D214 04/10/2025 Board of Education Meeting

001Welcome to Jerry's Cafe. We are a destination cafe and we offer craft food and beverages, meaning we make everything fresh on site when you order. And all of our food and our beverages are prepared and served by adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And then lastly, just say the name. Tom. Here you go. Enjoy. My favorite part of working at Darius Cafe is definitely interacting with friends I've met throughout the years and the expressing machine. My co-founder Amy Philpot and I opened Jerry's Cafe for job opportunities and staggering statistic tells us that 80% of adults with disabilities are unemployed. I believe differently and this is a place where our employees can work and feel proud and contribute and can see that they have value and purpose and they are given the responsibility that anyone would

002be given in a job and we expect nothing less than them to perform at their highest level. So we see great success in every single employee and their independence and their offerings and activities here at Jerry's Cafe. the large hot white chocolate pumpkin pie with whipped cream. It is to die for. It is delicious. It's amazing. Well, the uh favorite part of uh working here is that I I get to serve customers. I am a cashier. They understand to include people with us with exceptionalities. I wanted to tell you I've coaching you today. You're really good at your job. I always I always like to serve customers. Customers go first. We are super proud of our partnership with District 214. District 214 has been a supporter from the very beginning of our foundation. And several

003of the schools have done fundraising and helped us get our doors open to Jerry's Cafe. Proudly, we have 12 or 13 graduates from the district 214 schools who will work at Jerry's Cafe as our active employees. This is where we do our salad prep. This is where we make all the salads. And then over here is the sandwich line. This is where we make all of our sandwiches. I have worked here since day one. I love it here. I love my supportive team members and I like serving customers. Here is one chicken Mediterranean trip salad. We know that our community members have lots of choices, but we're hoping that you will come and choose Jerry's Cafe. Thank you. When you come inside and engage with our employees, you feel a sense of joy and you

004will start your day feeling the best way that you can with a joyful heart and knowing that Jerry's Cafe has provided you with delicious coffee, breakfast, or lunch. [Music] Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese. All right, welcome to our 55th year of putting together an incredible community service project through our SOS class here at John Hershey High School. As you can see around me, it is organized chaos, but it is an incredible day for our students to serve our community by packaging and collecting food that's going to be going to local food pantries in our area to support those in need. We're really happy to be able to do the food drive here at Hershey because it really just brings the whole school together and we are able to help our community

005and bring the energy with everyone here. All right, take it out. For the past, I would say about two months, we've been kind of working together with SOS, Junior Leaders, baseball, and we've all gathered together. We've done bag and tags with 12 different communities, and we've all come together, and it's really amazing to see the turnout. And then later on, we're going to be visiting eight local food pantries, and it's really exciting. We're just thankful for everyone who's helped each other along the way. It's been really fun. It's a team effort, but it's been so fun. [Music] Prospect marching nights are heading to DC. [Music] We're in Washington DC. [Music] Prospect Marching Knights were invited to travel to Washington DC this year for Veterans Day. So, we're taking the band out um to our nation's

006capital. We're going to do some great tours of some of the monuments and the museums and a lot of the sites of DC. Um, but it all culminates with performances on Veterans Day. Um, so we've been working really hard to prepare and we're so excited for our students to have this opportunity. Throughout the trip, we had a few opportunities uh where veterans would actually see our group of students out out and about and spoke to our students. Um, so in addition to uh touring these places, our students were able to actually interact with a number of veterans over the course of the trip, which kind of made everything a little more real and genuine and authentic. So, our first day in DC was really impactful and gave our students sort of a big picture overview

007of the city and some of the history and really set the stage for our performance day coming up. So on Veterans Day, our morning started off with a performance at the Lincoln Memorial. There we were right on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial facing the Washington Monument. Just a really special opportunity for our students to have a a really great place to perform. It was an honor to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the PMK where so much of America's history has taken place. The experience was very impactful for me. It was a unique opportunity that I have never had before and it was something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. One of our students, Emily Pollock, was also asked to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

008I've always wanted to help people. So, I'm going to serve my country. More specifically, I want to become an officer in the military. Her speech was really wonderful and got a really great reception at the event. In fact, after the event was over, I had a number of veterans come track me down to tell me how great her speech was. And actually, they wanted to meet her and take pictures with her because they were so moved by what she had to say. My father served in the Navy and so he instilled in me like the value of um serving and like caring for our veterans and those who serve us. And so being able to thank them today and um place medals around their think and welcome them home was really impactful for me as

009well. [Music] It was an honor to play at the World War II Memorial today. It was such an honor because music is a way to share emotions without using words. Our performances in DC got a lot of really good responses. Um, one of them, a story was told to me by one of our chaperones that there was literally um, a Marine veteran who was at a performance at the Euima Memorial who was literally in tears watching the performance and just expressed to our chaperone how much it meant to him that this group of teenagers from from the Chicago area had come out there and was was performing. Um, and he was just really moved by it. And uh, I thought that was just a really neat neat story to hear coming out of the the

010performance. So any trip like this uh takes a lot of time and energy to put together. I feel really fortunate that our school was very supportive of this endeavor. We had a bunch of parents who traveled with us and did anything they could to make this a great experience for our students. Um I'm so glad we were able to bring our students to DC. Uh Veterans Day seemed like a perfect time to bring them and uh it really just in the end I think the whole trip turned out really really great and I'm so happy we were able to make it happen. [Music] Super excited to have the 911 never forget mobile exhibit here at Hershey High School. As the truck arrived, we had Hershey parents out front with some patriotic balloons. We had Hershey

011students lining the the sidewalks. We had some, you know, many American flags like they would show on the honor flights. The spirit was high. Good morning. and I'd like to welcome you to the Stevensilla Tunnel of Towers Mobile Exhibit. We have a 50 50ft trailer approximately 1100 square ft exhibit. We travel our nation to commemorate the brave sacrifice of the firefighters, police officers that gave their life that day in the greatest rescue and recovery effort in our nation's history. The reason we're here is at Hershey High School to come educate our youth uh on the happenings of that day, but also the the happenings of the days after and to let them know that it was a huge tragedy. It was the single largest loss of life day we've ever had. It was also the

012large largest rescue we've ever had as well. but just all the good that has come from that tragic day. And they're they're going to learn things that they they can't read about. Uh they're going to hear stories that some have never been told, some have been told many times. Steven Silla was uh one of the 343 firefighters that died that morning. He was getting off duty that morning. He was going to play golf with his older brothers. Heard the plane strike. heard on the news that the plane struck the building, turned around, drove back to his firehouse, Squad 1, located in downtown Brooklyn. They had already been dispatched to the disaster. He got his gear, drove his own truck to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where he dawned 60 lbs of gear, ran 2 and 1/2

013miles through the tunnel, mustered up with the rest of the firefighters, and gave his life that day, honoring his oath that he took to protect life and property. So, this is about remembering. So, we want people to remember. obviously for adults to remember and for the kids to learn. So we don't want this forgotten. It's not taught in most schools in in America and they have the privilege of talking to people who are there. You know, we can't talk to people who were in the Civil War or these other moments in American history, but they can. I think that's pretty special. Thanks for having us. And this means more to us than you. This means a lot to these kids. And these kids have been great. They're very respectful. They listen. It's uh it's nice.

014It's nice to see a special thanks especially the FDMY crew to the SL Foundation to Solders Journey Home to District 214 to all of Hersy. I I'm grateful for everybody. A special shout out to Bill Dustin for the for the magic spirit. Special shout out to Chief Harris, Arlington Heights Police. The coolest part about this project was there's like a whole bunch of people that were on it and did it. It wouldn't have happened without a whole bunch of people. The list is just too long. And to me, that's that's actually a good thing to celebrate. [Music] This is the uh Rolling Meadows band alumni event. So, we decided to uh get the band back together. This year being the 40th anniversary of the Jazz Meadows Festival. So, it was kind of an opportunity to,

015hey, can we bring people back at homecoming? I had talked to some of the previous band directors. That's Len King in the 70s, '8s, early 90s. We have Bill Jastro and David Bogs from the '90s. And then, of course, Chris Booty, who retired several years ago. Those people set the foundation for everything that we have here. I'm giving you a hug. That's so cute. I I'd have paid money to be here tonight. I really would have. It's is one of those things that I I'd paid money to be here. This is the banner where your closest friends were really at in high school. So, you're with your closest friends and regrouping after 40ome years and going, "Holy cow." Yeah, Mr. King is the reason why I'm here today. Not just at the school, but what

016I do in in life. I owe everything to Mr. King. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have gone to college. And if I hadn't gone to college, who knows what I would be doing. You know, some of the stuff that we we're doing right now, it's like we never stop doing it, you know? You know, just to be around these guys again and just hanging out. 40 years seems like a long time, but it seems like it's kind of a short time, too. You know, this is fantastic. I mean, I I knew it was going to be good, but not this good. 52 of my actual students are in this group. I get a lot of feedback from them telling me how much they they enjoyed the music program with me and how they

017appreciate music and for for their lives. That's really special because to know that they are still thinking about me and what what we did here. It's it's just very satisfying. Well, I flew back and I'm glad I did, you know, especially to see Mr. King. He meant a lot to us. He just brought in the jazz and I mean, we had world class, you know, experience that most kids never would have had, you know, a real depth of of exposure to great music because of Mr. King. I'm glad I got to see him. It's so fun to be back though. I love it. My family's here. They're so excited. So is my family. My son's here. My husband's here. So, it's really great. If you are on the fence of coming, whether it's debating about

018whether to come or not, you should definitely come next time. It feels like a long time ago, but in some ways, like you never left. Like I'm like, "Okay, we're going to go march over to the stadium and we're going to play for the football team." So, yeah. [Music] Okay. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank you to all the alumni who are coming here today. I mean some people are traveling across the country. I know one of the directors came from Arizona. Um, and that's a testament to really what this event is about. And it's bringing people together through our shared love of music and how music has changed our lives and shaped who we are as humans. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] What do you do? [Music] Young. [Music] Uh,

019good evening. Let me call to order of the committee of the whole of Township High School District 214 for Thursday, April 10th, 2025. Miss Keys, can you please call the role? Dustling here. Furo here. Heinaman present. Palmer. Ral here. Walker here. And Croitzer present. We have a quorum. Thank you. I'd like to call up Principal Kelly, please. [Music] Good evening everyone. Is that on? Now it is. Okay. Good evening everyone. I'm Megan Kelly, the incredibly proud principal of Rolling Meadows High School. I'm thrilled to be here this evening uh with several of our um outstanding Mustangs who are representing our school and are going to share a little bit about their organization, United Young Sisters and Brothers. So, I'd like to welcome them up. Good evening. My name is Flora Shabona and I'm the president

020of Young Sisters and Brothers Club. Today I'm pleased to inform you about what our club is. The YSB club is a community where black students and teachers could come together as a safe space and we could celebrate our culture. Over my four years, the YSB club has had a powerful impact on my high school journey by providing a strong sense of culture, community, pride, and support. It gave me a space where I could connect with others and people like me. Hello, my name is Benia Noah Harrison and I'm the vice president of YSB. This club has impacted me in many ways over the four years of high school. One of them being this club has helped me find my voice and has helped me challenge myself and put myself in positions of leadership um aka

021being vice president and it has also helped me with my communication skills as well. Hello, my name is Valen Kavij and I'm the treasurer of YSB. Throughout my years at Rolling Meadows, I have learned more leadership skills and also how to manage my time eventually as well with this club. YSB has gave me a safe space where I know I'll always feel comfortable and connected to my peers. Hello, my name is Isaiah Thomas. I am the head designer and advocate for YUSB. Um, what this club means to me is a community space where black kids can come together, unite, congregate. We let our ideas flourish and we just build upon each other's character and everything. And today, some of us sporting hoodies that I created for the uh club and a broader community. And this

022is the merch. So, I appreciate it. It's a good thing being here. And thank you. Thank you. Okay, you got to students, you got to lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. incoming. Thanks. [Applause] Okay, thank you. Uh, next is the approval of the agenda. Uh, can I have a motion in a second, please? So moved. Second. There's been a motion and a second. Please call the role. Fiorto, yes. Walker, yes. Dustling, yes. Heinaman, I. Ralph, I. Cryer, I. Motion carries. 6. Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda is approval of the minutes of the open and close meeting for March 13, 2025. Uh, motion in

023a second, please. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Any additions, corrections? Call the role, please. Hineimman I. Ral I. Dustling yes. Verito yes. Walker yes. And quiter I. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Uh next on the agenda is public comments. And I do have two people before I call the first person up. Let me uh read this please. The board of education and the district value comments from the community at our meetings as well as emails. We appreciate everyone appearing before the board and treat all with courtesy and respect. The board of education asks each person to please limit all of their comments to three minutes. However, several people want to address the board on similar topics. The board president may limit the time to two minutes per person. The public comments agenda item

024will be the only time that the board of education will hear public comments during meetings. Although comments may be made on almost any matter related to the operation of schools, comments will not be allowed identifying individual students or staff members. As this is the board of education business meeting, the board practice is not to respond to public questions or comments at this time because this is not an open-ended forum. However, we do listen carefully. If requested, a written response will be provided. Please ensure that Mrs. Keys. Miss Keys has your full name and address on the signup sheet. To be fair and consistent to all addressing the board, the same protocols and procedures must be in place for everyone. On the podium, the green light indicates your time has started. The yellow light indicates 30

025seconds remaining and the red light indicates 3 minutes have expired. Please come forward to the microphone and clearly state your name for the minutes. The first name is Ronald Stolberg. Yes. Ronald, welcome. Yes, I am Ronald Stolberg. Over 30 years ago, US FDA concluded that red number two was harmful to be used on our skin outside our body, like in shampoo or makeup. It took until January 2025 for the US FDA to conclude that red number two was harmful to eat and take internally. Meanwhile, allowing food manufacturers to sell hazardous food for over 30 years. Now, food manufacturers can continue selling us food with toxic red too and for two more years. I don't expect you to stop the consumer's stop the consumption of all food with red number two, but you should ban red

026number two were being sold or or served at our schools, in the cafeteria, at the vending machines, or at the concession stands. You should not make food with red to or any other petroleum product convenient and easily available. We should teach our children how to stay healthy and set a good example. We need to be smarter than what the FDA tells us to stay healthy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Uh, next is Elizabeth Bower. Welcome. All right. Hi there. I wanted to address a couple issues since it's been a while since I've been at a board meeting. Uh first of all, I am aware that Miss Croitzer as board president as well as Mr. Row and Mr. Lopez have all signed witness slips in opposition to the pending legislation that would make it

027harder for students to receive PE waiverss. And even though I admit that I myself having trouble waiting through the legal ease to sort it out entirely, I as a parent of three sons in band, I know how helpful it was to have that waiver to act manage the academic workloads and all the more so for students who want to enroll in an additional class to be able to take all three of a language of fine arts in a career class. So I was grateful to see that you were lobbying against this and I hope you persist in that as well as adding to your concerns. HB2942, which would prevent students from car pooling and prevent many students from being able to participate in afterchool activities when they depend on a friend or a classmate to

028help them get home afterwards. My second concern is with the potential for bonds to fund construction and ongoing maintenance projects. Even though it's true that Democrats won numerous local elections, you surely understand that there is still no appetite for tax increases. District 23 lost its referendum for a tax increase which would have funded new classrooms. District 25's earlier referendum by a very slim margin even though it was cast as a means of providing all day kindergarten. Any proposal by D214 to increase taxes or issue bonds will not be wellreceived. And that's all the more so because we can see that you have been repeatedly increasing spending on special programs, attending ribbon cutings, celebrating new classrooms, or yes, by giving speeches at the Midwest Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, which was a lot of fun. Don't get

029me wrong, but it costs a lot of money. To now come hatin asking for more would be the equivalent of taking the family to Disney to gain their love and then having to take on a second mortgage to repair the roof. You all owe your seats to the repeated insistence to the community that the district has been fiscally responsible. If it turns out that this has not been the case, each of you should resign honestly and apologize for making false claims. I can only hope that the 865 million is an exaggerated amount from consultants who want to appear to have earned their fee. I was also concerned by some of the statements that I heard in watching that meeting. One of you suggested that you could get some unity support by dazzling them by going

030big. Another suggested not having polling in the sense of trying to understand what the community feels, but you asking leading questions to try to promote adding those bonds. Uh that's not right. That's not appropriate. Um and again, we're not Stevenson High School. We're not near New Tri High School. or a district that has lots of retirees and lots of workingclass families and their needs and concerns should be respected. Thank you. That's all that's signed up for public comment and so we're going to the first action item um strategic plan. Dr. Row. All right. I feel like we've been waiting and working our way toward uh this moment for for quite some time. has has been um over two years for me that I've been talking about a strategic plan, but we've been actively working on

031it for uh for a year uh with our with our wonderful partner, Deliver Ed. So, Rebecca uh is here to kick off the presentation tonight and just set the stage of what uh we're going to do. This is this this will be a a pretty lengthy u agenda item because it is a very big deal. I need a motion in a second, please. So moved. Second. Oh, there's been a motion. Seconds. Thank you. All right. All right. So, it this is a a a a big deal. It's a momentous moment for the district because the the presentation this evening and the conversation that will ensue uh will really help shape the uh areas of focus and and give us our northstar where the district will be focusing our efforts and our attention for the next

032five years. Um, this is a a five-year 20-year vision with a five-year uh step one implementation that we then intend on renewing to just refresh and ensure that we are aligned with that vision still. So, with that, I'd like to hand it over to Rebecca. She's going to set the stage with the work as well as given the fact that this is the first strategic plan this this district has had since the uh the late 1980s, uh we thought it was appropriate to just talk a little bit about how to lead with a strategic plan from the board seat so that we can uh not only focus on our implementation plan but then also how do we all engage with it from the different roles that we have in the district. So Rebecca, thanks for

033being with us. I'll hand over to you. Absolutely. Yes. Hi uh Rebecca Davis with Deliver Ed have been thrilled to be part of the partnership working for the past almost year now on the plan and the various pieces that went into it. So uh what I'm going to do is I'm going to start by talking a little bit about the process, a little bit about the purpose, why we're here before I hand it over to the team to talk about the amazing work that's in the plan. Excuse me. Many of you have seen me before. Many of you I have seen in our various work streams. We've been working through many phases to try to get to this point. So we started with a deep review of what's going on and what stakeholders are feeling

034across the district. We brought together an incredible steering committee including two of your colleagues to really dig into what that might mean for a long-term vision for a portrait of a D214 graduate and what the outlines of a strategic plan for the next five years could look like. And then we spent the last few months working with strategy teams, district leadership, and those doing the work to really piece together what that actually looks like in practice. Those are great ideas on paper, but what was that actually going to take to make that happen? And so here we are with a plan to tell you today, but you'll see there's still part ahead, and that's the most exciting and important part, which is doing what we said we were going to do. And so a lot

035of what I'm going to talk to you about the process is how we got here, but also where we go from here, which is actually doing the work. More important, I would say, than even the plan itself. But we're thrilled to share this plan because it's not just the brainchild of a couple people in a room. We've worked with stakeholders across the district intentionally and proactively for months at every step along the way trying to get as many voices and perspectives as possible so that what we're coming to you with today is the best thinking across a variety of perspectives. I guarantee everyone will find something in the plan they wish was different, but hopefully everyone can also see themselves in this plan because we've talked to so many different people to get here. And

036again, looking ahead, there's unshaded version we haven't even got to yet. As we implement, we're going to continue to learn. How is this feeling? How is this landing? Is this doing what we thought it was going to do? And getting that feedback over time. We call this a living plan. It may look beautiful. In fact, I think it looks gorgeous, but it should be marked up with pencil and ink and coffee stains if we're doing it right. And we should be constantly coming back to is this getting the impact we want? And if not, what do we do about it? Which brings me to the next point. And I know there's a lot of text, so let me just tell you, we're going to come back again and again. This is not the last time

037you're going to hear about the plan. First and foremost, when you hear from your leadership in a minute about what's in it, one thing that's not in it yet are the numeric targets we want to work towards. We believe strongly we need numeric targets. How are we going to move these metrics we care about? But we want to take this summer to gather some critical baselines and make sure that we're really setting realistic and ambitious targets. So we're coming back in the fall to you with those numbers. So what you have here is the work we want to do, how we want to do it, and we're behind the scenes working on what exactly that'll translate to for numbers. So this fall, we're going to come back to you with those. We're also coming back

038to you with a calendar, and that's a commitment of when and how we're going to live out this plan. how internally the team's going to be reviewing it and importantly when you as the board and as the community can expect to hear updates about how we're doing because again the plan is the first step. We have to now do the work and we want to make sure we're transparent about that. Which brings me to the the right hand side which is for the next five years you're going to hear about this consistently. Here's an update on what's working, what's not, and what we're going to do about it. Here's an update on what we're hearing from our stakeholders about how this strategy is landing and how we can do it better. We're going to be

039coming twice a year to report out in a formal way to the board and probably more frequent than that in anecdotes and updates across the various things happening. So lastly, I I I do want to hammer home on what your important role is because while the district is going to be behind the scenes, while the leadership, sorry, we're all the district, but while the leadership, strategy teams, principles, school staff are going to be doing the work implementing the plan. You all are the important accountability structure for making sure that when shiny new things come along, when another hopefully not pandemic comes along, when things come along, we keep our eye on these priorities that we know matter for D214. that you hold the team accountable for those updates, for sharing progress, for questioning when there

040are ways we could do things better, for making sure that you all are leaning in on both supporting and championing the work that's going on with this plan, keeping our attention, reviewing our progress, holding us accountable, and flagging concerns and questions that you're hearing from your stakeholders as well as that you're seeing in the work. You all holding us accountable while the team is doing the work of implementing is what makes this translate into real impact. And since the team is doing all that behind the scenes, I do want to note that this is our plan of what we're going to do. There are spreadsheets behind this of the work plans and the tactical moves that have to happen. What this is showing you is that picture that we're committing to over time for students

041and for the community. Before I hand it over to the superintendent to Dr. Row, are there any questions about the process, about the stakeholder engagement, about what we are here to share today? All right, I'll hand it over to you, Dr. Row, to take us through the content of the plan. All right, thank you. Um, all right. So, if you if you advance two slides to the part where we talk about framing our district, this is so it really the the booklet is it's a story and it's a story of the rich history uh of district 214 and and and the tremendous community that we have the the pleasure of serving. Um, and what you're going to see early on and you see often is these uh the asaspirational beliefs. And I'm going to go

042into a little bit of detail about about them eventually. Um, but those are the targets of how we're going to make decisions and how we are going to hold ourselves uh responsible to living up to what our community says that they value. Um, so beyond the story and we get into the process that that Rebecca mentioned, you can advance to the next slide. Um, we had a tremendous group of people that sat on our steering committee and I'm I'm actually really grateful that a number of them have have joined us this evening uh in support of of the work and I'm really grateful for the time and energy that you invested into this process. Um, but it was rich. It was honest. Uh, gloves were off. Um, we heard some really honest feedback from our

043students that called us out on their learning environment and what they wanted their learning environment to be that I'm really grateful for. Oh, thank you. Um, and it was it was filled with passion because I think that's what you all have taught me over the two years that that I've been here has been that our community is passionate about at schools and they're passionate about u the programs and offerings and and the learning that takes place in our walls and outside of those walls. Um, and that's represented here. Um, one of the things that that Rebecca didn't mention that that is is going to sit with the superintendency team is that that regulator regular monitoring. And what does this look like when it comes back over and over and over again? And they're called stock

044takes. So each of the goal areas will present uh regular updates um to me to just track progress and have conversations of are we on track and where are we where are we missing and and so we can reset. Um each twice twice a year I'll come to you with an update typically in January and then a final in in June or July uh where we'll celebrate our wins and talk about how we're having to adjust and where we were falling short of those goals. I will tell you this now. If we hit every single one of the goals that we lay out on this, then this plan is not audacious enough. Uh we should not hit 100%. We need to be stretching as far as we can and just a little beyond what we

045think we can accomplish so we can really move uh the district forward. Ultimately, what we have are three layers that that I want to walk through briefly and then our goal leads will go through them in more detail. Um what we have is a 20-year vision that we're breaking into five-year chunks. Um and step number one is that the vision that led by the aspirational beliefs on the right hand side that I am going to walk through. Um and informed by data and and what I've been had the the pleasure of sharing as I've presented along this this continuum this process a number of times is we are very we are data rich in this district. But one of the areas that we need to improve and we're committed to which is why it is

046on the very front page is data and the use of data needs to be permeated through every level of the organization. Our classroom teachers have should have have access to it but I think there's some work that we need to do to really incorporate how we're using data on the student level and the classroom level to drive our instruction forward. um as well as at the principal table at the superintendency meetings to ensure that um our data is our decisions are actionable and informed by data. But the idea is that if we engage all of our learners and I mean all of our learners um that we can leverage student voice, student leadership um and build in an agile school environment. We learned what agility looks like on the extreme during the pandemic where school

047districts that don't move very easily shifted seemingly overnight. And while we don't want to do that again, we do need to be responsive to societal demands and the changes and ensure that we are responsive to what our community is asking us to do. Agility in in this plan means a new pathway if need be, if that's where the workforce is heading and be responsive to those needs. Um, which you know we we are proud to do. And then ultimately um if doing that and leveraging youth leadership and elevating our students voice we can really capture and inspire uh the learners that we are trying to to support building with our families um that thrive in innovation. Um and we hold ourselves to the aspirational beliefs in that red column uh on the right hand side.

048And those aspirational beliefs are ideal. They're idealistic. But every single person in our community should be able to look at the decisions that we make and tie them back to a belief that they are what's best for students. Um I take pride in the fact that um that we are student driven and student focused on our team and I want everyone who engages with the district to have that perception about our actions. Um inclusivity is our strength. We are a incredibly diverse school district. Um, all six of our comprehensive high schools and our specialized school here in this building are made up of more than 70 different languages, students that have very different um, home experiences, cultural experiences, celebrations that we need to accentuate. Um, so inclusivity in our buildings and have a sense of

049belonging for all of our students is vital to our school's success. You'll see that play out in goal number two that is completely bu built around an environment where a sense of belonging really matters and how our how we're planning to pull that out. Uh the third is hard decisions are required. They are um as as you know Mrs. Bower highlighted in our in public comments, we have some capital improvement needs and we don't have a plan yet as to how we're going to accomplish them. But some of those hard decisions are are that are required or we have to change how we do things over the course of the next 10 years plus to ensure that we're stretching every single dollar that is afforded to us by our taxpayers as far as they can

050possibly go. We have to get creative as to how um we're we're spending those tax dollars to to to um elevate and enhance our buildings. There's also hard decisions required in terms of how we we fund each of our buildings as they're are made up very differently. um the fundraising capabilities of some of our schools whereas others don't have that that same luxury um as and funding of all of our buildings. Should our buildings be funded exactly the same way? Should we look at certain programs should run in some buildings where they're not in others? Whereas most school districts that have multiple high schools fund them exactly the same. We need to find a happy medium where we're treating giving our schools what they need instead of just giving everyone the same and expecting them

051to um to rise up and and hit a certain bar. Um I mentioned agility. Agility is non-negotiable. We have to find a way as a large organization uh to move with the times and be responsive to societal demands. And then finally, a shared vision is our way. Uh, and I want to highlight this one because you're going to see this play out in goal number one uh, repeatedly and is probably our most important first step. Uh I remember vividly before in that window of time before um after I was approved for this role, but before I officially started on July 1, there was a lot of conversation around um coursework in our buildings and the differences of those coursework and how they are built and the different six different comprehensive high schools that have six

052different personalities and are made up of different communities in eight different eight different villages that that contribute that that make our school district uh unique. Yet, there are some things that just need to be the district 214 way of doing things. And what we are actively doing in goal one as well as in goal three is identifying the district 214 way of doing certain things. And we're going to accentuate some of those tonight. But step number one is identifying what high quality instruction looks like in our school district and how we're going to align uh our core coursework to the Illinois State Learning Standards as a non-negotiable that our courses are constructed the same but our teachers add the art of instruction and make it their own and we believe we have a good way

053of doing that. On the right hand side is our portrait of a graduate. Uh this is something that it's again very idealistic but it's the it's the the outcome that we are we're hoping to to help partner with our families to achieve on the whole child's side of the student development. Um we want our stu our graduates to to be empowered and to empower themselves to know how they take charge of their life and and pursue their goals. Um to remain curious learning from uh as many different learning opportunities inside of school and out. Showing resilience. We all face adversity in life and high school is where you really start to uh to face some of that adversity. How do you manage that? Uh these skills are are needed for success in life to think

054critically. Believe it or not, the internet does not always tell us the truth. We have to learn how to manage our sources and determine what is the truth. And our students should be forming their own opinions based on u the information that that uh that they learn how to decipher. Owning their future. Our teachers voice came through loud and clear here. There's a sense of responsibility that's needed uh in the education process from being on time to turning in work on time. Um not plagiarizing your work. There's that that owning the process and knowing where you're going and owning your future and how you can take control of that. Communicating effectively through multiple different audiences as well as through different modalities. Um demonstrating kindness and showing empathy for others who come from different walks of

055life. um and understanding how to engage with different populations is vital in today's uh world and then supporting our community be by being active members of that community. So ideally our graduates will show growth from the time they enter our schools at as freshman until they're seniors. And this represents the skills that our community, the focus groups, and then our steering committee have identified and really honed in specifically uh the skills we want our students to possess upon graduation. What we'd like to what we are planning to do is overlay this over the instructional plan in the school and how and and find ways that we can infuse these skills in the development in our coursework so that um we can start pulling these skills out. We want to begin reporting the development and the

056and the progression our students make from freshman year to senior year so our families can can see grades but then also see the whole child side of the development and how we're partnering together for um to develop really great humans as they leave us um and and head off into the world to pursue their dreams. So finally before I before I hand it off um this culminates into four overarching goals. Uh those goals are engaging students in meaningful learning. Um fostering an environment where students feel valued and supports them to succeed, a sense of belonging goal. Uh goal number three is managing the district's resources. And then finally goal number four is the goal where we get to dream about the future of high school uh and innovate. And goal number one 1A is that

057is the academic program. That's where we we uh will go into much more detail but talk about the alignment of our courses. We have already begun the process of um curricular alignment against the Illinois State Learning Standards. Uh freshman year has been ongoing this year and we'll continue to roll out over the next couple of years until that alignment in our core courses exists. The first step is going to be the development of um that what is ideal u high quality instruction look like in our district. Dr. Hubard's going to go over more details in here in just a few minutes. Uh 1B has to do with um with the strong uh support of our staff. We have a luxury in this district um that our students student day starts at 8:20. Staff report at

0587:30. So from 7:30 to 8:20 daily our staff are here preparing uh for their students. Thursdays are our professional learning community days. Uh our staff on say the the the geometry or chemistry level are meeting together talking about um obviously planning but then how students are performing and what adjustments are needed in their instruction and planning um to help our students. We we need to really be sure we added this this subcategory intentionally to be sure that the strategic plan was reflected in that staff development time. Um goal 1C is one I'm extremely excited about. We've made some great progress. That's our transition in and out of school district 214. We have some work to do in terms of registration that we're actively working on as one of those district 214 ways of doing things.

059But we also have made some progress in our math alignment with our center districts. Um and and there's some really great work happening there. Goal two is our sense of belonging goal. Uh this is that ideally I want every single student who walks in our building to find their people while they're with us. know who their staff members are that they can trust and they form meaningful bonds with um but also find ways to be engaged in activities and athletics um and and and really find their path and discover their future while they're with us. Whereas 2B is their social emotional learning goal. Um and what that means you have to give a huge shout out to um to Alvin Lewis who's here is help leading our our PE department. Our PE teachers approached me

060and said we want to own social emotional learning. we want to own and and shift physical education to be more wellnessminded. Um, and they've embarked on a journey to uh to to construct a a comprehensive tier one uh social emotional learning curriculum where we talk about as we engage in our learning and the emotions that we come with each day, they're different. There could be angst, there could be anger, there could be joy, there could be frustration because you just had a an argument with a parent before you came to school and yet you're expected to focus. How do you how do you recognize that and and and deal with it and set it aside so you can can move forward and make and make progress? We all have certain anxieties that we deal with

061in life. And as adults, I don't think people told us how we had to navigate it and figure it out on our own. Um we're smarter now. We know more. We we can help our our students navigate, especially through exercise, how they can regulate um the normal um emotions that that um sometimes get in the way. and and so that they can be healthy but then also learn a skill that can translate into into life beyond high school. And then just as a cherry on top, our PE teachers said they wanted to uh wanted to own the process uh and make physical education more wellnessminded uh and and give students more choice. Goal number three are all about our resources. How are we we're defining what is uh the district 214 way of doing things?

062How are we looking at energy and our energy consumption? um and how are we going to maximize those dollars and take them from burning in the lights to learning in the classroom and ensure our money goes where it belongs. And then uh 3C um is the the transparency and financial transparency. There was a lot of conversation through co especially in in in districts in this district or this board claiming there wasn't uh transparency in our finances. that didn't sit well with you all and you told me that's something that you wanted to really take hold of and ensure that the curtain is pulled back and our community feels confident in how we're spending our tax dollars. Uh we pay a lot of taxes in Illinois. We don't like paying a lot of taxes but is

063the nature of the beast and uh we want to be sure our community is confident and and and proud of how we're uh expending those resources. And then finally in goal four um yes we have a lot of needs in terms of updating our buildings. We want to update them to be premier facilities for our students because they deserve that. Um, but right now we need to catch up and and and get them in a place of health. Um, but we want to re we want to imagine what that can be and the facilities of the next 40 years will be in partnership with our students, our staff and the community. Um, so that we can continue to be hubs that they're proud of. And then finally, the dreaming goal. The dreaming about the future

064of high school is really where where my charge comes in and I love it so much. It drives me. But high school can be so much more than it is. And we do a phenomenal job. This district is known for its innovation. Um, but it's time we uh there's more we can do. We just got the chance to celebrate uh Wheeling's Mariachi Band with the Liz Inis Award. a beautiful innovation identifying a group of students that were that could connect at a deeper level and brought taught them how to play guitar and they've in invested in a uh in a mariachi band that is tremendous and it's hooked a whole new group of students at a deeper level to their school and we want to accentuate and be intentional about elevating that work. So with

065that and hoping that uh my preview didn't take too much of of the thunder of what they're going into. This is like the 13th time I've done this part. So, uh, hopefully Dr. Hubard, I didn't take too much of what you were going to to talk about. I want to invite, uh, Brad Hubard up, uh, who will will take over on July 1 as our associate superintendent of teaching and learning. And Brad will be responsible as goal lead for goal number one. Um, and he's going to walk us through the details behind uh, goal number one and the strategies, some of the specific things that you're going to see. Uh and along the way, uh the themes that you're going to see is goal number one is where we're looking to inspire inspire our students

066to be lifelong learners with really enriching and and tremendous work in the classrooms. And goal number two, we're looking to connect and build that sense of community. Goal number three, align our practices across the district. And then finally, innovate. And goal number four, um to continue to make district 214 um a wonderful place to live, learn, and connect with the district with our students in mind. So, with that, Brad, I'll turn it over to you. You sure you're on a roll? You want to keep going? I love this. I'm excited about Thank you. Good evening. Uh, as Dr. Rose said, my name is Bradford Hubard. I'm incredibly proud to be the principal at Wheeling High School. Uh, but I'm also honored and humbled to be transitioning into role of associate superintendent uh in July. And

067one of the the major components of that transition has already begun in the work around the strategic plan. And um I've got a couple of things that I just wanted to share before we dig into some of the details and then certainly happy to answer any questions that come up. First, I think it's important to note um and it's probably obvious, but the the goals are numbered. Uh but they're certainly not numbered in order of importance, in order of how we uh view them. Uh I think I'd be remiss to say uh that that the teaching and the learning are the most important things that we do. Uh really the most important things that we do are embedded in goal number two around building relationships and providing support for our students and and sometimes more

068importantly uh providing the right supports and conditions for our staff to do what they do best. And so, uh, I just I wanted to preface, uh, the the unveiling of goal number one to articulate we we're clearly and keenly aware of how important goal number two is and how important creating the right conditions for students to thrive is. Uh, what you'll see in the goals is I think Rebecca alluded to this just it I I view it kind of as an iceberg. Um, and this isn't the tip of the iceberg. This is maybe like half of the iceberg. Um, what you're going to see tonight is the goal, the metrics, some of the the key strategies, and some of the key timelines. But really, we have stood up additional appendices and spreadsheets that get a

069lot more detailed in terms of some specific milestones, action steps, detailed timelines, resources that are going to be required in order to to champion this, the the human resources, most importantly, the people, the tools, the ideas. Um and then a lot of submetrics that will be overlaid on top of the the bigger metrics that we're monitoring. And so that's an important piece. Um I would say that I'm humbled to be sharing goal number one. This is certainly and and not anything that I created. This was the work of an incredible number of people over the course of this process. Um I'm I'm proud to be the goal lead. Um but really importantly, each of these sub um strategies or these priority strategies have leads themselves. Um, and I'd like to thank Kiana McNeel, Gabriella Stetsz

070Jackson, and Dr. uh, LZ Lopez, um, who served as leads for each of the individual strategies. And there, this has been the culmination of a number of large group meetings. Everybody that was attached to goal one, and then each of these strategies had their own meetings and their own uh, work that was done in terms of brainstorming and putting together what ultimately made its way into the plan. U,, goal number one, I think, obviously, is really important. I'm excited to navigate and transition into the teaching and learning role. Um we had a lot of discussion in goal number one uh uh and and not argument but a lot of rich discussion around instruction and uh and around what engaged learning and meaningful learning truly meant and there there's a lot of not competing I don't

071think you can have them independent of each other but there's talk about instructional practices and then there's a lot of talk about curriculum and you can have really great instructional practices but not great curriculum and you don't get the outcomes that certainly we all want and that our students deserve. And likewise, you can have an incredible curriculum, but if you don't have the instructional practices to accommodate that or to accompany that and augment that uh that you don't get the the outcomes that you need. And so we had a lot of conversations about what's our priority. Is our priority instruction or is our priority curriculum? And really what came out of those conversations is we have to do both, but we need to be mindful of what our true capacity is. If we unveil that

072we're um aligning all of our curriculum and changing instructional practices in the midst of all the other things that we're asking our teachers to also do. Um we've had a lot of conversation about how much um you know we want to dream big, but we also want to be mindful of what our capacity is and what our areas of focus truly need to be. You can see that the the outcomes well specifically the goal is engage all students in meaningful learning. I think that uh it says it in the paragraph right below there. The goal focuses on ensuring that all students in all classrooms and Dr. Row articulated this. When we say all, we have to mean all. And when we say every, we have to mean every. And that's throughout this entire plan. When

073the words all and every are there, we need to truly think of that um and and and pause to make sure that we truly are talking about all students and all classrooms. And we want our students to grow as a result of a rigorous and meaningful uh experience in the classroom and meaningful instruction. And it was the the word rigorous came out in in a lot of the conversations with the uh focus groups and in the surveys that were done. And and really what we're talking about is trying to create a guaranteed and viable curriculum. That the experience that a student is having at Rolling Meadows isn't marketkedly difference than the experience a student is having at Wheeling isn't marketkedly different than a a student is having anywhere else in the district. And we want

074to talk about that guaranteed viable curriculum that's aligned to the standards like Dr. Rose said. and then relying our absolute incredible staff to to really infuse the art of teaching and make their learning spaces what they really are, but make sure that it's predicated on a a detailed, a specific and an aligned curriculum. Our metrics, um, as has been stated, do not yet have numbers associated with them. Um, I think this goal in particular, it's really hard to talk about metrics with the state shifting in the assessment that they're using from SAT to ACT. Uh we just did two days of ACT testing. That'll give us a great baseline data to then have conversations this summer about what realistic benchmarks and numbers and targets might be. I just want to highlight a couple of things

075in the metrics section. Uh the first is obviously we want to increase the percentage of all students meeting ACT uh benchmarks as articulated by ISBE. And so we we want to make sure that students are hitting the targets to making sure that they are indicating that they're college and career ready. And then the the the goal right below that or the metric right below that is focusing on checking in to make sure that all student groups are also meeting benchmarks and showing growth. I think those are two different things that we need to be very mindful of. hitting benchmark and also demonstrating growth. Both are equally as important and we have to make sure that we're monitoring and checking in on both of those. And when we talk about groups, I think it's important to

076always disagregate we our data. We want to look wholesale how we're doing as a school and as a district. Uh but it's important to drill down and look at individual groups based on gender, race, socioeconomic status, um language proficiency, students with different abilities. Those are the types of student groups we want everyone to be growing. We want everyone to be reaching benchmarks. And so we want to create uh data points that allow us to measure the the growth and the targets that we have around those benchmarks. We uh continue to want to ensure that we're providing students opportunities to accumulate college credit while they're with us. Um, I'm excited about some programming that's, I think, in discussion and in the works about creating even more opportunities than we currently have, but the goal really has

077been around making sure that students uh, as many as possible have accumulated 15 college credits before they leave district 214. That's an incredible indicator of students not only metriculating into post-secary experiences, but also um, succeeding and and being persistent in completion. And so that metric is one that's important and we want all student groups to be moving toward more and more students achieving the 15 college credits. And the last one that's in terms of the metrics is increasing the measurement of the students achieving the skills outlined in the portrait of a graduate. I think that's going to be a committee that you'll see here in a little bit that's going to be stood up. How do we measure those things? Those are really important. Some of those are are at times hard to to key

078in on and figure out whether or not a student has really developed the the necessary resilience to to pursue whatever they want to pursue after district 214. And and so we're going to have a lot of conversation about how do we measure and then how do we monitor the students that are achieving those skills that we've outlined in the portrait of a graduate. You can see that goal number one has three priority strategies. The first one is enhancing instruction for all students aligned a clear district-wide vision supported by highquality practices. And and I don't know what that's going to look like yet, but I anticipate that that th that is the first thing that we have to do around goal number one is talk about what an instructional vision in district 214 looks like. We've

079got a lot of really great foundation to build upon. We've got redefining ready. We understand that we're trying to ensure students have experiences while they're with us that's going to prepare them for life after high school and whatever their post-secary plans are. I anticipate that our instructional vision is going to include a focus on experiential learning, project-based learning, um making sure that students are creating and not just sitting and getting that we're fostering critical thinking. Um and that we really are focused on that that continued focus and preparation around college and career readiness. As we look at uh strategy 1B, it talks a lot about this idea of making sure that the staff have the the support, the professional development, the skills, the tools, the resources to be able to implement that instructional vision. And

080so when we talk about making sure that we've got sustained and differentiated professional development opportunities for stu or for our staff members, our staff members come in with all sorts of areas of expertise and degrees and experiences. And we want to make sure that we have a robust professional learning plan and the professional learning opportunities to make sure that that the teachers have what they need and the tools that they need to be able to carry out the instructional vision in their classrooms. And the last one, as Dr. Ro already talked about is the the strong transitions into high school and out of high school and and a lot of that work has already begun. Uh we've got incredible partnerships with a number of post-secondary uh colleges and universities and and we're trying to make

081sure through things like nor uh national Lewis's middle college program making sure that we're setting up students for smooth transitions out of high school. And there's been a lot of work done in the last two years, three years, um certainly since I've been in the district around collaborating with our seven feeder districts and talking about instruction and talking about um streamlining registration processes and making sure that we're using summerbridge programs effectively and identifying the right students to take advantage of that so that the the students have a more seamless transition from 8th grade into 9th grade. And we know how important that is for them to experience eventual success. If we go to the next slide, um it's like four point font and so I've struggled to write that down here. I got a little

082bit bigger version a little while ago. Um so what you'll see here and and this is something I think each of the goal leads will have an opportunity to go into and I won't read all of this to you. I will certainly answer questions around any of it. Um what we've talked about are what are some of the key activities that we are going to have to do in order to realize each of these key strategies. And so the overarching goal of engaging all students in meaningful learning and then the subgoal the strategy 1A for instance enhancing instruction for all students to clearly align district vision. What do we need to do to establish a district vision? Then how do we align our curriculum to that? And so what you'll see in the key activities

083and I'll talk about some of them. Um that's going to be those are the the big things that we have to do. And like I said, under that iceberg, the the part of the iceberg that's under the water are all the detailed plans around a lot of the micro activities that we have to do and the resources that we're going to need and the time that it will take to to really allow us to realize what it is that we want to do. One of the first things we have to do is develop the instructional vision. I talked about how important that's going to be. I think we have a lot of of really great ideas around what that could potentially include. and we've got a lot of starting spots in terms of documents and

084and programs and processes that have been built in this d district to build upon what we want to make sure that we do. And then the second one is the idea of of creating a a curriculum review cycle where we've started it right now all of our freshman core courses are going through a a a review cycle where we're looking at what we're currently doing and making sure that's aligned to the Illinois state standards. Once we're able to do that and then we have conversations about aligning some potential common experiences. Um if if we're going to agree upon a certain class writes a certain number of essays, a certain science class does a certain number of of labs or certain types of labs. Um we want to make sure that we've got the resources in

085place. We've got the experiences in place. Eventually we'll have the the assessments in place. And then what we have to do is make sure that we continue to revisit that materials need to be revisited. Alignment standards may change. We need to make sure that we're staying up to date. And so establishing a curriculum review cycle that will allow us to look at the curriculum, the standards, how successful are students being are being, what kind of materials we need, what kind of resources they need, what kind of experiences they have, and what kind of assessments we're using. And I think it's really important that we get to a place where that curriculum review cycle in in incorporates student voice. And I want students at the table as we look at what freshman biology looks like so

086that they can tell us what their experience was like and they can tell us where they may need to shift. And I think that we are creating partnerships uh so often with community partners and industry partners that could also potentially have a seat at the table or an opportunity to provide us feedback on what we need to be making sure that we're infusing into our courses. And so that curriculum review cycle I think is really important. Define instructional practices, beliefs, and expectations aligned professional and personalized system of assessment which is is going to be important. And then that last one that's there is is is a big one is how are we going to create and implement a way of measuring student attainment of the skills that are articulated in the portrait of a graduate.

087Those are key pieces. What you'll see on the right hand side is just a guesstimate right now. Um as Rebecca said, this has got to be something that's going to have pencil marks and pen marks and highlights. Um eventually we will get to a place where this will all be marked up. I think we took our best guess as to how long each of these things might take and what we needed to start with to make sure that we experienced success. So the the the darker bar on each of these is the time in which each of these key activities would be an area of focus or uh work that's happening in earnest. And we want to make sure that that first and foremost we get that instructional vision out. And then you'll see that

088the the lighter shade is when there's some ongoing work. It might not be the area of focus, but it's ongoing. And truthfully, uh, a lot of this is year one on here. There has been a lot of work done actually in year zero, which I'll call year zero, what we're doing right now, around the collaboration of uh, our freshman core courses around the articulation with our feeder districts specifically in math and and I a lot of that stuff has already begun and will continue to work. And so we tried to highlight what needs to be ongoing and then in each of these years to make sure that we're being mindful of what our true capacity is and what we're able to truly achieve. Um what years certain things would be certain areas of focus. And

089I'm certain that this will change and we have more detailed timelines in a few other documents that we're using um internally, but it continues to shift. No, we need to do that first. No, we need to do this first. And and that will continue to evolve and and be something that makes this plan really a living plan. The second strategy uh talks about the development and the around staff support and professional development to make sure that our that our staff are equipped and have the capacity to help us carry out the the vision and the that vision that's are created in strategy 1A will be the vision that that will really inform the practices and the professional development we build in strategy 1B. We want to make sure that we have a current uh threshold

090or a current idea on what our current professional development plan is. This district off offers incredible professional development. We have a teaching and learning department, a professional development part department. Um we have um D214 University where people are taking classes and and and really learning action research. I I've never been at a place that has more professional development and uh we want to audit kind of where we are and then make sure that we also have the capacity and the intentionality around making sure that we're equipping our staff with the skills and the resources and the tools to carry out the instructional vision. We want to implement the the uh D214 uh practices around professional development and establish a cadence to make sure that if we have if we are adopt a certain set of

091instructional strategies that we believe will move the needle on achievement that every teacher is trained in that and so that will take time. Uh what in in my head it you know maybe the first three years is is an opportunity to get all current staff trained and then you embed that in onboarding for new staff and eventually you create a cycle where everybody's been trained in in whatever the instructional practices you've adopted are and making sure that that we've got and continue to revisit and provide that support provide that ongoing learning through our professional development plan for our staff to be able to carry out the vision. And the last one on there that I wanted to highlight is the the last bullet point specific around building assessment literacy. Um, our teachers are amazing at

092at teaching and at creating an environment where students feel seen, safe, heard, loved, cared for, and they're they're all passionate about their content. And and one of the things that is that that can be tough as as a former classroom teacher is how to write a good assessment. And I think uh at some point once we get the curriculum aligned and we understand what instructional practices we believe will move the needle best for our students, we have to figure out the right and best way to assess and then utilize that assessment data to figure out where we need to make adjustments in our instruction or in our practices or even in our curriculum. And and writing assessments might not be everybody's forte. And so it's going to be some work. There has to be some

093intentionality around building the assessment literacy of our team and of our staff to make sure that we're able to to write assessments or find assessments that measure what it is we want to measure, but then also utilize those assessments and the results of those assessments then to go back and revisit our curriculum, revisit our instructional practices. And the last one I probably spoke uh too much about already um around these transitions. I stole my own show when I was talking on the last slide. Uh we started a lot of this in in year number zero where we've we've created some joint working groups around middle school math and how that transitions into high school math. We've we're we're talking about summer bridge programs, but really creating working groups to talk about academic in expectations, instructional

094practices, and making sure that we've got the right support structures in place for students as they come. uh that eighth to nth grade transition is so incredibly important and specifically student performance first semester of ninth grade is incredibly indicative of how much success they will experience in school. And so the more intentionality we can have around the transition and around support of students as freshmen uh the better off all of us will be. And then you can see in years two and three and then three through five what we want to continue to focus on building our transitionmies or bridge programs and then having a possible opportunities for peer mentoring, ongoing progress monitoring, and and bringing families into the fold to make sure that that what we're doing and and the conversations that we're having

095with the feeder districts really is truly preparing our students for their experience once they get here. The streamlined registration processes truly have already begun. Um, we're changing registration process for this year to try to make it more accessible and easier and more supportive for families. But the more we can do that, the more welcoming it is. When your first foray, when my first foray, I have a freshman in high school. Um, I do this for a living and registering her last year was one of the most challenging things. I couldn't figure out anything we were supposed to do. Um, and and yet I'm I do this and we we expect other people to do it. And so we want to figure out how to streamline registration and make uh their a family's first experience with

096us as welcoming and inviting and as smooth and and easy as possible. And that's something that we can continue to shore up and we've already had a lot of conversations around. We do have a four-year plan as you can see in the third bullet that that talks about four-year planning and post-secary planning, but be more intentional about pulling that four-year plan off at regular touch points throughout the four years with students and with families to make sure that they feel as though that they're on the path to achieve what it is that they're setting out to achieve and making adjustments to it on an ongoing basis. I think that's incredibly important that we're really focused on the four-year planning so that when we get them that transition into 8th grade and then that four-year plan

097will really help us make sure that the transition out of high school is much smoother. We currently collect a lot of data on graduates through the the national clearing house data. Uh but we also know that sometimes there's holes in that data, sometimes there's students that it's not giving us feedback on. and we really want to have a better idea of student success and student experience post high school. So through surveys, alum alumni networks, exit surveys, um we want to figure out how we can and keep tabs on our students and get feedback from them on how prepared they felt transitioning out of high school and into their post-secary experience and making sure that they were best suited uh to to pursue whatever it is that they pursued. and and that feedback is critically important

098for us to continue to talk about the preparation for that important transition out of high school. And lastly, the um the post-secary transitions. Again, I think there's some legs around uh some ideas around making sure that we have a smoother transition post high school. Our partnership with Middle College, with uh National Lewis University is key. There's been some preliminary conversations with some community or some college partners about either providing more opportunities or even providing more permanent opportunities for some college counseling or some college advising to happen with college counselors and college adviserss in our buildings. Um specifically as it relates to the Harper Promise for instance, how can we get more students to take advantage of an absolute incredible partnership and resource that's available to them? So those are some of the things that we've

099articulated through uh goal one in terms of our key strategies and key activities and then you can see some of the timelines that that we're thinking around those. Not sure uh do we do questions now or is there something else you want me to uh talk about before we go to questions? Yeah, I I got two I have two points that I want to make. Um, number one, I'm glad you touched upon um both into high school as well because I thought that the program that you established, Dr. Row, for math with the state of Illinois and our feeder districts was very important because now we're being proactive rather than being reactive when we get them and we know they're not prepared specifically now in math, but we know there's other subjects as well. So,

100I'm glad you touched upon that, but I do want to also um read uh the last sentence of the last paragraph of strategy 1C because I think it is important. It wasn't really outlined in your presentation, but I know it's part of what we talked about in the strategic plan. And that is it reads, "Ensuring the majority of students at every school are equipped to pursue post-secary pathways that f foster lifelong learning and economic advancement." And what that means is it it's talking about just not college. I know if you look at the metrics it looks like it's well it's all about you know college and stuff like that but if you took if you happen to see the skill and innovation trade fair that we had at forest view and we know that we

101push the trades a lot in all of our high schools and that is a pathway that many of our students are going to be taking many won't be I shouldn't say many but some some subset will not be going to college so it's important to have that as well and that was a focus of the strategic plan and I just want to make sure that people who might be in our audience or might be watching might be saying, "Well, my kid's going to be working on auto on in autos and or maybe he's going to be uh in HVAC and stuff like that." That's still part of this and it's part in that covered in that last part of the last sentence of strategy 1C. So, absolutely. I actually had that sentence highlighted that I

102was supposed to read and I forgot. So, thank you very much. Um, I do I absolutely agree and and the number of certifications that we continue to provide and equip and and provide opportunities for students to accumulate and achieve while they're here that helps with that postsecondary transition into the workforce or into trade schools. I think that the certification piece has to continue to be a focus and an area of priority. And as principal of Wheeling High School, I'm sure you've seen a lot of that firsthand. Absolutely. Y Anyone else? Okay, let's move on. Okay, go ahead. Um, Dr. Hubard, thank you very much for the detailed review of goal one. I mean, clearly there's been a lot of work and I know we have more goals to go through, but I I always worry,

103you know, when when you set out on such an ambitious path that the vision is so critical to define and and it you you you highlighted it that it'll take about a year or two years. I think that's not only the vision but alignment with the curriculum everything. Has there been discussion I am curious on incorporating some of the people who have been involved in developing this plan in involving them in the vision development as well. Absolutely. And I don't know exactly when that work is going to start, but the plan is to seat a a representative committee certainly of people that were part of the strategic plan, but also part of the the contingent of stakeholders that will be responsible for carrying it out. Um, but I want to ensure that that instructional vision

104isn't created by one or two people sitting and thinking this is what we need to do. really I I think this is almost as important as as the creation of a strategic plan itself. I know a lot of the strategy was was administrative driven. Um but what you're the question is not an administrator only type of uh of a committee. It teacher voice is vital to creating that u to that that instructional vision. I I I agree and and as you said, you know, if the stakeholders are involved in developing that, then they'll own it and and I do I think I couldn't agree more though that the vision is probably just as critical. So, I I I just want to make sure that there is time spent on that. I'm really happy to hear

105that there will be a curriculum review cycle as well as more involvement with the families because I I think, you know, that's been a concern of mine in the past. So, thank you. Absolutely. Anyone else? Okay, on to goal two. Thank you so much. Thanks, Dr. Harvard. Um, Cara Kendrick is uh is our goal lead for goal number two. She had a uh a family emergency that kept her away tonight. So, Mrs. Craft is going to uh pinch hit in goal number two. Thank you for the B uh baseball reference. Uh just for you, just for you, Katie. Yes, thank you. Associate Superintendent for Human Resources. I'm I'm the goal lead for uh goal four, but as Dr. Rose said, I'm pinch hitting for Cara, and I'm grateful after Brad went that I Cara does

106not have goal one. So, goal two is fostering an inclusive and wel welcoming community. And first, I want to thank uh Megan Mulun Brown and Alvin Lewis who are here. They're the two strategy leads for goal two. And uh Brad coined the phrase of uh year zero and uh particularly when it comes to the second strategy in goal two. There's been a significant amount of work done in year zero for that which I'll talk a little bit about. Uh goal two asks us to foster an environment that values everyone and supports them to succeed. Uh really doing that by fostering meaningful relationships, ensuring inclusivity and targeting social and emotional supports. The outcome metrics associated with this goal really focus on um reducing chronic absenteeism. I know those of you who have been on the board

107for a while have certainly heard that this has been a goal of ours postcoid. Um Cara and the team really feel like we've got some foundational pieces in place to really make this the focus of uh our metrics um our outcome metrics for goal two. increase students reporting that they feel a sense of belonging and also increase that feeling that families have that our schools and environments are welcoming and engaging. The first strategy, strategy a cultivate a sense of belonging for all students, families and staff. Uh really what this team is working on is developing more consistent communication with the feeder schools. I know that work has already begun. Focusing on this trusted adult initiative. I know I've heard Dr. Ro talk about this a little bit, but really that's a dataf focused initiative where

108we're ensuring um in our system who and and that every student has an adult in the building that they trust and if that student doesn't have one, making sure that that changes and leaning on that trusted adult when that student needs something. Um uh and then using student voice through advisory groups and surveys. And when you look at some of the key activities, uh we can talk a little bit about more about what that looks like. Uh continued attendance and program initiatives are all part of the strategy uh 2A, the sense of belonging. Strategy 2B focuses more on a dedicated social and emotional resource. As Dr. Ro talked about, um Alvin Lewis and the PE and CTE uh division heads have worked hard uh vetting programs. There's been a large group of stakeholders that have

109come together this year that are vetting different programs for uh a social and emotional curriculum. In fact, um they're looking at beginning training this fall on the curriculum and we'll begin implementation of it uh next spring. So, right now we have some core curriculum that's delivered through our counselors um into our classes uh at the freshman year. And this curriculum that's developed would really be married what goes on in the PE classroom with the curricul curriculum that's pushed in through the counselors um would be sort of married together and part of an ongoing social emotional curriculum development. Um if you look over at the um at the timelines for when these goals take place as I said uh when we talk about uh strategy 2A a lot of the foundational conversation has taken place but

110strategy 2A um focuses the activities on the building level. So starting with the district level conversations um and then focusing on getting some student groups in the buildings um getting student voice in the buildings um and provide professional development for staff uh uh staff members for connections before after uh and during the school day. Uh for 2B again a lot of the district work um has begun but the goal for 2B is that the SEAL curriculum over the course of four years or five years is embedded into each year and each experience in high school. And so that will be um how it's how it's uh broken down year after year and built upon year after year. So, with that, I invite any questions from the board about two uh goal two or Megan and

111Alvin. If I missed a big part of goal two, please please let me know. Sure. All right. Thank you, Miss Craft, for going through this. Um, I think the social emotional learning is really critical, and I'm really happy to hear that PE is incorporating that goal or or taking lead on that goal, I should say. Um I I I do you know hearing about the option of not having PE one year or something I I think that will be a challenge to if if that continues how to address that. So um but I I know that you will come up with a plan. So I I have faith in you guys. Um I was curious on the metrics. So you know in goal one those are kind of yet to be scoped because we have

112to get some data. Are do we have a pretty good handle for goal two of our metrics? Because I'm thinking with the reduction in chronic absenteeism, we we we have some data for that. I I would think so. And then, you know, we we've done a survey or two with the students. So, do we have a a fairly decent? We do, but what we don't have a great handle on is how much we can move the chronic absenteeism needle. Okay. And I if you you know over the last couple of years we've seen significant very intentional efforts and yet that's it's not it's not moving very much. Uh as an example um Wheeling's team made a tremendous effort in the fall and 5,000 more classes were attended and it moved the needle half a percentage

113point. So, it's really more about setting the number that we believe we we can hit. Um, and and committing to it. Um, and the reason that that's not in here now is just we were we were trying to get it to this board to vote so that before it changed so that this board that started the work could finish the work. Um, so I believe there is work in the background. It just wasn't ready for we wanted to bring the whole package together. Okay. Can I add one piece to that please? The the second the sense of belonging and family perception of pockets and not great response really. So some of the questions you're having as a goal is should we stick with the measures where the methods we're already using or is there some

114other survey getting a better response. So as an as an example, we use some we issue the uh administer the annual student survey, right? Um and what we've learned through the process as we dug into it is feedback from our students is the wording of that survey was very convoluted and mis and misleading and they didn't they didn't care for the survey at all. So many of them weren't taking the survey. So there's you know having a measure that's giving you bad data is pointless. Um part in addition to there are there are there are surveys that are out there that are part of a bigger picture of a maybe more of a universal screener type of a thing of understanding how are students engaging in lots of different aspects of their feelings around school

115that can give us really meaningful information. So we want to do we go that route or do we work with our research and and evaluation team and and just build our own really good survey. Um and it it's time for to renew the annual student survey. So, okay, we we we've adjusted some of the questions. We did issue it this year because some of our buildings, their school improvement plan was built on that data and we they needed to have it. Sure. Um but it it needs to be tweaked. Okay. All right. I appreciate that insight. Thank you. Thanks, Miss Craft. Okay. Goal three. Thanks, Mr. K. Mr. Julie. Mr. Ulie, as you know, Mr. Julie is our associate superintendent operations. Uh and is is I have asked Chris to take the lead this year

116on uh helping tear down silos that naturally form in large organizations. So over the years, you know, uh the finance department does finance things, the operations department focuses on our buildings and grounds, HR does HR things when in all reality those three departments are intertwined and reliant on one another to function because there technology is in the operations department and technology touches all of it. So Chris's uh Chris's approach and and mine works in a very systemic thinking way and I've asked him to infiltrate all three all areas of the district to look at how do we ensure that all departments are cohesive and not uh living in a silo unintentionally. He's done a nice job and I point that out just because so much of goal three is based around maximizing our resources and

117crossing all of our departments. So, uh, in the transition from the walk and just to set the stage, uh, Mr. Ul, it's all yours. Thank you. That's a great segue. And I think building on that, you know, maintaining a student centered approach. We all know what that means, but we understand the strains on the building day-to-day operations. Um, you know, all the district functions live in the building. And so, to maintain a student- centered approach, how do we create more time and efficiency for our building leaders to work more with students? Right? we talk transportation, food service, the technology management, operations, HR functions all live in the buildings. And so the the main focus of this goal is to to create funnels and workflows that ensure that we're maximizing our resources and all the while

118doing that the most efficient way possible. So to steal to build on a baseball term and I'm sorry this is a Cubs reference. Um, coach Joe Madden, manager of the Chicago World Champion, Chicago Cubs. Do simple better, I think is kind of the lens that we're looking at this. And perhaps it's only great cont. [Laughter] And so when we're looking at workflows, um, we're looking at those systems of efficiencies and and the members of this team come from all positions and all departments. And so we have every lens um at our disposal to kind of critique and analyze every single workflow and function that exists in the district. And so that's a lot. Uh and so early on we're we're doing a lot of auditing. Um and again our goal is to align our resources

119to support goals one and two in this vision and make and support all the work they're doing. But that that's going to create and Brad mentioned a few of them, Kate mentioned a few of them. That's going to require a lot of collaboration with some of the departments that Dr. Ro mentioned. Technology is going to be involved. We have to cross over to to teaching and learning. We're going to have to cross over to business services. And so just ensuring that we have that continued collaboration. And I will think this goal is going to operate early on behind the scenes a lot. Um but our hope is as as we build this that we're looking at every experience from every stakeholder perspective. So, as as we look at our website, as we look at student

120registration, we're looking at it from every single angle to ensure that we have the best possible experience from from every lens. Um, a couple just building on goals 3, A, B, and C. I think early on, goal 3A, we're leaning on our our principal team. They're the main drivers of goal 3A to help us identify some areas early on that we can focus on. And again, supporting the work in goal one and two. uh a year zero example is looking towards next year to all of our meeting schedules and structures making sure they're all aligned overlaying that with our teacher PD as Dr. Ro mentioned early on focusing our admin workshop priorities and agendas built off of this strategic plan. So all of that has already started to happen and we'll start to build on

121that as as we move forward. Um 3B, you'll see every district department listed. And again, that's that's a lot of analysis of all of the current systems that exist. Are they meeting our needs? Is the functionality there? What's the overlay and interaction with other departments? Um what we're noticing early on is that a lot of our systems don't talk to one another from a from a technology perspective. And so we've started to kind of strip down some of our critical systems to build them back up again to allow us to build off of that. So, so a a really simple example is a lot of our our work is driven by infinite visions. And so when when an employee is board approved, they get entered into into infinite visions that then build we build off

122of that initial data to create access to other systems. And when that system is not clean, then we can't build off of that. A real easy example is assistant coach is listed as assistant and then it's also listed as AS as period. Right? So, so you can't really build off of that when you don't have clean, accurate data. So, that is currently happening. Um, we've pulled in a lot of different team members, HR, business services, and even uh one of our data specialists from teaching and learning to have all eyes on this as we start to strip it down and rebuild it. Uh, another example with onboarding is, you know, we're establishing user groups. So, dean of students is hired at Wheeling High School. We now know that they need access to Infinite Campus. what

123access level they need access to infinite visions what access level 911 alert system raptor system genitech camera system right those are all the things that we're starting to layer and build to create those redundancies and efficiencies um lastly goal 3C um financial transparency we're looking at a return on investment tool a way to assess programs uh current and potential future um to just make sure that we're collecting all the necessary data to drive decision- making. So, we're we're also looking at increased transparencies. Talked about a web page. Are there data dashboards that we can start to push out uh to the public for that additional transparency? And lastly, I'll just say everything we're doing, we're looking to build controls as well um to eliminate one of the one of the ones we're working on now

124is just our paper time sheets. And so, we've started to kind of chip away at that. And if you just think about a piece of paper and the number of hands it has to pass through before it gets to payroll, right? That's a great example of the the opportunity that exists for human error and and poor data entry. And so as you look at these systems, how do we create efficiency and controls to ensure that uh we're pushing forward. So that's kind of the crux of it. I'll be happy to answer any questions. board members. Andrew, it's okay. Go ahead. Of course, Mr. Ulie, thank you very much. Um, I think you have a a critical function here to pull all these groups. Um I just wanted to for clarification you when you were going

125through strategy 3B you list all the groups or all the departments and you mentioned it you you touched on security that falls under is facilities and operations that's under that. Yeah. Our our our security safety and security team lives in operations. Okay. But we rely heavily on technology as well obviously. Obviously. Right. Okay. Um and and so they're involved in everything as well because as as you mentioned, you know, student focused and and having everyone um have that perspective. Okay. All right. Just small clarification. Thank you. Okay. Goal four. All right. Thanks, Mr. Julie. Miss Craftless, dream about the future. Yes. Thank you, Dr. O. And I am uh very excited that I get to um be the lead for goal four, unlocking the future of education. As Dr. Rose said, this is the the

126fun stuff and I'm happy to uh to be the lead. I want to thank uh Scott Schultton and Dr. McFall who were the strategy leads and especially Dr. McFall. There was at least one meeting that I was sick and he just did the ran the whole thing. So, uh a lot of this work um is with his leadership. So, thank you, Heath. Uh the for for goal four, it's about all about unlocking the future of education. Um there's really only uh two pieces to this goal uh that focus on the facilities and focus on taking the innovation that we are um so proud of and have such a strong reputation for and really looking at how do we build that throughout our organization as opposed to in pockets. And so the outcome metrics for uh

127goal four are to increase the percentage of students reporting positive perception of facilities and facilities that meet their needs, building a tracking and evaluation process uh and scale impactful innovations appropriately and increase the number of students engaging in newly offered personalized learning opportunities. So um strategy a reimagining quality facilities. Um, I'm going to talk a little bit about what some of the key activities are and give you an example of what this what this could look like. So, the first thing is develop and implement a district master facility planning committee. So, what what a master facility planning committee would be is more of a focus on the academic spaces as opposed to what you've already looked at and received which focuses more on on uh the facility in general. So this is more a focus

128on the learning spaces. Develop and implement a building level facility committee and identify opportunities to enhance spaces to offer riching richer learning opportunities for students. So a good example of this I would I would offer is that we just went through our staffing process and we have certain classes that have just a few students at every building. And so our options are to not run it, right? Or our option is to be um like financially inefficient by running really small classes or by doing something cool and meaningful for the for the kids but that requires a different kind of learning space, right? does requires a different kind of setup um uh different tech specifications and so goal four really not only is asking us to dream about what's impossible but asking us to make sure

129that we have the facilities that support what we know what kind of innovation we know is important for our students and important for the future. Um strategy B drive innovation through smallcale efforts to reinvision student experiences. So, this one um I've I've now been in the district and on the leadership team um long enough to have um participated in in in um these efforts where we bring really cool innovative ideas to the table uh and try them. And this goal, this strategy really takes us to that next piece of evaluating them uh and really um testing them and expanding those innovations. And so um if you look at uh 4B the last piece create and implement a building and district innovation team um this would help us test and expand the innovations provide the professional

130development once we've evaluated the innovations and um partner with stakeholders to identify themes of needed attention. So where do we need to innovate in order to keep up with what we hope to do and that's to be able to offer all sorts of classes hybrid blended online competency based uh all the things that we know are part of uh our present and our future. So with that I will take any questions about goal four board members. So just to clarify the strategy 4A um so my middle uh child um she was in the education pathway and um senior year um her classes were at Buffalo Grove High School. So that's kind of a situation that you're describing in 4A. So that way students who would have to go to another building to be part of

131that class would have other possible avenues. Yeah. And we're trying not to take that option away. Frank, that's a great example. And that's a great example because that's something that a student has spent year after year preparing for that capstone experience or that last experience. So that's a great example not necessarily to take an option away to go to Buffalo Grove um but to provide an option where the student may choose to uh learn at Hershey High School in an environment with an adult um and and doing it virtually. And that's also another example of one where some days the students even aren't aren't on site. Um, so that's exactly what that goal says, that strategy. Yeah, because I think I think I heard from um parents like one was like language where the language

132that their student was at um was no longer offered at their high school, but might have been offered at another high school and if they didn't have transportation, well, they were pretty much out of luck. Yeah, I'm super excited about all the progress we've made on that this particular year, Frank, and the focus in this goal four uh that's on continuing to uh evolve in that way. Thanks. Yeah, you know, if I I could I wanna I want to highlight something on the metrics um in this one because if you look at the second bullet point on the metrics where it says build a tracking and evaluation process, we struggled with this mightily um because there's a tendency to set a number and I think the last thing we want to do is set a

133how will we eval what are the goals we're trying to achieve? How will we evaluate if it has been effective? And if it hasn't, how do we sunset it? if it has, how do we scale it? And we want to be very intentional about those things because we talk in this district pretty proudly about a failing forward concept. And we have to be willing to try something knowing it may not be successful and be really okay with that. But if it's not, we also have to be smart enough to sunset it and say, "We're just not going to do this anymore." Because what schools do and businesses too, but schools are really, really bad at it. We start something, it doesn't really work, it just keeps going and we do something else. And that's how

134we end up with in with uh initiative fatigue. And we want to be really intentional about not falling victim to that again because we've done it in the past. I've done it in the past, other districts. Um but it set our what what how will we know if it's successful and if it's not, how are we going to uh let it sunset? But Andrew had a question. I just wanted to add that point. That was the question you were gonna ask. I hope. No. No. Okay. Um, Miss Craft, I I think this is it is an exciting goal, right? This is this is the future of education and we talk about all the wonderful pathways and and all the opportunities to go outside the box for education. Does this goal also cover the the basics

135the going outside in the basic areas or do you see that focus more under goal one and not that they're necessarily independent of each other but you know how we teach math how we do English today right I mean there are some fundamentals that you know that will continue to occur throughout education but I think rethinking that is also can can be considered. Do you see that part of this goal? Absolutely. I see goal one and goal four very much intertwined and I I see goal four informed by the work of goal one. You know, when we talk about when Rebecca was talking about some of the work that we do this summer, there's committee work on goal one and goal four. That's as we continue to talk about what our metrics will be, I

136wonder what those how those committees should be married moving forward. And so I I think that's spot on in terms of um what we're looking at and what our next iteration will consider. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Dley. Yes, I did. Um I'm interested in the last line on strategy 4B. 10 or 12 years ago, I was on a committee called the innovation and change committee and where a number of things happened. It was set up to uh bring in new uh uh not necessarily new teaching method but new courses uh developed and uh they were tried out and if they didn't work uh they were they were uh not continued. Um Katie Page was on that committee and she's restarting that uh and I'd agreed to be on that. Is that part of what you

137see uh under that last item on page 4B? Yeah, I was I was thinking when I mentioned that now I'm one of the senior members of the deck uh in our district. I was thinking exactly of that bill and of something we had called forest view planning team where you'd come and you'd bring one innovative idea and it's really it's that and then it's taking that to scale and what do we do when it does work right we know we should do when it doesn't work but what do we do when it does and how do we provide the professional development and and facilities to to take that to scale so that's exactly it bill well you have to have a process where you tip it over the edge if it's not working right you

138know it goes down to wherever but uh that was one of the significant parts of the innovation and change committee back then was they looked at it, they evaluated it, it had to fit not only the location, but it had to fit the district as a total. If it didn't work, it didn't work. Nobody was punished. It was uh you know, fall forward. Fail forward. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Um any closing comments, board members, before we vote on this? Go ahead, Bill. You know, and when I started to review this tonight and look at it, I I thought I was going to be drinking out of a fire hose. Uh and and to a degree, uh that's true. But what what you did, all of you that presented it, you you presented in a

139manner that that took it down to garden hoses with your strategies and and and the steps going forward, which which is greatly appreciated because this is a this is a a major process. You talk about a big process. This is it. And we're looking to the future. And uh I appreciate what you did, Kate. I certainly appreciate Chris, what you did. in Bradford, wherever you are, if you're here, thank you. There you are. Uh, it was great. Thank you, Dr. Ro. No. Anyone else? Go ahead. I just have one final question. As you've gone through this process, I know you've taken it to the buildings in bits and pieces and I'm sure members of the committees have communicated. what has been the perception of of those not necessarily involved in the committees but that you

140know all all the stakeholders in you know I have I've presented this a number of times actually just presented it to um our our booster parents tonight um finished with all the PTC groups as well had two you Mr. Rithers in the in the audience. He was on our steering committee. Arranged for a few minutes at uh a chamber function, but then had two hosted two chamber coffee. So, we we've really uh we've really um uh socialized it quite far and um a lot of head nodding of like yes, that makes sense or yes, I've had that struggle or I recognize that need. Um there's been a lot of when we talk about the transition in and out sparked a lot of discussion. We've had some affirmation around the registration process and the frustration there.

141Um and in terms of the innovation even when I went to some details and they they had questions about like what is that what are you thinking and we talk about online education and if you pursue a four-year degree you're going to take an online course. So, why not allow that as an option for a student while they have the safety net of high school and we can pull them in if they're struggling and help them learn how to navigate that. So, there's been a lot of yes, that makes sense. We want to do that. Um, the most feedback I've received was on the alignment and the development of a district 214 way of doing certain things like special education, safety, technology, um, and our and our curriculum alignment. There's been a lot I've received

142some positive feedback. Pat, you've been with me in every single one. Does anything stand out in terms of feedback that I didn't mention? No, they they've all been very supportive of it and um it it fully aligns with the plan. I think that the the only thing I would add would be the the transparency of it all. Um, I've had I've had a few comments appreciating that knowing where we're going and being able to see that and support that, especially from parents in the portrait of a graduate side of of the partnership of the on the whole child and and we have to figure out how to do it, but being able to see that the development of that growth over their four years with us and Dr. Row, I would say that people have

143appreciated um the acknowledgement of things that may not be working and that there's a plan to address those things. Hi. Just just because it's on it's being recorded so you course. Um I I I have not been as many of these presentations as you nor Pat. Uh but I will say last night at the Wheeling parent meeting uh after the presentation, we have a a freshman parent who came to a PTO meeting last night and with a big smile on her face, she looked right at Dr. Row and said, "This is great. How can I help?" And I think that just encompasses at least some of the excitement that I have felt around us being transparent and having a vision for moving forward. I really appreciate you adding that, Dr. Hubbert. Oh, I think that

144everyone who has participated in this has done a great job. Um, I think I speak for all board members that we're really proud to of the final product here and I don't want to use the term final because it is a living document, but the the the document that's before us and we wish you a lot of success in in in your implementation over the next five plus 20 years. Right. We're excited and and I if I could I would add I just appreciate we have some of our steering committee members who took it upon themselves to come join us tonight. Didn't have to and uh I really appreciate the time that you've given and and and the thoughts uh to to Frank and Mark and the board representatives on that on that committee. Greatly

145appreciate u your active participation and and guidance along the way. Thank you. It's a big deal. We're very excited we're here. John, Mr. Walker, I have one last thing just to piggyback on what uh Dr. Hubbert said, you know, Bill said it that it wasn't it felt like it would be drinking out of a garden hose because of all the things that have done, but I will tell you, and a few people will laugh, it is written for anybody that's not in education. It's written for the parent. It's easy to read and especially when you know if you move into the district from somewhere else because you want a new start for your child which we have a lot of families doing that you know the portrait of the graduate really defines who they can

146be and I think it's really hard for parents to think about that they just want it better and this kind of gives it a road map. Kudos to everybody. You I guess one last thing if I could and and it's really interesting. A mentor of mine uh when I when I uh was offered my first superintendency, she said uh congratulations, you won the job. Now you have to do it. And and it's the same thing here, you know, congratulations. We've reached this point. We've written a plan. Now we have to do it. Um and there's a lot of work that's ahead. And I can tell you that, you know, my perception is is our team is energized by it and and I'm very excited to roll our sleeves up and get to work on it.

147I think uh we intend to make you all very proud that uh assuming that you approve this, we make very proud of the work that we do and move the district forward and excited for our future. I'd like to add one thing and that is one of the other parts that will make this a success is making sure that we we let the our stakeholders know about the plan and where it's proceeding because clearly from our attendance at our board meetings that's not going to get it done. Um, I I love the idea of going to the the PTC meetings or any of the meetings because you you get a small group of parents and I attend meetings at many of the schools, the PTC meetings, and I tried every time I went, they would

148give me a minute or two and I did talk about the strategic plan, but more importantly, what I did tell the parents is that we need their voices. You know, their voices aren't here and and doing public comment. That's great. I mean, that's one way to do it, but there are other avenues. And we need to have those voices because otherwise we're falling on like the one, two, three, four, five, those seven parents right there. And there's a lot more that really we really need to hear from to make sure that they know this is where we're going. And we need them to either come along for the ride or or tell us where we can make our ride a little bit better. This will be very will be very visible um and easily accessible

149and um and we will be talking about it quite often in the future. So um I accompanied Dr. Ro on the presentation. I think I was at five of the six schools. And uh I would started off by saying that um when we interviewed for a new superintendent, we asked every every candidate um we we said to every candidate we wanted a strategic goal. And then when we hired Dr. Row uh we said, "Okay, where's our strategic goal?" and he said, 'Well, give me a year.' We went, 'Oh, okay. Um, but here it is and moving forward. And it's been a a year, right? We had it's been a year since we started this process and it's going to continue. And um just really appreciate I know the board was really really looking forward to

150this and uh kudos to all those people that did all the hard work and still continuing work here. uh that's gonna happen. And uh thank you very much and we look forward to the first update. Um call the roll. Go ahead. Fito. Yes. Walker. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Hinaman. I. Ral. I. And quiter. I. Motion carries. 6. Thank you. Okay. Next is uh 62 uh accounts payable motion and a second please. So moved. Second. Um discussion. Call the role. Theo yes. Dustling yes. Hinaman I. Ral I. Walker. Yes. And Cer I. Motion carries 6. Uh last action item for the evening or last action item now is uh 63 board policy. Motion and a second please. So moved. Second. Motion a second. Uh Dr. Row, anything to add? Uh the only thing to add is this.

151As you recall this, you had first reading last month. This is the second reading and ready for action. Board members. Call the RO. Ral I. Frito. Yes. Ding. Yes. Heinaman. I. Walker. Yes. And quiter. I. Motion carries 6. Okay. Now we have discussion items. And we've uh talked about this before. Uh Dr. wrote the white paper. Uh yes, thank you. So when we first began our uh capital improvement conversation, um there was a a reference to a 2012 uh position paper that the district had on uh on its fund balance. And this the paper was was originally written coming out of the great recession and the housing crisis of 2008 and financial uncertainty in the state of Illinois and the financial crisis it was enduring. And what that did was it set um the district

152actually if I if I get the story correct Bill the district was very close to having to issue tax anticipation warrants which is uh one of the worst actions the district must take financially um and didn't and it it committed to getting out of that situation and being in a in a stronger financial foothold. So, it set a a minimum fund balance of 50% um and and issued uh some actions that the district would take should the district fall below that that 50% as of June 30 at the end of the fiscal year. Um well, the district achieved that and we were we are currently sitting um at 50 about 53 and a half% of of fund balance. um and your fund balance and your or your reserves uh are are there to prevent you

153from having you know financial crisis and like a rainy day fund. Um so what happened now that we have this capital improvement uh maintenance plan that we need to u start chipping away at. You know we we've you know Mr. Keely and I have had plenty of conversations about this with Mr. Julie and and the operations team and then brought to the board um our options at the February workshop of how do we begin tackling uh this this long list laundry list and one of the options that that we need to exercise is to strategically begin spending down some of that fund balance. So at the last board meeting I brought two concepts to you. the concept of spending $10 million of fund balance on strategic spendown of the of the of our reserves to

154accomplish a few things that we want to do this coming or in the summer of 26. Those are later in the agenda this evening. But that does not take us below 50%. It it takes us to about 50 and a half% uh fund balance. Um, what I what you have tonight in front of you for discussion is a proposed uh update to that fund balance position paper that would reduce the fund balance minimum to 40%. We arrived at that 40% minimum based on the conversation we had uh with PMA at that February 27th workshop uh where they said they don't recommend the district go below 40%. uh because of the the Cook County um property tax payments and at times especially in February when we hit our lowest point of fund balance to ensure that

155we don't go below we're sitting at about 20% at that point and they don't recommend we allow it to dip below that so that we don't find ourselves in a difficult financial position. Um, so our recommendation is is that the board have a discussion and then ultimately adopt the new position paper and reduce the fund balance minimum to 40% to allow us uh the flexibility and and and I guess the support to then bring uh future strategic spends of the of our reserves toward these capital projects. Again, the one that's before you tonight later in the agenda would take us to just over 50%. Um, and we actually, and I'll talk a little bit more about our plans for how we are going to begin chipping away at some of these uh the capital improvements

156later, but but right now it's it's our recommendation that you can that you reduce that fund balance minimum to 40%. And this this position paper would uh replace um the 2012 paper. Board members, Mr. Fioro, I I'm fully supportive of it, especially if the focus is using that money for like the life and safety projects that I know are very important. So, I am for getting, you know, get getting it to where if it's close to the 40% as long as we're using the money in a a way that would benefit us, you know, and to m Mr. Dusting and I had a a really healthy debate on this. um recently and and the the meat of that was we will not present you with a um a a an imbalanced budget. We will not

157present you with a deficit budget. What we will do is we will come to you with strategic spendowns of the fund balance. It it will not be used because we're we're we're living outside of our means. We will live within the means of the budget we're allotted. Um these funds will only are only intended to be used to attack our our capital improvement plan. Yes, Mr. One of one of the things I think the board has to understand is for um for 20 plus years uh we've had the uh one of the things for the superintendent is he had to have a balanced operating budget. And what Dr. Ro just explained is is we are intentionally we are intentionally going to use our funds uh to a to a level down from the 50%. And

158and because of all the approvals that we're going to have obviously I I do go along with with the change uh but but I want to make sure that we understand that uh that Mr. Ro uh as superintendent uh he is still uh uh operationally in charge of the budget and he still is going to make sure that we're uh have a balanced uh uh balanced budget I guess is a way to put it. So uh thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Bring this back the next board meeting for approval. Yes ma'am. Okay. Uh next the about the cooperative food cooperative is that Mr. Keley? Yes. This is just a another um offshoot of the recent uh move to hire Quest Food Service to handle the management of the food service program. Um up

159to this point we've been a member of the uh the food service cooperative the NI uh PC cooperative. Uh and per the bylaws, uh we're going to be withdrawing from the cooperative to allow Quest to do our purchasing on our behalf um through their corporate uh means. To be clear, we're not we're just hiring a manager. We're still going to have our own people do the food and yeah, we're just going through a different process for a manager. Yes, that is correct. The the co-op is only how we purchase the food that are afforded in our kitchens. I just want that to be clear. Okay. Board members, Mr. Key, I just had a quick question. Um, when we participate in these cooperatives, is there like a a term of of the that we are with

160them? Are we sure? Yeah, there there are bylaws that dictate that and and we actually went beyond um the notification period. Uh, Miss Frolley, our current director, she's on the board of directors of the cooperative. Um, off the top of my head, I don't know how many districts are in it. Several dozen. And, uh, we are a long-standing member, and I'm not, again quite sure, maybe even a charter member. Um, but she's done a ton of work with them, and she's kept them informed as we've moved forward with these processes. And, uh, so this is this is our um, uh, bringing it officially to the board. However, the co-op uh, in advance of this year's bidding and all that they're doing, they were made aware by the district, so they didn't include our volumes. Okay.

161Thank you. Okay, moving on. Um, IHSA, is that yours, Mr. Yearly? Yes, thank you. This is a standing yearly agenda item. Um, just to renew our IHSA membership for our six high schools and this is for the 2526 school year. Again, it no costual to three years now. Um, no cost. I think during the pandemic or something they charge you 150 bucks or something like that, but that's gone away now. Correct. Okay. Uh discussion board [Music] members. Okay. I think you're still up. Yes. Thank you. Snow removal bid. Um our existing contract uh expires this year. Um so we went out to bid for a new snow removal and ice control service contract. These services include pre-treatment, plowing, shoveling, removal of snow uh and really the last few years a lot of ice um management.

162Um the shift in this proposed contract is our previous contract was on a per occurrence um aotment billing cycle. This includes now a floor and a ceiling. The proposed ceiling is less than the last two years expenditures for snow removal and ice. Um, so this is the low lowest bid presented to the board and I do have Miss Mistak here to answer any specific questions. Uh, board members, one of my concerns is always that I and I'm I'm really excited to hear that the cost is reasonable and and within range of what we've had in the past. My concern is always to make sure that we have a priority at all of our schools so that when our staff shows up, they understand that it should be cleaned by that time. So, do we have

163like a time range that they guarantee that the the lots will be cleaned? Yes. Uh that would uh our order vendor all of our um sides they have to be cleaned by 6 in the morning. 6 in the morning. Yes. And also we changed the approach. Previously it was they react when we have one inch of the snowfall. Now it's zero. That's mean even if we will have a temperature fluctuation they have to come. Oh excellent. Excellent. I mean I know that we have some zero hours across campuses. So those students are driving in not in addition to staff. Thank you very much. No Mr. Dustling. You know, it's it's difficult uh I don't know about other residents, but it's difficult to find somebody that will plow on a per occurrence basis because of what's

164happened the last few winters. So, I would imagine these companies aren't any different and they bring it in at a at a cost even though it's a guaranteed cause for them. Uh it's still based on the number of inches which is good, not the number of pulls. And it's also got a top and a bottom which which is good too. So, that's good. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, your honor. Well, Mr. Yulie, well, I'm gonna actually I'm going to cue this one up uh just to set the stage and then I'll hand it off to to Mr. Ulie. 7.33 and 7.4 3.4 um is what I alluded to earlier. Uh these are projects that are on our capital uh maintenance plan list uh that we have prioritized uh for student safety as well

165as uh just need of replacement. Um and the first one and this is this would be an intentional spend down of fund balance. So these two pro or these two items will are total expected cost of around $10 million. Um, and that's that will be coming from our fund balance and is separate from our operating budget for next year. Good. So, with that, Mr. Julie, if there's any additional detail, I'd hand it off to you. Sure. The the first item is a project authorization for um three track uh turf and light replacements. So, Buffalo Grove Hersian Prospect. And I'll just give you a little bit of background. Um, the track surface at Buffalo Grove was installed in 2002. The turf is 2012. Hersy was a late 90s track installation. Field turf was 2011. And then

166Prospect High School track is late 90s and field turf 2012. Um, field turf is right around that life expectancy. We've gotten a year, maybe two, uh, additional usage out of it. Um, so it's that time. It's becoming a safety concern. It's not a hazard at this point, but it is time to go ahead and do a full-scale replacement of the track and turf fields. And typically, you want to do those at the same time so you don't damage a surface when you're replacing one of the or the other. And then the stadium lighting is just moving towards that energy efficiency that Dr. Ro alluded to earlier. Those will be retrofit LED lights. Um, existing poles. So, we're just retrofitting the lights. Um and district standard is Wheeling High School. So the same system that we

167have at Wheeling High School will be installed in these three buildings. I will note there's a slight fluctuation in pricing. That's based on the number of light poles in each building. So that's why the number might fluctuate a little bit. Uh we're going project authorization because we're going to use a purchasing cooperative. Um so we have done a lot of early investigative work to come up with a number. Once this is approved, then we will come back with contracts for for final approval. So, so my question on that is um do we think with everything that's going on um in our economic environment that our costs that we had with wheeling regarding the track and the field itself will it be comparable to what we're going to be spending at Prospect Buffalo Grove and Hersy

168comparable yes to the tune that that was done a couple of years ago. So there's natural escalation and I think what we're seeing now is that if we can lock in pricing sooner than later that benefits us and so that's why in this case we can move more quickly, be more agile because we're using a purchasing cooperative for all three of these projects. Yeah, Mr. Fur, I'll add to that. We actually um had another an additional $10 million worth of projects that we were planning to bring to you tonight. Um and we opted because of um the the instability and fluctuation in in the market with the the tariffs. We were just uncertain as to what that impact was going to be and we didn't think it would have been would be responsible to bring

169an additional 10 million of projects when we didn't know how far that 10 million was going to be able to go. We still intend to do that. Um, so maybe later this summer or the fall we will, but we want to wait and see kind of once things settle down that that we're really uh stretching them as far as we can. I think it's wise to be prudent. All right. If Mr. D, you have anything? I do. Uh, so the the uh the drainage system under the fields still that won't have to be touched, right? Just a gravel on top. Maybe some minor uh adjustments and tweaks. Yeah, because the drainage system is really the expensive part of a correct thing. Okay. It's mainly a carpet replacement we're looking at. Thank you. And the last

170item is related to Rolling Meadows High School. So, their their sole source of cooling um is an existing chiller ice plant and essentially that's approaching 30 years old. Um this is really a a comprehensive and intricate project that we're we're looking at. Um but essentially we're we're going to retrofit actually replace um a lot of existing piping as well. A lot of engineering involved. This is a train turnkey project um which will also increase our efficiency and also build in redundancy. Right now we're reliant on a single system. This will actually have three. In the event of one goes down, we'll still have the ability to cool the buildings. Um so this is one of those train turn keys that we've brought to you before. This is for just the uh chiller and ice plant

171replacement at Rolling Metals High School. When is this going to take place? That's a great question. Miss Mistak, do you have any idea on the timeline? Yes. Yes, that because of the size of the projects and it will have a impact of the cooling school, we will start engineering designing as soon as we can. But we would like to do perfectly. This project will be done during the fall and winter season when of course schools will not need the uh cooling. And then next um then the following spring that will be when we will commission we will have final documents. We will be sure that everything is working and we will be able to switch to cooling. But that will be for a summer 2026. Okay. So this is maybe winter 25 that this would

172occur. Yes, we will. I we we I didn't went so far with the details because I will have to have approval of the board as soon as I will have that. We will have right now we will have a scope of work and we know that because of the size of it and also to lock the prices and have equipment release. We would like to bring that now but I will have the full uh timeline soon. I seem to remember was it Hersy that it took a year to get oh some equipment lead time HBAC mechanicals I don't I I think that has settled a little bit yes I think that's changed since cover right now we are not really concerned about the lead times we more concerned about because it's one source of the

173cooling for that school and Like Mr. Julie mentioned how extend that project is. It's required a lot of the structure work. Also, we have to remove the old tower. We have to bring new piping. We have to order chillers. Because of that, we would like to have that 18 months to be able to design and release the and purchase the equipment and then also prepare the school and the students to start implement. Do they tell you how much more energy efficient this will be? I mean obviously 29 years it's probably going to be very energy efficient. Do they give you any kind of estimate on? Um if I can mention the biggest um saving for us on this typical project this one it's cooling tower that's mean we are cooling um we are using the

174water to cool because of that we are losing a significant amount of the water that the number one um savings for meadows will be the water. The second one we will be able we will be able to have a data when we will install new system but we speaking about significant amount of the money. You gave me an example. How much water is this system losing? I don't want to say it uncorrect number but the rolling meadows I can pull at the number how much I spend for a water. I have a data on the front for me from five years and this particular school spend sometimes double what the others and also the lastly because it's the cooling through the water we have a special uh treatment we have to treat that and elemental

175solution it's treating the tower to be sure that it's safe for our students and the staff and that's treatment is very expensive. Yep. anyone. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next on the agenda is a motion to go into close session. I need a motion and a second for the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, dismiss performance or dismissal law specific employees, individuals who serve as independent contractors in an educational setting or legal counsel for the public body. Motion in a second, please. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Please call a roll. Ralph, I. Hinaman, I. Dustling, yes. Frito, yes. Walker, yes. I we will um have action after close session. And you anticipate how long? 30 or 40 minutes. Okay. Thank you everyone. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. [Music] Heat.

176[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Are you [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Get him. [Music] Young. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Are [Music] you Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat.

177Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] building. [Music] are. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Are [Music] you wow? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] 9.1 please. That's you. I make a motion to approve the microphone. Transaction reports for April 10th. Microphones, guys. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Call the role. Yes. Kinnean. I.

178Dustling. Yes. Ral I. Walker. Yes. Cryer. I. Motion carries 6. Motion and a second for 92. Motion and a second for approval of the reduction in force. Second. Discussion. Call the roll. Dustling. Yes. Rock. I. Yes. Hinaman. I. Walker. Yes. Righter. I. Motion carries. 6. Thank you. Motion in a second for 93, please. Motion for job description revision approval. Second. Discussion. Call the roll. Walker. Yes. Yes. Dusting. Yes. Hinaman. I. Ral. I. Quitzer. I. Motion carries. 6. Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. Please. So moved. Second. Call the roll. Frito. Yes. Dustling. Yes I I Walker yes quiter I we are adjourned thank [Music]