Geneva CUSD 304 Board of Education Meeting - 12-15-2025

001This is the regular meeting of the Geneva 304 school district for December 15th. And I would like to welcome you all and we're very pleased that you're with us. Bonnie, could you call the role? >> Here. Here. >> Here. >> Thank you, Bonnie. Pledge of Allegiance. Flag is in the back corner right there. I will lead us. >> Oh, it's coming. >> Oh, look at this. Another flag. >> Mr. Baker, we appreciate you, sir. Well, I thought the flag there is a flag back there, but it's a state flag now that I look at it. >> We could be alleg >> Mr. Baker is the jack of all trades. He's just on it for us. Thank you, sir. We appreciate you. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

002the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> There's an attendance sheet in the hall if you wish to sign in. [clears throat] Second item on the agenda is the approval of minutes. We have three No, I think you're fine. It was >> okay. With three, the regular session, the executive session, and the board retreat. Was there anyone who missed one of those meetings? So that we should separate them. >> There is. >> Yeah, I missed the last. >> Okay. So, we need a motion to approve. Oh, well, see, I should ask Bonnie, have you gotten any corrections? >> And I have Are there any at this time? >> There was one correction. It was just a >> spelling error. >> A spelling error. Yeah. >>

003Hardly counts. Um, in any case, uh, motion to approve, uh, item one and two of the minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I uh item three, the board retreat of November 17. A motion to approve. So move >> second >> I >> could we make one change on that uh board retreat minutes. It says that Larry Oh, I'm sorry. That Willard was absent. I don't think he was absent. Yeah, >> he was >> not at the retreat. Not at the retreat. >> The retreat has it as in that big. >> Oh, okay. We'll update that. >> Thank you, Dan. >> Item three, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. Uh, item one, tradition of excellence, GHS students, girls swimming, art, ACT, girls cross country. Mr. Rogers is >> Not here. Tonight we have uh two

004uh two esteemed colleagues from Geneva High School. We're going to recognize some students. Um and as you know, the board from time to time has the opportunity to recognize uh some kids who've had some tremendous accomplishments. And tonight is a great example um of some of the diverse ways that kids uh make those great accomplishments at Geneva High School. So here's how we're going to do it, gang. I think Mr. Drexler is going to start. The board will come up out front and they'll stand out here in front of the table. So, you guys want to make your way out, um, uh, Mr. Drexler or Mr. Han, our athletic director, will, uh, brag about you for a little bit. Um, then you'll come up here when your name gets called, uh, come over here and

005start with, uh, Mr. Choi and, uh, greet all the board members and I'll have a certificate for you and then we'll have you stand up front here and we'll do a nice photo op and uh, mom and dad and family can do all the paparazzi that they that they want to do. So, Mr. Drexler, I'll let you uh get started while we make our way up here. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh, as Dr. Barrett indicated, we've got a variety of students tonight uh to recognize uh for academic achievement, for artistic achievement, and for athletic achievement. Uh the first group of students, uh we're going to talk about the academics. Uh first, we have, as you know, students take the ACT exam every year at Geneva High School in the spring. Uh and

006the ACT season for seniors runs through the October test date. Uh so the ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, 36 composite score being the highest possible score. Uh and then we have three Geneva High School students that obtained that perfect 36. Uh which is an incredible achievement. Uh when you look nationally, it's usually around 1.5 million students uh that take the ACT every year. and one quarter of 1% achieve a 36. So they are really in rare air uh in terms of their uh achievement on the ACT. Uh and I think that's that's a reflection of I'm sure they did a little bit of preparation for the ACT, but it's also a reflection of many years of commitment to academic excellence. So um you can't really cram for the ACT. So,

007uh, well done to these, uh, three students and I know it will serve all three of them very well, uh, moving forward. Uh, so the first student being recognized tonight is Landon Finale. [applause] >> Second student is Carill Lunan. [applause] Uh, and the third student I don't believe is here tonight, but Alexa Kausski also achieved a grade a score of 36. So, like to recognize her tonight as well. [applause] >> Mr. Baker is also our flag acquisition specialist. Moms and dads, if anybody's come up, you love this. You love this. As long as [applause] >> [applause] >> All right, our next uh group of students are artists. Uh and they recently participated in the Chicagoland 4x5 art show. So this art show, for those of you that don't know, uh has some parameters around it.

008Everything submitted has to be 4 in x 5 in. Can't be any bigger and it can't be any smaller. So the space is defined for the artists. So they really have to figure out what they want to do with that space and everyone is starting from the same playing field. It's very interesting. Uh so it's built as the largest smallest art show in the nation. Uh and dozens of schools participate and uh these three students competed uh earlier this fall. Um first of all, I'd like to recogn recognize Miles Shepard. I don't believe he's here this evening, but he achieved third place in the mixed media uh category. And I learned something about the 4x5 art show. I thought it was always a two-dimensional competition, flat surface. Uh but it's not. It's three-dimensional that you

009can submit something that's 4x 5x4. Um and he got third place in that threedimensional category. Uh, also Sage Wilson received honorable mention in film photography. I don't believe she is here either. Uh, and finally, Amber Mahia achieved honorable mention in digital photography. So, all three of those students, I'm sure they are at home diligently working on their art portfolios uh that are due in a couple of days. Uh, but let's give them a round of applause. [applause] Uh, and now I'll turn things over to Mr. Han, the athletic director, to talk about some athletic achievements. Uh, athletically this fall, we had a lot of success. Uh, we're here to recognize 10 individuals uh, who had individual success uh, this past fall. Uh, first name, first athlete is a name you should probably be really familiar

010with because she's had a ton of success all four years in high school. That's Sophia Border in girls cross country. >> [applause] >> Sophia Sophia finished in sixth place at last month's state cross country meet held in Poria. Sophia is a fourtime state qualifier in cross country and her sixth place finish this this year earned her all state recognition. She improved on her state final time as a junior by almost an entire minute, finishing the three-mile race this year with 16 minutes with a time of 16 minutes and 49 seconds. This is the highest finish for a Geneva runner in 15 years. She's also a standout track and field athlete. [applause] I'm sure there's more. [applause] Our next group of athletes are part of the West Chicago co-op swim team. We had eight state qualifiers

011as well as one alternate at last month's state swim competition in Westmont. The team finished in sec finished uh second at the St. Charles North sectional. Additionally, two re relay teams were crowned sectional champions and senior Cla Conklin won the sectional in the 50-yard freestyle. We'll call them up individually at this time. First is Jenna Billet. [applause] At the state at the state meet last month, she finished seventh in the 400 freestyle relay. She was state qualifier in the 200 med medley relay, a state qualifier in the 100 butterfly, and a state qualifier in the 500 freestyle. [applause] >> Next is Claire Conklin. >> [applause] >> Claire finished sixth in the 50 freestyle, 10th at the 100 freestyle in the 100 freestyle, seventh in the 400 free freestyle relay, ninth in the 200 freestyle relay,

012and she will be swimming collegiately at the University of Minnesota next year. [applause] Next is McKenna. [applause] McKenna was a state qualifier in the 100 butterfly. Next is Kayla Coell and she was an alternate on the the state qualifying swim team. [applause] Emry Larson >> [applause] >> Emry finished seventh in the 400 freestyle relay. She was a state qualifier in the 200 freestyle freestyle and a state qualifier in the 100 backstroke. [applause] Next is Ryan Lehan. [applause] Ryan was a state qualifier in the 200 medley relay. >> [applause] >> Next is Mattie Sakura. [applause] Maddie finished ninth in a 200 freestyle relay. [snorts] >> [applause] >> Claire Schumacher, ninth. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Claire. [applause] Claire was ninth in the 200 freestyle relay. She was a state qualifier in the 200 medley relay, a state

013qualifier in the 50 freestyle, and a state qualifier in the 100 freestyle. [applause] and Claire Simon. [applause] Claire was a state qualifier in the 200 medley relay, a state qualifier in the 200 indiv individual medley, and a state qualifier in the 100 backstroke. [applause] Now, great news for our swim team. Eight of the nine that were that qualified will be back again next year. Congratulations [applause] to all of our fall teams and athletes and especially the 10 individuals that were here this evening. Thank you. I get the first shot. What happened on your own? All right, [applause] understand everyone probably has finals to study for. So you want to stay audit I've never seen so many fast. >> I was probably >> right. >> Well, we got some reliable people here. You know that >>

014I can just see the headline. Well, next is item two. >> Scott will present the uh annual comprehensive financial report for 2025. Todd, you got him all connected there. Oh, okay. >> Great. Thanks for having me. Um, I'm going to touch on uh the audit report. I just want to go over all the deliverables uh that were that were uh got finished up here and presenting. Um starting with the uh uh not the audit report per se, but we do do an annual financial report for Illinois State Board of Education, a regulatory report. It's in a format that all districts in Illinois uh report their data on so it's comparable. >> Could you get a little closer to the microphone there? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Perfect. Thank you. >> So the the form is an

015Excel workbook. Every district completes the same workbook. So uh uh ISB gets the data in a comparable format. Uh we have completed that. I have uploaded that uh to ISB this uh this afternoon. So your regulatory uh reporting for the Illinois State Board of Education is completed. As part of that form, uh they do uh calculate out a uh uh financial profile score out of a 4.0 scale. The district got a 3.9 this year. Uh there's various ratios uh that are that are looked at fund balance to revenue, expenditures to revenue, uh days cash on hand, uh some debt debt uh calculations. The only one you scored below a 4.0 on was a percentage of long-term debt. That was a three instead of a four, but you ended up with a 3.9. Still a recognition

016category. uh as debt gets paid down or your debt margin goes up or your EAV goes up, that could possibly go to a 4.0 uh in the next couple of years. We do issue a couple of reports. One is a yellowbook opinion or an internal control letter within we do audits uh in accordance with government auditing standards. uh were required to do that uh by ISBE and uniform guidance. Uh so we do have a report related to internal control. We didn't list any specific deficiencies or material weaknesses related to internal control. Basically means with the staff you have and the segregations that are being used. We think it is appropriate uh the way uh the way the controls are set up. Um we do not issue an opinion on internal controls. You just gain an

017understanding to design tests that you audit procedure test and there's also a required communications letter specifically for the for the uh board of education pretty much a boilerplate uh talks about various uh uh scope significant audit managers matters uh and other related topics related to the audit. There is one part that we have not completed yet and that's the uniform guidance or single audit. Uh that is related to the expenditures that expenditures are your federal funds. Uh we are required to do or the district is required to have a single audit performed annually if expenditures are over $750,000. Uh the the issue this year is the off the federal office of management and budget has just in the last I think about a week and a half ago finalized the compliance requirements for 2025. Uh

018so we have started that process. Uh but we have not obviously we have not had time to finish that for all of our districts yet. So we plan to uh get in earnest in that in January and finish those up by the statutory deadline for that which is uh 9 months after year end which is March. Uh so it's a little backwards that the com the requirements are finalized you know almost six months after the the year is over but that's the way the federal government works sometimes. Um to get into a act for report we issued a similar report as in prior years. This is a this report follows all governmental accounting standards, gap reporting, general accepted accounting principles. Uh and this is the gold standard in financial reporting to put this you know

019to put this together. It goes above and beyond your just your regulatory AFR filing. I'm pleased to announce again the district or for 2024 report uh the district did uh submit the report to the association of school business officials for the certificate of excellence in financial reporting and the district did uh receive the uh the award for June 30th 2024 with uh some minor comments that we fix up. I believe you're going to submit again 2025. We believe this 2025 report includes all applicable standards or new standards um uh and should receive the award again in uh 2025. The one new governmental accounting standards this year was related to compensated absence compensated absences did not have a really a big effect uh on school districts just because of the nature of the employees. Page one

020of the audit is our in the financial section is our opinion. We issued an unmodified opinion again this year. Uh that means a clean opinion. We believe these financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects. Please note that the opinion covers the basic financial statements pretty much all the information in the financial section. We do not audit the statistical section. We do not audit the uh introductory section. If there's one part of the report I always, you know, advise people to look at or read because this is a big report and some 30 pages or so or whatever is the management discussion and analysis. It's a two-year uh comparative. The report shows uh shows where you were last year, where you ended up this year, and the changes and what happened. So it's a

021it's about an eight or nine page narrative that if you want to spend your time looking at anything I advise you to read that section touch very briefly on the financial statements. Uh page 14 and 15 are the governmentwide financial statement statements. These are the statements that the district only prepares once a year. Uh these are different than the fund financial statements that you're used to getting information from that you see monthly because that's the way you levy in your budget and the management uses those monthly to to keep going. These governmentwide financial statements take every economic metric that the district has into account. So there's capital assets in here. There's long-term debt. There's uh pension liabilities. There's deferred inflows and outflows related to pension and other post-employment benefits. So, every metric uh that you

022can have goes into these statements squeezed into one document and it ends up with a net position or an equity so to speak. And the district ended up with about $60 million in in a positive net position um June 30th, 2025. It's up about 6.3 million from last year. So, that means your whole overall financially everything take into account financial status improved year-over-year. And that's a good thing. And there's a lot of districts I do that actually have that number as a negative just because they have, you know, a lot of debt, a lot of, you know, the liabilities come into that number can go negative, believe it or not. So, it's really good that the see my districts have a positive uh net position. Um there's a lot of information in here that you

023have no control over though to related to pension funding, oped liabilities, t teachers retirement system, those numbers in here that we gra that we get from actuaries. Uh so uh it's it's an all-encompassing thing and if you look back actually in the statistical section, first chart of the statistical section shows the last 10 years of your net position. and uh starting in it has been improving every year moving forward. So that's the great news. So your overall economic health is remain stable and and improving you know moving forward uh you know when you take everything into account. The one year it did drop down with 2018. This is page 95 and 96 of the report. 2018 it went from it dropped like $60 million. But that was because of a new governmental accounting standards. It

024was the other post-employment benefits thability came in came into play there and knocked everybody down. And as you can see, you were negative. You actually in a negative net position back then back then, but you were improving and moving forward. Just want to thank Todd and his team for all the help. He gets us a lot of lot of lot of work to get all pulled all the information to get together. comes from a lot of different sources uh that that we have to get uh internally, externally, and uh it takes a lot of a lot of teamwork and a lot of uh coordination uh to get it down and get these uh reports put together and um audited by us so we can issue our opinion on it. So, I just want to thank

025thank Todd and his team for all the help he gave us um along along the way. Are there any questions or comments related to the report or the filings? >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Scott. >> Appreciate you having me. have a great rest of your meeting. >> Yes, thank you very much for that presentation and we will act on approving that or voting on it at the pending action section of the agenda. Uh next we have some information on instruction in a co-taught situation. Anything you'd like to say? Yeah, I've got uh this has been an initiative across the district here for the last couple of years. Um and Aunt Scalia, our executive director of student services, uh is here with several of our members of her team and some of our teachers who are

026going to talk about uh some of the innovative and pretty cool ways that our um general education teachers and our special education teachers at the secondary level. Uh so middle and high school are working together um to to teach students uh in their classrooms. So I'll pass it off to you an okay good evening. Thank you for being here. Um thank you for servicing our district. I know it's a busy time of year. So, I just want to say we appreciate you and uh looking forward obviously to ending 2025 and our our new year. So, we just wanted to give an update um about um implementing specially designed instruction in our co-taught settings. I have several staff sitting here tonight and I appreciate all of their time. I'm gonna have you guys come up [laughter]

027and um I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and they can share where they teach and what they do. >> Hi, I'm Lucas Roas. I teach social studies at the high school. >> Uh my name is Andy Schindle. I am a uh LBS1 and I co-e English one. I'm Melissa Groot, one of our directors of student services. Ka Williamson and I teach sixth grade math at Geneva Middle School North. >> I'm Shannon Delray. I'm the student services coordinator at Geneva High School. I am Michaela Matson. I am a learning behavior specialist at Geneva Middle School North. >> I'm Kirsten Widra. I'm also a learning behavior specialist at Geneva High School and I co-e algebra 1B. So just to get started and we weren't the space is smaller than I thought. So [laughter] um I just wanted

028to start right now in special education about 14 point 14.8% of our student body qualify for an IEP here in the school district. that percentage is a little lower than the state average, but it has maintained in this district for quite some time. So, you can see that data um over the course of the last three years. So, special education is a service. It's not a place. A lot of times we think of, okay, it's special ed. Where are you going? Well, it's a service. So, what are we doing to serve our students to meet their individual needs? And if we're looking at a continuum of services with the least restrictive environment being general education with no supports and our most restrictive would be a student who has to be educated in their home or

029a special education placement which would be 100% of their day. The majority of our students 63% are serviced in the general ed setting. 80% or more of their day. So, this is a service within the setting and how do we service those students in our gened setting and that's what we're going to talk about today. So, this is nothing new. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has been around since 1975. very little has changed in the in the um language the rags and what it has always said is that we must first start with the least restrictive environment and we must make sure that we provide an education that closes the gap and allows that student to make progress in that least restrictive environment. Oops. Okay. So, when I started with the district 13 years

030ago at the high school, um we did have co-taught classes that we were um providing supports and services to our students, but we had them on a far limited um uh capacity. And so, I think maybe we had eight different courses that we had available to students. And so now over the years, as you can see, we have tremendously expanded the number of courses that we have um co-taught available to our students. And so um like I said, I think we had roughly eight different courses available within the co-taught setting and now we have several co um courses. And so we're when we're looking at courses that we want to expand to the co-taught setting, we're really looking at those graduation requirements. um that we want to provide um additional uh co-eing instruction um to

031our students within um the general education setting. So, it's been a really exciting journey to see our co-eing um opportunities expanded to our students um within the general education setting at Geneva High School. So, >> Shannon, could you for the for the board's sake, could you share like so when there were um eight co-t talk classes? >> Yes. What did that look like then for students? >> Sure. >> Who were needing support in those classes? What did it look like before to help give the board some context on how what we're going to see learn about now looks different for them? >> Like what would it have looked like then? >> Sure. So, well to start with, so maybe when I first started, we offered English one, two, and three and earth science, world history

032US and algebraas. Okay. So, um students were still um able to access some of that um specially designed instruction within those settings and then they were also um receiving supports throughout their day. But um as we've expanded on co-taught classes, we've been able to provide um additional sections based on what those graduation requirements are. Um whereas before you know we would figure out ways to implement SEI throughout their school day that wasn't necessarily within the co-taught setting if that makes sense. So they were still getting that specially designed instruction um but not maybe necessarily in the u a co-taught class. Does that answer your question? >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Okay. >> In co-taught just to be sure to we have one special education teacher and one general education teacher. So that's the definition and

033what Shannon was talking about. Prior to that, we would be pulling students out of the genad setting to provide them with services. So we have found ways to implement their special education in the least restrict the highest level of least restriction that we possibly can. Okay. And I'm going to let Melissa talk about middle. Um so similar to the district demographics, we at the middle school level provide a majority of our students special education services within the general education setting. Um students with disabilities generally are impacted with their reading and writing and math skills. So those are the areas that we support at the middle school level. Um you will notice that we have about 15 sections of co-taught mathematics and this is across both of our middle school buildings and 36 sections of English

034language arts. And just a reminder um that we do have a double block ELA at the middle school. Um so that kind of accounts for some of the disparities with the numbers there. So I guess just to give us a big picture about co-eing um like um like what that was mentioned that co-eing is really placing a general education teacher and a special education teacher in the same classroom. So you have one teacher who's really an expert in the content area and then one teacher is really an expert in how do you support students and how you provide with special um instruction for these students. Um so to do that there's really four things that I think we're going to go through more throughout this presentation but um these two teachers are working together to

035try and provide the best outcomes for students. They do that by coming up with different approaches to teaching. So they we'll talk about some approaches later in this presentation but there's stations there's different way parallel teaching there's all these different kind of instructional models that um we've received training on um these teachers talk about and really um think about their professional roles. So I think in a lot of ways it was viewed before we went on this journey that the co-teer the special education teacher was really just like an assistant in the room where that's really not um what we're trying to have now. We're really trying to make sure that both teachers are equal, so to speak, but both teachers um are responsible for providing instruction for all the students in the room. Um

036we think about classroom logistics. So both teachers are responsible for planning. Both teachers are responsible for setting up the room for planning activities. Um and we think about quality instruction. Um and again this is we're we're combining the skills of a content expert and a special education expert to increase education for all students outcomes for all students. Um and all that is wrapped around this kind of supportive context. Um where we've been lucky as teachers that our administration they provide a lot of training professional development. Um they've done like a lot of even like small logistical things within our school day that really matter like for example providing making sure that each co-eing pair have the same plan period so they can actually plan these out plan these activities and lessons out. So there's been

037a it's been a great journey I would say. Um but let's dive in a little bit more to what it actually is. >> Thank you. So um roles and contributions. This is one area where as Lucas just kind of um touched on about how we both the goal is for both teachers to bring value into the classroom and supporting students. And so when you look at that, you want to talk about how we can be efficient, how we can be productive, and how we can be effective. And so when you do that, the best way to outline that is by being able to have roles that you fulfill in the classroom. Um and so some of this training that we've had with uh Dr. Tammy Baron um has been just really invaluable in helping us

038iron out what that really looks like and being able to communicate with each other about how we can be most effective in our classroom. Um and so you know our general education teacher brings curriculum expertise. Our special education teacher brings SDI and related expertise which we'll get into SDI a little bit more as we go here. Uh gened teacher brings group management. Special education teacher brings focus on individual students. uh general education teacher brings pacing, special education teacher brings mastery mindset. So these are just some of the few roles that we talk about. Um but I think the most important part of these roles is that you get to know your co-eing partner and you get to understand each other's strengths in the classroom. And so when you're able to build that relationship with your

039co-teer, it allows you then to really build um you know relationships with your students. And um having this part of your co-eing partnership I think may be one of the most important aspects because if your students see that you have a good relationship with your co-teer and you guys are able to really um hone in on your roles it really just brings out the best outcomes for students. So looking at co-eing there are a lot of benefits to it. So having two teachers in the classroom allows for um access to the general education curriculum and providing those embedded features um for students with IEPs. Um so differentiated instruction is taking a look at how the content is being delivered and how the students receive that and how um that they can continue to learn and

040master that curriculum. Um and having those teachers two teachers increases that engagement. Um, so allowing for the lower teacher to student ratio um is huge to understanding and making datadriven decisions within our content and how we're delivering instruction. And I think as the general content teacher, it's a great way to get all kids to be active learners. So we always are focused so much on making sure that those students with IEPs, like they're meeting their goals and they're getting their accommodations, but like every kid in the room is getting an advantage towards this. you can see those kids that like are probably like on the bubble of like they probably could use a little more, but they happen to end up in our class and like they thrive. And I think that has been such

041a fun thing to see just as a content teacher. And I think working with someone like Michaela, it's given me the chance like as a math teacher to I mean I know how to teach an abstract concept, but how do we make that like concrete or visual using things they can manipulate and hold? Um, it's been fun to work with Michaela and I also teach with another co-teer. Um, so it benefits everyone. I think even us as teachers and I think at the middle school we all agree that for those of us that have kind of jumped off the ledge of trying this, like it was worth it. It was scary at first. Um, but we say we're better we're better teachers for it in the end. Okay. So, I know a couple people already

042touched on specially designed instruction. Um but SDI is kind of taking that content that we have the expert in right the gened teacher is the expert in all the content area and kind of differentiating it in a way where it reaches all types of learners. So we tailored to we're tailored to assess the student progress in a individualized way. So looking at the IEP right it's an individualized education plan. Every kid has different goals and we track goals in different ways for each kid. um changes in the content and delivery of instruction. So, this is kind of looking into those co-eing models, which we'll get into, I believe, in a couple slides, but how can we take the content that we need to teach for the class that day, and make it so it reaches

043every student in the room, not just the ones that maybe do well with lecturing. How can we reach the visual learners, the people that need to see it in 12 different capacities before it really gets into their brain? Um, this is carefully planned and monitored. Um, something really cool that we have at the high school this year is all the co-teers have a common plan period with each other. So, like my co-teer and I are actually really lucky. Both of our plan periods are tied together with each other. So, we're able to sit down at the beginning of the day and say, "Okay, this is the content that we're teaching today. How can we use SDI in this lesson?" And say, "Okay, what are we doing different here for all the kids? How can we

044reach X, Y, and Z kid in the classroom while not taking them out of the gened environment? We also want everyone to be able to access the curriculum. So, some kids maybe are placed in this co-taught classroom for, I don't know, let's say a behavioral need versus other kids are placed because they have a goal related to math. How are we reaching every single one of those kids in a classroom versus just tailoring it towards the kids who have the math goal or the kids that can't sit still for the 20 minutes of the lesson? Um, and this requires collaboration. Like I said, sitting down with my co-teer and being able to plan, okay, this week we're doing this co-eing model this day and then they're testing this day and then we're going to take

045the results from the test this day and use this the next day. Um, it all kind of flows together and it can be really cool in the end for the kids. keeps class engaging for them each day. So, some of the SDI um some examples of it. So, what to look for? Um so, in the areas of writing um there's a lot of things that have to be introduced um as well as taught before students can um access that individually. One of those being our graphic organizers. Um so, believe it or not, they cannot just be given a graphic organizer and they have to complete it. That is a skill that they have to be taught. Um, and that's a a factor of SDI. Um, and so looking at those pneumonic devices and strategies um,

046for editing and writing or, you know, creating those solid paragraphs like with using race or things of that nature, as well as concept mapping to get their ideas flowing, um, focusing on topics, things of that nature. As far as math, um, I feel like math kind of follows with writing in English a little bit. I personally love a graphic organizer. Um, if you ever walk into, my co-teer is Ashley Lynch. If you ever walk into Ashley and I's classroom, we any given day have at least three visuals sitting in front of these kids. I like to laminate them too and make them nice. But, um, being able to visually see things I think is the number one thing with our kids a lot of the time. And that reaches the SDI of, okay, kids can

047look at this and they can follow a flowchart or graphic organizer if they so please. If they don't like it, then they don't have to use it. It's it's all for what what they want to use. Um, same with that strategy development. Ashley and I always say we have a Lynch way and a Wyro way. So, that's us saying like there's two ways to solve a math problem. We're giving the kids two different options to learn how to solve it, but not saying, "Hey, this one's probably easier than the other way." We're saying, "Hey, there's the Lynch way and there's the wider way, and you can choose which way you want to solve it, and it either way is right on the test because you get to the right answer." So, kind of minimizing that

048discomfort for the kids of being like, "Oh, shoot. I'm not using the way that maybe it seems smarter." No, it's two ways. We're just evening out the playing field for them and they can do whichever one they want. Um, same goes for reading in the sense of using those strategies to help access and comprehend um what is being read. Um and so some of these aspects of SDI are not just embedded within those um language arts classrooms but within those science and social studies um in order to access that curriculum. Um so SDI can be um embedded and presented in multiple different areas. So taking a look um at the co-eing models there are three high yield approaches [music] them being um that parallel teaching that alternative teaching and then that station teaching. I'll kind

049of dive in about station teaching. Um this is Kai and I's favorite method um to prevent or to um present curriculum. Um and so we do this in a variety of ways. Um we have differentiated. So what that means is that they are leveled stations. Some of them might see me at a station twice, some might see Mrs. Williamson once. Um but we're really able to make datadriven decisions um based on where students are. And not only are we providing um uh re-instruction and things of that nature, but we're able to also excel in um advanced kids who maybe have grasp the content and we can even um enhance those skills even more. >> Sure. Parallel teaching. That's one I've really tried this year and it's gotten better. It's hard. It's when both of us

050are teaching at the same time in the same room. Kids are usually faced opposite ways, but we're teaching kind of like she talked about like one math concept two ways. So like she might do a visual, I'll do more of the abstract version. We'll switch. Um and it it definitely helps depending on the group of kids. If you have a group of kids, they have a lot of energy. The smaller group, it keeps them engaged. They're looking, they don't look back, they don't see what the other person's doing, which is amazing. It took a long time to get there. Um, but I think something we can talk about too, just going like back in time kind of like Dr. Barrett asked like what did this used to look like? I feel like we've even when

051I first started in the district and this is my ninth year, it was co-eing was very much a one teach one drift or a one teach one observe method and that's all we had known. So like now that we've had all this time with Tammy Baron and learning about these high yield approaches, I mean we see it now like it's worth the work to put in. the kids are like so much better off for it. Um but yeah, >> just talking [clears throat] about the alternative teaching um finding that to be such a useful uh strategy when you have students that maybe um are ill for a week or two or maybe we just have um something going on, a family um emergency, something that's going on where they miss a little bit of time.

052Um, and so when they come back, you're able to take one, two, three kids and take them and sit them down, say, "Hey, I'm going over this lesson or this unit that you've kind of missed, but it allows the rest of the class to continue on with what it is they're working on." And sometimes it can even be vice versa. It could be the content teacher um working on that with the small group and then uh the LBS is leading the class. So again, it just allows that collaboration to allow all of your students to access the curriculum um based on whatever their needs are. And it it works for both regular ed and special education students. >> I also think um what Andy said kind of ties back to to what we talked about

053earlier in the presentation about the relationship and how important it is to have a relationship with the co-teers. Um, I think we've all realized it's it's a really beautiful thing co-eing. The relationship you build with another teacher in a classroom is like crazy, but like Andy was saying, you have to trust the other person that you're in the classroom with in order to do these things. If my co-teer didn't trust me to teach a small group of kids the exact same content that she taught, we're not getting anywhere. Same with like Ashley and I personally, we do a lot of team teaching where we're both standing up at the board. it it wouldn't be good if one of us was spewing off the wrong information standing there. So, it all kind of nicely comes together

054in a bow how important all these different aspects are. So, thank you you guys. This group talked a lot about Dr. Tammy Baron. Dr. Tammy Baron is a researcher and profess professor from Western Carolina University. if you look her name up, she's written several books and she has worked um for years directly with Dr. Marilyn Friend who is um the guru of co-eing and has been since the 80s. Um so we I had the opportunity of of getting to know Dr. Baron and um she has come into our district and provided PD which builds that common knowledge base but then also like they said the coaching. So we provide coaching to all of our co-eing pairs. So that helps with the application. So you can sit and learn about these these things, the the different

055models, the different ways to implement SDI, but until you go in your classroom and practice it and have someone coach you, it does not become that's what you need for it to be natural. And these guys have brought it to that natural level. If you walked into any of their classrooms, it it's amazing. Um, and I just want to say kudos to you as well as all of our co-eing pairs across the district. So, it's been um, years of this. Um, we started this work actually back in 2018 and then there was some hiccups, you know, 2020 and then we started back up again in 2021. Um, and we are finally in a sustainable place. What these guys aren't telling you and what I need to tell you is they have been identified as our

056exe exemplar pairs. They are going to help us move forward with sustaining this across the district for years to come because we can't always have Tammy Baron coming from North Carolina to be our coach. Now, she will help us and assist us and give us our research. Um, but we're going to do this together as we onboard new teachers, as we help each other grow. um as well as our colleagues. And I just want to say that all of you should be so proud of your work. And I can tell by the students when I walk in, they absolutely love it. Um they love your classrooms. They're fully engaged and we're seeing great student outcomes in the least restrictive setting. So, I think I I mean I'm going to let them talk, but I think

057the coaching MPD has contributed to our success of our staff. Um, we don't have high staff turnover. They feel connected to each other. We've had vertical articulation between the middle school and the high school. Um, and I think just having that support is huge as well as seeing success with their students, right? Nothing makes you want to come back to work more than knowing that you made a difference. Um, but I'll let you guys talk about is there any other things that you feel like this has supported your you as staff? I think, um, in the middle school, we've had a chance to just invite each other into our classrooms. And it's such a simple thing just to reach out to another math teacher and be like, "Hey, Michaela and I, we're co-eing 8th hour.

058We're doing stations today. come take a look. And I mean, the one person that came in and watched, she was like, "It makes sense now." She goes, "I can see it. Like, I get it." Like, it was just such a little thing to do. And and then we've all been in other classrooms as well. And I think that's the best way we learn is from each other. We can have all of these formal PowerPoint presentations, but until you actually start doing it and learning from each other, like that's really when the magic happens. So, that's kind of been cool to see. So, I was going to say too, um, I'm on my fifth year of teaching and I've had Kaia as my co-teer for all five years. Um, and taking a look at where we

059were my first year of teaching to where we are now. I mean, we are continuing to grow. And so with the PD um offered and as well as the coaching, we are always looking for new ideas and new ways um to meet individual individualized students needs um in order to access that curriculum which is crazy to see how much that co-eing model um supports and benefits all students within the classroom setting. Yeah, just to kind of piggyback off of that, I think that uh there has been in the past the time when you talk about co-eing and how there is kind of a little bit of a stigma around special education and when you are able to put these strategies into place, uh I don't think that you would be able to walk into a

060classroom and say, I know student A has an IEP versus student B. And I think that that creates a classroom environment that is respectful, it's inclusive, and it allows all of our students to thrive with multiple adults in a room. So, I think it's just really been able to build a good learning environment for everyone. >> We've gone over a lot of the ways this impacts our students, but I will tell you, and maybe they can tell a personal story or two. I was in a classroom one day and I I said to the student, I'm like, because they were broke up in station teaching and I said, "Oh," I'm like, "Do you do this often?" "Oh, yeah, we we do this often." And one kid, I said, "Well, what do what do you like

061about it?" And the student said, "Well, I get a lot more attention from the teacher." [clears throat] >> It was yours. And it's because they're in these little groups. And so as they rotate, all of them are getting individual or small group attention from one of the two teachers. And so there's a lot more time for them to be able to engage one with each other in a small group, but also with their their teacher. But if you guys I mean other like authentic the some of the comments are great but [laughter] >> I mean we can attest that we teach eth hour this year which is the last period of the day after PE and multiple people have been in our room while we're doing a co-eing model and they're impressed and I'm impressed

062too. The kids don't look at the clock like usually every other year I've ever taught ETH hour it's 3:15 and they're staring. I'm like you have 10 more minutes everybody. like we got to keep going. But it is like the level of engagement. They don't even realize that they're doing more work than they probably would be doing on their own, which is also fun. Um, but I can attest helps our eighth hour math class a lot. Thank goodness. >> Um, I shared a story at our PD that we did back in like September, October um, for our new co-teers. I I think it's a really cool one. Ashley and I co-taught algebra 1B together last year. We had a student, he didn't doesn't have an IEP, didn't receive special education services, just was in the

0631B classroom with us. Um, and he moved on and he's in Ashley's gened geometry this year. And he walked in on the first day of school and obviously he had had Ashley and I last year and he went up to her at the end of the period and he was like, "I'm excited to be in your class." And she was like, "I'm excited to have you again, too." And he's like, "But where's Miss Wyraw?" Mhm. >> And he was so baffled by the idea that like Ashley and I don't teach every single period, every single day together. Like he thought we were just this duo that went through the day together. And I think that shows how important it is too like that again that relationship and that rapport that you build as a group.

064We don't do the like my students versus your students thing. Like every student is equal in our classroom. And it's it's been a really beautiful thing. Well, again, thank you. Thank you for supporting these this team, our coaching, our PD, and um if you have any questions, we're happy to a answer those >> any questions. Anyone? >> I just make one comment. That's all. I was really impressed with the fact that you um said that students have the opportunity to use manipulatives. In this age where we have software and swiping left and right, it's good to know that they really get a chance to get those concrete concepts. I was really really glad to hear that. Keep it. >> Thank you. >> Questions just this first first I've heard of co-eing. So it was very

065interesting to me. How many pairs of co- teachers do you have in in your programs? So if we went back to that slide those are the amount of settings that we have co-taught right so I think it was at the high school I can't 50 >> 48 but out of co-eing pairs >> per subject per subject area so maybe >> so >> 15 at the high school >> okay 19 maybe pairs. >> Okay. >> So, when we're looking at um creating because the partnership is so important and trying to create that consistency from year to year. So, like Kirsten and Ashley have been together for two years. And so trying to create, you know, common plan time, things like that is so important. Um we also want to make sure that we're trying to look

066at content areas. So not having someone be teaching in science and social studies and math. So trying to put them in one content area if possible. So for for the special ed teacher, right? So obviously your content teacher is in the content area, but we're trying to keep the special ed teachers into one um content area if possible. Sometimes they go into a couple, but trying to keep that in one content area and then trying to limit the number of co- teachers that they're working with so they can really work on building that rapport with their content teacher um partner. >> You've mentioned that you have middle school and high school. Is this also done in the elementary schools? >> I think it it is done. I don't think it's been as developed. So, we

067have not had the PD and the coaching at the elementary. Now, elementary has a lot more discrete skills that they're still using and learning. Um, where content at the secondary level is much different. I'm not teaching the vowel, you know, the seven syllable types or the six syllable types where it has to be more direct instruction with small groups necessarily. Um when you think about algebra 1 and all the skills that go into algebra 1 um we have so much we have to cover that we can't hit discrete skills. >> Okay. >> Does that does that kind of help >> make sense? Then the last question I have is in in the co-eing pairs, does the special education teacher focus solely on the students with the IDPS or is it they can be working with

068anybody during during this process? Either e either co-teer could be working with the children with the IDPs or without or vice versa in this case. >> So yes and no. Um, >> okay. >> We try I I think I can speak on behalf of all three of us, too. Like we try to keep the classroom as a whole. Like we don't do the my students verse your students thing. So like that's been a model that's been discussed in the past is like okay the special education teachers only responsible for the IEP students in the class and then the gened teachers only responsible for the kids without special education services in the past. Well, what I find in my classroom is sometimes some of the kids without special education services actually need more help with the

069math content than some of the kids with IEPs. It's just depending on what you get. So, we kind of mix it up. So, yes and no. Like, yes, I'm responsible for goal updates and progress monitoring and all of that for an IEP student. However, I wouldn't say that I only solely focus on them in a room. >> So, within these I'm about to go right into what you're about to say. So, absolutely. I got you. I'm right with you. So, a really good example of that is today uh in my English one class with uh Rener Burns, we're reviewing for finals, right? And so, we just took a summitive test last week and we got our scores back and we saw one group of students did poorly in this area. Another group of students did

070really good in this area. And then there's our third group that's just kind of over here. And so we take those students and we group them based on in this example where their area of need is in this in front of this particular assessment. And so this is both regular ed and IEP students put together. And so we did our station teaching. And so our higher level kids had they were independent in the independent group twice. We had our lower level kids that were working with us more frequently. And then we had our other group that was also working with us more frequently. And so we're able to take this unified approach and be able to basically um touch our kids throughout the entire class and give them those skills that they need. But it

071it it is very dependent, I would say, on what day of the week it is because as as special education teachers, we also have roles and responsibilities that Kirsten was talking about that might be data collection for for goals and things of that nature that go into it. maybe our roles and responsibilities uh differ a little bit today because we need to do something revolving around that. Um so I think it really is an ever flexible and evolving um kind of routine and pattern that we face all the time in class. So hopefully did that answer your question? Okay, great. Yep. >> I only have one question. in in the um um in the schedule or when we when our students get or when the parents get the schedule, do they have both teachers on?

072So, it it's just the John Ed teacher was is it would be on the schedule and then um and then the when the student student shows up day one, then they're they see the second teacher or the co-teer. >> Yes. Unfortunately, as of right now, um eh school only allows us to only allows the system to list the content teacher. So it does not show the uh special ed teacher in the course. So >> special education >> microphone sorry >> the special education the the parents of students with who receive special education would know um because it would be listed in their IEP that they're in co-taught English one or co-taught you know algebra 1a. So that's shown there. >> Yeah. I think just as a teacher who I do co-e so I co-e government

073but I also just have a regular government class as well the curriculum and the um goals for students is exactly the same um so in my classes without a co-teer like it's the same content same curriculum same learning objectives for students in my co-taught section same thing we just might have some different lessons or different approaches to teaching it um so it's actually I think for those gened students that are in the co talk class. It's actually I think um a little bonus for them because they get they actually get a little more attention than they would in my just regular class where I have 30 students. Now in my code talk class it's 30 students but there's two teachers. So the ratio is a little smaller teacher to student ratio. So it's actually um

074yeah a little bonus for kids a secret bonus we would say. >> Anyone else? I just one more comment and and I um so so our our high school junior has a has a class with co-taught um teacher and uh didn't know this until till teach parent teacher conferences that that this was happening but now that I kind of have this insight and thank you for the presentation tonight. Um, I'll be curious to ask her in terms of how she feels about that class because I I didn't realize it was taught like this. So, um, this is really enlightening. Thank you very much for the presentation. >> For your time. Thanks. >> Great job everybody. Thank you so much for what you do. >> Yes. Thank Thank you. And and we appreciate that you've been

075able to get the PD to do this important work. Some of these indications are almost intuitively obviously superior when you have a large group and there's a varying level of comprehension. So, thank you very much. >> Okay, the next item on our agenda, the 2025 tax levy year final presentation. Todd Leam is here to do the job. I bet they turned it off on you. They thought they were being helpful. >> Oh, was it? I gota talk real loud. >> That won't work for the TV. >> The last group wore off the battery. I'm not surprised. [laughter] While we're getting ready and then uh you'll see me come back next year with a budget next year. All right. Good evening. So this is uh the ongoing process of discussing our 2025 tax year levy received

076in 26. As I've said several times uh we receive this at the end of the current fiscal year in May June and then in the 26 27 year um July through usually October or November. And so this is up before the board for final adoption and approval. And I had an opportunity tonight to talk with the finance committee and make a presentation to them. um and they made a recommendation to the board. So, a little bit about this again, these are the key components of the tax subby process. We talk about the equest valuation. That's the value of all the properties uh that are in the district. New property and construction, which are um basically new EAV that comes onto the tax roles that are not applicable to the item below that, which is the

077property tax extension limitation law. It's all uh applicable to CPI and we'll show those rates and how they progressed historically. We'll talk about the tax rates um especially the maximum rates that we've had over the years. Our total extension that we'll be asking for this time for approval, any revenue recapture and truth and taxation. We'll have a hearing tonight uh which anyone here could give testimony uh about the levy for or against it. So what is the EAV? So it essentially is the property valuation after the county and the state provide equalization calculations. It's important because it gives us an idea of the financial growth of the district and the EAV is multiplied by the approved tax rate per $100 of EAV to arrive at the extension. This is just the history of the rate

078setting EAV for Geneva 304. And you can see that the 2025 estimated is 2 bill138,892 $92,182 or what represents the 9.6 uh1% increase over the prior year. So you can see these last couple years we've had really good growth which is basically the growth in value of properties in the district. This is our new property. You can see we've had growth in uh three of the four areas. We've seen an increase of new construction or new property in our commercial area, our industrial and our residential. And the estimated total is uh just a little over $12 million of new growth. That's compared to last year where it was 15 million. So we had a little bit of slowing of growth in the district. So the property tax extension limit uh limitation law came in in

0791991. Essentially it's a passed by county and Kane County is one of those counties that follows this particular law. So essentially it limits the increase over the prior year. So it sets it at the tax cap of 5% or CPI. And so you'll see tonight we're asking for higher amount than CPI for the new construction which is law by law. And then essentially the rest of it will follow the CPI when it's applied by the county and we get our final um levy. So what is the limitation? So essentially as I mentioned it says it's the 5enter CPI and the next slide we'll take a look at what that CPI has been over time. So this is from 2014 through 2024 and so we use the prior year in December to set the uh CPA

080that we're using for this year. So you can see where it was 2.9. It's gone down from prior years. And so that's that's the limit that we have when we levy. So these are the funds that are subject to pel. These are our cap funds. They're education, special education, operations and maintenance, transportation, social security, IMRF, fire and prevention safety. What's not applicable to the cap funds and the limit is the bonded interest and the working cash. And then lastly, our revenue recapture. So this is the actual uh calculation we do for the limiting rate. Essentially says that the prior year extension times 1% plus the lesser of CPI or 5%. Divided by uh the total EV minus property is how we get the limiting rate. Just a couple notes on the bottom that the rate

081is based on the prior year extension. Uh new property is outside the tax cap as is debt service. So this is how the district has done with it limiting rate. You can see by year what the total rate was and what the capped rate was and non-capped. And as you can see over time that's kind of came down. So it's what I've talked about before when the EAV the district goes up you see that total rate start to come down over time. And this is indicative of what's occurred for the district. All right. So this is the historical levy request. So you can see by every year of the tax levy what the district requested and what actually received. And you can see we've been very good about the ask and the receive. We've been

082very comparable over time. And so it kind of uh reemphasizes that we're um very good with our levy process and we have a good understanding of what takes place in in that process. And again these are the assumptions that we made. Uh CPI is at 2.9% that's set at the end of December of 2024. The max that we could ask is 5%. The asset EA EAV is just a little over two billion as I mentioned. Uh the expected increase in EAV for us is uh 9.61 61 over the prior year. Our new construction comes in a little over 12 million. Uh our ask or our cap levy uh that you'll be looking at tonight and approving uh is 4.87%. Our bond interest has very little increase. We've been very stable with that. Our estimated tax

083receipts from the levy are 109 million 12,230 which represents an increase of $4,378,920 over the prior year. So that's the new dollars that we would expect to receive. So this was the uh draft that I gave you. This is the calculation process um that I brought before the board. This was the tentative that I brought before the board. And you can see there were some changes. Um we made some changes within those of where funds needed more of a request and less. And then uh some of the changes between that were um putting more dollars towards special education programs. We just had a presentation on that. You can see why that's important to the district. Uh I reduced some of the requested levy dollars for our fund 50. Those are retirement uh just because we've

084had accumulated some funds in those and I didn't need as much this year. Um we need to spend down some of that fund balance. It allows for life health safety improvements. Um you know we just completed that so we have to do those um our A's and B's. And then also it considers our new property. And lastly, we've had uh little to no change between attended to the finals. Um so we've basically been very stable from that presentation till tonight. Uh we did follow the truth and taxation hearing requirement. We did the required public notice. Uh the levy has been on our website for the required period of time. We'll tonight have a hearing which will allow the public to give testimony. The board will have an opportunity to give input. Uh you've heard the

085um conversation from the AFR about some of our cash reserves. Uh this is the estimation that I've had that I gave to the to the board. This is un audited. So tonight you had the audited so we can update this uh where we believe we ended the prior fiscal year. And lastly, we'll follow the process to complete the levy tonight. So we published the notice. It was in the King County Chronicle. Uh tonight we'll have the levy hearing. We'll be able to approve it through the truth and taxation compliance resolution, our certificate of tax levy, which is the uh compilation of the levy by fund. I'll ask that you approve a tax levy res revol uh sorry resolution by the board and that basically just has the entire document. It's required by law to place

086on file with the county. If approved, I go there tomorrow. I file all of our documents and that completes our levy process. The last piece is about in March. I actually get the estimation of all the final numbers and then is what's called the confirmational levy which I sign off as treasur on behalf of the district so we can receive those funds through the taxation process. All right, that concludes the presentation. Any questions for the board? Any questions? Thank you very much, Todd. Um we now go into item five which is the hearing a public hearing agenda. So I call the I call the hearing sort of a mini meeting within the meeting uh to order and uh we have listened to your explanation of the 2025 levy proposed increase. Do you have anything to

087add or or >> I do not or say? Okay. Anybody have any questions at this point? >> I I will just say that I had one citizen contact me over the weekend just inquiring about the process and they were informed they had a chance to come speak before the board. Uh I don't know if they're here tonight, but I did let them know there'd be multiple opportunities and that I had just passed that they had inquired about it onto the board. And so the next item is levy testimony. I think that's what you have basically done. Any questions or any comments for the board members? And is there any public comment at this time? Hearing none, I close the hearing. The next item is public comments. And I would like to say that we received

088a written comment uh which has been distributed to the board members. U I see here that Emily Ericson would like to talk about the school calendar. You're Emily Ericson. Are you gonna ask us if you if we would start later rather than earlier? >> Of course. >> All right. I can make your job a little easier because >> I know that. I know. I saw the same. >> Yes. >> We want you at the mic so you can be YouTube and everything. >> I saw that the proposal and I'm very grateful for that. Um, I just figured I I kind of um the reason I'm I'm talking is because I assume that in the future it'll probably, you know, still be on the table. First, thank you, Dr. Barrett, for taking so much time to

089talk to me, explaining so much. There was a lot to learn. Um, so I am grateful for your time. Um, as you know, I don't support moving up the start date, but I understand the importance of balancing out these semesters, and that is I now have a student in high school who's hopefully at home studying right now for his finals. [clears throat] Um, but so I guess my question is just really if there has been any discussion about alternative schedule changes to balance out the semester without moving up the start date. Um that would just kind of be my question to the board like what are the different um >> possibilities potential schedule changes? >> M Ericson I we normally don't go back and forth on this but I will I will break that precedent

090just a little bit of course when I went to school which was a very long time ago. You had Christmas break and then you came back and had a week and took your finals. Would you prefer a setting like that if it balanced the time? Um, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to it because that's that's the way I did it as well. We started a lot later. Um, I realize that that's a sacrifice and um, you know, I think that a lot of kids that study that number of weeks before are going to do it regardless. So, I think, you know, Christmas break um, might be a time that kids can utilize to study. Some may not. Um, I know my son is cramming right now as much as I complained to him, you

091know, months ago about preparing. Um, but I feel like, you know, as I I was going through, you know, talking to other parents that if if it didn't have to be that d that week directly f um following Christmas break, you know, if there was a week or two, if that would balance out, um, you know, if there's other days within the semester, I mean, I would be in favor of moving to after Labor Day, but I know that would never happen. or even pushing it one, you know, another week back that that would mean that you could push finals back and have that little bit of an extra time. But I realize with all the co-ops and everything like that, that's probably not realistic. So, >> so I'm just curious as to any other

092um discussions as to how to balance out the semesters without moving up a start date. >> Andy? Yeah, I think when we get to this um on the agenda a little bit, we might have an opportunity to talk about some of that a little bit and some of the conversations that we've >> we've had a lot of those. But yeah, right. >> Fair question and and those I can say candidly those conversations will continue regardless. >> And I guess my how many years has it have you told me that they changed it? They used to take it after Christmas break. How many years ago was that that it was changed? Any roughly I mean more than 10, you know, >> more than 10 more to 15 years. >> Is there any way to gauge whether

093or not um kids tested better before or after or has it been done or is there a way to tell whether or not it makes that big a difference to their test scores? >> I I I wouldn't be able to answer that question, but I would point out that test scores have generally not been increasing. So, it didn't matter. >> I don't know if it had any connection. >> Yeah. Right. It didn't matter then. >> I can't say. >> Okay. I I mean, I wasn't asking you. I know you're a board member. You know, these guys that are are are making the the changes. I wouldn't expect you to know what the test scores are before or after they changed, you know, the schedule. >> So, >> it happened before I was on the board.

094How's that? [laughter] >> I I was looking to these guys right here on whether or not they had any idea if made that big of a change in test scores. >> It was a long time ago and it was kind of a different world. >> For sure. I get it. >> But I'd be happy to talk about it with you after after the fact, too. >> Okay, sounds good. Thank you. >> Good. You're welcome. Thank you. >> Thank you. That'll teach me to violate president. [sighs and gasps] >> Okay. Um Bonnie, did you receive any other requests for comments? Does anyone want to say anything at this point you're here? Thank you very much. Legislative updates, please. >> Okay, since we last met, we had the IASB delegate assembly. We spent quite a time a

095bit of time talking about the one resolution and the changes to the constitutional uh to the constitution uh for us. So, I wanted to give you a report on what happened. So, the resolution, there was only the one, if you recall, it had to do with the seat belts on the school bus and looking at a few alternatives um to what was uh being proposed. uh that actually stayed on consent agenda and passed. So there was no discussion. I was surprised that that um pushed through so easily. For the constitutional amendments, there were a few that were pulled off of consent agenda and we had discussion on those. Everything ended up being uh passed do adopt as was recommended to all the delegates. when it came time to the um election of officers, there was

096a nomination for the floor from the floor for the I believe the vice president. So, we had to go through that procedure. Uh the person who was nominated from the floor, they did have information. Uh she had gone through the proper channels to nominate be nominated from the floor. So, they had the information ahead of time. and they put up a slide to show her credentials essentially and the person that was nominated for the positions credentials and I ended up voting for the person that they originally proposed because they uh appeared to have more uh uh years of service and a little more uh uh background in it. So I felt like that person that they had pro um brought forward was the better choice. So I did have to make that call on behalf

097of the board while I was there and that's how I made that decision. So, that's what happened. Everything uh essentially passed and uh I don't recall how long it was, maybe a couple hours, but it all went well. So, thank you. >> Hey, Jackie, is that unique to the the someone calling a nomination for a position on the board from the floor? >> I I I understand it happened a few years ago when I wasn't at the assembly and >> I was going to say I saw it. >> Yeah. And so, they tightened up the rules for how you do it. And so there there was quite a procedure to nominate yourself from the floor after you go through the process of interviews with the directors so that they come forward with a slate. If

098you were not selected, you did have time to go through this procedure to basically come to the meeting and say, I still think I am the better candidate for it. So that's kind of how it is. >> But they made it a lot more difficult to nominate. can't just decide like at >> at that time even though it sounds like in being nominated from the floor it's on the fly. It really isn't. There was a whole process. >> And so I'm sorry. So which person did you did >> the one that they originally nominated on the slate? Yeah. Not the one from the floor. Yeah. She she didn't have as much experience. Um but she had a unique experience compared to the other person. But I I just went with it. And the >> it

099was the majority more than majority. I believe twothirds had to vote for her and they did. >> Thanks. Anyone else? Thank you. Um, superintendent report. Dr. Barrett. >> Hello. I thought I was >> Well, that was short. >> Yeah. The heck. There we go. I will be very uh I only have two slides tonight because I know we have a long agenda. So, um, first I just want to say, um, you know, we always do our I try to do some facts and thank yous. And today I want to do, uh, some quick facts and some thank yous, um, for our, uh, all the local philanthropic organizations that do a lot to support our schools. Um there are you hear we get to hear a lot from the teachers and the educators who do so

100much to um look out for our kids and and educate our kids, but uh the local uh you know philanthropic organizations that do so much. It's really unbelievable and and I think every educator in our district would tell you how um fortunate we feel to have groups like our PTOs, like our booster organizations, like some community and civic organizations. Um there are a number of these organizations uh that are either kind of tied closely to our schools like our PTOs and our booster programs or that are kind of tangentially associated through the community like the Geneva Academic Foundation or our uh Pride retired volunteers or um the Lions and the Kowanas, you know, these kind the Masons who are pictured here making a donation to the school district. Um there are hundreds of people across

101this community who uh do a lot to support our our kids and our schools and our teachers and it's really appreciated. Um and they really do that in two ways. one is they just support really cool stuff that happens, right? Our our fun fairs, our activities, um you know, a lot of these cool things, outdoor red, a lot of cool things that happen for kids couldn't happen if these groups weren't there. But also, of course, I think we all know uh these organizations raise a lot of money um and contribute a lot of money uh uh financial supports to our schools and to our kids um in ways that really make a meaningful impact. I mean, I know um outdoor ed candidly could not it's a great experience and it could not be a thing

102in our district the way that it is without the supports of like our PTOs and these kinds of organizations. So, um this kind of thankful time of year, we just wanted to say as a school district, thank you uh to those organizations uh for doing all those things they do for our kids. Um and speaking of that, just want to give a happy holidays to everyone in the community. um and and to the board and to everyone in our schools. This is always a very exciting time of year and busy time of year. And I think it's also always important for us to remember that for a lot of people this can be a really challenging uh time of year. Um and so it's important to have all that excitement and fun, but also just

103make sure we're continuing to remember that, you know, as our theme of the year goes, we're in it all together, and we want to make sure we're um taking care of each other at at this time of year. So that's all I have, Larry. Well done, Andy. Thank you. And on behalf of the board, I'd like to thank all of those generous individuals. Every time I get to the list of people who have donated to the district, I'm I'm impressed and pleased that people care so much. Next item, dialogue topics pending action consideration. First one is the adoption of a resolution authorizing the certificate of the tax levy for 2025. So we are, as you know, required to approve resolution to adopt that tax levy. Is there any discussion? And if there is none, do

104we have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to adopt the 2025 tax levy. >> Second. >> I I >> I thank you all very much. >> I trust we're happy with that one. Um resolution providing for the issue of this is item two in the agenda. resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed $22,900,000 of general obligation refunding school bonds uh series 2026A and uh that is for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding bonds owned by the district for the levy of the direct tax annual tax sufficient to pay the principle and interest of said bonds and authorizing the proposed sale of said bonds to the purchaser thereof. representative from Raymond J. Is that you connected? Sorry, I need to connect. So, Elizabeth Hennessy is here uh to talk about this bond refunding

105proposal. I'm going to Elizabeth, I'm I'll pull up and drive the presentation if that's all right with you. >> That's wonderful. Thank you. >> Okay. Um and there we go. our board had an opportunity to talk about this uh a little bit in our retreat as our recent retreat as I'm pulling this up. Um, you know, I always like to uh kind of talk about these things as it is easy for me and maybe as a citizen to understand it. And really what we're talking about tonight, we've heard Todd um talk and Scott actually, our auditor, a lot of money talk tonight, huh? talk about um our debt and our bond debt, right? And our bond debt is basically our district mortgage, right? The mortgage we have for our buildings and our facilities. Um and

106we're now at a point where we have an opportunity to consider uh refunding some of that debt, refunding some of those bonds, which is basically uh Elizabeth is can get into the smart details of it, but it's like um refinancing, right? When you get to go and refinance your mortgage. So, uh, we have an opportunity to see if we can save the taxpayers a little bit of money, um, as we, uh, now approach this window where we can refund, um, some of our bonds. And Elizabeth always helps us do this. And I'm going to pass it off to her to give a quick presentation. >> Thank you, Dr. Barrett. Thank you for having me tonight. Um, this presentation is going to look at the opportunity to refund the series 2016 bonds which were originally refunded

107from 2007, part of the referendum bonds. And those bonds are currently callable, which means unlike a mortgage, you can't refinance general obligation municipal bonds anytime. You have to wait till the call date. So, we will be there January 1 of 2026. So now the district is able to refund those bonds on a taxexempt basis. So first of all I'm going to give you a quick market update. Last week we had the Fed lower interest rates. The Fed funds rate uh once again from 375 down to 350. Uh that is the third cut this year. Um, importantly, uh, there were two dissenters on the decision and one who wanted a larger cut of the Fed governors. So, what that tells us and it tells the markets for next year is we may not be so sure

108there will continue to be cuts in the Fed funds rate. It's going to be data driven. So, we'll see how things like unemployment um and inflation CPI continue into 2026. Next slide. This is the AAA municipal market data index. And the dark line is the 30-year average. On the X axis, we have the maturity. On the Y ais, we have the interest rate. Um and the red line is where we are now. So, you can see that interest rates in years uh three uh through about 18 are lower than that 30-year average and the rest of it is close to that. So, rates have come down. And if we go to the next page, we can see how rates have changed since January 1. Again, these are taxexempt municipal bond rates for AAA rated bonds.

109And you can see that um the bonds maturing in years 1 through 13 have gone down substantially since January 1 and 25, kind of incorporating those rate decreases we just talked about. However, the longer term rates from years 15 through 30 have actually increased and that's kind of an indicator that inflation is still with us and the markets are expecting higher prices um and reflecting those in higher interest rates on that longer end of the end of the curve. This next snapshot uh is your debt limit. This is a statutory debt limit. Uh the district's gross debt limit is 271,449. You have 75.295 million bonds outstanding. So your net debt limit is 196 million 154037. So it's very large debt limit. If we go to the next slide, these are the two bond issues you

110have outstanding. These are >> [music] >> uh the 2017s and the 2016s. We're talking about refunding tonight. Important to note the 2017s are callable next January of 2027. Um so uh given current market conditions, savings for refunding both of these bonds is close to $1.4 million to the taxpayers. Let's go to the next page. This shows the outstanding payments for your debt. Um if we look at the far uh right column, we see the tax rate for debt is around 74 cents and the payments are just under 14.5 million and they're ending in five short years by levy year 2029. Let's go to the next page. This is a graphic of those debt payments. And the green line here is what we call the debt service extension base. That's part of the tax cap. The

111district hasn't issued any of those non-referendum bonds for many years. Uh but you could if you wanted to. So that green line represents the limit on that issuance. So um again, this just shows graphically that the the debt will be totally repaid by levy year 2030. So, here's the proposed refunding of the 2016 bonds. Um, what we're proposing is to pay the debt off as quickly as possible within that 14.5 million constraint. So, we're shortening the debt and all the savings comes in the last year and the total savings is uh estimated currently at 600,831. So for the owner of a $500,000 home over that period of time, that's worth about $49 less in property taxes on that 2016 issue. Okay, so that's the resolution we're looking at tonight. I wanted to show you this

112next slide, too, because in short order, the 2017s are going to be callable and those may be refunded as soon as October of 2026. So those also produce savings. Again, taking the same strategy, paying them off as quickly as possible while keeping the payments at 14.5 million a year, that saves another 600,000. So together, um, you can see the savings are 1,2601 based on interest rates right now. And these are a little conservative. as more of the impact of that rate cut comes in, we're hoping for a little better than that. So, um the last page is the proposed timeline. So, tonight uh last or in November, we discussed the refunding options and paying off the debt early. Uh you saw the parameters resolution in your board packets last week. Tonight, we're discussing the parameters

113refunding bond resolution and that is in your board packet. What that does is authorizes the board to move forward with a refunding within certain parameters, certain savings parameters, and the payments not to exceed the 14.5 million a year um without any further board action. However, the final sale is subject to the approval of the board delegates and the board delegates include the board president as well as assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools. So, our plan is to move forward with this sale as soon as we get the bond rating in place, which we're talking about this week, and then going to market the week of January 12th. And at that time, uh, we will have a proposed final interest rate within these parameters and subject to the approval again of those board delegates set forth

114in this resolution, the board president and superintendent, assistant superintendent for business. So I'm happy to take any questions. >> Any questions from the board? >> I have just two just clarifying questions. Um the first is um callable in 2016 or yeah I'm sorry 2026. Um >> is is there a window of time within or is it anytime after 2026? It's anytime after January 1, 120 26, but we wanted to suggest moving quickly because um it takes, you know, about 30 days to close and we have to give the owners of the bonds notice that their bonds are getting called away from them. Um and so we want to get those refunded so you're uh paying the lower rate sooner rather than later. >> You bet. And and so I guess the follow-up question to that

115is is there any cost savings associated to the two bonds that we have outstanding to do it all at once at one time in October 2027 2026 sorry >> um you know that's a good question. Most of your cost of issuance are based on the amount of bonds sold. So it's proportional to the sale. So there's no savings for most of them. The only one cost that there's some slight savings and I would estimate it probably under $10,000 is the bond rating fee. >> Okay. So, >> so instead of doing that twice, you just do doing that >> Do it once. But we'd have to uh look at the savings of that 10,000 or less fee versus not locking in the savings on the 20 uh six 26 bonds for >> 10 months. >> Right.

116>> So that's why we're suggesting going now because it's my notion that that's a greater number although I don't have that analysis at my fingertips. >> Sure. Sure. The 10 months of having the savings on the on that rate versus Okay. And then um obviously there'll be a new rate in October 2026 for that >> 2017. Yes. >> Thanks, Dan. Um, anybody else have questions? >> All right. Who would like to have their name associated with a motion to save the taxpayers a million dollars? >> So moved. >> Second. I >> I >> Thank you. >> Okay. Item three. >> Thank you, Elizabeth. >> Yes. Thank you very much. Um item three, the the 2026 2027 school calendar. Uh Shanet Sims. >> Yes. Thank you. connect here. >> Talk to you tomorrow, Elizabeth. Yeah, I

117bet you will. Thank you. Yeah. So, I wanted to share um that uh our speaker was correct. We're rolling over kind of the current calendar for this next school year. In doing so, our staff will begin on Monday, August 17th. Our students will begin on Thursday, August 20th, with those first three days being uh opening day for the district, opening day for the buildings, and then our um what used to be our early September um teacher institute day. And then the last day for the school year would be May 28, 2027. Um in terms of like uh balanced semesters and trimesters, our elementary trimester dates are 58, 58, and 59. our middle school because they don't have that semester exam structure. They will have uh balanced semesters at 87 and 88 days. The high school

118with this start date will have um an imbalance of 78 days in the first semester and 97 days in the second semester. Uh the Fox Valley Career Center will like many of our Kain County um school districts, they're committed to beginning that second full week of August. So they will start a week earlier. So that will necessitate um transportation being provided to our students that attend the Fox Valley Career Center. And then also for our students who provide their own transportation, for example, for cosmetology, they will have to um assume that responsibility a week earlier. Um this also impacts our first semester first semester driver's ed behind the wheel hours. Um and this requires our our teachers to be very creative. they're um driving with students uh before school even starts um during that first

119few days of the school year as well as during parent teacher conference times because all students enrolled in drivers that have to have six hours behind the wheel time. So they've um been very creative with schedules to ensure students get those hours. Um, this also continues to have an impact on our Geneva High School semester long courses, not only on the regular semester, semester long courses, but also like AP government, which is a semester long course. So, our teachers will continue to, you know, accommodate that shift with an extra unit of study or um a faster pace in those shortened semester courses. Uh we will probably bring the calendar back to you in the fall or even later this um upcoming school year, the remainder of the school year. Um once we have the IHSA

120schedule um as Dr. Par has shared uh we are going to move a half day of attendance uh to accommodate the homecoming parade due to the large number of students um that are removed for that afternoon to attend that. So we just don't have that uh schedule yet. So when we have that, we'll bring it forward. So this is the calendar that we're recommending for the 2627 school year. >> And I might add, uh, Shauna, just kind of based on some of the conversation we were having earlier, um, we do recognize, you know, at this point if we're feeling like this is where we're at and this later start is where we're going to be. You know, as Shanet made a great point of here's a bunch of the things we're going to have to

121try to accommodate and we also know we're going to have to be having some conversations at the high school level specifically about what other creative things can we do to address um that balance in semesters um and you know have some additional conversations about that. I know Mr. Rogers and his the BLT team. Um, we've already had some preliminary conversation about that and I know that they're going to dig into that more um to look at some of those options down the road depending on like you said where finals might be placed or um if there's other creative solutions. So, we know we're going to have to we know we're going to have to engage those conversations going forward. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> I just um wanted to comment thank you all for

122your work on this. First of all, I know we all have had several conversations about this, both like a lot with Dr. Barrett and other administrators and with lots of parents. So, thank you for everyone's engagement. Um, but I I think that these problems don't go away. We're obviously aware of these, so we're going to have to find solutions if that means going sooner, if that means some other creative solution. But I think it's just important that we're continuing to talk about it throughout the year in this setting so that everyone can hear because I think that um there's not always a bunch of of eyes on the calendar unless we're going to make a shift. So, you know, it's kind of late in the year to be like talking about that or what the

123solutions are really helping everyone understand that this is what may have to happen or maybe we've come up with a creative solution but it might not make everyone happy. So, what does that look like? So, that's my only ask going forward. I think this makes sense but um if we can keep talking about it regularly throughout this year. >> I think that's a great point. That's something that Shaunette and I have talked a little bit about too is um as these conversations are ongoing um coming back here to kind of give examples and be like here's what this would look like or here's what this would look like because this is that public setting like you said sometimes it feels like um you know we talk about it here but then the committee goes and

124talks about it and it's kind of in a black box for a while and then all of a sudden it comes back out um and so let's not do that. Let's not do that. And can I add just one other thing about the committee is and I don't know what the right answer is but maybe we look at expanding that and letting a few more audiences into that committee. Like I really would love if we're going to talk about going moving finals. Is that possible that there are high schools invol high schoolers involved in that conversation? It would impact them. I could say oh it's it's it'll be fine for you guys but like what do they feel? What do they think about? you know, that would be beneficial to me >> and that would

125be on par with how the decision was made many years ago. There were high school students, parents, teachers that were all involved in that discussion. >> If I could also comment just to throw another monkey wrench into the whole spanner. Um this is the facilities task force discussed today that in the past we've talked about our funding for capital major capital projects on an even level going forward. Well, we realize today because of some of the funding requirements that we're going to have with the plans that we have moving forward and that we're going to be discussing about, we may have waves rather than a flat. So we may have years where we have significantly more spending than we would on a normal year and then drop for a couple years and then significantly more.

126And in those years we have significantly more. That means we're going to have a lot more projects that have to take place during the summertime. We may need the hours at at the end of the at the end of August or in the middle of August in order to um in order to finish the projects. as we found out a couple years ago with Western, we ran really close if I remember that correctly. Right. So, >> no reminder. >> So, I would just keep that in your mind because what include the capital spending projects because those are going to change from what we're doing today as we move in the future. >> Yeah, that's a great point, Paul. And candidly, when we see other districts that move to um a later start, uh you know,

127there's every every couple of years there's a district that has traditionally had an earlier start and then they switch to a later one. It's for just that reason, right? They're they've got some big projects coming up. And so that is something we always have to be mindful of. Oh, we're going to have a lot of stuff. We're not going to get that done by August, whatever. So, you've got to change those dates. That's a good point. >> Anybody else? Well, the the calendar committee has recommended the later start and uh we have a duty to approve that. Uh would anyone care to make a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. I >> item four on this agenda is board action for the 2025 financial report and annual comprehensive financial report. The uh audit was pre

128presented by Scott earlier today for not the first time. Approval is recommended. Any discussion? A motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I >> Thank you, Bonnie. Moving on. And uh item eight, work study topics and future action consideration. We get to do something here too. U item one is uh policy suspensions and procedures. And is there any discussion on that at this time? I guess I would just share uh share with the board here. Um and I'm happy to to talk through this briefly if if you would like. Um these two policies 7 col2 200 and 7 col210. These are the two policies that um we've spent a lot of time talking about as it relates to uh the potential uh use of a hearing officer for uh some disciplinary practices. Um

129uh you know whether it's a suspension review or a formal uh you know expulsion hearing basically. Um and so the board's had a lot of good discussion on this subject. uh over the last uh several months and then uh we ultimately decided to take it to the policy committee and the policy committee has had some some great discussion on it. Um and after that discussion has brought forward these two um policies for your consideration. Obviously they're on this part of the agenda because we're not seeking any action today. Um but we do hope that you'll uh take a look and consider uh what we've um put forward here. um with the hope of bringing it to a future meeting for approval. In short um let me uh in short basically what we've dis discussed is

130in policy 7200 which is our suspension policy that um because the policy is already differentiated um based on law candidly um between what what we're expected to do if a suspension is three days or less or if a suspension is four days or more. We mirrored that in the language. Um and uh basically said that for a suspension of of three days or less uh that any review would be conducted by either the superintendent or a designate that could be someone here or it may be conducted by by a hearing officer if the board has appointed one. Um and then for suspensions of four days or more, the review would be uh either conducted by the board or or a hearing officer appointed by the board. Um in the inst in those instances of 4

131days or more, if there was a review requested, uh you know, you would rely on me um to help determine if we were going to use that hearing officer. Uh and then uh this was the key factor that we wanted to include here. If the sus if a review is conducted um by either me um or a designate here or a hearing officer um the person requesting the g review would have the opportunity to uh provide a written statement um to the board uh for the board's consideration along with that final hearing officer's report because ultimately remember it's still the board's responsibility to to make that decision. Um but uh you know you get a written report and then uh if the individual felt compelled to share a written statement they could um then in

132it's it's um again that that policy this is the one around potential expulsion hearings right um this is a little rarer but again this says it would either be conducted by the board or a hearing officer if the board had decided to appoint one. Um, and in this case, what we felt like would be appropriate to do, um, if a hearing officer is utilized, uh, the student and his or parent would have the opportunity to provide a written statement, that same written statement to the board for consideration or would have the opportunity to appear in person on the night that the board is considering the hearing officer's report um, and have the opportunity to provide that statement in person as well if they felt so compelled. So, we thought that was uh um that seemed

133like it uh met what what the policy committee felt felt would work. So, again, that's just for your consideration at this point and then uh we would theoretically bring those back to a a future meeting and if those were approved then um we'd consider the board naming a hearing officer. So, I don't know if there's any other things to say from the policy committee. All I would add is that we've had some discussion about these topics um in the November and October meetings I believe they were. So you can always go back and watch those if you're interested on like some of the points we hit or how we kind of came to this point. >> Any additional questions or discussion? This is a first reading so there's no action required at this time but

134uh thank you for your attention. Item nine, information. Number one, board meeting presentation schedule. I think we pretty much covered that. Item two, foyer requests and board correspondence. Item three, suspension report. And for out of state trips, no discussion is required. The consent agenda, one of my so can I on the board um meetings and presentation schedule. Now that we have the next year's calendar set, can we update that for their next meeting so that we can see? Remember, it's right now it has 23, 24, and 25. We should include 26 because we're going to be there. >> Yeah. >> And what the schedule should be. >> Yeah, we can look at that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We make one fall off. >> There is 26 on there. Yes. >> Not next school. You're

135talking about next school year. 2627. Can we start to build in 2627 on? >> Yeah. Yeah. I got you. I got you. >> Okay. Anything else? Very good. Consent agenda. Personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, full-time equivalent, new hires. Item two, monthly financial report for November. Item three, gifts, grants, and bequests, $950 from the Chadz family for MCS music program. And item four, intergovernmental agreement with Geneva Public Library. Approval is recommended. >> Oh, okay. Let me get to that other piece of paper. request to purch that little thing. Um, request to purchase uh $733,487.50 CDW government for student devices. That's what I get for printing them. So with the addition of item five, any discussion, a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I >> thank you. Board member comments

136and reports. Who'd like to go first? >> I'll I'll be real brief. Hang on. Let me get my notepad out here. Um let's see. Uh couple things. Uh some of you saw the Geneva the GTV that um Anchorage that uh um Jackie and I did. So uh is Anchorage a word? Anyway, I just use that word. >> It's a place for sure. [laughter] >> Um, and uh, what a great experience. Yeah, I just realized that I'm not meant for TV. All right. And then, [laughter] uh, Ule Tide, that was awesome. So talented, our our our music students, and yeah, um, another great event. And then, uh, was able to catch some of the the basketball games. So, yeah, happy to do that. I'm next. Um I was able to attend the technology task force meeting

137um with Mike Wils and his team. He will be joining us in January to present the preliminary tech plan. Um he provided some updates on um um one particular thing I I thought was really great to mention tonight. We had a lot of um information on this being good stewards of finances across the board. And in our meeting, Mike had talked about how he really keeps an eye out for when we have to purchase new devices and um shortages versus prices going up and making recommendations when to purchase and how to purchase those to be um a good steward of our our money that goes towards that. So, I I really appreciate the update with that. Um, we also talked about, um, I know we had the intergovernmental agreement with the Geneva Public Library, um,

138and how we went through what that web page is going to look like for parents and how it's going to be that opt out. And we were talking through how the wording of that to make sure parents were clear um, so they understood this wasn't a second card and all that. So, it was really great to um, go through all of that. I also had the chance to attend the Harrison Street School PTO meeting on November 18th. They have a great turnout. It was really cool. It was this huge long table in their library with um so many people active. Uh one thing that really stood out was they had a group of fifth graders make a banner for the PTO all on their own unprompted thanking them for all of their work and contributions

139to their school. I thought that was really telling of the work that their PTO does. Um and just shout out to that entire group. um they went through a whole list of events and things that they do for their school and it was really wonderful to learn about. Um I wanted to give a big thank you to Ann um Scalia and her team for the co-eing presentation. I think it's really remarkable um you know the pedigogy that goes behind how we deliver education and the thoughtfulness of our teachers and the time they spend learning and training in these methods and models and to see I don't know what anybody else thought but the excitement that entire team brought to what they were talking about um really speaks to what their passion is and the comment

140about you know when you've made a difference and that's what brings you back to the table. Uh I really saw that come through. Um [snorts] and then finally, I know Andy, you had mentioned in your update, you know, this is a challenging time of year. Uh in particular, I think this was a challenging weekend um for news and a a reminder of also the time of year that we're in. And there's a lot happening and that's on a global scale, but personally, it's this time of year can be a really great reminder of loss. um and can be difficult for our our community members. So, just a reminder to everyone to take care of yourselves, check in with one another. Um and I wanted to just wish everybody who celebrates a happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas,

141and a safe new year. I had the opportunity um with uh Willard to uh be at the parent teachers advisory uh committee that we had a couple weeks ago. Um we reviewed the suspension history and data which was quite interesting. also discussed the current restraint and timeout procedure implemented in the district which for somebody that had never listened to that before that was very interesting. But we also talked about the preliminary discussion on a new uh social emotional survey that will take place uh in the coming year with the uh for uh in the new Pandora system. So I think that was very good. Um we're going to be having another meeting coming up I think in February scheduled. So that was interesting. Um we had a facilities task force meeting today and as I

142mentioned um you know the plan that we originally had for even distribution of capital um over every year is probably with the different funding methods that we were we're planning to talk about um may not be the most efficient or what has to happen based on what the regulations are with that funding. So, we'll have to take that into consideration. Um, we also will be meeting next month with uh to discuss here. Uh, we'll have the facilities task force um uh uh I think his name Brian here to present um all the bids that were presented um and and accepted for this summer's work. So, they have already been leased. They've already been let out. we have to approve and and we were chosen and well we have to approve them um and that will

143come at the end of January. Um, I want to say thank you to Todd um for finishing up the budget again in a great way. U and just for that thank you. He gets to start it all over again uh in two weeks. So uh we'll go from there for him. But thank you Todd on that. And finally we were on on the 13th of November. We uh it was Larry, myself and and were at the PTO meeting of um at um Geneva Middle School South. They have a lot of great programs planned. and they have a move a palooa to get kids off the phones and get them to move in the fall. And they have a big readathon in the spring. And they asked us to make sure if there's anything that we

144can do to support that and to and to publicize that to do that. >> Right. Thanks. Um did want to congratulate all the students that we saw tonight. It was nice to see a balance of athletics, academics, and the arts being celebrated. I did also get to go to the U tide celebration concert last week. It was fantastic. Is always a highlight of the season for me. The GTV uh anchors that was a lot of fun. Uh one thing I wanted to pass along that I didn't realize is that you record that we do we start like we're at 8:45 that morning when we actually started the recording. Uh it goes live that same morning 45 minutes later. So by 9:30 it was being broadcast. So, uh, I had no idea that they did it

145that quickly, uh, and and turned it around. And the students were fantastic. They they wrote the scripts and and helped us, held our hands to get through that, but that was just a lot of fun. So, if we have a chance to do that again, I recommend other people volunteering, too, because it really was fun. Uh, and, uh, I think that was it and my report. >> Yeah, I just want to give a commending U model. I I had read something about it but I to see it in full relief was uh quite good. Uh and again it's the enthusiasm that's what we used to call back in the dating myself back in the 70s the joy of teaching. We don't hear that so much anymore but I think I could see that they really

146seem to have the joy of teaching and that's a very important thing because we don't need burnout. Uh, another thing is I would say that uh I was uh thinking of some at least two of the ones that were honored the students u for their awards in athletics and academics. I've watched them grow up. You know, it just shows me that uh >> one in particular of the I call it names, but one of the ones that had the perfect score, I remember he was epic, you know. So, this is really quite full circle to see them uh grow and thrive in this community. So, uh just uh very enlightening and I think it bodess well for the future. They're walking how do we say they may be walking u sign uh what do you

147call it now? Billboard. >> Billboard. That's what I'm trying to say. Billboard. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Um just a few things from me. Thank you so much to all of our presenters tonight. I think it was a lot of wonderful, well thoughtout information and really valuable for all of us to hear that. So, thank you. Congratulations to all of the students that we were able to recognize tonight. And to all the students that don't get to come, we don't get to meet because maybe they didn't make it to state or they didn't get a 36. I know our students like are all of our students are working so hard and this is the week that our high schoolers, it really all comes together. So, good luck to everybody in their finals and I really

148just hope that everyone in our schools and our community has a really wonderful restful break. um because I know that it's a tough time of year, but also just everything kind of comes comes together at this point. So, we just need a little time for um to refresh. Um we did have a policy committee today as policy committee meeting today as well. So, we do have these two policies that are in the first reading this meeting. We will have more policies added during the next meeting as well. So, just a heads up that more is to come and then we'll have more still after that. So, just a little warning there. But please um bring any questions about the policies that we have to approve next month um to the meeting and we're happy to

149answer any questions. But thank you all. >> Thank you Stephanie. I would have to say that that's not on my Christmas list for more policies, but if it's what you have to do, it's what you have to do. Everybody's comments were wonderful. I certainly appreciate them. I attended the IASB conference in Chicago which was very meaningful with a number of excellent presentations. Some of which were almost brought me to tears and and one which made me laugh quite a bit. So you get a spectrum. Um the facilities task force meeting earlier today has some good news which I'll basically save for later but I think we're things are moving in the right directions. Um I'm with Paul attended a PTO meeting which I found meaningful and I enjoy meeting the people always. And um that's

150about it except I want to re-emphasize what Molly said. I think this is a time of year for careful reflection and consideration of those gifts that we've been given and those things that we can do to make the world better and we all need to commit ourselves to that goal. I believe um that gets us to the next page executive session. We have need to go into executive session and I'll read the subject first. executive session to consider matters pertaining to the placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students. uh litigation when action is brought against affecting or on behalf of particular public body has been filed or is pending before the court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds binds that an action is probable

151or eminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recommended and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting and if bines is wrong and that's a typo I >> [laughter] >> Anyway, so we have need to go in executive session. We'll take a break for a minute or two if anybody needs a drink and then we will start. I would like to thank everyone for attending. I know we have to have a motion to adjourn and a roll call. So um anyone care >> motion to go into executive session? >> Second. I >> I >> have a slice of >> Yeah. Oh, this is a minute.