract, you mean at the last renewal time? >> We Yes. Right. And we were given the handbook a year after that period.

065And is the hand was the rubric in the handbook? Is that what you said? >> The rubric was from the handbook. We hadn't gotten that at the time that we signed off on the contract. Additionally, >> we do not feel as though the >> Excuse me, board. I would like to opportunity to comment after she is done. Okay. >> Additionally, um, with the rubric, we felt like it did not reflect the work that we've been doing and the achievements that we've made with our students in in language arts as well as in math. And uh, we did question that because we we've got we had a tremendous amount of growth. We definitely uh met the proficiency matrix and you know we received a rating from schoolwork saying that our instruction was ineffective and you can't

066have that kind of growth in instruction is ineffective. further in the for our last renewal received a much higher rating when we had less growth than we received with this last site visit. So, we feel like there's some discrepancies with that as well. >> Attorney Goldmith, did you have something you wanted to say? >> Yes. I'm very respectful of Dr. forte and her recollection of how things went. But I will assert on behalf of the district that all of the charter schools in fact did have every part of the agreement and its appendices including the matrix prior to their execution of the agreement in the last round at their prior renewal. >> Mr. Dr. Carpenter, did you still have additional questions or >> Yeah. So, I guess that's what I I was just wanting to

067make sure or I wanted I was trying to determine whether or not everyone knew what was going to be scored at the time the la of the last renewal, what was going to be scored at the time of this renewal. And it's attorney Goldmith says that yes, everyone knew that. >> Mr. Dr. Carpenter, are you finished with your thought? >> Yes, thank you. >> Okay, Miss Pearson, >> I just um want to clarify. So, uh Dr. Tor, Dr. Forte is describing the handbook. Doc, Attorney Goldmith is referring, are you saying attorney Goldmith that they received the handbook or portions of the handbook with the contract? So with regard to the reference to the handbook, I understand Dr. Forte to be talking about the new engagement with school works where they did the site visit this

068year, right? The work for the site visit was new. That was a new process uh that was worked through uh after um Dr. Wolf left, but the standards as to what was expected for renewal were present in the agreement. Also, those standards are captured in the matrix. So, the engagement with the entity that did the school visit was new for all. And I would be welcome for Dr. Forte to weigh in on that because if I'm clarifying your understanding incorrectly, please do, you know, feel free to engage. But I want to establish that the the standards for renewal were present and in the agreement in the matrix. The only factor that was new was the entity that actually did the site visit. What I'm saying in the rubric is that the standard was that in

069this new matrix that we were given is that the standard was that we were supposed to meet or exceed the state's uh benchmark for proficiency and that was not in our agreement and it was not in the rubric that we used >> the AR standards. for each charter school are very plainly written within the agreement. >> Well, in the agreement it says 5%. We exceeded that, but that's not what was in the rubric that we were measured by through school works. That that wasn't it. So, the administration's recommendation for the charter renewal were consistent with the terms in the prior agreement. We did work with the charter schools to add a proposed additional year for standards that had not been reached last year. And so when we talk about the work with school works, Dr.

070Gallagher can weigh in with much more detail, but the clear and plain terms for renewal were captured and included in the last agreement. >> We met and exceeded those terms, but we were not offered five years. If I may, Attorney Goldsmith, the rubric and the handbook are the same handbook and rubric that have been used for what is now the fourth time that we've done a multi-year um extension or reauthorization for our charter schools. When you look at it, what is different maybe this year with the renewal site visits that was an addition of a 12th metric. So we've always had multiple metrics that we are looking at when we look at charter school reauthorization. Um just to give one example when we look at uh ELA proficiency and in ELA proficiency there's a recommendation

071score for all of these metrics that are all weighted that go into the final recommendation score. Uh the proficiency for uh legacy was 32%. And you're very close to the district average. Again, we're talking K through 8, not just middle school. That's what's part of the rubric. The district was at 33%. When you look at the rubric for that one metric, it says that if the school's proficiency percentage is less than the district's proficiency percentage, then the score is far below standards. When you do the calculation and weights for all of these, and again, this is pretty much the same calculation that we've used for now the fourth time that we're doing a multi-year reauthorization, so none of this should be new. All of that comes together for a combined score. That combined score led

072to a renewal recommendation from the rubric that says up to 3 years for the reauthorization for legacy. And what we did for legacy, similar to what we did for Galapagos in Jackson, we went the with the maximum term length based off of what their rubric score was. So when it said up to 3 years as the final overall renewal recommendation, we went with that maximum within that range for where Legacy had scored and we applied that consistently for Galopagos and Jackson for how their respective scores were. [snorts] >> I I just have a a follow-up question. So, are we are we referring to RPS 205 or the state data? what >> when we're looking at if I were just to use that one example again of English language arts proficiency >> um because they got

073a score that is less than the district that was the score recommendation that was far below standards in order to get to a level where it meets standards they're then being compared the school versus the state proficiency percentage. So it's a combination of both that exist within the rubric. Okay. So, is there explanation as to why um the last renewal um outcome was different than the most recent performing? Did I understand you correctly that you that the performance was not as good last time and >> we had a higher rating with the last site visit than we did this time. with lower performance. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I can I can just tell you that the term for the in the third reauthorization term prior to this one, all three charter schools

074had a term of three years. That term of three years was based off of the score that they got on the rubric to get a score of up to three years for their renewal recommendation. That would be an overall final score of a 1.9 to a 2.6. So very well could have been that they were higher on their last one, got the same term of 3 years, and this time they did score lower, but it still falls within that range that lands on a recommendation of up to 3 years. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody else have any questions for Dr. Forte or any questions from our Galapagos representative? I I have one more. >> Yep. Miss Pearson. >> Uh question. Is there any way because I I still feel um unsettled with perhaps some

075um conflicting information um or data that Legacy may have that the district does not. Can there be some type of meeting uh before the next meeting to make sure that there's a clear understanding of uh the information? >> I I would be happy to do that. I would say if you look to in the slide deck, it notates that all of these scores are pulled directly from the Illinois report card website. >> Yes. So I I've I have looked >> Yeah. >> at the information. I didn't over I didn't overlook it, but I'm >> So what I'm hearing is not on a slide deck is what I'm I'm just asking that you come together and make sure that there's a clarity and understanding. Yes, we're happy to meet with them. But I will tell you

076that any of the data that is used within the rubric to make the final determination is all data that is pulled directly from the Illinois report card website. >> And so, and you combine >> Yes, we can meet >> you combined the um hold on, Dr. Jared. I I may be a little meeting fatigue, but it's kind of what we signed up for. So um did so the state and the and RPS 205 data was merged. Okay. Yeah, that meeting would be helpful. Thank you. Okay. Any additional questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much for coming. >> Okay. So we are going to move on to our um performance and monitoring consent items. We have um letters G through L um that we can go through um briefly. Uh line item G is for letters

077training uh to address the GA gap in instructional leadership and ongoing teacher support. We propose offering 20 seats for principles and assistant principles to participate in letters for administrators and 25 seats for educators who have previously completed letters to participate in letters. connect. Does anybody have any questions about this item? Okay, moving on to letter H. I Ready math coaching elementary job embedded coaching with I Ready, our district's Core math resource. Does anybody have any questions about this item? Letter I, Marzano, professional learning for CTE teachers. Many CTE teachers come directly from industry and have had little training in classroom instruction. Districtwide training for secondary teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators on concrete strategies to support student engagement and instructional planning is needed to support the field in order to improve these outcomes. Administration recommends board

078of education approve the agreement for learning for CTE teachers for one day in June. and teachers will be paid for their time from title 2. Any questions on this item? Letter J, crisis prevention institute training materials school year 2526. CPI training initiative aims to enhance the safety and well-being of students and staff by providing evidence-based deescalation and crisis prevention strategies. Does anybody have any questions on this line item? Letter K. Safe and Civil Schools staff at five schools, Conklin, Barber, Johnson, Bloom, and Whitehead will participate in a one-day teacher training with Safe and Civil Schools for CHAMPS on October Institute Day. There will be two separate trainings to accommodate the size of the audience. Additionally, a two-day Champs training will be provided for all teachers in grades K through 12 who would benefit from the

079training. This would include new teachers to the district. Any questions about this one? Okay, letter L. subject technologies um for Jefferson. Previously purchased licenses for subject.com have been used for credit recovery efforts and credit acquisition as a supplementary learning platform. Jefferson High School requires more licenses than previously purchased to support the need at Jefferson. Does anybody have any questions on this item? Okay. So, for letters M through U, um we have representatives available in case there's any questions on those contracts. Going once, going tw. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. If there's no questions at this time, um feel free to reach out to our committee or any representation if um there is um any questions. Also, um Auburn 1 8476 is the final score. >> [applause] >> Okay, that concludes our committee. >> Nice conclusion.

080Thank you. >> Yeah. Did you like that? >> Drug it out. Just kidding. >> Very smooth. >> All right. We're now moving on to the item six, which is the planning and development committee, which will be led by Miss Pearson. >> Okay. our FY27 uh budget discussion. I will now turn the floor over to Dr. Brown, uh, chief financial officer, who will give us an update on the fiscal 2027 budget. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, not a lot has changed from last month, but we do want to give you a quick update on a couple of things that we have been working on. Uh so the actual operations through January 31st are beginning to show smaller deficits which we had had previewed for you in prior meetings. Again, that's really just due to the timing

081of the revenues. Uh we still are are on track for what we plan to be the deficit for the current year in the ED fund of around 3 and a half to four million. Uh O and M and transportation again really heading toward that break even. Uh we took a little bit of a step back on healthcare. Well, on healthc care spend uh this past month. Uh we were about a million and a half last month. We're about 2.1 now. That's going to fluctuate just based on claims activity, but we're hoping by the time we get to the end of the fiscal year that we're actually going to be on a break even on that one, too. So, you know, overall we're about where we expected to be for FY26. Looking at our outlook for

082FY27, nothing's really changed on the projected uh deficit at this point as we really fine-tune the budget work that we've been doing with the Prism process. You know, we are going to get to the point where we will have a balanced budget when we present that here this summer. Uh federal funding levels again are appear to be secure which is is good news although they are going to be at those FY24 levels. Um state funding when we drafted this uh the governor had not released his budget you did see in the uh stakeholder committee that there was an update on the state funding there. So, what I'd like to do is just kind of take a step back on what the state board actually requested and then what showed up in the governor's budget. So,

083the state actually requested isby the state board of education requested $350 million in evidence-based funding. The governor's budget contained $35 million. The difference there is the the governor's budget did not include an allocation for the property tax relief grant. we do not get that. So that's something that doesn't really hurt us if that doesn't get included. So that's just something you need to be aware of that there were some differences between what the state board requested and what the governor's budget had. As far as mandated categorical funding, which you saw there, uh the governor's budget included a request for 51 million in funding. The state board of education had actually requested 151 million. So there was about a hund00 million reduction uh on what the governor put forward. The 151 million that the state board

084of education requested was to keep us on a level funding platform for what we actually got this current year. So the fact that we're probably going to get less on mandated categoricals is something that we're going to need to keep an eye on. What's included in mandated categoricals is transportation funding and also uh special education uh reimbursement funding too. So, that's something we're going to need to keep an eye on as we move forward. Uh, couple of things that I also wanted to let you guys know about when we're talking about bills that are pending out there. Uh, there there is one that would require school districts to pay unemployment over the summer for positions that are not 12-month positions. That would be new. We do not currently have to pay unemployment costs for people

085who are school personnel that do not work 12 months. So that would be very very expensive uh for us to have to do that. We are working on trying to assess the impact of that right now. And there are uh a couple of groups that are working in Springfield to actually get that in front of the legislature so they know what the impact is for school districts, you know, across the state. There's also another bill pending that would increase the minimum wage to $27 by 2033. That would have a significant impact on our budget projections as well. uh if that bill would pass, it would actually raise it from $15 to $17 as of July 1st. That would have a significant impact on our budget as well. So, that's not one that we think is

086going to move forward, but we are concerned about the one for unemployment uh for summer positions uh for over the summertime for positions that are less than 12 months. So, next steps, uh you know, we are continuing to review the findings from the prison process. We're going to wrap that up at the end of this week. We are going to begin to roll out the the results of that process over the next couple weeks. We are going to release budget templates to our principles so they can start working on their budgets on March 16th. We're a little bit behind where we normally are with that. We we let the principles know that today that we're on a timeline that they will be able to start working on their budgets. They generally can turn them around

087fairly quickly in about 3 to four weeks. So, we'll stay on track for uh you know a a budget approval this summer. uh you'll start to see budget presentations likely in April. We might have to push this back a month. Same thing with May. That might slide back a month. We we will have a draft budget that will be balanced for you in June that you can take a look at. Uh and then in July, you'll see a tenative budget and then a final budget in August. And so that timeline really really hasn't changed. So we're on track to be able to deliver a balanced budget by uh the end of the summertime. So, questions for me? >> Any questions? I can't see now. Okay. Dr. Brown will continue to keep the board updated on

088the FY 27 budget process. Item B, amendment to contract with Hagny Architects for design service at Steam Academy at Haskell. The steam uh 6th through 8th grade will roll up with transition from West Middle School to steam at Haskell for 2026 2027 school year. Hagnney architects previously hired to design the support service space which is currently out for bid will now oversee and an expanded scope. This amendment authorizes Hagnney architects to design new classroom and lab areas as well as updated cafeteria and kitchen spaces. These upgrades are necessary as the existing facilities are inadequate for the pro projected student population to support the transition during phase one and phase 2 construction periods. Modular classrooms will be relocated from Conklin. Are there any questions on the amendment to the contract with Hagy Architects for design services

089at Steam um Academy at Haskell? If not, uh this will return to board for vote on March 17. Item C, non-binding memorandum of understanding between the board of education of the Rockford Public Schools and Rockford Park District. Uh the Rockford the school district is interested in acquiring Terry Lee Wells Park from the Rockford Park District. This acquisition will facilitate site development for temporary modular classrooms during the construction of building additions. A phase one environmental site assessment conducted by the park district revealed that a portion of the property was utilized as an auto repair shop, gas station, and machine shop from 1950 to 1972. These past uses are classified as recognized environmental condition warranting further investigation. Consequently, a phase 2 study will be performed involving subsurface testing to collect soil samples at uh varying depths. The

090proposed memorandum of understanding allows both the school district and the park district to review the phase 2 findings and assess potential risk before determining whether to proceed with the property transfer. Under the terms of theou the school district will cover half the cost of the study totaling $4,900. Are there any question on nonbindingou? This will return to the board for vote on March 17th. Item D, program expansion expansion 6 through 8 curriculum uh steam IB. There is an opportunity to to continue implement a high quality standards aligned curriculum that strengthens reading, writing and critical thinking. Amplify ELA is currently utilized at I IB and steam. This program is continue is a continuation of the elementary tier one curriculum resource for reading a CKLA and Caminos. Amplify ELA is a researchbased blended curriculum for grades 6

091through 8 with strong alignment to state standards, complex test, embedded differentation, and integrated assessments. Are there any questions for Sarah Masera Brener? If not, this will return to board for a vote on March 17th. Preview of consent items A through F or H uh include pupil transportation services, West Middle School auditorium remodel, buyer EC restroom renovation and plumbing upgrades, Macintosh uh student support space, Auburn High School stadium lightning lighting uh Steam Academy at Hascoll support space phase 1. Amendment of contract with Hagmey Architects for design services at Steam Academy at Hascoll. IG IGA renewal Rockford Park District use of Guilford Tennis Center during school hours. That completes their report for the planning development unless anyone have any questions. >> Thank you. I know there were some questions about um item 7A RFP number 26-13 and

092I have been in communication with uh Dr. Jarrett and Dr. Brown and along with Miss Bennett about some questions about that or about you know a lot of questions have been raised about that RFP and I plan to continue to work with administration to um address the major concerns that at least try to address the concerns that um that we have about that RFP. So, um I would also like to talk to any board members who also have concerns about that as soon as possible >> in over the next few days or whenever. >> Anyone else? Miss Bennett? >> Yes. So, um as Mr. Carpenter said, uh we have met with the transportation team. We went to the transportation center to meet with them. we've had several meetings to have a better understanding about um

093this contract and so I hope that we can come to a resolution that makes sense for all of us um coming up here soon. But I would just like to mention kind of how we have gotten to this point uh in the year. Um, so this was first brought to my attention in November and so it's uh we were asked it got pulled last month so we could have more information and get um you know make sure that we were very informed on our decision decision coming here in March. And so um to me this is a very large decision. this has a lot of impact, which a lot of the choices that we make do, but this one in particular, just given the gravity of it, um I think that this should have been

094a conversation for the board to be a part of much sooner than the month of March or even the month of February. So, um this is kind of an idea of changing our philosophy of how we bus and changing the kind of structure of our busing. And so, moving forward, it was just an asset I have of administration that um as a board member, I really want to be involved in decisions that are this large. I want to make sure that we're including our partners that we have in the district, including the staff that this impacts, the children, it impacts, the families. I want to make sure we have time for listening sessions, all kinds of things that would go into such a large decision. Um, and so this is a line item on a

095on our consent agenda um that has a really really big gravity and it's being treated as any of our other contracts. And so moving forward, I'm just asking that we are included much sooner so we can uh use our partnerships that we have. we can be respectful of the staff that this impacts all of our students. Um, and I hope over the next two weeks that we're able to do that, but we've had months that we could have um done that and and not be rushed. So, moving forward, I I would really appreciate a little more respect um in terms of time and and gravity of a situation. U President Carpenter. [applause] Um so does this require a vote um or is not it wouldn't be in our best interest to and to um not

096bring it to vote in two weeks. What would what's the impact if we do not and is there explanation as to why there was not more engagement? >> Um just one thing I would just mention we've been talking about two weeks and actually our meetings in three weeks just as a reminder to everyone because we've said two weeks a few times and that's fine but um >> I got something else in two weeks that's why I float with it but that's all right. Um, but this is a decision for next school year that we need to make a decision on as soon as possible. So, that's the the issue about getting it having a decision made this month. We can, like I said, I intend to continue to work with administration to come up with

097a resolution that um that does make sense for everyone and and have that presented in at the meeting in March. >> I have one last question. Was this in the um board update? The subject matter, I don't recall seeing it. >> Yes, it was. It has been in a supers update uh a few different times. Um but a uh >> No, go ahead. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um it has been I think three times um over the course of November until now. Um, but recently we have been given a lot more information than we had over the previous months. And I understand that as Mr. Carpenter said, we we have routes that we need to cover. We have all kinds of um issues. It's a shortage of transportation in other areas too. It's not just

098exclusive to Rockford, but I would really like if we could have multiple perspectives coming in to solve this solution, not just one perspective. um and making sure that we, you know, have routes that are covered, of course, have our children be transported. I want to make sure all of them have access to their education, but I want to make sure that the solution is the correct solution for everybody and not rush such a large decision. >> I agree. Um I thought maybe I I thought it was explained to us that there would not be a route issue. Do we do we foresee that? Who who's here? I don't see Mr. Phillip, >> can you repeat what the question was? I didn't I don't know if we heard it. >> So, the information that I recall

099receiving was that there wouldn't um create this wouldn't create a route issue. >> That is correct. >> Or affect >> Yes. The belief is it will not >> stakeholders. Yes. The belief is it will not create a route issue. The issue is about the balance of routes of RPS routes versus how many routes would be driven by the contractor. The other issue is about is related to the pricing of the contractor. So those are two issues that have come up and in terms of the the administration's belief that the routes can be delivered. Um that is something that the administration does believe is the case. But I think there's more work that needs to be done to ensure uh that we have the right solution in place. Thank you very much for that clarity, Dr.

100Jarrett. President Carpenter or Mrs. McCau. >> Thank you. So, I apologize. I had to take a potty break. Um, but I don't know if it was said before. Um, however, could you explain or could someone explain to me um what this was would look like for the the current uh bus drivers that we have now? We have some bus drivers that are um just concerned about losing routes, losing losing their their jobs and things like that. Like can someone please explain to we have some some bus drivers in the u in the audience that have you know just just some questions there and concerns regarding what this may look like and how it may impact them in their dayto-day. Thank you. >> Great question. And um Dr. Brown can talk about any financial analysis uh

101or or Mr. Barthell. But the the real issue here for us is we canceled routes this week. Uh we have had over a thousand routes that have been of that are driven by RPS that have not been able to run and we've had to cover with our RBMA staff. So people aren't doing their day jobs because they're driving buses. So what we're trying to find is the right balance. Um we do not anticipate any situation where we're going to have less RPS drivers. what we're trying to get to a place is that we have uh less route cancellations or less need for substitute drivers. So that is what is uh at stake here. Um, we are really looking to make sure that we have a complement of driving packages that ensure routes aren't canceled anymore

102or that we don't have to use people who are there to fix buses or to route buses, driving buses, which is happening regularly with our district run bus service. So, that's our concern that we're trying to address. So, I just want to, you know, make sure that that is being communicated, you know, to the drivers and and that they're ensured that there's no um disruption from from their current roles that they have. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. McCall. Thank you for everyone's input. Um, Mrs. Bennett, >> I have just one other clarifying statement, I suppose. Um, so language to me is super important. So when we're talking about canceled routes or routes that don't run, we have two things that are happening. We have a shortage of drivers. So there are drivers

103picking up routes for other drivers. There's also bus drivers who are sick or have PTO preapproved day of wake up, right? So people are using their time that is contractually obligated for them to use. So, I think when we talk about canceled routes, I want to make sure that we're talking about it the same way. If a teacher has a sub or there's a teacher missing, it is the to me the same thing. And so, I want to make sure that we're just using the correct language and we're ascribing what the reasons are to that instead of just saying routes are canceled because there is a shortage that's not necessarily the bus driver's fault to utilize their time and not have uh subs in theory to um fill those roles. And the reason I said

104that in that context is to make the point that adding additional routes will allow us to have more coverage. Okay. So we we have clarity now that it wasn't um there that there was no implication of any um intentional anything. Right. Everybody's clear. Okay. Uh President Carpenter, back to you, sir? >> Thank you, Miss Pearson. We're moving on to the governance committee. First item is 8A revision to board policy 6.310 which is proposed revisions to replace the reference to a former accrediting agency with the state's current accrediting agency. Are there any questions? Seeing none, moving on to item 8B, which is revision to board policy 7.180, which which is proposed revisions to reflect a change in state law amending the definition of bullying to include bullying through the use of artificial intelligence or digital replicas.

105Are there any questions on 8B? 8C is board policy 7.290, 290 suicide and depression awareness and prevention. Um that has proposed revisions to align with changes to board policy 6.60 curriculum content which now requires education for students on mental health and in illness. Are there any questions on item 8C? These will be on for a vote at the March 24th regular board meeting. Um the item nine is the consent items for governance committee which is 9A the meeting minutes and 9B the freedom of information excuse me freedom of information log. Are there any questions about the governance consent items? Seeing none in just a moment, please. Okay, thank you. Um, moving on to item 10, which is the petitions and communications portion of our meeting, which is when we invite this public to make comments.

106uh slurs, profanity, and harassment will not be tolerated. Should any speaker use unacceptable language, they may be directed to immediately surrender the remainder of their speaking time and may be restricted from public comment in the future. The board will not respond to the comments at this time. If it's appropriate, you will be contacted in a timely manner by staff. Each speaker will be allowed no more than five minutes to address the board. It is not appropriate to discuss items or matters that would otherwise be confidential in these open meetings. Um I think there are two clocks present that well there should be a clock that shows your five minutes. Thank you. Um thank you for your cooperation with our guidelines. First speaker is Sarah Dorner. [applause] Good evening. Um, it's very surreal to be here

107in my former high school gymnasium. So, it's kind of an honor. Um, I won't tell you when I graduated. Um, but I would like to welcome our Rockford public school bus drivers who are with us tonight. Thank you for all you do. Um, there's a couple misconceptions. we believe about this bid and for what what is our work. So it does say that up to up 50 to 75 of our routes would be outsourced to this company of our routes. We our drivers are not stupid. Maybe this won't cost their jobs the first year of this deal. But this is called erosion of the bargaining unit. This is our work. And what this is is a backdoor way to take away our work. We start, our contract is open for negotiations in April. That's our

108union contract. That is the opportunity for us to come together and work with you to find a solution. I'm hearing a lot uh the belief that it will not create a route issue. Um I'm not sure if you saw the information about Zoom, the preferred bidder, but there have been route issues everywhere they go. There was a route issue with one of your private vendors last year, first student, and we worked together to resolve that issue. I also heard uh we want to make sure we have a solution in place. Everybody is participating in the making of this decision except for the people who do the work every day. They have so much to offer you and yet you are ignoring this incredible resource. We know that you on the school board do this. you

109were this is volunteer work for you. We know that you are not paid and so we appreciate you letting us appeal to you and talk with you, but we feel like you're not getting all of the information. We have a monthly labor management meeting. Management has not brought these issues or concerns to us or asked us to work collaboratively with them in that meeting. We have contract negotiations coming up. That's the time for us to have proposals and work together on this issue. Our drivers are local. Our drivers work for the school school district. Many of them have worked decades with the school district. They're gonna leave if you switch to a private vendor. Your workforce is not going to stay the same. They're not going to come and make less with some company where

110they can't reach human resources and they can't reach corporate. Please don't take this issue and extract a profit from it for some outofstate company. keep it local where we can work together and resolve our issues. We also believe that you all are violating our union contract and we have filed a step three grievance with you today and we are willing to take that as far as we need to go. We're not going to let our work go. We're not going to let our dialogue with the community or your control your control over busing leave just because people don't want to sit down and work with the people who actually do this job every day. Right now, we feel that morale is an all-time low. I want to highlight for you. You I I read up

111there on that screen, and I'm watching my clock here. I read up there on that screen, when students feel seen, they show up. When students feel supported, they stay. When they feel valued, they lead. I'm asking you to apply all of the things that you say and do in these meetings to the staff that you're responsible for. When staff feel seen, they show up. When staff feel supported, they stay. When they feel valued, they lead. Help us work with you. Let's collaborate. This doesn't have to go outside of Rockford Public Schools. We believe in you and we want you to believe in us. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Our next speaker is uh Key Maski. [applause] Uh good evening board members. I'm Key Moresy. I am a school bus driver employed by RPS 205. I

112started this job as just for insurance for my family. I never thought 13 years later I'd still be doing this job, but I actually love it. Um, I come to you with a plea to say no to the RFP 26 2613 bids. I'd like to start off reading an excerpt from an email received from former COO Michael Phillips. To our drivers, thank you for thousands of miles logged and the countless hours spent transporting our students. Whether it's the routine of the morning or the longing halls for extracurricular activities and athletic competitions, you are the backbone of student engagement. You are more than drivers. You are mentors and guardians who ensure our students arrive ready to learn and to return home safely. In his statement, we are an integral part of a student's dayto-day. I feel

113the RFP bid if approved over time the connection the drivers have with students, teachers and school administration will fade. Bus drivers need to continue to be a part of RPS community. A private bus service will not have the same connection. In my opinion, over the couple years there has been a private company handling a portion of our routes. I have noticed that the drivers are not held to the same standards. The private company has gone as far as hired drivers that were previously employed by RPS 205 and were let go due to not upholding these standards. Currently, my brother, my union brothers and sisters are being told this is not taking their jobs. Based on the RFP 2613 scope of service option one, there may not be a a significant effect the first year, but

114years two and three will greatly reduce the number of members in the current bargaining unit by not replacing those that are retiring, moving to different positions within RPS, quitting or being let go. The propo proposed option taken directly from RFP 2613 pages 14 and 15 is to have a private bus company acquire up to 50 regular education routes the first year and up to 75 routes for years 2 and three. The proposal also includes summer school transportation, extracurricular activity, athletic and field trip transportation, which many of our drivers rely on for income. Instead of spending 51 to 58 million over the next three years on a private bus company we really don't know a lot about, invest in hiring, training, and retaining bus drivers that are committed to Rockford Public Schools. Thank you for your

115consideration in this matter. [applause] >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Elizabeth Peek. Good evening. Uh, I'm not sure the order of this meeting tonight. [clears throat] >> There's another speaker. >> Oh, is it? >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. Well, I'm sorry. I didn't That's why I came up to see if you had to sign up in order to speak. >> Yes. Yeah, >> you do have to sign up. >> Yes, that's correct. >> You just can't be >> Okay. Well, as long as I know the rules, I'll be nice. I'll buy them. >> Thank you. Elizabeth Pek is next. Sorry, I'm a bit shorter than everybody else. Uh, good evening. My name is Elizabeth Peek and I have been a driver for RPS for 6 years. I'm here to tell you what might happen

116if you decide to roll the dice on Zoom or any other profit transportation company. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. Our work is hard. At times, each and every one of us kind of wonders why we still do it. It's fulfilling, though. And by selling off this service, the board is sending a clear message to the drivers that you don't see us as partners. We have our issues with RPS management, but we also have a mature and historically collaborative relationship based on mutual respect and our strong union. If there's a will for management, we can work towards solutions to the problems we have faced. But right now, we have a defined benefit pension thrf. We have quality, affordable health insurance and our wages, while sometimes still not enough, have been more competitive in recent years.

117By contrast, if Zoom comes in, what will our retirement plan be? Do they have an IMRF plan like we have now? Are our current drivers continue to work if RPS because of our IMF plan? Will Zoom offer similar health benefits and insurance? To further stabilize our workforce, we also need to have better wages. It's simple econ economics. But are if Zoom pri prioritize our wages or prioritize profits, will Zoom be accountable or will they cash our checks and do the bare minimum? We have some clues from what happened in Howard County and Maryland. Zoom was awarded a similar contract there and they were simply unable to provide the services they promised. The situation got so bad that there was an audit ordered. I won't go into detail, but the audit found that, and I quote,

118"Zoom overstated their abilities and did not bring to bear a great depth of expertise in rolling out new services or a large scale." Simply stated, Zoom overpromised and underdelivered. Now, ask yourselves, how many drivers will leave if they lose their IMRF, if their health insurance becomes substandard? How many will leave if their wages are cut or don't keep pace? How many drivers will leave if it becomes intolerably disorganized? If you vote to award a contract to Zoom, the only certainty is that they will earn our taxpayers money. Thank you for your time and your attention. [applause] >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Leah Robinson. >> [applause] >> Good evening board. Thank you for having us tonight. Hello. My name is Leah Robinson and for the past 18 years I have proudly worked as a

119school bus driver for Rockford Public Schools. I'm also the president of Ask Me Local 1275. I'm speaking today to highlight what we do as bus drivers and to caution the board against being and taking a quick fix to a complicated situation that has been developing for years. The members of local 1275 are incredibly dedicated to safely delivering RPS students to school morning and evening. The work is very difficult and bus drivers must meet many criteria for our jobs. We have to pass a drug test, background check, and other criteria to secure our commercial driver's license. On top of that, we work incredibly difficult circumstances. Have any of you on the board ever woke up on a cold morning in January just to go sit on the bus before it got heated up? We drive Rockford

120students in the rain, in the snow, bus loads of students. And let me tell you, we do love our students, but they can be incredibly distracting while driving. For our trouble, we are paid an average of $22 an hour. Yet, I'm sorry. Despite all of this, we are all a whale a whale of experience and knowledge. We have a combined 1,180 years of experience and some of us have been here over 35 years. Miss Nikki Allen. Okay. [applause] We stay because we care. I'd like to remind you how much the students mean to us. Every year, Local 1275 does a coat drive for the district's students. Most of us use our own personal funds to buy treats and snacks so the kids will feel special. We remain alert for children who are asked, excuse me,

121we remain alert for children who are at risk and need access to social services. This is the type of care we provide and that you'll receive from keeping local. We invest in our children and that investment has come from the top down. I'm here to tell you that if you roll the dice on an outofstate company, this could be a loss because they are for-profit company. Zoom or whatever company you choose will increase. Sorry. Zoom or the company you choose. They'll give us substandard benefits. Do we want those type of cuts for your community? How many of our drivers will leave if those benefits are sold out? Local 1275 stands ready to partner with RPS to help improve the services we provide. We know that there are is there is a great challenge in the

122world for student transportation and we believe the solution is to roll is not to roll the dice but instead to view to view and experience to stay with your community drivers of local 1275. Thank you. [applause] All right. Thank you very much. Um just before we move to adjourn, since we had talked about um Guilford and Auburn playing tonight, East is also East boys are also playing tonight. I wanted to not I want to make sure we recognize them as well and hopefully they're doing well also. >> Um but after that, I would take a motion and a second to adjurnn. >> So move second. >> Thank you. I'll see you in 3 weeks at administration building.