001First of all, uh, could you call the role? Tammy >> here. >> Thank you. I'd like to welcome you to this the regular meeting of the Geneva Board of Education on April 14th. We're pleased to have all of you with us and we look forward especially you too. >> So, uh you're welcome. And we'll do the pledge. The flag is right over there and Dan will lead us. 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. There is an attendance sheet if you wish to register your attendance and of course agendas available in the hallway. First item is minutes for the regular session of March 10, 2025. I almost said,
002"Hey, Bonnie," but Tammy, have you received any corrections? >> Excellent. Does anyone have any corrections at this time? Could I have a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve the minutes. >> So moved. >> I I >> I >> All right. Be interesting to see how you write that down. Um item three, recognition, awards, presentations, public hearings. The Viking Leaders Award, the World Robot Olympiad. >> Yeah. So, we're excited to have uh Mr. Carly here to introduce one of our awesome students uh and recognize him as a Viking leader. So, uh just as a reminder, uh we're going to have the board come up around front here and the board's going to wait up here. Mr. Carly, you're going to brag about Sawyer here a little bit, I think. And then when you're done, uh
003Sawyer, you'll come down and shake everybody's hand and then stand in front of our new sweet banner for your photo. All right, Mr. Carly, tell us some awesome things about Sawyer. >> All right. Well, good good evening. Appreciate the opportunity to introduce Sawyer. Uh, sixth grade student at Middle School North. Uh, Sawyer is a um student has been he's competing since elementary school in some robotics uh throughout the world, not only state or the United States, but throughout the world. Um during our last Thanksgiving break, Sawyer traveled to Turkey uh where he placed fifth overall in a uh robo mission elementary competition. Uh this competition represented 90 countries in over 100 teams. Um in 2022, Sawyer placed first in the state of Illinois, the United States National Championship, and competed in the world final in
004Germany. In 2023, um, Sawyer placed second at nationals where, uh, it was held in Boston. Um, and then in 2024, he placed third at nationals in California. Uh, first place at the US Open and a first place finish in the Americans competition held in Puerto Rico. A few months ago, believe in January. Uh, Sora competed in Illinois, placing first uh, in the competition. And then uh next month he'll be moving on to um the world final robotics competition in Dallas, Texas. So want to introduce you to Sawyer. He's doing some great things outside of school and um he's just yeah since elementary school. So Sawyer Ren Sawyer did bring one of his robots that he built. Um is is that one of your first ones, Sawyer? >> Yeah. Yeah. One of his first robots that
005he built. Yeah. So you want to go down right here. your first congratulastic [Applause] [Laughter] Are you looking for a job, Sawyer? Looking for a job, >> Sawyer. If you make a robotic gavvel, I will use it at a meeting. Oh, that'd be cool. >> Oh, that would be nice. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Item two, facility capacity analysis. Dr. Barrett. >> Yeah, thanks for the opportunity to share this with you. I know we have several kind of uh big topics today. Um but uh you know, this is an important one and it's something we've been kind of looking at over the course uh of this whole school year. So, um, wanted to take some time to dive into this and be able to answer questions if if you have any, um, as we
006keep working through some of this, uh, important work that I'll kind of lay out here. Um, you know, kind of the overarching question that we're we're thinking about when we're talking about our facility capacity, um, at least for today's presentation, has to do with this question here, right? How do we best achieve our goals of reasonable, equitable, and sustainable elementary school experiences in Geneva 304? That's kind of the foundational question that is um you know guiding what we're going to talk about today. So, just as some quick background, obviously this is all work that the foundation of this is our strategic plan that we um worked through last year and officially uh you know developed and and kickstarted. Goal area one, and this is language right from our strategic plan is around enrollment and staffing.
007And one of the things we uh said we needed to do was take a look at our staffing and facility capacity and um you know review our boundary um see if our boundaries and our if there are facility considerations that we need to be thinking about um aligned to our enrollment specifically when it comes to elementary. And so what we said was there's kind of three steps we needed to take um to start that process. One was evaluate a demographic study and we've done that, right? We had that demographic study conducted, presented uh some information about that with you earlier this year. I'll talk a little more here in a little bit about the next steps with that. Um another piece was to conduct a facility capacity review and analysis. And that's really what I'm
008going to talk about here with you today. Um and then also do that in the context of also evaluating our contemporary programming needs, right? How how are we programming for kids and using our schools these days? Um so you know given those components in goal area one again we completed that demographic study uh earlier this year and now here to talk about this um this capacity analysis because we've been do conducting that and doing some of this programming uh work over the course of the year. So shared these guided um guiding question this context and guiding questions with you at our last meeting but I think it's important to circle back to them and I'll circle back one more time at the end as well. Uh again, obviously it's important to note uh explicitly that
009um there are a lot of complex complex variables um and nuanced assumptions that go into this capacity analysis. By which I mean uh you can't just sit there and plug plug in some numbers and say here's how many kids fit in your school, right? There's a lot of different variables we need to consider when we're thinking about how many kids can fit into our school. And so I'm going to talk about some of those complexities here in a little bit. But given that, you know, and our goal of reasonable, equitable, and sustainable, you know, opportunities for kids, these are kind of some three questions. These are three questions we're thinking about. One is how close are our learning spaces to achieving our class size targets? We worked with the class size committee um explicitly at
010the elementary level to talk about um and establish some targets for class size. So, how close are our current learning spaces to achieving those? Um, what's a reasonable expectation for maximizing our facility usage efficiency? And this is an important one, too, because um we want to be efficient, but uh you know, there's a a little bit of a juxtaposition there. At some point, if you get so efficient, you might end up losing some other things, right? So, we want to make sure we're talking about that as well. Um, and then that big question kind of like I said at the beginning here, right? How can we ensure consistent and equitable experiences uh for kids all across our district? So, how do we get this process started? Well, uh, we worked with, uh, our district architect,
011FGM architects, and I want to thank, uh, Mike Dens, who's one of the architects there. He did a lot of the, um, you know, that difficult behind the scenes work to help us, uh, you know, begin this analysis. So, he confirmed our our current enrollments, looked at our target class sizes, looked at all of our exist existing instructional spaces, um, and what are the class sizes in those spaces, looked at the way every instructional space and professional space is being used in the district currently. You know, calculated the square footage for all those uh, spaces and then explored multiple um, models. Now, I'm not I don't get into all the models here tonight. Um, I'd be happy to to get into some of that later if if that's of interest, uh, you know, for the
012board or the community, but um, you know, he conducted, uh, you know, looked at this through a lot of different lenses and then we were able to take that and kind of synthesize it into the information that we thought would would be important. So, I wanted to just start right off the top with what are the general findings from this? Uh, well, and I'll start at uh, you know, with our oldest students and and work our way down. So first uh with our high school um additional capacity at the high school is largely dependent on scheduling efficiency by which I mean most of our spaces are used most of the time right now. Um we don't have a lot of rooms necessarily at the high school that are sitting empty not being used for a
013lot of periods in the day. Right. So any gains while we we could have some room for uh additional kind of capacity, it would be through scheduling efficiency and having more of our classes um you know be closer to our class size targets. That makes sense. Now the important thing to note here like I talked about just a minute ago it's important to remember that efficient at some point that kind of efficiency and uh student opportunity opportunities for kids are interdependent given our current programmatic offerings and utilization rates. Here's what that means. Um we offer a really robust curriculum with a lot of unique and diverse classes. Uh we've built that programming over time here in our district uh intentionally. Um and much of that programming was built over time based on um some old
014assumptions that our school would be much bigger than our demographic study tells us it is now, right? Um but what that means is we now have a a lot of classes, capstone classes, unique course offerings, things like that. um that almost by design, you're not going to be able to build a schedule that has all those classes perfectly full at the most efficient uh level because there's not enough kids to enroll in it. Does that make sense? Um so that's that's really the the the thing we need to be thinking about at the high school. Um and again, today we're mostly talking about elementary, but I thought it would be important to highlight all the levels. So with me so far on the from the high school perspective, >> just one question on the high
015school. Does that include shared spaces such as cafeteria, auditorium, gym spaces, like things like that? >> Yes, absolutely. So they they looked at all those spaces and did what would the capacity of any of those lunch periods be? What would the capacity of the gym be at any given time? Again, based on what we would say are our target sizes for those kinds of things. Good question. Um, at the middle school, uh, additional capacity would be largely dependent on, you know, our current staff reduction and restructuring plan. We've been talking about this with you a lot already this year, so we probably won't I won't get into that that much um, uh, tonight especially, but you know, we've been talking about that a lot. I think the caveat I would throw in here at the
016middle school level is just to note that current programmatic offerings and community partnerships play a role in our middle school capacity. um by which I mean some of the unique programs we offer, the um self-contained programs, and we'll get into this a little bit. Uh you know, some of those programs that we've we've built um and also uh our community partnerships with part of our middle school currently being um utilized by the park district for the Friendship Station Preschool. That all plays into this capacity piece at the middle school, right? Uh then you know the big one that we're talking about here today, right? Elementary. So uh at elementary, a couple things to note. First, similar to the high school, um additional capacity is largely dependent on class size efficiency. Okay? And I'm going to
017get into all of this in much greater detail. Um but again the idea here is when we're thinking about that that class size efficiency it's we know what our target class size is for ele for kindergarten say say our target class size is 20 to 21. We have capacity across the district um because we have a lot of kindergarten classes that aren't at that target right now. Right. So that is the primary driver of where we think we can build additional capacity for uh enrollment in the district. Um again and I'll get into this in greater detail. Our current programmatic offerings in the district play a role uh in this. I'll get into that. Um and I I think this is not a surprise. We've talked about this this year. Uh capacity is inconsistent and
018imbalanced across the district with some buildings having more capacity and some buildings having less. Right. So, we'll get to that. Um, and then of course there is not a building, but important to note that our our district preschool, the Geneva Early Learning Program, uh, Gilp, um, you know, their capacity for that program really is largely dependent on their current space, uh, and how they utilize that at Fabian, right? So, there's a certain space that they have at Fabian. their capacity and that program is all based on that section of Fabian that they have right now. So I want to deep in uh dig deeper into elementary because that's really where um uh where we want to be talking more in depth here. So some critical understandings about the design of our buildings. Our elementary buildings
019were built between 1953 and 2009. Um, and they were all built even though uh, you know, that's a long time, but they were all built kind of with these same general assumptions in mind, right? So, there was an assumption that, um, you know, we were going to have neighborhood schools here in our community. Neighborhood schools meaning uh, schools where, you know, we try to have whole chunks of neighborhoods go to a particular school. We're not like some districts where you have would have grade level centers or not like some districts where you would have um you really are carving up the lines in the middle of neighborhoods to equalize your numbers perfectly. Right? We haven't done that. An assumption in the construction of all of these was our neighborhood school model. A general assumption was
020a four section school when these were built. Okay? So meaning like four first grades, four second grades like that, right? Um a general assumption was that they would have half day kindergarten, right? Um because all of our schools had half day kindergarten at that time. Um and then these last two limited support programming and limited kind of shared support personnel. Uh the big idea behind this uh to the best way to think about it is these buildings were designed in a way with the thinking that most of the instructional spaces were designed to be grade level classroom spaces, right? Most of the instructional spaces in the building were designed to be a fourth grade class or a second grade class, right? They weren't designed um for unique support programming or a lot of shared support
021personnel like that, right? They weren't really designed that way. So, obviously times have changed now, right? We have full day kindergarten in all of our schools. We have a lot more special education and intervention supports in all of our schools. Um, we have, uh, we've grown our in-house self-contained programming in the district and we've also grown, um, the amount of Mid Valley special education co-op programming that we house. Um, and we've also developed our own in-house district preschool program that needs to fit in one of those buildings. Right. So, all of these things are very different than, you know, kind of the thought and intent when these buildings were designed. Yes, sir. >> Can you go back to Can you go back to the other slide? >> Yes, sir. Can you explain a little bit
022more what is in-house self-contained programming? >> Sure. >> So let's clarify that. >> Yeah. Thanks. So we have um again if you think about that lens of our buildings were built in this way, you know, assuming most classrooms would be like a fourth grade class or a third grade class. Uh now we have classrooms and you've met many of these students over the course of the last couple years and some great presentations. um you know like our fast program, we developed a a special education program for a small group of kids who have uh some unique needs and um those are those programs now take up a classroom space that maybe would not have uh been used that way in the past. Uh and also and well let me do this I'll get to the
023example and see if this helps a little bit. So let me give you an example. Um and I picked Mil Creek just because I lived there. uh for many years and so it was um stuck in my head as the as the principal. So here's Mil Creek um built in 95 maybe 96 depending on when they say we took occupancy um and then there was an addition in 2006 um back when I was there. So here's the map of Mil Creek and the best way to think about it is every gray space on this is designed to be a grade level classroom, right? That's what how the building was built. Um, so every one of those gray spaces is basically designed to be a grade level classroom for kids. But when you look at it
024now and you look at how it's used, um, you see a lot of those classrooms that were just all designed to be grade level classrooms here are now used differently. And I think some of you have been on tours of the building and seen some of this, right? we have um there's, you know, here's an intervention space. Here's uh some some unique specialed programming space. There's a um a sensory room because of the special programming that goes on at that school, right? So, you know, like these pink and these brown rooms, all those rooms are are rooms that were designed and at one time were just there to be grade level classroom spaces and we're now using differently. And every one of our buildings has this to some extent, right? Depending on what programming we're
025offering and whatnot. So, it's important to know that uh because number one, we believe in the value and the benefit of that contemporary programming as a district. That's why we spent time building that programming over the last several years. Um, and because it's important to note when we're thinking about our capacity, we need locations to maintain those services and opportunities, right? Those aren't going to go away. You we we we need to have those programs um and all that great stuff that we do. So, that's part of what makes this capacity analysis a little complicated. Um, and like we talked about with the high school, right? Capacity and opportunity at some level are interdependent. So, uh, could you theoretically say, and if the time came that we really needed a lot of space, could you
026theoretically say, "Yeah, we have room for a many more or or some more classrooms, like grade level classrooms." Yes. Um, you could get more of that efficiency. That would probably come at the cost of some opportunity for some of those programs that we offer. So when we uh worked with the architect to look at what our capacity is right now, the place we settled was max operational capacity. Um and the way we developed this number is really by saying let's look at what our district class size targets are that we've established. Let's look at how we're currently using those spaces, right? Um and let's let's assume our existing building configuration, right? We're not saying what's our capacity if we put an addition somewhere or if we did anything like that, right? Um let's assume that
027most and we can get into this a little bit, but let's assume that most of our classrooms are utilized kind of in their current form. In other words, let's assume that that sensory room can stay a sensory room, right? Let's assume some of those things. Um and and also let's assume 100% efficiency. So, if every second grade class could be at the perfect number, right, and every fifth grade class could be at the per perfect number if we calculated all of that in aggregate for all of our buildings, what would our capacity look like? Um, and so, one more quick note before we get at the numbers and talk about those a little bit. Uh I kind of just referenced this slide but just to note it explicitly. Um this this number largely um is
028based on the assumption these calculations are say how many kids can we fit into our current grade level classrooms based on our current class size targets. Um it does not necessarily enume space for additional grade level classrooms in most cases. We have other ways we can calculate that and can talk about that if we needed to, but for this analysis right here, that's not really what we're doing. We're not saying how many classrooms can we take and turn back into grade level classrooms because again, we could gain that space theoretically in one of those other models, but that would be by reducing or restructuring or relocating, you know, programming or professional spaces or things like that. Does this make sense? Okay. So, given that, here is a here's where we think our current elementary capacity
029is sitting. Um, so we've got right now our enrollment at each school. Uh, our average number of grade level sections. Uh remember uh so that's like how many second grades, how many third grades, and based on the the calculation the architect put together, what's our current um class size capacity percentage, right? So you need to know the number of sections. That's kind of key. And I think that's kind of the first number to look at because you see, you know, if you start at the bottom, you got Western, H Heartland, Mil Creek. Those are basically three section schools now, right? Um and then you Western, Heartland, Mil Creek, and Harrison actually, right? Those are all basically three-section schools. Then you have Fabian, uh that's basically a two-section school, right? And has been pretty much since
030it's since it opened. Um and Williamsburg is basically a four section school, right? Um, so given those sections and the current utilization of all those buildings, what you're generally looking at is pretty high utilization, right? Um, Harrison being near the top at 95% capacity. In other words, most of the spaces at Harrison that are being used for classroom spaces and that we don't think we could um you know that we we don't think we could gain or take additional spaces of those spaces. Harrison's pretty high. Okay. Um and you see then you know Williamsburg right there behind it and then Mil Creek Harland and Western are all um kind of in that mid70s range right um obviously Fabian is the one that is a little interesting and and so we put two numbers there uh
031to because it's important we have to remember that gelp our Geneva early learning program is currently housed at Fabian Elementary School right So we have to kind of think of Fabian um in two different ways. We have to think of Fabian both as an entity that that would be just Fabian Elementary School that would be used like every other one of our elementary schools or Fabian as an entity that is Fabian Elementary School that houses our pretty large and robust in district preschool program. Yes sir. >> Uh okay. So, with Fabian, how are you including or are you not including the the amount of um classrooms that we're leasing out to Mid Valley in in that case? >> Yeah. Good. So, we're using uh we have Mid Valley classrooms at several of our buildings. Um
032and at FAB in in this model, we're assuming those all stay and >> as mid valley. Well, they're the mid valley are considered in this analysis >> students. Yes. From Geneva. >> Yeah. They're part of our and those rooms >> whether they come from anywhere. >> Yep. And we're assuming those rooms basically are at capacity, right? Because um they're unique programming and however many kids is appropriate and that we're assuming those rooms are at capacity. Uh good question. So if you think of Fabian as an entity that is just Fabian the elementary school um you can see that it's it's lower it's got a much lower capacity both from a class size perspective and a facility space when you think of Fabian um with the perspective of the fact that it houses our awesome Geneva
033early learning program Um then you see as a facility right now it becomes one of the highest utilization rates. Um and you know that's a good thing. What what it does tell us is that we're using our buildings pretty efficiently. We're using the facilities at least pretty efficiently right now. Um we have gelp like we said we value that program. We know it needs to be somewhere. There is the space at Fabian. So we're using it that way. Um Andy, please. Um with gel, is the fact that we're pretty high capacity at Fabian with guilt at all limiting the opportunity to grow gel further either today. Are we seeing that today that we have to turn people away or thoughts about the future? >> Good question. We're not really seeing that. we're seeing that today.
034Um that we would that we're like having to turn people away really. Um but we are kind of we're about where we're at right now. There's not a lot of opportunity for it growing substantially um in in that space. So >> is there a need to grow it >> further do you think in the future? >> I think that's something that we'll have to talk more about. I think there's opportunity potentially. Um there's probably a difference between opportunity and need. Um and as part of the strategic plan, there is also a committee uh that Ann Scalia um our director of student services and Jen Satin who oversees Gelp are leading and facilitating right now about they're basically currently working simultaneously with us saying what do we view as the kind of future programming needs for
035GELP? So they're they're having that conversation right right now as we speak. So, yes sir. >> So, I remember the tour of U what is it? Hartman. >> Yeah. >> No, not Hartman. It was Harrison. Yeah. So, that was built so long ago, but now >> there are uh provisions for accessibility with elevators and lifts and things like that. So, are there any thoughts about whe they have to shift things around and make improvements to other schools or are they all up to the same code like Harrison has been retrofitted? >> Yeah, I think our schools are in um are in good shape in that regard. >> Okay. >> Yeah, our schools are in good shape in that regard. >> So, if Galp just off his thought, if if GP were to expand, would that
036mean that you would have to create more accessibility for Fabian or is it where it needs to be? I think that's uh food for thought. Uh something to be thinking about more. I think um it's certainly an accessible building. Yeah. Um I think if you talked to our our our gelp friends um and maybe our gel parents, they might say it's a lot of stairs for those little lakes. >> Yeah. >> But um it's it's an accessible space. There's ramps and elevators and and all those things. Um but yeah, that's a good question. >> So Andy, can I just clarify? So when we're looking at this with Fabian, the classrooms themselves are being used to 91% capacity. If we look at both Fabian and Galp. Yep. >> But if you open the door of the
037classroom, we're probably nowhere near our targeted level of students in each classroom. probably almost half maybe or >> um well because it's gotten because it's only at two sections um and because of some of the adjustments we've made with our class size uh targets um they're they're a little closer but uh yes generally speaking you know part of what this number these numbers reflect again is how close is that building to achieving those class- size targets. Right? So Harrison, they're almost all of their classes are kind of right there at that line where we say this is their target. Um, and as you see those percentages go down, you know, that's obviously a little bit less. the the Fabian the Fabian uh two numbers there, the 91 and the 55. Uh that's the only one
038where it's a little more complicated to understand and parse out because that that 55% capacity number is reflecting two things. One, it's reflecting the class size capacity that we have room for more kids to fit in those sections at Fabian, but it's also reflecting if you assumed Gelp wasn't there. We have there's also classroom capacity there, right? Where we're not really assuming that for anybody else >> because we're kind of assuming everybody else. Um and that's that's just for sake of um really kind of understanding um the the Fabian gel relationship. We have to look at those numbers. >> Yeah. Because if we had to if we got so many students at Fabian and we had to add a whole additional section, that would be hard to find room to add a whole additional section
039>> as it's set up right now. >> As it is now. But if we had five more students per class, we'd probably be fine. >> Yes. >> Okay. Yes, these are all good questions. Thank you for making this a dialogue because that's what this that's what this needs to be, right? Like asking these hard questions. So again, obviously this is really complicated. Um but these are the these are the things we're trying to to get to. How close are our learning spaces to achieving those targets? Well, at most places we're pretty close. Um but we've got room. We definitely have room. Um, this next question is the big question. What's a reasonable expectation for maximizing our efficiency? And that's what we'll have to have some more conversation about. Um because the thing this capacity analysis
040doesn't talk about at all yet is how can we ensure consistent and equitable experiences across the district because that's part of the challenge you have here with the lower efficiency at one school the the lower number of sections at that school. um even if the the facility capacity again we're using that space well at Fabian um but go back to this third question do we have consistent and equitable experiences for our elementary kids across all those buildings in some ways uh no because of the difference in these numbers right um and so that's something we're gonna have to have some conversations about and so how are we gonna do that The next big step is going to be okay taking this information and then going back and comparing it to uh okay what does the
041demographic study tell us about what each of these places what we can expect the enrollment at each of these places to be say over the next five years. Um, and now we have one year worth of data that we can start to compare. Okay, how close were those projections to the actual numbers that we're starting to get for enrollment for next year, right? Um, and we can do some additional calculations now because there's more another year's worth of birth data out there. Um, and we're, you know, in some talks with, uh, Dr. Kofran to take a look at some of that. Um so we can then start comparing that. Okay, what are those capacity percentage numbers? How do those kind of overlap with um what the demographic study tells us about the enrollment we can
042expect at our k at our schools? And then that's the question we're trying to answer. How do we have reasonable, equitable, and sustainable experiences for our kids? So the next step is going to be coming back to you with some of that overlap analysis. Okay. Um, and then we'll we'll have some additional questions to um to ask and for the board to talk about, I think. Any other questions for now? Okay. >> Thank you very much, Dr. >> Thank you. >> And as if if it's needed, the next section on the agenda is public comments. So, I ask again, are there any public comments or questions? That's pretty normal. I'm I I'm gonna have to pay somebody to talk to the board at some point. Thank you for attending. In any case, item five, legislative
043updates. There's been a lot of activity in Springfield. Jackie, you get it. >> Yes. Um, I have a few bills that I wanted to review tonight. Um, but start off with last Friday was a a big date for the general assembly. It was the the date that they needed to push any proposed bills through a third reading, which means a third vote, and then it would be approved to go to the other chamber and start that process all over again because in order to make it to the governor's desk, both chambers have to approve a bill. So, um, there were quite a few bills that did make it, some did not. So, we talk about how many thousands of bills are introduced every every session. And so, some of those are um not moving forward
044at this point. Doesn't mean that they won't in the future. But for now, um I thought I would highlight a few bills that uh would have uh some impact on us and some that maybe were interesting. Um there's House Bill 1787. This recommends that school districts provide training on school evacuation drills and law enforcement lockdown drills for substitute teachers. So, I thought about this one. You imagine you're a substitute teacher and any of these things happen while you're there. Uh providing some sort of training. It did not have details on what type and how, but um just something that's moving through that did make it to the other chamber. House Bill 3275. Uh this is related to uh sports and any head coaches must be certified in CPR, AED and first aid. Um there were
045some changes to this bill as it was going through the process saying maybe head coaches and assistant coaches and either way, but right now it's landed on just the head coaches would have to have this requirement. And then the last one is House Bill 1237. Um, and you've heard of this one before is the use of Native American name, logo, or mascots at the um, school levels. That one did uh, make it to the other chamber. So, that one's moving forward. Uh, we've had some discussion about cell phone use in school and the governor's behind this. There are bills that are have been proposed. Uh, Senate Bill 2427 did make it through to the other chamber. Uh however, our not talking too much about it here because our policy has already been in place and
046this proposed legislation essentially mirrors kind of what we're doing already. So, not much to update. Just let you know that it is moving forward uh as um so far as it's being proposed and it's going to the other chamber. Uh IASB did say that they were going to send us another digest kind of all the bills that have made it to the other chamber. So, at our next meeting, I'll go through some other bills that um have also been moved over and that we could see moving forward to the governor's desk later. Uh the end of the session right now is uh at the end of May, so they have a lot of work to do in a month. That's my report. >> Now I'll say it again. Thank you very much. The uh superintendent's
047report is if Andy hasn't had enough opportunity to speak. >> Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Just a few quick things today. Uh first just um want to reflect on uh a little bit on spring break. Hopefully a lot of our uh school community had an opportunity to catch a breath. Um spring break was um historically in Kane County uh all the districts have uh the kind of pinky square rule has been spring break starts on the last Monday of March which this year was like the 31st, right? which is why spring break feels kind of late this year. Um because the it we just have typically always started on the last uh Monday of March. So that also means we're running downhill to the end of the year now. We're we're we're cooking. We're cooking. Um
048so that's great. There was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes during that week uh especially uh on some capital projects and facility enhancements. Um it's I I you know we talked a little bit in the finance committee and we'll talk about it at our next meeting that um you know we've had kind of some projects backing up and stacking up and then we end up having money we didn't spend and uh you know that all gets complicated. Um but our team is getting creative and one of the ways they got creative was hey we have a week let's work with our principles and our buildings to get a jump start on some of this work that needs to be done. Um, and so they did and we got started on some
049projects that will help us make sure we're getting everything done over the summer. There was also planning around assessments. I know we did a lot of work in this office with state reporting that's coming due um planning for uh the year end and also um one of the the biggest pieces that I just have to uh kind of give huge shout out for is our financial system transition. I know you've heard a little bit about this, but we've got to give a huge thank you. Um, we made this transition to Skyward Q. Uh, our financial system and our business office, our human resources office and our technology teams just boy, they they put in the work. They worked hard and made this made this switch happen. So, we're now on the new system. Um, they
050had that week over spring break. I know I'm pretty sure Mike was sitting upstairs working on this until he walked down here. So, I I know there's still a lot of work happening behind the scenes in Mike's office and Todd's office and Adam's office, but they've done a great job shephering us through this transition and just got to give them a huge thank you. Uh, I referenced in the last presentation, uh, you know, the idea of doing that kind of ven diagram of the demographic study and our facility capacity analysis. Um, and we've got to start, this is what we're doing next with this. We're going to start reviewing those projections um and look at the addition of the 2023 birth data that we've got and then uh overlay that that data with the facility
051information and see what we can see. Um, and last I just want to really give a shout out regarding our uh, you know, Paul, yes, the question about describe what some of those self-contained programs are. Um, and just our our special education programming in general. We have a strong continuum of services uh, in Geneva 304. Uh, you know, diverse ways we can help kids. Um, and I think great things are happening for kids. Um, and uh, I just want to say uh, explicitly we have a commitment to those important supports for kids. We know they're great for kids. Um and and we're committed to those and and I bring that up not only because they're great supports and we're talking a little bit about this facility thing today, but I'll also share candidly, you know,
052I've heard from some parents um with some of the uncertainty in the world right now uh and concerns about this programming that they really value for their kids and you know being worried that is it possible that this programming that they feel like has been so beneficial to their kid could go away. Um, and we have awesome programming with awesome educators that are doing awesome things for kids and we're committed to that and making sure that that uh stays in place for kids and I just thought it would be important to make sure everybody heard that. That's all I have. Larry, >> thank you Andy. In regard to your last comment, I think I can speak for the whole board in this case that this board is committed to providing those services moving forward. The
053board dialogue and topics pres pending action consideration. Uh student information system recommendation. Mike Wilks will be recommending purchase of SIS. You going to put something fancy up, Mike? >> Oh, the students get the information. We don't know. I'm just kidding. I I think you all did you all get a copy of the uh the recommendation memo uh I put together for the SIS system. >> Okay. Yep. That's the the basis of the recommendation. Yep. >> And go ahead. >> No, I was just going to just going to say uh so the the big Q lift we just did, Mike's getting ready to do that times 100. So, um, but a huge committee of people, you've heard from them, uh, heard from from Mike and our principles at the last meeting, um, about all the work
054that went into to planning this. And so, um, I don't know if you have questions for Mike or Mike, I don't know if you have something specific to share, but, you know, we're excited about moving forward with this. >> Primarily, I'm here to answer any questions you may have. U, hopefully the table outlines the pricing summary and proposal uh, that has been put together. We're still finalizing contract details, but ultimately um this represents where we are with the negotiations >> questions. Anyone? >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> So uh I think this may have come up earlier, but um are there any thoughts about whether these tariffs are going to or these components coming from out of country or for this system or just wondering is they're going to cause some perturbations and
055Yeah, that's a really good question. Yeah. Um, most of these services and costs are around software services and fees. Um, I don't anticipate that any of those would be would be affected uh directly. But the other part of our contract negotiations we're working through are is trying to kind of lay out price stability over time, certainly over an initial fiveyear period of time. And we're also being mindful in that about potential uh additional years down the road, too. So, we're trying to make sure that we have as much pricing stability as we can uh with this agreement. >> So, I assume that includes um maintenance um just your your your boilerplate kind of things that you have with these companies. So, that >> but if there are individual components, they're not going to raise the
056price on you on us rather, I should put it that way. >> Yeah. So the other part of this is we're we're with this recommendation we're looking at doing a cloud hosted offering where the vendor is providing that platform and that service. Those costs are already part of this agreement. So uh we should not see any costs other than what's already been outlined as that year-over-year increase. Good questions. Anything else? With that in mind, I'd like to request a motion to proceed with so moved >> purchase. Second. >> Tammy. >> Hi. >> I thank you all. Thank Thank you, Mike. Adam Law will now present the 2025 2026 staffing plan. >> Thank you. So, the 2025 2026 The 2025 2026 staffing plan was uh presented at the March uh meeting. Uh as I stated uh
057you know at that time uh that is the uh really culmination of of work that starts uh in in November as I begin to meet with principles and department heads and um uh and really uh you know we work through uh those uh those staffing requests and and potential program changes uh through cabinet. And so the uh uh the one position that is um on the staffing plan for uh next year um is being recommended. >> Thank you. Are there any questions from the board? >> Yeah, I think if we go back it it's not necessarily a new FTE because you are um it's more of an upgrade of an existing position. So the incremental cost is not the full cost of the FTE but just the cost to hire a higher qualified person for
058the new position. Is that still stand? >> That still stands. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. I >> I >> thank you all. Next, the annual resolution for dismissal of part-time and select educational support personnel. This is not any fun, but uh something that is required. Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent Adam Law, please. >> Yes. So for the next two items, uh the dismissal of part-time and select uh support staff and part-time and select uh certified staff is really due just to um uh several things uh you know mainly uh enrollment uncertainties uh that we have at this time and not wanting to be overstaffed uh for the fall. And so uh we do uh honor but dismiss uh many of these folks because of either enrollment uncertainties
059or uh grant funding and still wanting to see if uh if grant come uh grant funding comes through for these and uh additionally some of these positions are uh really were hired as one-year positions. So for instance a teacher that was hired to um you know cover for a teacher that was on a full year leave of absence or a support staff member who was hired uh due the needs maybe of a of of a challenging classroom. And so, you know, as uh things become a little bit more certain uh you know, this spring, uh we do bring these people back as we can as needed at the appropriate FTE. Thank you. Um, I would say that one of the kind of byproducts of studying a capacity is that we ende endeavor to keep this
060as reasonable as possible to provide for the stability of all our staff. That having been said, I request a motion to approve. We can't do four and five at the same time, but I bet we can do them pretty quickly. Let's start with number four. Motion to approve. >> I think start with number three. >> Oh, sorry. Yeah, I jumped ahead. >> Yep. Yep. Jump. >> Okay. Item three then. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I. Any questions about item four? A motion. So moved. >> Second. >> I >> Thank you all. Item five, designation of an auditor. Assistant Superintendent Todd Le will present. >> Yes. So, I'm required every year to bring before the board of education a recommendation for the audit services for the district. It's under policy 480. And again, I've recommended
061to the board that we approve Whipfly services out of Aurora, Illinois to be our external independent auditor. >> Any questions? >> I just have one is um can we designate the specific auditor that we want? I forget the gentleman's name. >> Not individual. We typically do the firm and then they assign um typically different individuals to us. So >> each year we usually have a lead auditor and then they send someone else as the junior auditor. So they do switch it up so we don't have the same personnel which is a good thing to do. >> And we have the same guy for the last several >> uh the lead auditor we do but they send a different audit team each year. So there's other people that work on our audit just for continuity and
062transparency and all the good things we want. So there's different set of eyes every year. Thank you for asking that. I wonder about that. You took my question. >> All right. Any other questions? >> I'll make the motion to approve the >> second. I >> I >> and item six, resolution to transfer funds from the working cash fund and Todd can present that resolution also. >> Yeah, certainly. So, um, what typically happens is our employees under our flex program are allowed to spread out their deduction from their pay to contribute to this program, but from time to time we have more claims against it. This year is just a rare year where we've had more employees uh have more expenses up front before we've taken the contribution out of their paycheck. Uh, so by compiled
063statute, I'm required to come to the board and ask you to approve a loan. The loan would be from our working cash to our flex account cash cash and then it basically will true up at some point in time over the fiscal year. I know we're almost done, but it it just it's rare. I haven't done this for probably five or six years. It just so happened this was a year where we've had more claims uh through our flex company than we've had our employees make contributions. I honestly think probably about another month it will reconcile itself. Um, so I have to uh ask for permission to borrow the money and then by the end of fiscal year I have to move the $10,000 back. But that allows us to keep working without any uh
064concerns about that funding too low at this point in the year. If you'd like, I could read the resolution if you prefer, but it's before you for approval. >> Thank you, Todd. I I think we have a pretty good understanding of this and I know we all like to do things we don't do very often, so it's extra practice for you. Any questions? Does the working cash fund charge interest to the flex benefits fund >> for that loan? >> We typically don't worry about interest. It's typically immaterial as the auditor would say. Um but uh we will try to make this process happen quickly and return the funds as soon as possible. >> Possibly before the end of the month. >> Thank you, Dan. That was great. Any other questions? >> Okay. I'll move that
065we extend the $10,000 resolution as written by Todd. Second. >> I Okay. Work study topics. Item eight, consolidated district plan. Chanette Sims will present the plan. That's allowing everybody to speak at the table. >> It is. >> How about it? >> Fantastic. >> Round the horn today. >> Uh yeah. So, George put together uh the application for the consolidated consolidated district plan. And as you may recall, that is the initial documentation that is required through the state board of education for them to start releasing our grant funds for the upcoming fiscal year. So, with that, we uh look at how we are going to identify students who will be eligible for our title one funds. um how we will spend title two funds for professional development, title four funds for just ensuring that all students
066have access to a well-rounded education, um our title three funds for our students eligible for ELLL services, and our title or our CTE and our CTEI funds that help with um all of our post high school or career aspirations um out at uh Fox Valley Career Center as well as our career counselor at the high school. Um, in addition, this year, um, I'm almost finished completing there's a $3,500 grant that they made available to schools that's aligned to the Illinois literacy plan. So, districts need to create a district literacy plan and submit it and then submit an application for how they would spend those funds. And while it may not seem like a large amount of money, it's certainly not insignificant to have an additional $3,500 in grant funds. So, that would be something we
067would be adding on this year that would that's really would be the only grant that would be new. Otherwise, those others we have uh been able to secure for the last several years. So, it does does require it. We'll come back next meeting just the board approve the consolidated district plan. >> Thank you very much. Any questions? >> Will we get it up? So, we'll get Okay. >> There'll be an update the next week. >> Okay. Uh item nine information. Um board meeting presentation schedule and foyer requests. That's all in the board book. If anybody has any questions, we can talk about it, but it's not required. Item 10, my personal favorite, the consent agenda. Uh, item one, personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave request, changes in assignment, full-time equivalent, and new hires. Item two, Mid
068Valley special education cooperative joint agreement. Item three, Panorama Education Contract. Item four, Edsych solutions agreement. Item five, linewise renewal. Item six, Northwestern Illinois Association agreement. And item seven, gift grants and bequest. $1,500 from Kenneth Wend for the GHS Robotics Club. U approval is recommended. Any questions? Although I know you all got this in board book and also from some communications with from Andy. >> I know a sixth grader that would be interested in the GHS robotics club some. >> I think you're right about that. He might set the curve. Yep. Anyone else? Motion to approve, please. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I thank you. Uh board member comments and reports. Uh Stephanie, would you like to start? >> Sure. I hope everyone had a nice spring break and is ready to go for the
069next two months. I know uh well, not even two months, honestly. I already feel like April's over. So, I know it's like feels like the busiest school time of the year is May. So, thank you to all our parents and our teachers and our school staff and administrators who work hard for fun for our kids and essential learning and testing. I know we're wrapping up um a lot of the testing and our high schoolers this week take the PAC and the ACT. So, should be a fun week for them. Um but otherwise, the only real big update I had was the Geneva The GHS Theater program has their musical coming up, their spring musical. It will be not this upcoming weekend, but the weekend after, April 24th through the 26th. They have four different show
070four shows of Susicle. Um, so if you guys can make it out, I'm sure that they would love to have more audience members. This is the first time they are doing a matinea show. So that's kind of fun because this show is really fun for all ages. So if anyone watching wants to bring their elementary kids, it's a good way to see like what is possible in high school and what our kids are across the district are doing. But that's all I have. >> Thank you. Well, um can't say I've have much to report, but I thank for all the good um thoughts because I'm still healing with my throwing arm. Um but haven't been out much. I limit my driving to about 20 miles a day one way. So, haven't just trying to get
071back on the map. >> Very good. >> Yeah. >> Jackie, >> hey, just um couple updates. I did attend the music boosters meeting back on March 17th. They have an upcoming restaurant night at Chipotle on April 30th. So when you need a night off from cooking, think about that. Uh the jazz dinner is May 20th. If you haven't attended that before, uh it's a great evening with food and more of a relaxed atmosphere with music and the choirs perform as well. U and they talked about um an upcoming event at that point, but this has already happened, but the jazz bands at the high school were invited to perform at the Moonlight Theater in St. Charles. um ahead of another large big band that was playing and um I saw a couple videos on Facebook
072of that. It was cool to see them um have that opportunity to do that. And at the meeting, Mr. Shipton was there and talked about trying to do some different um opportunities for the music students to go out and try some different things. And so that was one of the things. So it was neat to see that happen um that evening. And I think that was it. Thanks. >> Thank you very much, Jackie. Paul can tell you all about the facilities task force that we both attended and I have to say I find it to be one of the more exciting and rewarding things that we do in terms of both taxpayers and students. >> Yeah. Yes. Um we did have our facilities task force meeting uh earlier today. Uh I 100% agree with Larry.
073I think we are far ahead in making things clear and transparent and finishing projects and getting things done and following the the budget and the targets that that we said we were going to do for this um all of the capital plans and we had a significant spend this year. I mean, as as you you saw, the numbers were over $10 million that that have been spent this year, and that is probably the highest um in in several years that we've done, and we're doing a great job. Um Jeff, who is our temporary gentleman um coming in, has been here for about a year, and he's finishing time up, and um I just want to say, you know, thank you to him for the great job that he's done. and we have Brian stepping in.
074So, we're going to be um I think well taken care of in the future. Um last comment I'm going to make is for the Susical. Following up on Stephanie's comment, my suggestion is get your tickets early because because it is such a family show. Um there's going to be a lot of people there. So, if you're interested in going, please uh reach out and get your tickets uh I guess you can do it through the school online to do it. Um but anyway, actually theater boosters website. >> Yes. Okay, there we go. It's where I bought mine today. >> Thank you. >> Um, yeah, I would echo everything that's been said. Um, a big shout out to our robotics student. How cool. I just I kept looking at Dan. I'm like, that's awesome. Like, I'm
075just blown away. And it's it's really cool to think that our the Geneva community has made a global impact like on the global stage in in what he's doing. and I just can't wait to see what else he wows us with. So, that was super cool. Um, I had to look at my calendar because so much time has passed since our last meeting. Way back on March 13th, just a couple days after our last meeting, um, Hartland Elementary School had their variety show, and I attended it as a parent, but I really thought it was important to bring it here as a school board member, too. Um during that show, just kudos to the students in general, but throughout the show, it was like an award show style presentation and in between the acts, um
076the uh production had videos congratulating Hartland on their blue ribbon award. Uh the first shout out was from Dr. Barrett, which was really cool. And I was sitting pretty close to Principal Hornberg, and I was just kind of watching her throughout. We had all kinds of authors give shoutouts to the school and how how much they you know commended the school on their hard work and then it ended with a video from Governor Pritsker which was super cool and he gave a personal shout out to Principal Hornberg and the great work that they've done and um that was really really amazing to see. So, I know we've talked about the blue ribbon um award already, but I just thought that was really cool to highlight and and to see that and it really touched every
077and Principal Homeberg did not know that was coming. It was all a surprise to her, so she was definitely overwhelmed. Um I wanted to give a shout out to Mike and all of your hard work. I think every time we get um you know the technology updates and to hear what you and your team have been doing for anybody who's had a technology outage in their life knows how frustrating that is. So for you to oversee and be so thoughtful and um intentional with your decision- making and information that you share with us. I just really appreciate that. So thank you to you. Um I'll be attending the health insurance meeting tomorrow with the GA. So I look uh forward to working with Dr. and our GA members in continuing that conversation. Um, and I
078think that's it. Thanks. >> Yeah. So, >> go ahead. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. So, just a few things to add and I echo what everyone else um had said. Um, race to the goal line after a after a later spring break than than normal. So, um I think it's a a sprint now to the goal line and excited about about that and all things that come with uh the end of the school year. Um couple of uh sporting events I attended um last several weeks and so we're in the full swing of uh all the athletics in the spring. Um good luck to our um our high school students that are with their ACT and preACTs this week. Um there I think there's also other um standardized testing around the all the other levels as
079well. So good luck to all those students. And then uh um yeah, I I I echo what Molly said about our our robotics student. I I I like traditional excellence and I'm glad that we do that as well, but the Viking leaders is is really neat just because it's something that that we're not somewhat aware about like a lot of the traditional excellence. we're aware that, you know, our our teams may be doing well or some students might be doing doing exceptional things, but um the Viking leader um that award seems to be one where it's almost a surprise to to me as a board member at least. So, it's really neat to see that. So, um that was really neat to see tonight and um yeah, I think I think that's it for for
080what I have tonight. >> Thank you, Dan and Molly. Um I want to congratulate our board members who are reelected. I think I think it isn't official yet, but it's official as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't be more delighted with this board and this board's continued service. Thank you all so much. >> Uh just a tiny remark, drive by the bus barn if you want to see some action taking place at years after we purchase that property. We're going to get it paved and park buses there and make them safer. And I think that's a wonderful thing. And as Paul pointed out, we're getting projects done that have been promised but not completed year after year. And the reason for that large spend this year is catching up. That money was already promised for
081those jobs and it's been sort of waiting to be used and we're going to use it and get to a more clear, transparent and timely fashion of completing our work. So I I am very proud of this board. I think you guys are doing great work and I'll I'll leave it there. The uh next item is executive session. Thank god you guys are gonna get to go now. you can't stay anyway. Um, we have to consider matters pertaining to appointment, employment, compensation or discipline of performance and or dismissal of specific individuals who serve as and on and on and on. It goes it's quite at length, but the point is we're going into executive session and we'll be discussing some working agreements with that. May I have a motion to go into executive session? >>
082So move. >> Second. Go ahead. >> I >> All right. See, I'm getting used to doing that. So, we do it fairly quickly. We'll take a few minutes of intermission if anybody needs a break and then we will return in executive session. Thank you all for coming and >> you're very welcome.