001Hello, Lockport Township High School District 205 parents and guardians. My name is Dr. Bob McBride, superintendent of Lockport Township High School District 205, and this is your board meeting brief for the board of education meeting we had right here on Monday, February 23rd. We actually didn't start here. We started in the East Campus cafeteria. And I can't tell you as a lifelong educator what joy it gives me. And that's the word that I would use to honor our students who do incredible things. So often our students achieve elite accomplishments in a very competitive area, Chicagoland, in a very competitive state, Illinois. And it's easy just to walk right past those. And our board doesn't like to do that. We like to bring these students, their parents, honor them, their coaches, their mentors, and their parents
002for their accomplishments. We honored an incredible accomplishment in theater in the state of Illinois, our boys bowling team, and our large school cheerleading team. All of them accomplished elite performances here in the state of Illinois. Congratulations to every single one of them. This board meeting brief is really focused on something I shared with our board. Culmination of work, reports, studies, three very important approvals that our board made at its February board meeting. All of it is preparing for the future. Some of it preparing for next school year. Most of it preparing for years and years and years to come. Last night, we doubled our social worker staff. Our board approved adding four more social workers. It's become obvious to so many of us in public education that the social emotional needs of our students are
003as important as their academic needs. Just like you or just like me, if we have social emotional struggles, it's difficult for us to work, learn, and function. And we know that about students. So, we want to be there and be proactive for our students to make sure that their wellness physically, emotionally, academically is intact. By adding four social workers to our staff, we will not only be able to address the needs of students who have disabilities, address the needs of crises that come up, but we'll also be able to be proactive, provide programming for students in social emotional wellness, use tenants like mental health first aid, and we hope be more preventative in our services so we can best serve your children and what they need. We know that they are total human beings. Also,
004many of you know that we will move next year at East campus to an 8 period day both at Central and at East. Students will have the opportunity to take six course selections, lunch and physical education. With that expansion, our board take a took a deep look at graduation requirements and last night approved increased graduation requirements for the class of 2030 that is coming in next year as incoming freshmen. Current students need to earn 22 credits in order to graduate and 40 hours of community service. Future students, next year's freshmen, will need to have 24 credit hours and 40 hours of community service. This is not only a higher expectation in terms of their coursework because more courses are going to be available to them, but it's also an investment in academic rigor because what
005we want to expand especially is students access to courses that have non-fiction reading and through that study enhance their reading ability of complex reading texts. Finally, our board made a approval last night of something we've been working on for three years, and that is a comprehensive 10-year facility master planning decision guide. As a district, we have laid out $118 million worth of facility work to do both at Central and East Campus over the next 10 years to keep our facilities, one of the most important assets in this community, one of the most durable assets in this community, safe, intact, state-of-the-art, in good repair, and aligned to the modern experience that students should have with schooling and you should have as parents and our community should have as users of this public high school district. We
006have a plan in essence to keep the tax burden as low as possible. It's a business plan that involves using our income from our operating expenses that we receive every year through a tax levy using a good amount of our fund balances cash reserves. also using appropriate levels of debt that allow us to stretch out payments for these facility improvements over a long period of time. In essence, it's a strategy that asks you as taxpayers to make the most modest as possible increase in your tax payments, but also for taxpayers we don't even know, people who move into our district in 10, 15, 20 years when they enjoy improved facilities, they too will be making a contribution so that today's contribution that you have to make is lighter. That's really the idea of debt. In
007essence, it's not very different than your own home. If I could ask you just to think for a moment the needs of your own home or a rental property or a condominium or a townhouse where you live. Often times to improve our own facilities in our own homes, we use some of the income we have. We use some of the savings we have. Sometimes, if the project is big enough, we take out a mortgage or a second mortgage or a home equity loan. Sometimes we're doing that all at the same time so that we stay financially solvent. We can pay our debts. We can buy groceries on Friday and we can still maintain some savings for other emergencies that we don't know might happen. That is really our plan. But it's a commitment to you
008and the community and a response to surveys that you've completed where you've said to us over and over again, these facilities matter to you. They're a source of pride in the community. You want them to be here for future porters. You understand that their maintenance and repair is absolutely important. Even though you support that, you want that financial impact to be as low as possible. And this plan has accomplished that. So, we're very proud that after three years of work and research and a facility master planning council, which we're so grateful for the citizens on that, our board voted last night on a roadmap that we hope will take us through 2036. Thanks so much for listening to this board meeting brief for our board meeting right here in the porter room that we had
009on Monday, February 23rd. Hey, have a great week and weekend and thanks so much for listening and go Porters.