001Well, it looks like it's time and I remembered to turn the mic on, so I'm sure everyone is happy. Um, this is the regular meeting, Geneva 304 for Monday, September 8th at 7 o'clock. just slightly after. We're very pleased to have you all with us today. Bonnie, could you call the role? >> Sorry. >> Here >> again, I said welcome. The first item of business is the pledge and Jackie Forbes will lead us in the pledge. I pledge 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. >> There is an attendance sheet in the lobby if you wish to register your attendance. The first item of business is the approval of minutes for the regular
002session of August 25, 2025. Bonnie, did you receive any corrections or suggestions? >> No. >> Are there any at this time? Motion to approve, please. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I abstain. I >> I >> thank you. Item three, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. Item one there is the annual grants update from George Petsus. Did you have anything to say, Andy? >> No, just I appreciate uh George's uh work on this. I know. Um, and Shaunett's of course George is very proud to share earlier this week that he's been able to submit some so far this year without having to ask Shaunette any questions. So, nice job. >> That's right. >> Great progress. >> Uh-huh. >> Take it away, George. >> Appreciate that. Yes. Um, I do appreciate it. It's always a good
003feeling to press submit and send something without asking someone else for for for help. And I appreciate Shanette's help always. This uh is very similar to the presentation last spring on our consolidated district plan. Uh one big difference here here is that we have actual numbers uh that we received from the state that I'll be sharing with you and as a result had to adjust some of our uh budget and line items. So, uh, many of the slides will be familiar, but as a reminder, I'll just review a little bit what our, um, the ISBE state goals are, which is to enhance student learning, uh, to improve learning condition, and to elevate educators. And the spirit of these grants is to do to accomplish those things. So, for um these are some of the updated
004uh numbers that we have from our uh, title grants. And if you recall, uh, we have title one, two, three, and four. And in title one, uh this year we are receiving $159,435. Uh title one is allocated to our title one schools which for here in Geneva are Harrison Street uh this year Geneva Middle School South and uh Geneva High School. Also a portion of this allotment is uh uh these funds actually follow students. So if uh there are at risk or disadvantaged students um that perhaps attend a uh private school or non-public school, we work with those public schools to give them their fair share of of this amount. And we typically uh reach out to these schools in the spring. Uh I also have included here previous amounts. You'll notice uh in uh
005last school year we received the 186th around 186,000 and uh the previous year before that 219,000. Uh title two uh this these are funds uh grants that we use mostly for professional development and I'll go into that. Uh this year we'll be receiving around six uh $62,000 for uh title three is our EL uh grant. It's a l uh language instructional educational program, our LIE grant. Um this one is uh 13,000. Uh we do have an asterisk there as we did learn a few weeks ago that this grant might be sunsetting. So um they've asked us to uh to perhaps look into not counting this for FY27 next year. Uh and then of course title four um will receive right around a little over $10,000 for this uh this grant. So title one as I
006had mentioned most of our title one uh money is uh tied up in salary and benefits. Uh we do have a portion of this grant also that goes to professional development um supplementing instructional materials. Uh we have uh some of this also uh earmarked for homeless and neglected and delinquent uh students. Uh we work with um Jamie uh Cohosentino uh to uh allocate some of these funds and of course as I mentioned nonpublic schools as well. Title two is a chair uh as shared earlier. This is more for professional development and most of this grant goes to professional development. So salary um and benefits for our EL coordinator to coordinate PD for our EL teachers. Um we also use this uh money to send teachers to to PD and to provide PD at all level
007levels preK through high school. And again similar to this one also there's a non-public requirement as well. And uh title four uh this is mostly used. It's a smaller amount I believe right around $10,000 is what we said. And uh this here we typically use for software subscriptions, health and safety um and any hands-on materials um for math and science. Our LIP grant, this is the grant that um we received word that might not be available for FY27. uh this is more for our uh English language learners and we use this uh these funds to renew online software subscription, pay professional dues and allocate to our non-public schools as well. I included uh a couple grants that we also received that are not really connected to title and these are for our career and technical
008education grants. There are two grants we receive for uh CTEI. The first one is the CTEI grant uh which is right around 38,000. You'll notice that this amount has not really changed over the years and the other one has a really long name. the strengthening career and technical education for the 21st century act grant uh which we call the Perkins grant uh is right around $20,000 and most of these funds are allocated to um career exploration uh at the kind pre pre kindergarten through uh 12th grade. A large part of this is uh funding for supplies and resources for our career and technical education courses that we offer um at the high school. So, you know, if we're looking for electronic babies for our child development class or supplies uh like cabinet and mill work
009or sanders and pads, those sort of things are covered under this grant. That kind of wraps up the the main major grants that we are uh allocated uh for this year with the funding amounts. >> George, could I highlight two things that I think are important just to kind of acknowledge and for everybody to understand. And I think the first is that um when we talk about these grants, the way we think about grants a lot um is, you know, there's this kind of opportunity out there that you can go apply for and someone will give you a certain amount of dollars. These uh aren't really that. What these grants are is um these are federal flowth through dollars. These are this is the way that local school districts in Illinois get their money from
010the federal government. So when you talk about how much money is Geneva school district getting from the federal government, um that's what all this money is. Okay? And we have to um work that money gets sent to the state and then the state has their process for us to go through through these grants um to get this money allocated for us. So I think that's important to know. Um and then it ties to I think that second important point. There's been a lot of uncertainty uh in recent um months about um federal funding for education and what's going on with that. I think it's important to note and George was reading my mind and came back to this screen right here. Um you know, to be frank, relatively speaking, we get a very small percentage
011of our overall funding um for our school district from federal dollars. Um, so you know, this everything you just saw here from uh from George, probably if you count the CTE stuff, you know, you're looking at just over like 300,000. Um, and that's because of Illinois's funding formula and how schools are funded in Illinois. Um the evidence-based funding model um you know the tier that we are in for for EBF um means that uh you know a lot of our money comes from local resources. There might be some districts around us that uh not too far from here that could have millions and millions of dollars in these categories. Um and that that's not our district. So uh you know on one hand it's important for us to know and reinforce that most of that
012funding comes from the local level for us. Um on the other and sometimes there's challenges with that but uh you know I think one thing that is not a challenge is right now where there's some uncertainty around that I think some of our neighbors or some of those other school districts where uh that get a much larger percentage of their funding from these federal grants. there's a lot more stress in those places because there's a lot less certainty about what dollars may be coming here in the next few years. Um, and I'm thankful to, you know, Shaunett and George and their office and then all our principles and everybody in the schools who helps us manage this because um, should some of these dollars be impacted, as you see, they're going down uh each year,
013uh, that thankfully impacts our district less than than maybe it would some other district. Um, so the only other federal piece that isn't uh mentioned here uh is the IDEIDA. That's basically the federal um dollars for special education. Um and executive director of student services and Scalia's office manages that and you'll hear from her later this year. Um and we do get a a larger amount of money um to support that area. But I just thought it was important to kind of highlight those two key facts as as George was sharing this with us. So >> thanks for letting me stick my nose. >> No, no, that's great. >> Any other questions? >> Just one question. Thank you Andy for clarifying because that was some of my question. So as we see like we are
014going down each year. What is there a reason for that? Is that just because less money is allocated year-over-year or is it because our enrollment is down? So, as our enrollment goes down, we have less >> I think there's a combination of of, you know, enrollment. Uh, you know, title funds are connected to our um lowinccome uh number. So, uh if we have students that are applying for free and reduced lunch, these are the numbers that uh are reported. And so I think you know over the last few years we've had you know um less students that are in that category and therefore our funds are less because of that. Um and so certainly the declining enrollment you know adds adds another layer to that. Anyone else? >> Well thank you very much. >> Thank
015you. The next item on the agenda is a hearing and this is uh just for everyone's explanation. This is a little meeting within the meeting. We do have to have a hearing about our financial planning for the coming year and this is it. So the first thing that happens is that I convene the meeting which I have just done and welcome you all which I'm doing right now. Glad to have you with us. Next thing is the schoolboard members are introduced. We have Malians, Paul Redlinski, we have Stephanie Bolino, Willard Hooks, Vice President Jackie Forbes. I'm the president. Andy Barrett is the superintendent. The next item is that I explain the statute and I'm going to read it so I get it right. The fiscal year of the school district is July 1 to June
01630th. Within or before the end of the first quarter of each fiscal year, September 30th, a school board must adopt an annual budget that it deems necessary to defay all expenses and liabilities of the district and must specify the objects and purpose of each item and the amount needed for each item or purpose. Such a budget shall be prepared in tenative form and made available for public inspection. The notice of public hearing and public inspection was posted in the Kane County Chronicle on 31 July 2025. For further explanation of what we're doing, we have Todd at the mic. And Andy, if you anything you'd like to add at this point. >> Yeah, I would just, you know, want to thank Todd and the members of the um uh the finance committee. I mean, this tonight
017is the last kind of formal event uh in a long uh culmination of meetings. Todd's gone through this with us several times at this point uh from a preliminary and a draft. And you know, this isn't new uh this isn't new information, thankfully, because we have a nice cascade and Todd's really worked through this process uh for some time. And tonight is kind of um the official formal end. Uh and then we'll be working on the next one right away, I'm sure. So, I'll pass it over to Todd and and just say thanks for all his work on all this. >> Thank you, Dr. Barrett, and thank you to the board of education. So yes, the budget process actually starts in December when we file our levy. Those are when we get the idea of
018what new tax dollars we will receive. And so here we are in September to finally approve that work and then I'll be back in December of for the next cycle. So a little bit about the process. So as Dr. Barrett mentioned, we do have a preliminary uh budget process that includes uh several uh subf funds and also subcategories. So we start with our technology, we move on to areas such as transportation, operations and maintenance and our education fund. And then we roll it into a draft budget where we start looking at some preliminary numbers that become a little more finalized. And then our tentative is where we have a little better idea of what that budget will look like which we had here last month in August. And then lastly, um we're here tonight in
019September to approve a final budget. So this is for the 2526 school year. So it starts July 1st of this year 2025 and ends June 30th of 2026. So a little bit about the overview of the particular budget. Uh so it really reflects the district's goals and objectives objectives. So as we have a conversation throughout the year of what we want to accomplish uh we take that plan, we put it into numbers and that becomes our budget. We do that by fund. Uh we do that by revenue expenditures. Uh we mentioned uh earlier here our grants which roll into our spending plan as well but it's also our ev evidence-based funding which is our allocation from the state of Illinois. Not only has our um funds gone down our grant but we're a tier four
020school which means we're basically self-funded so we don't get any really any new dollars. I think it was a second year of 4,000 new dollars that we received. So there's not much we can do with that as a district and that's just simply where we're at financially as a community. And then uh through the development process um we go through these series of budgets to kind of finalize our numbers. Our operating funds, our education fund, operations and maintenance, transportation, what we call our retirement funds, our working cash and our tort fund. And then lastly, our other funds include debt service, our capital projects, and our life health safety funds. So what's happened from the tentative till now? This is actually the exact slide I used last year because the process is almost ideally the same.
021We hire people, we replace our staff, determine how many teachers that we need, how much support staff that we need, and then we update those through a final process as we begin the school year. As you heard tonight, we just got some of our last grant numbers recently, and we look at some things such as carryover dollars, which are unspent dollars, as well as well as what we'll get for new dollars, and how we will apply those to the education process. And then lastly, we review our salary and benefits. Uh so we have an election period of benefits that we select. So somebody could change as I've mentioned previously from uh single to family and that increase the cost for not only the individual but the district. And then we also look at our mid
022valley tuition as we look to the special needs students that we have and what that will cost us. And then lastly the grants and then any fund transfers that we will need to carry out this spending plan. So, I won't go over the unawited other than that those are fiscical year 25 un audited numbers. Uh the audit probably won't be finalized until December and the process that we have is an acrrual form of accounting. So, the auditor can always make adjustments. So, when you see that 122,582,384, uh that still might change based upon the auditor's review of our spending from the prior fiscal year, which just ended in June. I brought to you the tentative plan which was $122,69,923. So really uh not much change in receipts. As you've heard, there's really not a lot
023of new dollars that we have. And then in the 2026 proposal, um we did uh increase the revenue to 122 million86,972. But I'll just go over how some of those changes occurred. Uh so probably the largest change in revenue as you see it's gone up u was basically some of those grant carryover dollars that we had just a review of some other dollars that we have and and making some of those adjustments uh that maybe we just um estimated but wanted to finalize when it comes to operations and maintenance and debt service there was a decrease and so when you look at some of our revenue that goes down a lot of that is that as we spend down our fund balance I have less dollars to invest we're getting a less return on investment
024because of the market rates. And so when you see something like the operations and maintenance fund and the debt service fund, those are going uh down. If they do, that's likely because we have um some less dollars coming into some of those as well. And then uh when I look at the transportation revenue, we did have an increase in the transportation and we did that because we looked at our claim that we had and there's some some processes that we do to determine um how we record our assets and what we can submit for rent our claim. We actually just finished that in August. That August tells us what kind of dollars we'll get for the next year reimbured by the state. So that's where you see that transportation increase to us. So we really
025just finished that last claim uh to the state just last month. And then some of the other areas just have simply stayed the same because I don't think they're going to change at all. And so that's just kind of the modest change in our increase in revenue. So it a total of $717,049 was the increase from tentative to the proposed budget that we're asking you to adopt this evening. All right. On the uh expenditure side, uh same thing. We looked at the unodudited numbers of 136,218,756 and I came back to you with the tentative budget last month of $128,577,988. And a lot of that you can see is just strictly looking at the capital projects line. So we had a very large capital project plan last year that we paired that down a little bit
026this year as a transition year for us. Uh but we've had some other changes as well. Uh so uh the tentative of $128,577,98 has now changed to the fisc year 26 final proposal of $129,481,085. So, some of my notes say that uh um just like we have carryover dollars of revenue, I have to record carryover dollars and expenditures. Those are some expenditures we're going to make this year. They're not always the same. So, just because we expend something in one year doesn't mean the state will reimburse us in that year. So, sometimes there's a variance between our revenue to our expenses. The operations of maintenance fund, uh we did see an increase. Um one of the items that I had in the original tentative proposal was some improvements at our transportation building. Uh after we
027went through the claim process, um I do that with the two other staff members, Adrian Ramirez, who's our assistant director of in my office and then Matt Johnson, who is our director of transportation. We just finished a claim and sometimes we'll review those they and to see how we can maximize it for the next year. So, one thing that we did was we moved some a capital project at our transportation facility back to ONM because we're limited where we can spend money to claim it. And so we made a change that we think will benefit us in the claim process. Uh the debt service is the same and the transportation um fund is up slightly. Um I just mentioned here that it's just some final adjustments that we had from some expenses that we anticipated.
028And lastly, as I mentioned, our capital projects are down. So overall, it's a $93,097 increase in the expenditures. So, here's what it looks like when we look at the revenue to expenses. Uh, it's a negative $6,594,113. So, again, like the previous years, we'll be using our fund balance to spend that down to primarily make our capital projects happen. This is what it looks like with the other sources. The other sources are essentially transfers. And so those are funds that we move uh between funds to uh make sure the capital projects actually are able to take place and have the funds that they need uh to make those improvements throughout the fiscal year. And it's the same numbers. It just has 9,300,000 added to each one of those because it's basically money in and money out.
029And when we get to the slide, I'll show you where that's at. So this is the uh revenue sheet that I will provide to Kain County. essentially takes the same numbers but I put those by account and I have sources that I have to identify. Those sources are in the budget but I make this in a simplistic way for myself and the county uh so they can see that 132 million revenue versus the expenditures that are on there as well. I'm going to have to get a bigger screen or something because my numbers aren't fitting on here. I think that's two in a row. Um but anyway that that sheet reflects this. So the 113 million is the revenue is 138 million expenses and those are the sheets that I actually file with the county.
030So uh we'll pass a budget. I'll submit the budget. We'll submit the resolution. We'll submit this document as well as as well as some other documents that uh come from myself and the secretary that we approved the budget in the approved process. So this is basically the budget summary. Um the key area to look at is the top line that is our fund balance. We started off uh on July 1st with an estimated beginning fund balance of $74,566,317. We have our revenue. We have our expenses and that 6 million reduces our ending fund balance to 68,16,256. And so that's the decrease of the fund balance of that 6,460 61. So that's where we're taking the funds that we need um that we don't have in revenue uh to make up the difference. And then a
031little bit about this. So uh it explains the local sources. It'll it'll show you where we receive the local sources which essentially is taxation. So it's adorum tax. Uh the state uh dollars that we have flow through are the ones that we get through is those are the reimbursements that I mentioned. Then the federal sources are state and federal sources are grants that we receive and that's really where all of our revenue comes from. We do have some local fees when you register your children, that type of thing that come to our local sources as well. And anytime that we sell an asset like a school bus uh comes back in our local sources and I'll show you that's on the next page. And then when we look at our dispersements, they're categorized um on
032the budget form by our instruction, our support services, our community services. And so that's the non-public schools that we have. We do provide support to them as well. Uh payments to other governments, those are areas such as Mid Valley or Fox Valley Career Center. Any debt service that we have, which is paying off the debt that we have uh on file. And then uh we do um have a need sometimes for contingencies and we'll build those in as needed from year to year. So this is the page that shows how we transfer money. So I'll start at the bottom page. Um, so when you look at that 2.5 million that's moved from the ED fund up into the operations and maintenance fund, the $578,000 in the middle was a sale of school buses we had
033this year. Um, so in the past we typically would have sold our buses to a particular company that would have came in and gave us a bid. Uh, this year we maximized the sale of those buses because we went to multiple sources to see what they wanted to buy our school buses. So, uh, we did increase that revenue by quite a bit for the school district, and we'll roll those back into our transportation fleet. And then the 6.8 million down here on the middle right is essentially the funds that go in to make sure that the capital project fund has enough to complete the capital projects. This is the big picture of this again. So, this is where all the funds come in and out to get to the fund balance. And so it takes
034those first two pages and kind of summarizes those all the the last page is here in the bottom. So that 2.5 million 6.8 all come on the bottom of this page and it pulls it all together to complete the budget in a summary page. So where do we go from here? Uh so tonight I hope you approve and adopt the budget. Uh once you're done with that I'll file it with the K County Clerk's Office. I also required to upload it to the Illinois State Board of Education website. We adopt the budget in Skyward, our financial software that basically tells everybody what they can start spending um at at a smaller level budgets for example at schools. I will uh update the treasures report for you. So I'll come back with a final report for
035July and August at the next meeting and then I'll bring September and October and then I will get actually starting tomorrow I'll take a look and start preparing for the 25 tax year levy which is paid in 2026. I will come back in October with a five-year projected modeling that I've done for the board of education. So, that'll come back as well. And then we'll begin um some additional assumptions and forecasting as we begin a new budget cycle. There's a new requirement under public act 103394, which is called the cash reserve balance ratio act, also known as the Miller ratio. Became a law in 2023 and it became effective in the 2425 school year. Um so the language at the top simply just says that if a school district combined cash reserve uh is on
036its most recent report of its AFR and ours was for the 23 24 school year exceeds excuse me two and a half times the annual expenditures then we have to provide an adopted operational reserve plan. So essentially these numbers say that that is not the case for our school district which means that we haven't accumulate a lot of cash that would exceed this and therefore we have to be uh justifiable and have a spend down plan. So I'm required by law just to present this to you. So um I'm basically giving you the numbers that says that we have not exceeded that and therefore we can continue with the way that we operate and no plan is needed. >> Okay. Questions and comments from the board. >> Okay. Questions from the board is the first
037item. Does anyone have any questions? >> Okay. like this item. >> I'd like to like my Adrian's here as well. And and >> I do want to point out that uh we've worked very uh >> uh diligently this year as we changed our software. So our time is a little off. So I apologize if you think maybe I would have been here in about two weeks. Uh we ran it early um Mr. President, just so we made sure that we could have it done correctly and prove it for you. So I thank you for uh the opportunity tonight. >> Thank you as well for your fine work. Any public comments or questions? 6.5 million. >> It's it's 4.3 million. It'll come out of the operation as a maintenance fund. >> Todd, could you repeat her
038question? So, it's uh 2.5 million that was indicated will come out of the education fund. Uh from that 6.8 million, the remainder 4.3 will come from the operations and maintenance fund. So, that fund is shoring up most of our capital projects. Good question. Any other questions or comments? Thank you very much. At this time, I will close the public hearing. We will be voting later in the meeting to approve this budget. Next item is public comments. Bonnie, have you received any requests for comment? >> No. >> Does anyone wish to speak at this time? Sure. Okay. Well, thank you for coming. In any case, legislative updates, Jackie. >> Yeah, nothing much to report again this meeting. However, we did receive notice that the resolutions that we generally start talking about this time of year and
039are voted on at the delegate assembly in November, uh, they were released. So, I will take a look at those and share them at an upcoming board meeting for us to to first just look at and then we'll have a formal discussion about how we want to vote. I believe I saw there's actually only one resolution this year and a number of amendments to the IASB constitution. So, we'll uh take a look at those in the near future. That's my report. >> Thank you, Jackie. The uh next item, superintendent report. >> Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, Jackie. I was going to say I think we saw that about two hours ago. It just came in. So, uh, hot off the presses. >> Um, thanks for the opportunity to share just a few things with you,
040uh, tonight as always. Um, first, uh, just it's fall. It even feels like fall, which not always in uh, this time of year does it feel like fall, but it does. Um, here's a awesome picture from our very first ever uh, varsity girls flag football game last week. um out at Burgess Field. Um everything's happening. Uh I'm sure our guilt friends could attest. Feels like Feels like we've been here a long time, right? Like feels like we never left. Feels like we never left. It's great. Um you know, our back to school events have all gotten underway and been great. We have one more of those this week and and we're just back at it and smooth sailing. Um uh you know I shared this picture of the high school and I think important to
041highlight you know athletics and activities everything that our kids are involved with through the school um that makes really such an impact in their lives. Um you know that's all underway too and I was talking with Mr. Rogers earlier uh last week actually and you know and he shared some pretty cool news. I thought even as our enrollment is declining, which we've talked about, you know, plenty of times and and will more, um the amount of kids involved at Geneva High School in athletics and activities is growing. Um so there's more kids involved in athletics and activities. Uh it's the highest ever participation percentage in in both of those things. Um, and I think that's a testament to um, you know, the way all of our educators step up and and lead all of these
042cool things. Our kids are connected and um, I I think it's important to note that because we know that opportunities for kids to be active and engaged. Uh, that's part of what makes a difference and and help kids grow and be successful. So whether it's the athletics, whether it's all the clubs and activities or the music programs or everything, our our kids are involved in a lot of stuff. Um and that starts when they're little and just metriculates through and that's that's pretty cool. Um just a few quick updates on the uh La Fox of Captain Hills development that we've talked about a lot over the last several months. Um, it is now official. The developer donation agreement that uh we worked hard to negotiate over the summer and that you all uh approved at
043a special meeting uh in August has now been approved by all parties. So, our board approved that. Um, the developer has officially signed off on that. Um, and the village of Hampton Hills has also officially uh signed off on that developer donation agreement that happened last week um at the beginning of last week. Uh then at the end of last week, the village of Cmpton Hills um held a formal uh public hearing um considering annexation of the property for this development. That meeting uh took place last Thursday um with a a lot of folks in attendance and a lot of uh good conversation as I gather. Um and ultimately um the village did vote uh 5 to one uh in favor of the annexation of the property. So that property is now part of the
044village of Cton Hills and theoretically um with the intention of building this development. Um so the annexation agreement was approved. If you remember uh kind of what started this thing, there was an original draft annexation agreement that we uh saw um several months ago that said, you know, the school district wouldn't be, you know, getting anything to support the new students that could potentially be generated. And that's really what kicked us into gear to start having all those conversations this summer. Um, so now not only is our developer donation agreement approved, but it is formally included as part of the annexation agreement. So we know that it's a legally binding document. Um, that annexation agreement also lays out all sorts of criteria um for what this development could ultimately be um for the planned unit
045development or PUD. It talks about the lot sizes. It talks about the number of units. It talks about the amount of open space and all those kinds of things. And now um you know what we anticipate is the developer going back formally developing that PUD and taking that to the village of Cton Hills for additional approvals. Um, and as we've talked about before, we do anticipate that they're going to start having some further conversation uh regarding um a potential tiff or tax increment finance district through the village of Canton Hills for this development. Uh, as you'll recall, we anticipated that um and made sure that um our developer donation agreement included um some financial implications, some some money coming back to the district if that tiff were to go forward. So, we do anticipate that
046happening. That's a process that we would think would take several months at this point. So, this won't be a quick thing. I don't think they'll have to go through um a lot of steps. Um, so I would anticipate several months of of conversation and we'll keep trying to keep you uh informed as we go, but I think a lot has happened just in the last week or so. Um, also just, you know, plans for the site do continue to evolve. Important to know this was the original um, not the original, but this was one I think that we were looking at. You're going to see some subtle tweaks over there and kind of the north uh east corner where they've started to to tweak out exactly what the parcels are going to look like. One
047of the things in our donation agreement, we had to go through and make sure each specific parcel was included. So, you know, we'll again, we'll just keep trying to keep you informed as as this evolves. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot more tweaks as we go. Um, next I just wanted to lay a few breadcrumbs on some more important conversation we're going to be having this year and uh I think that um it needs to come on the tales of this LFOX conversation because these two issues kind of overlap. Uh you know you recall our strategic plan goal area one is where we talked about enrollment and staffing and right sizing our enrollment with staffing ensuring our schools are right sized um based on our enrollment and all that kind of stuff.
048So last year we spent uh time doing two key things, right? We did conducted a big formal demographic study to look at our demographics and the long-term demographic trends of the district. And we also spent some time doing um an analysis, a capacity analysis of our facilities. um with the goal of getting some baseline information to be able to start having some conversations about um you know, how are we going to make sure that we have reasonable, equitable, and sustainable uh experiences across all of our elementary schools. I'm sure you all recall we had a lot of good conversation about this at a retreat last spring. Um and we're going to need to have some more conversation about this uh here with the public this fall. So, uh, I wanted to highlight a few of
049the things we're going to be doing, uh, as that happens. One, we're going to continue updating that demographic data. We have a new crop of kids in. There's new birth data from the state. Uh, so we're working with, uh, Dr. Kofron, who helped us on that original demographic study to just update that so we can continue to have the most um, recent data. Also, we're going to have to evaluate all of that while now including the implications of this new potential development that could have 900 homes, right? So, 900 homes um out west in our district uh could mean some very different things than we were thinking last spring when we were having some of these conversations. Um so, we're going to have to build that into part of that conversation. Um, and as we
050like evaluate all that, we're going to update those findings and we're going to this fall come back and share some of those preliminary findings and kind of what we think the implications are um to start getting some feedback from you and the community about that so we can determine some formal next steps. So, it's going to be uh it's going to be busy, but I think it's going to be uh very important. Any questions about that? >> I I actually have one. >> Yeah, thanks Larry. The uh open land in the La Fox development is subject to future use and and the options would be anything from a forest preserve to additional housing. Is that covered by our agreement with our attorney? And by the way, I thank our attorney and you for your fine
051work on that. >> Yeah, thank you. And yeah, I thank our at- our attorneys uh have been phenomenal on this. Um so yeah, see you guys. I'll point it out for you if you can see. Yeah. So, so see this line right here? That's the railroad tracks. Okay. See this line? This is Keslinger. >> Right here, see my mouse down here? That's Mil Creek School. So, this is all north and west of Mil Creek School. Okay. Um, so, so this is Mil Creek. Uh, that's Brundage going straight north of that way, right? So, this is all north and west of Mil Creek School. Um, so yeah, Larry, good good question on that. Part of that uh annexation agreement does include language about um the open space on the land. And one of the reasons that
052some some folks who had formally opposed the development in this area now supported it was because it included all of this open land. You you might recall last year when we were talking about this as a potential development being uh built by PY. This all would have had homes in it too and it would have been probably around 2,000 homes uh not about 900. So the big caveat to your question, Larry, um is basically saying this land is currently slotted for open space. Should someone buy it and and keep it as open space? Right. So, I do think our understanding is that there are entities out there, forest preserve, you know, folks out there who do intend to do that and buy that land and keep it as open space. Um, it is possible that
053they don't and the the the annexation agreement does reference that the developer could ultimately decide to build more homes there. Um, our agreement that we have created includes, as you'll recall, um, money per home that's built. So, if they build more homes, we will get more money because it will be money per home that's built. And then, should a TIF be established, our agreement includes uh, specific dollars based on students sent to the district. And so, if they put more houses that have more kids, that's more students to the district. and and we would get that money. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Quick question. >> Oh, yeah. Willard had one. >> Oh, go ahead, Willard. >> Yeah. >> Just a little >> Sure. >> historical because I don't know. Um, so, uh, Mil
054Creek School, was that considered open space at one time and then they >> Yeah, absolutely. That was all open. Yep. >> So, going to Larry's question, is that something that they could develop or something some kind of facility or something like that that's not on the plans right now? like a a school you mean? >> I don't know. >> Yeah, I mean that would be up to us, right? That would be something for us to determine. Um, you know, based on our, you know, all the demographic work that we've done up to this point, we do not think we would need to do that. Um, but certainly, you know, something like that could be in the cards. I think another thing to recall here is remember um most actually all of this is within the
055boundaries of Geneva school district 304. Okay. But somewhere around right here is the boundary between Geneva school district and St. Charles school district. Okay. So uh and these are already homes right. Um this is I think permanently open land. Uh you see the boundaries of this potential development. So even if uh the time came where this wasn't able to be maintained as open land where the developer did get it back and the developer did decide to build homes on it. You can see this line goes right here and all of this space would be in the St. Charles school district and that would be on them to be thinking about, right? It would only be everything kind of below this line technically. Um, and some of this I think couldn't be developed because of act
056creek and some of the water issues out there. >> Y >> Paul, did I Okay, >> you answered the question. Okay. St. Charles. >> Yeah. So, right now, I think that was one of the big deal breakers with that PY development is there was um there were homes up here, a lot of which would have gone to St. Charles and that that's part of what made that complicated. >> Any other questions? Thank you, Andy. That was exactly what I wanted. A nice clarification of that issue. >> I certainly hope and expect that the Forest Preserve will buy it. >> They they do seem to have every intent. I mean, there are people out there very committed to that being open land. So, I you know, that's what we understand. Um you know, uh just two
057more quick things. Last week, we uh had some uh fun facts that I thought were valuable about transportation. Uh and uh so uh I'm going to try to do that throughout the year and sprinkle some fun facts about some of our important really important and valuable folks um and the great work that they do. Um, so as we get the year started, as I'm sure you can imagine, our technology team uh just works so hard over the summer and at the start of the year uh to get things going. Um, and you can see some examples of some of that hard work they that they were doing over the summer and and getting the year going. So, some of the fun facts, um, we have over 7,200 devices that are supported and managed across the
058school district, um, for staff and students. Um, in uh, 2025, there were over 8,600 support requests that our awesome technology staff handled and, uh, took care of for folks. Um, we have 210. I had to Google what this was today. Uh, now wait, hang on, hang on. Do I have it on my Yeah. gigabits per second internet circuit. That means what that means to me, we have a really big pipe. A lot of internet can flow through our our pipe. We've got we've got a lot of bandwidth cooking. 210 um versus even just a few years ago where we would not have had near that much. We got a lot of pipe um and a lot of capacity for our internet to run through as a district. Um we have over 560 wireless access points
059for things to be wireless. I'm old enough and have been around here long enough. I remember when we didn't have any. I remember when we installed the first one um and thought that was pretty cool that we had a wireless access point and to think now there's 560 of those across the district and we just assume it should work and if it doesn't in two seconds we get frustrated like that's you know it's kind of wild. Um and when we think about the summer prep and all the work that tech team did uh you know they built a new wireless network infrastructure they got 1,600 new devices prepped and distributed for staff and kids. um additional security uh appliances installed um and the ongoing work that I think we've all noticed and felt with our
060board meeting videos enhancing this process. The kind of last step of that actually to share with you quickly is um just happening this week where we're changing the location for our board videos. Those are now going to be um housed directly on YouTube. Um, there'll still be linked on our website in the exact same page, but there's a a channel on on YouTube that will have all of our videos that's going to theoretically be um it's well it's going to save a lot of time for our tech staff who works on these videos and gets these things ready. Um, and also probably be a better user experience for our users who want to watch that. So glad that that process is continuing as well. And then last, I just want to uh reference um quickly,
061you know, we have been talking a little bit about uh obviously, you know, we've talked uh plenty about um you know, our students and and some increases in anxiety that we're seeing with kids. And we've also spent some time talking as an administrative team and have shared information in our communications task force about um the implications of some of that anxiety um that kids are having and um school attendance. And we know school attendance is very important. We also know we're seeing nationwide trends of um less attendance at school. And so we've uh are some members of our high school team. Want to say thank Susan Shrader, one of our deans for sure, for helping spearhead some of this work. Um and all the deans and the high school administration um for really trying to
062start an initiative. They're working with Sa Sandy Riley, our communications coordinator, um to help try to help parents who are trying to support their kids through some of this. So, we're having some um professional presentations over the course of the year. The first one is this Wednesday at 6:30 um where we have a local psychologist who uh works with kids who are having anxiety and she's going to come and give a presentation. We've got three of these scheduled over the next three months. um and she's going to just kind of tips and tricks for parents to who maybe might be going through some of these things and are wondering what can I do to to help my kid in this way. So, I'd encourage anyone to come out and and check this out. I think
063this is we hope this is going to be a good opportunity to help parents help their kids and any questions or thoughts on that one? That's it. Uh this is at the high school and the auditorium. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Uh, that's it. >> Okay. Well, thank you, >> Andy. Will that be available online after? >> I believe so. That's a good question. Uh, I don't know for sure, so let me check. But I believe so. >> Thank you. Um, item seven, board dialogue topics pending cons action consideration. Item one there is the policy updates. There are 28 items there. I'm not going to read them all. Um and uh these policies have been reviewed by the administration and by the policy committee. They were presented for first reading on August 25 and are being
064presented at this time for the second reading and adoption. Questions may directed to Stephanie. Any questions? >> You're doing good. >> We should we should be all set. We did discuss all the policies during our um last policy meeting. So if anyone's watching and has some questions about them, you can check that out and find some more information. >> Would you like to make a motion to approve? >> Yes, I will make a motion to approve the policy updates. >> Second. I >> I >> thank you. The second item is a resolution to adopt the budget for the fiscal year 2526. This is what I promised you earlier in the short hearing. Approval is recommended. Unless there are any questions or comments, I need a motion to approve. So, so moved >> second. >> Item
065eight is work study topics. Nothing under that uh heading. Item nine, information, board meeting presentation schedule, foyer requests, and board correspondence. uh information only, no discussion required unless somebody has a question. And my favorite item 10, the consent agenda. Item one there is the personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, full-time, equivalent, and new hires. Item two, gifts, grants, and bequest, $7,000, Harrison Street School PTO for field trips. Item three, gifts, grants, and bequest, $12,567. again, Harrison Street School PTO for the fifth grade outdoor ed. And I know they'll have a lot of fun on that one. Item four, technology asset disposal. Any questions or comments? A motion, please. >> So moved. >> Second. I >> item 11 is board member comments and reports. Uh why don't we start with Stephanie? >> Sure.
066So um first I wanted to thank Sandy Riley, our communications director, for all the work she does. She's kind of a one woman team and does amazing work not only in like the social media posts that she do does, which she's recently put out some really great ones that have gotten a lot of engagement and had some fun within the district that I know parents and students really enjoyed. But also just in running the communications task force, I think we talked talk about these task force forces a lot without really understanding what they're doing. And we've seen a couple of things over the past couple of weeks that really show the work that goes into those. So the presentation that um Andy was discussing about anxiety and students that was brought to the communications task
067force, we had discussions. We kind of talked about what the best kind of communication would look like and Sandy took all that feedback and really worked on the presentations and then sent that out for followup amongst the communications task force. and like with me, she had a call and we kind of talked through it and it was really like the beauty of what that task force is meant to be and how we're really making change. In addition, something that we're seeing at the high school that we've talked a lot about is the number of emails that are sent out to parents, which maybe doesn't affect all of our parents, but a large portion and will eventually affect all of our parents. Um, so a lot of emails come from the high school. We've talked about
068this a lot at the communication task force. And then this year at curriculum night, um Tom Rogers was able to share how the high school was going to reform reformat their email distribution and what that's going to look like going forward. So, it's just really nice to see how that work kind of starts and then works with the teams all the way down to the schools and hopefully our students and parents can notice that work. And thank you Sandy for all the hard work that goes into that all the time. I also wanted to share I was at a cross country meet this weekend and the cross country coaches put together this thing where they did um a teacher appreciation. So each student was asked to invite a teacher and it was just really heartwarming
069to see like the number of teachers that showed up for the kids. Like I like I'm getting emotional for I don't know some unknown reason but like how great our educators are that they'll take time out of a Saturday with meets that start at 8:00. It was a cold day. It's at the top of a garbage dump literally and they just all showed up for the kids and it was just really nice to see them do that and take their time. So, thank you to our educators. You all are amazing. And then I was able to attend several commun or several curriculum nights this week as I make the rounds for my kids. But I really wanted to make a shout out to the counseling department at the high school. I think we talk a
070lot about all of our teachers and what a great job they do, but really like the counseling department does so much that's behind the scenes that you maybe don't notice so much as you do with the teachers. So, thank you for their work. They did a wonderful presentation for junior and senior parents about colleges and how to start looking at colleges. And for a an auditorium full of anxious parents, they were really, really helpful. So, thank you to them. >> Thank you, Stephanie Willard. Yeah, I uh want to thank uh Todd for that great um presentation and I will just say maybe it wasn't an Easter egg, but I really appreciate what you had to show us about the buses and how you can increase the revenue. Wasn't expecting it, but I think that's good
071stewardship on our parts to have that kind of u return. Um, I was pleased to hear about the students that uh performed themselves in a I shouldn't say performed, they they conducted themselves in an orderly manner in this walk out last week. Um, I I don't think I'm dating myself, but I can say that um this is a a form of uh anxiety, this this notion of guns in our school. Like I remember, maybe some of you might not know this or remember this, but there was an Amish school that was shot up. Um that was a massacre of sorts, a shooting at a ma armish school in Pennsylvania in 2006. And um I said to myself back then, if you can't send your child to an Amish school, where can you send them? And
072so um this stuck me it was in my memory is still there. Um because the very next year was Virginia Tech and the very year near year after that was niu and the rest is history. So I think this presentation that you have planned u is timely because our students um we don't want them to check out or walk out for reasons that we are talking about uh in this particular segment but I think it's uh timely um and unfortunately I don't want to be so normalized it becomes timeless that we keep doing this over and over again. So so I'm glad to know students conducted themselves and understood the purpose of that. So, I thought that was really great. Thank you, >> Jackie. >> Yeah. First, I wanted to start with some work. I
073did a quick look at those open space parcels for the Fox of Campton Hills development um on tomorrow's forest preserve district of Kain County's full commission. They are voting to purchase um some of the parcels and some of those parcels are being donated by Shy to the Forest Preserve. So, generally they do not go out and develop purchase land that they purchase. So, it does appear that they are um the ones who will be purchasing those lands. It lines up pretty much with the map that you showed, Dr. Barrett. So, um I wanted to let you know that I took a quick look because I had heard that they were probably going to purchase them. And I can see now that they have approved it, assuming it approves um by the commissioners tomorrow, then that's
074what's happening with that open space. All right, on to fun. Um I did get to attend that first girls flag football game at Burgess Field. It was a lot of fun having to learn the sport and how the different rules and how the play goes and uh that that was cool and I I give a lot of credit to all those students who went out for the team there. I saw part of the JV game and the varsity game and there are a lot of girls out there and they were good. It was fun to watch them play. So kudos to all of them for going out for a new sport for our school. It's fun. And I was also able to catch a boys soccer game um as well. So nice to get out.
075We've had some great weather, so it was nice to be able to see those and looking forward to catching some more games. >> Thank you, Molly. >> I would like to just first start by thanking Todd and his team, Adrian, for your work on the budget. I know it's a never- ending task, so thank you for your hard work with that attention to detail. Uh, thank you to our wonderful PTO groups. The gifts that were in our um agenda today were really remarkable. So, thank you to that. I wanted to use so Dr. Hooks I appreciate your remarks tonight too because I wanted to kind of go off of that as well and I had some thoughts as well. Um the start of the school year is exciting and filled with lots of fun back
076to school events but it can be very challenging for many individuals and anxiety can go through the roof for various reasons. So to echo uh Dr. Barrett's, you know, the event this Wednesday. If you have the opportunity and it's something that um a family member or stu your own student is is struggling with, certainly consider attending or hopefully if it's made available. Um but also, you know, amongst all of our wonderful back to school events, our nation had another unbelievable tragedy, which I might get emotional about. Um, it's very hard to see that in the news and as a parent it's very hard to confidently send your sorry it's very challenging and I just encourage anyone who has anxiety seek out help seek out support talk to people talk to whether it's teachers, friends, family,
077mental health professionals. It's a scary world and thank you to our district for everything that we do, but the images that were floating around were heartbreaking. Um, so I just I my heart goes to anybody right now who's struggling with their mental health or anxiety as we go back to school. So I don't want that to get lost in all of the really wonderful things happening, too. So please, if you or anybody that you know needs support, please reach out. um and and look for it. So, I just wanted to say that. Sorry. >> Thank you, Paul. Thank you, for your comments. Um today we had one of our facilities task force meetings. Um and I want to give a shout out to Brian and the great job that the team has done on all
078the CAP projects over the summer and we've gotten them most almost all wrapped up. Um and we're planning for next year. Um and and to the board, um I'm going to again recommend and I think uh we're moving forward on it to have a retreat sometime this fall where we can not only talk about the 10-year plan, but then also talk about what we're going to need to do. It's pretty complicated on how we're going to have to pay for this in in in the longer term. Um because there's a lot that we have to do for our buildings. Um, but I think we have the right people looking at it and doing the prioritization that we've asked them for and they'll bring that to the board and give the board an opportunity to ask
079questions, really get deep into it and get knowledge about it and feel comfortable uh when it comes time to voting on this for the for the longer term. Um, if and I'd like to also comment that um next Tuesday is a theater boosters meeting. If you've ever had an interest in in being part of the theater arts and would like to to donate your time and effort, we have a a wonderful group there and um they they support the the students and all the plays and the musicals that they have. Um so please think about it and consider um coming and and and being part of the whole opportunity to to to to support the kids in this area. >> Thank you. Um, oftentimes when I go last, I say it well. Everything that everybody
080said I support and agree with, and that's certainly true. But I want to thank you for coming to the board meeting tonight. The fact of the matter is you can see what a well functioning board performs like, and this is a well functioning board. Geneva is a lucky city to have it. I'm lucky to be sitting in this chair. So, thank you for your attention to detail and again, thanks to the board for all the fine work. There are no notices or announcements. That's number 12. Number 13 is executive session. And I get to read some of that. Executive session to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation, or discipline, performance, or dismissal of a specific individual who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public
081body or legal council for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee. I think that will cover what we're doing. So, we need a motion to go into executive session. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> I >> All right. So, all of you, your time is up. You don't get to stay for executive session. But thank you again for coming.