001[music] Hello, Lockport Township High School District 205 parents and guardians. My name is Dr. Bob McBride, the proud superintendent of Lockport Township High School District 205, [music] and this is your board meeting brief for the board of education meeting that we had right here in the porter room on Monday, December [music] 15th. First and foremost, I would like to wish you happy holidays. [music] Starting on Friday, December 19th, our students have two weeks off. They'll return on [music] Tuesday, January 6th. We hope that time [music] for you, your family, is a time of rest, recovery, togetherness, joy, and enjoyment. [music] Just like your family, our staff will be taking a break, too. So, please know that if you don't get an email returned or a phone call returned, we'll be doing that when we get
002back [music] on Monday, January 5th. We'll spend that day getting ready for your students to see us again for the second semester [music] on Tuesday, January 6th. Our main office at East and our main office at Central [music] and our district office will be open 5 days over the break. So, please before you come up, [music] get on our website, check those hours, and make sure you know what those days are so you're not disappointed if you come up and find that the office is closed. Let's get into the board meeting that we had here on December 15th. [music] We were so fortunate to start that board meeting acknowledging some incredible student accomplishments. Our IHSA third place volleyball class 4A finishers were with [music] us. The entire women's team. They've had a miraculous two years
003that culminated this year in earning an IHSA trophy [music] in such a competitive and prestigious sport. Volleyball is difficult. It's challenging. [music] We are so proud of these young women, the sportsmanship, the team ethos that they [music] displayed. We brought them right here into the boardroom to read their names into [music] history for their incredible accomplishment. We also had the opportunity to congratulate two students who really are elite in our nation in terms of academics, a perfect ACT score and then both of them being national merit semifinalists. Incredible. That puts them in the top 1% of all students of their age in [music] academics. Congratulations. great to recognize our students for doing state level and national level [music] accomplishments. There are really two agenda items of many agenda items that we we dealt with [music]
004on Monday, December 5th that I want to highlight for you. The first is [music] a discussion that we had during my superintendent report about facilities. We have been on a journey for the past few years looking at our facilities both at [music] Central and at East Campus to decide what kind of improvements we need to make in the future. [music] Of course, many of you know the work that we've been doing at Central. Uh we did a whole summer repairing ceilings that we needed to remove for safety. [music] We spent all of last summer on an essential maintenance plan where we're putting a new roof on central, [music] new exterior envelope with the masonry um and the the brick work there. [music] And we've been replacing the entire electrical system. This summer, the summer of
0052026, we will finish that [music] project entirely. And really, if you come into Central, it's never been more sound, looking better, in [music] great, great shape. We turned our attention in the entire year of 2025 right here to East Campus [music] because the board wanted to assess what the needs are at East. At Central, we still have about $12 million in projects [music] that are not roofs or walls or electrical that we're thinking that we would like to [music] complete. But how does that compare to the work here at East Campus? After a year's worth of the work with our facilities master planning council, [music] our architects, focus groups, community surveys, we've really narrowed in on [music] four things that we believe we need to begin organizing to have a facilities master plan here for
006Eastern Division moving [music] forward. First and foremost is infrastructure. We've got to have the lights on, human beings heated and cooled when appropriate, [music] safety. So, there are a number of items here on East Campus that really need replacement or repair, our bleachers in Porter Stadium, the field turf and the track surface. [music] Really, all the mechanicals in our pool need to be updated and replaced. All mechanicals, [music] blowers, electrical systems that need to be updated and replaced really [music] properly should be. our roofs. We need to begin a six-year process of replacing sections [music] of our roof that need it here at East Campus. That is a large expenditure, probably about $12 million [music] of infrastructure work. But we also proposed to the board two very important capital improvements. [music] an improvement of opening
007up our cafeteria and opening up our student services. That would allow a better multi-purpose space, a space more connected [music] to school counselors and to social workers and everything we do in student services, more [music] fluid in terms of food service, and more multi-purpose that we could have parent meetings, concerts, [music] many different events in that cafeteria space. But that also adds about another $12 million that we would have to think through. And then finally, [music] a complete renovation of our Porter Stadium athletic complex. We've had for a long time a plan [music] to put an addition on our existing fieldhouse to provide another competition gym, a better concession stand, more proper bathrooms for Porter Stadium, more locker rooms for our growing sports. An improvement to our athletic complex would open up that athletic complex
008and create more space for the community. It would open up that complex for our PE classes. It would open up that complex for our athletics. And finally, it would open up that complex for many different kind of [music] campus uses that we have. Those are a lot of dollars and a lot of projects that our board had [music] to consider. And we are in the process right now when you think about the work still left to do at Central infrastructure needs at East creating better student services and cafeteria services at East [music] and improving and increasing the athletic complex. What we're thinking about right now is what the dollar amount is there. [music] How to be thoughtful about what kind of tax burden that would create for you in [music] terms of the debt that
009we would need to borrow and what are our top priorities. [music] Our board really recognized that infrastructure is a key priority. We have to commit to that. Roofs, [music] electrical, mechanicals. Also, we desire finishing the work that we've [music] started at Central Campus. So, right now, we're really contemplating [music] improvement in student services, improvement in our athletic complex because obviously [music] we don't have an infinite amount that we can finance because that ultimately has an impact on you in terms of your [music] property tax. But it's a conversation that is in progress and we hope to have a final facilities master plan to our board for approval in January February at the latest. [music] Speaking of taxation, the second thing I want to share with you is we did pass [music] our annual levy for
010the fiscal year of 2026. This is the process that we go through [music] to annually reach all of our property tax owners, our property owners [music] and proper taxation. This board is committed to [music] tax controls. First, our tax rate, something we control, has steadily declined over a period of about 12 years. We have one of the lowest tax rates in the [music] state of Illinois. Second, we are committed to keeping costs low in [music] the biggest expenditure we have every year, which is hiring and personnel. We've kept those costs below 3%. And then finally, we have enacted what [music] are called debt service abatements. In essence, rather than asking you, [music] the taxpayers, to pay for our debt payments on bonds that we use to improve our facilities, [music] we're using cash reserves to
011make those payments so that you don't experience [music] an increased levy and tax commitment to make those payments on behalf of the district. All of those are designed to [music] blunt the impact of tax increase on you. Of course, we do not assess the value of your home and that's the number one lever that increases [music] your taxes. As your property value goes up, your taxes will naturally [music] follow. But we are doing everything we can with the controls that we directly control [music] to have a limiting effect on the tax impact that you are experiencing. We get it. We understand your pocketbook [music] matters and we are trying to to honor that. Both of these issues put us as a district in [music] an interesting crossroads because I'm sure you were thinking you can't
012have facility improvements without [music] spending money and that is absolutely true. We do not propose going for anything like a referendum, but we do propose using the cash reserves we have, using [music] the borrowing capacity that we have to have the best facilities that we can have for our students. [music] We believe that the best facilities create some of the best [music] learning experiences for our children and for the future of our community as well. And we're excited to be doing that [music] planning and doing that planning with you in mind. Thank you so much for listening to this [music] board meeting brief from the board meeting we had on Monday, December 15th. Have a great great holiday. Be safe and go Porters.