001Are you ready? All right. >> All right. I'm going to call this board meeting to order. It is Tuesday, November 18th at 6 p.m. Uh we are the county school district board of education. This is a special board meeting and we are at the cooperative inlet. Um uh Mr. Burmeister, may I have a role please? >> Yes, Mr. May. >> Mr. Supervisor here. Here >> thank you. Moving on to say the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, we'll move on to public comments. Um, if we do have a public comment this evening, so I'll just read um this little paragraph here. Um, if you would like to address
002the board, please fill out one of these cards available at the signing table. Additionally, please be aware that comments made during this time are not protected from potential legal liability. As a reminder, the board will not respond to or engage in dialogues with individuals choosing to make a public comment. The board reserves the right to limit the length of public comments and has exercised that right for this meeting. Individual comments are limited to three minutes for a total of no more than 30 minutes. We also ask that all comments be made respectfully and in a manner that does not disrupt the meeting. With that said, we'll invite our first speaker, Mary. Oh, and um so we've switched things up. Um, and speakers will go to the podium in the back. >> We have We actually
003have a microphone hooked up right here. That's okay. Sorry. Oh, no. No, that's okay. This is >> Oh, thank you. Okay. Everything's different. >> Hi, I'm Mary Splone. Um, my children attend and Lincoln. Um, I first wanted to thank Miss Denovo Martinez for raising several concerns at the last board meeting that deserves closer attention, especially the number of consultants the district continues to hire. We seem to have a consultant for nearly everything. It's worth asking whether all of these positions are truly necessary. Even if they are funded through grants, those dollars could still be directed to areas where they are actually needed. I also wanted to thank Miss Kolkisi role for making security and staffing a priority. Those should be the district's focus. We've had far too many teachers leave and we continue to rely
004on contract teachers who aren't always the strongest fit for students. I've mentioned before that there is a climate of fear coming from district leadership and that has an impact. Excuse me. At the same time, we need to make sure we are paying teachers fairly and giving them the support they need to do their jobs well. Without them, none of this works. That they matter far more than another consultant. What I'm asking is simple. I want the board to commit making security and staffing these top priorities this year and to direct some of the available discretionary funds of which there are plenty toward real visible improvements in these areas. These issues have gone without meaningful action for too long. And strengthening them would be an important first step. >> Yeah. Thank you very >> Thank you.
005>> Um, okay. Thank you. Um, I do not think we have any further public comments, so we'll move on to board members comments. Uh, do any members of the board have comments at this time? >> All right, we'll move on into action items. Our first action item is review and adoption of board policy on education priorities. May I have a motion, please bring this to the floor for discussion? >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. Um, so this uh item is now on the floor for discussion. Um, I introduced this as new business at uh last week's board meeting. Um, This is a proposal. Sorry, I have a note here. Um, it is a proposal to um set priorities for um building security and security staffing and for general staffing for fiscal year and
006tie those priorities to um specific uh budget allocations. Um uh so at a very basic level as a board member and also a parent in the district um I want to ensure that our staff are happy and that our schools are and that's why I put these priorities here for consideration. Um they're meant to indicate board priority and direction but they're not meant to be prescriptive steps. So really the board is setting a direction but it's the see through. Um they're also not a proposal to change. I want to be clear about that. What they are is to just shift some of the discussion to see I are there any questions or discussion? >> Yeah. First of all, why did the policy committee have a policy meeting about policy changes? >> Sure, that's an excellent
007question. So, our committees are currently suspended. Uh we are waiting on further guidance from Mr. which I did reference at the last meeting. Um he has indicated that our our committee structure was not right. So, we need to revise our committee. He is writing the memo to us so that we can move forward with the revisions. But in li of active committee the board as a whole can discuss policy and so this was new. >> So there are plenty of funds in the budget. um where there are allocations of grounds but projects have not been designated as I understand um furthermore you know we had an $80 million budget before us this evening that's a $9 million increase over last year's spending um but um I've been told that some of the condition that we
008won't necessarily million increase um so really it's the time is for the board to take action and set set direction so that go >> okay that email was sent on November 6 furthermore this was last week. I offered the details right there in front of you. Um I offer >> I called you to return my call. So you're not All right. Well, I'm sorry. >> The board direct. >> No, I speak. We are literally discussing it right now. I have invited other policy proposals to come forward. If we don't agree with these periods, >> so my understanding is we have like these discretionary funds if we get X amount right and we have to spend it somewhere. deciding where they want that extent or guiding them. >> That's right. We might choose to um you
009know take a little less from a certain I I don't have specifics. It's not my job to do specifics but but yeah we have discretionary funds. We can choose to funnel them into this direction rather than another direction. >> And that is security. >> That's right. Security um so um you know security infrastructure and security staffing and then also just staffing in general. across. >> So I'm sorry for the record you are shutting down the discussion about district. >> I do not have the pause. What I'm proposing is that >> what I'm proposing is that the board understand what our needs are understand what our current So are you >> are you telling me that you don't think how much are we going to spend for investigations? I mean that that comes later. >> We'll
010discuss how much later up to $1 million is what I'm proposing but that comes later. We do have a question. >> Sure. Yeah. >> So this >> this proposal table 3A M >> uh Miss Mer >> yes Martinez >> no >> Mr. No >> no >> thank you. Are there other questions or discussion? Um, in the opening paragraph you mentioned the board allocating no less than a million million discretionary funds. In the closing part of the policy, it was $500,000$1 million. >> No, those are two separate two separate um allocations. So, security and building security and security staffing allocating between one and two million, no less than one up to two million. And then separately for general staffing um I'm sorry. I just want to understand both sides. I genuinely want to understand >> I
011just want to know what was how much money I was spending on investigation. >> It's the microphone. Um not an investigation. It's an assessment of policy. and practices to ensure that we are um using our resources more efficiently to ensure that we have the right positions and then um to be able to set a strategy. So going forward >> I I think you can't move forward without understanding where you are currently and >> okay are there any other questions for the this third party assessment that in our future at some point um on this proposal. That's more to kind of help us as a district identify um why we continue to have these openings, why we continue to hire consultants or contract workers. This is like the purpose of this is to figure out how
012we can hire more um inhouse or more direct hires. >> Yes, exactly. maybe we're not reaching the right people in recruitment. I mean, I don't know, but it it's kind of to see sort of where are we consistently falling short in certain areas, for example. Um, do, you know, I think knowing where we have staffing gaps consistently year over year can help us prioritize recruitment in the years ahead can also, um, you know, is there something about our policies that is, um, you know, I I don't know that that people aren't even applying to the district for whatever reason, you know, making stuff up at this point, but I think we don't know what we don't know. So, this assessment would kind of help us figure out um that, you know, kind of figure out
013where we can go to to exactly prioritize hiring in house and keeping and retaining teachers that are great, not only teachers, but again, across all departments. So, making sure that we are leveling up our staffing across all the district. >> So, we're not voting yes on assessment, we're voting yes on giving the okay to like find someone we didn't approve anything yet, >> right? Exactly. That would be million, >> right? We can't do this for less than $500. We're just giving you okay to like look >> to look into it. >> Yeah. >> I did have one other question about the building and security and security staffing. So the security staffing is that more >> I'm sorry things are running like the security guards that are that are in the building. >> Yes. I don't
014think that's the term we would necessarily but But yes, the sort of people who would oversee security. >> Thank you. I think that >> um are there any other questions or discussion on this? Um I I guess I'll just um note one thing. I' I've laid this out um with language that indicates these are fiscal year 26 priorities. Um my intention is that each year the board come to agreement on priorities that are important and these might shift from year to year. next year it might be as you know facilities as a priority or um you know it could be something superintendent you know we have you know we'll have that future um and and the idea isn't the idea is to sort of focus the board entities and be able to speak to what
015are some of the top issues for the year but they might again change year over year so I I feel like and be able to speak to the public. Do we need to wait to vote on this until after I'm sorry on the budget? Thank you. Um the do not necessarily I did I did speak with sometimes about this just to make sure I was um something that was good um we are laying out funding parameters and it's up to the staff to determine how to meet these goals. So, so um as long as the staff feel that these new board policies can be met with the budget and I think that's a question that you see change the budget and we're coming up on the tax budget. presents. Now we're coming up. So Well,
016what I can say is that that um establishing um the goals and where we're going to allocate the funds that there's um an accounting procedure. You know, there's always things that you're going to utilize for salaries or certain things compared to supplies. So, we have established how are we going to And then I would be able to um the accounting system and then I would have to modify the budget and uh and apparently evidently go through all over again. I would go back to um presenting it 30 days and then um have a public hearing and then amend um and yes in regards to the the tax right now you know it's it's difficult um because we have to submit the tax levy um no later than the last Tuesday of the summer. So that
017is a But we received 50% of our revenue from property taxes and we missed that deadline. I don't know what's going to happen, but I've heard from other professionals that they're just in the field saying that it's just they haven't seen something like this for years. So we have to submit it to Tuesday, the last Tuesday in December. So, we're here for the budget and then the next step is the levy of the levy waiting days. So, that's the parameters for the next if there's any questions with the levy people. to modify. So I had that 28 in um so then ultimately um you know so what I would propose is that we pass the um pass the budget tonight and then allow our administrative team to um to determine the various adjustments that might
018need to happen in order to priorities and then adjust as needed. the levy is important that um but as far as the budget we are priorities are there Um any other questions or discussion? Hearing none. May I have a motion to approve the review and adoption of policy on education? >> I'll make a motion. Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh, moving on to agenda item uh 3B, resolution 2026-053, adoption of the December 2026 budget. Motion to bring this to the floor for discussion, please. >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you. >> Motion is on the floor. Are there any questions or comments about the budget? >> I I'll just make a comment that um I do hope as we get our board committee reformed and active throughout the year and then um we
019can engage the board in the budget process throughout the year forward so that we aren't sort of catch up as we were this year. Um, and I think that'll lead to a healthier budget building process. Um and we'll also help build our understanding as a board as to what's in the budget and um also the board. Any other questions or comments about the budget? I have a motion then to approve resolution 2026-03 adoption 26. >> Yes. Thank you. Resolution 2026-054 estimated 2025 tax le you'd like to say about Well, I do have a little presentation if you want me to share it. >> All the information So, um, first and foremost, what is a what is a tax levy? school district and local government extension is the actual amount of money the district receives by
020the tax. So it's the one that ask us there's various uh levy fund categories um education special education operations transportation working cash security uh and life there are four um funds that are limited so you can only so much for education. Um so for example in regards to only 55 cents for every $100 value um then there is another interest um section where usually funds for the state and is how much um key definitions is um you know I put a little picture there of like our property taxes which a lot of people here but um so uh in regards to like the breakdown I wanted to kind of expl How do they calculate you know the tax? Um so they uh assessment which is the process of evaluating valuing the real property for tax
021purp. So if you see in the right side um I know you guys can't really see um the assessed value from last year is 29,000 in this example. Uh property value is basically the value of what the assessor estimates of of your home. So the market value and then there's an assessment level in Cook County. Um residential is 10% commercial. So then uh when you multiply the property value times the assessment uh of the assessment level uh you get the assessed value which the assessed value is um the taxable portion for for for our taxes. Um and then being that um there is a state equalizer which is um the Illinois Department of Revenue that equalizes assessments amongst counties counties and issues a state equalization cycle for each county. So many other counties in Illinois
022usually have an equalization factor of one because technically you have to um assess the value at 33 and 13% of six. Um is an animal of its own and they don't do that. They do the 10% and the 25% commercial. So in order to balance that out they create this date equalizer and it's usually around 3%. So um in this example it's 3.01 01 and then ultimately the assessed value times the the equalizer um you get your equaliz assessed value which is the assessed valuation um times the equalization factor to calculate the year taxes um and then at that point um there's a local tax rate. The local tax rate is the rate the the total rate for all governments that collect property taxes on on their property. So, if you look in the back
023of your your tax bill, you'll see the breakdown of how much um is going to go to uh hold high school 218, Ray Valley, the mosquito maintenance stuff that still is out there. Um so, they add up all those rates and then it comes out to um this amount where um to be able to calculate the equaliz value and and the net rate. In this example, it's 6.9 and then ultimately um your total tax before exemptions is then ultimately calculated and then there's homeowners exemptions and so on and so forth which vary by by household and uh and families. So here like you see there's a homeowners and a senior citizen uh exemption. Um also uh another key definition is the consumer price index which is the rate of inflation. New property it's the assessed
024value of new construction or additions to existing real property that increase uh the assessed value of property and then property tax limitation law which limits the amount of property tax revenue requested by the taxing body to a maximum of 5% or CPI whichever is less. So this just a breakdown of what has been CPI over the past you know 30 years. Um it overall it averaged around 2.4 2.5 and then as you can see here in 22 and um when we came back to CO and inflation went through the roof uh it was at 6 7 8% school districts were limited to five they couldn't exceed that so they were they were just limited at five uh last year it was at 3.4 And for this uh levy it's 2.9. Um this here is um
025basically the estimation of the tax levy for this year. Uh I actually go to um a workshop which is uh hosted by PTMA which is for you know just very various things but also have just like a great tax levy presentation and and spreadsheets and worksheets that can help you know calculate the tax levy and um and just give you guidance. So ultimately here you see that the consumer price index here is uh 2.9 the actual estimated uh residence value of last year was $741 million. That's the value of all the houses, all the residential commercial um properties within our districts which actually increased drastically when they did the the assessment of 30%. Um then here is the breakdown of each fund at the far left. In this column here, it's the prior year extension.
026That's the amount that actually we received for 2023. In this light uh blue section is the estimation of what we're going to levy for every fund. Now how we said earlier I'm going to make some adjustments to make sure that we have enough funds in tors um which is safety. Uh that's where we pay our safety rent and and uh and our cost of guard so on and so forth. So I want to make sure that we have enough funding for for the personnel portion there. And I'll say in regards to safety, it's broken down in different components because obviously let's say reinforced doors even though in the safety it's infrastructure as well. So then operations and maintenance. So that's completely different. Ultimately, when you add all these amounts together for every fund, we uh
027we're going to be asking for $34,463,000, which amounts to a 4.99% increase over last year. So, being that is that it's under 5%, there's no need for a truth and taxation hearing. I checked to make sure if there was any tips that were rolling off. Um and and any new construction, you know, like I see the past history, we average about $2.5 million in in um new construction. So with the difference of the 2.9, that's that's what we're going to get. Even though I asked for 4.99, you know, we're we're going to get the 2.9 and then any new construction that is within our boundaries. So, with this 4.99, we it covers us and makes sure we're we're able to get um that new construction. This is a breakdown of the actual levy. Um this
028is what we asked for last year in in every fund, which was 33,285,000. And this in this other column here, it's the actual money that we received um which was 32,824 255. Now, there's a little caveat because we did receive money from or we got we um we were approved for the property tax relief grant. So, if we didn't apply for the the relief grant, this is the the actual amount that we would have received is 32 million, but we actually got the 29,854,000 because we received that $2.9 million difference between those two state funds. It was in the evidence based funding. So that's why we received it in April, May. Um, and then this last column here is the breakdown again just like on the previous slide of how much uh we're going to
029be levying for for every fund which this is just another breakdown of how um just a visual in regards to how much it's going to education special education for life safety. So you obviously you could see that um 23 million which is roughly 67% of of the levy is going to go into education and then also I would say the special education um also goes into the education which that is 5.5%. Uh the next steps for the levy is um to be presented to the board of education for approval and uh if we approve it today a 30-day requirement for the anticipated uh December 16th board meeting for for the adoption. So once uh we have the uh board meeting on December 16th, anticipate the you know the adoption and then I'm hoping to file
030this levy December 17th. So, you know, we could all have a good break, you know, so then we don't have to worry about filing it the last Tuesday in the summer because it would already be um per code. Uh this is public act 1020895. Uh we have to um show the current cash cash balance when presenting the levy. So, as of the end of October 31st, we have a fund balance of 62,351,000. Another public act 10394. This is called the Miller ratio. So this is basically um ensuring that school districts are spending their money and that they are not two and a half times over their fund balance. So as for us we're at 88.29. So we are within our parameters and we don't have to do anything extra. And then this is kind of
031what I had said earlier uh in regards to uh the requirements for the you know to amend the budgets. Uh it's basically post the the the notice of the budget hearing and availability of the budget to the public 30 days before adoption and and just following the process that we did a few months ago. >> Does anyone have any questions? >> Sorry. Um I actually do have a question maybe um I heard I think I heard you say that there was a 30% increase in the overall assessed value for all property in the district. Do you know what is driving that increase? It's a it's the assessment um they do the trial assessments. So back in 2024 or no 2023 that was the first year that we did of the tri trienal and uh it
032was our turn. So there's there's three structures. There's south the south side, the north side, and then the city of Chicago. So um and looking at the levy and just looking at the differences, um our our um equalized assessed value for the for 2022 was 574 million and then the following year jump up to 749. So it's because of the assessment. Okay. Are there any other questions about the >> um may I have a motion to approve the adoption of the 2026-054 estimated 2025 taxed I I'll second. Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Moving on to agenda item four. A motion to go into close session. Um we are going into close session tonight. I'll just read my list off here for The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of employees. Um, collective negotiation
033matters, evidence or testimony consented to a school board regarding denial of admission. Uh setting price of the sale of each property, the sale of purchase of securities, investments or investment contracts, security procedures, um safety and security, school disciplinary cases, um the placement of individual students special education programs, establish classification and discussion of confidential matter and discussion. I have a motion please. >> Uh yes. >> Yes.