001I'd like to call to order the board meeting of Geneva Community Unit School District 304 for Monday, July 14th, 2025. Bonnie, would you please call the role? >> Here. here. >> Welcome everyone to our meeting. Uh we'll move on to the pledge. The fled flag is on the corner there. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America. To the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. All right. And for our guests tonight, we do have a attendance sheet out in the lobby area if you care to sign in. Moving on to item number two, approval of the minutes. We have two different sets. We have the regular session from June 16, 2025 and the executive session for June 16, 2025. Uh
002Bonnie, did you receive any changes or corrections? Does anyone have any at this time? All right. Do I have a motion to approve both versions of the minutes as presented in our packet? So moved. >> Second. >> I The minutes pass. Moving on to item number three, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. We have the 2025 2026 tentative budget. Mr. Leam. Okay. Get away. Right. Thank you. All right. So, uh, spent a little bit of time this evening talking with our finance committee about the tended budget. It goes from 25 to 20 to 2026 starting July of 2025 and the budget will conclude on June 30th of 2026. It's commonly referred to as our fiscal year 2026. So, a little bit about the timeline. and I came before the board with different members of the
003school district to give presentations on our technology plan in January, our transportation plan in March, our operations and maintenance uh budget in April, and then I concluded our preliminary presentations with the education fund in in May. The draft budget came before you in June. Tonight, we're here to talk about our tentative budget. After that time, I'll put it on display for 30 days from August 1st to August 31st. It's a chance for the public if they wish to make comment to come in and leave those for me either or against the budget or just comments in general. And then I will come back uh before the board of education on the September 8th meeting uh requesting final approval and adoption of the budget for the next fiscal year. At that time, we'll have a public
004hearing to cover any statutory obligations and receive any other further testimony not only from the board but the public. So, a little bit about the items that we'll be looking at are revenues. Those are primarily from taxation but also include fees that we would collect through things like things like registration or parking. Our state funds are mostly two categories. Um they are typically evidence-based funding which is a level of support provided to us financially from the state of Illinois and also any type of grants that we would receive. Our federal funds uh largest portion of that comes through our IDEIDA grant for special needs. And then our expenses are our salaries uh compensation we provide our employees the benefits we provide mostly two types health benefits and then also pension obligations. Our purchase services are
005services that we require of a professional nature. Those are areas such as our legal, our engineers, our architects. And then lastly, our supplies and materials are those items that we typically use to get through the year and replace that our maintenance typically does for ongoing care. Our capital outlay are items that we purchase over $3,000. Our other objects are typically tuition. Those also include our debt service payments and transfers. And lastly, our capital equipment is under $3,000, which is our smaller equipment, weed eaters, things like that. Our fund balances are estimated at this time until we actually have our external audit. We hope to have better numbers for you and final numbers in September. So, a little bit our considerations. We always track our ecos value. That's the property value for the community that we
006tax against through the levy process. We looked at the 2024 estimated levy amounts. Those are received in 2025. Uh the May June go into the current fiscal year and the July through usually October and November go into the 25 26 year. And then we review the tax receipts to see how they land. We always look for them to be somewhat equal. 50% in one fiscal year, 50 in the other, but as I mentioned earlier with escrow, some of those payments are done early, so it doesn't always come out that way. So, I think we're looking more at about a 5248 split this year. So, I had to adjust the budget. You'll see that number in the revenue. It's mostly through the taxation. Our personal property replacement tax is actually business tax and that's been diminishing
007over the last couple years through changes in law and collections. And then lastly, I'll review our school fees after registration completes and that includes our things like our athletic participation. We have reduced the interest income for two reasons. We have less money to invest this year because we're spending down some of our fund balance. Also, there's a reduced return on investment. Our state revenue is our evidence-based funding as I mentioned earlier. It also includes our title grants. We will have to estimate any carryover dollars that were unspent that go to the current incoming fiscal year. And our ALOP is our alternative learning. opportunity programs that has increased as well. And lastly, our federal grants um at this point in time are somewhat unknown because of uh the process. So these are some of the expenditure
008considerations. I typically budget with the anticipation of all FTEEs in the budget including part-time employees. Our benefits are our federal taxes that we collect and pass on to the federal government. Our Medicare, the IMRF TRS are actually the two pensions that we're obligated to. And then our health insurance is our HMO PO plan but also includes dental life. Our purchase services I mentioned are essentially professional services that we require outside of the district. Our supplies and materials could be affected by inflationary costs and availability. Our capital outlay are the items threshold seen on the screen. And I mentioned already what our other objects include and our non-equipment is under that amount. So we'll also uh have end of year 2025 transactions. Uh reminder that we're an acrruel uh modified acrruel for our county which means
009the auditor has up to 60 days past the close of books uh June 30th 2025 to prove something back into the current year and that is always at the auditor's discretion. And lastly tonight we'll look at our capital plan and our life health safety improvements. So here's a little about a bit little bit about the education fund and our estimated uh budget revenues. Um so in the education fund looking our local, state, federal revenue. On the right hand column under the tentative budget, we estimate receiving $82,448,022 in estimated revenue. Our tentative budget for expenditures did increase from the draft budget. It's now estimated at 83,816,854. I'd mentioned earlier there were some changes in the purchase services. One of those is always look at the grant dollars that we have and adjust those from year to
010year. I did have to increase our food service. It's just the cost of food and labor. I also increased um some of our contractual nurse obligations. We have to hire those out of district when we have a need for a nurse. I did include that and it did increase as well as uh the fact that our copy services contract will be up and we'll have to renegotiate that. So that also increased our purchase services as well which is our largest increase. So overall the education fund estimate estimates it beginning balance at $30,68,665 uh adding our revenue minus our expenditures and they need to transfer funds to fund 20 for capital projects. I estimate the ending fund balance of the ED fund at $25,735,833. Since the operation is a maintenance fund, um it did increase from
011the draft budget to $15,823,129. Again, much of that was due to the adjustment of taxes. This is the tenative budget for O andM for the estimated expenditures. Um I did reduce that uh in the salary area. I mentioned earlier that we did have uh some positions that were not going to fill. We also had some retirements. replace those with employees um that had a lower starting salary threshold. So that estimated expenditure is at 13,941,697. Looking at our operations and maintenance fund, we estimated the beginning balance at $8,399,85. Uh we anticipate the need for transfers in from the education fund and the transportation fund as well. Uh minus expenditures and we anticipate the fund balance of being at $5,780,515. We will move from this from the fund balance uh $7,729,000 to the operations and maintenance fund,
012I'm sorry, to the capital projects fund. Our debt service pretty much remains the same, just an adjustment on the revenue side, just for the taxation. Uh the expenditures reflect our bonded interest payments. Uh so starting at $8,39,970 adding our revenue minusing our estimated expenditures, the fund would likely close at $8,93,000. This is our transportation fund. I did adjust some of our local revenue again based upon taxation, but it's estimated at $4,666,94 as the estimated revenue. The expenditures are at 5,28,186. Just a few changes in there after I viewed some of our financials for the prior fiscal year. I will point out the capital outlay of 1.4 million uh reflects our transportation plan of purchasing more buses and replacing our fleet. So this uh beginning balance is at 5,38,67. I've noted our revenue and our expenditures.
013The $229,000 would include um adding the second propane tank out there as well as some improvements needed uh for the parking area ending at 4,447,785. Retirement fund remains the same. Expenditures remain the same. And so we would end up with $4,139,585 from our two retirement funds. So one is FICA Medicare and the other one is IMRF. Our capital projects, we only have revenue that's basically interest income of $125,000. Uh to fund the capital projects is transfer approved by the board. So we would anticipate three million from the education fund. Uh 229,000 would flow through from the transportation fund, but we would need an additional $4.5 million from the operations and maintenance fund to fund the entire capital projects uh revenue needed at 7,729,000. We anticipate expenditures of $8,34,379 uh to cover all of our capital
014projects and our construction and improvement needs. So we would begin with $1,23,89 adding in our $125,000 of interest income or 8 million3 $34,379 of our expenditures. Uh we would need a transfers to help make most of this work leaving a fund balance of $1,23,430. This leaves us an adequate amount to absorb any changes and change orders or costs beyond what we estimated. The working cash fund is an investment fund. So that $659,000 just reflects our return on investment for the year. We have no expenses from that fund. So it would increase having an ending fund balance of 17,68,315 to fund is a liability fund. It just accumulates interest income and it would end up at $35,71 at the end of the fiscal year. So lastly is our fire prevention and safety fund. We helped $20,000
015in interest income. We have $126,647 improvements this year. Um I'll go over those later tonight in the capital uh plan. So we reduced the beginning balance from $600,569 to $493,922. Uh earlier in the um presentation to the finance committee um the question came up was um why this fund balance has I'm sorry changed over time. I mentioned that when we levy we lever for the whole 10 years of the life health safety plan which has a b and c projects and that will be spent out over time. So I do the levy one time and then I spend it down. It doesn't mean we may not we may need to come back for um some changes. some things occur that we have to make improvements, but the intention is to draw this fund balance down
016over time. So, what could change? Um, a change in payments or taxes. Our enrollment could go up or down, which impacts our fees that we receive, our grant funds. Um, we have a claim that will go in this week from the end of June. It'll give me basically what the carryover dollars are. So, I'll reassess our funds. also could be affected by our reimbursement rates from the state of Illinois or what they call categorical payments. We typically get four and some years we've only gotten two of those from the state. So that's one thing could always change our finances and then any federal changes uh for federal funding as you know that's one of those areas that seems uncertain. Our expenses uh could change if we're understaffed and we have overestimated salaries but estimated appropriate
017for that point of time. any post changes in our benefits. So, for example, we could have an employee that left that was single uh insurance and employee that comes in as a family that has a greater cost. Uh any changes in overages to our purchase services or changes in our projects. Uh their supplies and materials could change based upon the CPI as we've learned in the past or any changes in tariffs, our capital, and I'll give an example of that. So we did have tariffs that were applied to our school buses this most recent year just because not all the parts are made in the United States. So there's an example of how tariffs have already impacted some of our budgeting. Lastly capital is often affected by our supply chain, our availability or our weather.
018Our other objects could be changes in our tuition. We of course provide tuition to Mid Valley and to our co-op and also our career center. And lastly just unforeseen breakages in equipment. um just from wear and tear or they wear out. And lastly, uh just a reminder that our fund balances can be changed through the approval process by the auditor. Let me tighten my slides here. The last column's $20,000. So the estimated total revenue for 2526 is $122,169,923 against our estimated expenditures of $128,577 to990. The last line is our fire prevention on there. So this is the estimation at this point for our tended budget. We anticipate a beginning balance of 74,576,153. We have received revenue for the fiscal year of 122,169,923 expend 128,577,990 leaving us a estimated fund balance of 68,1686. This would include
019uh changes of transfer between funds of 7,729,000 for our capital plan. So um we've accumulated some of our fund balances. We're just simply spending those down as our projects are available. So, where are we at? Uh, we're here with our preliminary budgets done. Our draft budget has been given. Our tentative has been received tonight. And lastly, we'll come back on September 8th for final approval. All right. Any questions from the board of education? >> Any questions? >> Yes, Dr. So >> forgive me for not understanding the nuts and bolts, but what is what's involved with the alternative learning opportunities program and why is that funding changing? >> Yeah. So um some of it just has to do with available funds that we're given. So we've ran this program for multiple years and it's basically a
020retention um program for our students that may be at risk. And so we have uh those students that we invest more dollars in to retain them to move them toward higher graduation rates and success. And so we received more funding in that particular program than we have in prior years. And remember too at one time we had that at the high school and it's now at the high school and the middle school. So those are some of the changes of our funding. >> I thought that's what it was. I wasn't sure. So is there a red line where you a threshold where the funding changes for that particular program for those students at risk or is there an allocation yearly that quota something like that? >> Yes, typically an allocation dollars. So we get those
021through the ROV through flow through dollars. Uh so when we submit our costs, we submit a plan up front of what we think will cost and then they flow the dollars to us. So uh last year was a year that for the first time I can think of that we got additional dollars from the RO for those programs. Any other questions? All right. As we heard uh in a subsequent meeting, we will have the final budget presentation and uh in the prior meeting, we were asked we asked when this is due and it's the end of September. So, we have it in our first meeting in September. If there are any questions or concerns at that point, we do have a second meeting where we can approve that as a final budget. But for right
022now, we're targeting the first meeting in September. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Moving on. Item number four, public comments. We have one person who has uh signed up tonight. Uh Mr. Brian Mayor >> Mar. Yes. >> Uh good evening everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. Um You may remember me from a couple of months ago. Um I came in and discussed uh the same uh issue that we want to talk about tonight. specifically being tiffs uh and specifically tiff 4 which uh we have other uh tiffs in the city of Geneva which have uh you you have gone ahead and approved uh in your process of the JRB u all of those tiffs were pretty tiny by comparison. TIFF for is uh nearly $200 million as I'm
023sure you're all aware. The uh one of the things you'll see the first sheet is from Brenda Shy uh discussing what Sugar Grove did. And when I came in last time, I presented to you uh many facts uh specifically very similar to what's going on in Sugar Grove with the Crown development. uh district 302 took the initiative and is calling they're calling them out on the discrepancies that this tiff has and there are many uh in fact tiff 4 in Geneva has all of those discrepancies and then some uh you know I brought these facts to you before and and nothing no one moved No, no, nothing is No one reached out to me. No one I haven't heard anything in the media about it. Um it appears as if it's just going through. Uh
024and and generally when I speak I I I like to have my notes because I like to be succinct and have everything make sure I cover everything and the facts anymore. I've given you all the facts. Now I'm speaking from the heart and you uh how best to put it I guess uh 302 has gone ahead and done the right thing here and I don't understand why no one in district in this on this board has done anything regarding tip four tiffs are a it's corporate welfare is what it is. Uh you're giving away your your duty is to the students and the taxpayers. That's who you're here to represent. And by letting this go through this grift quite frankly is what it is. They're taking advantage of the laws as they're written and you're
025siding with the developers in this case. This property SB Freriedman, that's what they do. You show us the land, we'll show you the blight. Okay, that's that's it's it's it's a scam. This was farmed for over a hundred years. This is prime farmland. any farmland now can be called blighted and taken off the tax rules. There's a building th this property on the east side of Geneva is surrounded by buildings that have gone up over the last few years. Some of them have been empty for over a year. Not one of them took TIF monies. One of the buildings across the street on Route 38 across from where this devel this MIF development is going to be is paying $760,000 a year in taxes. I think what you guys get about 30% of that or
026I I don't remember the number off the top of my head. $760,000 a year for a building that was built. That money is coming to you now. this tiff pushing it off for 25 23 years up to 35 years potentially is it's it's quite frankly it's it's criminal what's going on with these tiffs. Well, it would have been the 760,000 for one year. Well, times the eight buildings, right? So the dollar values that you're leaving on the table, I mean, you know, we were just talking about millions of dollars here, maybe some you're not having any shortfalls apparently, but uh you're leaving a lot of money on the table and right there in front of you is the blueprint. District 302 is doing the right thing. They're not sticking it to the taxpayers and the
027students for the next 23 years potentially. The whole buttfor argument, the whole that this property is blighted, it's a scam. So, I ask you to please look at what I've given you this time. I talked with some of you before the JRB meeting. Oh my god, what a joke that was. The JRB is supposed to be the guard rails, right? That's the thing that oh here's the chance for all the taxing bodies to come in and let's see if you approve it or not. It was a joke. We were there. Not even half of the taxing bodies showed up. District 304 showed up. Seemed as if whoever it was cheered the meeting. Not a question was asked except for the citizen representative who was appointed by the mayor. So it was a it was a
028ridiculous question. And anyway, not a single question was asked. It was pushed through. I mean, I get it. It's an advisory body, but you could have dug your heels in a little bit right then and there and said, "Hey, this is not right." And they can do this to any land in K County now, any land in in D304. Take it right off the tax roles. So, I I don't know. I just felt that I needed to vent, I guess, a little bit. Do I expect anything to happen? I mean, I came in every other time and I was nice and professional and and everything and well, that didn't work. So, what the hell, you know? So, thank you. Have a great night. >> Thank you, Mr. Mark. Oh, you don't you don't do that.
029Okay. >> Can't do that. Sorry. >> All right. Thank you. We'll review the materials. We appreciate you coming in today. Right. Moving on to item number five, legislative updates. Uh I do not have an update tonight. Item number six is the superintendence report. And Dr. Barrett is making his way over. So, we'll give him a moment to do that. Sorry. Thank you. I forgot to grab the remote before my report tonight. Uh my report tonight will be a little um probably a little longer than than usual because there are a few substantial topics um to to discuss here. So please bear with me and it's an opportunity for some discussion and and to ask some questions if we need to. So um let's see here. All right, let's do that. Okay, first uh and and
030this will uh some some of my slides here will be different than um what we were able to share last week. Um so we'll make sure we get that updated uh for everybody. Uh but obviously some some things have happened uh since we got that out. The first being um we had a bit of excitement on Friday. Um it's every superintendent lives in fear of the bat phone ringing in the middle of the night. Um and when that work phone number goes off in the middle of the night, you're just like, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." So um there was a fire uh at at Middle School North. Um and the good news is that uh everything worked how it was supposed to. all of our um you know, safety mechanisms and safety features
031that we've invested in over the years worked. Um did exactly what they were supposed to. Uh and I'll say this uh again in a little bit, but our first responders uh the fire department was amazing and our operation staff was amazing when all of this happened. So, um here's kind of what we know. I thought it would be important for you all to hear this and be able to ask some questions about it. Um, so about 4:15 in the morning, a carpet blower uh begin to smoke. Um, this is a pretty common practice uh pretty much in every school in the world, right? We are cleaning these carpets all summer because when the kids and the staff are gone and after they do all the cleaning and the extracting, they use these specialized blowers that
032blow on the um carpet to help dry that carpet out um uh very quickly. uh a after it's washed. So, one of those um started smoking uh and that smoke set off the smoke detectors and the fire alarm that notified the fire department um and then got us notified right away as well. Eventually, um that device then fully fully caught fire. Um and ultimately then the heat and flames from that device being on fire um engaged the sprinkler head in the area set the sprinkler off and the sprinkler put the fire out um just as the fire department was arriving and and coming on the scene. So, um it was quickly pretty quickly extinguished once, um you know, once the the sprinklers went off. Um and right now already restoration is underway. The good this
033picture right here is the space as of this afternoon. So, um it's already in in pretty good shape. We are doing our due diligence to make sure everything is restored uh completely fully and we have a restoration uh you know company out here as part of our insurance that's that's helping do all of that. So the damage was limited because everything worked how it was supposed to. Um and again all things considered you know this happened in the summer in the morning if this was a school day you know it all could have been could have been very different. Um, so ultimately we're fortunate and um, but it's also a good reminder why we invest in all those things and a good good reminder uh, why we practice the things that we practice um, you
034know, with our staff and with our kids because it all happened real quick and that all can happen real quick in real life. So, it's a good reminder for all of us why we practice those drills and do all those things. And again, I just want to thank our first responders and our operations team. Like, we got over there so quick and the amount of staff who were just there helping uh get this place back back in shape so quickly was was really awesome to see. So, um that's that for now. Uh and uh by the way, uh we feel very confident we'll be certainly more than fine to be able to start the school year. This shouldn't be backing us up or anything. and part of the restoration um process allows us to do
035that. So our the remainder of our you know our staff can keep working on all the other summer things that we need to keep working on. Um so that's good as well. Uh that is a a team center. So that's yeah good question. So it happened in kind of a open common area um on the first floor of uh middle school north. So, it's kind of it's a that's a around a cluster of classrooms and just behind kind of where I'm standing right there is a bay of lockers uh where some of the kids have their lockers. So, um nothing in any classrooms or anything like that. So, that's also great news. Uh just in that open common area. >> Andy, one question. Did we think about going through the other blowers and just checking
036to make sure that they're absolutely doing okay? >> Absolutely. Good question. Yes. Um, and you know, again, it's one of those things because it's what you're supposed to do with those things, right? So, um, but yeah. >> So, and >> don't be >> only moved here in 2002. So, which building is older? >> Sorry. Uh, South is older. >> So, I know they basically mirrored in some way. Yeah, correct. Do they have the same fire suppression system? The door is closing automatically. >> Yep. Yep. Okay. Um, yeah, the systems all the same and and all that stuff. And you know, we've um been talking about how we're slowly kind of upgrading our fire systems. Um, and that's expensive and we're going to need to keep upgrading some of our fire systems and that's expensive. Um,
037and again, you couldn't get a better reminder as to why why we need to do that. So, um, yeah, that being said, uh, kind of leads into the next, uh, the next section. Our summer work, everything is going going well and according to plan. Otherwise, the remainder of our capital projects that we've talked about a lot. We're seeing solid progress with no major concerns or delays. Um, uh, you see, that's the progress uh, we've made in the high school, uh, library. Uh we're excited about what that space is going to look like. You're well aware that we've um you know Todd referenced earlier our transition with our financial system. Our teams in uh HR and and the business office are obviously working very hard on that and that seems to be going well. We've just
038formally initiated the start of our year-long transition with our student information system that you all um uh supported and approved earlier this year. So, uh, you know, we just officially kicked that off and we'll have a whole year to ramp up and get ready for that. Um, as you know, there's a lot of ongoing curricular planning going, um, that you've heard some about. And we're also preparing for, uh, our, you know, school startup activities. It's crazy, but it's right around the corner. You know, everybody knows once you hit Fourth of July, it just feels like you're sprinting downhill to the start of the school year. Um this was this is a a topic that came up in our policy meet. We've actually discussed it previously and it came up in our recent policy meeting and
039so we thought with the summer meeting um uh this might be a good thing to bring up here and just get some feedback from the board and see see what folks are thinking. Um so it's regarding our district our our district hearing process. uh you know as you know in rare situations related to student uh discipline policy calls for the board to take action based on the findings of a formal hearing. Um you know it's not in all cases but in specific situations outlined in policy um you know the board has to take action following the findings of a of a formal hearing. Uh so per our policy uh you know those hearings can be conducted by the board or they can be conducted by a hearing officer who's appointed by the board. Um that
040hearing officer is somebody who would be appointed and and you know hired by the district basically to um you know be kind of that neutral third party. They ultimately provide an evidentiary report to the board um for the board consideration. Again, as noted in that first item, the board, it's still the board's responsibility to take action on any kind of um you know, findings, but a hearing officer would provide a formal report uh and conduct the hearing. So, historically in in our district, the board has always facilitated those hearings on its own. Um and uh you know I think all of you have been been part of that at one point uh over the years. Um but many other districts do it the other way, right? And they have uh hearing officers. So the so
041the question on the table that it kind of came up as we were reviewing these policies at the last policy committee is do we want to explore the potential of utilizing a hearing officer in future instances? Um, and this really I think is is a board decision, a board discussion. I don't think it's a formal um a formal decision today, but I think this is an opportunity to have some conversation about it. Um, and and see what you think. And I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. So, I'd be kind of interested feedback and thoughts on that. >> I can share a little bit of what my thoughts were around that. Um I was in favor I am in favor of having a third-party um person who conducts the hearings simply because I
042think that we all in every situation in life carry bias with us. But it's a little bit different when we have students attending the same schools that our our children attending the same schools as some of these um hearings that we we hear from that it might be a little bit harder to separate ourselves and our own um bias in those situations. So I thought a a third party hearing officer who kind of collects all that evidence might be more beneficial for all of us considering several of us have kids in the district. I I was thinking the same thing. I don't know if she's channeling me, but sometimes the uh personnel on this kind of discussion, but I agree that there there is some implicit bias that can be introduced to this kind of
043um discussion and so far that some people have vested interests of different kinds and it's kind of hard to remove themselves from that. So I think um a third party would be better. Okay. >> If we can afford it. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Anyone down here have any thoughts? >> Um, I'm kind of on the other side. Um, we've had three maybe in few years that I've been on the board. Um, and I believe that um, if we were I I remember talking with somebody that said prior to COVID, this was an ongoing occurrence and was part of the board and there was many of these types of u hearings and and if that were the case and it was chewing up a lot of the timing of of the board and we weren't able
044to get to the some of the other things that we were needed to get to, might otherwise but I think we can handle the bias or we can step out if it's um and and you know dis not be part of that discussion if if if the parent feels that they're uncomfortable with that. Um but yeah, I would not sure I see the actual need the driving need right now for a third party to to take over this this this op this issue. the only I mean I don't know if um in the three that we did in the recent years if our um the whatever we came up with um at the end there if would have been different if we had a if we had a third party hearing officer there or not.
045Right. I think I think the administration did a nice job of bringing the information to us and gathering all that information and then um yeah I I don't know if our if the decision that we made um at the end there would have been any different if we had a third party but I do agree that that having a third party officer um could be beneficial in certain instances. I mean, do we have to do we do we have to peanut butter spread on every one of them or could there be certain ones where we need to have a hearing officer where we feel I mean it could we do it by by instance I think that's a good point having some sort of con maybe so you know at dare I say contingency so
046that that might be something to trigger a need for a person uh for certain cases. Yeah. Okay, thank you. >> Um, I'm not sure I have a a firm I'm one way or the other at the moment. I to Paul's point, you know, the the number that we've had over the last years to me doesn't create like an urgent need necessarily um to look into this. I would like to review kind of the cost to the district of what that might um you know the bottom line on that. I like the idea of maybe, you know, case by case. Um, and then also maybe for us to improve our own self-practices incorporating some kind of debriefing following these hearings, you know, um, some checks and balances or or, you know, is there someone to run
047things past? I I'm not sure where in the process, but um I would love to kind of look at those last couple hearings and you know, if if this has been an issue, I I certainly would not want that moving forward. Um if this is just a question of, hey, maybe this would help us. I I just want to make sure we're being responsible if we're hiring someone on that if there's an actual need for it. I was thinking um that well I have some procedural questions about it. So would it be something that they came up with a report and just strictly report? Would they have a recommendation that went with it and would we have to follow the recommendation or do we still have our own ability to make a decision on action?
048>> Yeah, so that's a great question. Um yeah, theoretically a hearing officer would conduct uh the hearing, come up with that report. Um and you know, my understanding is in most situations like this, they would make a recommendation. That being said, it would still be the board's purview to make a final determination. Um and you know, as you know, sometimes the board might make a different decision than what a recommendation is. So, um, and there would still be that opportunity for the board to to do not only that opportunity, it would still be the board's responsibility to do that, right? You would have to do that and be able to ask more questions um, in that situation. So, yes. >> So, just asking, so is there a pool or a qualification for this kind of
049officer? Is that like some sort of referral service or something? Yeah. Yeah, there's services out there that would pro provide some folks who do something like this. And uh so yes, and and to Molly's point, one of the things I was writing down uh while you all were talking was getting some more information about potential costs um and you know, potential a availability uh of folks like that. Typically, um one of the benefits I think is uh it's somebody with um some legal background. So somebody who knows some of the explicit case law and and legal things um that uh you know we may not uh be as versed in. So um but yeah getting the cost I think um is definitely something we can do. >> Yeah. And then when the hearing is held
050the board members would not be in the room. It would just be the hearing officer and administration and the family and the students. >> Typically, that's how that works. But I'll get more information about the procedures and process as well >> because because my thought is also just perhaps they would want the board to be there, right? If your your student, your child, your um family member, >> right, >> was having this hearing, you might >> it could go either way. you might be happy that there was a third party person. Yeah. Right. Um and but you also might feel like this is the school board. This is part of what they're supposed to do. So yeah, I think for me hearing a little bit more information might be helpful and we could discuss more.
051>> Okay. This is helpful for me to get some information and and be able to bring it back to you. So thank you. I do think um you know also the the idea of do you have a contingency or do we have that available to us if we need it? Um, you know, I think that's a good question and I think, uh, you know, right now, to Molly's point, it's not urgent. Uh, the reason I think it's worth talking about is when it is urgent, then we're not in a position to make a good decision about it. Um, you know, all of a sudden it's right in front of us and then we don't have a venue like this where we can just have this conversation first. So, if nothing else, having being able to
052have this conversation and bring some information back, if that makes us better prepared to make that determination, you know, about a contingency later, I I think that's valuable. >> One last comment if I might. I'm just a little bit concerned about the getting further distancing oursel further away from >> Yeah. the issue and not and being isolated and trying to make a decision from an isolated position. >> Yep. >> And I think being a little more tactile with it might actually >> it's hard decision and that's what we're here for. >> So that's just my comments. Yeah. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Sorry, Stephanie. If I could add too, you know, I do understand that there are some of us that are parents to students in the district. So being you know transparent to when
053there is maybe a conflict in a hearing to whether it be to formally recuse ourselves you know from the room or you know just to be that we are aware of our dual roles sometimes in the process and being mindful of how the optics sometimes look and if need be if if you know we're associated with the family in some way to step out you know if that's a possibility. Yeah, I think that's a good reason to look at some of these procedures because kind of to your point or, you know, to Jackie's point, you know, I I've not been I haven't had that experience either because I've only really ever been on on this side of it. So maybe it's possible that you have someone who comes and facilitates it, but the board is
054still there and is still, you know, has that kind of more tactile relationship with it, but you could do it with some more peace of mind. uh you know knowing there's someone there you know facilitating the process in an appropriate way. So >> I was just going to say you're it was maybe oblique way of saying it but I believe truly that you should have it's not necessarily a parachute but you should have something rather than making a a rash decision because you don't have the process right in place. So I think uh it's important to definitely have some contingencies so you are not making um the wrong decision. Even though you may think it's right, it just might be the wrong decision, >> right? >> Yeah. >> It's the essence of um a false
055positive or false negative. It might be a problem, but it really isn't. Yeah. Vice >> versa. Yeah. >> It's that Eisenhower matrix, right? You never want to make a decision when it's important and urgent. And so, you know, having that >> definitely >> having the opportunity to talk about it. >> Urgency makes you get into mistakes. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, this Thank you for being willing to have that conversation. and I'll bring some more information. Uh, next, and we can have a little we'll need a little bit of time to talk about this, too, but this has been a significant um issue for our district uh and certainly for Todd and myself in the last several weeks. Um, and so I want to provide you with an update. We talked at our last meeting about
056this uh potential residential development. Um, so I want to give you an update on some of what's transpired in the last several weeks. um and as recently as just this afternoon. So, uh and especially in the light of of of some of our uh you know, comments that we that we heard today. So, um just as a quick reminder, uh you know, this is the area in question. We've talked about this parcel a lot over the last year uh because this was part of um the potential Charles Farm development from through St. Charles. So, what's currently on the table is potential annexation by the village of Hampton Hills. Um, approximately 900 total residential units. All those units would be uh within the boundaries of Geneva School District 304. You can see all those parcels there
057um on that map. And you know, every one of those parcels is within our school district's uh boundaries. nothing in even though you know there's sections out here. Um you can't see that. Is my mouse showing up up there? I don't think it is. No. So like in the bottom left corner there's a little open square there where there's no or rectangle there where there's no parcels. Well, that's in Kaneland School District. Um and up here kind of above that dotted line um kind of halfway up the up the map above that is St. Charles School District. So everything would be in Geneva 304. It's a 15 to 20 year timeline as we understand it. Talking about 30 to maybe as many as 50 houses a year. Um and ultimately, you know, this would be
058hundreds of new uh students uh for 304. Um you know, probably a couple hundred per level, right? So a couple hundred elementary, couple hundred middle, couple hundred high schools are our best guess at the moment. Uh so you know where are we at now? Uh we we have participated in several meetings um with the village and the developer in the last several weeks. Um and you know the district recognizes that um there'll be impact of those hundreds of kids uh on the district on our facilities, technology, transportation on other resources. We talked a lot uh just earlier in um Todd's presentation and in the finance committee about our capital needs and the needs of our facilities um and this will impact that right and so the district has been seeking cash considerations in lie of
059land um uh to kind of address those needs right um hills village of hills like the municipalities around here including Geneva St. Charles, etc., um, does have a land cash ordinance in place. Um, and so that has been kind of the foundation of some of our our conversations. Obviously, you know, that we're committed uh to maintaining the highest quality education that we have here. Um, and we're committed to maintaining it for new kids that would be developed. So, you know, we've been negotiating uh with the developer. That remains ongoing. And we think um recently we've made some substantive progress um and we remain eager uh for for a hopeful resolution and and we think we're pretty we feel good about where we're at. So I think we're closing in on a potential agreement and I
060want to share some information with you today. This is as recent as today. Um not making a final decision today, but this is kind of where we're at. So I want to go through each of these facts here one at a time. Um, so our most recent position uh include would include a contribution to the district of $6,800 per residence uh in the development. Okay, so $6,800 per residence paid to the district at the time of permit. Um a land uh cash fee uh is generally upfront uh you know like all the money would be at once. this would be uh that amount per residence when they do the permit file the permit for that particular residence and it would have an annual uh inflationary adjustment tied to CPI right so if it's going to
061take 15 or 20 years to build it out that would be you know um we we would build in accordingly adjustments based on that um so theoretically you know based on the 900 homes that we're talking about this would amount to approxim imately uh 6.1 million um before CPI growth, right? But in like today's dollars, $6.1 million um over the course of development construction. So, um again, that's not factoring in the CPI growth because you don't know how many homes would be built in any given year and etc. Um so, a lot of conversation and effort has gone on to to to get us to that point. Um, so here's a wrinkle that we've learned more recently. Um, that is also important for us to know and have some context and background on. So, at
062this point now, uh, there's that first section. Um, you know, the 6,800 per residence times 900. That's what gets you at your uh, you know, 6.1. Um, we also understand that the village of Campton Hills may be exploring a tiff for this project due to infrastructure uh needs um I think mostly associated with water and getting the water um to the to the location. So, we think they may be exploring that. Um what's important to note is that in our conversations um and there's some law built around this as well but you know we would uh have this um in any agreement or we would advocate for this being included in any agreement. We would advocate that any agreement would ensure that Geneva 304 would receive our annual per pupil expenditure for each child generated
063by the development through the duration of the tiff. Okay. So, if they do go in this direction, um if if this were to go in the direction of the tiff, what we would argue for is that um like an actual hard count of students generated, right? So if in the first year there's 15 students that come to Geneva, um the tiff or no tiff, we would get our per pupil expenditure for that year for each of those 15 kids. Um and in any given year, however many kids come to the school district, uh we would get that per pupil expenditure that would come off and come to us before those tiff funds are then allocated for the other infrastructure piece. Um because again, we're going to have to educate those kids, right? then um and
064so this might be uh what is different than maybe some other situations that we've heard about. Um and that's part of why we think this would be a good thing to to build into any agreement. So uh we also feel I also feel it would be important if we get to a final place um where we feel like we have a really sound agreement that both sides can can be on board with that really needs this is big this a lot of dollars um and this would need to come to the board for some approval um so I we don't know the timing of all of that yet but I want to share share that here because I think that there's potential for um the need for a special meeting prior to our next meeting.
065Um if ideally this would all be sorted um and uh before they the formal annexation agreement goes forward um we would have an agreement in place that we felt good about and that they felt good about. Um, so I just want to get that on your radar that there's a potential for that. So that's a lot. Are there any questions or thoughts now or any any information you want me to be looking into or trying information to gather for the future? >> Yes sir. So uh excuse me. So as you mentioned infrastructure would include among other things getting water to the location. Are they talking about roads or things like that in the infrastructure to for sure >> be more accessible to our schools in this district? >> For sure. For sure. So, they'll have
066to do um you know, they'll have to build that all out. They'll have to they'll have to build that all out. Um, again, I think I shared last time, let me go back to the map just to um you'll recall, you know, kind of basically down here in the bottom right corner, you can't even see it. >> Um, so there is no color because it's actually just off the map is Mil Creek School. >> The very bottom of the screen is Keslinger Road. >> Okay. So, Mil Creek would be I'm sorry. I wish I should I should have a pointer. Mil Well, you know, I'm just gonna do this. >> Yeah. Let me Mil Creek would be like right here. >> Okay. Um all the access to all this whole neighborhood would be either here
067or here. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, and um you know they the county is working on all of this right now with this expansion of La Fox Road to Bunker Road. Um so that's something that we would have to be um you know they'd be building all the all these roads to to access that. But I think the water I think the water my understanding is the thing that's the big expense for them. Yes sir. >> Uh could you go back to the last slide? Yeah. Uh, correct. Um, okay. Just so for my clarification, the 6,800 per permit, um, that happens regardless of the bottom three bullets. >> Correct. So far, okay. So, it's correct. The >> if we all come to that agreement. Yeah. >> Just just the way it's clear. And then
068so the last three um what we're saying is whether it's a tiff or no tiff, however that works out, we would still receive our per pupil expenditure per student. Um >> that's what we would build into that, right? So if um >> yeah, so we would build in to say, >> you know, if there's not going to be a tiff, then >> you know, it's just the whatever the revenue is that you're getting as the properties come on the rolls, right? But if there is, we would build in if there is >> right >> um that we would get per pupil expenditure for the exact number of kids generated by the development. >> Okay. And then um >> okay, I just need to think about that. And then what is our maybe this is more
069question for Todd, but what is our per pupil expenditure? >> Right. Just above 19,000 per student. >> 19,000. >> I even knew that one. >> What's that? >> I even knew that one. Yeah. >> Okay. So then on the tiff um that won't affect us immediately but it will affect us down the road because that can go on for 20 plus years. So then our but our tax revenue will freeze at the amount that it is this year or whatever year >> the revenue for that se for whatever area is tiff freeze. >> So it's not an immediate impact it will be a future impact as we're budgeting. So I think a a way I have thought about it is um and I I think this is a a good way to understand it conceptually.
070Um what what it has the potential to do, right, is theoretically slow >> the growth of that per pupil expenditure, right? Because again, at first there's a potential that maybe they got to give us more than we would have generated from the properties. Right. >> Right. >> It's possible if there's a handful of houses, but they generate a bunch of kids. Such an agreement would mean they've got to give us that per that current per pupil expenditure. um even if those houses aren't generating the uh that much revenue, right? But you're right, over the course of the development when you get to 900 houses, um it, you know, it is possible that that overall property value, well, not only possible, it's that's theoretically what they're doing, right? They would then have that overall property would
071be a net positive. So they're using that to pay off the infrastructure, >> right? >> So quick question. >> Sure. >> The the the 19,000 whatever the number is per student cost. If you have a family with three, it's roughly $60,000. That's not paid by the family. That's paid by the city. >> No, that's just paid by all property tax >> that they bring in. >> Yes. all the property tax we will receive it but we would receive it from the city not >> because because with a tiff if you do not have any children your money still goes to the city but we don't get a port anything from >> yeah doesn't go to the city it goes to >> pimp >> yeah it goes to so so in the tiff right that whatever
072that surplus increment is goes into that tiff fund and our this money that we would get would come out of that. >> Can you explain um how you arrived at the $6,800? Is that per their ordinance for their land cash? >> Uh lots of sausage making. >> Okay. All right. That's fine. >> Yeah, we we worked off of um the ordinance and um uh you know all the the formulas within their ordinance. we started there um and were looking at uh you know other kinds of contributions that you could make and then you know honestly just a lot of sausage making back and forth and to get to that place as of today. >> So have we looked at um other situation situations such as this that have happened more recently to kind of see
073what that amount has been like. Is this an average amount that you would get or is this or do we know that? I mean, because we haven't had a development in Geneva for quite some time, so it's hard to look at historical. >> Yeah, I think it's um Well, I mean, I'll tell you, we we never got this far with Charles Farm. >> Okay. >> Oh, go ahead, Todd. >> Yeah. So, we did look at several. We looked at the uh county's land gas. We looked at the city of Geneva. And Andy's right. So, there's two models of this. There's the attach and detach. And we try to arrive toward just one flat number for all which is the sausage making process, >> right? So whether or not they're going to have kids. You mean
074like just every house? >> Okay, I see. >> Yeah. To get to a number that we felt was similar, reasonable and comparable. Okay. >> Yeah. So each this is um so you know land cashache is all about the municipality. They have an ordinance in place, right? Each and each municipalities is different. So Geneva has one version of it in bait with certain numbers and certain formula. St. Charles has a different one. Hampton Hills has a different one. Um so I think to answer your question, we never got quite this far with the Charles Farm issue. Um but this overall number that we're looking at, I think is in line, >> okay, >> with about what we were looking at with that. >> Right. And so those municipal codes that kind of gives you the starting
075place. It's not like we can just say this is what we want because there's some some boundaries, some rules around that. >> We can try. >> Yeah, we're we're we're welcome to try. >> Todd, were you going to add something to that? >> I Yeah. So, uh, one of the differences is it's based upon price per acre. So, that's different in Geneva than it is Camping Hills where there's not a lot of growth to base it off of. That's also based upon a model either we provide uh that the count or that the village has that can stand up in court or we simply come to an agreement with the developer that would test that as well and survive. So uh and to Willard's point I think he asked a question like how do you
076dedicate streets and that kind of thing. This will ultimately come through an existence agreement that will end up in a plan unit development. Um so there's two mechanisms that would lock in this contribution to the school district. This is somewhat of a separate question, but do we know how many school districts Captain Hills feeds into? >> I think there were four or five references. >> That's kind of what I was thinking. >> Yeah, >> we do know that it borders um the Cland School District and St. Charles also think it included Elgen >> maybe way north depending on how it grew >> because remember it's a boundary. It doesn't mean the v the village there. If you look at the boundaries of Cton Hills, it's kind of um you know, it this would be kind
077of the southernmost corner of it now if if they annexed this property, but it gets all it gets way up there. Um as it kind of snakes around uh it gets up >> I want to say Carpentersville, right? >> Yeah, I think so. >> Is is this even contiguous with some of the other parts of Hampton Hills? It has to be contiguous. If >> so >> it's not right now, is it? >> They'll do it through the annexation process of bringing in parcels that connect. >> Oh, >> I don't want to speak out of turn here, but I think um you know somewhere over here there's a part that it would have to be contiguous, right? So, it would touch somewhere. You might recall that was an issue that was the same issue when St.
078Charles was going to annex it, right? St. Charles could annex it because it was going to touch up here in kind of a a top corner. So, yeah. So, thanks for that thanks for that conversation and if you have other thoughts or feedback, I'm I'd certainly appreciate it. Um, you know, again, we've been devoting a lot of time to >> when are you looking to have something come back to the board? Yeah, I mean I I think ideally at our ne our next meeting, but again, I don't know if um we might need something sooner than that. Uh I I don't want an annexation agreement to go forward uh to the village of Captain Hills um without us being able to, you know, put our stamp on it. And I don't think they do either,
079candidly. Um, so I think they're targeting early August, but I don't think they have a date set for that because of this whole process and negotiation. So, um, fair enough. All right. So, you know, lastly, that just takes me to we've talked about this already, but um you know, we've done a lot of work about our uh demographic study and our capacity and had some great conversation in our retreat and we're feeling in our retreat like we we're in a good place and I was going to be able to present some information to the to the board and the community about that this fall. um if this does come through, right, that'll change some of that conversation and it'll be an opportunity for us to have some different conversation, right? Because obviously, um a new
080development, uh potentially adding hundreds of kids to the district will have some implications for some of that. So, we're already looking at that a little bit. Um, but just want to have that on everybody's radar because, you know, you always try to you plan and plan for contingencies as well as as we just said um about an earlier topic. So, we may need to come back and reevaluate as a team. Uh, and lastly, just getting excited for our start the school year where we're going to do everything together. And I just wanted to put that little plug out and reminder, we had some fun last week. some of us make making some fun videos. I put a little message out to the you guys if you were interested in making being part of a little
081video. You just let me know and I'll get you doing something fun. Um uh so uh think about it, let me know. I'd love to help facilitate that and and have that be included in our um in our opening. We can talk more. >> Definitely. I think I'm speaking for the whole board that we should we should be involved in the video. I don't know why I got this Peter Max kind of flashback looking at that next time with Peter who then I'm aging myself. >> Okay, that's it. I'll quit rambling. Thanks so much for the extra time tonight. >> All right, thank you Dr. Barrett for your report tonight. Moving on to item number seven, board dialogue topics and pending action consideration. We have one item, the 2025 2026 proposed resource textbook adoption. Uh
082Dr. Barrett, I'll let you start this one off. >> Yeah, and I'll just pass it right over to Mrs. Sims who uh can share a little more information about this. >> Yeah, thank you. Yeah, this is just the recommendation for the approval to purchase those materials for the dual credit courses with uh College of DuPage and Wanzi Community College. Um, as you may recall, we shared earlier that the resources had not yet been selected by the college for those courses. The courses were already approved and that was brought to the board earlier or actually later last school year. Uh, so we're looking for those to be approved. And then also there was a new uh AP textbook that was adopted. So those are the resources that we're um asking for you to please consider for
083adoption tonight. >> Right. Do I have a motion to approve the >> This is the same from your previous presentation. Okay. >> Yep. Same text. >> I'll make a motion to approve the textbook adoption. >> Second. >> Any other questions? >> Right. Call the role. >> No, I was doing that after we made the motion in a second. >> That's the way I do it. So, >> thank you. I >> I >> All right. Thank you. That has been approved. Moving on to item number eight, work study topics and future action consideration. We have two things tonight. Um first we have policy updates. We have the first reading on um we have what 16 25 policies uh under the first reading. Uh if you have any questions or comments on that, they should be directed
084to >> Yeah, >> Miss Bolina. Um unless you have anything you want to say right now. >> Yeah, just a couple quick notes. So, a lot of there's several policies. Sorry, guys. But there a lot of them tie together because of two big policy. um one was a change and one was a new policy. So I just wanted to to direct your attention to that. So title nine um there was a Supreme Court challenge based on some title nine changes and title N got reverted back to a lot of the 20 the way it was written in 2020. So that changed some of the other policies that we have changed over the past few years. So, just pay attention to um policy 2260, uniform grievance procedure, and policy 2265, title 9 grievance procedure, because it
085kind of explains that um title nine information for you. And then the other one is um policy 27255. That's students who are parents, expectant parents, or victims of domestic or sex domestic or sexual violence. That is a brand new policy. A lot of the other policies in this chunk relate to that one. So, if you want to read through that to fully understand it and then you'll kind of see why some of the other policies were changed. Just that that may help as you guys are going through all 25. >> Does anyone have any other questions at this time? Okay. Look for this to come on an upcoming meeting. Item number two, get my notes here. Make sure I say it right. Read it. The 2025 2026 on&m capital improvement plan. Next, >> Mr. Leam.
086>> Okay. Thank you. So, this uh has gone through the facility task force. This represents the 25 26 capital projects. As you can see, covers a majority of our schools, Geneva High School, Middle School, North and South, our elementary schools at Harrison, Mil Creek, Fabian, and then lastly, the transportation center. So, we just wanted to put this before the board tonight so they could actually see some of those areas of improvement and some examples of what's going to be upgraded. So the high school has some greenhouse drainage. Um some parking upgrades and replacement over 2.3 million. Uh the boiler plant has some fire rating upgrades. So essentially this is a wall or barrier needs to be placed in there for better fire protection at the boiler plant. North will have two boilers and two hot
087water heaters. And then some category A items. Those items are some fire rated doors and some alarm system upgrades. and south um has an emergency generator that we need to replace. It's outlived it's used for life. We do have some fire alarms as part of our life safety and some window blinds that we're going to be putting into the school. Uh the elementary school at Harrison has two hot water heaters and some components and some valves um basically um some RPZ valves um for reduced pressure zone requirements. Uh at Mil Creek we're going to do some masonry work and some tuck pointing in addition to some of the LED lightings. also Fabian with some mechanical repairs. And then lastly, the maintenance pit at the transportation center uh has a significant amount of rust on it
088and it makes it a little more difficult to operate. So in total, we've got about 8,34,379 of capital funds out of the capital fund project that we'll be funding and $126,647 worth of projects out of the life health safety fund. So we just wanted to make the board aware of that and see if you had any questions on that. And then I did add a little piece about um for the board on our 10-year life plan that we're currently working on with our architects uh that kind of lay out that next 10 years of our projects um for life, health, safety. >> So if I could comment um from the task force. So about a year ago, we did basically the same thing. Uh we brought this to the board. Um, we the board approved
089it and it allowed the on andm group to really get a jump on purchasing, hiring contractors, u getting ready for what they're doing right now. And part of the reason why u the projects are moving so smoothly, knock on wood, right now that um is because they had good planning. um everything was delivered prior to it and and the idea is basically the same thing. These projects, if you look at them, the majority of them will be done during the summer of next year. The LED lighting and some like that will go on through the year um you know as as we did with South with Geneva Middle School North. But um so when in those two elementary schools that will go on during the year and some of these may get done at certain
090times or parts of them be done when kids are not in the schools. So u this is basically to give the on and m group a running start for next summer and that's we'll we decided to bring it here let everybody look at it talk about it ask questions and then probably in a month next meeting we'll bring this back for the board to approve so that the onm group can for sure start going out and placing commitments for equipment and contractors >> and this Thanks, Paul. This was one of the things we were um we feel really good about being able to do this now, right? Because we were ending up behind the eightball with some projects in the past because some of these they were coming to the board and coming to the
091public so late and then it was the spring right before the summer and you're trying to get approval for some of these. And so we like this cascade very much of making these decisions now for the work that's coming up. Any other comment I would make is by doing it now it it allows the onm group to shorten the period of time that these projects will take. And if you if you step back a year and a half or two years ago, we actually had a discussion at the board about extending the summertime and delaying the start because we had to make sure we got all the projects done. So this is part of that process to making sure that we're able to move efficiently and get the projects done so it doesn't impact when
092we start the summer the school next school year. >> I would like to point out too that this is part of the first year of our leveling process for our capital projects between the facility task force and Brian Peterson our new director. This is the first year. So remember last the year we just finished was over $14 million. So this starts our process. We're trying to keep a more level base of capital projects. So this will be the first year of that. >> Yes, Dr. >> So um and thank you Paul for making those comments about the good work that the facilities uh task force has been using and giving us a timeline. But every time I hear about uh engineers um looking into things of school, there are three prongs. I've worked in school
093systems. Um, there's air quality, lighting, and the part that gets left out is background noise. So, I see all these things and I appreciate you bringing it to us attention, but are the engineers looking at things like sound abatement because even though it it's not something you can see, it is part of what we consider quality school if you have and that's for staff as well as students, air quality, good lighting, which I'm glad we are moving ahead on that, but also background noise. So, are the engineers looking at I know it's a capital thing. I'm not trying to add any cost, but is that something that they're looking at? >> So, they are. So, I'll give an external example first. So, we had a chiller that we're putting in at one of our schools.
094So, to make sure the environment outside the school and for our neighbors is good, we put in some suppression systems for some of that acoustic and noise. Uh internally, I believe Dr. Barrett, right, we're starting to look at some of those and some testing that's being done and some measures that we're putting in as well. >> Yeah, for sure. I would even add, as an example, I showed you for like for this year the library at the high school that they're working on right now. Um, last time I walked in there, um, all of the sound abatement panels were they were in a big stack because they were just getting ready to put those up, right? So, that was part of that process when they're um when they're evaluating all of this, you know, whether
095they need panels or whether you need to put something in some of the new handlers or something like that. that is something that they're looking at. Um >> that's a very obvious >> obvious one. I'm glad to know that they're doing that for library of course rightly so. But there there are sources that we just kind of and I know LED LED lighting is a superb choice because we're not dealing with ballots and things like that making a lot of noise like the fluorescent lighting of the past. However, there are some and I'm glad that we have the opportunity last summer to visit some of these schools, >> but there are some schools that do have turbulence and uh I can tell you that uh I'm not a mental health specialist, but I can just
096say my practice people I've seen I've seen teachers I've seen uh children that have been impacted by background noise. one teacher in particular who de developed uh vocal nodules because she was trying to speak over in her particular school district mind you're not here um because uh was affecting her psychologically because she was finding herself strained and all this kind of things so we just have to as you work with engineers it's not just the source the obvious sources like the library but also there are things like turbulence like I have behind my head here and you can measure that and there standards uh any being of course American national standards institute uh for classroom noise and other rooms. So band room I know is taken care of for sure. Yeah. But I'm just saying
097that as the engineers are looking at this in the grand scheme of of capital plane we want quality uh understanding what's happening to survey these things. That's all I was talking about. >> So this was my first official month of being in charge of operations. So I deferred the question to Dr. Barrett who was responsible till the 30th of June. I would >> it's a little more involved in the conversations with our >> I would add um I think it's it's a good question to bring up and we're going to be bringing a big 10-year >> Yeah. >> plan um and when we do that we can have the architects and engineers and and Brian answer some of those questions for us when they bring that and share it. So I think that's a >>
098that's I think that's the right place and there's the right people to do it. So good question. >> Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much for the presentation. >> Thank you, Dr. Barrett. Could you >> Yes, sir. Sorry. Thank you. >> Moving on. Item number nine is information. We have the board meeting presentation schedule and the foyer requests and board correspondence. There's no discussion required unless anyone had any questions. Hearing none, moving on to item number 10, the consent agenda. We have seven items tonight. The personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, FTE, and new hires. The monthly financials for June, gifts, grants, requests, $1,500 from Grace Power and Control LLC for GHS athletics for team supplies, uniforms, and needs. Gifts, grants, bequests, $35,577.81 81 from the Geneva Academic Foundation for
099teacher wish list items for classrooms, gifts, grants, bequests, $4,500 from State Bank of Geneva, 1,5 Let me look. Yeah, $1,500 uh Ken's Auto Center, $1,500 DNA Fox Valley Plumbing, and $1,500 um for athletics, teams, supplies, uniforms, needs. Sorry, I did that wrong. It was a total of $4,500 from State Bank, Ken's Auto, DNA, Fox Valley Plumbing for GSA, GHS Athletics. Thank you. Item six, approval to sell 20 district buses of various passenger sizes. And item number seven, the GA memorandum of understanding. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. I >> I consent agenda passes. Item 11 is board member comments and reports. I'll start down here with Stephanie. >> Great. Thank you. Um I was part of the communications task force meeting that we had a couple
100of weeks ago. It had been a little bit since we had gotten together. So, it was great to get to speak with our community members who are part of the task force and the administration. And then Paul and I are on that committee rep or that task force representing the board. We talked about several different topics. I'll go over just a couple, but one was um the way that the district will be hel handling celebrations going forward and having some public recognition around celebrations, whether that be Black History Month, women's history, Pride Month, different things like that and just making some acknowledgement and celebration around those going forward on some of our social media sites. So excited to see some changes there that we've had so far and how that will continue to go um
101throughout the year as we add on more celebrations throughout the year. We also have um a new newsletter design so everyone gets a newsletter from the district in their mailbox throughout the year and that's really for to help us reach um mainly audiences that don't have kids in school so that they can kind of see what's happening in in Geneva 304. So, that's going to have a new design and hopefully grab people's attention a little bit more so that they can stay in tune with what we have going on in the district. And then we just had some continuing continued discussion around um our progress on communication in line with our strategic plan and different ways that we're going to continue to try to improve communication and pull in more and more audiences as we're
102going out throughout the next school year. That's about all I have for tonight. Yeah, I just want to thank Todd uh for your granular and very detailed uh presentation for finance and also want to thank the finance committee for asking the questions that some of us may not be privy to. So I appreciate having this um brought to the surface so it can be a lot clearer for all of us as we uh digest this. Thank you. >> Along here Dan. >> Yeah, not too much I think. Uh um um first of all, I want to thank the the two folks that came from for the public comments to to come and and uh speak again. And um I think the only thing that I think that I probably want to comment on that is
103it's not that we haven't thought about it or aren't thinking about um the issues that that was brought forward tonight. I think in the last time um I think I asked Andy a couple questions behind the scenes and afterwards in terms of my just for my own clarification. So I think we're all aware. It's not that we um you are ignoring the topic or not interested in the topic, but it's um it's something that we may um we may be conversing about you directly with with Andy. So anyway, just want to make that clear. Um and then uh yeah, just thinking about the um the development as a board liaison for the all sports booster. >> I would like for the development to have some athletes as well to help our to help our school
104district. >> Can you put that in the agreement? >> I'll see what I can do in the sausage making process. We'll see. We'll see what we can accomplish. >> Um other than that, no. Um next board meeting is August 11th. That's my birthday. So maybe people can come early for maybe I'll bring some pizza or something. >> Cool. >> Um I I don't have too much to add. Just a thank you to everybody working on our projects over the summer. Uh and all the prep that goes in for the next school year. Thank you to Todd for your work on the budget. Um and Andy for the information on the project development and to be continued on a lot of those conversations. So thank you. >> Um not much also. Um I think spent a
105lot of time on the um capital plan for next year. Um I think what will be a lot more work that we'll have to do is when we bring the 10-year plan and go through that. So just giving you all a little bit of fair warning on that. Um thank you to Stephanie. I'm not going to say anything else about the um communications meeting because that she covered that very well. And but also thanks Dan for his comments about um the the the people who have come in and and during the public comments and talk and I know there's times when we can speak and this is it. And I appreciate that Dan brought that forward and it's not that we didn't want to respond. It's just this is the right time to do it.
106>> All right. I just wanted to send a thank you out to our first responders for responding to the fire uh at the middle school. I know they probably think it's just their job, but it really means a lot to all of us that they came out and were able to stop the fire. Thanks to O and M for making sure everything's getting back up to speed. Really, there's so many people. Thanks to Mr. Bakerstein because you have drills and you know what to do when this kind of thing happens and we were prepared for that. and um folks who had to go and talk to the insurance company and start that whole process and then finding someone to come and um fix up the facilities after. So that that's that was a big uh
107thing. It I don't think that they get enough credit for what they do, but yeah, they got up in the middle of the night too and had to come and and respond. And so I'm glad that it all kind of worked out as kind of we thought it was going to or had hoped it could be and we'll be ready to go when school starts. And that's all I had. Andy, I'm picturing an old rotary phone on your nightstand that blinks red when Yeah. Exactly. >> All right. Nothing under um notices and announcements. We do have a need to go into executive session to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation, or discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific individuals. Do I have a motion to go into executive session? >> So moved. >> Second. I
108>> I >> All right. Thank you everyone. We will move into executive session.