Geneva CUSD 304 Board of Education Meeting 10-27-2025

001Good evening everyone and welcome to this the regular meeting of the Geneva 304 school board for Monday, October 27th, 2025. I'm delighted to have everyone here. This is the best house we've had in quite a while. >> So, Bonnie, could you call the role? >> Here >> you will lead us in the pledge. The flag is right over there. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If you wish to address the board or want to register your attendance, there's an attendance sheet in the hall that you can sign and a speaking form if you'd like to speak. Next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes for the regular session of October

00214th and the executive session of October 14th. Bonnie, have you received any corrections? Does anyone have any at this time? Motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. I >> item three, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. Number one is the traditional excellence GHS students and boys golf, national merit commended, girls tennis. Principal Tom Rogers will present the students to the board. >> Mr. Rogers, you had a brief little respit of acknowledging all the great things that happen at Geneva High School, but we're back at it now. So, board, as a reminder, we're going to take our step out around front as Mr. Rogers brags about some of these awesome students. And then, uh, students, uh, after he's had a opportunity to talk about you, I'll invite you up and one at a time start

003on this end with Dr. and sorry and shake everybody's hands and then we'll do a big photo op at the end while we recognize each group. Really excited to have everybody back. We we missed this for a while. So glad to have you here. Take it away, Mr. Rogers. >> Thank you, Dr. Barrett. Uh we weren't staying away on purpose. It just takes a little while to stack up the honors, right? >> So, uh as was mentioned, we have three groups to announce tonight. We're going to start with our boys golf team who qualified for the state tournament as a team. And uh before I introduce the players, I'll just state that uh they had a fantastic season finishing second in the Dukane Conference. And then when the IHSA state series started, we took second

004place in the IHSA uh St. Charles North regional. That finish qualified them for the IHSA sectional where we then, believe it or not, traveled to Molen, Illinois. Nice local uh course. Um but our boys did fantastic there. It was an exciting match to follow. There's an IHSA app and it's a lot of fun uh but very nerve-wracking to follow all day long trying to figure out are they going to make it, are they not? and they actually tied for third, but because we had a fifth team member who placed better than, now I'm trying to remember who we tied with. Mr. Hatel, help me out. So, we go East. Uh, their fifth player did not score as well as ours did. So, we were able to break the tie and advance to the state tournament

005as a team. I'll talk about the state tournament in just a second. Let's now meet the team members, starting with Dylan Anderson. Should be noted that pretty typical that golf is pretty well-dressed for this event. Uh Glenn Claremont, Ian Goodfellow, Robbie Keller, Noah Kettlewell, Blake Macowski, Logan Nove Hey, >> Ethan Olds, Blake Olsen, Will Quizling, Nick Torrance, and Matt Trimble. Boys are coached by assistant coaches Troy Potsik and come on up Troy and Estherrandle. And our boys head coach is Mr. Eric Hatel. So, as I mentioned, our third place finish at sectionals qualified for the team for the IHSA state tournament held down in Bloomington, Illinois at a course called the DEN. The boys, uh, there are 12 teams that qualify for the first day. Um, I'll be honest, I'm puzzled as to why this

006happens. But after the first day, they cut down from 12 to eight. So, if you're not in the top eight after day one, go home. But our boys didn't want to go home. They finished seventh after day one, which qualified them for Saturday and then moved up two more spots uh on Saturday into fifth place in the state of Illinois. Congratulations, boys. All right, guys. We're going to squeeze together for the official photo. Parents feel free to jump in. >> Mr. Rogers, I think that's the first time in a long time we have had 100% attendance. >> Oh, sorry. I stole your thunder. Sorry. Everybody, >> Mr. Hatel pointed out, they usually do have 100% attendance at these. So, thank you very much for everybody's dedication and congratulations again on an outstanding season. Thanks for

007being here. All right, guys. We're going to go back over towards the door. >> Thank you. >> Okay, our next recognition tonight is for a group of students who have earned National Merit Commended status in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation uh PSAT test. uh competition. So, back in the fall of 2024, uh this current group of students took the PSAT at Geneva High School. Approximately 1.5 million students across the country took the PSAT. Uh there's a two-tiered system of honoring students for their accomplishments on that test. There are National Merit semi-finalists that are announced first and there's approximately 16,000 of those and those students advance to finalist status um typically in February. Um the next group that we're going to honor tonight is National Merit commended students. They represent another 34,000 students on top of

008those 16,000 semi- finalists. So across the country, approximately 50,000 students are being honored out of that 1.5 million. Now you might think that's an awfully large number, but when you do the math, it puts these students in the top approximately 4% of all seniors in the country. So needless to say, these National Merit commended students are very smart. Congratulations to all of you. And now let's meet our National Merit commended students who we are honoring tonight and they will also be honored at uh senior awards night in the spring. So please congratulate Emiline Anderson, Alexa Ksky, Katherine Costello, Ethan Ellis, Haley Henson, Riley Heskin, who notified me today that she's unable to be here. Kir Lunan, Jonathan Papa Savvastos, >> Ben Schmidt, AND SAM TRAPATHY. Thank you to the five of you for being here

009and congratulations on this outstanding honor as National Merit Commended students. As long as I want All right. Thank you again and congratulations again. Okay, next tonight we're going to honor two Geneva High School girls tennis players. who combined to form quite the doubles tandem at the conference meet as well as the IHSA stage series. Let's introduce Khloe Corna first and her partner Letty Klene. So Chloe and Letty, >> as I said, uh, earned fourth place at the Dukane Conference tournament. They then competed at the St. Charles East sectional meet where they earned fourth place and the top four teams qualify for the IHSA state tennis tournament to be held up in the northwest suburbs. So, uh, last Thursday morning, I had the pleasure of going to Palatine High School. It was a beautiful, warm morning.

010I'm kidding. It was freezing cold. But the girls did a great job. I want to I want to mention, first of all, they're the first girls tennis players to qualify for state in several years, and they are also the first team to win a match at state in many years. So, the girls were matched up against a highly ranked Highland Park team in match number one at 8 a.m. We then played against Sandberg High School and that's where we earned our first state tournament win in several years. Uh, help me girls. I think it was 62 63 no >> 61 62. Thank you. And then um that allowed the girls to advance to their third match of the day where unfortunately they lost to Stevenson. But it was a fantastic run for the girls. It

011was a lot of fun to watch. Very competitive tennis was played at the IHSA sectional and as well on Thursday morning at Palatine High School. So congratulations girls on your great accomplishment. And before they go, >> I think it's also pretty neat that Lety is already here at the meeting to do something else important tonight. So, it's great to see athletes uh being true student athletes. Chloe, not to sell you short at all. I've just noticed you obviously that Lety is here to give a presentation on Red Ribbon Week. So, uh, just want to note that and that happens a lot and I'm certain it's why some of our National Merit Commended students were weren't here tonight because they're involved in other things, which is what the email from one of the students indicated. I

012also want to make sure to mention that the girls were coached this year by Mr. Zach Evans, uh, teacher at the high school in our science department, but unfortunately, he was unable to be here this evening as well. So, congratulations to the girls and Coach Evans. Thanks a lot for being here. All right, continuing on. The next item on the agenda, uh, GHS students against destructive decisions, Timothy McQuesten, Lety Klene, and GHS sponsors, Lisa Meister, and Carrian Smith. Happy to see you all here. Well, they're stepping up. I would note that at the last board meeting, the board uh formally approved a resolution in support of Red Ribbon Week uh in preparation for today. So, the board approved that uh resolution and I think is excited to hear from you all um about this important

013topic. So, thanks for being here everybody. >> Thank you all for having us. Um I'm Lisa Meister. >> I'm Ken Smith. >> And we are co-sponsors of the SAD Club um which as Larry mentioned there are students against destructive decisions. Uh we it started off as a club that was mostly about like drunk driving back in the 80s when this was first you know started and then it evolved into um students against drinking and drugs and then it evolved into destructive decisions which is more um encompassing of the kinds of things that teens are facing these days. And as a club, we we've kind of made a shift where we talk more about like meeting kids where they're at instead of um you know, just always saying like a just say no, just say no,

014just say no. We know that that's not always a message that kids are going to hear. And so we've kind of taken a a slightly different approach and we did this last year as well. Um I know Mrs. I'm sorry. And I have had conversations about, you know, harm reduction and looking at um the decisions the kids are making on the weekend and how can we be a more open and inviting environment for them as adults that they can turn to us um in some of those hard times and hard decisions. So Ken, you want to introduce >> um we've got Lety who we've all just met and Timothy to talk about from their perspective what the club is about and what it means to them. So, >> when you talk, make get nice and

015nice and close to the microphone if you can because they got to hear you on TV. >> Good evening. My name is Timothy McQueston. >> I'm Wy. >> Uh, and I would like to thank you for your time for this meeting to recognize the importance of Red Ribbon Week. The nation celebrates this week each each year to send the message to the community. How about just hold it? Okay. Um to send this message to the community about taking responsibility for our health and making thoughtful decisions regarding regarding substance abuse. >> So in the past drug prevention programs centered around like Miss Meister said just say no and fear tactic fear tactics. And we know from years and years of research that those strategies have been largely ineffective. Uh for some teens, developing refusal skills is

016effective and teaching and teaching them how to analyze the influences around them is a useful skill. For other teens, a strictly just say no approach isn't as helpful as t as talking to them about harm reduction methods. If our goal to help teens is to help teens and youth and young adults move the needle towards healthier outcomes, we must recognize that each person might be in a different starting place. And we need to approach this topic with a level of empathy and compassion instead of judgment. So, we need more teens. We need to meet teens where they're at and talk about things relevant to their lives using evidence-based strategies. Otherwise, teens won't feel like they can go to adults in their lives with concerns. they may have about themselves or their friends. We need to

017help teens who want to take steps towards positive change in their lives, even if those changes are small steps at first. In drug prevention, we know we want to deliver the message. We don't want to deliver a pessimism message. However, we also don't want to be dismissive of the harm that the we don't want to be dismissive of harm reduction strategies that are evidence-based. Uh the national drug control strategy outlines various tactics are needed uh are needed in drug drug education. A school district in Washington state describes their strategy as right service, right time, right child approach. uh explaining that sometimes taking smaller steps towards healthier outcomes will help students build trust and rapport with adults in their community to help them be able to go farther and make bigger and more lasting changes further

018on. The major principles of harm reductions include care, support, connections, and respect to foster the trust and rapport needed for someone to reach out for assistance. This year's National Red Ribbon Week theme is life is a puzzle. Solve it drug-free. To me, this means we want to be able to incorporate healthy problem solving skills to handle life's challenges instead of clouding our judgment with substances with substances when life gets hard, which can seem like a cheat code to a hard puzzle or a hard day. Statistics show that teens are more involved in their community and have a sense of belonging and stability are less likely to engage in risk in risky behaviors. In trying to make an impactful campaign with students, we highlight the six principles that help facilitate a healthy lifestyle. These principles are

019finding a natural high that is your passion through building up sports, arts, and musical related extracurriculars. We are able to we are able to give a wide net of support to a majority of students. Surrounding yourselves are number two, surrounding yourself with positive peer influences. making sure that voices like SAD Club are heard and letting people know that they aren't alone, even if they don't want to reach out for help themselves. Number three, finding a positive mentor to encourage you. Creating those extracurriculars with solid coaches, teachers, and directors, and club leaders can help many kids talk to someone outside of a parent or guardian. Four, having a for having a firm belief in your talents and abilities. Uh, kids don't just need a mentor encouraging encouraging themselves. They need they need uh they need mentors

020who are who are going to lift them up and allow them to be as confident of their skills and talents. Number five, uh setting goals for yourself and your future. Knowing what you want for the future is a great way to uh block out things that can limit you in the future. uh knowing what you want to do can let you say no to things that will inevitably harm that plan for yourself. Uh building resilience to help to help you get through challenges in life. Knowing what is out there is a great way for kids for kids to stay healthy. Uh health classes like Miss Meers uh can ex can explain what drugs do to the body and are a great way to build up resistance to drugs early on. And at the high school

021level, we are helping students build assets where they give back to their community through our annual food drive. We are also working with our GTV students to promote healthy decision-making and being brave and standing up to peer pressure. We are encouraging more connections between clubs at school to increase positive social networks among teens and positive mentors. As a community, we can impact by providing fun, healthy things to do through our park districts, city planning, and school district extracurriculars. Uh so teens have a safe and fun activities to participate in with their friends and allow adult supervision and guidance. As a parent, we encourage you to talk to talk about healthy decision-m under pressure within your own families and encourage open dialogue with your kids. Talk often in your homes about what your kids can do

022if they are ever worried about a friend or if they need some advice on how to handle a situation themselves. Uh teens often feel that they can't go to parents on topics that teens often feel that they can't go to can't go to parents on topics because they are concerned that their parents will have a knee-jerk reaction and protect them with bubble wrap. As a parent, your teens need to know that they can approach you and ask questions without judgment. So, they know that when heavy stuff comes up, you already have the rapport and dialogue going with a teen and are able to help them handle life or death situations with when they need the help. >> These are just some of many ways the adults and teens can work together to get a handle

023on reducing harm and increasing discussions. We thank you for your time and attention to this important annual week of drug prevention and awareness. Thank you. >> I think it's wonderful that you're learning coping techniques for the things that we all face as we go through life. And as a parent and and all it makes me really happy to see you doing this important work. Thank you very much. And Lisa, thank you for coming out because I know you haven't been feeling well lately. All right, go. Next item on the agenda is middle school SEAL presentation. Terry Blue and Dave Carly. Yeah. Well, there uh it should be on uh it's it's on AV mute right now, right? >> So, the remote should be there if you Windows K and then AV mute it. Uh well,

024Mr. Carly and uh Mr. blue are getting set up. Just want to welcome them up here. Um, you know, they've been working with uh their staff at the building level on a variety of different topics. Um, the board had had a lot of discussion about some of their work in the area of executive function, executive functioning. And while they were having some of those conversations, they were also having some of these conversations about social emotional learning um and trying to achieve one of those goals we've talked about a lot, which is making us more consistent across the campus. And so that's what they're here to talk about today is um you know the the work that they've kind of embarked on and are doing together as uh as a campuswide team in terms of social

025emotional learning and how that structure is going. What' you do? >> Wing it. >> Oh, there we go. >> There you go. 6985. Wait till the warm up. >> There you go. >> Oh jeez. >> Are you already connected times? >> Oh no. Okay. They disconnected. Now I'll remind you both too. You can make the microphone close to keep the microphone close to your mouth. Sounds good. Well, thank you for this opportunity to talk about uh middle school. Um we'll say it's social emotional learning. Um it is a mandate by the state of Illinois. Um it's been going on at the middle schools for many many years. But what we did this last past year is we had a committee with uh learning and teach teaching and our assistants uh assistant principles and our dean

026at the middle school um and some teachers and GA reps and we looked at the different um programs out there and we do use Second Step here at the middle school um and what we did was we upgraded to a online version um that has videos and presentations and we'll go through and talk about it. So, what's new? Um, basically we have weekly time assigned for social emotional learning at the middle schools. Both uh buildings are on the same schedule uh throughout the school year. Um the first day of the week, either a Monday, if we're not in session on Monday, it'll be Tuesday where we have a time um built in to our schedule. Um again, every Monday uh or first day of the week. It's 29 uh minutes long and set aside for

027social emotional learning. It's different um now than it's been passed because in the past it was built into a class. It was LA class, a math class or science. They taught the SEAL lesson. Um this year we are going we're dedicating time on first day of the week and uh every certified staff in the building has a group of students or assigned a group of students. these students. Uh the class size ranges from 13 to 15 uh per certified staff member. Um so keeping our numbers low so the teachers could get to know the students um within that grade level. Um again we're use using the second step program which is the updated version. Why did we change? In the past we used the older version of second step. The newer version as I said

028has more lessons and better content uh presentations um videos. Uh previously each main content area would be given two days throughout the year taking away from that curriculum area the math science or uh um say LA period. Um with new second step there are more lessons that we're going through. Um and Mr. Blue will go over the different lessons and then moving to a Monday schedule on campus allows every class period on that day to be uh um students be in every class period. Where does the time come from? What we did was we took four minutes off each class period uh for that to have the period. Um again allows all content areas to be uh to meet on that uh Monday or the schedule day. It's going to happen all the way until

029April. End of April. April 27th will be the last lesson for a second step. And then going into May, uh we'll be back on our Monday through Friday schedule um on campus. All right. So, it's probably nice that we came during Red Ribbon Week because a lot of what uh we're gonna talk about in Second Step kind of goes down to like making good choices, which is again uh what you guys all talked about a little bit ago. Uh so, we could probably leave uh and and skip the rest. Um so, there's really at each level there's four main units plus uh another one that I'll talk about in a second. So, like uh first unit's mindset and goals. And so at each level for the first four, no first like five lessons are like

030mindset and goals, but it's different because each grade level is a little bit different, right? Uh and then developing a positive sense of self, which is where we're at now. We just shifted into that uh unit now. Um thoughts, emotions, and decisions, which there's a lot of emotions at middle school level, uh as you well know if you've had some middle schoolers. Uh, and then managing relations and social conflict, which again is something that is really, and I've always felt like that's middle school's where you learn a lot about how to manage relationships and and conflict. And so, uh, it's nice that we have a solid curriculum to help us do that. Um, there's also six bullying lessons, uh, that we are we use that are separate than the units. And so what we decided

031to do was seemed wrong to like put them all at the front. Uh and then it's like great, their kids are loaded up the front for for uh the bullying information, but then it's not touched on again and seemed even worse to put at the back end. Uh where it's like all right, bully each other until the last six weeks of school, please. Uh that seems wrong, too. So what we did is we took them and sprinkled them at the end of each major unit our two bullying lesson units. uh so that that way it's kind of touched on throughout the year and you know this is our first year doing it because there again as uh Mr. Carly alluded to there's a lot more content than what we've done before uh with second step.

032So we'll see if that was a good decision we liked it or not. So we just finished up our first two bullan lessons uh the last couple weeks uh and then we'll do it again like December, January, February and March and I'll be wrapped up with that. So, um, that kind of covers the main content areas. So, again, how is it different from one level to the other? Well, here's a couple examples that we pulled. Okay, in unit one, um, which again was about, you know, goal setting and things like that. In sixth grade, the lessons there's a lesson about breaking down your goals. Now on that same day, seventh grade was about overcoming obstacles, you know, because you know, all right, if over time we keep with this curriculum and sixth grade, you're doing

033a lot about setting goals. Seventh grade is about how you're working toward them by overcoming obstacles. Eighth grade, how do you motivate yourself to reach your goals? So, all those lessons are happening on the same day, but you know, around the same umbrella topic, but different based on the grade level. Uh, it kind of makes sense. Um and then uh I pulled for unit three um you know sixth grade managing your emotions. Okay. Uh you know seventh grade's about reframing the situation. So you know a lot of times we go down a dark hole uh when we see something that's a conflict that we don't like and instead of trying to reframe it and realizing hey this might be good for us. Uh you know that's what we need kids to learn how to do

034right is like you know turn a negative into a positive kind of thing. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but it's in unit three and we haven't covered that. Um, and then eighth grade uh has strategies for managing your stress. So again, all those seem really related to each other, but the higher level stuff is happening in eighth grade and a little bit lower at the sixth grade level. So now you might be wondering a couple things about this is what's nice about what we're going to be doing. I I'll get to this slide in a second is that we're kind of we're focused on some of those functional skills that kids need that are really about managing emotions, managing relationships. And for those of you who have uh you know uh known that

035you know for a few years, South and North attacks functional skills a little bit differently in a couple ways. And we were talking about functional skills like organization and things like that. But when you look at like um goal setting, well, right there you're starting with the most important functional skill kids need to know because if you don't do goal setting, why am I bothering being organized? Why am I bothering doing my homework? None of those things matter, right? And so what we've done this year is said there's not time to do this and do some complicated organizational plan that's outside of this. Instead, we want to see how does this uh this curriculum lead us through those functional skills and let's focus on you know when it comes to like organizational things. Those are

036the things that make more sense to embed in the regular classroom like we were doing the opposite. We were doing embedding this stuff and saying hey math teacher embedded into a math lesson somehow. Now, we're pulling this out and saying, let's do this in small groups and let's embed more about the organizational things into our common practices in the classroom, if that makes sense. Okay. And then the other thing we've talked about is some of these lessons are going to be longer than others, shorter than others, you know, like uh you know, like there's, you know, and and second set's great because they give you a few um like time fillers that relate to the topic. So if you your group wasn't chatty and they you need to kind of drag it out of them

037a little bit more, it gives you a couple things. But I think what we're going to find over time is like are there lessons that are traditionally shorter that we could then say, okay, hey, you know what, then this is perfect time on those shorter days we're cleaning lockers at this grade level because that's something that we need to help kids learn how to do or whatever it might be. We got to learn over time what's available by, you know, it's 29 minutes. It's not like miracles can happen, but we're going to do our best, right? Um, so what are we going to do for the rest of the year? We're going to collect some feedback from the staff, see how this year went. I think it's going really great so far. We're every Monday

038we've assigned ourselves to be in the classroom for Second Step because that way we're more prepared to talk to you about what the curriculum looks like and we can like speak from knowledge. Um, and so, uh, but we the teachers are doing great. Um, and I think they really enjoy that smaller setting of like 13, 15 kids that they're getting to know. Well, what's also nice is we move away from teams at the middle school level is now that creates like a there's a connected person to you that's not there trying to say now learn some math, learn some reading, learn some writing. You know, this is somebody who's like learn help us learn how you're going to become a good person. And you know, that's something that we always looked out for with middle

039school teens. Uh so we'll keep collecting that feedback from the teachers. Um we'll modify the plans, adopt the plan based on the feedback, you know, if whether or not we uh you know change some things up like where the bullying lessons fits and things like that. But we're for time being second step we think is the right answer for us and and we'll uh just figure out in our implementation what we got to tweak and make a little bit better. So with that I think I don't have another slide. So any questions that we might need? >> I had a question. >> Um, how are we communicating this to parents and what are we sharing about the lessons? And then maybe asking them to reinforce or just giving them the information so when they're having

040these conversations with their kids, they can be like, "Oh yeah, I know you guys are talking about that. This is how I can ask the question. This is how I can have the lesson." I know in elementary for up until maybe this year, we were sent home like worksheets that were your kid worked on this today, you can calm down by taking deep breaths, like that kind of stuff. So, I I assume it's different, but is there some communication to the parents in the same way? >> You know, yeah, beginning of the school year, we did the the basic communication of bringing everybody up to speed on what we're doing and uh how that's going to be structured with the, you know, the timing and all that kind of thing. Uh being the first year,

041we We haven't dug into like communicating home a lot from uh you know week to week or even month to month like hey here's what unit we're on and things like that but that's probably a good thing for us to look at with our newsletters and trying to send home messages of like yeah September we covered planning you know or or making a plan and so hey share with your kid how you approach your work week and how you make your plan to accomplish the week or something like that right uh making those connections at home so that's probably a good idea Yeah, I think a lot of times what we see in school, parents are often dealing this with the same things at home with the kids and they're like pulling their hair out

042trying to be like what am I supposed to do about this? So if they're like oh I know we set some goals like I can follow up on those goals or we can talk about that or use the same steps. So helping each other out in a way. >> Thank thank you for this presentation. I think it's really great. Um I know you have an collecting staff feedback. Is there plans to collect uh student feedback? >> That's that's something that uh yeah, we'll take under consideration and kind of see what lessons worked and what what they thought of each lessons again the first year and uh we we want to just go through it and kind of see where we're at and uh yeah uh we'll look at uh anything that comes our way. We're

043ready to go with So, I have a question and I just want to make sure I understand. Two years ago at one of the middle schools, we set a pilot program to help our young students become more effective and learn organization and prepare for homework and prepare for how they leave once they leave school to make them get prepared for the next day. This I assume and we changed that was a day that was a daily issue. Correct. Right. So you took out of every period you took days up here. We've I assume that has been done away with or is that still ongoing? >> Uh so at that was at south and so at South right we've dissolved that plan and and are going with that embedding those things into the regular classroom time.

044So rather than we did that at the end of seventh period and rather than at the end of seventh period everybody break out your assignment notebook. Let's make sure let's portray the uh uh project a website make sure everybody's got all their assignments down. >> Do you have what you need to go home? That kind of mentality. Instead we're going with all right so every class period teacher says okay let's break out the assignment notebook. Let's make sure you got what you need for my class in there and you know we'll address it that way. And then like things like locker cleanout, binder cleanout, things like that that we used to do during that time, the teachers know, okay, so at the end of the unit on uh the Civil War, social studies teachers going

045to say, "Okay, we're done with that unit. Let's go through find all our Civil War stuff. Let's take that out. Binders cleaner now." And you know, we got some other strategies of locker things and things like that. But right, the idea was to try and have that uniform time. But when we broke it down and started talking about what do we do about this, it's well, we're stealing a couple minutes for this, we're stealing a couple minutes for that. Like it was too much stealing uh you know, and we want to let's focus on this this way and focus on the uh organizational things in the class uh period. And are they doing I guess my question is are they doing that because >> yes >> because like to say this but we should have

046been doing that prior to the pro pilot and we we chose the pilot because it wasn't happening and now we're going back to the way it was previously. I mean this is all great but this I see this as a much higher level um and a much wider series of topics that you're talking about. So, and my fear is is that we we spent this time we we worked with the students to develop a skill that is going to be with them for the rest of their lives. And and now we're kind of stepping away from that and assuming that the way we had done this previously is is going to work now. And I I have a question about that. And my question then is are we doing any data search for this as

047to our stu you know we we know which students or not which we know that students are or not uh binary doing their homework or doing what they said. Are we seeing a decrease and from what we had when we were running the program? Um or are we just assuming that that's going to stay at the level that it was before? I'm I' I'd like to understand this a little bit better that that we're actually not taking a step back. That's my fear is that we're going to take a step back on what we what we accomplished during that. We wouldn't have gone to the second year if you had not seen a positive step forward after the first year. >> It's a great question. Uh I would say that my best answer is going

048to be that during that time leading up to the implementation of OT at South um we did a lot of uh research and reading about students and their developmental levels and the appropriateness of certain things at at the eighth grade level, sixth grade level, like are kids able to be as independent as we think they should? You know, we got eighth graders who are as tall as me, not taller, but as taller as me, who look like full grown adults. And so, prior to doing the research, I think a lot of times teachers would look and say, they're more than capable of taking care of these things by themselves. I'm a full adult. They're a full adult. We're all capable of managing all this on our own. I'm organized, so shall they be. Now you

049spent a little time researching and you know the whole frontal cortex all that good fun great page turners um and you realize like no gang that's not the eighth graders you know yeah they are tall they are big but they are not developed and so in spending those couple years working with the kids and doing the leg work going up to that I think we've learned that we got to change some of our practices in the standard classroom and so I feel comfortable that we understand the why behind doing these things in the standard classroom. And while we were going along doing that, North was doing some of that same research. And so we kind of arrived at the point where we feel like no, this is it. Our teachers get it that, you know,

050they're the developmental readiness of our kids is still they're eighth graders, but they're still kids and they're not able to do as much as we think they can when it comes to these functional skills. So, I'm not sure if that's, you know, the the the the answer exactly to what you've asked, but it's it's in the ballpark, I hope. >> Yes. And I would and I appreciate your response. Uh I would just ask that when you do the evaluation of this program, you have to also include the criteria of why you did the pilot plan not plant sorry pilot project that you had previously and where where have you moved on that? That has to be part of the criteria of whether or not this program is a a success or not because you may

051gain something here but you may lose something over here. >> Right. comment. That's all. Uh, thank you for bringing that up about the eighth graders and their physiological appearance. But yeah, the brain research shows it's almost subtle science that the brain doesn't fully develop for most of us until we're into our early 20s. So even the high school seniors, their brains aren't really developed. So that's a good very good point. And it's not so much dealing with the frontal lobe. brain is complex in the sense that we just don't understand exactly how those interconnections you know it's it's not just the area or lo it's it's the interconnectedness and of course there are things like the limit lo in terms of memories and triggers and things like that so I think that's very good point

052you make that uh we have to realize they're not quite mature as we think Thanks. Uh thank you very much gentlemen for updating on this. Uh next is the dual credit study update. Mr. Drexler will provide progress and next steps regarding our expansion of dual credit opportunities for GHS students. >> Yeah, I want to thank Mr. Drexler for being here. I know he's worked with uh you know obviously Mr. Rogers and the BLT, the whole team at Geneva High School, um, to really help move us forward. And also, uh, Mrs. Sims, who I think would be doing this introduction, uh, uh, if she wasn't able, uh, if she was able to be here with us tonight. Um, but, you know, this is a big component in our strategic plan, right? Expanding dual credit opportunities for

053um, our kids at Geneva High School. Uh, and I I'm really appreciative of the work that Doug and and the whole team at the high school have done to help us be able to start taking some actual concrete steps forward. So, um there's kind of a there's not kind of there is a comprehensive plan that they've put together that's in your um in the packet for today. And then uh Doug's also going to walk us through um the phase one of this process um which really is going to get us to you know year one. Last year maybe if you go to that uh first slide Doug I know you know last year we were talking about this um just in terms of identifying what's already offered identifying staff who are eligible and have the

054capacity to teach some of these courses. Um, and then we're getting into let's be explicit about what are some high leverage courses that many kids would be able to access in terms of math and English language arts that we could uh you know potentially get in the course catalog that we could put in front of you. Um, and then identify some ways for our uh to ident to get staff with the appropriate lensure. I think you recall we've talked about before staff lensure is a key component to this um because if staff don't have kind of the right credentiing um they're not able to teach some of those dual credit courses. So um I think we've made a lot of progress and again I want to thank the team Doug and the team at the

055high school and I'll pass it off to Doug. >> All right, excuse me. Thank you. Um so going to spend a few minutes talking about dual credit this evening. Um, there's different versions of dual credit, but I think for the purposes of this study, we're talking about the version that's on the screen here. So, these are college courses that are taught at the high school by high school faculty, and they simultaneously earn college credit and high school credit. So, they're working towards a Geneva High School diploma, also applying that credit towards a bachelor's degree uh in college. So, these courses exist as part of a partnership agreement with uh a university. Commonly this is the community college that serves that local high school region but more and more there are a lot of other colleges

056that have joined into this process. Uh so there are universities all around the state that we have the potential to work with and some even out of state. Uh so as Dr. Barrett alluded to these are taught by high school faculty members that have uh the specific credentials to teach that course. We're going to talk a little bit later in this presentation about those credentials. And students are essentially needing to meet the same requirements that onampus students do. So if there's a course prerequisite, uh if there's a minimum ACT score or a grade point average, they have to meet those same requirements uh as onampus uh students. So ultimately students end up with a dual credit course on their GHS transcript. They also end up with this credit on the college transcript that eventually they

057send to the university that they're planning to attend. So we started about 20 years with one dual credit course called personal wellness. Mrs. Meister teaches that course. Um and that's a dual credit course with Wanzi and it's been a sustained course for all of those uh years. We currently have 15 dual credit courses and they're listed out here spanning a variety of different disciplines, a variety of different uh topics and departments. Um, and students are benefiting from all of these. Um, so we are uh looking obviously to continue to expand this, but things have expanded greatly since that one class about 20 years ago. Several benefits of dual credit coursework. Uh what you most often see when you look at a university's website that talks about dual credit, they talk about speed of degree completion

058and cost of degree completion both being reduced. And those are both true statements. Uh but I think that misses a huge benefit potentially an even bigger benefit to this dual credit initiative and that is it makes students much more flexible within their bachelor's program to obtain a second major multiple minors to participate in study abroad programs that they otherwise might not have been able to do. So, it's really about making the most getting the most value out of the four-year experience in college, not just speeding it up. Um, because as you think about the job environment that our students are graduating into, the more flexible you are, the more adaptable you are, the wider background you have, you're going to be much more marketable uh to employers. uh dual credit has changed a lot uh

059since its initial inception. Uh initially, not surprisingly, there was some hesitancy on the part of four-year universities to accept it. Right? This is a novel idea. We're not sure what to make of this. Uh it's now widely accepted at most universities. Uh we are starting to see some limitations being put on place in in place uh in terms of the quantity that students can bring in with them. Uh, also there's some specificity with certain majors where a college will want to see specific courses for that major taken on campus with them. Um, so it's not there are no universals when it comes to dual credit. Uh, but absolutely it is more widely accepted today than it's ever been. Um, but ironically, even the colleges that don't accept dual credit or put strict limits on it,

060they also value those courses on the high school transcript and students often can still benefit from that in the college admissions process even though the credit itself may not transfer. So, it's kind of a a paradox, but it's still benefiting students. So, one of the first things we did uh about a year ago um as a building leadership team is we started to talk about, okay, as we're looking at expanding dual credit at Geneva High School, what role or roles do we want this to play? Uh what are we trying to achieve? So, here are some highlights about the from the guiding principles that we developed. Uh one was that these would meet general education requirements at a at a college or university. So, we spent a lot of time looking at those uh requirements

061at small, medium, large, public, private universities to get an updated sense of what those requirements are. We wanted these dual credit courses or at least many of them to be accessible to a wide range of students. Like your average Geneva High School student who may not be in an AP course, may not be in an honors course, still wanted to provide them with access to dual credit course work. also wanted to be mindful that we have a very strong honors and AP program and we don't necessarily want to do away with that and replace it with dual credit. So, uh we wanted to maintain a full four-year sequence of honors or AP in each of the core departments. So, in English, math, social studies, and science, what you're going to see is we're maintaining four

062years of honors or AP uh in those areas. Um, one thing we had a lot of discussion about is being mindful of how students learn and develop between their freshman year of high school and their senior year of college. They're really, really different. Right? Some of those differences that Mr. Blue and Mr. Carly talked about, equal, if not greater changes between a freshman in high school and a senior in college. Some of the skills that get developed in students, students need to experience those in high school and in college. So, it may not always be the right decision to meet some of those requirements in high school and excluding them from the college experience. It's not either or, it's both because we want students to be effective in the long run. Uh, and then another

063factor we really looked at is the long-term sustainability of dual credit courses. Uh we looked at a variety of school districts that when you look at their course catalog, they have a huge number of dual credit courses, but when you talk to them, they'll say, "Oh, we haven't run most of those in several years." That person left. So, we need to be mindful of what we're creating, needing to have ways to sustain it so we don't run into that same problem. Uh so, I spent some time referencing the faculty requirements. Uh this slide deals specifically uh with that. Um there's a couple different ways for faculty to be credentialed. One is that they hold a master's degree in the specific content to be taught. So the example that I'll use is is history. If we

064wanted to run a dual credit history class, they would need to have a master's degree in history. or if they had a different master's degree, let's say they had a master's degree in curriculum and instruction and they add on to that with 18 graduate hours in history, that would also qualify them. So, it could be a degree, it could be also graduate hours in that field on top of a master's in any field. And then the way the process works is those credentials are submitted to the college for review. uh the university reviews that and then essentially designates them as an adjunct instructor at that university. Um so that's the process uh for getting credentialed. There's no real specific license that you need. So lens sure is not really applicable here. It's really the university

065determining uh that they are qualified to teach at that university. Um, so we have had some initial discussions here about how do we get more people in Geneva credentialed to teach dual credit because this is honestly the the most limiting factor uh to expansion of of these opportunities. Uh so we looked uh at trying to find strong contenders for dual credit courses that met all those kind of general guidelines that we uh came up with. talked to a number of different universities, looked at the general education requirements at a variety of universities, and re we really looked at specific courses from the bottom up, meaning we looked at our existing courses and what could we tweak or change in order to align them with college courses, but also looked kind of from the top down,

066looking at college course cataloges and looking at areas that would probably be sustainable for our students if we added a new course at Geneva High So I'm going to spend a few minutes now going through the four core departments and in general uh what the findings uh have been. So this is a snapshot of the English department uh both as it stands today. The top two lines are our existing dual credit courses uh and the rest of them are courses that we have identified as being strong contenders for dual credit. Uh you'll notice that most of them are existing courses. We don't believe we need to go out and add eight new courses to the to the course catalog uh for Geneva High School. Uh there's a couple that are new, but most of them

067are just tweaking a few things to align to the college course outlines and we feel that those would be approved as dual credit uh courses. Uh you will notice in the far right column there's a lot of TBDs uh for implementation date and that is because of the faculty credentiing. So we have a wonderful English department. They have all kinds of different degrees that are beneficial to their work as a teacher, but none of them are in literature or composition or communications. Um so that is a limiting factor here in terms of the timeline, but we really wanted to focus on the courses and then figure out okay, how do we enact these courses that we've identified? Um, but when fully enacted, if you know, if and when we're able to do all of this,

068about 89% of our students would have access to at least six college credit hours before they graduate from Geneva High School. Uh, that's a very high uh percentage. Uh, and they could earn a maximum if they really avail themselves of 18 college credit hours uh in English. Um, the math department is next, and I'm going to have John Thomas, uh, department chair for mathematics, kind of talk you through that department. John also happens to be a dual credit instructor at Geneva High School. So, he can kind of share a day in the life or a semester in the life of a dual credit instructor. Um, hello, I am John Thomas for those of you I haven't met. Um, so math is uh very fortunate in two regards. One, we have tons of students at Geneva

069that are already taking college level courses. The courses they're taking are equivalent to credit bearing courses at colleges all over the country. Um, so we had the courses available. We also over the last 15 years um Aurora University had a masters of science and mathematics and we have had a bunch of our staff members take that hard masters and go through it. So we currently have five staff members that have a a masters of science and mathematics. Um we have another one that's going to be finishing up here shortly and then we have two that are signing up for a program this fall and um we have two teachers that also have an MA in mathematics which gives them availability to teach courses up through pre-calculus. Um so we have the staffing in the math

070department to be able to have a little bit more aggressive implementation pathway. Um so this year calc 1 and two is started. Um I took that on honestly kind of as the guinea pig for the department just to help the department work out any of the kinks that might be in the process so I understand it so I can help them transition as we bring on more courses over the next three years. Um so as we go through we'll continue to add courses and give more availability um to our students as we get fully implemented. we'd be at the place where we'd look at about 85% of the students being able to earn up to six credit hours. Um to give you a little bit about the calc one and two course that we're offering

071this year. Uh of the 45 students that enrolled, 40 of them signed up for dual credit. The five that did not, it was mostly due to uh placement criteria from Wanzi. Um some of that were younger kids that hadn't taken an ACT or SAT and didn't go in and take a placement test this summer. Um, a couple were students that just missed and they might have taken it again but too late to qualify for credit. Um, the beauty of the way we're doing it, they can still take it as an AP course. So, that college credit is still available for them as well. Um, it's been a great transition. Wabanzi has been a fantastic partner to work with um, in mathematics. Um, they respect our presence as a teacher in the classroom, give us guidance

072in terms of curriculum um, and really have made the process pretty smooth and seamless for us. Uh so we're looking forward to continue our offerings in mathematics. Pass back to Mr. Drex. >> Uh one thing that I'll point out with both math and I'll go back to English. Uh you see the first course here, quantitative literacy and statistics. This is not a course that's included in the 85% of students will have access to six college credits before they graduate. This is a course. It's a little bit different type of dual credit. um it's different in that students taking that class don't earn a college transcript. They don't don't earn a college grade. However, the students in that class meet the prerequisite for their freshman year math course. So, it does have the effect of speeding

073things up and giving them more flexibility in college even though it's not giving them a college credit. And if you look back at English, uh, one of the courses we're looking at is English, a transitional English course that does the same thing. So essentially, the students that take a little bit longer to get to that level of proficiency, uh, students in that class would be able to take English 101 then as a freshman. So it is essentially like an English 095 course that's required to get a prerequisite to take freshman uh, the freshman course. So it is dual credit but it's a little bit different spin on it. Still we think very beneficial to students. Uh in science um we have we've had a couple of dual credit courses for many years. Uh natural disasters

074course astronomy and horiculture. Uh, science is a little bit different because science probably has does have the most kind of individual college major restrictions on the types of courses the college wants students to take on campus. Uh, so we really did a little bit different type of study with the science department. So for example, when we talk to our AP bio students, not surprisingly, most of them and most of the anatomy students are planning on a career in healthcare and medicine. Colleges typically want students to take those classes on campus as a freshman. So we don't want to interfere with that. They'll be really wellprepared to be awesome in those classes as freshmen. Um same thing with calculus-based physics. Most of those students are planning to go into engineering. The engineering schools want students to

075take that on campus. Um, but when you looked at AP chemistry, most of the students in AP chemistry, they're kind of the biomed healthc care profession students that are planning to pursue those types of majors. And for them, chemistry would be a great nondirect major requirement for their major. So we feel like that is uh a high-value uh dual credit course. Similarly, AP environmental science is a great fantastic course, but most of the students in that course are not planning to pursue environmental science as a profession or a college major. Um AP Physics 1, we have a lot of students that are taking the algebra-based physics that are not taking calculus-based physics after that. They're taking it for a college admission requirement, but they're not planning to go into engineering. So, having a semester's credit

076of of general physics really could meet a student's science requirement. All of these can meet a student's science requirement at a college or university. So when we add those courses to what we're already offering, uh about 95% of our students would have access to at least eight college credit hours because most of these lab science courses are four hours each instead of typically three uh in the other departments. Uh and then last but certainly not least, uh is social studies. Um we've identified some courses here as well that we think would be strong contenders. our existing AP psychology class uh which we've been running now for five or six years uh with a few changes to that course uh similar to AP calculus that we're running this year. It can be dual credit and AP

077at the same time. Uh in addition to AP psychology, we're looking to bring back uh a course that we kind of mothalled a few years ago, psychology 2. We stopped offering that when we rolled out advanced placement psychology. Um, but students are really interested in psychology. This is a a very interesting field to them. Um, so we're also able to offer dual credit for students who complete both psych one and psych 2. They would be able to earn dual credit uh for psychology as well. So with psychology, we would have an AP kind of weighted grade pathway to dual credit and a non-weighted grade pathway towards psychology dual credit. Uh and then addition, we've identified some other courses, an ancient world history course, uh and a Viking history course, which is kind of interesting, uh

078as potential new electives. And then our existing urban history course, uh would be a contender as well. So about 90 similar to science, about 95% of our students would have access to at least six college credit hours in social studies. Uh so we looked beyond just the specific courses. Uh there are some implications to maintaining a dual credit uh program. So we do we have as I said earlier started some conversations about how do we get uh build an infrastructure of human resources that support more dual credit offerings to students and sustaining that over time. Uh there are some academic calendar implications for many of these courses. um some of the universities have a common final exam that we would be required to administer. So if we have a first semester course, um basically an

079earlier start to the year is better for first semester dual credit courses of that nature. Um there are some potential changes to how some of the external ranking organizations might view the school district as well. uh especially if more students start taking dual credit courses and the students in AP courses maybe don't take the optional exam some of those ranking and rating organizations use the number of AP tests taken in their systems of rating so even though we would be making decisions to help students and the external rating organizations their mathematics might spit out some statistics that change for our district. So, we plan to continue with phase two of this uh dual credit study over the course of the next year focusing on the remaining departments of fine applied arts, wellness, and world language.

080So, plan to be back here in a year with an update on those uh departments. And with that, I would be happy to entertain any questions as I'm sure Mr. Thomas would as well. >> Anyone? Yes, I have several questions, but thank you because the information was so thorough and then I was looking through and I was made me engage even further in the topic. So, first I know we can take AP courses as either dual credit or non-dual credit. So, students will have that choice. But I assume that the content of the class wouldn't change because that's an AP course. So, that's pretty it's going to be pretty consistent whether it's dual credit or not. My concern is some of those other classes that we have such as speech, critical film, horiculture, like those

081non-AP classes, if those are are those only going to be offered as dual credit then? And if you choose not to, you'll still be sitting in the same class as the dual credit class. Correct. >> So, yeah, that's a great question. So initially when the dual credit act was passed I don't 15ish years ago one of the mandates was um you had to have dedicated every student in that section of the class had to be a dual credit student. Uh the colleges figured out pretty quickly that that's not how high schools schedule and how high schools work. So you can now have mixed classes with some students earning dual credit and others not. uh one of the reasons we identified those classes and I'll use speech as an example when we looked at our existing

082speech curriculum and we looked at the course outline that is provided by the college they're already extremely close. So we're really not changing the experience significantly. It's really some tweaks to to adhere to a couple of extra topics that we need to incorporate into the curriculum. It's not necessarily changing the difficulty of the course at all. It's just making sure we're covering what the the community colleges expect of that course. >> Okay, that's good to know because I I worry that we're cutting out options for students who don't feel like dual credit or AP would be right for them and leaving them without an English credit that they have to receive or a science class that they might find something really that they enjoy in. And so as long as we're not adjusting curriculum to

083make it more difficult and leaving out students who find space in those classes. >> Yeah. And that was one of our kind of guiding principles. We wanted a lot of these courses to be accessible to a wide range of students, not just at the honors or AP level for that very reason. So then I think um one of our pieces of thought around this needs to be how we're communicating this as we go to parents and students when they're choosing courses because I'm sure the dual credit alone could be scary or also that there are implications for students if they choose dual credit and they need to get a certain grade and how this will appear on their transcripts. That was all very interesting information. So just because it could have if they don't perform

084well, it could have an implication further for their college admission than just a regular high school class may have. >> Yeah, I think you know if we were magically able next year to run everything that you've seen on the screen tonight, which would be awesome. Uh there is a huge education component to students and parents on that topic. And as you referenced, we also don't want students to kind of solely chase dual credit and avoid taking a class that they are really, really interested in just because it doesn't offer the dual credit. Uh, high school is still a great opportunity to try out different electives that you may not be able to do in the future. Um, so we we don't want that to become the sole criteria that students and parents are using to

085select classes. >> Perfect. And then the last question I had was a little more financial. Have we looked at how much it's going to impact our budget to have more graduate qualified teachers because they're paid on a different scale than our regular teach our bachelor's degree teachers are. So this will have a financial impact and we don't know yet what those numbers are. I don't think >> Yeah, I I think that's correct. I mean that's correct. Now understand that um you know as as Mr. Dre Drexler was mentioning the vast majority of our teachers do already have a master's degree. So you know their compensation is based on already having that. So, the the financial implications here may be about some of the conversations we're going to have to have about um how we are

086either hiring folks who already have those credentials or figuring out how to support folks within our current district to get those credentials. And so that's that next big financial component that we'll have to be talking about more than I think um you know saying more teachers will have masters. I mean Dr. Law can probably say I don't know that we're too far away from more teachers having masters. The vast majority already do. So it'll be about how we get there is the bigger fin question. Does that sound right? >> Yeah. The thing I would add to that is a lot of this is really about access to the graduate programs. So you you heard Mr. Thomas say one of the main reasons why we have so many math teachers with a a graduate degree in

087math is that it was at a university that's five miles away. >> Right. Most of the contentbased master's degrees are they're typically not marketed or packaged for working teachers. Right. You'd have to take a sbatical or leave of absence in order to engage in that coursework. That's not going to happen in most cases. The good news is that there are similar to mathematics, there are some universities that are starting now to cater not necessarily to an entire graduate degree, but 18 hours of the dual credit coursework, making that more accessible uh to teachers statewide, knowing this is not just a Geneva challenge, right? This is a statewide challenge and a nationwide challenge to find qualified people to engage in these dual credit courses. >> Okay. Yeah, I think that that's helpful to know. And then

088that I assume is part of our whole human resource process is like figuring out do we need to be sourcing some of those programs and then maybe reimbursing in some way or like some sort of system like that. I know that like in the private sector there's a lot of that that happens. So I don't know that we necessarily have that for us, but if we're pushing or trying to get more of these teachers certified in these areas. So, well, thank you so much. It's all very helpful information and I know that took a long time to like do all these studies and figure it all out and it was very helpful to read that all. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> I just had a quick question. Um, I was trying to take some

089notes as you were talking. Thank you for all the the really great information. Um, you had slipped in a line about maybe an earlier start date might have implications for dual credits. Would you mind just very briefly sharing what you meant by that? Sure. So, um, the start and end date of a college course and and John and Lisa can both talk about this as well because they're teaching dual credit courses really specifically the end date of the course is the university end date of the course and typically that is ending a week before uh our winter break begins. So, there's a week that's kind of shaved off from covering content in those first semester uh dual credit courses, especially if they're a semester long class. Um, so to really get students to get all

090through the the topics that the college expects us to get through in order to really be compliant with that, we'd like to not cover those topics and just kind of check a box and say, "Yeah, we talked about that briefly." We really want to approach this with integrity and make sure we're covering what we say we're covering. Any else? Well, thank you very much. The dual credit is very important to this board and I think to this district. Uh and for those of you on this scheduling committee, if you're wondering whether an early start date is a good thing or bad thing, you've got a reason. And with that note, item five, unless you have anything to add, gentlemen, >> just thank you guys very much. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Item five,

091uh, proposed 2025 draft tax year levy policy 410. Todd Leam will present the 2025 draft tax year levy to the full board. The district is required to file the levy by the last Tuesday in December. The board is required to approve resolution to adopt the 2025 tax levy which will be presented at the December meeting. >> All right. Good evening. Uh so this is the 2025 tax year levy. it's received in fiscal calendar year 2026 over two fiscal years and this is our draft levy presentation. So a little bit about the levy components um it consists of an equest valuation which essentially is the value of the property determined by the county. Our ptail is our property tax extension limitation law. It's a law that sets the maximum that we can levy each given year.

092Our CPI is the consumer price index of this particular levy year. It's set as of December 2024. We'll cover the max rates and tax extensions, the total extensions allowed by the district. Uh the revenue recapture process, which is essentially after uh items such as the board of review considers some reductions that it goes back and recaptures that revenue so the district's not lost those funds. And lastly, the truth and taxation hearing, which is for transparency. So what is the EAV? Essentially, it's the property valuation after the county and the state apply equalization calculations. and those are performed at those two levels. It's important because uh the AV uh is captured to ensure that the district sees financial growth. It also is the total AV is what we use to mult multiply the approved tax rate

093which is per $100 to arrive at the extension. This is just the 10-year history of the rate setting EAV. Uh just to give you an idea of how that has grown over time. In 2025, it's estimated that the EAV that the district will be using for the levy process is 2 bill138 million892,182 and that is a 9.61% change over the prior year. Uh in the finance committee, we had a discussion about how that has occurred and some of that is just simply the value of homes. Um, just a couple years ago, I remember using about a $375,000 home as the average home sale in Geneva. And most recently looking at some of the results, it's now five and a quarter. So that explains some of the process about how people's value of homes have gone

094up because essentially they're more desirable. A little bit about our new property. Um, this is a process that isn't part of the tap cap, tax cap, so it's not part of it. Um, so this year we've experienced some growth uh in the district uh in the commercial area, in the industrial area, and the residential. So overall it's 12,24,693 of estimated new growth. And I pointed out at the bottom that last year the new construction was just 15.6 million. So we've seen a reduction in growth uh for this particular uh levy cycle. This is the property tax extension law. Um it's also called the tax cap. And essentially it just puts a tax relief on property owners that we can't exceed a certain amount every year. And next slide we'll explain a little bit more about

095that. So essentially it's set at 5% increase for the consumer price index whichever is lower. So that's what we have to follow when we place the levy uh each year. And so this year uh we'll be looking at the CPI as a lower amount. This is the consumer price index. Uh so for this year again we'll be looking at December of 2024 and you can see we reached a high point in 2021 and for 2024 um the CPI is 2.9%. That's uh confirmed by the county and the county identifies that that's the number that I has to that I have to use in the levy process. So funds subject to PEL um all the funds except the bottom bond and interest our working cash and our revenue recapture. So those are the funds that uh

096are not affected by the tax cap. Here's our limiting rate. So this is the calculation that I do every year. I use a spreadsheet for this, but I can also do it by hand. Uh so the living rate equals the prior year extension times 1 plus a lesser of 5% or CPI divided by the total EAV minus the new property or construction. Just a couple notes at the bottom that the limiting rate is based on the prior year extension. new properties outside the tax gap as is debt service. This is our limiting rate history. So our tax year as you can see over time our total rate has uh been reduced and I mentioned to the finance committee that as EAV goes up the rate goes down and so that's just a factor of the

097process. I'll give the example that if let's say a 100 people paid in taxes and we need $100, everyone's paying a dollar. If we have more people paying the system, I would require less dollars from them. So that's kind of gives example of how uh those that contribute grow um there's less of a rate that goes out in years where we have less EAV, we would need more money and you'd see a higher rate that would come. Um but for our particular 10ear history, that rate has gone down over time. Uh it was pointed out by the fans committee. Uh one of the questions was is why is the non-cap going down and the response to that was essentially it is our debt service. So as we pay that down our non-cap amount goes down

098as well. So this is our historical levy request. So it's basically what we ask when we do the levy for each of the levy years versus what we actually received. So we're we're quite close to what we asked of what we received in the levy process. Uh so for 2024 uh we requested 105 million roughly and we received 104.9 so it's very close to what we asked for. So these are some of the assumptions that are built into the draft levy and we still have a levy process we'll go back in November and then finalized in December. Uh 2.9% is a CPI that's set for us to follow or kept at 5% or the luster thereof. Our EAV has gone up. for now 2 bill139,835,80. That is a 9.61% increase in the AV over the

099prior year. Our new construction again is just about 12.2 million. Uh that is a rough number. It'll be confirmed later when all the construction's been turned in, all the assessments done. The cap levy at this particular point in time is 3.9 million. And so with that, we estimate $ 108,142,811 in our estimated tax receipts. That represents increase of 3,233,514 over the prior year. This is what the uh EAV calculation looks like. So all the figures that I have are taken from the spreadsheet that does the calculation for us. Uh I will point out in the bottom right here um with our cap levy amount uh it's 3.9% and then it says is truth and taxation require the answer is no but we do it every year because we believe it's good for transparency and the

100fact that we have a hearing in which the public can come and give testimony. So uh what does a truth and taxation hearing look like? So we have to uh put a notice of the paper allows our member of the public to come and give the testimony as I mentioned. allows the board to give an opportunity to hear that testimony, but then also provide their own input. And then lastly, I'm required um under most recent law to provide the cash reserve balance of all funds uh that I have to state during the levy process. So, what are some changes that might come that would affect the levy from what we discussed tonight to how it might change going forward? Well, one of those is that we're out process the process right now is we're out

101getting bids for our capital projects and so we won't know what those are until this come back. There also could be change order from current projects. There also could be a change in funding. Our working agreements and benefits uh weigh heavily upon um some of our considerations as we draft a budget and then we write a levy to it. Uh we also look at the economy, its inflation and global factors. There also be changes at the local, state and federal level. Uh so example that is this year we had a reduction in some of our categorical funding. It went from just about 80% to 75% funding. So we've seen that impact in the current year. There's an example how the state could change something on us from the time we uh levy into the time

102we budget. And then lastly capital plans technology plans um are an important factor. Uh just last week we had our first rough numbers in our technology plan weren't fully factored into the levy because I didn't know what they are. So there's another example how the levy can change uh from one presentation to the next. This is public act 102895 which is a disclosure of cash re reserve balances. Uh so this is an unodudited funder uh fund number as of June 30th 2025 taking all the funds fund 10 of education all the way through fund 90 which is our fire prevention safety. Uh at the end of June, we had 63,144,734 of cash reserve. I will note that this is always after we have a May and June tax filing, which is always why our reserve

103looks a little healthier than it really is. And lastly, what does the final plan look like for us as a district? Well, after we have the public hearing um and we publish the article, we take that testimony. We'll have a final presentation before the board in December. I'll ask that you adopt the levy, approve it. With that comes a certificate of tax levy that you have to approve which explains the amount per fund uh which then adds up to the total number. And then on behalf of the board and the district, I'll file those documents with King County. That concludes my presentation. >> Thank you very much. Any questions? >> Well, thank you again. >> Thank you. Item four on the agenda is public comments. And we do have a request for comment from Alicia

104Han. Hello everyone. Uh my name is Alicia Han and I use she her pronouns. I am the family and community engagement specialist for Birth of Five Illinois. Uh in case you're not familiar with Birth to Five Illinois, we're a department of Incra, a nonprofit organization working uh locally to build a stronger, more inclusive, and equitable early childhood system. Uh BERT 5 Illinois puts the family stories at the center of policy and program decisions. Uh we were created to better understand how to help families with young children thrive in their communities and we listen to families and document their challenges and successes around accessing child care and early education opportunities. Um some of those caregivers and residents um are residents of the school of the school district. So we listen my job is to listen to

105ask questions and share back to both sides locally. We see programs and services that don't have nearly enough preschool, child care, and early intervention um openings for children. Uh we see a system that simply doesn't work for families despite all the programs and resources that are available. Uh we share those wants and needs to leadership who can bring out about change and some of those include our regional office of education and the nine school districts that comprise it. um as well as the local and state elected officials. Over the past two years, Birth to Five Illinois's regional team has published an early childhood regional needs assessment um a mental behavioral health report and an action plan not that not only uh outlines some of the challenges within our local early childhood system, but more importantly

106makes recommendations and outlines action steps for how we can better support children throughout Geneva and King County. Our birth to five Illinois team is currently working with providers, local community leaders, libraries, and families to address the recommendations that have talked to that have talked to us about uh their continued feedback and input will serve as a roadmap for our work. We also work alongside our funders, the Illinois State Board of Education, and look forward to the new Department of Early Childhood that will encompass several existing programs under this new state department starting next year. As we continue to as we continue to engage with local leadership, we also seek to engage with local district administration. We know that school districts play a critical role in aiding parents and caregivers and we want to make sure

107that the school district administration understands the importance of reaching children in the community as early as birth. That way families can make informed decisions and access access early learning and care opportunities for their children. School districts need to reach out not only to the children within their school walls but also the parents and caregivers in supporting them throughout the critical years of birth to age five. I would invite you to look at our reports that um can be found on our website at www.birthto5il.com and look at the information we have been gathering over the past few years, the past three years. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much. Appreciate your letting making us aware of this program. Any other public comments? >> Well, we'll go on to the next item, legislative

108updates. Jackie? >> Yes. Um, I'm going to attempt once again to go to our general assembly website and show you how you can do the legislator lookup and also the new way of looking up different bills and public acts. Let me >> if you can turn on. >> Yes, I've already went to the website and it was just working five minutes ago. So fingers crossed. Well, she's doing that. I'm just going to thank every everybody for hanging in there. It's a barn burner tonight already, isn't it? Good one. >> All right, you made it. Okay, so first off, the Illinois General Assembly website is ilga.gov. And look, it's working. How lovely. Um, so I had described this last time with our new website to find the legislator lookup. It's a lot easier. You just scroll

109down and here's a button, find my legislator. So we'll click on that. As I had mentioned last time, this is GISbased. Here is our communities in Illinois. Okay, I'm going to just start zooming in to get us closer, but you can do a search to find um address, whatever. I'm actually just going to put in some of our school names. So, Fabian Elementary School. So, let's say you live near Fabian. The map brings up our school. And then here on the right, you can see who your state elected officials are. So, the senator for this area is there and the house. Like last time, we do have our federal folks here that you can take a look at and see or and state I guess too. Um but at the bottom of this list is

110the um House of Representatives person for this area because it is different um in different areas of our community. So there is Fabian. Now let's say you live near Harrison and you will see there are different people who are members and if you want to contact any of them just click on their name takes you to their page. Here's their Springfield office contact, their local district office contact. they have a biography and then any of the bills that they are associated with whether they have um submitted them or they're part of the bills that have been there or public acts and then you can just click on them to read them a little bit more. So I'm going to zoom out a little bit because as you can see in our area there's different colors

111here depending where you live. So we do have different representatives for different different areas and we do have this neighborhood up here. So, I'm just going to click and show you again some different folks who represent them. So, if you want to just put in your address on the search feature, it's pretty easy to find out where who your local legislator is. Now, one of the other things I mentioned last week was or last time was that it's easier to do lookups. Before you had to try and remember what bill number I gave you or public act number. You really couldn't search by topic. But now, it's a little bit easier to do that. Um, if you come here and let's say Jackie was talking about some public act, you don't remember the number. Now,

112you can come up here and actually come over here and do your search. It's already got public act selected. So, let's look at school bus seat belts. All right. There's public act 0075, which I think is the right one. Look. Yep, that's it. All right. So, the first one that came up. So, we actually had a few questions last week about what this has, and it's not very long. Um, but here is the actual public act of that seat belt requirement for school buses and how it's presented in here. Um, it does define what a new school bus is. A newly purchased school bus shall be equipped with this. Um, it does talk about whether or not the uh school district has to ensure that anyone is uh using the safety belt or the restraint

113system. It's properly correctly adjusted and I can't read with my glasses on. Sorry. And fasten to give instruction on how to correctly adjust or fasten the seat belt. So, I think that was the question we had last time was whether or not we have to ensure that the students are using these devices on the school buses. Um, and then if it it does not apply if it's a bus that's leased by a school district or a school bus that's legally registered, blah blah blah. Um, so that is some of the answers to our questions that I couldn't look up last time because I couldn't get to this page, but um the new school buses um it's a newly purchased school bus uh beginning July 1st, 2031. So that's how um this their newer website works

114now. And I just wanted to quickly show you how that uh happens. And if anyone has any questions, I can try and answer them. But that's really my update. Um they are the general assembly is back in session starting tomorrow for veto session. I anticipate again they'll be pretty busy this week. Uh trying to push some last last things through until next year's general assembly meets again. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right, Jackie. Thank you very much. Working my way. Superintendent report. Dr. >> Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I'll uh start uh real quick with um some of this is just summaries or recaps of some other things that uh we've addressed previously and just want to make sure um uh oh let's try again here. There we go. All right. So, first

115I would uh you know, we're trying to do our facts and thank yous and so um timely I think with uh the presentation um from Mrs. Meister and her awesome students uh Red Ribbon Week. I want to talk about uh briefly just kind of highlight uh all the kind of extracurricular opportunities that happen for kids. You know, the first two things we heard our students talk about were um kind of finding a passion and a natural high, having mentors, and there are a lot of people who do a lot of things outside of the school day um to support kids and keep kids active and engaged and giving them opportunities to find those things that um can be passions and their natural natural highs. There's over 150 total activities that kids can have. And you

116know, obviously we think of stuff like the athletics with, you know, sports, all the sports and things like that. Um, you know, the arts and the plays and the music. We think of all those kinds of things. Um, but, you know, activities, uh, student government and all that kind of stuff. But the clubs is really a place that, um, a lot of kids are finding opportunities. You know, there's a new Dungeons and Dragons club at the middle school, right? like we're finding trying to teachers are trying to find as many ways to get kids plugged in um and engaged and uh I just think that that's that's really cool. Um and especially highlighting you know in terms of uh you know what Lisa and her kids were telling us kids really need. So um it's

117pretty awesome. We have over 285 total staff who are supporting kids in that way and that's I think pretty incredible. It's also I hate to say it but it's that time of year. I know we've got to start thinking about just thinking ahead for planning for the potential for inclement weather. Um share this with you guys every year just as a reminder of you know kind of our cascade and decision-making prog process. Right. So, obviously, our first priority is in-person learning. And, um, you know, when I'm out driving around or talking with our other superintendents and looking at forecasts, our first goal is going to be if we think we can have inperson learning and do it safely, we're going to do it because we think that's the best place for kids to learn. Um,

118if we have a scenario that fits in like this perfect little bubble of um, you know, bad weather that we think is expected to improve, you know, this is this is the kind of thing you would do if there's kind of storming, but we know it's going to end by like 5:45 and so it can be plowed by this time so we can get those buses going and do a late start. We'll do that because again we still think that in person is key, but you got to have the perfect scenario for that. Um, if there's bad weather and uh, you know, it's expected and we think we're going to have time to prepare, uh, obviously you as the board have approved our e-learning uh, plan and Roe has that on file and we'll implement

119that if we need to. Um, and then the only other one is if there's, you know, kind of unexpected or severe uh unexpected weather comes up or severe and sustained storms. You know, something where we know it's going to just be snowing. You're going to get 10 feet of snow all day long. Um, in that instance, we, you know, may do the good oldfashioned emergency day because we know families are not going to be able to be engaged in e-learning and everybody's going to be digging out together and stuff like that. So, that's a potential option, too. So, this is kind of our cascade and we just think it's important to uh remind families about that. Uh just wanted to highlight kind of the three things we're talking about and thinking about. Last week, Mrs.

120Sims shared uh some draft calendars and we got some feedback uh from the board um and you know, from the community as well about those calendars. Our calendar committee then is going to meet again this week actually and we'll be able to bring more information to you. the three big things we're kind of looking at. One, um, you know, as Mr. Drexler kind of highlighted in his presentation earlier and, uh, Molly asked about, you know, one of those key features is that start of the year. Are we going to potentially start a little bit earlier or a little bit later? And obviously, um, candidly, there's two camps in that, right? There's folks who have strong feelings on both sides of that. Um, so, but that's one of the things we're talking about. again looking at

121that uh homecoming parade and potentially coordinating some kind of half-day opportunity for that. Um, and another thing uh Mrs. Sims highlighted a little bit last week, but just kind of want to put out there on your radar is the notion of a potential um and I think Stephanie, you asked about this a little bit, a potential two-year calendar where we would throw uh bring to you uh for approval two years worth. um that might give a longer runway for parents to be able to know and plan and all that kind of stuff. Uh so that's really where we're at and we should be able to again that committee is meeting again this week and we'll bring some information to you at a future meeting. Last, just uh very high level here, the Illinois school report

122card uh will be released in a few days. And so I wanted to get in front of you and the community here a little bit just to again touch base at a very high level. Remember what's new with this Illinois report card. All the, you know, the tests are the same as last year, but there are new cut scores and new proficiency ranges. So that means that um you know our scores are going to come out and scores across the state are going to come out and look a little different. When we think about those new cut scores and proficiency ranges, we think it's important to highlight upfront kind of three things that are important for everybody to know. One is that uh there's significant variation in rigor across the grades and subject areas ranging

123uh you know from as low as the 45th national percentile to the 69th. So what that means is in some grades kids who perform at the 45th percentile which means as well or better than 45% of the population in some grades kids who perform at the 45th percentile will be considered proficient. Whereas in other grades they might need to score as high as the 69th percentile to be considered proficient. And there's some wide variability across the grade levels um in those two areas especially in math actually. Um >> uh not like this not like this. Um, so one of the things that means, and we're understanding this, we obviously haven't seen anyone else's data, but uh, all reports are, most districts are going to see um, a a kind of a steady drop in proficiency

124from grade three to eight in math. That really is unrelated to kind of school or student or district performance, right? It's not like, you know, basically what we're going to see is the percentage of kids who are proficient in math will be lower each year from third grade to 8th grade. That is largely a function of this rigor variation. Um, and so we're going to have to look at that in context, and I'll show you something about that in a minute. Um, and then that also means most districts are going to see a higher proficiency uh level in ELA compared to math. Uh, despite, and again, I'll show you this in a minute, but it's not it's not like every district across the state is uh kids in each district are learning way more in

125reading than in math. But yet when you look at the data, what you're going to see is uh in most districts across the state, the percentage of kids who are proficient in reading, it's going to be higher than the percentage of kids who are proficient in math. So uh we I shared these last year and again this is preliminary data. It's not coming out officially till Friday, but um I've shared these scatter plots with you before because I feel like they're kind of a good barometer, a good way to look at our um you know, our data here. So, so what this is showing is all the unit districts in Illinois. So, this is all the districts like ours that are, you know, preK through 12. Um and you see us, we're the little triangle.

126And so you know uh over here we've got the percent proficient and across the bottom is the uh per pupil expenditure of the district right so you can see that triangle you can see where Geneva falls kind of near the top of um you know that proficiency level this is in English language arts you see um so you know you're seeing about 75ish a little more percent um you know proficient in English language codes arts and then you see kind of where everybody else is kind of clustered in terms of both their per pupil expenditure um and the percent proficient. Then when you look at that same thing for math you see how the clusters look very similar right um but everything kind of drops down and again that's largely a function of that rigor

127variation. Uh but you can see again here we are in math and you know falling in about the same general uh vicinity as it's compared to the other unit districts uh in the state and I do find these scatter plots to be helpful. This is these are just screen grabs obviously but you can uh compare these in a wide variety of ways not just by per pupil expenditure. Um, and so, you know, I think that those are pretty helpful and something that maybe our families will want to look at when the school report card comes out because I think it does highlight um that, you know, compared to a lot of districts across the state and how much uh, you know, we're spending per student that I think we're doing a pretty good job. So,

128when this comes out, I think the first thing to know is that this is a new baseline, right? new proficiency targets, new baseline from which to kind of measure and evaluate ourselves. Uh we do continue to perform well above the state average in these content areas and at all grade levels. Um we really want to see all the data come out uh for all the schools so we can really start to do some further analysis and kind of evaluate compare. Um, and we really want to be able to do that from a percentile uh perspective, like where do we fall in terms of our percentile rank across the state, and we'll be able to bring some of that data to you once that's all released. Um, and while we're doing great, obviously there's room for

129growth. I know Mrs. Sims talked about this last week as well, and and we recognize that. Um, and as we take a look at this through this new lens, we're going to try to identify some of those ways. So, that's really all I have. Can I ask a question about that, Dr. Barrett? Is this only happening on the Illinois report card or will we also see that in like some of the results we get from testing like when we do MAP testing and we get percentiles or when some of our third graders and up do Kogat testing, will those percentiles be different? >> No. So where you'll see the where you will see the changes on um the reports that families get for the um Illinois assessment of readiness the statemandated test right so um

130this those are the state accountability tests so that's where you'll see these new proficiency targets and the new bands right um the new meets and exceeds uh or proficient and above proficient I think we're calling it now um but with MAP with Kogat with those those organizations may well may well be doing some reorming as well, but that's not the same as this. They'll reorm when they look at their data and decide that um you know it's time to to reorm that, but that's not necessarily associated with this. >> You know, I have to say it. Um >> yeah, please. If you go back to the uh scatter plots, I think one of the things that you and your team need to do is to look at the if you look at this. I mean

131where we are on proficiency is is excellent. Where we are on cost per student is is we are on the higher side >> and there are schools out there that are able to deliver as high a proficiency when with less cost per student. And I think we need to understand, you know, it may be that they are very small districts with with uh specific things and very small organizations or schools and that's understandable, but I think an evaluation needs to be done here so that we understand where that is because as a taxpayer, you know, there are people out there that are going to show look at this and say, are we overspending and do we need to to cut back or to be more like some of these other schools? >> I think that's

132fair. That's a good question and we can share more of that information with you. Thank you. >> Of course, we could just move to Gailsburg. >> The um next item is board dialogue topics pending action consideration. The IASB resolution and constitutional amendments. We got those last meeting and I have carefully reviewed them. I trust you all have as well. So, we get to report back. >> Yes. So, we had a few questions about the one resolution that was in our uh packet that I did show everybody how you can get to it. Um, there was a question about is this uh something that was only for smaller districts or districts with lower incomes. So, I took a look at the uh resolution again. There was one of the points in there was that they wanted

133to establish a dedicated school bus safety equipment grant within the state board of education transportation line to provide financial assistance subject to appropriation for the verified incremental cost of factoryinstalled three-point seat belt systems on newer lease buses after July 1st 2031. So it does not say anything in there what size district that is if they have more needs than other districts. It just says that they want to um have a special dedicated grant that we could apply for for financial assistance to make up that cost um of the school buses. That'll cost more because we have those systems in there. We also had a question about whether or not they had to use the safety belts. I read to you just earlier that they don't we do not have to provide any training. We do

134not have to check that students are using the safety belt systems or anything like that. I don't have anything about crashes and injuries. I wasn't able to get that. Uh Todd did take a look at um what that would mean for our transportation team and they would have to possibly go through a few things and change them. I don't know if you want to highlight a couple things that might be different for you in the transportation side. >> Yeah, I think part of that is just u overall being familiar with the change of the seat belts. Uh we talked probably the biggest factor is going to be the cost to put those onto our buses and then I think lastly is just the bid process. It does seem kind of odd that they mandate it

135but and you don't train or ensure that it's being used. Um, so I'm sure that's something that may be looked at before we get to that 2031, but we certainly will be prepared for it. >> Thank you. One of the other things that were in this resolution about that small district waiver. So there is where different districts can have uh different things from this. Um, they would have a deadline that was extended to 2034. So they would have more time and uh they would be districts with under 2,000 students. Um it would also author authorize qualifying districts to use transportation fund bond proceeds revolving lease agreements for the local cost share without counting against the district statutory debt limit. So that's for all districts. And then um again directing ID dot to look at alternative

136research-based occupant protection technologies that may offer equal or greater safety at a lower cost giving districts flexibility to comply. So those are the four different things that were in this resolution that they're uh proposing. Um this was uh put forth by the resolutions committee as a do adopt and just wanted to check with everyone here if you had any other thoughts on this. If we are going to vote do adopt or do not adopt at the committee meeting next month or the delegation assembly next month. >> Anyone? >> All right. So, I think do adopt will be the winner here since it's one that will be able to apply for potential extra funding. It's a reminder this is not uh making law. This is just having the IASB folks lobby to make some changes to

137this current public act. >> The uh the other thing constitutional amendments looking at these they almost all seem to be dealing with making what is written work a little more like what is actually done and in some cases to smooth out some possib people maybe not having been as vetted as we would want and things of that nature, but I agreed with all of their changes. >> Yeah. Does anyone have any comments on the constitutional amendments from last time? I did attend the Kishwaki division meeting last week and they brought those up and did reiterate that they were just taking what's actually in practice and trying to put that down into the constitution. at the delegate assembly. It will take a twothirds majority to pass those uh changes to the constitution. And again, they had

138recommended do adopt on all those. So unless anyone has any differing thoughts, I'm going to go ahead and vote do adopt for all of those. >> Thank you, Jackie, for getting answers on all of that. I really appreciate that. >> Thank you indeed. >> Do we need to take a formal vote? I didn't look at the agenda. That was a >> um >> motion. Yeah. Okay. So, do I have a motion to approve voting do adopt for both the resolution and the constitutional amendments? >> Second. >> I >> Okay, take care of that one. Work study topics and future action consideration GHS proposed new and modified courses for 2026 27 contained in a packet with information from assistant superintendent Sims regarding textbook and instructional materials being proposed for adoption. This will be brought back at

139a future meeting for possible approval. Anyone have any comments or questions at this point? >> Well, Mr. >> He's not here. >> No, but Mr. Drexler is here. This is the time of year he usually comes to share uh recommended um you know course catalog proposed changes. Um obviously we did this tonight uh yeah home stretch gang. Uh we we did this intentionally tonight um along with that dual credit conversation because there's implications in that dual credit conversation for the course catalog. Um, so I'll once Doug gets set up here, he's gonna just highlight this for you. And as Larry said, um, this is our typical cascade when we would share the these proposed potential changes with you. Um, you know, this is that first go at it, give you an opportunity to uh, learn

140about it, ask questions, and then at a future meeting, it would come back for your approval. So, take it away, Doug. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks for your patience. Um so we are starting to gear up for course selection for next year for the 2627 school year. Uh so we've been working on these proposals uh and the goal is to get these under review. They've been reviewed by um department chairs, building leadership team, building administration, secondary principles, administrative cabinet. You are the final stop on this train. Um, so again, not looking for approval tonight, but hopefully looking for approval at the November board meeting so that we can get this information into the documents that we send to students and parents. Um, so we're looking at uh one new C I'm going to

141call it a new course for now and and kind of expand on that later. Uh, and modifications to six existing courses. Um, then I've also included a few brief updates on a variety of our courses as well. Um, so, uh, some of these courses are simply remaining the same, but opening up to a new grade level. So, opening up to a new level, an earlier grade level. So, I'll kind of lump those together uh, in in one um, statement here. So, yearbook, we're looking to open that up to freshmen. It's currently open only to sophomores. and then the following year take our yearbook leadership course which is currently open to only juniors and seniors move that down to be available to sophomores. So we feel that that could be a good elective uh for incoming

142freshmen um who often lack a lot of elective choices. Most of our elective choices are more prevalent at the junior and senior level. Uh skipping down a little bit on the document, uh our social studies campaigns and elections course. Again, only currently open to juniors and seniors. Uh we believe that there are students interested in engaging in that course as a sophomore, so we'd like to open it up to them. Uh and then finally, in our wellness department, our dual credit social issues and sports course, uh currently open to juniors and seniors. Very similarly, we think there would be an audience for that at the sophomore level. uh some more extensive changes in our computer science area. Uh so currently we offer two computer science courses, computer science principles and a and then AP computer

143science a both of those are year-long courses. Uh and what we've learned about the students who take these courses uh a lot of students already have a high degree of proficiency in a lot of these coding skills that are embedded in this class. So although they have an interest in taking some of the upper level computer science experiences, it would be boring for them to sit through an introductory class that they have already figured out how to do on YouTube and just tinkering around on their own. So we thought it would be important to provide an alternate pathway into these courses that is based on their skill level. So, we've revised the course description for computer science principles 2 uh to allow students if if they self kind of self assess that they can do

144these seven tasks in the Python coding system, they can skip computer science principles one. So, we think that that is going to be uh attractive option for students. Uh and as part of this, we're also taking that year-long computer science principles course and splitting into into one and two. So first semester would be level one, second semester would be level two. Um and then similarly what this does with the AP computer science A course, it allows students uh as juniors to really uh register for that class. AP computer science A is a course a lot of seniors try to take that and seniors often have a lot of other electives that are maybe one section uh electives. So, it adds to that mix of scheduling conflicts. By providing some alternate pathways to get to that

145course, students can now sign up for AP computer science more readily as a junior uh and and have really junior year and senior year uh to take that course. And then there's an alternate prerequisite we're looking at for AP Computer Science A as well. if they have that previous Python coding experience and a grade of B or better in algebra 2, they can kind of bypass that introductory computer science information that we believe they already have the ability uh to do. So, uh those are the modified courses that we're looking at. Uh there is one >> Can I ask you a question? >> Absolutely. >> So, actually two questions. one where you're opening up these courses to low to lower grades like freshman or sophomore. If there is an over subscription um to this course,

146is there a priority list for the older students to have first priority for access since the other since the younger students have an opportunity to take it sometime in the future? >> Yes, that's a great question. Really, all of our courses operate that way. Okay, >> so uh it's very similar to like a college course registration. the more credits you have, you get earlier registration. >> You have a priority list. Correct. >> So, the other question I had then is for these courses that these computer courses where you're opening it up to people who may be self-taught in uh in Python or different types of programming. Do you have a any type of proficiency test that you're going to ask them to take? Because I could walk in and say, "Sure, I know Python." And

147then struggle um as I get into the into the actual class and the requirements of that class. >> Yes. So not in the course selection process itself but in the first week of the course. Yes. >> Okay. >> Uh so that there's kind of a double check there like you said you could do these things. You didn't take computer science principles one. >> Let's have a conversation or show me on this project that you can do that. >> Yeah. Um so the new course I referenced is really not a new course because we have offered it. We I referenced this in the dual credit conversation we were having earlier. Psychology 2. This course we ran up until uh 2020. Um and uh we mothballled it essentially when we started AP psychology. So this paired with

148our existing psychology one uh would give students the opportunity to earn a dual credit over the course of a school year. So this is a course that we would get off the ground for next year uh as a new returning course. And then uh at the bottom of the document, not really for approval, but just forformational updates, I included some information about the dual credit courses that we added for this year. Uh as Mr. Thomas alluded to, AP Calculus BC is currently dual credit. Uh horiculture is now six college credits instead of three and restaurant entrepreneurship 2 that will be running second semester is now dual credit. Um, and then for 2627 next school year, we have five new dual credit courses coming online. Uh, AP Calculus AB, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, Standard Calculus, and

149Psychology 2. So, all of those are in the works uh, with the university and hopefully will be approved uh, sometime late fall or early spring. And then just a couple of courses that have now been approved by the NCAA uh for uh students pursuing uh college athletics. Our critical approaches to film class and the English department and our geometry concepts and applications course in the math department. NC NCAA now recognizes those as contributing to the four-year required courses in the core departments for college athletes or students that want to pursue college athletics uh after graduation from Geneva High School. Uh and then finally in our wellness department uh the default PE course uh for juniors and seniors is called lifetime fitness and for the last 20 years maybe we have run those as separate sections

150for juniors and seniors with different experiences in each of those courses. Um the problem that that creates in a declining enrollment is it really creates some scheduling conflicts um with those uh sections if only seniors are in certain sections and only juniors are in other sections. So we're actually going to return to how this course operated 20 25 years ago and simply combine the juniors and seniors into the same sections of lifetime fitness. So, they have worked really hard in the wellness department to come up with a two-year curriculum. That two-year curriculum is going to continue to exist, but instead of existing in two separate courses, they're simply going to alternate years. So, next year is going to be one curriculum, the following year is going to be the other curriculum. So, half the students

151will get some experiences before the other, but they'll all get the same core experiences uh in PE. So, that's what we're looking at. Uh, as course changes for next year. I'd be happy to entertain any questions. I'll get it. Thank you very much for the presentation. Appreciate it. And the good information. I'm happy to see the dual credit courses growing. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have information board meeting presentation schedule. Number two is suspension reports. the Geneva Public Library partnership update. These items are presented for information only. Discussion is not required, but if anybody wants to talk about it, we can. Okay. Next. >> Could I just throw out briefly on the the I would encourage the board to review the um that information sheet on the public library uh um you know, that

152potential joint partnership we're looking at. I think some of the questions that uh the board asked when we talked about this last meeting in my report um I was able to get some really good information about that and that's built in uh to that information right there. So check that out at our next meeting. Uh the plan would be the director of the library would come um and be able to answer any questions if anybody has them. So want you to be prepared to if you have questions uh to ask about that. Yeah, I was really really pleased to see not only is it going to be the students, but it's also going to be the staff and the teachers if I if I read that correctly. >> Yep, absolutely. Which is pretty cool. >>

153Anybody else? >> Thanks for that. Next, my personal favorite, the consent agenda. Item one, the personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, full-time equivalent, new hires. Item two, monthly financial report. Item three, Amerus Healthcare Staffing Agreement. Number four, gifts grants requests 2,484.79. Geneva All Sports Boosters for GHS Sports annual letters, pins, and fall senior night flowers and popcorn. Any uh any discussion or do we have a motion? Motion to adopt the consent agenda. >> Second. >> I >> thank you. Um board member comments and reports. Stephanie, would you like to start us off? >> Sure. So, um, last week I was able to attend the Williamsburg PTO meeting. Um, it was a very robust meeting with lots of information and lots of attendance. So, it was really great to kind of hear and

154see what they're going on or what they have going on. I think one of the most important parts of us attending those PTO meetings is that we get to see and interact with parents and really get to understand the culture of the building and the community because the PTO is so integral in building that. And I really want to thank all of our parents who are involved in PTO's. Um, one of the things through the meeting, a lot of the reoccurring themes came up that I've heard across other boosters, across other PTOs is just how do we get engagement? How do we get parent participation or how do we communicate? And I think sometimes that's some stuff that we deal with at the district as well. So, um, no solutions necessarily, but definitely a lot

155of different approaches and different ways to try to really make that work well. So, I appreciate the Williamsburg PTO doing that. And even just us sitting there getting to hear that across multiple buildings helps me as we work on the communication task force or other things to take those messages back as we really think about communication and what that looks like. I also was able to attend the World Language Honors Society induction the other evening. Um, we got we had a good representation of our German, French, and Spanish programs. So, congratulations to all of those students for the hard work it takes to get into the honors society. Just nice to see. We spent a lot of time last year talking about world language. So, kind of good to see that full circle. I also

156was able to attend um a play at the high school that was put on by the Illinois Theater Honor Society. So, the high school has their own little group of of an honor society and they put on a small play called A Visit to the Rainbow Bridge. It was just about 20 kids that are part of the honor society. They did a great job overall. just, you know, it was a little bit of a tearjerker at times because it was what you would think it would be, you know, visiting the pets that we may have lost. But great job to all those students and always good to see them taking on new opportunities. This was one where they got to work directly with the playright and then they got they're doing this to try to

157compete. So then they got to have these judges share feedback with them after of what they might be able to do. So it was good to see that as a learning process as well. And then um congratulations to all of our fall athletes, not just the ones we met tonight. I know that we're wrapping up a lot of the fall sports and it's a big commitment from the summer through the fall. So congratulations to all of them, even if we didn't all end up going to state. There's so many accomplishments in every single season. And then thank you to Timothy and Lety for speaking tonight. My favorite part of the board meetings is having the students speak and it's just really great to see them as active community leaders. That is so impressive. I think

158that I saw Timothy at the city council meeting this week. So, nice to see that happening throughout our community as well. But just lots of great things and thank you to all of um the presenters tonight. Lots of great information. And congratulations to our National Merit Scholars as well. That's always one of my favorites as well to honor those students who have really worked on the academics. But that's it. >> Thank you, Willie. >> Yes. I just wanted to just make a few comments. Well, maybe not a few. Uh the idea is that um I appreciate obviously just seeing the many students that have a sense of purpose, but then on the other side listening to the presentation was sad. There are some people some students who don't have a sense of purpose. And I

159don't know, it's just in my mind um every time I think about the red ribbon week, it's just on the threshold of Veterans Day. And the thing of it is that as I listen to these presentations from the students, I know they're representatives. Of course, they there are many students with their attitude of understanding that we need help for those that are marginalized for various reasons. But I took note of the small steps towards life lessons. As I think about Veterans Day, it always strikes me as as a veteran and a third generation veteran. I it strikes me when we hear people say happy Veterans Day. we have uh some of these life lessons that students can learn today. You know that there it's under reportported but there are about 26 suicides of veterans per

160day. That's a conservative estimation. And so it's just something to think about that when I look at the graduation um and see the students that are going into the military especially I think some of the lessons that they learn in high school will carry them forward. But unfortunately, like I said, it's just kind of at the threshold that we're at this red ribbon week that Veterans Day is coming up. And of course, it's under reportported the suicide rate and mental health challenges for various reasons. So, I think that we have a real obligation to set the foundation. Uh when I was a high school student, I had a mentor and he gave me six words that were lifech changing. He looked at my report card, looked at me, and he just simply said, "Six words.

161you can do better than that. I couldn't argue with him. I mean, it was just kind of a life-changing experience. And sometimes it's just the little things. And I think this is a very important thing that we I mean, there was nothing like sad when I was um a student. Um but in high school at least, but I did have a mentor. Um and I just think that u that that just stuck out at me today. And I think that we need to keep that up and recognize these students are just a few years removed for those who do go in the military. That's just my uh orientation that that that is um something we can help them to make that transition into life because that is a real challenge we have and it's just

162under reportported. It's very much important for us to recognize that um fragility that they are dealing with. Uh also I'd like to recognize those students that like I said that have a sense of purpose because that does keep them somewhat uh balanced and I like that uh that we have so many opportunities for students here in this uh school district that they have uh choices that can edify not just themselves but their teammates and I thought that was really important seeing the teamwork that they have especially with the uh uh tennis players. I mean I know that there are others that are team aprons team but that was just so cool to see that that they boast to each other. So um just a whole uh smorges book of things to choose from. Yeah. Thank

163you so much. Yeah, >> Jackie. >> Yes, I was able to attend the technology task force meeting. We did get a preview of some of the capital expenses that might be coming up and presented to the board soon. So, we got preview of that and then also an update on some of our system updates that are happening at the district level and some of the challenges that they're working through and still are on target for uh getting the cut over to the new system complete on time and with a little bit of pain, but we talked through it. We we did some therapy and I think they'll be okay. Um, as I mentioned, I did go to the Kishwalki Division meeting last week. It was hosted by uh St. Charles School District. So got to

164be in one of their facilities, uh connect with some other board members from the greater area and had a a nice evening with them. I was able to attend the football game last Friday. It was chilly, but let's face it, we've had some really good football weather the last several years and so I'm not complaining on that. But it was fun and nice that it was senior night for all of the different groups who are at those football games. So the the cheer team, the dance team, the band, and the football players themselves. So, it was nice to see everyone get recognized before the game. And then congrats to everyone who came out tonight uh and with their accomplishments. Seeing all their families here, too, is really special because they're very proud of their their

165family members who were here tonight and uh taking their pictures. It's just fun for everyone to come. So, it's nice to see them all come. And then also all our presentations today. Wow. A lot of work goes into all those. I say that every time, but I do appreciate the time that you spend to put your presentations together, to have people come and talk to us and and fill us in on what's happening in our schools. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Paul. >> Here we go. I great to see the tradition of excellence, all the kids back here today. I mean, it was fantastic to see so many of them and all the parents here. It's nice to see the room filled on that. and also with the red red ribbon week um seeing

166that again uh for for me it's the third or fourth year in a row and I really um glad to see us continuing to support that as a school district. Um want to thank the Miss Han who came in and spoke to us at the public comments to educate the board on the issues that are affecting the young children in our community. Um it's something that we probably should take a little bit more time in the future to understand what could be done and to support that. And finally, um I'd just like to comment and and have a shout out to the theater boosters. They're in November 13th, 14th, and 15th is the play coming up and it's Romeo and Juliet this time. I got that right this time. Um and um so please if

167um please try to attend if you have an opportunity. Molly. >> Um, I would echo everything that everyone has said. It has been a long meeting, but a super informative one. Um, Lisa, to you and your students. I, as Paul said, I've sat in on this, you know, a few years now, but I so appreciate the evolution of the conversation around how we're approaching this this subject with our students. And I really just wanted to highlight what Timothy and Lety had talked about of having conversations with your students um for parents, you know, to open the door to that communication and regularly have it so that way when more vulnerable topics and harder topics come up, they know they can approach you. Conversation is just so important. So, uh the mental health professional in me

168really enjoyed that. Um I also work in higher ed. So Doug, everything that you talked about today, I really enjoyed that. The dual credit, you know, I think this was really an informationheavy meeting that left me feeling really filled with great, you know, ideas and thoughts and a time to reflect on what was shared with us tonight. So thank you to everyone to our students and and all that was presented to us tonight. Thanks everyone. >> Thank you. M I go to way till less so I can say everything that they said is is right on. I agree with it. I'm happy to see the the courses that allow students to increase their accomplishment. The only thing that nobody mentioned was these lights. >> Some of you may be aware of this, but we're going

169to replace all the light bulbs throughout the district with these LED lights, which use less electricity and which last longer. The savings is phenomenal. And we'll just leave it at that. I am also impressed with the fine quality of our students and their achievements. and I'm happy to see you and be a part of that. Next, notices and announcements. There are none. And next, I get to read something else. We have to go into executive session to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation, or discipline performance or dismissal of a specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public body or legal council for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an

170independent contractor in a park, recreational, educational setting, or a volunteer of of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation for a specific employee that is subject to a local government wage increase transparency act may not be closed and must be an open public meeting. The collective negotiation matters between the public body and its concerning salary and schedules for one or more classes of employees. So with that >> motion to go into an executive session. >> Thank you. >> Second, >> I >> we'll take a two or three minute break if for those who need it and the meeting is closed. So thank you all for coming again. Thank you guys. >> You need to be home. You sound

171terrible. >> This is how I've sounded for a week. >> Really? >> Yes. Thank