D214 08/22/2024 Board of Education Meeting

001e e hello everyone my name is Jeff bot and I'm I'm here to introduce you to our exciting athletic project that we have coming up this summer we'll be working on phase one and as you can see the fields behind me phase one is going to go all the way from Arlington Heights Road all the way up to our Basin that we have over here the Basin will be included in phase two which you will see in later videos but in Phase One what we are going to get is we are going to get a brand new uh Varsity Softball field that is going to go up in the corner right here in between all of it we will have a ticket booth and a concession stand that will also double a storage for oursel

002and then we will have an auxiliary turf field that could be used by all of our Sports and some of our fine arts groups and then behind the turfield we are going to have our brand new tennis courts uh the project kicks off here next week um we'll be excited to show it to all of you uh brand new in the district we are doing a Time Lapse video so we'll have a video that's going to get uh cut together at the end of the project and turn this month long project into a couple minute video um and we will post that on the website as soon as we are done with this video so we'll be excited to show you the progress and uh share this this project with you one two three the

003manufacturing lab here at PG has been an amazing addition to help students just understand more about engineering and Manufacturing and it's been inspiring them to go on to bigger and greater things got it in so I'm interested in going going into chemical engineering I actually got exped into two universities with it uh which are MIT and Notre Dame actually got a full ride from Notre Dame if it wasn't for this lab I really wouldn't have gotten to experience any of the Hands-On things that I did get to experience I wouldn't have realized that oh it's not just the theory that I liked it's the actual making of things and it also wouldn't have made me such a competitive candidate for so many competitive colleges so I came here in middle school for the NG program

004and I didn't get to be in this room I always walked past it and I was like wow that's a lot of cool stuff and eventually when I came to BG I realized that oh they offer manufacturing classes and engineering classes we can actually get in here and use all this and I wanted to be a mechanical engineer for a while and just being able to get in here and better understand all the fabrication and the Hands-On stuff that goes into engineering and Manufacturing has really helped broaden my knowledge of the entire field yeah that work I've had a couple other students uh reach out to me after they've gone to school and they told me that because of their experiences in this lab and the Machinery that they have to work with and the

005Hands-On experiences that they've gotten they've been just a step ahead of a lot of the other students in their classes they've had a leg up on the competition and they've understood more and they've just had better experiences because of what they they've been able to do here in the [Music] landb here we are we finished the pack house it's been a long journey but we finally made it let me take you inside and show you around you can see we've uh opened up the entire floor plan where we used to have two rooms in a fireplace we've got one big open space it flows right into a big open kitchen so we've completely transformed the space if you remember there was a gas meter right next to the front door a lovely addition for any

006home the whole Space was all chopped up into small rooms we moved the the nasty old bathroom from the center over uh into this little core area surrounding the stairs in the original House the uh kitchen was closed off from the rest of the living space uh the trend now is to have that accessible to the rest of the living space so that you're not all uh hidden to do the dishes uh we also moved the washer and dryer out from the kitchen and into their own mud room the original second floor layout was bizarre we had a utility closet right in the center of the space that the hallway jogged around a really nasty little tiny bathroom also kind of Center uh very small bedrooms strangely placed so what we did was turn this

007entire side of the second floor into a primary Suite so very generous bedroom uh we've kind of have a Nook which is over the um over the pantry might be a good place for seating or put your bed out here if you like getting the Sun sun light down a small hallway a generously sized uh walk-in closet and a custom bath we put in a hall bathroom about the size of a bedroom and then we have two very generously sized bedrooms um off the side of the house uh with very large closets unfortunately we had to remove the secret room that used to live above the stairs in order to open up that space and get some more light into the second floor uh but I think we replaced it with uh more useful things

008the kids did an amazing job with this house it was amazing to see the transformation from fixer upper to brand new family home they did a great job with all the finish work and the remaining exterior work it has great curb appeal and they just did a wonderful job we've got a new house over in Mount Prospect we're going to get uh get going on it this June with our summer apprentices and we're looking forward to starting again good morning everybody I'm GNA pause this video for a second because we have a special announcement surprise Hi how are you here he is thank you for your service to district congratulations my gosh I'm like I'm like oh what what kid did something really cool thank you for your service to dist 24 perfect thank you

009very much [Applause] [Music] Cate your your retirement and offer a uh thank you and a gift from us thank your retirement thank you for everything you did for prospecting congratulations this [Music] [Applause] I'm [Applause] speechless good morning morning we've got a little surprise for you go maybe you seen coming but no good morning oh good morning we've got a celebration parade coming to you to say thank you for everything that you've done for good morning right now well we're here to celebrate you and say thank you for everything that you've done for ring those morning and congratulate you on your retirement good morning welcome to the celebration of you thank you congratulations on your retirement I've got to go we about to beele I got to go well we' said this a couple times we

010want to say thank you again more formally and congratulations on [Music] congratulations abolutely we've got a gift a lot of wonderful things your colleagues to say a bag to travel things to fill your time I hear you're going to love this but we wanted to celebrate you and Mr master IR we wanted to come and show our appreciation for your dedication to hery high school and district 214 and just say thank you and wish you well thank [Applause] you get over here oh my God is a tree service calling me sorry oh you're we're here for you oh to say oh congratulations on your retirement thank you I started to watch the video I didn't finish it that's okay this isn't in there but this is more important This Is Us is that why they

011just called me into that room oh oh jeez let's go embarrass you shame on you shame on thanks for the help we're just we're here to celebrate Tim and and say thank you genuinely thank you for all You' [Applause] done wish congratulations on your retir super good morning everybody I'm over well good I'm glad this is a big deal this is so wonderful oh my gosh thank you so much good morning she [Music] loves hey everyone we're here to celebrate a very special someone who works in our m [Applause] a gift for you and Hearty thank you thank you for everything that you've done for Elk Grove in district 214 when I your stand up Elk Grove grad and then to spend your career here dedicated to our students I can't say thank you enough

012I haven't said this one in a while but you know what's not in there is an alarm clock I don't which is the best part I don't want that's the best part we just we wish you well and just want to say congratulations thank you so much thank you all very much I'm right here here to Cate congratulations oh thank you thank you for everything that you've done for my goodness so we've got a a a gift the travel bag goodness some things to keep you busy yes some some comments from your colleagues showing appreciation oh thank you Dr R and Mr kly has been the privilege of a lifetime to work here in this district and the best decision I ever made was to leave the law and become a teacher so I encourage

013all of you working with students is the best life ever so thank you so much very [Music] good morning we've had a lot of work this summer and we're so excited with the progress So currently the crews are really working on drywall mudding painting um finishes for floors and walls and windows and so you will see the progress is really amazing so the next steps that we're really looking at accomplishing in the next few weeks are completing all of the the finishing work whether that's the wiring in um the electrical outlets TVs technology installing Windows and glass removing the concrete from the career and Counselor Center and then repouring it with the big EG inlight our hope is to have construction be done by the end of July so that then technology and furniture delivery

014can begin in order to be ready in early August for staff and student [Music] this year is our 35th anniversary of starting our Japanese exchange program I personally as a student went on year 10 uh as a student of elgrove high school and I liked it enough to come back and run the show each year we usually welcome about 10 students from Japan and two chaperon and and in June I usually take about somewhere between 8 to 12 students to Japan to visit their school after we get out of [Music] school we also do other fun activities as a group all of us went to Main Event the arcade they did some bowling they played the video games after that we went to go see the windy city bulls and that was a wonderful time

015so they got to experience that we also took a field trip as a group to the city into Chicago where we went to the Willis Tower went up to the sky deck and they also got to learn all about Chicago history after that we went to The Field Museum of Natural History they have really been experiencing a lot of American culture with activities outside of school with their hosts going to the mall hanging out with friends just being teenagers in America [Music] the Japanese exchange program is often seen as a once-in-a-lifetime experience this year we are very lucky to receive a grant from the Japan ja an Foundation of Los Angeles a grant of $10,000 that's really going to enable us to send kids to Japan um it's World in this age is becoming a

016bit cost prohibitive but because of our sponsors our grants and because of the kindness of the host families we're able to keep this program going for 35 years and hopefully 35 more years I'm just super happy the kids were able to have an enriching experience and I'm hoping the same for my students when we go in June that they get to know each other they get to strengthen their friendship with the people that they hosted here and then they get to meet more friends around the world [Music] for e Patrick you want to close that door thank you we're good to go good evening want to welcome you to the business meeting of Township High School district 214 board of education for Thursday August 22nd 2024 Miss Keys would you call the role please dling

017fito here heinan present Palmer present R here Walker here and kzer present we have a quorum thank you would everyone please stand for the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you next on the agenda is the public hearing and it is 701 uh at 7:01 the public hearing for the 2425 final budget is now open this hearing provides an opportunity for the public to address the Board of Education regarding the final budget for the fiscal year Dr Ro can you give a brief overview and and board members just so you know uh we'll be approving it later on so if you want to hold your comments till then would

018be appreciated sure I'm actually I'll kick it over to Mr key will guide us through uh the final budget presentation a lot of what you're going to see in this presentation is not new to you because you saw it a little over a month ago um there are some updated obviously updated figures um and some um improvements and adjustments that the fisal office has made that place Us in actually in a stronger position than you saw us last time so Mr key thank you very much yes uh as Dr Ro said this is a rehash of what we saw at the time the budget uh the numbers are a little bit more firm at this point um and we will monitor it as we move through the year uh so you will recognize our presentation

019uh table of contents from last time we'll give you an overview the rules of the road if you will we'll talk about the budget cycle and then we'll uh walk you through the numbers uh board members feel free to stop me at any point during the presentation or I'd be happy to answer questions at the end so again um just for the the sake of the audience and the public we look at the legal requirements for the adoption of the budget there there in front of you there I'm not going to read through all of them but it is a uh rather uh lengthy process that that spans almost the entirety of our year um and includes uh transparent public notice this public hearing uh and then finally culminates later this evening with the board's

020uh adoption of the budget so again looking at the budget cycle here we are in September uh or August uh typically um this time of year we are bringing the final budget to the board and you see the other portions of it uh a lot of monitoring uh keeping an eye on the figures understanding how uh our budget is working for our students in our buildings and making adjustments so that when we bring the next T of budget to you we're we're uh we're focusing on on areas that we can improve um so I'm going to go through some numbers here and as Dr Rose said there's there's not a ton of changes I'll try my best to point out um the significant changes from tentative to final so that we have the appropriate perspective

021um again the property tax Taxas is capped at CPI at 5% um we did see further reductions in the the community or the corporate personal uh property replacement tax revenue uh it's a mouthful sorry um we did adjust our interest earnings based on discussions uh with our portfolio advisers uh this past year we saw better than expected uh return on those um you know obviously due to the market and so uh we have changed uh those Revenue figures uh as we all know the registration fees uh returned this school year and uh some of those collections happened prior to June 30th so they hit the fiscal 24 budget and we've budgeted for the balance of them in this current budget um our evidence-based funding from the state uh we continue to be a tier four

022District so we see very little additional funding there and uh our team is working to close out uh the last of the cares funding the Esser uh pandemic Federal relief money so very similar to years past the vast majority of our uh revenue is coming from local primarily through our property tax uh Levy at 92% uh and then our state funding and federal funding uh making up the balance of our Revenue Stream So when we look at our Revenue again we look through look at as uh three major sources of revenue uh the largest that 92% being our local and that's broken down by our property taxes um which you see there uh they're going up uh I believe five let me get trying to keep up on my on my own here 5.8% budget

023to budget we did reduce that two and uh $2.2 million since the tenda budget uh because we did recognize taxes prior to June 30th that in the tenda budget we were expecting in this current fiscal year so as you know the uh property tax cycle the tax levy is a calendar year cycle and it does split between uh fiscal years and again uh the corporate tax is going down and and you see the significant increase in investment earnings uh as well as uh other local and other local would be uh a large chunk of that increase would be the student fee Revenue so when we look at our state funding again very flat with evidence-based funding uh no significant difference um and then for transportation Aid it is going up significantly our transportation costs have

024increased over the years inflation um the cost of bus drivers Etc these are things that all school districts are dealing with um fortunately uh the state does have uh Transportation Aid now it's only a portion of the funds that we receive it's stronger on the special ed side um we typically will receive um around 80% there but the regular Ed side is prated significantly from when that was uh that Grant uh initially came out and then we have some other small categorical uh state grants uh accounted for so overall a slight increase on our state funding so this next shows all of our uh Revenue we pull in the federal uh there's just one line so it didn't get its own slide um but that's gone down significantly we have about a $5.2 million decrease

025in our federal funding uh specifically uh attached to the Esser funding um so that was that was known um those expenditures are rolling off and we have about a million and a half dollars left in that Grant to expend before uh the end of September which we have planned um overall total revenue uh does go up and then you see that line for the transfers those are the transfers we talked about uh at the June board meeting we're removing money from our operating funds to our non-operating funds to fund capital projects so now moving on the expenditures again not a whole lot of change uh the salaries and benefits were updated what we do is we pull the actuals out of our payroll system in in July um and then update because what we had

026given an ATT tenative is really just a guess based on not not a guess yes it's it's very methodical but it's based on our known Staffing whereas at this time of year we have the luxury of pulling actual data from the payroll system um the remaining items uh are the same as the tand of budget we didn't have any new significant requests come through um uh between 10 to then Final in those areas uh and again uh one thing I do want to point out is our tuition budget has gone up significantly however that's simply to match what our actual expens expenditures have been we've seen increases in our costs for tuition special uh special needs outplaced tuition um but the budget was not in line with that in years past so we've worked with

027uh Cara and her team to try and really nail down down to the student and down to the day of enrollment and and those costs of tuition so that we can be more accurate on the budget so we'll see an increase um in that area so our expenditures as we've seen in the past the majority of our expenditures are in salary benefits the people and uh with the the next largest chunk uh being in purchase services so purchase services are outside Andes performing services for the district um the largest of which are are contractor the bus company and uh Architects so next up we have our expenses by object when we say by object that's what is what are those funds being uh were they doing for us again saling benefits are the largest too

028and uh budget to budget there is an increase that's in line with our collective bargaining agreements uh and all employment contracts um our benefits do go up slightly as well and that's in line with our insurance costs as well as payroll taxes uh for purchase Services we did see a slight decrease um there and part of that is attached to where you see capital capital is going down about $7 million um by by plan we were doing a few less projects than typical in this year and with that comes the additional uh cont ruction uh manager and architect costs um under supplies we have a slight increase we are um supporting our technology refresh and we have some new Safety and Security initiatives that are being funded when we talk about tuition you see that

029going from the 13 uh 13 and half million to 17.2 million this is really again this isn't indicative of the cost or the number of students it's more indicative of the finance office recognizing that we have to align it uh the budget to the actuals better and and so if we look at last year's actuals we were over budget in that area so to summarize um when we again we look at our our funds in two major categories one's operating funds that's what we uh what you know the funds that we collect and the funds that we expend on a day-to-day basis to um essentially run the operation our non-operating funds are you know our debt service our Capital um uh Etc so when we look at that our uh Revenue versus expenditure where our

030position is our education fund which has the healthiest balance of all of our funds has a slight deficit going into next year um our operation and maintenance fund has a a bit of a surplus but remember we do move funds from operation and maintenance to Capital uh on an ongoing basis as a matter of utilizing fund balance to to pay for capital projects um our transportation pund fund has a slight uh Surplus and then working cash is essentially our savings account we p uh we we do ly slightly in in that fund and it is there uh in the event that in the future we need to move funds for specific projects so all told on the operating funds we have a $2.7 million surplus now we bring our non-operating funds in which is again

031uh less supported by Revenue non-traditional uh funds so our debt service self-leveling through the levy that's prescribed by the county um the imrf uh and social security has a slight deficit and over the next couple of years you'll see more of a deficit there as we lower the fund balance purposely in imrf and Social Security um right now our our our uh our cost Factor our ratio that that is applied to uh our payroll and imrf is extremely low and then for capital projects um we have a slight deficit so we put it all together and uh we are tentatively for our final budget um anticipating a $1.7 million Surplus uh and uh we will continue to monitor as we move forward let me just double all right and so then this is just a

032comparison that we put together for the board that shows what we presented as a Tanda budget remember it was just under $100,000 deficit and then what changed um for the final budget uh we had a slight increase um of the revenue and then a decrease of the expenditures netting um a total change about $1.8 million to the positive then we look at our fund balance um again just the operating funds and uh then we look at as a total funds uh the the board does maintain or or seek to maintain a 50 to 55% um fund balance per the white paper and uh so if you'll get our operating funds uh everything goes to plan this year according to that final budget it's a 51% fund balance and then when you put the non-operating funds

033which are carrying a balance um because we are funding in advance for future uh capital projects it's about a 55% uh fund balance and that's all I have and I'm happy to answer any questions the board might have is there anyone from the public that wishes to address the board about this budget please come forward see none at this time 7:14 concludes the public hearing for the 2425 final budget for Township High School district 214 as I said we'll be taking action later on in uh this evening thank you Mr kayy C yes would you like us to hold our board questions till later as well yes okay yes about the budget yes please I'll see if I can remember my chicken scratch okay so uh next on the agenda is approval of the agenda

034can I have a motion in a second please so move second there's been a motion in a second please call the rooll Ral I furo yes heinan I Palmer I Walker yes kitzer I motion carries 60 thank you next on the agenda is approval of the open and Clos meeting minutes from August 8th 2024 can I have a motion and a second please so moved second there's been a motion and a second any discussion please call the roll fito yes Palmer I Hinman I wal I Walker abstain ker I thank you so we are recognizing Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission tonight Mr MGI thank you um tonight uh we recognize the Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission for supporting our internship program and our agricultural pathway uh we'd like to begin by showing a brief highlight

035video hi I'm Foster and welcome to my office as an intern here through 24 I learned a lot about like introductory Land Management techniques and we have like a big book where we tape all these plants and then flash cards and stuff this is my nature book where I keep all of the specimens that we collect in the field and we identify all of them and put information and then in the back I have all the flash cards that I use them at this point of the internship we know about 120 plants and rest of the day really we do like work out here so we like manage invasives we use like herbicide packs we have clippers Anders and we take away invas and stuff we had two summer interns it's one of the the

036greatest things that we can possibly do because you have the opportunity to really mentor and get in on a very foundational level um and work with students who have a great interest in um either environmental restoration or policy all kind different that we've seen and when we have the opportunity to meet with City officials or resents or whatever the case may be we take the interns with us we want to give them an understanding of what the Grassroots Foundation has to do on a sort of regular basis this is like what I'm passionate about so I like every day I'm really like I wouldn't want to be anywhere other than here this is what I want to do with my life it makes me like feel fulfilled we would seea on her own time show

037up at the uh with an apple and head out to find a secluded place and sit down and read the book so we thought she's really exceptional and we asked her why do you want to do this what's uh what's the interest here and she said that she had found her tribe I think was her her words it made her understand that she wanted to go into environmental uh resources um as a career I really really like learning like the program here is so cool ever since started I can just look out here and I can identify so many different species that I never would have thought I can like I know if they're good I know if they're bad I know their Latin names I know like so many things and from that I

038can like figure out if this is like like a high quality place if it's a low quality place like what types of animals would live here it's just like it really connects me with the world you know from knowing all this stuff doing an internship with the Prospect Heights Natural Resource Commission really showed me what I want to do with my life and inspired me to make the world a better place that's really sweet Dr Ro would you uh board president ker and board member fito please join me for partner recognition and uh we welcome from the Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission uh chair Agnes wowski please come up as well as commissioner Dana cson please come on up our students pursuing careers in environmental science have greatly benefited from the Prospect Heights natural resources

039commission's enthusiastic support and commitment to Environmental Education since 2014 the organization has dedicated itself to preserving protecting and restoring natural areas while also raising awareness about crucial environmental issues affecting Prospect Heights their volunteer-driven efforts have provided invaluable Hands-On experiences for our students from learning plant identification to gaining inspiration for for future environmental Endeavors uh one of our district 214 students said words cannot express how much this internship meant to me walking in I was confused about my life trajectory in major but with the guidance and support I was given by uh both of you I've fortified my passion of going on to study environmental science I learned so much from you in so little time from learning how to distinguish different types of trees to how to transfer plants and replant them this internship was

040the best thing that could have happened to me and an excellent chance to get some hands design work with what I hope to major in we're grateful for your exceptional support and meaningful difference you have made in the lives of our students thank [Applause] you thank you very much this is sort of one of the most meaningful things that I um do in my life um and I just I just find joy and pleasure every single day that I have interns learning because they're so excited about it and I love sharing so thank you what she said um this really is a just a phenomenal opportunity for us uh to be have the opportunity to experience um the lives of of these students who come to us and then to be able to impact them

041and have them retain the knowledge and then when we see them again outside of the program um they're just take off so thank you it's a really terrific program [Applause] thank next on the agenda is public comments and no one has signed up and so we'll move on um Dr all right thank you so uh is I giving preparing for for this board meeting and superintendent report I obviously want to highlight the beginning of the school year um which has been just an awesome start to the year uh we had Dr Bill daget welcome back our staff uh last week and shared um kind of his his experience and vision for the changing world around us um and help us set the stage for uh embarking on our strategic plan and it's this will be

042the most important work we do all year but as I was thinking about how to prepare for this evening and what is to share as we kick off the year I really wanted to to share what our focus is in the district with you all and and for you know for our guests and those watching at home um just so we can all start to really be on the same page and roll in the same direction of what are we working towards um and I can tell you I hope our strategic planning Partners when they present will share the same thing but what I can tell you is after hearing the presentation that you'll hear uh in a little while when it's their turn um what what I learned during the year um as I

043you know listened and learned and visited the district is exactly in line with some of the feedback that we've gotten from our families uh from our students from our staff members and has really validated some of the groundwork um that we're laying in preparation for what's to come which is an extremely bright future in district 214 and our work of trying to go from great to exceptional so as I listened and learned the these areas of focus came into into great clarity for me and in talking with you know with my team uh and you know cabinet and principles it was really a shared understanding of our path forward and and to have the level of um of unity and and direction is giving us purpose and in our work moving forward so to share

044these areas of focus with you and I'm happy to answer questions as we go um but this is exactly the same thing that I share with staff on on opening day um and I go into a little bit of detail so first and foremost our strategic plan is our number one priority for the year um and what we'll be trying to accomplish the Strategic plan is giving ourselves a North star um the district has focused so heavily on uh college incer readiness and redefining ready and who the district has been for such a long time um yet there's there's another level that we can achieve but in order for us to get there we really need a a driving direction that the entire organization is is focused on to move us forward and that and

045that North Star um is is was laying the groundwork for it now so some of of the things I heard from staff and our communities and some of the feedback we got from from the the initial rounds was the pride in the elective offerings when we want our schools to be future focused and Future Ready which is our helping our students see um a wide variety of of of options for them to engage in their their level of interest to pursue their passion discover their future um redefining ready has pushed our system and pushed the system across the country that emerged from district 214 was it's really time for us to kind of re-evaluate uh what that means for us and and set that and chart that new New Path forward and we took step

046one tonight with our strategic planning steering committee our first meeting and one of the activities we participated in was the initial stages of a portrait of a graduate what do we what does our community which this team consists of students uh staff administrators community members a couple of board members what do we want our students to possess the district 214 graduate to possess as they pursue their future um and within that strategic plan we'll begin to to develop the level of organizational Clarity that will allow us to be agile to the changes around us Society is changing at such an exceptional rate one of the uh the the things Dr daget shared and I I really tried to hammer home with staff was we are experiencing change today at the slowest rate we will ever

047experienced for the rest of our lives and you think about how fast things have changed the computer in our pocket is only what 13 years old and and it evolves every every couple of years um from from November to today from what chat GPT has done how it's turned our entire Society on its head with artificial intelligence we have to be agile um we need to establish a set of values and priorities that the strategic planning process will give us to help us make decisions so that our community has a great level of confidence in the decisions that we make are in line with the priorities and values that that they've given us and say this is in line with our community Community Values uh innovate instructionally to uh allow our our teachers to help

048prepare our students for life beyond our walls which likely will be in jobs that may not exist yet uh may not so much this group but the next couple of generations of 214 grads are going to work in fields that don't exist it's hard to wrap your head around which is where the agility comes in and then continually reinforce a team mindset in our district um that there's not an us vers versus them at any point across the district that we're all here unified in support of our students first so Under the Umbrella of strategic plans phase two is our school Improvement planning process um you know I share with principles a school Improvement planning process they've taken the Reigns and are currently working with with their building level School Improvement teams uh and what

049may be kind of difficult to read on there is obviously there's just our our seven schools but within within the graphic are four different goal areas that all will share number one is is academic growth um in reading and math or English and math number two is postsecondary focus where they may tackle a wide range of things based on what their schools need um they may choose to attack ninth grade on track or gra chronic absenteeism at a specific level or the graduation rate and then the third level was is our climate and culture work we are entering year two and a work with our staff on the climate and culture of our building our goal is for every one of our students and staff members to have a a great sense of belonging in

050our in our district know that they matter know that they're valued and and they belong with us and have a a second home in in our high schools and then the fourth is equity in that U all of our goals must address advancement of our uh our intended out or intended goals of of an equitable learning and working environment for our students and staff so there there are four high level very broad um goal areas that our St our buildings will then have the autonomy to tailor their goals to what their specific uh building needs are um we wanted to really preserve uh the unique nature of each of our buildings and allow them to control their path forward the next area of focus is our secondary scheduling Institute uh as you know last year

051we we took a deep dive into our block schedule um and in the secondary scheduling Institute with one of our partners District Management Group we have a group of 16 people um that will be on this this uh this advisory team and we'll we'll engage with uh District Management Group and evaluate not our goal is not to change the schedule our goal is to make the schedule work for us you hear if you visit high schools high schools will say we are bound by what the master schedule will allow us to do and I just don't think we can accept that we have to ensure that our schedule can work for us so that we can really Drive student outcomes if our if we value an intervention opportunity during the school day we need to

052be able to manipulate our schedule so that we can accomplish that with our students if we value flexibility in a 4x4 85 minute block how are we going to accomplish that um this group through some uh one-on-one coaching uh as well as this as this program we're going to evaluate and set our priorities and values as to how do we want to schedule our schools so that we can then um hand it off to miss Kendrick and our student services team to work with our counselors to then schedule our students and and our in our buildings in line with those priorities so we have maximum flexibility and just as a reminder we have as I said we're not looking to change our schedule um but we did commit at a minimum that we would be

053in the current block schedule for the next two school years academic alignment uh was an area that I heard in every conversation I had from uh staff to students to the community members um is core instructional areas that need to be aligned across the district um the shift to act in the school Improvement planning process um demands that we kind of evaluate where we are and where our do a health check on our alignment and when I say alignment our goal here is to is to evaluate how closely our core classes are aligned to the Illinois State learning standards um the as I was talking with one of the the teachers in in strategic planning today the beauty of of teaching is is it's an art form and there's a lot of creativity in in

054each teacher infusing themselves and their creativity into the classroom and this will not take away that creativity some people are fearful of that we're not trying to be locked St up across the board everywhere we go we need to ensure that our our students at Prospect and our students at El Grove are in classes in our core classes that are aligned to the state standards in a similar way and then allow that teacher to infuse their own creativity as to how they get there and M meet those standards the next conversation would be along um the level of rigor and how we we evaluate rigor in our in our classrooms but this is step one uh as you know we we' we've we hired Keana mcneel and peeled her away from Elk Grove um and

055she's taken on the director of curriculum and Equitable practices and this is her primary focus is guiding this alignment effort uh in partnership with Dr Lopez and our assist associate principles of instruction and division heads um in a couple meetings ago you remember you approved the um the University of Illinois professional learning agreement this is something we all should be very excited about I know I've said it every single time it's come up but all seven of our feeder districts are working with us and collaborating on a sixth grade through Algebra 2 review of sorts where we can look at um our instructional practices as well as the alignment to the Illinois State learning standards but maybe more importantly how our middle schools meet our high schools and where they hand students off um and

056where we can form a stronger bond to make sure that handoff is seamless and not try and align all of our elementary districts they're all individual entities but can we can we at least have a common understanding of of where we want to get to hand them off to us so that that our students can can take off and I and I share this with the superintendent um of the the feeder districts and I'll say it here publicly we will not approach this conversation wagging our finger at the middle school saying you're not getting the kids where they need to be that's not our intention and every as a former Middle School School principal I know that's a fear of every Middle School teacher uh we won't approach that that conversation we're very excited about

057this work um and I know that collaboration with our Feer districts is something that that you all hold uh at a very high level too so and then finally on our alignment as our PE and wellness review um this came directly from our teachers as I toured the buildings last year um and and this hery was really leading the charge with this wanting to really reinvent what PE is uh and take a more Wellness style of approach to it um we need to INF we know we need to infuse social emotion learning at a greater level on at the tier one level meaning the everyday classroom level in fact in June when at at the meeting where I was approved and I left the board meeting and Patrick took me into the room next door

058for the the Press Corp the first question was asked from a Buffalo Grove journalism student what are you going to do to address mental health in the school district I was like first question right out of the gate but she is right and and we do need to build a comprehensive social emotional learning what that means is how do we help our students understand how they manage their emotions as as they as they come on we all deal with certain anxieties and and floods of emotions at different times and as adults we need to be prepared to to manage that well we should go to teach that skill um and there's a role for us to play in that and our PE teachers are interested in playing that role so Kiana mcneel as well as

059um Alvin Lewis are are CTE and PE division head at hery are going to lead this review um that will Infuse some social emotional learning at the freshman sophomore level and then increase the level of voice and choice at the upper grades for them to have a little bit more say in how they engage in wellness and take it a evolve PE from rolling out the ball to be more like um let me choose yoga or weightlifting or cycling and it evolves and it's not a static thing week to week but they have a say in uh in and how they exercise is that voice and choice is that going to be um could each school do something different is that that I think that flexibility could be there I don't have that that prescriptive

060of an answer because Alvin and Kiana and our PE teachers are going to run with whatever they'd like it to be um I can see that and and depending on facilities I guess and what they have to offer they may not have you know we need to I guess give them the flexibility to do that but it's more about here's a a menu of options that you have how can we meet the the the student choice of how they want to spend their time exercising and strengthening their body yeah because I could see like some schools like say um Elk Grove wheeling and Buffalo Grove and Prospect where they have access to a pool they could so choose that to be part of their physical education yes that'll be difficult to if we're if we're

061if we're sending kids in multiple directions then we have to supervision obviously becomes a factor but yes you're right theoretically yes swimming could be a choice they make thanks all right and then the final category is organizational Health Systems and and I really take this as as one of my main responsibilities as um as as superintendent or CEO of the organization is how can I ensure that our organization is healthy so that our systems all work and and when I say systems what I want is is I want our systems to work so that our teachers don't get bogged down in red tape and they can focus on supporting our students and we all at district office as well as the members of our departments take a supportive role of how to help them free

062up their time so their focus is placed in the right in the right location I have an article for you at some point I'll give you but this was a book that I read this summer and and it brought so much of what we're working on into clear Focus for me um and the idea is is you know we set goals you I I you show the goals list that I brought to you last year year it was it was extensive so many things I want to accomplish but what this showed me and our in our strategic planning Partners kind of hammer this home before I realized it this book made it very clear for me is the goals don't matter quite as much as the systems and habits that we build to get there

063um and the article that I've got for you I I'll get it to you soon is um if we say I want to you know one of the examples in the article you want to win a championship that can be a goal that's great but if you don't have the daily habits in ingrained in in your practice that help you get there then that goal doesn't mean anything yet if you build those habits the goal will take care of itself and that's really what we're trying to build is is through our learning habits and our our our work habits at the PLC level the professional Learning Community level with our teachers to the conversations our principles and division heads are having and pushing the system we want the system to to work so that we're

064experiencing growth year over year over year because we're focused on the how in our buildings and the goal um can evolve and I've I've encouraged them to set lofty goals and if they don't reach their goal they're not going to be you know chastised for it their focus should be on the systems that they build to help get us there um so some of the the areas of focus in terms of system I said climate and culture already we're going to conduct this survey two times September and April with our staff um and they have building steering committees that are taking the feedback and then working with those staff steering committees um to adjust and and try and address the areas that stand out that they'd like to uh to try and improve um expansion

065of work of Equitable practices I you know you approved over the last couple of months a number of different job descriptions and this is this is what it looks like all put together this was actually actually a recommendation coming from our uh our D group our district equity and advisory Equity advisory Council um how can we systematize our our work of trying to ensure that our students and staff have a greater sense of belonging and our our our practices are truly aligned in in the system and we're if we need to change the system the right people can ask the right questions and we don't Silo things um so what we did was is when we brought Kiana on we added uh CH her title as director of curriculum and Equitable practices and then hit

066that in every single Department whereas there's a human resource lens there's a finance lens and there's a student services lens and this group serves as our um District leadership team District Equity leadership team and they're charged with uh really kind of challenging the status quo in all four of our areas to ensure um that in in our hiring practices to how we spend our resources they're equitably distributed and and bring forth ideas as to how we can improve uh they'll then meet with representatives from all of our Affinity spaces to keep a pulse in the building and bring that that feedback to us if if adjustments action is needed um student services and special education Miss Kendrick highlighted at last the last board meeting the dean Retreat that she held uh in an effort to

067try and align our behavior management practices across all six of our comprehensive high schools and then obviously support the specialized school with a different different type of need but again this is one of those important areas that not only are we working with students in the same way but when we deal with threat assessments to when we deal with a student in crisis to when we deal with chronic absenteeism that there's a there's a system that they all know to follow that they can then tailor make their their support on on an individual need for the student but there's a that process that they can follow to ensure that we're adhering to the law adhering to board policy and um and they've got the level of support that they need not only at the district

068level but across buildings um earlier in the in in the spring or last fall you approved a uh an audit of our technology department and we asked that they focus on the structure of the technology department first um so what we did was uh that recommendation came back to to break the technology department into two into two pieces as and added and elevated uh two people as assistant directors so we have a behind the scenes kind of the the the guts of the the buildings on the technology side and then we have a student and staff facing um side of the organization so that work is ongoing we don't have the final report yet we expect that this fall of other suggestions but what that did was is it left instructional technology without a home

069so we re-evaluated uh where that best lives and decided that it really has a place in teaching and learning in partnership with our professional learning office um and so Katie paage joined the team from Prospect and uh she's leading this work not only on some of their software platforms like schooly where our teachers en rostering all of the classrooms but then also pushing and developing AI working groups in each of our buildings Buffalo Grove led the way last year Tim kak did a great job um with a an artificial intelligent working group looking at the uh the moral issues that we're going to face as a society as well as some of the capabilities and you know Bill daget shared with our staff that some of the things we hope that AI can do for

070education is get our our teachers their nights and weekends back is one of those catchphrases of if 80 if it can do 80% of the work and you spend 20% of your time taking it and making it better and modifying it that 80% of the time you saved this this concept of balance that doesn't exist in in school and the workforce maybe we can come a little bit closer to to even and they can spend more of their time facing students instead of say you know paperwork grading papers writing IEPs um on July 29th we held a uh a retreat in this room in this building for our district office staff only and our goal here was so often in in a district like ours it's so big that silos can develop and totally natural

071it's no one's fault but they do develop and and if we're going to accomplish the level of support for our buildings that we want we need to break down some of those silos and that honestly sometimes means we just need to have fun together and bond and after being in in 2123 for two years the other building that was so broken apart I can tell you I met I've met so many people and spent time with people in the fiscal Department because now they're on the same floor as I am and it's a more open floor plan that I did in working over there for a year it's so much easier to be together here so we needed to tear that down and it was a it was a wonderful day uh that culminated with

072a systems activity where they gave us feedback on the systems in their departments that are things that are working well and things they think we need to pay attention to um that's giving us some some things to dig into so it was it was a really great day and uh the vibe around this building is has changed for the positive uh since that event for sure and that concludes my report um of just some of the things the areas of focus for this school year I think you'll see once you see the the strategic planning presentation that actually this is really laying the groundwork uh for where we're going and the work that needs to be done happy to answer any questions that you have board members I um I happen to be at the

073uh District 59 um board meeting where the superintendent went through what you just went through and one of the staff members went into a little bit more detail about the m and I saw board members shaking their heads yeah and uh I've heard that around the district that they're really happy that we're all getting together like I told you I in my tenure here which has been long I've never heard of it and I'm really happy we're moving down that path and everything else said tonight thank you Dr row go ahead so you know when we were looking for a superintendent Dr row we were all talking amongst sort of the board or in small groups about what what is sort of the collective view we're looking for in a superintendent and looking it came

074out that we all were very interested in sort of a global gut check of how we're doing a deep dive if you would into systems into functions and so to see that work actually happening is um it's it's exciting it's meaning it can you know when you take a deep look at things you're going to get change come out of it and that change is going to drive you in directions you didn't even know you wanted to go until you start going there until you start taking that dive so I find this very interesting um I personally love that there's we're looking at Equity from a different sort of lens and we're looking at at it financially we're you know looking at it systemically on on where things are at um and I feel it's

075really really important work and that the district is going to hopefully our buildings will retain their characters they'll have their fun things that make them unique their community- based feelings about them but also hopefully we'll be able to say that different types of programs at different schools are are hitting the same key components right that uh if you're in a science lab in school a it's going to be not maybe identical but have similar levels of of facilities as school be and and on down the line and so I really think this is important work I'm glad I'm glad we hired you too thank you now I mean the truth be told the proof is in the pudding we have a lot of work to do these are just the the goals of where we

076want to go but we have the right people in place to to get it done we're excited to get started um for the benefit of those who didn't know that during the interview process we asked each C we said to each candidate that we wanted a strategic plan and we were kind of disappointed when when we hired Scott and he said not in the first year yeah he did darn darn but uh we're moving forward and really happy about it um go ahead Dr R uh that's actually that's all I have okay move on to item nine the real show I can take that one though okay all right here's our strategic planning partner so I like to you know welcome Corey Gordon and Rebecca Davis uh from deliver Ed to uh it's right here

077to um so we talked about it this evening we had our first strategic planning steering committee meeting tonight um and and what you know Miss Miss Gordon is going to walk us through is is the initial round of feedback that we've we've obtained um from over 2,000 of our uh constituents whether it be students staff or our families uh the data is is is deep it's it's paints a really nice path for us and starts to make U paint the picture of where we need to go so it's certainly not final there a lot more to dig into but um we'll hand it off to Corey and let her walk you through it welcome awesome thank you Dr R good evening it's really nice to be here with all of you uh it was a

078gorgeous day in Chicago today so thanks for making sure that happened for us um it's wonderful to be uh at the tail end of our first steering committee meeting this evening um and really getting the chance to start building this Vision uh for district 2114 and so I'm really excited to share a little more about how we are thinking about where we're starting from right so we talked a lot when I shared our presentation last time about the need to ground the Strategic plan in the reality of where the district is right now so we've spent the last several months understanding that reality and and we're still going to be working to do that even more so tonight what I'd love to do is share some of the feedback we've heard from your community um

079and talk about kind of our assessment of where you all are starting from that's grounded in a a rubric and a framework that we've used with dozens of districts across the country and then share some of our recommendations for how this might inform your strategic planning work going forward so as Dr Ro mentioned we heard from more than 2,000 stakeholders through a survey that was disseminated in five languages um most of those were families which is wonderful but we also heard from a lot of teachers and students as well um community members feeder District families which we're excited about um and we also conducted um focus groups at the same time and in all of this work we're going to share some of the themes that that we heard so in this chart which I

080realize is small on the screen but you have a copy of it in front of you this chart shows some of the strength so one of the questions we asked because we believe in highlighting and celebrating the strengths was what are some of the greatest strengths of our district right now um and so what you see along the left here are the themes that we saw and across the top are how those themes emerged across various School affiliations and across various stakeholder roles so the darker the green the more common the theme I rhymed um and so what you'll see here is at the top there were five themes that really came out across all of almost all of the groups now when there's a blank that doesn't mean no one said it there it

081just means it wasn't as commonly said in that particular area so not surprisingly the folks that that work in this District are the number one strength everybody talked about how dedicated and hardworking the staff and teachers are in this this District we heard a lot about as Dr o mentioned the variety of coursework that's offered the career Pathways and opportunities that students are afforded being another highlight um and those extracurricular co-curricular activities being another area particularly students emphasizing how much they appreciate that the resources that are available in this District we just heard about the budget um so we're appreciative for the ways in which that affords more opportunities for the students in this district and then the Partnerships with communities and family we saw that Illustrated earlier this even as well um so those

082are some of the biggest themes coming out in terms of what people are most proud of about district 214 then if we look at the question um around where are some opportunities right where are some where places where we might need to grow same uh format here you've got the themes along the left school affiliation and then stakeholder role and again we see a set of those themes emerging consistently across stakeholders and uh school buildings equity in the resource allocation and extracurricular offerings was a real emphasis um the need to have more consistency we just heard a little bit about Dr Rose plans to start addressing some of that um concerns about the level of rigor that's happening in our classroom in terms of instruction and the student level of student engagement we're seeing the

083need to make sure that we're really capturing our students attention and meeting them where they are in terms of the instruction that they're getting in the classroom concerns about infrastructure and Facilities which we know has been assessed uh through a recent facilities audit Behavior discipline and attendance which I think is strongly connected to the student engagement piece how do we make sure that students are showing up and in showing up to class and showing up in a way that is engaging um and then mental health well-being and safety another area that you saw Dr row highlight as one of the priorities for this coming school year and there's a couple more that showed up um including communication consistency across buildings again within and across buildings people are Desiring more of that consistency technology and then

084some of the equity work which again I'm excited to see being embedded across departments within the district so one of the things that we're excited by is that many of your strengths that are highlighted by your stakeholders can be leveraged to address those opportunities that they highlighted right so you have dedicated teachers and staff who can if directed and and kind of rallied around a common instructional Vision can start to address some of the concerns about rigor and student engagement you have a lot of course Pathways that have have the potential and in many cases many bright spots already are providing those meaningful engaging student opportunities how do we scale those up how do we ensure all students have Equitable access to those opportunities right and then you've got a lot of strong resource availability

085to shore up some of the places where that might be lacking so there's a lot of power and opportunity um with where the district is situated right now as we think about how this might align to priorities right so the value of doing this kind of assessment or what we call a capacity review is to help us then ground and identify where do we need to focus going forward so if this is where we're starting from if we can take a a good look in the mirror what do we need to do to address it and so what we think about here is the vision and the priorities and so we ask stakeholders those same questions what do you hope will be true for our District 20 years from now and what do you hope

086will be true in the next in the near term the next five years and so you can see some of the themes emerging here on the left you see long-term Vision this idea of a consistently high quality well-rounded educational experience a robust support for our Educators we know our staff are one of our greatest assets how are we ensuring we're supporting them continuously to meet the evolving needs as Dr o mentioned the change that they're experiencing in the classroom supports and opportunities social emotional learning opportunities right how are we supporting the whole child that's a real theme folks are saying and we heard that tonight again again in the in the exercise we did with the steering committee this evening the need to really think about the development of all aspects of our children's well-being

087more modern well equipped facilities consistently across the board and a a unifying District culture we heard a lot about the pride folks have in their school buildings which is wonderful we want people to also feel part of that district 214 Community um and that's what people painted as a picture for the 20y year vision of this District on the right hand side you see of some of the shorter term priorities and you'll you'll notice they're aligned very strongly with those five areas we heard on the longterm side right folks in order to get to that consistently high quality educational experience folks want us to think about how we align and improve our curriculum they want us to think about that rigor and engagement police uh piece they want us to think about those offerings that

088we're providing in terms of co-curricular experiences for students in terms of support for educators how are we making sure we have a diverse staff that's coming to our district and staying in our district to support our increasingly diverse student population how are we providing really high quality meaningful differentiated professional learning so our staff can grow and really leaning on the value of feedback so we heard a lot about the need for feedback in order to grow we all thrive on feedback my favorite quote is feedback is the Breakfast of Champions so how do we create that kind of drive and desire for feedback in our district in terms of student supports and opportunities a lot of stakeholders talking about the need to support our growing elll population which we know has been a focus of

089the district there's been a lot good planning work there that will dovetail really nicely with the work we're going to do in the Strategic plan ensuring that we address declining attendance this is a challenge a lot of districts are facing across the country coming out of covid students just aren't showing up and we need to make sure they are in order to learn and how do we how do we address that and then the social emotional and mental health which is again another kind of Nationwide challenge facilities equitable distribution of those facilities and resources making those upgrades and making sure we're transparent about how we're making those decisions so that our community Community understands where we're making those Investments and finally this consistency and culture what does it mean to be part of district 214

090how do we ensure everybody understands that and communicates that well um and making sure everyone feels welcome in our buildings um and think I think we heard from a lot of students that they feel like they're part of a community but they know that they have peers who don't always feel that way and so we want to make sure that everyone feels that way um the next thing we asked folks was the forced ranking uh which is one way of trying to sort of encourage folks to think about prioritization because we all know in our strategic planning work we're going to need to make some trade offs and choices about where we focus and how we focus in the in sequential order on some of these different priorities so what you'll see here is sort

091of the level of import um that was given to each of these areas on the left according to school and stakeholder again and so coming up at the very top which I'm always thrilled to see is the need for Accelerated academic achievement and students success um and investing in staff support to be able to get there right teachers are the ones that are going to make that possible upgrading our facilities also comes out as very uh important to folks enhancing our culture and climate and then Community Partnerships and Dei as well so you'll notice across the board folks think all of these things are important um but we're trying to find where where that prioritization um Can can help us focus on the right things first so given all of this stakeholder feedback we try

092and angulated that with quantitative data that we looked at um there's a wealth of quantitative data available in district 214 which is wonderful and great data folks to help us look at all of that and we also did a number of focus groups um and uh Ed that data to kind of understand where are we on a set of important uh categories of what we know every District needs to be able to do to serve its students well so you can see here we on the left these are some of the folks we spoke with these are the numbers in terms of who we heard from on our survey and then some of the examples of data and documents that we reviewed to arrive at this assessment we used our framework our capacity framework which

093I I introduced to you last time uh we met which was is grounded again in sort of best practice in research and experience around what it takes to deliver results for students in five categories academics Equity culture talent and organization and systems and again those align pretty nicely with what Dr Ro just shared about some of the areas of focus for this year and so each of these we have um components or subcomponents for each of those and we have a rubric we walked through a self assessment this summer uh with deck in which we ask people how are we doing right now on each of these areas and so what you're about to see is sort of the results of that of that review one of the reasons we have a rubric is because

094we we love the ability to compare apples and oranges so obviously what it takes to be strong in curriculum and instruction is very different than what it takes to be strong in operations and resources but our rubric allows us to sort of assess relative strength and challenge across those different things and so what you'll see here is we use a four-point scale green meaning a real strong real real relative area of strength red meaning an area that needs attention and then what we call Amber red or yellow uh excuse me Amber red or uh orange being kind of closer to the red side and Amber green or yellow being closer to the green side and so as you see in this picture across all 16 of those elements we can see at a glance where

095areas in need of the greatest focus and what is really exciting is that those are the areas that the district is already starting to focus on right access and rigor taking action for Equity Building that capacity building for our staff having a strong plan and priorities and having real systems um as Dr Ro just talked about some of the systems work that needs to happen and I'm going to share a little bit more about how we arrived at these there's also in the appendix a lot more detail about the assessment in each of these areas if you if you care to read through some additional detail so the Highlight here um is that this is a real Moment In Time a real opportunity for us to think about setting the course for the next 20

096years and and more specifically for the next five years for district 214 there's an incredible amount of wonderful things happening across this District um and we're excited to build on those they're folks are excited about Dr Rose's leadership um and where he's taking this district and some of the shifts that already start starting to feel and there there's a desire to come together and to be able to go further together faster right and so I think that is the Highlight or sort of the the summary of what we heard from stakeholders and so that's part of the work we're doing with the steering committee is thinking about what ises that actually look like how do we make that happen and at the core of it how do we make our our instruction every day for

097students engaging and rigorous and meaningful so that they're showing up they're excited to learn and they're eager to be there so where do we go from here um we are using this as an opportunity to recommend a set of focus areas now again the steering committee is really the group that's going to take these recommendations and put some meat on the bones and then the final decision makers obviously is is deck and the superintendent um but given what we saw and heard and see in the data these are the sort of four areas that we're thinking about as we build this strategic plan and this Vision um for the district the one I just mentioned at the top around engaging everybody in meaningful learning every single day building a culture of excellence and inclusion for

098all students that speaks to that Equity Focus supporting staff to meet the evolving needs of students and to do those two things we just talked about and then modernizing our systems and and efficiency in our systems to ensure that we have the ability to be successful on the right hand side in these bullets you'll see some examples of the kinds of things that we might end up focusing on these are very much initial ideas this is this is the sort of beginning of the work that we're going to do to flesh these out but we are going to take all of these recommendations share them with the steering committee and these will form the foundation for the strategic planning work you'll see that the themes we're recommending align very closely with what the stakeholders shared

099as their desired priorities um and so that's uh the value of having a stakeholder driven process is that what we're hearing and saying we need to focus on is coming directly from the mouths of the people that are going to have to do the work to make it happen uh and so that's that's a real um possibility for this District to be able to say back to folks hey we heard you we heard that this is what you desire and that's why we're building a plan to help get there so right now we're moving from this review phase into our visioning work we kicked that off this evening with our steering committee which was wonderful and engaging and lots of energy and wonderful students in the room and families um and so we're taking this

100review and using it as a foundation for where we want to go from here so where do we go we're gonna hear your feedback tonight we'd love to hear any questions and respond to any questions and then we're going to continue to work with that steering committee uh through the fall before we turn it over to some District internal leadership in collaboration with the community to do some more detailed planning starting in the spring so thank you very much for your attention I'm happy to answer any questions thank you um Dr Ro before I open it up to board members is there anything you want to add about the meeting to that you had previous to the Board of Education meeting you know I think the only only a highlight and is really a compliment

101to our students and I I shared this with a couple of the principles and and the students that uh in the room so we we we did this activity around with kind of a gallery walk where we had uh students and families and community members and Educators and District staff represented in ideas for for four different categories of what we want for them whether it be like uh what what do we want them to be a to do what how do we want them to engage and then we got to the the end of the activity and until we took a 15minute break to grab you know grab a bite to eat and and just kind of and take a break and while everyone was sitting and eating our students were still going around the

102room adding the thumbs up to the thoughts and ideas that they liked um which was just it was so invigorating because that means they're they're engaged in the work and excited about where we're going um so that was I that was the highlight for me I it I could do that every day IND justy is is happy a claim but it was it was a really nice evening I'm really grateful for the engagement and the response that we had I think 42 or 43 um staff students families and community members um for participating and I'm really really pleased with it Frank and marker on this on this group I okay grateful for their time as well great U board members M anything oh I mean it's a it's a daunting process there's a lot in

103that and you know tonight we're hearing summaries of of areas of focus obviously that's going to have to be broken down into more nitty-gritty and it's you know so I'm I'm interested in seeing how that progresses I one of the slide that was the red green amber colored slide I'd be interested at the end of the process or you know is there a way to take that temperature on those things again again over time right at the end of the process two years from now whatever and to kind of kind of be checking in on on where we're at on those types of things you know I I I would add and say that um one of the the reasons we we chose deliver aded to be our partner was that this wasn't a a

104one-year agreement they're kind of in in this for the Long Haul with us this was really a five-year commitment to the that you allocated for this project so annually they help us set our or track our our progress towards this and I I think that it would be a really neat exercise you know four or five years from now of how are we tracking to toward that that ideal State we're trying to create right and obviously with your comment earlier about how fast everything's changing we might be on track 100% from where we determine we need to go now and then do a left turn and have to go someplace that was actually the question that Mr fio asked every one of our partners is what happens when the world turns on its head again

105like it did in 2020 and and that's where you know use of the the term of we need to be agile as agile as a as a battleship can be in a canal to turn around but that's the kind of we have to be we have to be flexible enough that we can shift with the demands the society is placing us and that's what the education system hasn't done for the last 100 50 years so we' got to figure out a way that we can we can do that because our for our kids yeah and we've had districts who have had us come back and do another capacity review a couple years into their plan and it is exciting to be able to see the growth in those different areas so we'll definitely be working

106with you all and thinking about that thank you Mr Walker anything I just have a couple comments any strategic plan gets people riled up it's either they feel attacked or they feel invigorate it you know one thing I'll say across everybody that's here tonight you know that represents the district I think the humility in the district will allow us to really make progress on this and you know I see a lot of eyes and heads nodding out there and I know you guys will take the humility that you have and increase the hunger to get this thing done and keep the students first and foremost with all of this so you know I know we have work to do but we have the right people in the right places I would say Mr Hinman anything

107Miss BR anything um first of all thank you very much ph red for um putting this presentation together for us and and thank you to all those who participated uh this is a lot of information and as I'll just Echo what the others have said a lot of time went into this I am curious on slide nine if we can look at the importance of the priorities and the ranking I was just curious um looking at the stakeholder roles I see a uh distinct difference from the district leaders who put academics at a 4.8 and students at a 3.5 which was my first uh notice there um but what I was surprised at and I'm curious when you've done this with other districts the students are fairly consistent across the board with a 3.5 obviously

108minus investing in our staff but um is is that common that students I mean I'm sure it depends on the priorities but is it common that there's not as much discrimination in their rankings in the priorities yeah I mean I think part of this is the sort of law of averages right where where we're seeing an average doesn't necessarily represent the distribution um so I think what you see with students is different students have different passions right so some students might feel really strongly about um Community Partnerships or Dei and others might feel more strongly about academics so I think that this uh a little bit doesn't like fully represent some of the differences that you might see in in sort of the student um Nuance I also think that students don't um don't have

109the same focus on these kinds of things so students probably don't really understand what staff professional development and support does for them right in terms of their experience and so it's a little bit harder for them to wrap their heads around it which is why I think the qualitative conversations we had with students were so important because when I talk to students and when we ask them questions and Rebecca and I had the privilege of being in a school today and we're going to go visit some more tomorrow um they talk about a lot of these things but they might not be using these same words right so when we ask them about what is it that you know you love about school they talk about the importance of feeling a sense of belonging and

110feeling that sense of um a an adult in the building who cares for them they might not see that as social emotional Wellness the word that we use but that's what they're speaking to so I think sometimes a little bit of it gets lost in the way that the question might be asked but I think students certainly different students prioritize different things as well so these this ranking here and you use a a one one through five as opposed to like a 1 three five seven so that you get enough right okay yes yeah four five gives you a little bit more variation yeah like okay um because sometimes using a broader range will um cancel out that averaging but aside from that so this ranking occurs it is it an objective survey that is

111done this was through the survey that we gave at the at the beginning of the process yep okay so this was the survey at the beginning and this and that was a couple months ago the survey was open Rebecca help me out okay yeah May through June May and June that's right okay yep and it asked sort of on a scale of one through five how important is each of these things to you and so three four would be it's almost five right closest to the to the top and one would be not important at all um and so you just see students I think maybe seeing all of it as important in different ways sure yeah okay all right thank you yeah thank you Mr federo um I'm gonna start first by saying um

112one of the reasons that um so Pat Dr Ro and I we interviewed all the vendors and um one of my biggest concerns was uh making sure that all Voices All of all our stakeholders are hurt Y and I know it's a very difficult process and I was quite pleased with the the number of people that we've already reached out to I know our district is super big and you might say well it's really like 10% or whatever but um I was pleased with that and we had these five charts and on the five charts you had comments that were part of those surveys that were already up there and so you could take a look at what everybody was saying through these four questions and it was really interesting to see some of that

113but what became even more interesting was you had these 45 people in this room and you had uh principles and you had teachers and you had uh students you had board members and you had parents and I'm not prably sure I'm missing somebody and Dr R staff sorry about that but you had these people that were also putting ideas and and some of the ideas which um Dr Ro had predicated at the beginning about thinking outside the box and and some of these ideas were way outside the box and and you wouldn't believe it if you saw it and it was really interesting from my perspective to see some of the stuff that was out there and I don't mean in a bad way I mean in an incredible way you would you know from

114what most of the people that are in the audience that are sitting at this desk what we think of what high school was like could be so far different if some of these ideas really too come to fruition and it is a short-term plan and a long-term plan but if some of the stuff comes through with the long-term plan it really um reminds me like Back to the Future and so and so that part you know was really fascinating I mean to the point where somebody had talked about you know maybe your high school's become almost like a community college type atmosphere where where students come and go just like you know we did when we were in college and stuff like that and that's something that's very interesting so the Strategic plan from what

115I've done in my former district is nowhere near what we're trying to take on and what you're seeing tonight is just a small piece it's the initial snapshot of what people have said but you still have 48 people in this room and and to come up with some other ideas that can go go would blow your mind and and our assignment tonight was to go and talk to three people and your math was terrible by the way um go talk to three people and and ask them you what ask them some of the stuff that we talked about tonight and and that's the way to do it is we got to get more people involved in this because I I don't see our strategic plan is going to be that controversial that people are going

116to say what are you crazy people doing on the school board I think they're going to see this and they're going to say wow this is a District that clearly is front and center trying to take the lead and trying to Envision what education should be so we can resolve specifically some of the problems that we face which is in attendance and and I can speak from even my kids is not engagement I mean I think it's a big problem and we have to find a way to try and engage our kids the one thing that I didn't like was the assumptions and the assumptions focused on what's it going to be like in 10 years and we talked a lot about the the growth of technology and there are a lot of people including

117myself who worry about you know always kids being on their iPads and stuff right now and how that is harmful or is it great but it also what I really like which I find kind of uh they're kind of offsetting each other is we certainly focused on what we need to do with those soft skills that I feel that my kids don't really have to the level that I have and probably most of us here have and that that is the one thing that I think also has to be a focus is that you know if we focus so much on technology with the phones and the iPads and everything else we lose that opportunity to do what like I'm doing right now which is rambling on and talking to each other and having those

118conversations rather than texting people so I'm I was very impressed with today and I have the opportunity to sit with two students one from Wheeling and one from roing Meadows and uh they were truly amazing and that's the type of Engagement that we need to have all of our students have yeah thank you for the opportunity appreciate it just want to shout out um the Linda and Pat and their team because the 2,000 survey responses well you said it's still you know not certainly not 100% it is a very strong response rate compared to what we typically see on these kinds of surveys so I think there's a lot of credit to the folks who helped disseminate that and get that out there U thank you um you know we we like I said before

119when we were interviewing for the superintendent we really wanted a review uh of the district and that's why we were so strong to look at this strategic plan because we wanted the community to know that we really want to take a deep dive into what's going on you know we had uh all across the country maybe across the world um what happened a few years ago and it kind of put us in defense mode instead of you know forward mode and uh really wanted to get out of that and I hope the community understands that embarking on this endeavor will hopefully I know it will make us a stronger and better school district and that's why we were so adamant about a strategic plan and so um uh Dr Ro informed me that Linda Keys

120had found a uh document dated 1988 was the last time the district saw a strategic plan I don't think there's anybody around from 1988 to tell us about that strategic plan oh yeah got anybody want to read it yeah it's not digital I was going to say it's probably written on a typewriter yeah so um it was time it was time and I really appreciate it and so I have a question uh for Dr Ro uh how often will the Board of Education be updated well that's a good question um in terms of the process uh Corey and Rebecca will be back periodically throughout the year to update on progress uh the timeline uh that she shared with us earlier this evening is the next couple of we have a meeting in two weeks I

121believe the steering committee and then um one in October and then one a final one in December and at the conclusion of that December meeting we'll have uh the bulk of the plan put together um so we definitely be back at some point this fall with an update um and then ultimately you'll see the plan have the opportunity to to engage with it and then it'll be your call to approve or adjust and that will be presented in public absolutely y so it'll be a part of our regular conversations uh as we set goals and and map our progress in these meetings yeah so the community can see that we're going to move forward on other this dis once the plan is written to we'll have regular updates to the board on progress against the

122plan yep so we'll help set up that Cadence and figure out how often we'll do that thank you appreciate it thank you and thanks so much good luck to everyone so Mr Julie I think you're up next thank you uh it's been about a month uh since we provided an update on our major construction projects so with the start of school means the end of summer uh which means the end of construction season although we are not done with two projects and that is by Design um we're going also take this opportunity to highlight some of our internal projects which is done by all of our District employees so we will highlight both both uh project Scopes and I'm going to bring up our director of operations Zetta misac and our assistant director of operations

123Mike Browning uh to guide us through this presentation I just want to take a moment to thank Mike and Netta for their incredible leadership over the operations Department um without question we would not be in this position without those two and they haven't even been on the job officially for a year um so this has been one of the smoothest Summers that that I've experienced and I think that's a credit to Anette and Mike along with our Architects Str and archon and our construction manager pepper construction so I will turn it over to Mike and anetta and feel free to jump in with any questions good evening everybody thanks uh for having us we're really excited to be able to give you an update on the summer construction I know last month anetta was able

124to give you a kind of Midsummer update and uh it's funny how fast the summer goes but uh we're at that point now like Chris said there's two projects that are still left but that was by Design all of the projects that were scheduled to be done before school started back we're done so just want to kind of go through this and uh show you so building uh BG so these are the field uh field phase uh phase one renovations right now we are really starting to get to the point where we're going to start to see things pop up uh we had a really hard month in July with weather so we really had some delays uh but August has been a lot kinder to us and we've been able to make up some

125ground and so in the next coming months you're you're really going to start to see the uh auxiliary field start to uh be installed they're going to mobilize on Monday um you're going to start to see foundations um and masonry walls get built on the concession stands and the ticket boots um right now the asphalt has been laid for the tennis courts that has to off gas for about a month and then they can start to paint and stripe the lines on that so uh everything is moving along there so if you start to drive by in the next month or so you're going to really start to see some some movements out there so we're really excited about that um here also at Buffalo Grove this is the boiler uh replacement that we had

126done that is now complete uh it has been inspected by the State Fire Marshall and approved so we're really excited about that uh they are still there just kind of doing some fine tuning couple things with building automation uh our staff there will be trained on how to use all of the equipment and make sure that they can maintain it um and do to uh do preventative maintenance on it as needed so commissioning will be done as the weather starts to get colder so we can really start to find tune make sure that everything is doing exactly what it should be doing so we'll work really closely with the commissioning um company we we meet every two weeks and we go over any problems that were found and we make sure that everybody that's involved

127whether it be the mechanical contractors or the construction manager is helping us solve any problems that that come up so so uh here you can see in the picture though those are the new boilers uh in the middle picture you can see the brand new water heaters which pretty look pretty Hightech there and I know last month was the Big Talk of the largest door maybe in all the boiler rooms uh as you can see it got closed in a little bit um but it is still one of the larger doors and it will uh help us so 15 years or so when we have to replace those boilers we won't have to open up the wall again so uh that's moving along and uh it's looking really good in there so moving over to

128El Grove student services uh this was a really fun project to do uh it was great to be there on the first day at school and see students you know using that that space already uh staff is really excited about it so it's a very inviting warm space um all new offices for counselors all new HV components all new furniture so everything is really really nice here on the left picture you can see kind of like a a space where students walk in and they can greet um staff and be kind of shown where to go if they need to talk to somebody that middle picture there is kind of like the Crown Jewel of the space is the uh college career center so you can see the EG logo there on the floor it's

129a little little glary from the from the nice LED light above it but um definitely a nice space and just wanted to show some of the offices there on the right some new furniture and uh again walking through there and seeing staff using those spaces everybody seems really really happy about it so so uh that's a lot of fun culinary arts also at Elk grve uh that classroom there on the left was open for first day of school we were able to get um Roe occupancy for that room the lab itself is not supposed to be done for about another month but Monday they're going to uh start putting in kitchen equipment so all the tile that picture on the right there was just taken a couple days ago uh they will be grouting the

130all the tile the next day or two and Monday you'll start to see equipment get put in there so that's really exciting on the left there you can't see it now but there is a wall and that will be a glass door so there will be a glass lighting door that connects the student teaching space and then also with the lab space so there'll be a really nice nice visual I think and be able to go from one space to the next without having to go out of the classroom so we're really looking forward to that door going in and I just wanted to highlight in that middle picture there uh the saet that was put above that door door most of the doors in Elk grve have transoms which are just kind of like

131panels above the doors just they were wood panels they weren't there for sound or anything like that and I just thought it was a nice touch to kind of give it more of a modern look and add a sofit there uh really really kind of makes it look unique and uh very nice so moving over to prospect uh roof replacement went really well again we had some weather setbacks at the beginning but uh we were able to catch up and and work some some off hours to to make sure it got done the picture on the left there we just wanted to really show that that is what the roof was doing every time it rained and uh this was during construction and and the crew would spend the whole day pumping the water off

132and just hoping that it wasn't going to rain again the next day and in July we ran into that a lot so um that middle picture is kind of a finished product with all new exhaust um and and had rain you can see the sky in the back there and and that roof is no longer holding water at all so it's draining correctly it's pitched the correct way um and the picture on the right is just one of the new rtu units and and a contractor putting on the the final cap sheet uh before the aluminum coating went on so and then last but not least the prospect pool uh the prospect pool was certainly a a uh interesting project for us I think that it was really neat to see the entire process of

133them chipping off all of the old plaster and um and then rebuilding it back together we ended up having to replace some extra tile just because it came up from some of the demo but we were able to get everything up and running and balanced before school started and students were able to swim in it on the 12 so that was ultimately our goal and uh we're really excited about it so um as far as construction updates that's kind of where we're at right now uh before I turn it over to anetta um if you guys have any questions questions regarding the construction side I'd be happy to try and answer any questions board members no I I just want to say thank you for the update keeping us updated through the summer and the

134progress that you've made I mean the students have to absolutely be appreciative as well as the staff because this just provides so much opportunity I mean when you have infrastructure that's that's obviously the First Foundation placee there but thank you thank you board members I um I was at an event last night with in the um another participant was mayor Tom Hayes of Arlington Heights and he told me that he runs through Buffalo parking lot he's a runner and he runs through Buffalo parking lot and he was asking me about the construction I go well it it was I was just like it was a question I wasn't I was like okay but uh you know what's the progress what's going on blah blah blah so um appreciate all the work that you guys are

135doing and absolutely glad the pool is open for the kids yes us too make sure you let him know in the next month if he's running through there he'll see some sign okay I'll if I see him I'll tell him thank you okay thanks and now anetta we'll give you a building update uh good evening um I have a pleasure today to present little B bit of overview what we did with our CMA members as well as with outside contractors everything what I will present tonight it's combination of the building supervision with Outsourcing little bit besides of uh regular deep cleaning on all of our schools as well as preventive maintenance and keeping the grounds well maintained uh the building ground supervisors with our 20 found budget we were able to accomplish couple of very

136interesting projects and I would like to highlight them the first one that I would like to present it's the ref finishing the whole entire floors gym floors on three schools Al Grove hares and winning those schools beside of refinishing they also have new lines as well as painted logo looks nice uh as well moving forward the parking lots those three schools hery only Meadows and Prospects uh they did uh full restriping and Paving it's refreshing the parking clots the other schools did painting only the parking spaces as well as the carbs those three schools they did whole entire parkings and then moving to very uh exciting projects that we start last year and we contining through the summer as well as we will be continue uh through the school year we were a able to

137um replace 976 uh LED lights and all of those lights uh that's the progress we create the team central maintenance team as well as two additional CMA members and electricians they were leading this team through the schools replacing the lights I all also add the one additional charging station at Prospect high schools last year I was able to accomplish all of the schools but because of the fs and infrastructure this year Prospect has additional one uh moving forward through the schools like I mentioned besides of regular cleaning and preventive maintenance Rolling Meadows with internal projects we were able to paint 12 classrooms as well as student hallway and 18 counselor offices in a community room uh they put a brand new flooring over there lvt as well as paint in word language and social science

138Wings we removed eight hazman walls those are very old walls I think they are original with the building when they don't keep any sounds moving through them that our Central team with the building team they took those walls and they put the drywall and fresh paint over there in the first floor hallway uh we did a full abetment of the flooring and replacement and we removed the old lacers to putting very nice flooring over there paint and we put some additional sitting spaces now the students they can use and utilize that space during the day it's so silly but I'm so excited about that removed lockers and added spots for kids to sit and work and collaborate with one another if you walk through Rolling Meadows main hallway it you'll be blown away it it

139it's it's fantastic yeah thank you the next summer we will be continuing we will we got lot more to do uh we link internal projects uh in a cafeteria that was the last cafeteria from the school from our schools that have old ceiling uh our Cent team replace the ceiling over there as well as we upgrade LED lights in the rooms 103 105 and 190 we paint everything we put new flooring as well as the room 190 that the part of the city area they also B the new furniture uh in 2:56 a. that's the office they put new floor new paint and the lights and that's multi-purpose office that the different members with the students they can use in Prospect in a special education office we created um a little bit more space for

140them we use some fun from room from the building 2123 the school painted and put new lights over there in the arc room we remove the old razors over there this way the the room open to make a more space and be more uh friendly user for a students and the teachers they put new flooring and painted in a pool locker since we did the pool uh we have enough time to do some little bit upgrade of the lockers with the deep cleanic as well we repaint them to make a look them fresh in a courtyard I have to say that from all of the school district we have everywhere beautiful Courtyards but that that one especially it's really worth it to visit uh recently the school make a lot of efforts to beautify Landscaping

141over there every season they have different type of the Landscaping as well as they power wash whole entire side of the walls over there uh in a fitness center they painted and um refreshed the space little bit moving forward El Grove besides of the big construction and the cleaning over there the school was was able to paint and remove the before in a fitness center which is on a picture we have suspended regular ceiling they open that space clean up very nicely painted put new LED lights in a cafeteria and and foyer main foyer they replace LED lights in the main bleachers besides of ref finishing putting new logo the school refinish all of the deck on the bleachers and repainted in the second floor it's the middle hallway between the wings academics wings uh

142the school start um refreshing the lockers on El gr when we walk through the hallways it's like four different colors of the locers uh school is doing very nice work to be consistent and brand little bit with the Alro color in a forest view I had a pleasure with Mike and with Central team be a part of the projects we were able to in a common area replace all of the lights over there as well as paint the ceiling uh we spent the time and effort also for as Forest Brew to make that place a little bit more friendly for a kids working over there and also for all of the staff visiting we have a brand new flooring brand new and we painted everything uh our grand crew was able to paint uh all

143of the carbs as well as uh the parking spaces through the building around we were able to beautify Landscaping with the ad mulching as well as replacing all of the Rings that they needed because some of them were damaged moving to the hery in the hery the school did um painted all of the exterior doors and Frames uh also they are on a continuation to uh beautifying and modernize the bathrooms we were able to accomplish two additional bathrooms we did the new Flor lights as well as a partition that's ongoing project I'm hoping to have two more bathrooms in a winter break uh in a Carter gym be besides of ref finishing putting new logo school as well paint all of the walls and I know that they work with DPS with uh with a

144collaboration they were able to order new plets in the exterior uh hery school was power wash um which changed the look of the school with painting of exterior doors and the last but not the least Buffalo Grove with ongoing the construction the major um concentration of this year for um uh our team was to change all of the lights they were able to accomplish all of the new lights on the main hallway as well as the main office besides of that school paint uh and replace the flooring in men and woman coaches locker rooms and that will be that it thank you so much board members any questions yeah I got I don't have a question but um Dr McFall I'm trying to be impartial here but that JY floor looks so sweet I mean

145I'm just looking at that picture it was like it just to me it's like College of basketball and that gym looks awesome and I can't wait till you got the first boys or girls basketball game and that place is packed and that gym will just look outstanding I um I had the opportunity to attend the Wilding uh opening for the picnic there and I know Wilding is now here and um will we get an update of maybe pictures of the new space that they're building over there I think it would be good for the board to see because it's way different from the space that that we had over at at at District 23 we can a photo maybe included in uh yeah notes this week yeah that would be good okay thank you thank

146you very much thank you thank you board member updates who would like to start you could oh Mr Heyman I missed opening date but was meeting oh that's right that was extremely nine different I think there were nine different tables and each table Had A legislature at it um I had Senator Mark Walker at my table um but all of the tables were attended by a legislator and other school board members so so um it was very worthwhile mourning that's thank you Mr fito please uh first I'm going to give the nsseo update um they too like district 214 is working on our strategic plan with hya um they're going uh Full Speed Ahead um most of the board members will have their meetings with the hya organization in the next few weeks um they

147talked about the transition program which is really District 211 and 214 and they showed that um the percentage of students or I should say young adults that are part of the program from our two districts um is 10% over the national average which is which is phenomenal um the one concern that was raised um in at which I know a lot of schools probably are facing but they have a lot of vacancies a lot and that that is a that is a tremendous concern but I know that the uh leadership is working as best they can to try and fill those empty positions uh two more things so um I attended the hery PTC meeting um I will be doing the same thing I did last year trying to get to as many schools as

148possible that are not involving my own children um it was a great meeting it was great to see so many people there talking about you know this upcoming year and the excitement they had I also went to the spur club which is Wheeling High School their meeting last night and um they had the new uh girls flag football uh coach spoke to the uh people that were present um just want to let the my fellow board members know that they have a game uh next Tuesday night against BG and uh from what I heard the uh BG and Wheeling they both uh shared the summer camp when the Bears came out and uh helped out the the teams with this new program and from what the uh Wheeling coach um to said last night was

149that with all the Buffalo grow players there that she's got to redo her Playbook um because she doesn't want to know the Buffalo Grove girls and know what they're going to plan on doing and right now on FanDuel it looks like Wheeling is a two and a half Point favorite so the game's at six o'clock please be present they only last 45 minutes and I think it'd be a lot of fun to go out there and support our ladies thank you thank you Mr Walker have a couple announcements um there's a activity at North Park School this Sunday to support the d214 art students they'll be selling their artwork to raise money for the 214 art scholarship fund the event runs from 10: to 5: at North school park in Arlington Heights you can find

150out more at d24 Art Department tent near Arlington Heights Road when you get to the school also the specialized schools community resource fair is coming up on September 10th here at Forest View we're looking for the community agencies to come join us to outline their services there's a link um to sign up at the bottom of our homepage at d214.org then of course course Community Ed uh fall classes began next or begin next month a variety of fitness and arts classes are available and registration is underway and that's at uh c. d214.org that's all I have thank you anyone else yeah go ahead I just wanted to uh welcome our teachers and students back um I know that uh a new school year is a fun and exciting time um the end of summer is

151always just a little sad right because as we all leave the fun of Summer behind but I hope our students really dive in this year um try something new something out of their comfort zone and that our teachers have a joyful time um engaging with and teaching our students um as far as the the community education classes I can recommend the dance classes and maybe partaking of those salsa lessons so possible pickle ball coming my way thank you no more ballroom dancing huh are you I don't I didn't see it offered I don't know if sher's taking the fall off um yeah but you know okay remember L has the video you so you better watch it um I have a couple of updates just uh a wonderful opening day with Dr uh I he

152his Focus was on AI but he had some other interesting points about um what we we don't um grade the students on and uh really food for thought and uh I love that you did your PowerPoint uh today as you did as opening day I want to uh thought thank Brad Hubbert for allowing me to go to his opening day um festivities at wheeling and thank um Dr Kelly Al gr for letting me uh greet the students on the first day of school and uh Kate craft and I did a self tour of new student services and the renovation it's really great and um congrats to prospect High School alum and now Olympian eron Reese who took 14th Place at the Paris Olympics good for her and uh also uh went on a tour of

153self tour of the athletic field renovation up at um Buffalo Grove and lastly you don't have to be a golfer the foundation fundraising of foundation fundraiser at Top Golf is happening soon silent auction items include a forsome with carts at itasa Country Club a forsome with carts at oing Green Country Club four Bears tickets to the to the Bears versus Lions game on December 22nd yeah yeah got your Parkers ready yeah no kidding and uh as well as other General raffle items I hope to see everyone on September 5th at top go in shamberg the last time I checked I think they said they had about 170 registrations any any update on the number okay and lastly um the north cook uh division meeting is fast approaching on September 30th we're going to be at

154a school and we will have legislators there for for a legisl a discussion don't think it'll be a panel I think we're going to have legislators at each of the tables thank you board members we move on to the consent agenda is there anyone that wishes to move an remove an item from the consent agenda hearing none can I have a motion in a second for uh to approve the consent agenda move second there's been a motion in a second please call a all Palmer I fito yes h I Ral I Walker yes quiter I motion carries 60 um so we have some action n here uh 1211 disposal of minutes can I have a motion in a second please so moved second Motion in a second please call a rooll walker yes Palmer I

155fito yes Hinman I Ral I and crer I motion carries 60 thank you we are now to uh 1221 approval of accounts payable can I have a motion in a second so moved second motion a second any discussion please call the rooll Palmer I fito yes Hinman I Ral I Walker yes and quiter I motion carry 60 we come to 1222 approval of the 2425 budget can I have a motion and a second please so moved second motion a second board members questions from Mr key I I you um so Mr key you mentioned that registration fees that some of them were received in the last um last year's time frame and therefore counted towards that some came after our cut off on the budget date but we're anticipating and does your does the budget

156contain anticipa fees that'll span over the end of this year and next year correct essentially It lines up so we get a Year's worth of fees each year okay just half of it it's like the tax levy half of it in this year half's in next year we get it sort of in pieces that's what I assumed I just wanted to ask the question um I saw that uh we were expecting 1.7 million of um Surplus if you would Surplus over 353 ISS million um and if my math is right it's it's like close to one half of 1% that somewhere in there seems about Fair tightly budgeted right um there's even though 1.7 million is a nice number we're fairly tightly budgeted um and and so I guess my question is in our line

157items you spoke today about looking at well this is what we actually spent so it's an increase over last year but we're really trying to get a better more realistic picture I guess my question is with that tightly budgeted you feel though that these are all realistic estimations of where we're going to be on our budget I think you rais a good point when you start doing the math $1.7 million is a large amount of money but it's a giant sum to me certainly right and so you know even when we look at the tax levy moving that by 2.2 million to recognize funds that were collected prior to 630 that you know that's no longer in the final budget um so what we do is we look line by line at the entire budget

158and we say okay well what's the request some of them are come from a request from budget manager from from folks in the building but also what does that look like against last year spent right so then we we go and we analytically look through it and we say all right well which ones are the furthest off which was the most over budget under budget Etc let's try and make sense of this and then the next test that we put through is you know let's look at five years worth of data what's the trend there um and so you know it it really is uh there there's a lot of science to it um but there's a lot of variables that go into the budget um that change throughout the year here we are we

159get we get the advantage of you know uh approving it in August right we're month and a half into the budget so it should be easy you don't have that much of the budget year left but there are just so many variables and so again it's a matter of looking at the trend and just making sure the high level you know the big numbers are making sense um but not such a tight budget that there isn't room for for the reality I think one of the things we talk about with our strategic planning is being Nimble and being able to meet needs as they change we try our darnest to make sure we know what's going to happen in the year but that's not to say in the middle of the year we don't have

160something that comes up where we say well we really need to commit to this and so there is then room to move move things around if I could add one one of the the adjustments that you know Mr key has made as our team discussed how we wanted to approach budgeting uh instead of allocating this is how much you had last year as a department or this is how much you get as a school we tried to take and start the change process to go to more of a zerob based approach of this is what you spent last year these are what you spent things on now let's shift our thinking of where are our needs and what are you anticipating for this year and determine if the dollars meet your needs or maybe does

161it need to adjust and and just it's really about changing the mindset of just because you had this much last year doesn't mean you have to spend everything you have if you don't need it so that way we can be as flexible and shift it so it's as tight looks as tight as it is but we believe it will be more accurate based on our needs therefore we'll be able to adhere to the budget we set more closely throughout the year I'm glad to hear it because while I loved the Surplus I I know that as a percentage of the total it's it is we are fairly tight there so Dr row I do my next question about the budget is actually towards you um you know and I think I know the answer to

162this but just for the benefit of our stakeholders or people tuning in we pay tuition out in the district and I you know it's it's wait a second we're paying tuition and that's tuition for our students and um I want you I was wondering if you could give a quick explanation of where that comes from sure so we there is a a a small percentage of our students um that who that whose needs are beyond what our capabilities are to serve and so um typically special education students and so we we place them in partner with an outside uh an a therapeutic day school or a school that that's designed to meet their specific learning needs um and their private private schools so we pay for that the the idea Grant which is the uh

163individuals with disability Education Act Federal special education funds reimbursed to pay for those things however our outplaced tuition dollars are exceeding what our allocation is from the federal government in terms of special education so it's actually an area of focus and and Miss Kendrick and I have been talking about that and she and her team have been thinking of how are we you know determining the need but also we need to there are some things that we talk about systems building internally to try and and beef up what our offerings are here not only to keep our students with us but then also it offsets some of that cost if we can increase our offerings locally we might be able to avoid having to U outplay as many students but yes we are uh the

164need our needs of our students are dictating out plac M that are overspending what we're getting back from the federal government which eats into our local funds thank you I I really appreciate that and I I'm glad you brought up the the thought of what can we offer here in District in order to sort of get economy out of that but while still meeting the needs of those students and maybe maybe making it a little nicer for the families too to keep their kids within a family in one District well I there will always be students with with dramatic needs and it's our responsibility to serve them uh we're happy to do that um and we'll always have to have students outplaced um because some some of the needs just go beyond what a public

165school can can handle um but we'd like to try and keep our students with us as much as we can and Beyond what nsso oh absolutely absolutely can take care of yeah so and then we um are pulling money from our nonoperating funds or fund balance and to bring it over for capital projects and I just want to make sure that everyone understands that's sort of where we've socked away some money over time for things that we anticipate will need um and that's why we're bringing it back in now correct that's absolutely correct yes as we uh continue to work towards a long range capital plan I think the number that we've talked about is an excess of $30 million a year that we need to invest in our facilities and that's significantly higher than

166we've done in the in the last decade um on a consistent basis so uh I know that we've spoken at the at the cabinet level about how do we find operational efficiencies um so that we can build up room for that because yes we do have some fund balance that we can tap into but it's not unlimited and so finding ways to to increase that Surplus on operation standpoint obviously without diminishing the product that we're delivering in the classroom is going to be critical to that in the future and so an example that is using our grounds crew to help paint parking lots as opposed to sending that workout or having an outside contract to come do that correct absolutely everything that anetta went over tonight that's us leveraging our in-house CMA staff to do

167those things a lot of our feeders probably farm that out to third parties um the LED lighting that should should not be lost on us that you know that that is Future Energy savings um right there and there's a lot of grant money that we seek and use to offset some of that so you know every little bit counts again back to your original analogy of what what percent 1.7 million is on our budget you know the LED lights we're talking tens of thousands of dollars but all of it adds up thank you very much Miss Palmer to to your point just to accentuate what Mr key just mentioned of of our commitment of 30 million a year of as our goal of our local funds toward these capital projects that's why our budget's going

168to feel as tight as it is we haven't committed that level of dollars but we have to and um if we commit the 30 million our task internally is how are we going to ensure that we can continue to maintain the level of of quality that our students and Community expects from us um and yet find those dollars in a way that we um we can do it ourselves as much of it as possible ourselves so there'll be conversations that we'll be bringing your way in the coming months of um talking about our fund balance and how far down are we comfortable spending that fund balance so that we can continue attacking these Capital Improvement needs while not impacting other areas and we have some suggestions but we're a couple months away from that but

169that's that's coming your way so we can um be responsible with the resources we have and still Advance our initiatives of improving our Capital facilities look at you with your e Easter eggs it's just like so board members no good okay um we have a motion in a second h r Palmer I Ral I fito yes Hinman I Walker yes and quer I motion carries 6 Z thank you we are now uh 1231 freedom information uh act report uh Motion in a second please so moved second motion a second any discussion please call the rooll fito yes Walker yes heinan I Palmer I wal I and quartzer I motion carries 6 Z thank you we are now going into close session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals

170who serve as independent contractors in an educational setting or legal counsel for the public body student discipline and litigation can I have a motion in a second please so moved second it's been a motion in a second uh how long do you anticipate post session 20 minutes and we will have action after Clos session please call a roll Palmer I wel I fito yes Hinman hi Walker yes and cour sir I thank you we now en close session [Music] e oh [Music] e [Music] I move to approve the Personnel transaction we're not on yet okay go ahead okay uh approval of the personal transaction report I make a move to pass it or August 22nd 2024 second there's been a motion in a second please call the RO fito yes Hinman I Palmer I Ral

171I Walker yes quiter I motion carries 60 thank you motion to adjourn please I I move go ahead I move for the approval of modified job description second oh please call the RO Ral hi Hinman hi fito yes Palmer thank you Walker and qu yes I I make a motion to approve the leave of absence on August 22nd 2024 second please callor roll burito yes Hinman I Palmer i w i Walker yes and quer I okay motion to adjourn thank you so moved secondo yes Palmer hi heinan hi r hi Walker yes and kzer I thank you everybody have a great Labor Day e [Music]