001Welcome everyone. This is the normal regular meeting of Geneva 304 School District for September 23rd, 2024. It's 7 o'clock. >> All right. Will you call the role? >> I here. [laughter] here. >> Here >> I'm here too. >> Here >> thank you. The next item is the pledge. Forbes will lead us in the pledge. I aliance 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. We're pleased to have you all here. As a reminder, there is an attendance sheet. If you'd like to register your attendance, we appreciate it if you'd fill that out. The next item is approval of minutes. Bonnie, have you received any corrections for the September 9th minutes? >> Does
002anyone have any corrections at this time? Motion to pass, please to accept the minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I Stephanie Ian. I >> Jackie >> Hi, >> William Hook. >> I Paulinsky >> I >> Larry Kab >> I. >> Thank you. The motion is passed. Item three, recognition, awards, presentations, and public hearings. First item is what makes your school special literacy PK12 the GE story. Starting with our friends from Gulp. We uh had some conversations last year um as a board uh team in our retreat, if you guys remember, talking about um wanting to have more of an opportunity to have our teachers and our kids represented in board meetings and learning from them and learning some of the great things that are going on uh in in our schools. So, as part
003of our kind of initiative to to bring that in, we actually just started um talked with our administrative team and got this idea to say this year, let's just start with um asking our buildings to work with their staff to say, what makes your school special? What is something that's cool about your school? Um that really highlights some of the things that are awesome about being part of Geneva 304. uh and Gelp, who uh educates our littlest learners, they're here to tell us what makes their school special today. So, I'll pass it over to you. >> All right. Um don't tell anyone else that comes after us, but we're the best. That's why we went first. [laughter] >> Notice she said that away from the microphone. >> Oh, sorry. We're the best. I meant [laughter]
004>> Okay, maybe not as far as the techn mute. There you go. Perfect. >> Showed up. >> All right. Step one done. Perfect. Okay. So, um, we think a lot of what we do is special. We think our littlest learners are amazing. Um, but we we're very happy to be here. So, thank you for inviting us to share one really cool aspect with you. So, as the leader of Galp, I'm Jen Satan. For those of you I don't know. I think I know everyone though. Um, I brought a couple of teachers with me so that we could share some with you. I know most schools are going to be bringing children. Ours should all be really getting ready for bed right now. [laughter] Fingers crossed for you hopefully. Um, so we did the next best
005thing. We're going to teach you guys and we're going to show them in action. So hopefully that works out. Our biggest goal at Gelp is to prepare our junior Vikings to be Vikings all the way through. So that really looks like what does success in Geneva look like in kindergarten and how do we get our friends to be the ones that show that? Um the big thing we're looking for in the last several years I've been there is consistency and practice. So what can we do that can be that Geneva Viking way? Starts with the Junior Vikings. Then we're looking at scheduling, really following the district schedule, how we communicate. So the Gelp Connects comes out just like every other schools. I communicate just like every other principal in the district, making sure that all
006of our families are well informed every Friday, sometimes on Sunday when there's a problem, but but a weekly communication comes out. And then we measure standards similar to every other school in the district. Um we have report cards that are available in the home access center really teaching our families how to do things from from the jump. Um we are looking at curricular alignment so that we are matching what's coming up. So in our social emotional learning our kids use second step for phonics we have adopted as the district has um for our primary students really great reading. The prek version of that is launchpad. If you ever get a chance, Mrs. Pre Fountain's class gets ready to blast off every day and it's awesome. [laughter] Um, for numerousy, we are using Eureka Math, which
007is a part of the program that the rest of the district uses. Again, really, um, trying to drive through the consistency in how lessons are delivered. At the preschool level, it's obviously slightly different, but really that that consistency knowing what's coming next. Everything we do is developing skills at that age appropriate and developmentally appropriate level. Um, so I did bring these lovely ladies with you, Ashley Gerard, Cara Pre Fountain, and Aaron Kelly. They are three of our blended classroom teachers. So that's another small fact for you guys. All of our classroom teachers are at least dualcertified, meaning they're early childhood certified as well as special education certified. So we can make sure that all of our students are benefiting from both of those aspects of their training. So the big thing we want to share
008with you today is a program we utilize called story champs because we want to answer the question of how can we develop literacy skills when students are not quite yet literate. >> We need you to go to the microphone. You got to They want to hear you on TV. >> Just give me more pressure. [laughter] >> Thanks. U so Story Champs is something that we've been doing for a full two years um in our program. It's a multi-tiered um program that really focuses on developing language and those early literacy skills for all of our students. Um it strengthens their academic skills, um their academic language skills through storytelling. Um and we will later on have videos of us doing those in our classroom so you can kind of get that um understanding. It strengthens the
009skills of recalling a story. So being able to retell the main components in a story. Um sharing of information that they've been to been told. Um acquiring word meanings through context. Expanding the content knowledge and then writing and comprehending um that comprehension piece. when we talk to teachers at a higher level um when students are coming to them that is something that's very important for them to be able to do is have a story told to them or read a story and be able to retell those components and that's what story champs does. Um, and then it's also the stories are built around common childhood experiences that maybe they got a piece of pepperoni pizza that and they don't like pepperoni and it makes them mad. And so it talks about the characters in this
010story. So it's very relatable for them. Um, which is awesome. And then it just teaches difficult vocabulary words. Um, in my classroom we call them our kindergarten words. And so when they're introduced to a big word, we go through that and then reread it and talk about what could that mean hearing that in the story and then wow, you're ready for kindergarten. Like you know these great big words. Um so it just it's a really a great program. So I hope that you guys can see that through this. So why story champs? So we use story champs because it creates um a stronger oral language uh within our students and students who do the story champs they have less difficulty meeting the academic expectations throughout school. It sets them up for higher success later on
011like in kindergarten, elementary all the way up. Um it exposes students to expository oral and written language proven to improve language development. I can honestly attest to when we do this in my classroom, students are talking more to each other. They're asking each other questions even when we're not doing story champs. They're asking the story champs questions with a story that we might be reading. Um, we also we use icons and actions to make abstract structures and concepts more concrete so that kids can make connections. Um, there's also multiple opportunities for differentiation using whole and small groupoup instruction. And as you'll see later on, we have a few different small group options that we can differentiate for our students. There's opportunities for generalization across literacy opportunities. And then of course, as Jen said, it allows
012for teaching liter literacy skills without being literate because three and four. >> Okay, this is fun. And I do mic. I thank you. Sorry. Um I do encourage participation from you guys if you would like to get involved. Um so basically when we start out at the beginning of the year and each year even if kids have learned it we do you know kind of a retaching of the basic elements and the basic story structure which includes things like the character. You don't have to show it yet. The character, the setting, the problem, the feeling, the action, the ending and the end feeling. And with those, so we have the visuals, we have icons, then we have auditory because I'm reading the story or someone is. And then they also have actions too that go
013with both of these all of these to tie it all together. Um, so if we were to be talking about the character and Mrs. Precon's going to help. And we do hold these up and typically when we're reading too, there's an interactive piece. This is on the board and someone else is sitting kind of moving the icons as we read and we do two readroughs of it. But to introduce it, we say the character. Everyone touch your head. Everyone say character. Character. Look at quick learners here. >> You guys are you guys are on camera, not us. So [laughter] >> the next thing, and this is differentiated a bit for our second year students, for our fours, we add in the element of setting. We don't do that one for our threes, but once you
014get into our the second year of school, we add in the element of setting. And we talk about the setting. Show me your little roof. This is everyone say settings. >> Settings. >> Very good. Then Oh no. This is They really like to get into this one. We have a We have a problem. A big thumbs down. Yucky problem. Yeah. Everyone say problem. Not good. >> All right. And then next we have what is our feeling? And there's a few different actions you can do for this. But in our classroom we do this. It's kind of like a tears coming down your face. So everyone say feeling. >> After that we have an action because you always want to solve your problem, right? Okay. And this is how we're going to do it. And so
015for action, we say action, >> make an action. And then we have our ending, thumbs up. And then again for our fours, for second year, we have our end feeling. And typically, we're always very happy at the end of our stories. Um, so again, we would go through this. I would read it. The first time they just need their we say they're looking eyes. You turn on the listening ears and our mouths are quiet because they're just watching as the icons move. and I kind of and I tell the story. And then the second time through is when we add in all the actions. >> Any questions? >> Car, you want to tell them what we're gonna see? >> Into the microphone. [laughter] >> Um, so this is my classroom. Um, this is me doing
016story champs last week with my classroom. And the first video is them hearing me read the story. Um, and then I show the cards and then the second video will be us retelling the story together. >> All right, friends. We're going to read our story today. One time eating pizza at a restaurant. All of the pizzas had pepperoni on them. [laughter] Jose was mad because he did not like pizza with pepperoni on it. He asked his dad if he could pick off the pieces of pepperoni because they made him feel sick. Then Jose's dad said, "Go ahead and pick them off." after he took the pepperoni. [laughter] >> Don't >> As you guys can see, these aren't actually social emotional learning problems. There's a there's a lot of things you you may not want to
017teach at home in social, but that's why we do second step. This is all about having like parts of a story and this stuff is easy for them to understand. Now that we problem, [laughter] what did he do? fix his problem. >> He asked his dad if he could take the pepperoni off. And then what happened? >> Yeah, he got to pick them off and eat the pizza. Good. That was our solution. Good job, [laughter] All right. So, so within this, we talked about how there's different options for differentiating because we take this in whole group and then we can turn it in, we turn it into small group and one-on-one instruction if needed. And yes, thank you ladies for all my things. Um, what we do have here is a video in my class
018of one of the small groups that we do. Um, we really talk about we can use lots of different language. obviously the core language that's in this, but it also can talk about first, last, and ordering and sequencing. So, what the kids do, they work together to sequence the story with the cards. And then we have a little dice that you will see that has all of our story icons on it. They take turns rolling it. And so, when the icon, you know, let's say it's the setting, you know, you ask, "What is that?" Oh, the setting. What was the setting in the story? So, it's another way to retell and like use that language together. So, I'll show you that video and then I'll talk about the other ways that we do small group
019with them. >> What icon did you get? What is this? >> The house. [laughter] >> The house. So, it's our what our >> setting. Where did this take place? Where was the story at? >> The restaurant in the building at the restaurant. Good job. All right. Whose turn now? >> Good job. Roll the dice. Oh boy. What did you get? >> Yes. He felt happy. You're right. Who's turn now? >> Good job. Ali's turn. >> Um, so that's just basic. We go around a few different times and do that. Other ways we can we do it. Um, sometimes we do this whole group, especially with our older kids because they're a little more independent, have a little more language. We do what are called the champs checks. So, everyone gets a each partner pair gets
020a board and again a little later in the year they may also get a dry erase marker. Not right now. Um, and what they what they get to do is turn and they get to go through and as they retell to their partner, they get to check it off to make sure that they have all the different structures of the story. Um they do have the one with more um the ones we do with the fours with the setting and the end feeling and then there is one for the threes which again some of our our three-year-olds have the language to start doing this together and others we wait till the end of the year. Then we also have these little icon sticks which when you sequence the stories you can put them out and
021kids get to take turns placing them down again using the icons and the different colors that go with them to retell the story. Something that's really fun, we have um a little girl this year who is blind, so we are able to differentiate it by making it tactile and so she can feel all of the ones so she can still participate in that. Um then as we get further into the year and we are more independent, able to use this, there's ways that they can cut and make kind of a little comic strip retelling the story, which they tend to really like to do. And this one is my favorite. When we get to this, they get to draw, illustrate, and write, use some of their inventive spelling to recreate and retell the story completely
022on their own. Also, we've taken it sometimes to another level where they can create their own story and that they get to tell us like what the elements of their story is and then sharing it out with either as a whole group in the class or with their peers. And then something I think Cara may have mentioned or maybe Jen, but we use this with any story. You can use this. We have the visuals up at our boards and a lot of times again as we get going kids will start being like, "Oh, well that was the character. She was the character in the story." They start talking about it and using that language. Um, so yeah, it's really fun. The kids get really into it and it's a great way to differentiate and help
023build that story element language. I know. Um, okay. So measuring progress and success obviously that's always something that's important. We want to make sure that everything that we are utilizing is doing what its intended use is. So for story champs that is called the narrative listening measure. So it is um obviously just a piece of paper like this and Mrs. Prefountain has the story cards. So for the beginning of the year, the middle of the year and the end of the year it's an individually given story and they are scored on those retelling aspects. So, just like what happens in class, the teacher would read the story aloud with the visuals in front of the student and then ask them to retell. It's very difficult for some of us sometimes because we can't help them
024at all. So, it has to be just do your best. Just tell me what you remember. And that can be tricky, especially for some of our threes that haven't been through this program yet. We get a lot of zeros in the beginning of that retail part. And that's okay. only place to go was up from there. Um, but the second portion of this down in the orange is going to that question. Yikes. That questioning part. So instead of just the retell, if they maybe weren't able to to come up with the character on your own, you are able to say at the begin or at when you're getting to the questions are who was that character and they again are able to look. And the really nice thing that we like about story champs in
025this narrative listening measure, I know you can't really see it on there, but you can get two points, one point or zero. And the one point really is given for generalities. So if the story is about Dr. Barrett, but Mrs. Prefountain says uh Joe, she she gets the points because she said she said a name. And if she said she gets two points and then if she were to say that that man with the glasses, she gets one point. So like you really are getting the points because you're figuring out what that story element is, even if you're not exactly right. So to close out, we do a lot of great things. We are very proud of them. We want to keep growing and doing awesome things. and we know it really helps our district
026as a whole when we're we're starting off with a strong foundation. This is just a little bit of what we do. We love visitors. We love friends. You are all invited at any time. So, anything going on I try the big deals I try to make sure you guys know about. But just daytoday, like if you want to come visit, you will not get turned away from a person in our program and kids will be all over you excited that you're there. [laughter] So please, please feel free to come ask us questions, see what's going on because we think we're a really cool part of the district. >> Agreed. Thank you. >> All right, that was a >> Oh, there's the question. >> We're totally ready for those. I I good but might not be
027all for you. It might be more for down at the other end of the table here. Um you know this sounds really fun and it sounds like the kids really enjoy it and it prepares them with some some academic consistency for when they go into kindergarten. >> Yep. >> So here's my question. We have a lot of people that are going to be coming into kindergarten that are not going through guilt, that are going through other organizations such as churches, such as the park district. >> Um, do we have a outreach of any sort for these other prek um, organizations to one offer them some of the the tools that we have here. um or have them sit in with our teachers in case they're looking for upgrades and something like that because, you know,
028these children may have a a distinct advantage as they move into kindergarten and it would be nice possibly for every child that are in Geneva that are going to be coming to our kindergarten to have that opportunity. So, is there any kind of outreach to other other preks or other the park district? I know they're in one of our buildings >> um for for something like this. >> So, we'll answer that. But first, I do want to echo a little bit what they said is if you're ever having a bad day, five minutes of guilt and it's over. >> 100%. 100%. >> So, it's a kind of maybe answer. So, um one of the reasons that we pulled in and developed our own preschool program here in Geneva is because we are expected to teach
029the standards. Even though preschool is not required, um there are standards for preschool learning. And then also we needed to provide services you know from birth to three three to five and in that three to five setting we want you know our students who were eligible for special education services to have the benefit of being in classroom with typical peers. Um and so it was important for us to ensure that that was all standards aligned as you know Mrs. Seaton will say she wants it to be obvious to our kindergarten teachers that what students came from gel because they take such pride in what they do. So, some of our external programs want to do their own thing. Um, a lot of the parochial based ones, there's more of a religious aspect to that. Um,
030and then some of the others, they have their own curriculum and they're satisfied with what they're doing. Um, so if that door were to be open, we would absolutely welcome that. But, um, >> do we do we reach out? >> We do not. And I again because um when that when we had that conversation before we you know grew our program here in um in district the Geneva early learning program we attempted to like kind of coordinate um standardsbased learning and alignment with our um in district program and they had their own that they were satisfied with. >> Okay. Other questions? I just want Well, it's okay. I just a comment. That's all. It's okay. Sorry. No, I just thought that this was u as you were talking about the different uh aspects of telling
031the story. >> Not trying to be a geek, but I could just see that you're preparing them uh >> with a scientific method in terms [laughter] of problem solving, coming up with a solution. And I don't know that was part of the design, but I just couldn't help but notice that that you're instilling some of these um things that they're going to get later on in their academic uh pursuit. Uh now when you said numeracy immediately I started thinking do they [laughter] >> do they um do they get um how do you say um numeracy with some aspects of reading comprehension like uh word problems or solutions like that or >> so so as the year goes on a little more right now the focus on our numeracy curriculum is counting so it is there
032but like if you were in any of these ladies rooms you will here. There's a story about counting. It is the ducks in the pond. It is the >> the cars on the train. So, everything does have that element to it. And then as the year goes on, the really great thing that we have the good fortune of being able to do at GELP, as I'm sure we do across the district, is that that differentiation piece. So, we always talk about how we teach to the standard. That is the minimum. Like, we teach here, but we know a bulk of our kids are above it. There's some below and they need to be reached where they are, but a good chunk of our kids are already here. So, we make sure we meet them here.
033So, as we have kids ready for that, um Ashley mentioned the story and the writing the story. One of my favorite memories is from two years ago, she had a student who legitimately wrote her own story and on each page when I walked in, she's like, "Mrs. Seaton, look, I'm the character and I wrote about me and it's taking place at school." Like, she went through all of those pieces. So being able to reach all of our students where they are is really important to us and it's something I feel like all of our curricular pieces really give us that flexibility to be able to do. >> Yeah, I can see that interconnectedness because uh with the common core um it's written into the standard even at kindergarten for college preparation. So a lot of
034people don't realize that but that college prepar preparatory pieces very early much more than many of us. >> Yeah. And we really enjoyed the um the initial training we did for story champs. The woman that came in, we had PD that came to us super knowledgeable in all of those long-term effects. And like you're right that it does go from this narrative piece toformational text to the scientific method to legitimate like world problem solving. And it really was building those pieces for students that can't read yet. So, this is very exciting for us and we felt like it was a like a tier one curriculum that really hit home for our three and four year olds. >> Very good. >> Willard, I would say my >> my over here [laughter] >> my my son is
035in Mrs. Pre Fountain's afternoon class and just two days ago, so timing was perfect. He's like, "Mama, do you know what a solution is?" >> And I [laughter] said, "Oh." I said, "What's the solution?" Well, I learned in school that it's the end part of the problem. You have to find it. >> So, >> it's one of those kindergarten words. [laughter] >> Very good. >> How many students are part of early learning program this year? >> That is funny because I got an email today asking me that. Um, we have 116 enrolled today. Um, typically we grow by about 40 to 50 students over the course of the year. Um, based on students qualifying for services and students coming to open houses, realizing that if we have space available, we do a rolling enrollment. So,
036right now, based on the classes we have, we only have three spots available for our four-year-olds, but we do have a handful of spots for threes. So, that's how we, you know, we get students in um throughout the year. So, we grow a lot. We start new kids at least once a week. >> Kids turn three all year long. >> All year long. [laughter] >> Well, thank you. Any anyone else? >> I just wanted to say thank you for sharing. I think that when you talk about what makes your school special. This was great to share because we have talked about literacy and our changing in programs from K through five a lot, but I hadn't really considered what that looked like at the prek level. And when I was preparing for the meeting and
037I was reading the language literacy, that really made a lot of sense to me as a parent thinking about, oh, maybe it's not so much about can my child read a book yet, but can my child tell a story? So, I think that this is helpful information not just for us to know, but parents also to know like these are the early reading steps that not only the school's working on, but those are then things they're bringing home that then parents can echo um as they're talking with their kids or, you know, as our kids are telling us stories, which they do all the time until they get to those middle school years. So, thank you so much for sharing. >> Stop talking >> and just nothing. You get nothing. [laughter] >> You get a
038grunt and that's about it. So, thanks so much for sharing it. I think it was very enlightening and seeing how it all ties together is very helpful. >> All right. Anyone else? >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. It's an exciting program. Really good. >> Now, the next item on our agenda is the 2024 2025 budget hearing. So, [laughter] >> I I just did, didn't I? [laughter] What's our action? What's our action? >> What will we do about it? [laughter] >> We're going to have a hearing. >> And you're all welcome to stay if you'd like. [laughter] >> Preschool preschool teachers have early bedtimes, too. >> Well, well, all right. But thank thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> So, in fact, we are going to have a hearing and
039uh there's a reason for it. First of all, this is public hearing on the 2024 2025 budget and we are required by law to do so. So, I'll convene the hearing and welcome everyone in attendance and that includes all of us actually. And the f the first thing is that I explain well I introduce you all and >> we're all here. We're all here. I can do that. Okay, we'll go on. Um the statute requiring this public hearing is outlined below and it is the fiscal year of the school district from July 1 to June 30th. Within or before the end of the first quarter of the fiscal year, September 30th, a school board must adopt an annual budget that it deems necessary to defay all necessary expenses and liabilities of the district and must
040specify the objects and purposes of each item and the amount needed for each item or purpose. Such a budget shall be prepared in tenative form and made available to the public for inspection. The notice of public hearing and public inspection was posted in the Kain County Chronicle on August 8th, 2024. And so the next thing is the presentation of the budget. All right. Good afternoon to the board of education. Thank you for the opportunity to present our fiscal spend plan. This is for the budget year 2425 as our board president mentioned. A little bit quickly about the development. Uh we start off with several preliminary budgets that we present to the board as well as the finance committee sort of our technology plan moving on to our operations and maintenance our transportation and then our
041education fund. It then comes as a cumitive draft budget um typically in in July before the board. We bring a tentative in August um in which we review updated numbers from unawited ending and plan to what we believe is most appropriate. And then here we are tonight with our final budget. Little bit of an overview. Um so this as mentioned is our fiscal year. Um we bring this to the finance committee for review and input. We review such things as assumptions that were developed in the budget. Um a review of the preliminary with feedback. Uh our draft budget uh to explain how we arrived on those revenue and expenses and our overall tentative budget that incorporates all funds and includes our revenue expenditures as listed below. includes all of our operating funds which is our
042education fund, our operations and maintenance, our transportation, our retirement funds which are IMRF and [snorts] our social security fund includes our working cash which is an investment fund and a torque fund which is our liability fund. Other funds included in our budget include our debt services where we pay our principal and interest and long-term debt, our capital projects which is our investment in facilities and our capital improvements across the district. And last fund 90 which is our life safety um which includes those items identified in our tenure life health safety plan that we must improve upon and report back to our regional office of education. A little bit about uh some of the changes that we've had. So, as we go through the budget process, um we're still hiring employees and making selections and changes.
043We review things such as enrollment, and that completes our staffing levels. We also look at our grants that we've applied for and any amendments that we must have, any carryover dollars, and any needs that we have um written in that grant that translate to specific accounts and funds. Lastly, we review all of our salaries and our compensation for our agreements with our employees. We look at our health benefits and costs. We look at our some of our larger dollars such as those that we call other objects which is our mid valley tuition and then we look at our state and federal grants um as we finalize those and those are approved for our fiscal year. And last we look at any fund transfers that we have to have out of our fund balance that fund
044other areas and needs in our overall budget. So just quickly we'll focus on fiscal year 25. Uh so again in the education fund um we're requesting the board approve $79,729,838 and our operations and maintenance fund $16,40,19 and our debt services $14,760 $760,11 and as I mentioned earlier this gives an opportunity to pay up our 2007A bond this year. In our transportation, we anticipate revenue coming in of $4,953,387. Our municipal retirement, which are obligations primarily to the federal government and to our pension systems, 3,444,553. And then we anticipate um investment income in capital projects of $125,000. our working cash or our investment and loan fund of $712,000, our tort liability fund of $1,500, and lastly, our fire uh prevention safety fund of 42,000. Uh so our total receipts um for the year are $119,82,398 of which
045we anticipate using additional funding of inter fund transfers from our fund balance of 17,687,684. Uh that gives us a total revenue of $137,490,82. Moving on to our expenditure needs, they are as follows. Our education fund, $79,548,313. From our operations and maintenance fund, we anticipate expenditures of $14,539,516. our debt service fund to make our principal and interest payments on our long-term debt. 14,45,331, our transportation fund of $6,182,337. That includes uh also of funds set aside for purchase of new buses. Our MIS retirement fund $3,149,511. our capital projects, our investments into our facilities, 14,37,925. And lastly, our life health safety fund of $711,270. Overall, our expenses are estimated at $132,574,23. um also uh equals our transfers of 17,687,684 with a total expense for this year's budget 150,261,887 overall with our basic inflows of revenue and our expenses.
046So we have $119,82,398 less our expenses of 132,574,23 leaving us with a difference of 12,771,85. So this just goes back and basically summarizes our revenue plus our fund transfers uh in is uh spending dollars of revenue $137,49082 and our expenses with our other use of funds of $132,574,23 [snorts] and our transfers of 17,687 684 overall 150,261887 for our total expenses. This is the revenue sheet uh that if the budget is approved, I will file with uh Kane County's clerk office. It basically summarizes all the dollars I've stated by fund and um sources. And it matches the amount that I said, $130,49082. This is the expenditure report that I'll file with the county. It summarizes the 150,261,887 of all our expenses. And again those are our transfers, our salaries, our uh employee benefits, our purchase services
047includes our supplies and materials, our capital outlay, our other objects which is primarily to uh for our tuition and our non-c capital equipment which is below our capital threshold. This is the uh budget document that is the summary of our funds. It provides um an opening fund balance um which is unudedited at the beginning of the year. Essentially, we're looking at a fund balance of $83,54,123. It uh gives all of our inflows of revenue. It does it by our local sources, our state sources, uh such as evidence-based funding and some of our reimbursements that we have. And lastly, our federal sources, which typically reflect our grants. It includes our expenditures which is for the areas of instruction, our support services, our community services that we provide to uh non-public schools, our payments to other governments
048or institutions, our debt service and our provision for contingencies. also includes our on behalf payments that reflect what the state would pay on our behalf to our pension systems and leaves us with an ending estimated fund balance of 70,732,318 which reflects the uh difference of 12,771,85 as previously stated. This is uh the transfer of funds that shows other sources in and other sources um too. And lastly, what are the final steps? Once the board approves uh an operating plan in our budget, once it's adopted, I will file it on behalf of the district with the K County Clerk's Office as the board's treasur. I will upload it to the state board of education's website. I will adopt it into our Skyward financial system. Um I will update the treasures report that I provide you every
049month with our new budgeted numbers. I will then prepare the uh preparations for next year's tax of a year payable in fiscal year 24 and 25 as the next step as we do financial planning. I will come back to the board as I traditionally have with the five-year projection modeling and lastly we'll start the budget process all over again with assumptions and forecasting for fiscal year 24 I'm sorry 2526. There any questions from the board of education? >> Any questions? Anyone? That is the next item on the agenda is board member questions. If you have none, are there any questions from any member of the public? Okay, in that case we will close the hearing. Uh we will later on in this meeting take action to approve I this budget. So thank you for your
050attendance at this hearing. The next item on the agenda is public comments. Bonnie, do we have any public comments? >> Well, that'll help a little bit to get us to the next step. Thank you all. Legislative updates. >> Anything? >> No report tonight. uh at our next meeting if the resolutions resolutions are available from IASB we might take a preliminary look at those and at the end of October we'll give our thumbs up thumbs down in each one of those. >> Thank you. >> I do think from the legislative side it just maybe we talked about this last time but uh probably not going to be a whole bunch >> between now and the election I would guess. >> Yeah. >> Correct. Yeah. They're they're done with their session veto sessions not until November. So,
051it's going to be pretty quiet from a state side. >> Okay. Superintendent's report. >> All right. Thank you so much. I have a few uh topics here. Make sure I'm doing this all right. All right. Glad to have the opportunity uh to to share a few things. First, some exciting news just from um today. As uh the board knows, last year uh Geneva High School was um the first school in Geneva to have been um recognized as a national blue ribbon school by the Department of Education. That was pretty exciting. Um and uh we learned a few hours ago today that another one of our schools uh also has earned that recognition. So the H Heartland Hawks um earned a Blue Ribbon Award uh from the National Department of Education today. It's awesome. >> It's
052really awesome. Really awesome. Uh so uh you know this is an award uh they would say um you know it's a distinction that's widely recognized as a symbol of exemplary teaching and learning. Uh only 356 schools out of all the schools public and private in the country earned this distinction this year. Um and only 18 schools in Illinois. So H Heartland was one of uh only 18 schools in in the state out of thousands just in our state to uh have earned this honor. So um it's really awesome. It's a great representation of our great district. We we know we have an awesome district and it's cool to see uh you know when some of our schools get that recognition that really highlights the great things that that are happening. And so um I know
053the team at H Heartland celebrated today. They were they were pretty excited. Um Mrs. Mrs. Hornberg, the principal, and one representative will uh get to go to Washington DC to meet with representatives from the Department of Education. Um, and and earn this award and be with other educators from schools like this across the country. So, that's pretty cool. We're going to celebrate it and then also, you know, look ahead to keep doing more great stuff in in Geneva. So, it's pretty awesome to have that happen. Um, couple upcoming events real quick. Uh, you know, parent teacher conferences are coming up very soon on uh October 10th and 11th. Sign up starts later this week. Um, you know, certainly parents and teachers have a lot more opportunities to connect and talk than we used to. Um,
054you know, back in the old days, uh, when it was putting notes in folders or pinning them to Andy's shirt if it really needed to get home. But, um, you know, the parent teacher conference is still a great opportunity for our educators and our parents to connect. So, that sign up is coming this week. Also, this week, as I'm sure you know, um this is homecoming week for uh Geneva High School. A lot of exciting events planned um all week long. Um there was a very vicious game of uh musical chairs at the the homecoming at the pep assembly today. I was a little concerned about what might happen to Mr. B. Uh [laughter] but it it was a very good game. Very very very good game at the pep assembly. Lots of good stuff
055happening today. Um the parade is Friday and I we talked about this a lot last year. We've we've tried some updated procedures this year. We'll see how these work. Um while trying to recognize uh a reality that it's a full day of school and it needs to be a full day of school for our students who um you know parents count on us to have a regular day of school that day, right? Um, but also acknowledging the reality that many students at some schools, especially schools closer to downtown, parents are pulling their kids out to attend the parade. So, we're trying a new procedure. We'll see if it works. We'll reflect on it and go. Um, a new thing that's really cool is GTV. Um, they've got a whole live stream set up. They'll be
056on the street in front of Aurelios. You can check out the live stream. Uh, you know, it's Al Roker's going to be there. [laughter] It's it's going to be a whole it's going to be a whole sit whole situation. But GTV, they're going to be out there in front of Aurelio's live streaming the the parade. Um they'll have some commentators and everything. So, we'll see how that goes. That could be pretty cool. Um, also I just thought I might highlight uh just real quickly on um you know Todd's budget uh that he just presented our budget that Todd just presented for us. Um and just highlight a fact um to make sure people kind of understand as as you uh look into it and look at some of the numbers here. First, huge thank you
057to Todd and to his team for all the work that goes into that. um as he highlighted in the beginning of his presentation, this is a whole year round process and we're going to approve this and before you know it, he's going to be back talking about preliminary fund budgets for for next year. So, um we we know a lot of work goes into that. Um this year there are some differences uh from the tentative to the proposed budget and that really had to do with um capital projects and I think it's important to note that those were planned capital projects, right? Those are capital projects that have been in the plan that have been uh budgeted for that we've been prepared to happen. Um and you know especially when it comes from the difference
058between the tentative and the proposed the key is that sometimes that's a matter of timing with the budget year versus um you know when we actually can spend the money. So this year we'll be spending um there's dollars that were previously budgeted. They were not additional dollars, right? but they're now being spent and they're going to be spent in this year. That's why we have that fund balance. That's why Todd made those transfers from, you know, different funds into that capital projects uh fund. Our fund balance is healthy and was prepared for this because we budgeted for these items. So, it's really these big capital projects and some of that transportation, those bus purchases. That's where you see some of those differences. But I think it's just important for know folks to know that um
059you know this was these were dollars that were previously budgeted for not additional dollars. Um and it's just about when you could spend them in the budget year. Uh and you know along those lines I think you know we've talked about it before. We're working to build a more comprehensive capital plan going forward where we can level some of that out and be more consistent. Um, we had a great facilities task force today that I'm sure maybe we'll we'll hear how we talked about some of that. So, I just thought that was important uh to share with everybody. Also, the last two meetings we spent a lot of time talking about this development that was going to drastically change our uh school community. Um, and I think many of us were very shocked to learn
060that uh it's it's not at this time coming to fruition. So, um, this Charles Farm development out in La Fox, right, the city of St. Charles has declined further review and consideration of the plan. Um, this whole thing hinged on St. Charles annexing the property to build it. Um, and they decided, uh, since our last meeting that they don't want to do that. So, what's that mean? The project, at least as it's currently conceived, is not moving forward at this time. Um, this is the latest. I think it's important to note though, this is the latest in a long list of proposed developments for that area going back to the 90s. You could name at least three or four um projects. Um, and so it probably won't be the last. At some point, you know,
061somebody's going to be talking about something for that area and we'll need to, you know, be prepared. I think we had really good conversations about it here. I'm glad we did. Um but at this point, you know, as we're starting to look at make our future plans, um you know, we've got the demographic study and all that kind of stuff we're digging into. Uh we're making those plans with no development in those future assump assumptions, right? So, I think that's good. It's good to know because that was um something that maybe gave us a little pause on how can we plan of what's going to happen. now that we know uh maybe we're in a little better position. Um I also wanted to just highlight briefly uh for the board and for the community um
062talk about some some things that we've been handling with safety and social media challenges. Um there's been an increase in concern concerning social media content uh nationwide and happening for schools all over the place. um you know, stuff that's happening outside of school but making its way to schools. School districts across the country uh and certainly across the region have been impacted. We sent out communications uh recently. Many of our neighboring school districts in the last several weeks um have been sending out communications um and I think the thing that's important to know here is like safety is our primary concern, safety of our kids. So, we have to remain vigilant. So, if something if word starts trickling out, if word gets out there that something's happening, we've got to investigate it, you know. And
063I was talking to another superintendent recently who described it as um it's like trying to catch smoke because a lot of stuff that happens, it's just it's rumor and it's hearsay and somebody says this and they heard it from this person and they heard it from that person and it's so hard to pin down. um and that can be disruptive for the work of a school district. And so, uh a statement that we found, borrowing this from another school district, um you know, that we would say, uh to anyone in the school community, you know, if you have a concern, if you see something that uh is evidence of something concerning, please report it. Don't repost it. um because it's that reposting that often generates a lot of the concern and you know recently I'll
064share several of these things that have been happening in in many school districts in the area and across the country have been uh associated and tied to posts that started years and years ago, right? but somebody sees it again and puts it out there and um uh you know then we're chasing it down because we're trying to be vigilant about safety. So if you have if you know we would say to community members if you have some evidence please report it. We have a school safe schools tip line uh you know that went out last week um in our our Friday message reminding people about that. We'd like the line, please report, don't repost. Um, if you see some evidence of something that uh concerns you and that's it. That's all I have today. >>
065Well, thank you. >> Yes, thank you. >> Item seven, board dialogue topics pending action consideration. Item number one, board action on resolution to adopt the budget for the fiscal year 2425, the hearing we just held. So, do I have a motion to approve the proposed budget? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Yes, >> it was. >> I >> Thank you. Next item is policy updates and these are policies that have been reviewed by the administration and the policy committee. They were presented at a first reading on September 9th and are being presented at this time for a second reading and adoption. If there are any questions, now is the time. The this list remains unchanged from last month and I can read them if you want, but they're mostly revisions and you should be familiar
066with them, I'm sure. Any questions at all from anyone? A motion to approve. So move >> second >> I >> Stephanie >> I >> uh information items are board meeting and presentation schedule for your request suspension report and out of state trip requests. Uh these are information items. If anyone has any questions, you've seen them in board book, but uh anybody have any questions? Thank you. Next is my favorite, the consent agenda. Uh and it is item one, a personnel report, resignations, retirements, leave requests, changes in assignment, FTE, new hires. Item two, monthly financials, August. Item three, gifts, grants, and bequest, $2,000 from Petty Bottling Company, sponsorships, and scholarships and donations. Item four, gifts, requests, and grants, $2,000 from Becky Fernish Foundation for Harrison Street School outdoor education policy. Item five, gifts, grants, and requests,
067$8,89 Harrison Street School PTO for outdoor education for Harrison Street School. Item six, gifts, grants, and requests. $7,000 Harrison Street School PTO. You're very generous, Harrison Street School PTO. Thank you. >> Um uh which was for uh Harris Street School Field Trips. Item seven gives grants and requests $3,21457. Also, Harrison Street School PTO for a one-year subscription to Bloom's parent communication application. Item eight, gift, grants, and bequests $8,800. Phil Fabian Elementary School PTO for outdoor education and $3,100 birthday books and $8,000 uh for for assemblies. Anyway, item nine, gifts, grants, and bequests. Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation and Illinois Children's Healthc Care Foundation Kain County H2O onthe-go grant for a new water fountain. And item 10, teacher administration for EIS annual report. And item 11, mechanical equipment precommendation. Any questions or discussion about any of
068these? A motion to approve. So moved. >> Second. >> I >> thank you. Um, next is board member comments and reports. Uh, Dan, would you like to start if you have something? >> Yeah. Um, only a couple of things I think. excited about the homecoming week. So, um hopefully everyone gets to participate in some or all of the activities. Um uh thank you uh Dr. Barrett in in regard to um helping the community understand a little bit more in regard to the budget and uh and I think the the our fiscal year falling in in a weird construction cycle kind of plays with with those numbers a little bit when it comes to the budget. So, >> that is another point, right? All our construction projects are happening right when the fiscal year starts. So
069we're like in the middle of those things, >> right? So you have to So if you would look at our budget for we we populated the budget to to have those and then now we're expending them in this fiscal year. So um that's the other point that we can make about the the fiscal year kind of falling in construction cycle. Um other than that I think that was it. So >> thank you. Um, I would echo sentiments on homecoming. Hoping everyone has a safe, happy, great celebration week this week at all age levels. Um, big congrats to Hartland. I read the email probably an hour before our meeting and I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Um, I think that is just a fantastic uh, recognition and Principal Hornberg wrote a really lovely email that she sent
070out to the community and expressed her gratitude to her whole team. So, that's really wonderful. Um, I definitely have a soft spot for our presenters this evening. Uh, I cannot say enough about the guilt program. Both of my kids went through it. My son currently is in it and he all morning. Is it time for school? Is it time for school? Loves it. So, I would definitely um just thank the team that came in here tonight. I think they do a lovely job. Uh, and to Todd and your team, I think of it kind of as like Santa working all year in the workshop. because the big delivery and like the next day he's back at it. So, thank you for working year round um and and everything that you do. I looking at those
071numbers I do my best to comprehend it all. So, thank you for making it easier for all of us in all your hard work. >> Todd comes down the chimney. >> He might [laughter] be getting closer. >> We're gonna >> Paul, >> thank you. Uh, I also would like to thank the GEL [clears throat] teachers for their great presentation and I am going to push the the district to be more um outward facing or going to some of the other um preschool preks because if this is the if this is this best in class um then all of our Geneva students and potential students should be should be having the opportunity to to use this if they so desire, if their if their schools so desire. >> Can't force it, but you can sure offer
072it. >> Um I was at the theater boosters last week. Um and u there is the underassman play October 4th and 5th and I I actually forget the name of it, but it's about a college visit, right? It's >> Yeah. It's I think it's called The Great College Visit. >> Yes. So, uh, I would recommend, uh, it's only about 40 minutes to play, so I recommend if you have the time on the 4th or the 5th, please, please attend. Uh, they would appreciate it. And then in early December, they're going to have the Christmas Carol. >> Um, and they're actually going to work a little bit with I think it's the same one of the days presentation is the same day as the tree lighting downtown. So, they're going to work around that and you'll
073see some of the some of the Dickens characters maybe out on the street. So, that's pretty cool, I thought. Um, we had a facilities task force meeting today. Um, now I know this is not interesting for a lot of people, but um, last week they started up after a multi-million dollar project at the high school, they started up the new boilers without a problem. And this will allow us, of course, to to to heat the school, which is a [laughter] good thing. Nobody nobody thinks it's important until you can't heat the school. So, that's working. Um and then they're going to be dismantling the boilers that they have there that are probably 50 60 years old and the efficiency gains that we get from this will be um I think just u we'll see that
074someday in the future in our lower lower gas cost. Congratulations to the H Heartland team. I think that's fantastic to have another blue ribbon school and I think it's a it's a great um it's a great feather in the hat of the district and I'm really proud of it. Thank you. >> Paul, do they go remain steam boilers or are they the hot water boilers? >> Um they're they're not the big old hot water boilers that steam boilers. They're much smaller, more efficient. the it's it I I compare it No, this is not an >> I I compare it >> technical. >> Yes. I compare it to the days where you have your your homes with your big hot water tank >> and boilers built that way. This is more of an ondemand >> and
075and it it'll be heating and I think it was more efficient because of that. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. Jump to the other end. Stephanie, would you like to? >> Yeah. So, um I think it was last week, possibly the week before, I got to participate in the VA ed um car wash. That was a great experience. >> Oh, yes. And yeah, I also got a wonderful shirt. They were raising money for their unified Special Olympics team, which is just always nice to contribute to that. And just great to see the kids out there working hard, having a lot of fun. Um seeing a lot of our teachers, a lot of our regular education students, and then our administrators. So, it was a great experience and really you can't beat the price for a
076car wash. So, you know, it was just really nice. Um, homecoming week as everyone said, really excited about that. I've actually heard a lot of positive feedback on some of our changes around the parade already at this point from the parent perspective. So, I'm excited to see how that works for the schools. It does seem like it's going to be a little bit easier for everybody and I think everyone's really excited to get to participate in that community event. I also wanted to say thank you to our Harrison and Fabian PTO's for their donations, but also just to all our PTOs in general. Our parents are very involved in our district and we appreciate that. We can't do most of what we do without their partnership and the PTO is an excellent way to see
077that and a lot of hard work goes into that from our parents who have very stressful lives. I know. So, just thank you so much for everyone and their dedication to that. Um, I also wanted to say thank you to the administrative team here. I think the last couple presentations we have have been really really great just hearing from getting to see how the different policies, the different curriculums are working in the schools and maybe some of the challenges and things we might have to look at going forward. It's just been very insightful and helpful. And then congratulations to Hartland. Um I couldn't be more proud of them. I I am excited for them but not surprised at all. I've gotten to be at that school for many years and between everything that Mrs. Hornberg
078does and every single teacher in that school and how excited and engaged those students are, this award just is like the cherry on top and recognition for all their hard work. So, great job. >> Thank you, Willie. >> Yeah, just just as Stephanie was saying, I I think I can put Hartland on my uh bucket list. Haven't been in all the schools, but [laughter] >> Oh, yeah. >> I'm looking forward to I've heard a lot. haven't seen the presentation last spring of course uh from the students. So I think this is uh yeah just really uh quite commendable. I want to compliment the gel team again. I just um wouldn't I mean I've I've known about it read about it but just to bring it to life was just really a wonderful opportunity. I want
079to thank the superintendent for creating that opportunity for us to see more of that. Um I definitely see the I mean I'm not trying to be a geek but I can definitely see the college preparation part. uh and the way that they're uh bringing those pieces together. Um as they were talking about the smile, I thought, boy, we've come a long way as I date myself from Grim's Fairy Tales. If you don't know what that is, [laughter] but there were some stories back in the day that we're not so happy. And so I'm glad to know that they that we've evolved on from that, you know, to uh give them something more positive and social voice. Um it's very important part of reading readiness. So um just really impressed with that program. Thank you. >>
080Sure. Um kind of want to when you go last year, everybody's already said [laughter] everything, but congrats to Hartland. Uh the the early learning program, their enthusiasm is you can just feel it in the room like there's so much energy around what they do and it's exciting to see um the good work. I appreciate that they brought one specific program that they do and really took a deep dive into it and explained it to us because it was good to hear how we do our early learning program when it comes to the literacy side. So happy to see that. Uh I want to mention to Todd, thank you for the budget process. You give a lot of these presentations twice in the finance committee. We ask more questions. You explain them to us. Uh we
081ask for more information. and you're always willing to share with that with us. So, thank you for taking the time and uh yeah, Christmas Day is here and now you get to relax for 24 hours um and then start at it again. So, I like that uh analogy. That's good. Um I am excited for homecoming this week. Uh without any football games last few weeks, I did take in a volleyball game at the high school. Actually, two two matches. That was uh exciting. What a great program there. I hadn't seen a game in years. And then also we had a music boosters meeting last week. Got an update on the mum sale. And then don't forget your holiday greenery sale is coming up. So get your orders in. >> That's all I have. >> Thank
082you, Jackie. Um, actually I get to go last, but >> that's true. You do. >> I I would start by re-emphasizing everything that you said. First of all, Todd, thank you so much. It's a difficult job and you do it very well. So it's muchly appreciated. >> Oh, yes. I'll talk into the mic. uh we have a problem and there's a solution. [laughter] >> The the fact is that there listen to these reports whether it's gelp or or whether it's H heartland school or any number of the things that are going on in in the district you can see that this is a district that's moving forward aggressively with good plans. Everything from schools that win outstanding awards and they're not minor to the obvious excitement with the gel program makes me proud to be
083a board member and I think all of us feel like we're doing a lot. The other thing I'll add and everybody knows about this on the board but we're starting a new program with lighting. You can bid these lights goodbye in the not terribly distant future. Although this building will probably be last. Um, probably >> the fact is we're replacing the light fixtures with LED fixtures which have a much longer life. They don't have ballasts that fail. They provide brighter light for the teachers and they're controllable by the teachers all the way on, all the way off or dim. If you want to show a film, this is going to enhance the opportunity for teachers to be in control of the environment and educate better. And as a really minor side effect, installed in the
084gymnasium, they'll be cooler. So, this is a win-winwin. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that it saves a lot of money for the taxpayers. So, this is the kind of thing that we're doing, and they're great. And that's my >> I guess probably shouldn't mention um our next meeting is on a Tuesday. >> Oh, yes. >> So, >> October 15th. >> Yeah. Yeah. October. >> Oh my god. Monday is a day off school. So t it's on a Tuesday. >> Good, good catch. >> And middle school does their presentation. So Terry and um and Dave have their work cut out for them to follow up. >> Follow [laughter] better bring some kids. They're way up past this meeting. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Yeah, that's Thank you for the Tuesday next thought. >> Um
085okay. Uh no other notices and announcements. U f the last bit is executive session. We do have need to go into executive session to consider matters pertaining to collective negotiation matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning the salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. So would somebody like to make a motion to go into executive session? >> So moved. >> Second. I >> and we'll have a few minute break here for those who need it and then we'll actually begin the executive session. Thank you.