001orders this October 14th, 2025 at 6:35 p.m. Please silence or turn off all electronic devices. We will do the pledge after close session audience members skip. >> I would love to >> here. Maro is absent. Freedelland here. Grimpy >> here. >> Johnson here. this room here and >> here. >> We have a >> Let me entertain a motion and a second to go into full session for the matter of negotiations at 6:36 p.m. >> Moved. Second >> by Fister. Second by Vi. >> We have Johnson. >> Yes. >> Grippy. >> Yes. >> Ronet. >> Yes. >> Keiny. >> Yes. >> Freeland. Yes. Make a break. >> Yes. >> You should put it like you put it in your door. Everybody let me know. >> No rushers. I'll be watching. Great news, guys. Twoep verification working.
002>> I am worried. I'm sorry. No, I was like actually [Music] We're good. >> Turn the mics off. All right. Let me entertain a motion and a second to resume in open session at 7:15. >> So second >> by Freeland, second by Fiser. >> Please call. >> Yes, Freedelland. Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. >> I can open session. >> All right. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. We got a flag in the back. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] >> All right, next up is the consent agenda. Looking over the consent agenda, are there any items that a member would like to remove and further discuss or
003is there a question of clarification? Hearing none, I'd like to enter a motion and second to approve the consent agenda in its entirety which includes the following. The board of education meeting minutes from September 9th, 2025, our personnel report and actual payrolls, bills, and checks. >> Moved second. >> Second move by Fiser, second by >> Freeland. Yes. Bini, >> yes. >> Fisser, >> yes. >> Griffy, >> yes. >> Bronson, >> yes. >> Johnson, motion carries. Oh, sorry, Johnson. >> Yeah, >> carries. I'm so sorry. >> I can leave now if you want. >> I apologize. >> Okay, next up is RTA comments. Who would like to? >> Good evening. On behalf of the RTA executive committee and the entire membership, I'd like to thank the board of education and the administration for the excellent ongoing
004working relationship that we continue to have. As you all know, we've started negotiations already over the past month and we've gotten a lot done considering we are now at least a month ahead of four years ago. We didn't even start negotiations until November 8th. four years ago and we already have two attendant agreements and we are our small team met tonight and we are very excited. We're thank you so much um for all your time that we know that it's a volunteer position Mr. M Streetman Johnson, we know that you don't have to do this and all the board members. This is a volunteer position. You don't have to pay for this and we really appreciate all the time and effort that you put into this. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Next
005up is visitors comments. At this time, I'd like to recommend any members of the audience to approach the board with their comment or question by completing a visitor comment card. Please do note that the board and admin administration typically does not respond. If you wish for a response, please provide your name and number or email for a member of the board or administration to get back to you. Speakers are encouraged to limit their time for others to participate. A threem minute time limit per speaker with a 60-minute maximum for visitor comments per our current policy. All right, hearing none, we'll go forward with board communications. This is an open agenda item for any board member to share what they've been up to in the last monthish. And this is just busy. >> I'll start. I
006actually was on my phone. I wasn't I was like what did when did we last and oh my gosh all the things I was like scrolling through my calendar. So believe it or not we last met we hadn't done open houses yet. >> So um I to open houses trails and I just It was everybody was in I remember being everyone's in such a good mood. Happy to be back. I think the long summer helped but um thank you everyone. I think they're um helpful to parents but also just a great community and parents in schools. Um then Mrs. Johnson and I attended um Mount Prospect Mount Prospect had a vision meeting fiveyear planning kind of meeting at RTMS. So we attended that about nine nine people there. Um, so that was I thought it
007was great. There's community members from our neighborhoods. There was business owners and you basically get a big map and you get to make a wish list of all the things you want to happen. So most of our stuff was in our area, but you mark up all of Mount Prospect. You want bikes, you want community events, you want art, you want better water infrastructure. And I'm going to comment that one of the comments we kept making was fix the driving pattern in Rampers. >> And now now we find out Raners is for sale. >> So maybe we should have just kept our mouth shut. Um then two great events that I have to thank the uh IG fitness fundraiser and walk. I went to both two Fridays in a row. Um the amount of work
008that I know goes in from the um parent teacher committees, the teachers, the kids, like the families who donate, like it is really fun. And I'm just so grateful that we get to have this part of our day that we get to come go outside and act silly and exercise and have music and um mascot races were amazing. I I've learned that I think our mascots, some of them have names. I'm not sure all of them do. >> No. >> But I do have a suggestion. Maybe if they uh committee public relations would like do like a mascot naming contest. I think that could be fun >> and I think it's the owl, but I'm not sure the other two have. >> They could be ringing. You know, >> you do. I'll think of when
009the ego. >> Yeah, it could be. >> When I retire. >> I thought Albert. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, actually, we just found out today we raised over $5,000 at the water. >> So, we just found out. So, we're really happy about that. We really appreciate it and told the kids is thank you for having the parents donate. It's a good event. Anybody else? >> Um I know that um is it I can't even remember now. >> It was donuts with grown-ups. Thank you. I can't remember because the first time that I ever went it was like um >> yeah it was something like that but um but also fun and it was I had great so I got to see um you know all the families and everybody was super excited so um that
010was cool and then also like you're right it seems like so long ago but there was also the ice cream social and that was equally fun and just being able to see kids come back into into building um or sorry onto a playground and so it's just a good time um but again nice building to raise money for PTC's and I know IG has very similar events which is great to be able to raise these funds um to help facilitate different things in the building to help teachers and to help students in the community. So thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Yeah, I got two attend the IG walkthon or not I'm sorry walkthon. It was really a great well organized and love seeing all the kids running around and burning off some energy and
011uh just I love the mascot race too. They are definitely f also been to uh fair curriculum night so it was fun to see some of the coming into our our neighborhoods and our our schools and just being excited about uh about starting school and it's always good to to to see all the all the assessment and all the the stuff that goes into just getting to know these kids too. So, >> anybody else? Sorry, I have one more. Uh, I'm glad to be forgotten. At least not last but not least. Um, our team had rec night. Um, I attended that as Friday night. Um, huge turnout. I want to say it was like over 50% of the students were there. I didn't count. It's over 500. Um, so it was just really fun to
012watch kids having fun together. They could use their cell phones. They could go around the hallways together. they could get their fingernails painted and play ping pong and have lots of sugarc. [Music] >> And then the last thing I want to bring up is I want to thank the PR committee and the whole board for coming to the ribbon cutting. Uh it was a great event with wonderful weather. We had a fantastic turnout. It was nice to see the village board there, the mayor there. Um very nice things to say. really well attended day, wellreceived day and it was nice hearing all the the nice comments about remodeling as we went into curriculum there as well. So those I think that's it unless anybody else has anything. All right, we'll move on to district recognition.
013[Applause] Um, thank you for coming. I know, um, Mary was a little hesitant to come. She does not like all the recognition, but um, she very much deserves it. So, um, it's my true honor and privilege to recognize someone who's been nothing short of the backbone of Prairie Trails and a vital part of our district for over 26 years. Aaron has been with Prairie Trail since day one, serving as our school secretary from the moment we opened our doors 5 years ago. But her story with this district began long before that. She started as a lunchroom and playground supervisor at then became a teaching assistant there and then a secretary um along with me over at Indian Grove. Along the way, she supported generations of students, staff, and families with heart, grace, and unwilling dedication.
014In addition to her daily responsibilities, Mary has gone above and beyond time and time again. She's been the summer school secretary, keeping things running smoothly during some of the busiest weeks of the year. She's also been a proud and active union representative for our educational support professionals, advocating fiercely and thoughtfully for her colleagues. Here at Pur Trails, Mary is so much more than just our secretary. She is the face of the school, the welcoming smile at the front desk, the calm and reassuring voice on the phone, the person who knows every student, every parent, every family um and staff member by name. She delivers late students to class, dress up forgotten lunches and snacks and glasses, um, and helps find cells whenever we're short in our building. She also helps keep us organized and grounded,
015often a top. Mary, your dedication, professionalism, and kindness has shaped the culture of her trails in ways that cannot be overstated. You've been the steady hand and your kind heart behind countless successes, and your impact will be felt for years to come. Your shoes will be incredibly hard to fill, and I'm very sad. Um, so on behalf of the entire Prairie Trails community and the district as a whole, we thank you for your decades of service, your leadership, and tireless commitment. I'm not sure what I would do without you without my right and my left hand um every morning when I walk in. But we celebrate you today with deep gratitude, admiration, and respect. Thank you. [Applause] I wasn't sure if we were going right in. All right. Well, so um we're excited to come
016on up and share our school goals and our focus areas. Um at her chair as we build strong foundations for lifelong learning. So um before we get into um our building goals for this year, we wanted to go ahead and shine a spotlight. So um tonight we get to shine a spotlight on our interventionists and the incredible interventions happening career trails. So Amy Larson and Ira here. Come on. Why not? Um usually I get to bring along little chipmunks to our board meeting, but since um we're first in line to present, our kiddos haven't even really learned the chipmunk song yet. So um I thought I'd bring some adult chipmunks with me tonight instead. So let's start with Amy. Amy is in her 19th year teaching in district 26 in her 21st year in education
017overall. She taught pre-K special education and kindergarten at Indian Grove and now provides intervention and support here at Curry Trails. She did start out teaching kindergarten here as well. Amy holds a master's degree in early childhood education and is endorsed in early childhood education, early childhood special education, English as a second language and also has her reading specialist endorsement. Fun fact, her undergraduate degree is in anthropology. Um so she was an anthropologist first but realized that teaching was her first calling and decided to come um into into the education side and we are glad you did. Um I also brings 19 years of experience in the district but she also has 18 years or eight years of teaching um at CPS. She started at UCLA teaching kindergarten and bilingual Spanish prek. When Curry Trails opened
018she joined our team to teach our bilingual Spanish prekers and now she serves as our multilingual interventionist. Ida holds a BA in early childhood and special education as well as a masters in curriculum instruction with ESL and bilingual endorsements. So as you can see all these endorsements and all this education they have really helps with the foundation of all the work that we do here at P trials. Together Amy and Ida bring dedication, expertise and heart to every student they support at Pur Trails. So as we go along talking Thank you. Okay. So when Curry Trails opened just 5 years ago, we didn't really have dedicated interventionists. With the board support, we were able to hire Amy and Ida as our academic interventionist and Ida as our multinational interventionist. Since then, we've made tremendous progress.
019Today, our intervention has provided small group targeted instruction throughout the day, ensuring every child receives the help that they need to thrive. Unlike other buildings, we don't receive incoming data on the students um when they arrive. Each year begins truly as a fresh start. Our teams rely on observation, assessment, and close collaboration with classroom teachers to identify each child's strengths, needs, and ensuring support is timely and responsive. Our innovation blocks now run all day. While we primarily focused previously focused primarily on literacy with math support as well, this year marks an important milestone for our trials. Students are now receiving targeted interventions in both literacy and math. Amy and I spend their day pushing into regular classrooms as well as going in small groups to address targeted skills. They talk to families. They meet with
020teachers and they also assess our kids. So likely you've seen um the start visual that's up there before. I know it's come in many presentations um before me, but it's really a powerful um reminder of the strong literacy development that's woven for multiple strands. Our literacy and multilingual interventions strengthen those grades by supporting language comprehension, listening and speaking skills, decoding, and reading comprehension, helping students build the solid foundation they need for lifelong learning. This past year, we're especially proud to share that a record number of our multilingual learners successfully exited services, a direct result of high quality instruction, interventions, thoughtful observation, and really consistent teamwork between our team of teachers. Amy and I have built a model of proactive, responsive support that evolves with student needs. Their work ensures interventions are not only targeted but
021specific and also fluid enough to be able to meet the needs of all the kids in our building. Their work ensures that interventions are not only targeted and specific but also fluid no matter how or where those needs emerge. So, thank you for letting us spotlight science. [Applause] cardio drum. So, now we get to head into the meat of our building goals this year. So, um we have our school goals and then we also have some specific focus areas that we're working on this year, specifically churches. So, our focus areas, we're looking program coherence, um, admin watchers and feedback, and are looking at, um, peer observations. Um, look at our head ready, um, we're focusing on differentiation, specifically looking at kindergarten math, um, skills, and then our, um, service delivery models, looking at our preschool
022and kindergarten models. And then on the heart ready side, looking at developmentally appropriate practices, looking at executive functioning, and that's up a goal that you'll be hearing probably Bill talk about when he when he does his presentation and the things that we're looking as a whole district and then also purposeful play. Um so our first um head ready goal this year um is improving our foundational skills in the math. Similar to our literacy focus last year, our kindergarten math interventions focus on building strong conceptual understanding and flexible and responsive support. Teachers create and work with small groups in the classroom that sh that shift based ongo that shift based on ongoing assessments and observations. Our intervention is also work with students in the small group outside the classroom for targeted specific support on the specific
023foundational skills. Students engage with manipulatives. They play games and use visuals and participate in discussions really to make sense of what those mathematical practices and ideas are. Um we look at instruction and grouping um continuously adjust them based on the data that we're taking um and aligning assessments to help us measure the growth consistently. This approach ensures that every child is developing a strong foundational math skills. So that's really the goal this year is we're looking to improve our foundational math skills. So what are foundational math skills you may you may ask, right? So there's five things um that we focus on um when we're looking at foundational skills in math and these align to um state learning math standards um for kindergarten. So the first thing we look at is counting and cardality and
024that's really children learning to count to recognize numbers to understand that numbers represent different um quantities. Then we also focus on operations and algebraic thinking. Um they begin to solve simple addition and subtraction problems and they notice different number patterns. We look at base 10. Um, students start to understand play style by working with ones, tens, um, leading up to 100. They look at measurement and data, comparing size, measurement objects, looking at graphs, um, how to organize a lot of the information that they learn every single day. And then geometry, learning to name and describe shapes and their different needs. Together, these areas build a strong foundation for math learning. Um, the academic for math and kindergarten is real. Our focus is on helping every child grow as confident mathematical. >> Hi, our second head
025ready goal is with our student services team who I primarily work with and how we work with students with IEDs. So, as Amy mentioned, unlike the other buildings, we have less of a pulse on incoming students. Through our developmental screenings, we can also get new preschool students every single month. So things are constantly changing here and our team has to be very flexible and adaptive to meet those needs, foster inclusion, and then make sure every student gets what they need. We're proud to say that the number of preschool general education, our typical peer model students, has increased this year about 19%. Uh we've also seen an increase in students IEPS who need um more small groupoup support or our self-contained programming. We have student more students this year using AAC devices which at this age
026keeps a lot of modeling and support. Um one of them is pictured up there. So these changes in our different student groups mean shifting things like our staffing plan and our teacher assistant schedule means changing things like our building map and classrooms that teachers work in or are most of the day and it means changing the materials we use to meet this really wide variety of needs. You have students who are working on skills that are around a 12 month level and students who are working on skills that are around a six-year-old level. So kind of what can we do to make sure every student is getting what they need. So working towards this goal, it doesn't happen quickly and it doesn't happen alone. We are collaborating this year with the good self-contained program to
027make sure that we're playing long range that alignment of students that are self-contained moving up to you and then the middle school. We also work very closely with our NSSO coaches and they help us strengthen our alternative curriculum. So different than what's going on in the regular home room. They help us problem solve um on specific students who we might need a little bit more guidance with and they're also helping regular classroom teachers make sure they can support all students within their home room. So, we're really proud of the work that we've done so far this year, and we're very proud of our committed team that goes back to the drawing board daily, weekly, just to make sure that students are best supported here at career trails. So, continuing on, looking at um developmentally appropriate
028practices is our goal for executive functioning. Our executive functioning goals focuses on helping students develop the skills they need to plan, to organize, to self-regulate um and persist through challenges they may encounter on a daily basis. These skills such as working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control are critical for school readiness. Research um shows that are even more strongly associated with success in school than IQ or entry level reading math skills. really being able to have those basis of executive function skills really helps them later in their life. By intentionally supporting executive function and develop in our classrooms, we help children be able to build capacity um to follow routines, to manage tasks, to regulate their behavior, and to approach learning um being confident. Um strengthening these skills early sets a foundation for academic growth and
029lifelong learning. So you may go ahead and ask yourself, well, what exactly is executive functioning? So, executive functioning is pretty much like the boss of your brain. So, it helps you plan, it helps you focus, it helps you manage tasks. Um, we're working on building these um skills through play, through support with our NSSO coaches. We do a lot of this um through professional development on our Thursday mornings um to help really um give our kids the basics that they need. So with that, our second heart writing goal centers around play. And play is the work of a child. And if you don't believe me, you can believe Mr. Rogers. So this is a time when our students are really developing a lot of those executive functioning skills that Amy talked about um along with
030cognitive skills, social skills, and their communication. So, our staff is working very hard to make play purposeful and intentional. Um, we tie this to academic like foundational academic skills and social emotional outcomes and goals. This is a lot more than just setting out some toys and letting the kids play. This is building very intentional dramatic play schemes like the lemonade stand you see here. Um, this encourages literacy and math skills. So, there's money, a cash register, opportunities to count plates and utensils and customers. There's a notepad for making orders, menus with pictures and words, signs and labels. And one part of this really supports a lot of our students language development. Our preschool has about 40% of our kids as English language learners. So, tying a lot of this back to themes and vocabulary is
031just more ways for them to practice um and become English proficient. We have also partnered a lot with families this year. When they see the really neat play things that we're doing, they donate old toys or want to contribute. They um we tie our family projects back to our themes so that there's talking at home about what's going on in the classroom and then connecting um with adults at home. Additionally, our teacher assistants are receiving professional development to understand the different levels of play and then meet students at where they're at in the classroom. Sometimes it's intimidating as a teacher assistant to not know really what to do with the kid if they have skills that you've really never kind of worked with before. So, it looks like taking the child's lead, asking questions to
032help extend their ideas, uh, and modeling a lot of the skills that we're working on with the student. Just within the same classroom, we have students who are working on a skill like following an object with their eyes to skills like working with multiple peers to solve problems. So, pretty wide range. And we're so grateful for our partnership with the MSSEO and coaching with all of our staff. Um, so while it might all seem like fun and games, our students and our teachers are working very hard every day. And then finally, as we start to wrap up, we talk about what our focus area and our building focus this year is on deepening instructional leadership by empowering our teachers and administration um administrators and myself to lead from within the classroom. So it goes back
033to our district um goal this year or motto is open the door. So by opening our doors um to to another and new ideas we're fostering a culture of reflection of collaboration and that continuous um improvement cycle um in our building teachers and related service providers from Prairie Trails and Indian Road are engaging in meaningful collaboration through job sessions. These partnerships support a seamless continuum of services from prek to kindergarten and then to first grade similar to what they talked about earlier. Um this helps to ensure alignment and smooth transition and programming for all of our students as they need some grade level. Regular administrative walkthroughs focus on instructional alignment and student engagement. Um allowing Natalie and myself to support classroom practices in real time and celebrate a lot of the effective and great things
034that happen every day in our classrooms at Prairie Trails. Teachers participate in structured peer observations, which we call instructional rounds, um to share best practices, to reflect on their own instruction, and to strengthen the culture of professional and personal trust here in our building trail. Together, these efforts create a learning community where everyone, teachers, administrators, and students, I'm teaching you to grow and learn. Thank you. [Applause] Are you done? >> I'm just going to add one thing. Um, I just heard somebody speak about the different generations and so um I often hear about the millennial generation probably because that's like always the hot topic for people my age. But this um alpha gen alpha is the kids that um are in prairie trails and to be born. And so this is a generation, which is
035not surprising, of young people that are growing up with devices. And the the data that I received says they all have devices in their hands by 18 months, which is probably a little bit later than more recent research, but all of their learning is game based because they have these devices in their hands. And so this whole notion of social behavior learning and playbased learning um essential at this age. So, I'm loving to hear the things that you guys are doing really to be up and um like the lemonade stand like these kids would never have any idea what a lemonade stand is. And so, it is so essential for their learning and growth to have these play-based experiences. >> Really looking at having that like explicit teaching too because sometimes guided not just play,
036right? And so if you even take a look in any of the classrooms too, you see a letter, it's a baby nursing home and everything is labeled and has different um shells and categories for things. So it really works on a lot of those skills together. So >> just wanted to make a comment as well because this is my world. Yeah. all of this and just um noticing the the care and dedication particularly in many of pictures and in the tours I've taken of the building. Um those little things that many times people that are not in early childhood do not recognize but the way the children are building language both in their primary language and in in English and um having that dialogue both with teachers, teachers, assistants and and each other um to
037forms those relationships that are just priceless that cannot be learned. Those are hands-on activities and absolutely those lemonade stands and the stores and the babies are are where we do all of our learning. So, I just want to give a lot of kudos to those little details we do. >> And good or bad, there's probably a less understanding happen. >> But in all seriousness, that's really a challenge for this generation. I know, you know, he's raising a genzer or is just their their social lives are very much on these these phones or these devices and learning that that play with each other and that socialization is still such an absolute critical skill in life. So, >> I was going to ask um the play based I don't know if they're like modules or sections. Is
038there anything you're missing? I'm just wondering if like I know there are toys added to like the playground. Are there things that either the district could provide or maybe families? And I'm just thinking of all the like great Melissa and Doug like is there stuff that's sitting in that like is there like a list that we could put together and I don't want to like overrun this full of stuff but no we um we have all of our themes for the year and intermittently we put out to families where it's not an expectation at all, but just if you're cleaning out a closet and you see something that would help with our camping unit, toss it our way. Like just finding a way to almost recycle things and we have a lot of families when
039they're leaving Prairie Trails will donate hand-me-down clothes because we're all pretty much the same size here. And then um just play materials that their kids have thrown out of. So we don't want to pressure parents to feel like they have to donate anything, but we put it out every so often. was just, you know, think of us the next time you're cleaning our little toys from your kids bed. >> If you would like, I could get a copy of that message and send it your message. >> You don't want to overwhelm. >> Yeah, it was easy just to add it to the newsletters. Just pop it in at the bottom. Here's a list of things that you could because like really we are at that stage where we have hundreds of things you know. >>
040Yes. But like in the old days not everybody. >> One thing that we also do is if we do get too much we save them. have them set aside for when those or parents ask like, "Hey, we really don't have a lot of toys at home or we need some toys." And so kind of redistributing those so kids do have more than a tablet or a phone at home to play with. >> I will say one of the best donations we got was from Donna Legos in our office. She dropped them off. So >> thank you both for setting the bar so high for the rest of the That's awesome. And and thank you Mary and and Amy and I thank you so much for our district. Appreciate everything. >> And next up is Mr.
041Tim who got the sneak peek and now he knows how how high the bar is. Kind of unfair but you know >> I'm sure this but Christy has senior night tonight for her daughter playing volleyball. Um so she's doing that. So Mr. has stepped in. Now, typically we review fall map data in a preview because we know our state assessment results are coming out shortly. However, um Mr. T is going to talk through a lot of the changes that have happened in the last year. And so like person I feel it's more important for you all to understand the impact of those changes than the scores on the sheets because these changes influence the scores on the sheets. And so so this is not a typical presentation that you would get every fall but um
042but it's because of what has happened to literally almost every assessment that we've taken. So I apologize if that was your intro. >> No, I think a good start. Thank you for your time. >> Yes. >> Any questions? >> When I was doing a quantitative class, one of the professors suggested a book to us called How to Line with Statistics. And I think that the relearning and recalibration is a really good way to lie about how students are doing with that. So, um it's important to have this background knowledge going into it before we look into everything that's going to be coming up because there is a specific lens that we need to keep in mind or look at um look at everything through in order to really see what it's trying to tell us
043and what the the data itself is and is not saying. So, that's kind of just uh my goal tonight is to set that stage for when Christy does come back and present that information later on. Um we have that to work through. So, our um I think it it needs to be turned off. >> Uh our objectives tonight um are to review some of the the district and state assessments that have changed um and how we use that to measure growth and achievement um and understand the difference between and the purpose of the reorming and the reccalibration that has been going on between these different assessments. uh and lastly just to understand the impacts of that reorming and reccalibration uh and what that means for us moving forward. So starting with a quick uh recap
044of the assessments that we use that we're talking about all there are five different assessments that have gone through some kind of change or update for us for this year. Two of them are ones that we choose to give. The NWA map and the AI web plus uh both measure growth and proficiency in literacy and math. Uh and those are both given multiple times throughout the year. Three of them are state assessments that we have to give. The five essential survey uh measures uh our building culture um and the Illinois assessment of readiness and the Illinois science assessment are one time a year state assessments. Illinois assessment of readiness is also literacy and math science assessment is obviously science that is looking at proficiency and growth in those areas um throughout the year or over
045the years. So all of them have had or will have modifications that the way we look at and analyze the data that we get from them. The thing that's not changing is how we use the assessments. We still see assessments as informing our impact and informing our next steps when it comes to student learning. That's not changing. We use them to monitor progress over time. We use them to communicate progress to stakeholders. All of that can still happen regardless of the changes that have been going on. This year is different because some of the assessments have reormed and I'll go into a little bit more detail what that means and then others have recalibrated which is slightly different and have some definitions on the bottom that kind of describe the difference between those two. Reorming
046means that the they've recalculated the averages based on most recent performance of students either nationwide or throughout the state. The recalibrating is just adjusting the system that it's that they use to communicate the results to more accurately or more uh consistently share what they are. So reorming Three of our assessments got reorms. The measure measures of academic progress, the map, the Angeloid Plus, and the five essentials. When we talk about norms, we are talking about percentiles that accompany a raw data score. These percentile norms provide a national comparison that helps transform the numbers that we get into something that we can use. Um, pediatrics is a really common example of how using norming allows us to make sense of the information that we get when we have doctor's appointments for our kids. They give us
047a number, but they also give us the percentile so we can know where does my kid fit in across the nation. What is that normal for a 2-year-old, a 5-year-old, whatever it is, that number itself doesn't mean much without some context so that we can see how it compares and where we are. The same is true for assessment data. The norms allow us to see how our students compare to the thousands of other students that are in the same grade or taking an assessment in the same subject um or that have received the same amount of instruction in the school year. These norms help us provide context, but that context changes over time. norms get updates because student performance changes over time. If you think of it kind of like using Google Street View or
048Google Maps, you're still navigating the same streets, but if you're using the map that's 5 or 10 years old, you're not seeing what the landscape looks like right now. The example that we have up here is of this building, Prairie Trails. Uh this past year, my wife's school district opened up their own kindergarten center. And as they were preparing, uh I had connected the principal there with Amy so that she could get an insight into what that process was like shifting opening up a new building in in the district. If I had shown her pictures of Prairie Trails as it existed in 2019, I don't think she would have been as impressed as if we showed her what it looks like now. So looking at the MAC assessments, the picture on the screen shows how
049the distribution has shifted from the 2020 norms, which is the taller of the two, to the 2025 norms. It's gotten a little bit wider, especially on the low end on the left, and a little bit flatter. Uh it's important to note here that the rigor of the test and the test questions themselves did not change but the students who are taking the assessment have. If we look to the example on the right up there, if a student had a score of 238, the 2020 norms would place them at the 45th percentile nationally, meaning they're performing better or equal to 45% of the students nationwide. If we take that same data, the same test, same student, same question, same score, and apply that to the 2025 norms, that students now scoring at the 60th percentile. Nothing's
050changed except the comparison group. Nationally, students now aren't performing at the same levels as they were when the previous norms were set in 2020 using data from 2017 2018. And I think that they're starting to see that nationwide. There was a a news report that came out today about um the NAPE and the uh map data that NW is releasing releasing and they're seeing that across the nation um US students are scoring slightly higher in math closing a little bit of gap but the reading scores are staying staggered. In Ames web we see something similar in literacy. They only reorder one part of their assessments just the literacy not the math. Um the we the as web assessments uh impacts the tiered information that we use to help us inform areas of possible intervention. So
051the tiers are represented by the the triangles on the bottom. Tier one where we expect the majority of the students to be is represented by that green portion. Students that fall in the tier two range would be in yellow. Uh those students are eligible for some additional intervention support and tier three represented in the red are the most at risk students that need the most additional support. The distribution that we see on the left between the three tiers is what we typically see for first grade students in the fall. However, with the updated norms, the image on the right is what we're seeing now, which is typically what we see at the end of the school year. This isn't to say that the students are doing any better now than they were last fall. Their
052scores are the same or similar to they were last year, but the comparison group changed, which is making them look better. The last renorming that we have here is with the Illinois five essential survey. This is something that's given every year in February to staff, students, and to parents. Um, this one was a really interesting one because we did an admin academy over the summer for this one. So, all of the the admin, we had a chance to kind of dig into a little bit of history between uh from this assessment and where the information was coming from originally. And it was kind of shocking to all of us that the the norm data that we've been compared to for the past 12 years was only from Chicago public schools and only from 2013. So
053we're comparing the culture of our building to only CPS schools in 2013. They finally updated that. Now they're using statewide averages from last year from 2024. The um the caveat that the presenters gave us that day is the it's important to know these things and how they change because if you don't know what you're looking at these changes can be interpreted as either losses or gains and really it's not what it is. It's just rethinking or reanalyzing the landscape to make it more accurate. So what we can see is kind of an example of how the same data changed with the norms again. So if we took this is the Indian growth data from 2024. The original data that I had um showed three areas in the neutral one area in the green is being
054marked as strong and one area in the orange which is weak. After the norms everything got pulled into that neutral. So what they are seeing what they saw as they reormed is that the extreme scores those that were on the lower end and the higher end had the most movement and a lot of stuff ended up going to the middle regressing to the norm. The other piece that we're dealing with right now is a recalibration of the statewide assessments uh the Illinois assessment of readiness and the Illinois science assessment. Um if you think back way back in the days of ISAT if you look at our proficiency rates as a states in those times from about 20 24 to 202 uh 80% of the state was regularly considered to be proficient 80% of the students.
055Um in 2013 was their first recalibration and they made it much harder. They they raised the benchmark. So then we were seeing typically between 50 and 60% of students were regularly considered proficient. In 2017 the uh state switched to the SAT and when they did that they set their benchmarks far above what the college board of college readiness scores called for in terms of their benchmarks. The state then took all of the benchmarks for grades three through eight and aligned them with these higher high school benchmarks. So that pulled everybody in the state up essentially. Um so now it's switching back because the state is switching away from SAT again and going back to ACT just uh before we go into those benchmarks itself I think it's distin it's important to distinguish between a couple
056of the words that they use pretty frequently performance and proficiency. Um so the performance levels are the the names of the actual levels themselves. So the ones up on the screen above proficient, proficient, approaching proficient, and below proficient are the performance levels. The state decides how many levels are are going to be and what the cut scores are between each level. In the case up here, uh the proficiency benchmark is right in the middle. So anything above that proficiency benchmark in the green is considered proficient. Anything below the proficiency benchmark in the orange is not proficient. Proficiency means that a student is on track with their learning. But being on track doesn't necessarily mean that they've mastered all the grade level standards. It just means that they're on track to do that eventually. The proficiency
057itself is a policy construct um that compares a student's performance to a fixed aspirational standard that the state makes up. The idea of being at grade level is more of like that observable empirical construct that compares a student's performance to what's typical for a particular grade level. So those benchmarks that they set in 2017, there's been a pretty uh serious misalignment between the proficiency benchmarks in Illinois and actual student performance. Uh Illinois has some of the most restrictive proficiency benchmarks in the country for ELA and math. The chart up on the screen is something that uh Nate, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is the only assessment that's currently taken nationwide, uh puts out every couple of years. It shows the estimated score that a fourth grade student would need to have um would
058need to have to be proficient in math under local state assessment. So if you look at the the chart up here, it's harder for students in Illinois to be considered proficient on the state on this the Illinois state assessment than any other state in the country. Illinois is all the way at the top and all the way to the right. In other areas that that Nate measures, which is fourth grade reading, eighth grade math, and eighth grade reading, Illinois benchmarks consistently rank in the top four. So, let's take a look to see how the proficiency benchmarks are changing themselves. Um, starting all the way to the right with the science because this one's pretty straightforward. the science benchmarks are actually set too low. Um the US Department of Education denied the state's request to delay
059setting science performance standards during CO. So that forced Isby to have to um use 2021 data to set their science benchmarks. That year the data had insufficient student participation, insufficient representation. So the result was misaligned performance levels. The realignment of the proficiency benchmarks is consistent in science with fifth and with eighth grade. Meaning that the old score and the new score both changed the same amount. It went from 799 to 812 on both. So now a student has to score 812 in order to be considered proficient in science in both fifth and eighth grade. On the other hand, the ELA and math standards were set too high. Adjustments weren't consistent either, which creates variability in the rigor. between the grade levels and subject areas. We're not sure why this was done. Um, and we would
060love to be able to dig deeper and get more answers for you, but I unfortunately don't have those at the moment. Um, the goal was to the align the proficiency levels in each grade level to the grade level above it. Um, which should also then align to the ACT proficiency benchmarks and the college and career ready expectations. So you can see in third grade cut scores went from a 750 to a 735 in ELA, but in 8th grade it only went from 750 to 745. Again, no no reason was given about why there was a difference in that. So what does that mean for this year's data? Generally, we can expect to see 2025 proficiency rates higher in ELA and math and lower in science. math proficiency, math and proficiency benchmarks are going down. Science
061proficiency benchmarks are going up. But because those shifts in cut scores aren't equal, the changes to proficiency look different in each group uh in different grade levels. If we take the math example on the screen, we're looking at uh 24 2024 statewide data that's been recalibrated with the 2025 standards. We can see that the changes to proficiency benchmarks were not as dramatic in the older grades. So students in seventh and eighth grade are being held to a higher standard of proficiency than students in the earlier grades. Most districts are going to see a steady drop in math proficiency in grades three to grade eight that's unrelated to student school or district performance. those kids are just being held to a significantly higher standard than the younger grades are. So that means that we have to
062avoid making the quick assumption that eighth graders are doing worse than third graders. This data shows that point in a different way. Uh this chart shows where a student would have to perform nationally to be considered proficient at each grade level under the new benchmarks. So we can see how The rigor of the math benchmarks in blue are significantly higher of the rigor of the ELA benchmarks in orange, but especially so when you look at E3 because those ELA benchmarks are slightly lower, we can expect most districts to show significantly higher proficiency in ELA compared to math. Uh despite the fact that both of them are equally competitive compared to in the states and across the nation. Again, here we don't have the 2025 data available to us yet, but we can glimpse at what
063it might look like by applying the 20 24 data to the new 2025 benchmarks. The last piece that we have is the performance levels. Uh the recalibration um to make the levels more consistent and to make the naming conventions more consistent to add clarity and coherence between the different assessment systems. Uh whereas previously ISA kind of each did their own thing. You can see I had different proficiency levels or performance levels and ISA had four. Now there's alignment between the two. It's the same amount, the same number, the same names to help us better understand the results. So the implic implement uh implications that this has for districts, there has been significant changes to all of the things that we use to measure our impact and to measure student growth. Um, but that focus on
064growth is what keeps us on the right track. That it's imperative to keep looking at how our students are changing throughout the years um and growing as a result of what we're doing with them. Um, you know, the other important thing to keep in mind is how we communicate this to our all of our stakeholders, all the parents, all the families, because when we send home reports in a couple of weeks, we want to make sure that they're looking at it through this lens, too, without it being so technical that it drowns out the message. So, that's something that we're working on right now. We do have a message drafted. Um, NWA did share a really nice uh clear video clip also that we're sending that's something that could help explain that a little bit
065better or a little bit to the the families as well. Um, that's set to go out on Friday. Um, which leads us into our next steps. Um, we really want to continue to monitor and adjust um, how this has impacted how we make our decisions with the data. Um, I think specifically looking at interventions and placements. For years, we've built systems and um, staffing models and decision making um, matrices basically around these norms that haven't changed this much in years. So, we need to continue to have those conversations about how this impacts all of those things. Um, and then making sure that we continue to provide staff training uh on how to use the data that we are seeking out. Um, and then uh preparing that parent communication that one that's going on on Bright.
066In closing, uh I think it's important to reiterate that we are committed to con using data to drive instruction and measure growth. Again, we see assessment as informing our impact and informing our next steps. Um we're committed to developing a deep understanding of how to responsibly use this information that we have. Um and we understand the importance of aligning assessment with today's learning context. Uh our goal is to continue to utilize it and to put it in place in a way that that is out in front in terms of clarity and transparency so that everybody does have a clear message about how it is. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Love the report. This is my type of report. >> I'm trying I understand recalibration. Someone has the state. Someone has gone in and rejiggered
067all all of the numbers and tweaked stuff. Who's doing that with the norm? >> Who's who's setting the norming? Who said, "Okay, we're going to change the bell curve from this to this flat." >> So, it's the the companies themselves. Um, NW NW NWBA is the company that that does everything for NAP, the MAP test. Um, their latest sample, I think, had I had the numbers up before. Um, they did say that this latest norming, which and was using 2022 23 and 23 24 data was one of their largest samples and most robust samples for their norms that they've used in a long time. Um the it was something along the lines of like 13 million students across the country. All 50 states were represented. Um they are they do their norms um for their
068test. So they're doing the norms for the for the math test. The uh as web is Pearson. So they're in charge of the norms. Oh yeah. They're in charge of of creating the norms and doing that for >> Does Pearson also do the ACT test? Aren't they ones who are yes >> yes they are they do >> okay um so then I have a and then toward the end you were talking about growth and that we will monitor growth and that's what we should be looking at for the students just their growth but the way you're measuring their growth is against one of these numbers whether it's the norm or be uh recalibration. So, as a parent, I'm going to look at it and say, "You're changing it on me." >> In terms of the
069um for for maps, the map tests, that raw score, the the RIT score is what we call it, >> right? Or what they call it, that has not changed. So, the RIT scores and and how they determine that RIT score hasn't changed. the percentile of that score and how it compares to kids nationally. That's what changed. So, if we're looking at the raw score and looking at the growth of the raw score, that we can still get information about. Some of them have have reormed for us last year's data so that we can get at least a two-year um growth picture. >> Okay. >> Um but that's about as far back as we can go with any we lost a lot of longitudinal data with this with the >> Yes. Yeah, that's kind of what
070I'm getting. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, we can go back, we can look at the because MAC did go back and reorm last year's data for us. So, we can look at last year compared to this year with the new norms, but it past that we we don't have anything. So, this is basically a baseline. >> Well, I'm going to tell you that as a parent who's had three kids go through this education system, even my husband when he got the we got that print out of where kids fell. He was like, "Are they getting an A or a B and are they passing?" >> That's, you know, whatever these numbers are, I'm going to I doubt that most of the parents in our community understand or even want to understand because as long as
071the child is doing well in school and moving on, everything's okay. >> Yeah. And that's the information that the percentile helps us with usually. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then my last question on the James one plus on that triangle where the tier one, two, and three. >> I'm trying to understand how the children that fall in the tier three at the very top of the red. >> So last year, let's say there were 10 kids who were up there in that red triangle. And then in fall 2025, wow, they're not there anymore. So are you saying they grew or they just shift. >> Well, I realize the percentile >> that's just the number. Doesn't the kids still need interventions? >> That's and those are the conversations that we're having right now because the
072the number of words that they can read as they're doing the oral read oral reading fluency hasn't changed. >> Of course. >> Yeah. So, yeah. So, that need is still there. This this data is is showing that compared to kids nationwide, they are scoring higher, but that need is still there for those kids. >> So, I mean, this is exactly why we brought this to you guys. And then get it, it's deep, so I apologize, but um when we when you see our district test force, I don't want you to be like, "Oh, why are they all gifted?" Um they've all, you know, they've all just grown 20%. We're doing great. Um because you need to understand the background of it. The needs are still the needs. Even though they're in the green, we're not
073like, "Hey, Great. That's what I'm afraid. >> And so, you know, the examples up there, a kid shifts from a 45th to the 60th percentile. We are not going to then put kids in accelerated because they've shifted on a percentile. Like, so we all have we're we're being very thoughtful. We're we're educating ourselves so that when it comes to these decisions, we're not making mistakes based on um these shifting in norms. So um so again I I know it's deep but um it doesn't mean that things have changed with our kids and our approaches haven't changed but you are going to see very different profiles and not the longitudinal data that we would love to show. Um we could show it but you're going to see some spikes and some dips um potentially. So, so
074that is like the really neat of understanding as we continue to move through the school year with with a lot of this. And you did hear Tommy Sanders talk at our division meeting. I think it was two years ago now. He has been on this like tackling this state assessment system training for a while. So, okay. >> Knew it was coming. >> Thank you. And again, thank you u for your great explanation too and the visuals. I appreciate it. Anybody else? >> I think my question was related to the chart like this chart. So like context matters as you stated. So like a tool it's just a tool. It's some you're getting measuring a hundred other data points about kids in classrooms. And I guess my question is like this chart um it looks great
075but it kind of means nothing now, right? Like we have the raw data that's like oh such a great job. So I know you guys are working through like is there other I guess is there options probably not in these big test groups to get different subgroups of data like this is the national data can we get it on a state data on a regional data um can we share with districts around us so we know how we're like some context about like a zooming in a little bit to the data that matters most to Um, and then I had definitely you still have their raw scores like that didn't change. So you can track that. And quite honestly, I would say when the when the buildings talk about their data digs, that's exactly what
076they're doing here. They're picking apart these triangles in the bar, you know, the bell curves, they're looking at the numbers in people's classes, the subgroups, the kids with IES, kids with not with IEPs, kids in interventions. So when they talk about those data digs, they're Yes, you're absolutely right. Like this is just a quick assumption, but you really have to dig into that. Um, and the teachers have to dig into that to know what to do with those numbers. It's like, so what? >> That's kind of what I was saying before. We're having conversations now specifically about in the past the the thing that that typically had triggered intervention services was being at the 25th percentile. that doesn't make any sense anymore because that we're not getting kids there that they're they're not sh they're
077showing that they're not there even though those kids haven't changed their needs haven't changed but now our our identification process needs to to change or update it to make sure that we're still meeting the kids and their needs without just saying flatly this is what it is. >> I think part of the story that you told here is that unfortunately the national scores are falling backwards and as we continue to grow. If we're on that perpetual growth path, we're going to continue to pull away from the the pack or the norm, if you will. Um, so, you know, looking at a chart like that, you like you said that, you know, whatever percentage you identify as needing some kind of intervention that, you know, comparing it to the national scores doesn't really work for us.
078that we're going to have to look at what cohorts of our kids need those intervention services and almost kind of customize that based on on those needs. Yeah. But again, another question when things when you show us data going forward, are we going to take this into account like are we going to see this should we expect to see this spike just in terms of proficiency? Are we going to focus on the test score because that doesn't sound like it really change. Yeah, I think that's that'll be part of the conversation that we have too as principles and as we have with Jody and Christy of what's what's the most important stuff that makes sense to present that shows what we're doing and what are the things that are best aligned to show what we're
079doing. >> Yeah, I think they're both important and it's good to know where we stand nationally and as a state or region, but it's more important like you said that we show continued year-over-year growth by grade level by child. Yeah. Right. So, second grade every year should get a little bit better. But whatever the score was last year for that, we want to see it just keep growing or at least not, you know, keeping. But yeah, just just keep on path and there's good um reports and data that are available in the platforms and wea and as web that will show us uh growth percentiles, additional growth. So for a student started at the same spot as another student but similar spot that that another student that scored similarly how did they compare to that
080student those students um that is the information that we are looking at most with okay data you're going to look at now are you seeing is everybody getting a report that's showing hey all the kids are in green now so are you dealing with that now? Yeah. So that's the the data digs that we did with teams. I've done something very similar with my team because I wanted this background knowledge to be there when we look at our stuff to see, wow, I got all my kids are in the 90th percentile this year. I guess I'm done. That's that's not how it it works necessarily. So thinking about that's good, but let's look at the the scores and let's break down because then you can even take the test itself. That's this is a the
081overall score. You can take it and look at the each section of the test and see this is high but it's high because their geometry score is really pulling them up but their numbers operations is on that lower end and that can be something that we can focus on. those things. >> Anybody else? I mean, a lot of questions. Um, but I guess when we talk talk about like data digs and things like that, I I personally some of these things because we move between tests have always seemed kind of just ambiguous to me. like when we move from oral fluency in kindergarten and then we look at things in first grade, it's completely different um components that we're you know scores that we're seeing anyhow. Um and I know that these are just snapshots.
082I have my personal opinions on you know standardized testing and and how inefficient is and sometimes capturing the growth of our students. But when we um but when we look at these pieces and we present this information, I mean, I know for a fact I look at student growth just on my individual child's basis. Like I it's great if they I understand we have to be aware of percentile ranges and everything like that and kind of looking at comparisons, but how often are they planning on doing this? I like I I understand that they were updating the data from 2022, you said. Okay. Um but the other piece like didn't you say that some of that data was from 2020? I mean like h how often does this realibration and the reworming take take place
083or is it just on a wind through Pearson and >> reworming tends to happen about every 5 to seven years. Okay. >> Uh it's usually not this drastic. >> Okay. um the you know the different things that that they're saying to contribute to the big difference here obviously coming out of co um that to change people are still playing catch up and that we see the the scores nationwide um and then math talks about they they changed their assessment slightly and how the the algorithm picks questions for the students. Um and then just general population changes is how they kind of describe that those national changes. So that that was how MAP described theirs. If you look at ASWeb didn't give those, but they also saw similar changes to their literacy norm. So we're thinking
084that the the COVID and the demographic changes are probably pretty big driving factor factors even if the the web test questions and their algorithm didn't change. Okay. >> So yeah, typ it's happened before, but it's it's never really this big difference between the two. And then for the recalibration that because of how the you know high stakes testing has been around since No Child Left Behind, right? It's changed a couple of different times. I think I mentioned 2013 as we changed the test. So I think now it's I don't know how often that's going to happen. So >> okay. And then in relationship because I just to confirm that I heard exactly what you were saying correctly like when we were looking at that grade 11 and like pretty much the either the stagnation or
085like that that tend to have a downward correlation like in in the math area. Are we when they adjusted the the scores at our level at the elementary level and middle school levels um right here. Yeah. Are we accounting for how awful that is >> about how our eighth graders have to score at the 69th percentile nationally to be considered proficient? >> Yeah. Though that these are the questions and not have to do that in a couple years >> and they didn't have to do that in seventh grade and they don't have to do it in 11th grade, >> right? >> Yeah. That these are the things that that you don't know why there's such a big difference in what's considered proficient at each grade level. It's more consistent for ELA. >> Yeah. >> Except
086it's also much lower for ELA. So I don't we don't we don't know why the decision was made for that either. >> Interesting. >> Okay. Well, I don't expect you to be in their brains because >> no one should be there, but um thank you for the explanation. >> This is all fairly new, too. Like they're literally just having webinars and all of that the next couple of weeks. So we anticipate as the year goes on, we'll probably learn more. Anybody else? >> I just had one and this may not be a question that we can answer now as you're saying that this is more of an evolving process at this level. Again, looking back to that triangle, you know, where we're looking at the children that need intervention, the children that that need intensive
087intervention um and now we're looking at them all as the norm, right? Like we're looking at that is that yes, they're all coicient and whatnot. Is this in any way um putting any of our interventions or and a lotment for interventions at risk at a district-wide level because aren't all of these pieces tied into whether a student is eligible for an IEP and all I mean I know there's several pieces that go into that but if this is one of them I I don't know how highly this one is weighted um is that at all changing the criteria then >> that was after our interventionist saw about this for the first time, they come up and ask me if they still had a job. >> The answer of course is yes. But the uh the
088what needs to change is more so our decision making and what it is that we're looking at. That was that was the um the advice that that NWA gave to. Don't continue to use the same thing that you've done just because you've always done it. really take a look at it and see does our decision making um process that we had said before still make sense with these new norms or do we need to change it to be more focused on specific skills or uh looking at different areas of u the test itself to help inform us with that as opposed to again just blanketly saying everybody below this amount will automatically qualify for a duction. So that as you know as we kind of said before the kids needs are absolutely still there. Nothing
089has changed from last year to this year in terms of um you know what they were able to do when they left in May and when they got here in September. So it really is just a matter of making sure that we are still um able to identify what those needs are and provide that right support. And those are the conversations that we're having districtwide right now to make sure that we can do that. And and again maybe this is a question that is more future looking. Do we have the ability to do that? Because many dimensions require specific standards and so now if we're modifying one of those standards does that put us in jeopardy in some way? >> We can definitely update our criteria. We decide what that is. Right. Yeah. So the
090um the the skills and the strategies and the things that we're teaching aren't really changing and and the materials that we're using to do it aren't going to be changing a lot. It would just be identifying what those lacking skills and strategies are will have to change and how we have those those conversations. Yeah, good question. Anybody else? Great questions. Great job. Thank you so much. >> Mr. Bear, you are up. Student enrollment update. >> This is just a quick snapshot of our enrollment numbers as of September 9th, which was the sixth day of school. Look at anybody like in school. So, um, fairly close to what was budgeted overall. student budgeted. We are up 12 students from where we were about the same time last year. >> Right? >> Does anybody have any questions
091for Mr. N? Let's move on to our committee updates. Thank you. Uh our first committee update is from Mr. URL. >> Okay. So, um I wrapped up a memo and put a bunch of attachments to do update and then we can get >> Yes. >> Well, first of all, fun stuff. Uh the annual reminder that Slowick is our property for the uh you call it the Sunrise. Yes. Um, so do make uh arrangements to go visit it. They are already starting to fill up for the 26 27 school year. So, you know, classes, board retreats, whatever. You know, they they've really got an awesome just just environment there, you know, some some good facilities and and really constructive activities for for kids. um you know kind of aligning with that play structure you know how
092important all that stuff is and really you know building education into activities. Yeah. And regarding the the you know the big topic which is the articles of agreement. Um I don't know what to say other than I think that you know for the majority of my concerns were or have been you know my concerns and that of a a group of us have been mostly addressed. So, you know, my big concerns were what has not been adjusted that that there was not, you know, board approval for a lot of a lot of specific items. And I I don't entirely know what happened behind the scenes, but something something clicked. So you're basically and you know Jody will walk through it but from a process standpoint. Um well I'll say I've always been open to and
093wanted you know more participation in communication and collaboration between all the member districts and there was some discussion about how that would materialize but I never was against that by any stretch. I just want to make sure that we have proper roles and participation with the the various elements which like I said at least with the some of the amend proposed amendments. We're going to get there from a scheduling standpoint. Um we are trying to move forward or Dr. Schnore is working to incorporate some of the changes that were listed out in in her memo to update a draft. Our official feedback is due tomorrow. So we need to provide if we want to I assume we do but some feedback uh to to NSSO uh to inform that reddrafting or updating of the the
094articles agreement and then uh you know ideally we would like in the next meeting to possibly have something that we can move forward to the districts for ratification. So they are working on that draft. It's got the attorneys. It's, you know, combination of word smithing and some process stuff. But I mean, if they get kind of the things in the agreement that they have communicated with the with the memo and whatnot, I I'm pretty good with So, minus a couple of changes that we'll we'll talk. So, >> um, did you guys discuss any changes at the last meeting or no? The chart is pretty much as is the one that I shared with the board. >> You know, they they describe that as a working chart. >> Okay. So, you know, I've seen several versions
095of that now where they, you know, one the the chart they'll show you is, you know, here's something, here's what it was, here's what it's going to be, and then going and looking at the language to see how it needed to be adjusted. >> Well, um, so the slide deck really is just to kind of consolidate some of the questions and information y'all asked for. And really the collective ask was to kind of look at the pros and cons of the proposed structure changes and then what questions um everyone had related to the changes. So, what we need to do is get this list of questions, just like Robert says, questions um and proposed changes so I can get that over to MCO by tomorrow and then um hopefully give you all clarity so that
096as a board you can guide Robert on next steps um for what he should take back to SSO. So I think everybody is getting familiar with the current structure that it is a one tiered structure with eight district board members from uh all the member districts, one rep and one backup rep should the should the rep not be able to go. So it kind of operates as the typical board operates. Um there are supporting committees. They're not board committees like OMA committees like ours. Um, but there's a student services committee, I would say, which is all the member district special education admin and NSSO special special education admin. I believe me sits in on those meetings. Um, and whereas like the superintendent did not used to sit in on those meetings before, but um it's
097it's mostly student services. Um there's also a finance committee and so that has all of the member district CSBOs and student services reps. NSO finance or CSBO folks their student services reps and I believe you have a governing board member that is there sometimes sometimes not at the committee the finance meets. Yeah, it's it's changed a few times over the years. So, you know, because the budget is, you know, in particular such a collaborative exercise and so it's more operationally focused, you know, I mean, NCSO up until recently really hasn't focused on capital projects and things outside of just keep the lights on, keep keep teachers employing, etc., etc. So, the budget has been a little bit more of a internal process. >> So yeah, and then uh new this year has been the member
098district um superintendent uh led by Dr. Schnore and then sometimes members of her cabinet are there. So that's pretty much the current structure. The proposed structure is really kind of just moving to a two-tiered governing structure with the governing board remaining as is with the eight district representative members and then an operational board which would consist to shift that superintendent group basically to an operational group. And so part of their role, the majority of their role is making recommendations to the governing board. Not on all items that the governing board reviews, but on certain items. Um, they will continue to be supporting committees with student services and finance. I just have one question about the supporting do the supporting committees report out to both boards or just um I believe that was a question of
099like how do all these groups come together? So um in the new structure is that kind of what you're saying? Yeah. Um currently the >> they don't really I mean maybe these rep reports out to the governing board but there isn't really a formal uh out um structure >> they're they're working on it. I mean, you know, there's just just like inside of a, you know, in our district, there's, you know, steps that occur in building a budget or really anything that just can happen any sort of way, but there's generally kind of a flow to it. The biggest difference to me with this structure, which I think is very much a pro, is that traditionally NSSO has been But at least in the last what 10 20 years has been set up to kind
100of consultatively work with the member districts to intake their needs and then kind of develop the programs based on where their needs were falling. What was lacking was coordination amongst the schools or the districts. So you have maybe you know the two high school districts they have different thresholds for their use of NSSO services. So one district might say, "Hey, I need help with this group of kids." And the other district, well, I have a program for that. So they would go to NSSO and basically what they couldn't handle, they were pushing to NSSO. And I think same with the elementary districts that there's, you know, that hopefully that collaboration amongst the superintendents helps to kind of get the programs at all of our schools a little bit more, not a little bit, a lot
101more aligned so that you know kids that so that kids go in the right spots. >> Um, this chart is totally unseeable. So, um, I had to look at it in your board packet, but this is kind of the chart that has been living the last couple of weeks. So, the most recent updated chart is um more detail in terms of where in the agreements some of these things can be found. And I know like Donna, you had a lot of questions because some things were deleted in a certain section. And so, um I believe they've either come back to life, Reverend, is that accurate? Some of the things that were deleted come back to life or they are adding language. Um so, I believe that's that has been rectified over time. Um, that is
102the most updated one I have of that. And so from that, um, I'm just going to hit on some of the gains or the pros and the cons of the change in structure. And Robert and I kind of went over these. So if you have anything to add, Robert, or if anything's changed in the last few weeks. pretty much the gains is just really like this increase of collaboration and input from the member district leadership. Um I think you could say like organization of the flow of communication as well um as we work out how that um is going to look. Um the strengthening of trust between NSSO and member districts and also having a platform to um talk about things that wasn't there before. Um resing governance issues to be able to continue to
103move forward. Uh focusing on the final stages of the strategic plan for NSEO. Um improving efficiency with the resources. I think this collaboration and the planning ahead can really um start to be more efficient with the way the money is sometimes spent or um resources are allocated. and then just kind of all of us working towards the long-term goals of MSSEO and hopefully identify some roadblocks on the front end rather than reacting on on the back end. Um some of the losses or the the cons of the structure that you know when you have more people in more tiers it does slow down decision- making and so we anticipate that could be an obstacle to work through. Um just you know potential challenges around power dynamics with dual I'm calling it silos because they don't
104connect. So you have two silos of leadership. Um so I could see that that power dynamic might continue to be something we need to work through. Um >> I will say to that though, I mean I do appreciate that the uh the superintendent council meeting was uh at least recorded and available for some people to attend. Um that was really good I think for a lot of people but I say personally it was really good for me because it you know part of my issue with this has been I don't know where they want to take things right so we got this group of superintendents president accepted is trying to you know do they well intention to move the organization forward but we're not privy to those conversations so it was you know not quite
105understanding or or having a certainty to their to their goals and you know listening in on that meeting is was very productive and supportive. It was you know and you know productive and supportive doesn't mean that you just bow to whatever SEO needs. it means that you're you know critically working through things and and making >> so um you know I think a potential con could be you know if we have difference of opinions at the different levels you know just to keep focused on being cohesive and and being unified and then again like we have a lot of straight A type A um personalities um across both boards and so there's going to be conflicting interests and different opinions. So those were the the pros and cons that >> I don't know so much
106about that. I get to be so I have to say after watching that meeting I feel a lot better. I really do feel a lot better. >> There was a whole meeting. >> I I swear to God I thought some part of me thought you guys were behind closed doors collaborating on how to blow it up. I don't know. Well, you know, I mean, my thoughts, I knew that's not what was going on, but you know, like, you know, one simple example was that we had to reduce uh a summer school or or DSY by a week this past year because of uh the construction curve. And NSSO has more DSY time than any of our home districts. They have about 90 to 100 hours. And as a parent, I was like, oh my gosh,
107you know, and not just that, but these are the kids that need that help the most. And these are the kids that don't have the same options to go to summer camp. You know, you send send a kid that goes to NSSO to summer camp. They require more supports. It's, you know, just snowballs, right? And that was one of my concerns is that was just on the docket to be taken away. And you know what? Instead, behind the scenes, they were doing a proper analysis of was this worth it? And the answer came back yes. And even if it didn't come back, the it didn't start with let's get rid of it. started with do we need it which is the right request to serve. >> Um these were some of the questions raised um
108by the board and um I think I saw an updated document in the board book that might have hit on some of these. So, um I'm not going to read them to everyone, but if there's any that >> anyone would like to pull off the table, then please let me know. Or if we could, if you're comfortable with your question and the answer you receive, please let me know and I will not for that. >> Yeah, I think between Jody and I, I mean, I can answer every one of these of these with a >> Okay. >> with a pretty confident we've got it in the right spot now or at least it's pointed in the right direction. That make sense? Yeah, the only thing that I still had like my other question was answer
109about the outliers because it's pretty much pros and cons and then like what types of events would possibly like really derail this this structure but um I'm still sticking with like how the information will flow and I know that we just discussed it so I would love for that just whether it's a formal process because we want to make sure that all the member districts are getting the same information distributed by their board reps. I I I think that that that's a little complex because each board is entitled to do things how they want to do it. So, >> but the information coming out from those meetings, they can they can talk about it how they want, but the information should be the exact same coming out of those meetings. >> Correct. from NSO. I
110I like all of the NSSEO should have like at those meetings something should be prepared where it can be given out to the the board representative >> and then come back and if the board representative wants to put it in board book or whatever, but like the the same information should be going to each one of the member districts. >> I I think that that they do do a communication um at the update. It's usually >> it's not as detail orientated from like a technical standpoint. It's more >> I say slightly marketing almost. >> Yeah. I feel like some of it's just not fluff, but I mean like it is. Yeah. I mean, it's announcing it's announcing events and things like that, but it's not talking about board business necessarily in the depth that we
111would need. >> Yeah. And I will say I've been asking for something like that because I would like more of a technical two pager that kind of just talks through the more businessoriented topics. Haven't gotten that yet, but I mean I'm hopeful to get that. You know, right now Joey suggestion is standardized memo to at least get something out, but I'm still not like filling out like blanks or something like it's still a lot up to me to communicate what >> Yeah. I think that the thing is and what I've seen in this process silence and that you guys are in the meetings. It's like a game of like 16 telephones going off and no one has and so that's fine. They'll be you'll offer context to us to advise us on how direction go
112but um you know even when they presented the financials last year it's their job to um we we are their constituents or their business. It's their job to effectively communicate these issues back to the courts. It's not. And your memo is great, but that you're doing that. I know other members aren't. >> So, it's like a marketing and communications issue that I think they need to um figure out. If we're not having two operating, two two things, that's double. That's the >> Yes. Yes. Yes and no. So one of the big changes that they have made here is that the operations board can they can effectively make decisions but those decisions have to then be kind of packaged up and presented to the governing board for so >> they can make recommendations. >> Yes. But
113then you guys make but you know like just how we function right I mean we we we normal you know 90 plus% of the time we're you know relying on Dr. regularly to make good recommendations that we can approve. We might poke at it a little bit, but for the most part, it's cooperative. It's it's informed both ways. And I've kind of looked at this whole thing since the beginning is the superintendents are kind of doing like a ad hoc expanded cabinet you know to participate in the development of some of the operational strategies and some of the longer term strategies to inform the NSSO administration you know of of their direction and quite frankly so that they get on the same page the school districts get on the same page. So I think I
114can't control right now like what specifically comes out of NSSO from a operations or a governing board meeting. From that operations meeting it will be pretty buttoned up because it's got to go to the governing board meeting and then from there what you're asking for is more of a technical summary. It sounds like >> well that could go into like the proposal section. Not that it's going to go into the articles of agreement but maybe that could be an outcome of like okay this isn't so many articles of agreement, but we we need some sort of standardized communication flow. >> Well, the only yeah, the only part that I can really see in the articles of agreement is distributing the information, but that's not really the government's I mean piece like it should be going
115back to the superintendence which then should then again like I said filter the information should be flowing between the operational board and the governance board. But I think the the pro like the hiccup that I kind of me asking this question was when we have people present like how Bill, you know, came up and he gave us information and then we were able to really understand and kind of get a good grasp on it. If we're skipping over those things and we don't have that information from MSSEO that was discussed by the operations committee with the governance board, then we're still kind of in the dark. And then that not only puts a ton of pressure on you to make sure that you cover every single thing, but it's also like the telephone piece like
116when you talk about we talk about pieces that we think might be important here >> you know a lot of it a lot of it is is subjective >> yeah and part of the challenge really is that each board is going to each member board is going to have to make their own determination to some degree how they handle that. So like some boards might choose to get involved in every single situation or every single vote and go through the you know I mean theoretically they could go through the agenda. I'm just giving you the the range right to another side where it's like it's delegated. >> No no no. And I'm not talking about No, no. I'm not talking about us taking action. I'm talking about us just being informed members >> of of
117what we have. So if they if they have one document again I'm sorry I'm getting off topic. So we should figure out I mean I think we're even kind of struggling as well. We don't know what our meetings are going to look like yet but I'm imagining that they are preview we have to be ahead of their meeting. So I could see our NSSO update committee update could be more of the front loing instead of the back loing. And so we've already talked months ago about agreeing that information will flow to this board and and you will die Robert. So, I think we're I think we're all under that same understanding and kind of just tweaking out if it's coming from me um or if it's coming from Robert or if it's a joint piece.
118Yeah, I think I it's going to take some time to get the cadence down. I just think that it should live some responsibility should live with the NSSO team in the same way that like >> we expect a Friday update from you or like we have communication expectations for our board for our that's what's missing. >> Yeah. I want to be clear. I hear you both loud. I'm clear. I and I think we will work those things out. This document doesn't do that. Okay. So this document is going to define what the communication things like that presentation that budgetary presentation like that was like the first one that had been done in years. So it was kind of like you know the beta version of what I hope to see in years is that progression
119and growth in that just like with the communication I expect to see it progress grow mature get standardized and then we got a smooth running process but we're definitely in the you know forming that structure to get it done and I I think that's what this does and that's what changes >> okay >> keep going. Um, are there any other questions again to add to get clarification? Tomorrow's the deadline. So, are we good on this? Yeah. >> Um, on the chart, >> I noticed on the very far right hand side there is wording that says add specific language. Add specific language. But I don't know what that specific language is. >> Yes. >> So, are we going to see? >> Yes. So, gets approved. >> So, the timeline has shifted back slightly because there needs
120to be time. Uh, that's I think Robert had mentioned that time to get it to the attorney to get all these questions, proposals to the attorney and get that language added so that we can still have time to review it. >> Yes. >> So, I'm not exactly sure what the turnaround time will be, but we were talking about potentially voting in November. I don't really see that happening until December because if we get that information, we may want to talk about it or review it in November. >> Well, and the plan is right now is to take the the kind of the feedback that's been presented right now, create a draft that is ready for the November 5th NSSO board meeting in which ideally we approve to send to the member district for ratification. I
121don't know if we'll be ready for that. >> I don't either, but it's it's a possibility >> because that that'll be the first time we're reviewing all the changes and knowing what and I mean if the team is fine reviewing all of that and being ready for a vote. >> Well, and I could >> possibly could, but >> in in terms of the followup, I mean, we really the question is between now and maybe a finalish draft that we still have to ratify. To be clear, we still have to vote and ratify as a board to be okay with this. Um, but we do have to, you know, I might, the NSSO board might get a finalized draft that goes before another draft in early November, which we can at that point, and I said
122if it's, you know, pre-buttoned up, we could just, you know, summarize some feedback. we could call committee the whole to try to you know so part of it too now is that we've been screwing around with this for since February. So now that we're finally in agreement with this now and myself too because I've been pushing back on this because it's now in a position where it's okay to move forward in in you know my opinion for the most part we can I want to move it along. >> I do too. So on the change proposals the next slide. >> Yep. >> I really have a problem with the proposal number one. >> Okay. >> Clearly state that recommendations by the operating board will be approved. >> No no no. They may be >> okay.
123Yes. Gotcha. No way will I may be approved by authority. >> Um the the meat of that was just to make it clear that Yes. Okay. >> And I know that you're used to writing contracts and other stuff. >> So I looked at that, but I'm on the other end looking at no. >> Okay. And my and my general understanding is that whatever goes before the governing board would kind of mirror what we do in a typical district, >> you know. So there's definitely decisions Jody makes that we don't need to improve, right? >> Yeah. And I don't want to talk about everything. >> No. And I don't either quite frankly. So but but I do want the important stuff which I think now is in that column to go through the governing board. >>
124So these were the change proposals that I got from the team. So really it's just clearly stating that whole recommendation piece because there was a paragraph in there that's not so clear. Um defining a specific frequency in which the articles will be reviewed. So I just threw in a proposal there after the first year and then every four years after question mark. Um what is the board comfortable proposing that works? >> I don't care. >> Okay. We'll see. >> Um, and then the mod modify the amendments. And I don't know if you talked about this, but right now it says in there that it has to be passed by the operating before board before it can go to the governing board. So, I think something a little bit more balanced. Um, I don't care if
125it's the elected board, meaning the U governing board, or if you take the majority of both of the boards voting as a whole. >> Well, ultimately, any amendment to the articles agreement must be reratified by the member districts. So, >> that's what it says now. >> You know, even going forward because >> Okay. >> I thought that was a section you didn't like because it said it had to be initiated by the operating board for >> that. I did not like that part. >> Okay. >> That But so the the requests for edits can come from anywhere. So the operations board can request an edit, but the the way it was written is that the governing board couldn't say, "Well, we don't like this and we want it this way." The operating board could say,
126"Well, we have to be the ones that recommend the modifications." So if it didn't clear the operations board, the governing board wouldn't have. >> Okay. So I'm striking number three. >> Oh, no. I don't want to put words in. What I think he's saying is basically the governing board. >> Yes. And and by our Yes. And we're allowed to initiate changes to >> propose it, you know, like go back to that first one will may recommend, you know, we'll recommend things and it may be approved. A lot of that agreement if you switch out the word recommend for approve just that or I'm sorry approved for recommended clean it up. So like like an amendment they can recommend >> but it doesn't mean it's going to be approved. doesn't mean it's going to approve, but
127also it means that >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> that we looked at said that the operating board was the one that could open up the articles of agreement. >> Has that changed >> in the current draft? >> So, you're okay with that or you want operating board? I still want this to just be clear that the governing board and by extension the member districts can choose to amend the articles however they see fit. >> So they can asking is both boards can open up and ask for an amendment. >> Yes. Exactly. >> Okay. >> There you go. If if it just says it can come from anywhere, >> that's fine. And the governing board by permission of the member boards approves it then I'm fine. It just was the way I like the way I
128said it was it looked it was like it was gate kept in in the agreement. They said they had to do it first and then >> Yes, I agree. I don't know what >> No, I don't I mean I think it's >> I've been reading this damn thing for 10 months. So >> good about it. >> Okay. Um so yeah, next step I will share this. they're going to re-edit. It will come back to our November 11th meeting. So again, if you guys are able to vote at the November 11th meeting after reviewing that in the board packet, I we can put it on for action in action. If you need more time, we'll just vote no and then put it on in another meeting. And like I said, really want to whatever we can
129do to help get to a yes at this point would be helpful to everybody. >> From the guy that's been saying no. >> I just needed needed like six bullet points changed and all of it went away. >> Oh man, you have no idea. That's why I said I open up the memo with I'm mostly happy. >> All right, operations. I'm sorry. That's enough or that's it? I hope that >> you know what I mean. >> Is that all you have for us, Mr. >> Excellent. Thank you. Appreciate everyone's collaboration. I agree. I'm looking forward to this. >> Oh, one sorry, one more thing. Thank you very much Dr. Megle for this whole board for putting up with me, Dr. Schnore for refereeing all of this and even the superintendent for working this out. It
130it it you know it's I put it democracy is messy sometimes and sometimes it takes 9 or 10 months to get something simple done just is. So, no hard feelings, but thank you to everybody for your good. All right. Next up is the operations committee. Mrs. Pis, you are our chair. Welcome to the chair. >> Thank you. Operations committee had a very efficient meeting, wasn't um we talked about update on solar panels. They are moving along slow and steady as the seasons change. Um, lots of waiting on village approval, comment, things like that, but still get installed by the end of the end of the year. Hopefully, it's the end of 2025 and not the end of um, we also reviewed kind of our current facility expenditures. the budget of how much we've spent for
131you in main and what we have left over. Um, you want to give a quick update on that? Uh, I'd be happy to. We're almost um uh spent all of our uh the expected um bid amounts for Uklid. Uh we are about a million dollar short of what we expected to spend and we uh were able to save about 400,000 allowance so far. And then Indian However, we still have bills coming in from the end of summer. I hope the contractors finalizing some of those bills. We also to this point have saved uh over 400,000 in our allowance. Um and then all in all from what we expected to spend with uh Indian growth when I first started about a year and a half ago, we are well below expectations and um expect between the
132two projects we are spent just under 37 million >> and Louis isn't here to hear that >> ma'am we're under time um we also talked about um plans for thoughts for future district facility improvements what and came to kind of a to-do list of putting together overview of what needs to be done at every school, giving them a ranking of must do, what would be nice to have. Um, and also looking at future that included Curry Trails. Um, and then last but not least, it was great. We had a report on our current vehicles and timeline and life of them. I think we'll be looking at replacing or at least looking at the cost to replace one of the trucks. Also looking at more efficient ways to buy salt and distribute salt from Thank you.
133All right. Next up is the you are represent. >> So, um I would just like to remind everyone to complete the Google form prior to the next meeting um reviewing the resolution and amendments report. um I've reviewed probably in nauseium to try and ensure that I'm doing an ample job since this is my first run at it and I've also sat in them um several of the presentations to ensure that um we're we're able to do my job efficiently but I will be seeking uh consensus on how to vote for each of the resolutions and amendments on our November 11th board meeting. So my assumption it will be handled very similar to last time the Google form will tell us that we're in consensus and anything that we are not in consensus we can even
134discuss at the 11th floor meeting and then I'll gra that information to take with me to vote on the 22nd. Um, additionally, I'll be looking for um information and feedback um and guidance on how to cast the district vote for the delegate assembly. Um the proposed slate officers are Tracy S, she's the vice president right now moving her to president. And then I know I'm going to say this wrong, Ela. >> Quick, sir. Thank you. who uh I believe is 214. So many of us are familiar with her um for vice president. So very similarly I will ask for your guidance on how to cast this vote at the delegate assembly also on the 22nd I'll be asking for. >> Excellent. They may have any questions for process. All right, hearing none, we'll move on
135to the North Cook Division dinner meeting. Uh, Mrs. Sister, you are our governing board representative. >> Okay. Um, we are scheduled to vote on the 2025 North officer slate. There's an election at the North Division dinner meeting a couple weeks. um October 22nd. So we were I did look into this because I my first time I guess remembering doing this but there uh North Korea officers um except the secretary are have a two-year term. So we're doing every two years. Um the they are nominated by a division nominating committee as three school board members from active member school boards appointed by the chair and they present a slate of officers to the governing board. Um we can uh additional nominations can be made from the board um providing people is present to their nomination. So
136the the proposed officers if you want. Um, I have to vote. So, I think this is an action item. Uh, yes or no. If you want me to vote, my only question, uh, one question I have is, so, uh, additional nominees are made from the floor. How maybe Mrs. Johnson has some context. How does a nominee or how does a rep vote on nominations from the floor if I'm not getting consensus here on the slate? If we were to we were if it the slate was to get voted down under nominations from the floor, how do our reps vote without consensus from their boards? What usually happens is everyone is sitting at their tables. They present the slate. All those in favor say I. And you are the person who says I or nay. And
137if she says I and if she says anyone nay, you say nay. Okay, too bad. >> That wasn't her question. So >> if there's nominees from the floor, >> if it's all nays, >> if it's take a nominee from the floor, >> well, they can take a nominee from the floor. >> Yeah. >> So obviously we are not aware of who the >> we're not aware of who those nominees from the floor may be. So how can we take that into consensus? Now >> we're not really delegating any authority to them. >> Yeah. >> Like this is the I'm sorry. This has always bugged me. >> They organize a dinner and a presenter like once a month, >> right? We have a governing board associated with it. Was there something else that they're doing? >>
138Yeah. They help out with the whole triple conference. >> Yeah. >> Right. The thing is, in all the years that I've been going, 36 years, there's never been a slate from the floor. There's never been a person from the floor. >> Yeah. I don't know if I could care. >> It's almost It's almost That's what I mean. It's a dumb deal. I I do think these individuals that are on this board, just just just to point this out, I think that they hold certain influence when working with other individuals with IASB that do influence policy and the policy that we get and the policies that come out and things that are implemented. So when we say that like it doesn't matter, I don't know if that's actually true. I just think that we don't necessarily
139see the inner workings of how these people influence specific items within policy >> at a different level. Just to let you know, I don't think it's as innocent as we think it's not just setting up dinners and and playing nice at at the the triple eye. Like it's there are things that that are being influenced They help determine the >> legislators. >> Yeah. >> They also interact with the legislators, >> right? That's what I'm trying to say. Like they they work hand in hand with Ed. They work with a lot of different groups that then influence policy. And it's these people on the slate that have over the years, like Ela's been around as long as I have, over the 30ome years, she has a wonderful resource. She has a lot of connections with the
140legislators. So that's probably one of the reasons they move, you know, they said, "Okay." >> Okay. So, is it like a forum so that they can host legislators to talk to them? I mean, it's kind of what this is. It's kind of like a social I I can't figure out the formal structure of why that matters. >> So, getting back to the original question, Becky, you're asking >> where your concern comes in is that if they nominate someone, should they nominate someone from the floor, what guidance are we giving? Right. So does Becky just have to make a choice on her own and just go like I hope the board agrees with this >> Kim will have to do the same thing that the delegate know she won't know going into it whether there's going
141to be a nominee from the floor and I can tell you of the last two there >> so at that point do we get discretion to act in what we feel >> at least at this juncture we'll all be after most of us We can give you a thumbs up or thumbs down if you ask real quick. I mean, we're all right there. >> Okay. Well, in that case, can I get a yay or nay on the current state? >> So, let me jump in. Uh, >> any comments or questions? >> I've had multiple conversations with both Alan Pricer and Bill Harrison. Their objective to get districts that have not been attending the Northwood dinner uh or or triple I get them more involved in North activities. Um, that's how they chose some of these
142slate members, which in my opinion is not how you choose slate members. So, I'm asking that we vote down the slate and that's how I would vote. My name is >> No. >> Do you think that is I mean I I I was like how are these I mean it's kind of nebulous like how they're like >> well so they put out an email to all of us >> right but the nominating committee I guess is comprised of three school boards that the current slate points. >> Correct. So, >> you're coming around. >> Yeah. Like, >> but one of their missions is to encourage all school boards within the division to become active members of. So, maybe that >> I mean, I'm fine with them trying to get them to be active members, but I
143wouldn't throw them on I wouldn't throw them all a sudden in the slate of the officer. You're you're running for your law. And I I got two problems with this more cooked dinner. One of them is that it's the dinner subsidized by the districts. We're you know the district's paying for our me. Don't love that. The second thing is is every time I go there there's like half of the program is giving each other awards and I just can't handle that. So get some feedback on how to get more involved. Like I'm happy to get together and collaborate and do stuff but I I don't I don't like the component of it and you know asking the member district to pay for it and the awards have got to get settled out that's that's not
144going to be part of the motion >> well I'm I'm just saying back to the people you're talking to because that's >> okay I I would like to say that Bill I understand you saying that >> the people they want more people and so they're putting them on the slate but There is a form they have to fill out because I was approached to be on the >> There's a form you have to fill out. There's an interview you go through. >> There's not an interview. You fill out the form. The form is submitted and then the people are selected. You're not in there. >> Okay. Well, I was told I would be, you know, they would call and ask a few questions, but nonetheless, it's not like they just said, "Oh, oh, Matthew Double
145Day, let's take him." He had to fill out a form. And I'm sure other people and all these people that say new to the slate here, they all filled out a form. They know what the qualifications are and all this. And I'm I'm trusting that all the that we've been that we've been part of the IASB dinner meetings and the ISV organization. I trust them. >> I'm glad you do. I don't. >> Okay. >> I will say the presentation. >> Yes. >> Again, that's Does anybody have any other comments? Okay. May entertain a motion in a second to direct Mrs. Fisper to vote at the October 22nd, 2025 division meeting for the 2025 North Cook Election State of Officers. The slate of officers are Director Alvin Kryer District 214, the chair of Bill Harrison from
146district 21, the vice chair Mark Chow from Spoki District 69. The resolutions chair Brenda Hunt from Palentine District 15 director at large Pat Savage Williams out of Evston uh district 202 director at large Matthew Double Day from Park Ridge School District 64 director at large Peter Dowki from Glenbook Glenn Brook District 225 and director at large Shannon Gman. >> Sorry question about the motion. It says it's just directing me to vote, but it's not telling me what which direction. >> That's what we're >> No, the motion is to direct me to vote. And so if you say yes, it directs me to vote, but not which one to go. >> Oh, I see. So would you like to edit it to say to vote >> for to approve? So the so the motion is the
147motion and second is to approve the slate of officers that I just read. >> How's that? >> All right. I'm adding to vote to approve the following slate of officers at the October 22nd. >> Correct. >> Would you like to react? We have to we have to vote. We have to vote to amend the action. >> No. No, we didn't get to >> because we didn't get a motion a second to the amendment or to the to the motion. We have to >> we have to amend the but we did get a motion to please unless anybody have any questions. >> Yes. Second >> move by Dean Kee. Second by Johnson. Please call. >> Does anybody have any other comments or questions before we call? >> Hear none. >> Yes. >> Freedelland. No. Um Griffy.
148>> No. >> Uh Johnson. >> Yes. >> Bian. >> Yes. Is there additional information that you need? >> That's it. >> Correct. Or no, sorry. No, it's not. I mean, the motion still carries. I'm just confused by the button that now says abstain conflict. I'm just going to select it. Okay. But you have conflict. Um just Yes. Perfect. I'm just don't care. I'm sorry. This is a new one. >> No problem. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I appreciate everyone's comments. >> Next up is the president's report. That's me. Uh we've got a a bunch of uh stuff on the calendar. Pizza and game night at Indian Grove is on the 17th at 5:00. Ring with the board will be on the 21st at the Mount Prospect Library. The time is still to be determined. We
149have our first kickoff concert series at the middle school. That's on the 21st as well at 6:30. The RTMS fall bash will be on the 14th. Sorry, I'm skipping around a little bit. That's at 6:30. 24th. >> All right, let's try this again. RTMS Fallbacks is on the 24th at 6:30 p.m. At IG, we've got Donuts to Grown-Ups on the 14th and 15th, both at 7:45 a.m. We have our first round of parent teacher conferences on the November 6th, which uh then leads us to another attendance day on the 7th and A couple dates to note for the board. We have a finance committee meeting on the 11th, November 11th at 6:00 p.m. at the middle school. Our next meeting will follow that at 6:30 p.m. also at the middle school. And then on a
150side note, um the village has uh the shining star gala which is the first Saturday of February and this year they have kicked off a nomination for favorite teacher. So students are encouraged, anyone's encouraged to uh to nominate your favorite teacher. Hopefully district 26 floods the nomination. I would love to see that. Uh and more information is on the village website and and information is also going to be in the district newsletter for that's the president's report. Next up is the superintendent report. Dr. Well, I knew him for long presentations tonight. So, I was going to do a report, but then I had to. So, um really I just want to talk about um that uh Friday is going to be the launch of our strategic plan survey. So, it's been a while in the
151making um and really more editing and editing and editing and then making sure the edits work. So, um, so that will be coming out on Friday in our district, uh, newsletter. And so, we're going to start, um, picking off different groups. Basically, we're going to try to get the staff. Um, we have a late start on Thursday and Alicia's doing a couple presentations. So, we're going to try to start working on the staff. Obviously, the newsletter will go out to parents and families. We have a postcard that is going to be mailed to the residents. And so, the target group there is obviously residents. We can hit parents there and then uh we're looking we're hoping to get former student feedback in that as well. So as we go through the next couple of weeks
152with um different different district events and um different PTC meetings and things like that. We're hoping to continue to uh spread the word. I have some goals that I might just keep for myself. I have some target numbers. Is that marketing? Um yeah. Um so some target numbers that I'm hoping to get, but um it will it'll stay open for about a month and close right up um right up before Thanksgiving. So then we can analyze. So I'm so excited. And that's it. All right. for one of our policies regarding emails from the community. We did have an email from a parent that was taken care of that has been handled. Uh we did have a foyer request that was turned in. Uh a paper copy was turned in. It was not submitted electronically. Uh
153that has been worked on but it has not been picked up. Kind of done but uh future topics. Does anybody have a future topic for consideration? >> I know with like the strategic plan um and other items in review, I was curious if um we had made a board statement about equity and our drive and purpose there. Um and it is still out on our site, you know, with the on the board's um um page. And so I was curious if people would want to review that um any edits or any changes. Um obviously we did that I think precoid which um not necessarily that equity um that vision of equity has changed but just I was curious if anyone wanted to review it update it um or or just take a look at it
154and see if it's still holding it same purpose. Um in upholding the standards and vision that we have for the district. >> I don't know if you're asking the board if you're asking everyone kind of >> um my plan was to come back together with our with our group to analyze the data that we get back from the strategic plan survey. So, it might not be a bad thing to do a crosswalk between the information we're getting back from the community and what's existing there. >> Okay. And I would ask the board again if they wanted to participate similar to um with Donna and Becky participating in the database [Music] was approved. So maybe three years. >> Well, this is what it says approved. >> Yeah, that's okay. We might have started earlier. Honestly, we
155might have started earlier piecing it together, but when it was like um >> Oh, no. Not three years earlier. No, no, no. I know guys on my time frame, but um but either way, just um to make sure that it it still holds true to the values that we want to, you know, Yes. like show to our community. Are you okay with that? >> I am I am definitely and we can uh we can revisit it at a later time after that. I just I just meant because like it's it's a perfect timing with that with that strategic plan. Anybody else future topic? All right. Hearing none, I hereby entertain a motion and a second to adjurnn at 9:33. >> Second. >> Johnson was the motion and He was essential. >> Griffy, >> yes. >>
156Johnson, >> yes. Freedelland, yes. >> Yes. >> We're journed. We'll see you at November 11th. Thank you.