Geneva CUSD 304 Board of Education Meeting 04-28-2025

001here. >> Here >> thank you. This is the regular meeting of the Geneva 304 school board for Monday, April 28th, 2025. Like to welcome you all. Uh, you can register your attendance by signing the sheets that you passed by as you came in here. And with that, we will say the pledge. The flag is right there. And I will lead. >> I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you all. Uh, first item is approval of minutes. We have the minutes for the regular session of April 15, 2025 and the executive session of April 15, 2025. Bonnie, have you received any changes? >> Are there any changes from anyone at this

002time? Motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. Hi >> item three the recognition awards presentations and public hearings if we were to have any item one the tradition of excellence ghs students anything to say >> absolutely Mr. Rogers is here uh uh to introduce some really smart Geneva High School students and tell us about some of the great things that they did. Uh we're getting to that time of year where we've got a lot of kids to recognize because of a lot of great competitions that have happened. Um but also a time of year a lot of kids are busy. Uh so I know we have a bunch of kids to recognize tonight and we'll have a whole crop next time too, right Mr. Rogers? >> That is correct. Thank you very much for

003the opportunity. >> So we'll have the board come around and Mr. Rogers will share some insights with us. Thanks. >> So, just uh for your reference, we did have plans to introduce two groups tonight, but the virtual enterprises group who uh members of that group competed in New York City. A few members of that group are also competing in the DECA competition in Orlando, Florida. So, we're going to wait and recognize both of those groups at next month's meeting. And then our next group which we will uh talk about and recognize now is our ACES team. The GHS ACES which stands for academic challenge in econ and engineering and science, excuse me, participated in the state competition at Illinois State University on April 17th, 2025. The team finished in sixth place in the state of

004Illinois in our division. And before I introduce the team members, I'll also share how they got there. Uh there's a regional competition that's held at Wabansi Community College and then a sectional competition that was held at Northern Illinois University. The amazing thing about this team is a normal roster size is 14 students. Our team due to variety of conflicts because these smart kids are also very involved students. We were only able to send 10 students to the regional. But we won anyway. Four people short. We won the regional. We went to the Northern Illinois sectional. More conflicts. We took six students to the sectional. And those six students did so well we won the sectional and qualified for state. Then we were able to put the team of 10 back together. Can't couldn't add to

005our roster and get up to 14, but we could go with the 10 that we had at regionals. So the 10 went down to Eastern Illinois University. And two of those 10 are in Orlando competing in the DECA competition. One of the students for sure, at least one, is competing in bad mitten tonight. But we do have two students with us here tonight. Start with uh so actually no, I'm just going to read the whole roster so that they all get credit. So Suzanne Colin is playing bad mitten. And after I introduce the whole team roster, I'll also uh share some individual accomplishments that were earned at the state competition as well. Next up, Claire Conklin. [Applause] You might recognize Claire from a previous board meeting. She was a state qualifying swimmer, fitting into that

006category of well-rounded. Ellie Grancherof is unable to be with us tonight. Anna Keller. [Applause] Anna, do you play bad? >> No. All right. Sorry, confused you with somebody else. Take your pick. Kate Maronei, Dylan McCord, Louisa Paree, Dominic Ross, Vitali Starkoff, and rounding out the roster is Cole Steban. Some quick uh acknowledgements of some individual awards earned at the state competition. Suzanne Colin earned an English top 10 award. Ellie Granch Grancherof finished in the top 10 in the physics competition. Anna finished second in the state in biology and also earned top 10 in chemistry. Kate Maronei earned a physics top 10 as well as a chemistry top 10. And finally, Dominic Ross was top 10 in physics and also earned top 10 in math. Very, very proud of our ACES team. Um, it's become a

007tradition at Geneva High School to qualify the team for state competition. Um, I'll have to tell you I'm a little bit disappointed. Once upon a time it was held at U of I. So, I always volunteered to drive the bus and take them down to Illinois. Now, it's switched to Eastern Illinois. Little longer drive. And unfortunately, I've had a conflict, but it's a fun day to take the students to that state competition and watch them excel. So, congratulations to Claire and Anna. It'd be awkward if you passed on the opportunity. Oh, sure. I suppose Yes. Thank you again for this opportunity. As Dr. Barrett mentioned, we will be back at your next meeting with a host of groups that have done great things in the last few weeks. Thanks again. Item two is the Viking

008leaders award. We need Tim Wiler. So, Mr. Wiler's here. Give us a a vamp for a minute while we have all of our awesome Mil Creek students coming on in. We have two groups of students to recognize tonight. Uh that Mr. Wiler is going to tell us a little bit about or maybe he's not. Maybe we're going to hear from the kids. >> Oh, yes. >> Uh >> you have a special treat tonight. >> Yes. So, you can hand them that microphone, Mr. Wiler. when when the time comes. And let me pull up your uh presentation here. I forgot I got to my computer updated. So, I got to reconnect. So, here's my suggestion because this is um a recognition uh of the Viking leaders, right? The Viking leaders award. Um, and we're recognizing how

009some of our students have demonstrated leadership in our district. So, we have a fancy award for everyone to get. Okay. Um, but we have two different groups that we're recognizing first. So, my proposal is uh let's first have our uh hang on, I've got it all handled. Yep. Student council present and then we'll have our um who's our other group? our soaring eagles present and then the board will come around and everyone will get their certificate and get their picture taken and all that stuff too. All right, >> perfect. >> Okay, so is that mic on? Is it? >> Yeah. Okay, perfect. Sorry. >> Take it away, Mr. Wiler. Very good. Thank Thank you for uh inviting us to celebrate our leaders of the future. Uh we have two groups today that we're really excited

010to bring up. Mrs. Matusk who is the club sponsor for student council. They've been doing some great things for many many years and they really engage the community in a lot of great work and we want to recognize those students that have gone above and beyond really picking our community up. And our second group which we'll get to is Mrs. Rogers and her awesome team of Soaring Eagles. They'll be up next, but uh we're going to give it to Mrs. Matusk to get us started. Thank you for being here tonight. >> You um I'm Julie Matusk. teach third grade and lead student council. And I'm really proud of them, especially what they've done this year. Um, you're going to hear from them that they have had a positive impact on our school, our local community,

011and even the national level, which is really great. Um, so thank you for letting us be here. And they are going to share their favorite part of being a leader in student council and what we've accomplished this year. So, you're going to have to give me the nod when it's time to change a slide. >> My name is Julia and I'm in the fifth grade. My favorite part of student council is making a positive impact on the community by helping those who need it and volunteering with student council. My name is Vance and my and I'm in fifth grade. My personal favorite part of student council is being able to help others and having the best feeling of knowing that we make a difference. >> In October, we partnered with Lazarus House, which is a

012local homeless shelter in in St. Charles. We came up with a community service project called Snacktober. >> Student council collected over 1,190 individual wrap snacks. These provisions allow our local hung hungry neighbors the convenience to take a snack from the supply box at any time, day, or night. My name is Janie and I'm in fifth grade. My favorite part of student council is helping our Mil Creek teachers after school and helping others in the community by working at the food bank. My name is Maggie and I'm in fourth grade. My favorite part of student council is staying after school and helping my teachers. In early November, we collaborated with the King County Ferris Preserve to harvest over 10,000 bee bomb seeds. Be bomb plants are vital to attract native pollinators and provide nectar for hummingbirds,

013bees, and butterflies. These seeds will be replanted in various Kane County's conserv conservation areas. My name is Emily and I'm in the fourth grade. My favorite part of student council is helping our community. My name is Ella and I and I am in third grade. My favorite part of student council is helping others in collecting food and toys for those in need. This year was our 10th year supporting our local Salvation Holiday toy drive. With the support of our Mil Creek families, our school was able to collect enough toy donations to fill the three huge boxes that you see here. My name is Kylie and I'm in fourth grade. My favorite part of student council is a couple of different things. I like staying after school to help our awesome teachers. Also, I like really

014enjoyed working at the food bank. In January, we took our leadership skills to a national level and coordinated with all of the Mil Creek students to write letters to Los Angeles firefighters. We shared our support while the brave firefighters fought devastating wildfires. We adopted two fire stations specifically in the hard hit Pacific Palisades areas. My name is Isa and it's very hard to pick my favorite part of student council. So, I picked two. staying after school to help our school secretary clean out the school supply closet because I love organizing things and also going to the Northern Illinois food bank to pack onions. My name is Mila and my favorite part of student council is everything. It's really hard to pick, but if I have to pick just one thing, it would be working at

015the food bank. In March, we encouraged classmates to donate food items to to the Northern Illinois Food Bank located right here in Geneva. We collected over 150 lbs of food. Student council also volunteered to work at the food bank and we packed 3,600 lb of onions. We really we worked really hard. I loved every minute of it even though we smelled stinky. We hope to continue working in student council in middle school and high school. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our Mil Creek student council experiences with you. [Applause] >> Nice job. I just want to say first of all, do you realize that's nearly two tons of onions? I I hope you had some help. It's wonderful to hear about the impressive things going on in our schools. >> All right,

016Mr. Ryland. Now, our soaring eagles, come on up. Soaring eagles. >> Soaring eagles, come on up. and u Mrs. Rogers uh as well as Mrs. Greybeck and Ms. Kak um put together a new club this year which we are very proud of. Soaring Eagles, it's a leadership program getting the whole school involved into some inclusion uh projects. So, I'm going to let Mrs. Rogers take it away. Um, so we've been at Mil Creek now, this is our sixth year with FAST. Um, so I'm one of the fast teachers at Mil Creek. Um, and with that, you know, all of our students, one of our big focuses is that inclusion and figuring out those meaningful ways, um, you know, that we can build some of those interactions both inside of the classroom and outside of the

017classroom. Um, so this has finally been the year that we've able to really get something going outside of the school day. Um, and we've had some really awesome fifth grade leaders that have helped us kind of get it all kickstarted and get it off the ground with them. Um, so again, really focusing on those relationships outside of school so that then they can take that and model that inclusion for all of the other kids throughout the day and kind of show that through their actions and through all their interactions. >> Maybe you guys could stand on either side of the screen so we can so we can see it >> here. Perfect. So, this was just kind of our I don't need to read it to you guys, but just kind of those main things

018that we were focusing on. So, um you know, really on that kindness, that inclusion. Um so, every time we have a meeting, we kind of start off with a mini lesson, whether it be about a different disability that they might see throughout the community. Um or about um different ways that we can kind of implement that kindness and inclusion in the school day. Um and then we kick off different activities that they all get to interact with each other, team with each other, um and really just build some genuine friendships outside of the school day. So we have some of our leaders here. Um they are really kind of representing the entire club. Um but we did feel like our fifth graders are kind of standout leaders with that. Um so we have done some

019building based things that they've really taken ownership and leadership with which has been awesome to see. Um so I'm going to let them kick off and talk to about it. >> I think respect week was a a very important part of the school year. I think it shows that we no one should bully someone because of their abilities and things that they cannot do. People in the fast program can do many awesome things just like us. One of my favorite parts of respect week's PJ day. This represented putting the bullies to bed. One of my favorite things about Soaring Eagles is being able to interact with people in the fast program. It's awesome like seeing all the things they can do that some of us may not be able to do. And it's really fun

020making new friends and playing games with them after school and just being able to have that opportunity. I really loved hanging out with the fast class outside of school. And there was this one day activities after school where we tie-dyed socks for National Down Syndrome Day. And on rock your socks day, National Down Syndrome Day, we all wore our socks and took one big photo wearing all of them. >> Good. Um, so again, it's kind of wordy, so don't feel like you have to listen to all of it. But, um, you know, one of the big things that our parents have always expressed is that urge and that want to have their kids included and have those genuine friendships, um, you know, that they're all trying to navigate, especially as they get ready for middle

021school. Um, so it's definitely something that I think we've all seen the benefit of, but I think our parents have seen the benefit of, too. Um, and having the firsthand experiences from them, um, and seeing their kids really branch out and be supported has been really awesome. Um, and we're lucky to be located in the fifth grade wing at Mil Creek. Um, so it's truly all throughout the day they're popping into the classroom, they're checking what's going on, they're helping them with things. Um, almost to a point that I sometimes have to kick them out of my classroom. Um, which is a good problem to have. But, you know, it's great to see that not only we see the benefit, the kids see the benefit, but that all of the parents are also seeing kind

022of that mutual benefit. Um, and it really leads to the future. I know we have Unified Vikings now at the high school. So really getting them started young and kind of building on that as they go through Geneva schools. So these are our eight fifth graders that are a part of our soar soaring eagles. >> Thank you guys. >> Thanks so much guys. >> All right, here's what we're going to do. We'll have the soaring eagles come back over where you were and then we'll we'll the board will come around and everybody's going to get a super awesome certificate. You'll start over here where Mr. Choy will be standing and shake everybody's hand and get your certificates and then we'll have both groups. Is that okay, Mr. Wiler? If both groups get organized together up

023front and we take everybody's picture at once. Awesome. It's hard to have so many kids to recognize. I just so many kids doing great stuff. All right, Josh Blake. Josh, start right there. Stephen Horn, [Applause] Lauren Lozano, [Applause] Eva Luna Ramirez, [Applause] Janie Mandy, Samantha Sheldon, Savannah Spearstrip, [Applause] Annalise Bellic, [Applause] Ella Falcos, [Applause] Mila Meta, Maggie Tracy, Kylie Gleason, Emily Kissner, Vance Huffman, [Applause] Janie Mandy again for her double involvement, Julia Colberg, [Applause] and of course our staff members, Julia Matusk, Oh, I Oh, I Isa, come on up. Sorry about that. and Megan Rogers. That's Isa Phillip. Okay. [Applause] Congratulations everybody. Really awesome to see such great leadership in our district. Take care. Item number three on our agenda this evening, safety and security presentation. I see that Tim Baker has his suit and

024tie on, so it's his turn. Well, Mr. Baker is getting set up here. I just want to thank him for all his work. He's going to give us an update on all the safety and security stuff, all the things that uh he can share with us anyway, all the work that goes on in our district to help make sure our kids are safe, which of course is our biggest priority, right? So, um we'll let Mr. Baker, he's not only our wonderful photographer, uh but also, um >> many skills. >> Man of many skills. That's right. So, he's going to give us an update. My my goal tonight, by the way, I'm Tim Baker. I'm the safety and security coordinator for the GMA School District. My goal was not to stand behind the podium uh during

025the presentation. Uh but to use the font on this as opposed to the font on my my monitor. This is so much better for for Tim and his eyes. Uh so this is the uh the update for the 2425 school year. And I just want to jump into what happens when all the the little people that just left here their last day of school, they head out out of the buildings and then uh we head into the buildings to make sure that that we're preparing the buildings for the next school year. And there's a whole list of items here that the that uh the safety and security people do uh to make sure the buildings are ready because the most important thing is the inspection of the buildings and then putting in work orders to

026make sure everything is is set up. uh use the example of the interior exterior PA system uh micro uh speakers throughout the building. They crank on some good country music. They walk around the buildings uh listening to the speakers. Also classroom speakers, head outside, check the building uh and then go on to the other things. Also, the red classroom bags, all of you have ever been in the in the classrooms. those red or red emergency bags have a whole bunch of equipment inside them for uh any emergencies uh that may arise or if the a need for evacuation the building. It's always good for the teachers. A lot of them will have uh uh attendance records and such like uh for the classes so they can uh uh check in and make sure everybody's there.

027Then from there, we're going to jump right into the security cameras for the district. Every one of our buildings has at different levels uh security cameras including the transportation garage, all the schools and central office here. And uh these are not where I'm sitting here watching the the security cameras all day long uh because my eyes would be about uh uh I would look bad. And uh but most of our uh the cameras are all for monitoring to prevent and deter and assist in investigations when something happens. And it's uh it's very important for us uh to have these activities there and uh there possibilities there because it's kind of like if you go into Best Buy, you walk in, the guy at the front door, hey, how you doing folks? And he's got his

028camera, he's looking at cameras and stuff like that. It's just to try and defer uh people from doing things wrong because the cameras are uh not everywhere, but there's a lot of places that they are. And uh the building administrators, it's their responsibility to kind of look through and review if there's any situations that occur in the buildings. And then this jumps into the uh what we started last year at the uh school year was a 2324 was a district-wide assessment of our camera needs and what we needed to do uh to improve the quality of our our camera footage of the schools. And from there we decided that uh before that fiscal year ended, we had some money and so we started with Harrison Street School and upgraded some exterior cameras that were over

029there and then also cameras over at JA Middle School North and Ja Middle School south. We uh the school and I jump right here. It's a when you look at this, it is true. J middle school south has 45 camera views uh on 25 cameras where St. Charles North has 20 cameras and 62 views. >> Middle school north. >> Not St. Charles North. >> Did I say St. Charles? Did I really? Okay, that was just a test. So now we have to start all over again. Jiva Middle School North uh at least I'm gonna stop right there. And so the the 20 cameras that went in uh the updated cameras over at Jim Middle School North were those cameras had four lenses. A lot of the cameras back in the day were single view lenses

030and when they put those in and then we replaced those with cameras that have multi- view lenses. A lot of these 20 cameras here uh make up for those uh those extra views. And some of them are uh the 360 view, we call them uh fisheye. So you can have multiple views. Some of our cameras have six or eight different views depending on the the locations. These are all in hallways and such around the buildings. And then at the GMA high school, the big project for this year was uh removing and replacing 40 of the cameras at the Geneva High School. I'm going to say GM High School. I don't say other schools. Uh, and then we also added 25 other cameras. So, we we have a total of about 70 cameras at GM High

031School. With that, there's well over 200 views on those different cameras. If you pull up the Mac Olsen uh you'll notice a new camera outside uh right in front of the uh the female Viking statue to come in main entrance. So, the contest gym, there's uh cameras over there and also on the south uh south side of the building, I'm sorry, north side of the building. But there's also cameras uh throughout the building where we've had some problems in areas to reduce the number of uh situations because I think the students are smart enough or people are smart enough that if they see cameras there, they're like going they're not maybe not going to do something. The temptation we we want to reduce that temptation uh having all these cameras there. And for that was

032for this year and for next school year we're well for this year we're almost done with the high school. We've got about two more cameras. They're sitting in my office. We're just waiting for the installation day. we get the the final products done. And then for next year, we're looking at the Mil Creek, Williamsburg, H Heartland, the transportation garage, and then adding a couple cameras over the uh for the gyms at the middle schools to get some cameras there. And then add just a couple exterior cameras that are on the east side of the middle schools for uh security purposes over there. There's also a camera going in over by where Friendship Station is. And then the final year will be uh Western Avenue, Fabian, and Central Office. And I do want to point out

033that for next year, it seems like a lot, but when we put in 65 cameras uh just at the high school, we won't be putting in 65 cameras for all those other schools for next year. The elementary schools will probably have six maybe seven cameras depending on the uh the amount. Uh there's only I think one or two cameras. They're like entry entryway cameras at the elementary schools. The other ones are for outside uh the schools there. Then our uh drills and trainings performed every year. We have to do the six drills. The evacuation drill, shelter in place, bus evacuation and law enforcement drills. uh we do those and those are are monitored by the administration and I try and get to as many of those drills as possible uh for that just to observe

034and I have a critique and if there's any situations or any problems or just watching the teachers do something good uh when they're organizing stuff like carrying the red bags wearing their vests because it's hard the high school level it's really hard to tell the difference between the students and the teachers but when the vests are there it's very easy for the for them uh to identify them. We're also in our third year of the school emergency response uh plan training. That's for our parent unification if there's a a building evacuation and we go to the parent unification site. Our first year we uh train for the high school teachers and staff. We also had the next year was the middle school. This year we did the three elementary schools that are west of Randall

035Road and next year, next February, we'll have the three elementary schools that are east of Randall Road will be participating at the parent unification site in late February at that uh institute day. And uh we also have on our website the staff hub website safety and security. There's a whole bunch of information for staff about what our uh procedures are and if they have any questions, they want to kind of uh get more into the uh uh the safety and security, what goes on at the schools and what's needed and what what you should do in emergency and such. The next thing I want to talk about is our annual review. Another requirement, state law, we have to have an annual review every year with our first responders. That incorporates the members of our uh

036school administrative staff, myself, and uh the first responders. the first responders. It it depends on which kind of group we have because we have the Geneva Police and Fire Department. We have the K County Sheriff's Department. We also have the um Elurn Fire Protection District and also uh this year uh we increed increased it by inviting the Office of Emergency Management for King County. They bring a ton of resources in case there's an emergency. Uh they're the ones with the trailers and stuff and the lighting and stuff, whatever we need. They bring in a lot of extra resources and we want to make sure that they're, you know, part of our team in case something were ever to happen at one of our schools. And it all starts with the first the invites and the

037connections with them, but also then also collecting the data because we need to know the first responders in an emergency want to know how many students are there, how many staff are there, how many people are in your building. If the answer is I don't know, but the answer is we we're taking attendance, we'll let you we'll get it. We're getting everybody organized. we'll let you know because they need to we need to account for every single human that was inside that building uh before the evacuation started. And that's all part of it. That's what they're looking for. That's what we're looking for for that. And so the the annual reviews go on September uh and uh August and September I think I have here and that uh we'll do these and we'll get through

038all the first responders. It's important for the school administrators to meet the first responders and get to kind of get to know them on a personal basis because they are doing the the walkthroughs and such. And we need we need to make sure everybody's on the kind of on a firstname basis with their first responders. And also our first responders also have uh FOBs for emergencies. So if they want to go in the buildings and we find more often they will come in the buildings and walk around and get a to get the layout of the land so they have a better understanding of if there's emergency you know where they would need to go uh and such because there's a lot of new officers at the Gmail police department since I retired from there

039and I talked about our relationship with the different departments and a lot of information comes and goes uh through the safety and security coordinate position to keep the first responders uh aware of stuff. We also uh get information from them if there's a if there's something going. give us a call and say, "Hey, you know, uh, what'sever going on or if there's a bus accident and stuff like that, we'll we kind of work together on those situations." And then, uh, this I'm going to talk about the standard response protocol. This is, uh, uh, posters that are in all of our schools. It's a very detailed explanation for what people need to do. And this column over here is for students. This isn't something that we hide from the students. These are in our hallways. This

040is what the students should be doing if there's an emergency. And so, they have a responsibility. We can't just expect the students to do nothing and follow the lead of the adults. The students might have to act on their own because they might be in the bathroom. They might be going to a a meeting. They might be going down the guidance or something like that or they got had a cut finger going there's office. They have to kind of know what to do uh in these situations. The other side here is for the adults uh that break down to this. And the hold, I think, is probably the one that's used most often. The hold is, you know, if something there's a medical emergency, we don't want all the first graders and second graders heading

041off to the cafeteria. uh the teacher or the principal do a hold in place. Uh ambulance pulls up, they take care of the situation, they get out and they go back to normal and everybody's going to be asking what's goes on. They said, "Oh, we just had an ambulance." Or worse, nobody wants if there's a big spill or toilet overflowing into the hallway. Nobody wants the kids walking through that. So, we the hold in place could be a multitude of reasons, but it's the most uh prevalent uh one that's it's used here. We als go down to shelter in place that they practice uh as part of the the annual uh uh drills that we have here. And uh these are updated identification cards. I know all the board members have a very cool ID

042card. Uh and on the back of it has uh just the basic of what to do in emergency because we can't put that entire um uh poster on the back of ID card. The font is too small and we were complaining about small font earlier anyway and we don't need the font down any any littleer. But this is just for you know what to do. The one thing you need to do right away in a hold you know in get in your room and stay in there clear the hallways secure get inside lock down locks lights out of sight evacuate to the announced location. And I know every one of those little uh people that were here if I quiz them where their evacuation is. They all know where it's at. Those high school students

043have probably been to 30 uh drills either in elementary schools to middle schools and then at the high school. they know exactly where to go uh for an evacuation. And so that's uh this is only for on our staff ID cards. And we have a memorandum of understanding with all of our emergency response uh locations. If we have to evacuate, if our primary location is not available, we have two backups for each school. Uh depending on uh if the if the building isn't available, we can go to these alternative locations. Those are memorandums of understanding with those organizations are are good till the 26 27th school year. And each plan has a plan for the specific school. It's not just a cookie cutter thing. It's specific to each one of the schools. Uh, and I'm

044sure the teachers sitting over there, if I quiz them, but I'm not going to ask them any questions, they would know exactly kind of what they would where they need to go and what they would be need to be doing for their particular school. Uh, we have a safe school tip line. If anybody goes to the school district and pick any one of the school uh websites, you'll see on the on the main screen in the bottom right hand corner will be the safe school tip line. And the safe school tip line is to provide an opportunity for somebody to call our tip line to leave a message or send an email uh not an email but a fill out a form about a concern they may have about uh a student or situation at

045the school. I know it's really really small, but that says right down there if this is an emergency, call 911. The system is not monitored 24 hours a day. It's uh like anything else. If you you call uh uh your doctor's office, if this is a medical emergency, hang up and call 911. It's the exact same thing. We're not uh we don't get these right away. Uh and uh it's it's important for them if it's an emergency to call 911. And uh there's also on the back of student ID cards and the uh their uh electronic copies of their student handbooks have uh information for other tip lines and stuff. Uh suicide prevention service and stuff like that are that are required by law to be in those. And also on the back of the

046the student ID cards have the information on there too. So, the Raptor system is our uh uh system to check for visitors in the schools. Uh it's uh whoever comes in there with their ID card, they check to make sure then that they're not on the national sex offender database or there's no court orders of order protection barring a particular person from being inside our buildings. And from there, uh we also have uh contractors. Contractors are run through the regional office of education. there's a fingerprinting background check done by them and they're not coming on our property until they've cleared the roe uh background check. So, it's kind of dual purpose to make sure that uh the schools are safe and we're not uh having other people in. And I covered a little bit already

047about this about the drills and what I do. And I do love the fact that sometimes the principles will yell at a teacher and say, "Hey, how come you're not wearing your backpack?" And they immediately look and go, "I got my student teacher carrying it." You know, because it's uh uh that's for them to it's kind of learning the experience of being there. But the the red bag is if you ever uh want to ask me, I can filling you in on one of the some of the items we have that uh that are in there for that. Uh other compliance things we do uh yearly is we have the uh custodians walk in the building all the time for looking for stuff to write up. Also, the grounds people are checking our schools to

048make sure. If I'm ever in the building, one of the first things I'm doing is checking to see if the doors open or the doors are propped open, which that very rarely happens. Uh but uh every once in a while there if they're running out to a car or there's uh you know the kids are uh sometimes in and out real quick. So there's uh uh we also if there's ever uh we always I try and stress to the teachers that if you're walking down your hallway and all a sudden there's somebody you don't know challenge them and ask them are you looking for the main office and get them directed to the office because if it's a print if it's a parent they're going to be really happy that the staff challenged them and

049got them back to the office. But if they walk through the school and nobody challenge them, they go, "I got a great system here." But that's why we empower the staff, they have to be the eyes and ears and say something uh and also guide these people gently back to the main office because they, you know, sometimes we take the wrong turn uh and end up in a place we shouldn't be. And that's why it's important for everybody to work together for the safety of the students and staff. These are things I I stay connected with as I'm a member of the uh uh different programs. The King County Regional Office of Education, we have uh monthly meetings through the school year that we get all the safety people together uh and we're talking and

050kind of going over things that have happened in the district or in their districts that are sometimes very common uh to us and how do we uh protect uh each other and work together. There's a great uh teamwork because every one of the districts have said if something happens in St. Charles, can we count on other districts to help? Absolutely. Uh Aurora, West Aurora, uh every district has said, "Yeah, if something happens in our district, it's a it's just a an unknown or unknown. You know, call let us know. We can get the resources and stuff like that because we don't have to stand alone. We have would have an army of people to help and support our school district or we would be able to help other school districts too if there was something

051to happen uh to and to work together." My last one is the same slide from last year is you know we this is cannot be Geneva uh where it'll never happen here because we all know of schools all over America that have said five minutes before something horrible happened they were like oh it'll never happen here and then it did. Uh so the preparation that we have uh and making sure that we're ready for something then hope uh that nothing ever happens is where we have to be to make sure we all stay safe. And my final slide is questions. I guess I just have one in um I know I may this might for for Jackie in regard to I think there's some legislation in terms of uh subs that might need some training

052when it comes to safety. Yeah. >> Yeah. For subs um that they get that same type of training. >> Okay. So that would if that comes to fruition then that would be a policy or is that a policy that we have right now? >> I don't know if it's a policy now but it's a proposed bill. >> Maybe Adam has some context on that. >> Sure. Thank you. Uh while it is not a policy uh that we uh train our subs on our safety and security measures, they are given all of these same protocols uh at the very beginning of the school year as part of their uh welcome back uh packet uh along with links to all of the other safety videos uh that we have posted on our website. >> Yeah, I have

053a question. Maybe naive, I don't know. Uh, so you showed us this um array of cameras that you have with all these different views and things. Is this only just for schools, the buildings themselves? The reason why I bring this up is because I'm sure some people already know that there are been at least a couple of districts I know of where their buses have been hit with the catalytic converters. Is that your domain or somebody else's domain? >> No, that's mine, too. So, how what is your what is your um I'm just curious, you know, because that is a mission critical thing. If those are gone, the bus is stopped. You can't go anywhere. Uh two quick answers. One is that uh it's a the good and bad. One good that we have diesel

054buses because diesel buses do not have catalytic converters, so they're untouched. Our smaller buses, our shorter buses, uh we worked out with transportation and they put those inside and so they're kept inside at night. So, we have not had we've been very lucky. I'm going to knock on some wood over here. Uh that our fleet hasn't been attacked. I know St. Charles was hit uh a couple years ago. They had 18 buses and I know Betavia got hit I think last year and uh they bounce around. It just it kind of depends on you who's out and about. Uh and uh but it's all over it's all over the place. And so we uh it's not that we scatter the fleet, but we keep them inside. And uh we've been we've been very lucky with

055that uh uh response so far. >> Never happened here, right? Another question. Uh so um and and this might be my new show. I just curious um with these cameras uh I take it that they have sound detection or not? >> No, for these cameras they're they're just video. There's no >> video. So there's of course I'm not saying that there is but if there is a blind spot, do you have any way of determining if someone's making noise? then it triggers something. I mean, I have security cameras in my office and before the camera actually sees anything, it picks up a sound to know something is coming. >> I'm just asking. We we do not ours are just completely audio. Okay. Video and no audio for that because there I think the noise level

056and then also the uh to be able to save that data >> uh would be uh a rather large uh server for them. So, >> they're also on all the time. >> Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. Just wondering. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> Could I just throw in real quick? I just want to say thanks to Tim. Um, obviously Tim does a lot of things behind the scenes that again are focused on our biggest priority in the district. Um, keeping our kids safe and I'm grateful for all those things. But, you know, for me personally, um, it's just having someone like Tim in the district when something a potential crisis or something happens and I know that I pick up my phone and whenever I do, he's there and he's he's the person who's

057going to help us with that thing. Um, and oftentimes I'll hear from him about those things. Um, and I'm just really grateful to have somebody like Tim in our district to help us do that. So, thanks for all the stuff you do behind the scenes. Um, and just being in there when any of those things are potentially happening that uh we need to be mindful of to keep our kids safe. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm sure we all recognize the importance of your work. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. Next item on the agenda, Jeff is here and he's a a man after my own heart because he deals with all the physical building things and I love that stuff and Paul also on the facilities committee. Uh we know each other well

058and and appreciate all that you have to share with us today. >> Yeah. So, while they're getting connected, I'll say um you know, Jeff Dow is here. Uh he's been serving in operation support role as Larry said. Uh the board has heard a lot about some of the things Jeff's going to share with us tonight from you two uh from being on the facilities task force and all the work that we've done this year to um kind of modernize and and do some great things in the district. You also he's going to highlight some things that you've heard a lot about from Mr. Laam who who's uh away at a conference today. Um but I just want to thank Jeff for all he's done this year to to get us in great shape. um and

059put us on a great path going forward. And he's gonna he's got two presentations tonight. So, take it away, Jeff. >> The microphone Yes. Okay. Uh, good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. Thank you for allowing us to come before you tonight. I've had the opportunity, as as Andy said, being able to serve with our operations team, our operations team over the course of the past year, and it's really been a pleasure. What a wonderful group been together. So, uh, it's my understanding that on April 14th, the, uh, finance committee got an opportunity to talk about, uh, some of the capital improvement and, uh, Todd talked about some of the things that we were finishing up. There were a lot of, uh, opportunities for us to close some projects over the course of the

060last year, and we've done that. Uh, but tonight, I'm kind of here to talk to you about what we're doing this summer and, uh, in the future. So, I'm going to without further ado get us moving. We have been talking uh and using a lot of runway to talk about the facilities condition assessment. So, have you you've heard the term you cannot manage what you do not measure. You have to take the measurement first and understand where you are before you can manage the situation. And so, we've taken a pause. We brought in the right teams to make a significant assessment of our district. For uh months, our uh architects, our engineers came out and they went uh on our roofs. They inspected our windows and our building envelope system, the the bricks and mortar,

061the fields. uh they went into the bowels of the buildings and looked at our boilers, our mechanical system, our electrical distribution and they they came back with that data and have started to compile it and to compile it in terms of priority and in terms of how much and they brought that information and the team is now at the point where we're starting to organize it for sharing. Uh we are not done. It's a long process and we ask for some patience. Uh when we talk about priority, we prioritize in the basis of safety and then essentiality to the building functions, cost, needs and efficiencies. Of course, safety is first. And when you see some of the projects that we're going through tonight, you're going to say, "Oh, we're hitting safety and we're hitting things

062that are essential to the building." And talking about those, I'm going to come back to this point a little later on. Okay? Having just information about what needs to be done is not enough. You need to couple that with how much does it cost in today's dollars. And so you need professional estimators and and so we have uh that is one of the key components and one of the things that's taking us so much time as we provide this facilities condition assessment is to understand uh what pieces what what work will cost us so that our CFO could take the next step and help us be prepared. Okay. And again, uh, we still have some things to flush out, but we'll be coming back to the task force this summer with that final, uh, draft.

063Okay. So, uh, back in December, you guys approved, uh, work to be done at the high school, uh, air handling units and a new chiller that we're bringing, uh, to the building. That chiller is in a bonded warehouse at this point. And so, uh, the ear early release package that you approved uh, worked out very well for us. And uh we are ready to go. In fact, we've been doing preliminary work already in the buildings running empty conduit u preparing for uh place to set that chiller making roof penetrations all in coordination with your principal. Uh Tom Rogers been a wonderful partner as we go through this at minimal disturbance to our students or no disturbance. So, we're also going to be uh renovating the library on the day after the our schools close. We

064will remove all the stacks into another space and start making dust. And by the fourth week of July, we will have uh furniture being delivered and come back online in time for our our uh our students to come back in August. And we have two elevators in the building that we can no longer get parts for. are starting to have to manufacture parts when or find them on eBay. It's hard to say out loud, but uh the elevators are are at that point. And so we will renovate everything uh that makes those elevators work. They will look the same. The cabs will be the same, but otherwise it's a complete replacement of all the parts in the elevators. Also in the high school, uh we have we know that uh this process for capital improvement

065has to has to start this early on. And so um we came together with those architects and engineers and said, "Okay, what are the highest priorities? What are the ones that we have to be moving on for 2026, the summer of 26?" And they brought those to us and said, "These are your critical ones." We brought those to Andy and Todd. We sat down and looked at how that fit into the monies that might be available. And so at the high school, we're looking at at four different pieces. Uh some work on the greenhouse. The glazing system is in bad shape. Uh we do get water infiltration and that's never a good thing. Uh even though the plants need it, uh our students do not. So uh we're also going to do some paving and

066site work. We've got some water infiltration happening at the band room. Uh we're going to deal with some of the drainage system there and and manage that and some fire safety items. And we'd like to also put uh the tennis courts on there as an option. One of the things that people are wondering in this economy with tariffs, with the uncertainty, how do you manage that as you go into uh preparing for your capital plan? And my answer back is we make sure that we have viable good alternates that we can add or remove from the scope of work. The tennis courts are a nice one because they're standalone. They don't impact anybody else. You're not bidding the electrical for four different projects and trying to pull a piece of that out. This is nice

067and standalone and if if uh the economy turns one way on us, we can take it out. If it goes a different way, we can put it back in. So having alternates is an important piece. At the middle school this summer, we're going to be pursuing a track replacement. And next summer, we're recommending we consider two boilers and a hot water heater as well as health life safety work. Category A. And you say, "Well, what is category A?" When uh schools go through a a 10-year health life safety review. Both our middle schools were up this year and we uh smartly did them at the same time we did the facilities assessment. got a very good price on that. Um, and uh, category A must be addressed in the first year after the survey is

068released, category B in the first three years, and category C are recommended to be completed over the 10-year period. So, category A are the critical ones. >> Jeff, can I ask a question about the boiler and hot water heater for 26 27? Yes, sir. Um, I would assume these are newer than what we just took out of the high school and replacement there and it should be not as a large of a project. Is that a good assumption? >> It's a very good assumption. The Kiwanis that we took out of the high school were older than my father. So, they were uh very long life equipment that uh the district took good care of. But these are no nowhere near that age. In fact, they're original to the building. So, it's about that kind of

069timeline that we're dealing with. And the health the health life safety category A has a lot to do with our fire alarm system getting upgraded, something that we need to do anyway, and it made that category A list. So, we're looking forward to dealing with those. at the middle school south. This summer, we're going to be replacing a roof and in a very small section over by the library where we're getting some leaks u and also dealing with wall flashing. It's very difficult where a wall meets a roof to determine what is exactly leaking. Do we have a through wall flashing problem where the water is coming in through the wall or is it the roof? And we've got some challenges in that area. So, we're we're going to address both of them at the

070same time. Uh in 2627 we want to take out or we want to replace the emergency generator and transfer switch. Uh do fire alarm upgrades. There's another one of those elevators that's been giving us headaches. And again some more category A health life safety work at the Harrison Street Elementary School. Uh we are replacing an air handling a couple air handling units and a chiller and uh also the fire alarm system. It's a significant project uh at Harrison this summer. So much so that uh your principal there, Michelle, is just really terrific to work with. She's letting us get in on second shift after the students are gone, start to get the empty conduits put into the ceilings. Um it's working out very well especially with some of the challenges of the uh workforce in

071the electrical trade will be uh they're very much in demand at the data centers in our region and it will be very hard to get the group or the the top-notch tier one electricians when we get to the summer projects. So we've been getting them in in second shift at no additional cost. They offered to come in on second shift. So it's working out really well. Um, and we should be plenty on time for when our students return. That that new alarm is uh up and running and has been checked out by our local fire department. Uh, anticipated projects in 2627. We weren't really planning to do much there. We do have a little roof problem that we're going to use uh some contingency money this summer to uh make a somewhat aggressive investigatory work

072to look and see what the problem is. So, we've got to pull some of the roof back, look inside there and see where we're getting some seepage. And if there's a problem, we may ask for that to be included in the 26 work. We do know that we coated that roof recently. Um, and so it may be a roof problem, but it may not be too. We'll find that out in the investigation and figure out how we're going to deal with it. Could be a flashing detail problems and we'll know more. >> It's not a full replace roof replacement. >> No, sir. >> Okay. No, we've just got one spot where we've got some trouble. >> Okay. >> All right. At H Heartland this summer, we are replacing air handlers and a chiller there as

073well. Uh, some of this is very timely. We're having uh some challenges today with our Harrison chiller and uh we're going to limp through and get done just in time and get the new one in place just in time. So, this is going to be the case too with H Heartland. That chiller is an older chiller and it'll be nice to have the new one on board. at Harland. We're not planning to do any work there in 2627. Mil Creek this summer. We've got some mechanical system valve replacements and uh an important elevator that's really caused us some headaches in the past is being replaced similar to what we're doing at the high school. And in 2627, we're looking at uh taking a portion of the masonry and tuck pointing that needs to be done.

074This this building has our most challenging uh masonry and and tuck pointing work. It's most in need. So, we're going to try to get about a third of it done in 26 27. And at the bus garage, has anybody been out there to see the work? All right. So, we're moving already on that parking lot. We we jumped in, got our permits in place, got the county on board, and uh really terrific people there. Um, we've been we've also had some pretty good weather for getting in there. So, it's working out nicely. We should have no problem finishing our parking lot up uh well before our students return. And uh next year, we're looking to finish the maintenance pit cover replacement where our our our staff go down underneath the buses. We need to make

075sure that that area is is safe and protected. We're not planning on doing any work at Cold Trap, Fabian, Western Avenue, or Williamsburg. It's a good thing to have buildings where you're not doing work. When there's work happening at some of the buildings, you can transfer over and not worry about construction being in the way. You can do that with staff, early return staff, uh, needs, and also Western Avenue. Casey's ready for a break. We've been in his We've been in there ripping his building apart for a couple summers in a row. So, yeah. >> Yeah. So, people are definitely ready for a break. >> Ready for a break. Yes. So, it'll be a nice peaceful summer. We can do some deep cleaning and and that's a great way to do your rotation. You take

076advantage of economy of scale by doing more work in some buildings, taking and not doing work in the others. We also reduce our cost for our supervision from our our construction management team by only having certain buildings where they're working. This is a good plan. >> Can Before you go on? >> Yes, sir. Um, so we had talked about the LED light replacement and I don't see those on any of the schools and we had kicked around going out to Mil Creek and Fabian because they were not part of the Geneva electrical and we could get a possibly a support from Edison comment. >> Excellent comment. Are we I mean and we also talked here at the board what a great project this is. It brings value and it saves us money. So are we

077saying we're backing away from that now? >> No sir. >> Okay. Let me explain a little bit. Um your new director of operations piloted that program, Brian Peterson, and he did a wonderful job using our internal labor to install all those fixtures over at North. Has anybody been over to North yet to see that? Really take some time and go over there and take a look. Now, we're we're all but finished. We got a little work in the parking lot to do and a few other spots, but boy, the lights are looking tremendous. We're using we're not able to hit it hard and knock it out because we're using labor when it becomes available with our internal forces. So, we're not uh we're not doing this with outside contractors where a lot of that cost

078would come, but we're doing it with professional trained folks that are qualified to be doing the work. Um, and we're buying the uh materials, the the fixtures through our our uh capital u not our capital improvement, but our capital equipment. So, we're using a different fund than our capital funds. So that's and we're going to talk about that a little in the next presentation. So now some good news that came through. Brian did mention to me today I'm stealing his thunder a little. He wasn't feeling well tonight, but um he he uh he said, "Jeff, we got the numbers back on Fabian and Fabian. We we do not use Geneva power for Fabian. We went there deliberately uh because we use KMED power there and we qualify for some of the Kameed rebates." And so

079the numbers came in at about 187,000 for the fixtures, but Kameed is going to or the Comet in Senate program will cover about 47,000 of that. So that's a nice nice to be able to take advantage of that. That is why most of the schools in our region have all those LED fixtures because the rebates have been around for many many years and you're not able to take advantage of that your current situation with your power Can I ask one quick question back to the high school? I know we've um heard some concerns earlier this school year and we probably have all felt some temperature concerns in the gyms at the high school. Have we already addressed that because I didn't see that on the plan for this year or next year? >> Great question.

080We kind of lumped that in with the mechanical uh equipment and such. So, uh, over spring break, Tom and, uh, your athletic director, Matt over there, got us into the building. We got in and we set the new fans into the both gymnasiums have very large fans for helping with our air movement. And we got all the conduit in place. We all we have to do now is pull wire and install our controllers. So, those will be coming online in the summertime and we won't fail to hit our our uh schedule goals. So, it's going to work out really well. >> Great. That's really great to hear. Thank you. >> Yeah, we're excited about Thank you for asking. >> Okay. So, this summer, uh, we're spending about $7.2 million. We did get a grant, by

081the way, for the Mil Creek elevator modernization. And next summer, we're looking for about 8.1 almost $ 8.2 2 million and um the district uh has we've we've been planning to stabilize our spending so it's not all over the place making poor Todd crazy you know be nice if we were spending between eight and 10 million annually to make sure we're taking care of our schools the second most important charge to our board after our students and staff is the asset that the community charges you with. So to maintain that asset, this is an appropriate way to go after your deferred maintenance. I do ask that we think back a minute to the presentation. Safety items, mechanical items, roof items. These are not exciting items, but they're necessary. Everyone expects that that the heat works

082when they come into a school. Of course, it has to work. But these are the basics. These are the bottom of the triangle. And at the dollar amounts that we're looking at in today's dollars, and we all know how today's dollars are versus where they were 10 years ago, these are the projects you're going to be able to address. So, I want you to think about that. I want to plant that seed. Um and and think about that in terms of we're doing safety, we're doing necessary mechanical and building envelope and roof, but we are not at this level necessarily getting to renovating a science wing. >> Okay, Jeeoff, when I think about it, if you think about um I always think about this, you know, we have the like you said, the taxpayers's biggest

083asset. Think about my biggest asset, my house. Um, so the analogy I was thinking of when we've had some of these conversations is this is like I've got to replace my roof for my furnace. >> Yes. >> And maybe I really want that new master bathroom, but if I only have a certain amount of money and it's the furnace or the bathroom, the furnace is coming first. And that's kind of where we're at right now. >> That's a terrific way to describe it, Andy. Does anyone have any questions? >> Sir, >> I may have asked this question weeks ago. I can't remember to answer. What's the lifetime for these LEDs? I mean, because they all have a lifetime. So, what's the projected lifetime? >> It is. It depends on the manufacturer, but we're hearing sometimes

084as much as 25 years. 20 would be really outstanding though if we were getting 20 years out of these fixtures. >> And what country are they sourced from? Just asking. >> They're Lethonia fixtures. Um so some of them are made in America, but some of them are also made overseas. >> Are those costs going to fluctuate? >> I'm just asking. I I suspect just about every cost is going to fluctuate until we get some stability and awareness of where things are going. >> The good news is is Brian is in the process of locking that down. We're going to go see Todd as soon as he gets back in town. >> Okay, great question. Anybody else? Okay, thank you very much. >> Almost as exciting. I was gonna say, Jeff, that that was really exciting.

085This this I can hardly wait for the sequel. >> All right. Okay. Todd has pre prepared 47 slides for us tonight. So, it should just kidding. All right. I have been uh given the honor of helping present the uh 202526 preliminary operations and maintenance budget. This budget will impact the time period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. >> Could I jump in here real quick, Jeff? Please, sir. >> I would just note that um you know, as we mentioned earlier, Todd's away at a conference right now, but in our typical cascade and process, this is about that time of year that we would take a look at this preliminary budget. So, um Jeff clearly knows a lot about this as well. So, he's stepped in to give us just that preliminary take that

086Todd will then bring you, you know, more final version of later. >> Fair enough. >> I appreciate that. I did have to look up. >> Yeah. Appetizer. That's right. >> Did have to look up what EAV means. So, >> okay. So, just like in your house, um, you have revenues and expenditures. And as you go into your next budget year in your house, you think about how your revenues are impacted and how your expenses are what what's coming at you. So especially on the operations and maintenance side. U so you have to make some assumptions. Uh but Todd's assumptions are based on pretty good information. So we're going to hit that later on in the slides. Uh your your local taxes will likely be uh increasing slightly this year. uh to 13 million and and

087Todd wanted me to make sure I read it. The entire dollar amount. Is that not sure that that's necessary? Yes. Okay. 13,681,768. Uh we also anticipate having uh interest from our investments. uh revenues off of the rental fees that we do for when we when we rent our facilities. Uh parking fees. Our park district has been always a good partner and help they help us uh with some of our costs and -ate to the tune of $679,000. We also uh expect evidence-based funding, basically the state funding uh to the tune of 2,144,100 for an aggregate amount of revenues $16,54,868. Okay. Uh on the expense side, we anticipate salaries uh increasing. We did have excellent discussions surrounding our working conditions and those uh have resulted in an anticipated $5 million 28,200 expenditure next year. U benefits

088also for the same group increases uh to the pension costs. actually uh you'll see that there were some decreases uh due to some good news on the insurance side that that we recently found out. So 976,830 purchase services uh is a is a big one. We we use outside contractors for a lot of help here. uh Johnson Controls. Uh we have third-party inspectors on our bleachers, our basketball standards and we have repairs done professionally by third parties so that we especially on safety items. So, so we have a lot of purchase services and we anticipate that being about $2,645,400. We also buy a lot of supplies for custodial supplies, ground supplies, maintenance supplies. Uh you would be amazed at how many things we are buying regularly to make sure that the systems that exist are

089maintained in our buildings and functional. Um, we anticipate supplies to the tune of 3,124,338 and uh capital equipment equipment identified as over $3,000. We anticipate buying about $425,000 worth of capital equipment and much of that is cameras, servers, those kind of things. Other expenditures we and dues, fees, contingency to the tune of $76,000 and non-cap equipment under $3,000 uh to to the uh total of $455,000. This is our our vacuum cleaners, our lawnmowers, our push mowers, and hundred other things for estimated total on the expenditure side of 12,730,768. All right. So, how did T get there? How did we get there? We looked at uh the past several years and uh identified trending in our local taxes, in our local fees. Uh this is on the revenue side. So, what we receive from our local

090taxes and also from those fees that we were talking about before that we collect, park district contribution, the monies that we uh invest and and make interest off of. And those local sources uh you can see them increasing over time from 11,772,155 back in 2021-22. Uh you can see the gradual increase over time to this year and u at uh 13,896,87. We anticipate next year it will reach 14,360,768. We also anticipate uh money from our state sources uh in about the same uh amount as we've seen for the last several years. We're not anticipating any federal funds. The federal funding kind of dried up at at the COVID time frame. In short, uh the 2025 uh revenues that we will need total approximately 16,54,868. Any questions on that slide? All right. And then on the

091expenditure side, um kind of the same thing. These are the the areas that we touched on before. We do see salaries increasing slightly this year. Uh same with uh but our benefits, like I said, uh we found some good news on the insurance side. purchase services. We're we spent a lot this year getting things kind of caught up. Uh we're hoping to get that under control and some of that worked into our capital work as well. Um supplies, we do see uh the cost of our supplies going up and u our capital equipment. We we anticipate a average year there. We're holding things the same for our our dues and and contingency and our non-cap. We're also trying to hold the same as last year for a total of 14,531,117. Anybody have any questions about

092that? Okay, I'm going to make a slight adjustment on the screen. Yeah, while you're doing that, um, for number of years back, um, we were bringing in more money than we were able to spend because of COVID or anything. So, we acrewed money for spending later for capital projects. And then over the last two or three years, we've spent really heavy and we we use some of that acred money to pay for the projects that we've that we had we that we acrewed in previous years based on this budget. This is probably more for Todd, but I guess the question I'm asking is, are we getting to the point again where spending that that revenue will exceed spending so that we'll be able to acrue some money for future projects or future items that are

093unexpected that we may have to pay for that we're not running at the line over that we're not spending more money than we're bringing in or spending the exact same money we're bringing in. Are we starting to turn the corner here is what I'm driving at. >> So Todd feels very very strongly about taking a conservative approach. He has no intention of taking you over that line. So is his budgeting philosophies are sound and he pursues that train of thought. But you're getting closer to the point where your revenues are a bit more but not a lot more than what we we are expending. >> No, I understand. But we've caught up. I guess we were we were in a catch-up mode of work that needed to be done and yes, we kind of >>

094kind of caught up if I can use that term. >> Very much so. >> Okay. Some preliminary budget assumptions. Um we are targeting providing competitive wages. We need to be able to recruit staff regionally uh and and we compete with others other districts and and so uh we did a terrific job. The team uh came at the working conditions and and came to some good terms that will provide competitive wages. So we're excited about that. Um it will increase retention and move us towards full staffing. the invest we do plan to invest and use the interest income to counter some of the inflation and some of these strange things that are happening in our in our society with our economy. Um we do plan to leave fund balances in case of overages and we will

095continue proactive and preventative maintenance especially on our critical systems. That is something we we do not intend to stop. We will pursue uh reviewing levels of service and staffing and looking for efficiencies where possible. We the team has done a fine job with that this year and and has really figured out some good ways to work smart. So, one of the things we saw was uh on the salary side was that we are not having as much overtime as we've had in the past because we are changing the way we do some things. >> Can I ask a question? Uh >> yes, sir. >> On that last page, you you you mentioned the proactive preventative maintenance. What have we done differently than let's say we were doing two or three years ago where we were

096more reactive maintenance where something broke and we fixed it. Now we're going ahead and saying this is going to this is going to fail at some point you in the future so we want to make some changes and and start replacing it now rather than do it in an emergency where we might not be able to get the equipment or it'll be very expensive to do it do it on our terms. >> Absolutely. change the process in your organization than what we may have been doing previously. >> Absolutely. That that's that's a great po point, Paul. We uh we do this not only on our internal level, but we're looking at this on the facilities assessment level. We cannot have a chiller go down and wait 9 months or 12 months for it to appear.

097So, we need to do good predictive maintenance. We have assessed when every piece of equipment uh was purchased and installed in the district from exhaust fans to chillers to boilers. And then we've looked at the model type and manufacturer and looked up what the uh lifespan of that anticipated lifespan is and put that into our plan for when we replace it. So um that is that is exactly right. I appreciate the the question and um I believe Brian will continue that even more so than than any of the other candidates we were looking at. He feels very strongly coming from that maintenance side that we have to have equipment working when our students show up. Okay. And areas of concern that we've been talking about this evening, economic and external factors absolutely makes it makes

098us concerned. What if inflation exceeds 2.5%. We're already starting to see a reduction in our returns on our investments as most of you are as well. Some staffing changes uh or challenges, sorry. You know, it's tough in this market to retain and keep good employees and and we've taken good steps towards rectifying that, but it's an interesting world uh with this the generation of workers that we're starting to see. And and some of those, you know, iron, they call them people that show up every day for work no matter what. those folks are starting to retire and and the new generation is asking different questions when they come to us. U we do we do worry about delays in the in the processes and getting large items that have long lead time items, but we

099plan for that. Our construction management company knows those lead times and they keep us on track and that's been going very well this year. and we're targeting not having our summer projects carry over. We're going to finish our work this year. We're going to finish on time and and that's going to happen. It's not a question. And completion timelines are are a piece that help us as we finish those and and don't carry those forward, then that helps with stabilizing our budget and keeping things on track. Can I ask, are we seeing an increased lead time on parts or equipment because we're seeing that the ports are slowing down with some of the tariff increases? Is that starting to hit us yet or are we expecting that to come soon? >> We do anticipate that

100could be an issue and so you will likely see us ask for an early release again uh in August for some of the major equipment for the next summer. We've got to be smart about it and get that out there quick. So, we will we will be coming to uh to talk to you about that. Um we did not have that problem this year. In fact, we saw the lead time shrink slightly. Uh much of the equipment came in before we thought. We put it in a bonded warehouse and made sure it was safe. Um but boy, I'd rather have that chiller sitting in the parking lot or in that warehouse than be waiting on it and you're tearing out the old. So, and and I would add to that this um the idea of

101this early release that helped us this year. We've talked about that a little previously. Um but, you know, kind of to Paul's question earlier about some of the things we've, you know, are trying to update and do differently. Um there could have been times in the past where we might have been coming to the board for money right now for stuff for this summer. So to say that we're going to come in this coming August, you know, for the following year >> that, you know, that's trying to get ahead of this and and make those decisions in that way. >> You know, those kind of cycles are important to get into habits of doing and and your next director is ready for that. We've been training and discussing that. He's been in every owner, architect,

102contractor meeting that we've had. And I'm glad he a little bit glad he's not here so we could I could share with you he's he's ready and he's going to be there for you. So are there are there any other questions or comments? Dan >> have one uh um it might amount to a kudos at some point maybe. Um there's pretty significant decrease in the purchase services line item in the budget. I'm guessing that's because we're having our folks do more maybe and we're not looking for outside help on some of that or I just curious on what the like it was uh $13 million in terms of of decrease in that expenditure line item which is awesome. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. >> It is a good thing but some of that

103is going to move into capital. In the past, we would have uh we would have asked uh some of the vendors to do the work. Now, we're bidding that work. So, we're getting more competitive pricing on it through our capital improvement process. And um while we had the right to do that because uh Johnson Controls, for example, was part of a co-op. Those have been bid earlier and those rates were set. We're seeing some even better pricing as we're asking for things to be bid and and work to be done that way. And so you're seeing it more on the capital side. It's just a it's a move. It's not as good a news as it appears. >> Okay. All right. Thanks, >> sir. >> I just wanted to make a comment and it's more

104of a compliment I think compliment of sorts that uh that I see a recurring theme of advanced work to make sure that things don't get out of hand in terms of cost containment, I suppose, and that that just seemed to be a common theme. I really appreci I think the taxpayers appreciate and every the students everybody else knowing that that we're being good stewards here. So that's very good my compliments. >> I appreciate that very much. >> I also just wanted to chime in and say thank you for the presentation but also throughout um I heard several things that we're doing to not just plan ahead but plan ahead for the instability that we're living through. So, and it's not just in the lead times ordering ahead, but also in your plans and in the

105management of our funds to be consistent year-to-year in that 8 to10 million range. So, I appreciate us thinking as a whole and that there's many possibilities in the future near and far out. So, thank you for considering all of that and bringing all that together in such a meaningful way. >> It is truly the team that is thinking about it in those terms. So, any any other questions? U having been on the facilities task force for six years, I want to congratulate you particularly on the professional management and skill set that you have brought to this role in your service this past year. It is very sincerely appreciated. >> Thank you, sir. Again, it is the team. So, >> takes a leader. >> No one person can do. >> All right. If there's no other

106questions, thank you for letting me present tonight. >> Thanks so much, Jeff. Thank you. The next item on the agenda, public comments. Bonnie, did anyone ask to make any public comments? Would any of you like to say anything before you run out the door? >> Oh, that was a comment. Okay, we'll take Thank you. Legislative updates, Jackie, please. >> I don't have a report prepared for tonight. However, I did take a look at that bill, Dan, just to see where it was at. It's House Bill 1787 regarding the training for substitute teachers and it did have a first reading in the other chamber in the Senate is where it's at now. So it's it's still moving along in the process and they do have another week or two to try and get the anything that

107has moved to the other house through so that it could possibly um move to the governor's office. And that's my report. >> Thank you, Jackie. Superintendent's report. >> All right. Thanks. >> All right. Sorry. Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity to share a few things with you tonight. I know it's a long agenda, but lots of important um subjects to cover and awesome to always see the kids, right? So, um thanks for having a long agenda. It feels like they always get like this in the spring a little bit. There's just a lot to cover. Uh so, just a few things I want to run through. Um first, we've talked about this uh the last several meetings and just wanted to kind of give you an update uh on student assessment. As you know, uh this

108is a busy time. Uh spring is a busy time for student assessment. Um both some of the locally administered assessments and the state required assessments. Um you know that we the high school the state switched to the ACT this year and we were a little concerned about some of the things we were hearing about how that implementation was going uh in some of our neighboring districts. Thankfully, um, we didn't go the first kind of date you could go and I think they worked out some of the kinks and I see Mrs. Sims nodding over there. Went pretty well. Went pretty well all things considered. So, we're glad that that went about as well as it could. Um, and so that's done for the year now at GHS. And AP testing, advanced placement testing is going

109to be coming up here as we um end the year. Uh and we've shared with you earlier this year, we've seen a lot of great growth in that program. Uh at the elementary level, that state required testing, the Illinois assessment for readiness and the uh Illinois science assessment, um elementary and middle school. Um those have been completed as well. Uh we've seen our our students make some gains on those assessments as well in recent years. Um and so those administrations are done and we're looking at the final uh map uh administration at those levels here coming up pretty quick. Uh also just wanted to highlight because several things happened recently. um you know our strategic plan one of our goals is uh the in the area of cultural competency and if you remember that goal

110is about um you know helping our kids kind of get outside of the Geneva bubble and recognize that the whole world isn't just like the Geneva bubble. Um and just in the last since we last met several cool things have happened with that goal. Um so I thought it was worth highlighting those. Uh there was a culture fair at our middle school level that some of our students who um uh are come from different countries uh presented and educated their classmates on their culture. Uh there was the week of giving at GHS last week which really had some just a lot of awesome activities. I wish I could go through all of them, but there was also a pretty powerful presentation that all of our kids went through um learning from uh folks who come

111from other countries. So that was pretty awesome. our elementary team uh that's focused on this work has uh started to really develop a list of some of uh all the great experiences that are happening in this area in our district and um working on kind of developing some uh common experiences that our kids can have. So, we'll be coming to you with more information about that uh in the months and and years ahead. Um and also we're in the early stages of development um working with some of our community partners to expand some of these cultural uh competency activities. So the library is really excited and engaged about some of the some of this work. Um Mrs. Fuller had a great idea about working with them. Uh so we we see some cool things ahead

112and I just wanted to highlight that work. More to come for sure. Uh also just uh the important work of this team. um obviously need as I hope I I know I don't say it enough but you know thank you to all of you for all that you do and I know uh Larry you referenced it at our last meeting but official congratulations to our members who have all been reelected um >> Yep. Yep. >> We're gonna double >> we'll double yeah more Kit Kats for you. More Kit Kats in in the bowl at future meetings. Um, but we're glad to have such a great team. The canvas is complete, so that means it's all official. So, at our next meeting, um, we'll hold our official swearing in, as we were talking about before the

113meeting started. It's the Illinois School Board oath of office, maybe one of the longest oaths. So, for those four of you who are coming, be prepared for taking that long oath. And then we'll have our organization meeting. Um, so we got that coming up. We also have our spring retreat coming up that I think is going to be a good opportunity to talk about some of these strategic plan things in a deeper way and uh graduation is right around the corner. So, uh started on my speech today. Uh so, >> we're taking our picture next one next board meeting. >> Yeah. So, oh yeah, at the next meeting at least >> that's our updated picture meeting. So, we'll we'll take a new board picture at the next meeting when we do our organization. Yeah, M

114Yeah, you'll take it, Mr. Baker. will take the photo. So, yeah, good call. I'll make sure >> your suit is perfect. >> Yeah, you're the you're the best dressed, >> Dr. Yeah. Yeah, he doesn't. [Laughter] >> So, a lot lot of good work ahead for us as well. Uh also want to talk about here um uh something that's happened in the last couple weeks that we're trying to work through and and uh kind of share this with you because it's kind of out of our typical timeline and process. So share some information with you and see if there's any questions or um if there's any way any board members want to weigh in. So, uh, you know, as you know, um, one of our charges, kind of the first big charge in the strategic plan

115is right sizing our staffing with enrollment trends in the district. Um, and so you've heard us talk about some of the things we've done at the elementary. You've heard us talk a lot about at the middle school level all the work that we've done to um, kind of start uh, right sizing that staffing model through attrition and and make some changes. Um, and obviously at the high school they're paying attention to this all the time, too. And when they section for classes each year, they're paying attention to that. We've are the FTE at the high school has gone down over the last several years as you know, our enrollment has declined and they've been able to, uh, reduce that a little bit. Um, so as that enrollment has been declining, uh, one of the places

116we've, uh, seen an impact of that is in our German program. We have three world language languages currently at Geneva uh high school and actually starting in 8th grade uh here in Geneva. So, Spanish, French, and German. Um and the German program has been a small but mighty program for uh the last for for many years it's been a small but mighty program. Um but as that enrollment has been coming down uh you know it's that that program has been shrinking, right? Um, and so we've seen a decline not just in our district enrollment obviously, but in that program that was already small and mighty. So, we've been keeping an eye on that for a while. And as sectioning came in um the section numbers, which is, you know, the kids that pick the courses,

117what courses they pick um for the following year, we saw a pretty small number um of kids uh select that course. Um the thing that is important to note that's uh you know complicated about this particular uh program besides the fact that obviously it's a great program and uh has done great things for kids and has great educators involved with it um it's a multi-year commitment right so if you start kids in German one it's really incumbent on us as a district to to then guarantee them the opportunity to go through that whole program, right? It's not like a course. Um, say you ran AP Psych and you didn't have enough kids to run APsych, you could just say, "Well, we're not going to run it this year." Right? Um, but if you don't have

118a lot of kids to start a program, then you can't just not run it and then pick it back up. or if you are going to run it with a very very small number in a program like this, the thing you have to remember is um that number is theoretically only going to get smaller, right? Because there's theoretically going to be less kids who take the higher level and capstone courses. Um so again, typically uh we would be coming to you uh in the fall uh when uh Mr. Rogers and Mr. Drexler and Mrs. sims are all reviewing kind of the course catalog and coming to present to you uh potential changes. So, one of the things we've been talking about and these are these are hard conversations um just like it was with the

119middle school and uh you know just like some things have been at the elementary level uh over the years but uh an approach we've been talking about pretty seriously is um suns setting this program. And so what that would mean would be um basically making a commitment to say we're going to commit to running this program um for all the kids who are currently enrolled in it because we don't want to take that opportunity away from any kid who's already enrolled in the program um but not start a new one not start new courses we would basically you know commit to running German 2 through AP German next year, then the following year you wouldn't run two because you didn't run German one. And basically over the next several years you would sunset that program.

120Um because again we want to make sure we keep that multi-year commitment to kids. So uh that's something we've been talking about very seriously. Again, that's hard conversations, especially when you've got a a small and mighty program um that we know has been great for kids. Um but um Ultimately, you know, the elimination of uh not running a course is not something that would come to the board, right? We don't run courses all the time, but um deciding to not have courses in our course catalog anymore is something that we would ultimately need uh to come to you to you all with. And that again, that process typically happens in, you know, the fall. So, that's kind of where this is at. And I just wanted to make sure that you all were aware of

121this and had this context. Um, and certainly wanted to be able to because it's a big deal and I wanted to make sure um, if you had questions or you know ways you wanted to weigh in, please do so. >> I had one question. Did have you heard of any pending legislation coming about a requirement for language in our schools and could that then impact how many German students we may have? >> Yeah, it could. That's a good question. Uh there's not even pending legislation. Um there is actually uh technically it's written into the school code right now that starting a few years from now um every child uh every high school it would be a graduation requirement that every kid take two years of a world language. Um, so you know, candidly, uh, you've

122heard me talk about this before. Sometimes legislation comes that seems great in theory, but they didn't ask anybody in practice how that would actually work. Um, we've talked about that a lot. this one. um in my circles uh I'm sure Adam and his circles I'm sure Shauna and her circles all the conversation all the conversations around this um are basically that while it is technically written into the law right now that is going to have to change because uh the there just physically are not enough world language teachers for every student in this state to take two years of a world language. Uh it's it's impossible. Geneva is already um very high about you know around 70% or a little more of our students uh participate in world language and take at least two years

123of world language. Um that's very high. Uh you know some schools have have a much lower number. Um, so that is out there and as a possibility, but our general sense is there's just no way that will actually stick because it's literally a physical impossibility that every high school in Illinois could staff that >> else. I will say, as you all know, world languages are very close to me for a whole lot of reasons. I've had some conversations about this issue and it saddens me very much to see an academically rigorous program be discontinued. >> I have a I have a quick question in regard to um if that is if it would become law or if it is is it law or is it become law? So then are there >> district and we

124I think Paul may have brought this up before in regard to um like a not a co-op but you know what I mean but you um mixing in with other school districts. I'm sure there are school school districts that do that. So that's my first question in regard to that's something maybe we have thought about. >> Second one is um I've heard of other districts and maybe our school district has it is American Sign Language. I know it's not a world language but is that something that >> Great question. >> Yeah. Yeah. Two good questions. One, we've certainly had some preliminary conversations about how you can co-op some things. You know, we have some co we have a co-op with um you know, the Mid Valley co-op that provides special ed programming we couldn't provide

125by ourselves or the career center that provides programming that we couldn't provide by ourselves. Um so I actually know that uh we've had some conversations with some neighboring districts who are having some similar struggles actually with this exact program. um at the moment because of some of the logistics we don't think that that's a viable solution. I think one thing to think about is that um the line from Star Wars because you know I'm a Star Wars nerd comes to mind Imperial entanglements right when when you try to combine multiple taxing bodies to provide a thing it gets really complicated really quickly. Um, and first off, a lot of work would need to go in on the front end to make something like that happen. You're developing intergovernmental agree agreements. You're asking, um, uh, you've

126got to ask all sorts of logistical questions on the staffing side, who employs the staff, who, you know, all that kind of stuff. Um, and then the biggest barrier is to do something like that. uh it potentially means kids traveling some which then means kids taking other stuff out of their schedule uh and then you're theoretically going to lose even more of the kids who would potentially take that course anyway um because they can't give up multiple periods or if part of it's going to be virtual say they don't want to take that if it's virtual or if it's a teacher from that other district maybe As an example with this program, I would say um our teacher who teaches this is is wonderful, right? The one who kind of has really built the program

127into what it is. Um if we were going to partner with somebody else and it was a teacher from another district who kids were going to see online a couple days a week, would those kids pick it? May, you know, seems less likely. So anyway, for all for for all those reasons, we kind of don't think that would be um a viable option at least at the moment. And your second question because I rambled too long was >> American Sign Language. >> Oh yes. So American Sign Language does count as a a world language. It is not a program we have. Um but it is uh I have heard as you have it's popular some places. Um, so, uh, it's not really something that we've talked about, you know, saying, "Well, we should add that

128right now." I I right, Sean, and I mean, you haven't had a lot of conversations about that. >> No, we haven't. And I would also share that that's probably a more difficult field to staff in terms of finding, you know, um, qualified educators in that area. >> All right. Um, anything else? Board dialogue topics and pending action consideration is the consolidated district plan which was presented at the last board meeting. Any questions at this time? Motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. >> I I >> can I jump back in? I forgot to say uh because I was rambling too much in the last one. Uh I had some thank yous for Mr. Baker, but I already did those. Uh but got to say thank you to our wonderful administrative professionals. Last week was

129administrative uh professionals day. Um, and you know, these are the folks who actually make our school district work. Um, and who do all of the important things and make this place run like uh the machine that it is. So, just wanted to say an extra thank you to um all of those folks who serve those roles in our district. We're very grateful for them and all that they do. Sorry. >> No, I think that's an important comment and we're glad you did it. Um item eight is work study topics and future action consideration. There is none at this time. Item nine for information purposes. The board meeting and presentation schedule suspension report and out of state trip requests. And those are for information only. No discussion is required but if anyone has any, we can

130do that. Item 10, my personal favorite, the consent agenda. Item one, personnel report resignations, retirements, leave request, changes in assignment, full-time equivalent, new hires. Item two, monthly financials for March. Item three, client services agreement for proare. Item four, 2526 student fees. Item five, 2425 board meeting calendar. Item six, physical therapy agreement with ATI. Item seven, O andM working agreement. Item eight, Nuzella contract. Item nine, request to purchase 38,834 datamation imaging for student records digitiz digitiz digitization. Anyway, >> yeah, glad I don't have to read all those numbers that Jeff did. Item uh nine item 10 rather request for purchase $27,988.75 cents Midwest Computer Products Inc. for classroom projectors at Harrison and well HS and FES. Item 11, uh gifts, grants, and requests, $500 from the Geneva Masonic Lodge to support students in need. Item 12,

131gift grants and bequest $2,000. Tammy and Mike Chio. That's close enough. Uh for GHS board activities, a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. I >> thank you. Item 11 is board member comments and reports. So, we're going to start with Stephanie because she probably has a thing or two to say. >> You can count on it. I just wanted to say congratulations to all of our Viking leaders who we um got to recognize tonight and all of our um our high school students as well. Just nice to have the kids here and sharing what they do that's special in the schools. That's always my favorite part of the board meetings when they're here. And um great job. It's just really nice to see some of those different ways that they're connecting with different

132students and leading in their buildings. Also, congrats to the GHS theater program. They had four performances last weekend of Susicle the Musical and they just did an amazing job. I might be a little bit biased, but it was really great overall. And it just lovely to see so many students involved in in an activity between the kids you saw on stage singing and dancing and acting, the pit who did a wonderful job, like the music just sounded so good. And then also all the kids backstage who you don't even get to see on stage, but all the work that they put in throughout like the past two months to get this show up and running and lots of late nights go into that and just great job. I think it also when we talk about

133the cultural competency of bringing community together this sh like you see so many different faces when you're in the theater and um seeing the show. So just a great thing overall. Thank you for the presentations tonight too, Mr. Baker and to Jeff just wonderful overall and very informative. I really appreciated that. And then also to tag on to what Dr. Barrett said for administrative professionals week. Thank you to those staff members. I really do think that they are the glue that holds the school together in many different ways. And for parents, they're often that like front front line that they see and talk to and help in so many ways. And I know staff appreciation is coming up as well. So, thank you to all of our staff in the buildings. really I think of

134our teachers and our staff in the buildings as an extension of myself with my kid. Um, and they do so many different things in so many great ways to really be impactful in our kids' lives. So, thank you so much for that. That's all I have. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, just wanted to say a few things about presentations tonight. I thought it was just uh very encouraging. Um, of course, children. I shouldn't say children. Yeah, I can't see children uh students uh really don't get a formal course in civics as it was when I was in school, but they do get opportunities to see how things work. And I think that this is um once again, I see it u from time to time in these presentations, they're learning how to be citizens. Uh

135one thing I can say that in the as Andy has referred to it as the Geneva bubble but you know there obviously that everybody comes from a different background but for some children they have had some things handed to them on a silver platter but what I was seeing tonight is that they're learning how to serve others on their platter or they may have been born with a silver spoon but they're learning that they need to learn how to not just feed themselves but learn how to feed others. And I thought that this was just really a maybe a subscript, but to be sure uh I I just thought that what I'm see what I was seeing in this theme with the uh the uh grade schoolers was that they're giving giving giving without waiting

136for a thank you. Which I think is just something that goes beyond uh something you can teach. You have to live it. So you can't teach a person how to care. You just learn to do it. Yeah. In a sense, it's in you. So that's all I got to say. >> Thank you, Jack. >> Yeah, since our last meeting, not too much activity, but I did get to go to the musical uh last week, it was wonderful. Um, having gone to a number of them over the years, I felt like this one, the everybody involved with it was so excited. They were having such a good time up there on the stage. And like you said, Stephanie, everybody was involved. It was one where most of the time everyone was on stage doing something and

137it was just so much fun to watch them. I I had told you I'd gone in knowing nothing about this uh performance and what was going to happen and I was uh truly tickled by the end. That was so much fun. So congratulations to the the theater group um who put that together. The pit orchestra was wonderful um listening to them play and that was a lot of work on them. I wanted to again recognize the students tonight. That was some good stories. uh when they talked about how uh we now have the unified Vikings program at the high school. It made me think of Mr. Rogers who I quoted before about this, that's the reason having a a consolidated district is so good because we can start at the elementary level like she said

138and where these students can start working with uh people with different abilities and then they can carry that through all the way to the high school where we now have that programming. So that was uh a really nice evening to to see the students and then our high school kids with their um awards that they won. It's all the different things that they you can do at the high school that are beyond just I'll say like sports and music but really academic things that the students are involved with and and they can be recognized here too. Uh thanks for our presentations tonight. Uh I do appreciate I had asked a couple weeks ago about addressing how we'll look at things differently with the uncertainty with tariffs and and that was addressed in the presentation. So

139that was great to hear that. And security is is something that's like you said it's not going to happen here. But as some of you know my daughter is a student at Illinois State and there was an incident last night and to first of all she immediately contacted me and said she was okay. So I didn't have to worry. But I went to a parent page and all the rumor and and in things that weren't necessarily vetted yet that were being shared, people listening to a scanner and reporting what's being like all those things that to us are common sense later, but in the moment parents are going to react a certain way. So knowing that we have these protocols in place and that we practice them and we know what we're going to do

140is really important. So it's not going to happen in our neighborhood, but if it does, I know that we're ready. And that's all I have. >> Um, again, I'd like to say thank you for the presentations tonight. I know that the we have a lot of requests for this security um presentation and I think what you presented is is good information for the parents and the community to see that that we are we're serious about this and we're doing everything we can. and I'm part of this task force committee on the um on the capital projects and we've done a you guys have done a great job there and I really appreciate that. Um I want to say also um unfortunately I had to be out of town so I didn't make the musical but

141um I want to say a shout out to the all the parents that are part of the theater boosters. um they really come through and there's always a core group that that helps to drive it, but in the end um all the parents are there and it's it's pretty cool to see how how they how they how they put into that and it's great seeing all the kids from um the Mil Creek school here today. I know for me uh the Illinois U food bank is near and dear to my heart. I try to spend a day a week there um and uh it's great to see them out there loading onions. I hate loading onions. So, if the kids could do it, that's even better. >> You knew they were going that day. >>

142Yeah, I would echo what everybody has said um to our young students that came um the Soaring Eagles and the student council members. What excellent examples of leadership um from such a young age. And I I can't wait to see that come through all the way through high school. uh to our high school students also that won or got their certificates tonight. I'm I'm continually impressed by uh what is number one offered and then what they do with with that and and the opportunities that they have. I'm I'm always blown away. Um, Tim, I know it's been said a few times, but as a board member, but even more so as a parent, uh, it it's so meaningful to me to hear the thought and consideration that goes into ensuring safety, um, for our students,

143for staff, um, and for our community. It's, as Jackie talked about, it's it's a terrifying world that we live in. So to um hear presentations on that and and to know the care and intention that goes in behind your decisions and and what you're looking for and the eyes that you have on and your team, I I so appreciate that and to our community partners too that engage in those conversations with you. I I thank everybody. Um and Jeb, you also spoke about safety in your presentation. So uh safety is, you know, so many different things. because it's so layered and to know that the um consideration for safety on all scales was really tended to this evening. I I really appreciate that. Um I did have the opportunity on April 15th to attend the

144health insurance meeting with Dr. Law and some of our GA members. I really appreciate being a part of those conversations and um you know hearing the conversation around um being you know good stewards of um financial considerations but also making sure that our our staff and our faculty um have the opportunity to get the coverage that they need for their families is is great to be a part of. So um yeah I think that's it. >> Yeah, I echo what everyone else says. The only thing I would like to add is uh I guess thank fellow board members for approving the um ON& and M working agreement. A lot of hard work went into that. Thank Jeff and Adam and Andy and Todd for really putting a lot of time and effort into into that.

145Um I guess I can speak for Paul as well that that you know it was nice to be a part of that committee and and to contribute in the little way that we did um to that. So, um, and for also the our on O andM staff that also participated on, um, in putting that agreement together. So, thank you all for approving that tonight. That's all I have. >> Okay. Thank you. And thank you all and going last is kind of nice because I can just say what you said, what you said, what you said, what you said, what you said, and what you said. Thank you everyone for being the professionals that you are. We truly appreciate it. It makes our work as board members much easier and therefore we all end up with

146a better result. So again, thank you very much. I have to mentioned the musical because as a person who has a professional dancer in the family, I can tell you that that choreography was spectacular. Way beyond anything I've seen from a high school class and many more people doing it. It was terrific. And if you missed it, I'm sorry. Having said that, um the next item is we have to go into executive session and so I get to read some of this which is appropriate. Executive session to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation or discipline, performance or dismissal of specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in on an educational setting. Um way down here we get to uh negotiating matters between the public body and employees and their representatives or deliberations concerning the

147salary schedules of one or more classes of employees. For those reasons, we need to go into executive session. And so we'll have a fiveminut uh recess and we need a motion. >> Motion to go into executive >> second. I >> So now we have the five minute intermission.