Organizational Board of Education May 5, 2025 mp4 2

001But no one ready. In accordance with policy 2 col210 organizational board of education meeting, the board voted at their March 27th, 2025 regular action meeting to schedule its organizational meeting for May 5th, 2025 at 6 p.m. I call to order the May 5th, 2025 organizational meeting of the board of education of Hinsdale Township High School District 86. We are meeting in the Hinsdale Central Library. The time is 6:01 p.m. Deb, will you please call roll? Member Greenspun here. Member James here. Member Aris here. Member Carts here. Member Roman here. Member Walker here. Member Waters here. Please stand if you are able and join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible

002with liberty and justice for all. The board will now hear audience comments for up to a total of 45 minutes. Speakers will have three minutes to address the board. Board meetings are meetings of the board held in public. Open form, not open form, town hall meetings. Board members will not engage the public during public comment. The board will keep this in mind as we conduct our meetings, allowing the public to provide input at the time allotted on the agenda to ensure that the multiple voices of the community inform board deliberations. When the board deliberates, it will be a time for the board to listen and learn from each other, taking the public input into consideration, not a time to re-engage with the public. The board will consistently abide by our formal processes relating to this

003issue so that all persons are treated fairly and equally. Our first speaker is Ivon Mayor. Prior to last October, board policy 2250 had a subsection stating, "The superintendent shall serve as the district's freedom of information officer and assume all the duties of that office as provided in Foya and this policy. The superintendent may delegate these duties and powers to one or more design, but the delegation shall not relieve the superintendent of the responsibility for the action delegated." The final sentence gave the superintendent the power to appoint the officer, but retain accountability for the officer's actions. Last October, the board revised this policy, stripping the appointment authority from the superintendent and giving it to the board president. It now states, "As the head of the public body, the board president shall appoint an employee to serve

004as the district's freedom of information officer. That appointment assumes all the duties and powers of that office as provided employee in his policy." This revision removes any accountability from the board president for actions taken by the officer. That should now concern Miss Kadrski, the current FOYA officer, since only she can be held accountable for her FOYA actions. Miss Kadroski is also the board recording secretary and I believe a keeper of close session audio tapes responsible for ensuring that they are secured from improper copying or note-taking when board members listen to them. On April 25th, I filed a foyer request for the one-page confidentiality acknowledgement form that Miss Oris should have completed before listening to the September 18th, 2023 close session tapes on April 22nd of this year. The form specifically prohibits note-taking and lists a

005second person who must be present. Miss Oris had listened to this these tapes once before in October 2023, had completed the form, and Miss Kadoski was listed as the second person in the room monitoring her. That form was produced in response to an earlier FOYA in March of this year. However, in response to my recent foyer request for the April 22nd form, Miss Kadrowski as the FOYA officer delayed its production, claiming that to do so within 5 days would be unduly burdensome and interfere with the district's operations. All these forms ma are manually filled out each time a board member listens to a closed tape and are likely kept in a file folder by Miss Kadrowski. Today, the community still does not know if a form was filled out in April, who the second person

006in the room was, or whether the form is missing. Rest assured, no one is buying that to produce this one form document within five business days would have burdened anyone or interfered with any operations. If and when the form is found and finally produced, the new board must determine the following. One, should Miss Oris be censured for violating the note-taking prohibition? Two, should the second person in the room also be censured or disciplined for allowing the note-taking? And finally, if the new board is committed to transparency, it should investigate whether the foyer officer on her own or at someone's direction obstructed the timely production of the one-page document before today's vote on new officers. Either way, she will be solely accountable under the new board policy that no longer holds the board president accountable for

007the foyer officer's actions. How lucky for the current board president. Our next speaker is Kim Noaro. I want to thank this board for all the great work that you've done. It hasn't been easy. The most striking change I see is that every voice at this table is heard and respected. What do we think would happen when this board was seated? Hire a new attorney that works for the board. Check. Buy out Tammy Pronis's contract because a lawsuit would be costly. Check. Hire interim superintendent. Check. Hire national superintendent search firm. Check. Hire superintendent. Check. Record board committee meetings starting July 1st, 2023. All committees and all meetings. Check. Evaluate the work done under the strategic plan. You've reinstituted a curriculum adoption procedure with multiple steps including a pilot and measures of success that is overseen by

008policy and the academic committee. Check. Stop wholesale curriculum overhaul. Check. Made data data driven decisions. D86 and Dr. Lock are in the process of gathering data to establish a baseline. It's a really great first step. Evaluate students access to courses. You already have increased opportunities and you created the ANO committee to help create a sustainable program of studies. Check. That's significant progress and that's thanks to all of you. You have a collaborative spirit. There's no majority or minority. There are seven independent viewpoints and all are respected. Most importantly, you value each other and it seems like your friends away from the table. Thank you for hiring Dr. Lock. He is focused on students and literacy. He shared real data that shows where our students are. The only way that we can actually fix things is

009to have data and function from data. He reorganized his staff to reflect his focus on students. Making the assistant principal for academics responsible for MTSS is really important. And the shift of the director of DEI and the director of instit instructional innovation to being building specific was huge. Thank you again, Cat, Jeff, Osmo, who's not here, Peggy, Terry, Avette, and Heather. You've made D86 better for all of our students. And congratulations to Bobby Baron, Mary, and Liz. Exciting changes are on the horizon, and it wouldn't be possible without this board. [Applause] Our next speaker is Lisa Holdmark. Hello board. Um board members. Uh I just wanted to say thank you. Um, thank you for your time and also for uh the fact that um I just want to know you to know that I appreciate

010when each of you can listen to each other and all sides and continue to make your decisions with the student first mindset. Um, ignoring the group think uh mentality that often speaks very loudly. But when you can just discuss ideas amongst yourself and listen to all sides um it is very much appreciated. And I just um want to also welcome the new board members and ask that they continue to do do the same. So thank you. Thank you for your time and work. Our next speaker is Linda Burke. Wow. Um, Kim really did her homework and produced a fantastic tribute to this board and and are super and I agree with all of it. I would just personally like to say and I loved what Lisa said as well. I would like to personally thank

011all the outgoing board members and the board members who are staying and I would like to congratulate the newly elected board members. This board, this present board has created a great tradition. It's true there are no factions, no majorities, no outside agendas. Everyone's here to um discuss the best possible solution for the kid. Sometimes um we disagree, but it's always been civil and respectful. Anyway, thank you very much and I have great hopes for the days ahead. Is there anybody else that would like to speak? I I know there's one. Is there anybody else? Oh, okay. Dale. Our next speaker is Dale Clever. Thank you. My name is Dale Clever. I live in Hinsdale and I'm proud father of four central graduates. First, I would like to welcome the newly elected DH6 board members and

012offer my sincere appreciation for their willingness to serve their community. Bobby Bar and Liz and Mary have a unique opportunity to turn the page and restore the community's trust in the governance of our two outstanding high schools. The new board member new board members, you face a test tonight. It's a test of honesty and integrity. The test you are taking tonight is whether you will uphold your campaign pledges of greater transparency and greater public accountability. You all made such promises at candidate forums, meet and greets, and one-on-one conversations. It's a test that the prior board has failed miserably over the past two years with its systematic assault on transparency and its repeated violations of the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act. I don't have sufficient time to list all these violations, but

013as a candidate for the board, you should surely be aware of them. You will fail this test tonight if you vote for Cat Greenspawn to continue as president of the board because you are not prepared to take the test because you have been unable to do your homework to make an informed decision about your vote. Since you have not been seated as board members, you have not access had access to certain confidential information. If you vote for the board president tonight and there's no rule you have to, you will be choosing to make your selection without critical knowledge and facts. I'm going to suggest two study aids to help you prepare for the test. They haven't been available to you now because you haven't been on board. Both study guides relate to the allegations recently

014made by Dan Deb Leventhal, who persuasively documented various violations of federal and state laws protecting student records and the privacy rights of their child. If even a small fraction of Levventhal's claims are true, then Cat Greenspawn, Jeff Waters, and Ara should all resign. In a defensive attempt, perhaps paranoid is the more appropriate word, to refute the Levventh Balls allegation, this board on February, April 25th emailed a letter to all 81 D86 students, parents, teachers, administrators, and others. This letter was signed by the board of educations, and it said the the allegations of the 11ths were unfounded. Key word. The board offered no support for this. Furthermore, all that this letter did was confuse students and parents. It certainly wasn't putting students first. But the real question is, was the letter honest? Were the board and

015and and the president being truthful about the commute to the community and labeling the Levthal's allegations as unfounded? The first study guide that you need to look at, new board members, is this document right here. It is a heavily redacted settlement and release agreement. It would be totally disingenuous for the board to call the claims of the Levventhalss unfounded if the board had secretly settled the Levthal's claims by paying them $80,000 to sign a release of such claims. Would it not? I have in my hand I showed you the redacted agreement heavily redacted. All the key provisions are are are eliminated. But we do know that the district agreed to pay parents of a student $80,000 to reimburse them for undisclosed expenses and attorney fees. Due to the heavy uh redacted the heavy redactions, the

016public doesn't have a clue as to why the board spent $80,000 of the taxpayers money to settle something that the board refused to say absolutely anything about. The board didn't even offer a highly generalized description of the agreement. Of course, in the agreement, the board made no omission of liability, but it doesn't take a genius to know that when a board pays out such a large sum, it was it was potentially liable for something. Since the board provided no public information about the $80,000 settlement, we can only speculate about the reasons why, but the four newly elected board members don't have to speculate. Once they are seated, they have the right to read the unredacted agreement and they should not vote for a new board president till they know whether or not this settlement agreement

017was reached with the 11thall family. I'm getting too old to believe in coincidences and the timing of the settlement agreement is highly suspect. It was dated March 13th. What little we can discern about the settlement agreement seems highly consistent with the facts surrounding the Levthal's case. Even the blacked out writing indicating the name of the parents has the same number of character spaces as the words Dan and Debbie Levthal. I can only guess what the settlement and release agreement says because the board has kept it totally secret. My guess is that the Levthalss were paid $80,000 to release their claims. If my guess is correct, that certainly does not seem unfounded to me. If my guess is wrong, then all the president of Greenspawn and the board members have to do is say, "Dale, you're

018wrong. The acceleratement agreement was not with 11." And I will gladly retract my incorrect speculation. But I do not think they will say this. The four new board members don't have to make a guess. All they have to do is review the agreement. If the agreement is with the Levventhalss, then the prior board is guilty of not only concealing information, but engaging in the biggest lie since Tammy Apprentice. Actually, it's probably more egregious than any fib Tammy ever told. The allegations are not unfounded if you pay $80,000 to settle them. If that's what happened, then the president and this board have lied to the D86 stakeholders and liars should not serve as board president. The second study aid I will suggest to be is the to newly elected board members is the tape of two

019closed board meetings held on September 18th, 2023. Debbie Leventhal claimed she was the subject of intimidation. You're at seven minutes. I'm I'm just winding up here. Let's do that. So, read read take a look at those tapes and you can see for yourself whether Deb Leventhal was bullied or not. It it resulted in her resignation. So, board members, uh I hope you I hope you passed the test of honesty and character. Do not elect a new president until you've answered for yourself some of the questions that the public is not ever getting answers to. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Alan. Okay. Hi there. Yeah, my name is Alan. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, I came here unprepared. I don't have any notes. In fact, actually it should be my my son Ethan

020Pan coming here, but he had AP test as a senior and also they had a crazy prom part. Yeah. Prom and part after party. So he's so tired sleeping at home. Okay. Yeah. So actually Yeah. So he has been telling me that I want to come to this inauguration board meeting to just give a few words, some thank you and some suggestion and some like look out for the future. Being fat, Jeff, you even recommended saying, "Hey, Ethan, can you run for the school board?" Sadly. Yeah. His birthday is in June. He's too young. Just missed by a few months. Yeah. But again, Yeah. So, yeah. So, we are immigrant. Yeah. Minority. And suppose Yeah. Usually you don't see many people like us on the board meeting but many of you probably remember in the

021past few years uh our family Ethan me and my wife we have been giving a speech a few times on the board meeting and we are yeah through this board meeting through the communication it gave us so much confidence that the voice are being heard our advice are being taken so this really gave us and give the Asian community a lot of confidence to actually work together to make 86 a better place and uh in fact Ethan even yeah so during the college application by the way I'm very proud of Ethan so he gave up a few really prestige school to actually commit to a eight-year dental program locally he said he not only want to be a good dentist later on to serve the ser serve the nation he also wants to actually stay

022local so if D6 has anything and the south has anything he's willing to come back and help. And uh so during his college application, he actually put up some words and he wanted want me to share the words with uh with the new uh new board. So yeah, so these are some of his models and of course those are models that we develop together. First one is respect is earned from the respect you give. And second thing being a leader is not about how many people support you but how many people you can support, empower and inspire. And lastly he believed that no dream is too big but no task is too small. So he believed the board and art community can work together from everything. Yeah. So every small steps and in fact yeah

023um among the board. Yeah. Thank you Jeff. Yeah Jeff you have been such a great inspiration leader for Ethan. And also another person I really want to thank you is Mr. Walker. Yeah, for the Yeah, thank you for actually for that incident and many people you probably already forget about that, but thank you for the incident that actually give Ethan a lot of inspiration to actually be able to come up to tell people about his feeling, how he can work with people even on disagreement. So again, but thank you for your work and thank you for the the new board member and uh I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Moving forward, action to approve minutes. The 2023 BOE will approve outstanding minutes of board meetings that have not yet come up for

024approval. By this action, the board will approve the recording of business already conducted. Is there a motion to approve outstanding meeting minutes including April 8th, 2025 HR committee, April 16th, 2025 finance committee, April 18th, 2025 facilities committee, April 21st, 2025 ANO committee, April 21st, 2025 policy committee, April 25th, 2025 academic committee. April 24th, 2025 regular action meeting. May 1st, 2025 special meeting. Is there a motion? Motion. Motion. James, second. Is there any discussion? Please call roll. Member Greenspun. I. Member James. I. Member Aris. I. Member Curtsunis. I. Member Raman. I. Member Walker. I. Member Waters. I motion passes 70. The 220 2025 election results. Dupage County Clerk Jean Casmic submitted a certified copy of the canvas and abstract of vote cast at the consolidated general election held in DuPage County on April 1st, 2025. The

025canvas was made official April 22nd, 2025 in is now on file with the election division and a copy of the D86 certified canvas and abstract of votes was posted to the agenda. The board of education proclaims the following results of the April 1st, 2025 elections that the following individuals were elected to four-year terms on the board of education. Mary Satchwell, Elizabeth Liz Mitha, Bobby Fiser, and Baron Leo. And that the following individual was elected to a two-year term on the board of education, Jeff Waters. Moving on to recognizing our outgoing board members. It is a D86 tradition to recognize our departing board members and express appreciation and gratitude for their service to the district and the community to our departing board members. Thank you all in particular Heather Terry Peggy. Thank you so much. We

026spent some time sort of brainstorming what to do. I know you had to be here and you had to rip up your invitations to the Met Gala um and couldn't be here, but um we appreciate it. We thought about carving statues and big plaques um and all those sorts of things. Um, but instead of sort of a big resolution, we thought it would just be helpful for myself and those who are going to remain uh working on this board just to offer some words of kindness and recognition and thanks for what you do. We wrote this language up here. It thanks you for exemplary leadership and service as members of the board. And of course, we want to thank you for that. But I think mostly what I'll say, but I suspect others will echo

027this. We want to thank you for just being good partners in the work. You cared. You certainly didn't always agree with each other or with me, but we talked it through. We got to a place that helped the district and helped kids. We made some tough decisions. I could see it in your faces and in the frantic emails and texts that sometimes I get that it stressed you out because these are hard decisions and there's a lot of responsibility. I was continually reminded Heather, Abed, Terry, Peggy, with the courage you showed, but sometimes you have to say, "We hear you. We understand that perspective, but no, you said that to me a few times. You've said it to members of the community. That's what governance is about. It's about making hard decisions and understanding that

028not everyone can be agree with everything all the time, but you did it for the best interest of our students in our districts together. I'm going to start and say a bit about Heather. Thank you. Um Heather's been with us since uh December 21st. And Heather, for me, you were always, except for maybe once or twice, very calm and levelheaded about every single thing. Um, I think my staff has sort of figured this out. Sometimes I go out for lunch, but it's the lunch part is just secondary. Mostly I need to get in my car and make some phone calls, and it's just easier for me to do that. And I remember one late fall day I think we were talking about attorneys because we've talked a lot about attorneys and I remember I pulled

029off to the side of the road and it was probably 40 minutes into a conversation with you about what do I need to do? What does the team need to do? What about the special ed stuff? What about this investigation? What about this and that? You were calming. You were clear. You didn't always know what to do, but you helped me think through what to do. And I think I helped you think through what to do. And I remember leaving that conversation and getting back on the road thinking how helpful that was and how grateful that was. And I wasn't even angry at all that I was going back to a meeting still hungry because I hadn't gone out and picked up a sandwich. Um, working with you was like that all the time. Thank

030you so much for being a part of this. [Applause] What it says up there? Maybe maybe I didn't read right. No, I was there. Dr. Raman Asma are you ready to talk about Dr. Raman? Yes I am of course always ready as we know is a dedicated physician he's also been an educational advocate served as a board member for our district since June 86 from October 23 to April 25. He was appointed to fill a vacancy and he and myself were the only representatives from the hell south high school attendance area does reside in Wbrook and has two students in the Hel. His appointment was significant in addressing and wanting to understand more about optimization of equal course opportunities and resource distribution between both central and south. Professionally we know Dr. Ren is highly accomplished

031in the medical field. He holds several positions and leadership roles with the Cook County Health System. On the district 86 school board, Dr. Roan was actively involved in chaping some of our educational policy and served on two committees, including the academic and the availability opportunities committee, which he's been chairing. He raised pointed questions when deemed necessary, identified concerns when brought to his attention, and advocated for students. Despite his involvement in advocacy, which I know he will continue getting to know, he's opted out not to run for this past election cycle. He has been a great asset to our team for about 18 months. His tenure will be remembered and is going to be remembered by his calm demeanor, his soft spoken voice, and for me personally a friend and at times like a brother to

032lean on. [Applause] member Waters. Did you print those? I'm trying to pull up the agenda. My PC's not powered up. So, let's take a look here at some of the tremendous accomplishments of board member J. I can see here. I was privileged and benefited greatly from being a running mate with Peggy back in 2021. Peggy served from 2021 until 2025. Elected on April 6th, 2021. Peggy has served in several different capacities. board vice president from 23 to 25, board secretary in 2021 and 2022, policy committee in 2021 all the way through 2025. Currently the chair also on the PTAC committee from 2020 uh 20 2021 to 2025 currently the chair employee benefits 2021 to 2023 as the chair and also the chair of CSMRC to close session review minutes 2023 to 2025. Finally, she was

033also the IASB delegate from 2023 to 2025. So, thank you for your amazing service officially. But I'd like to point out a few things about Peggy that I think the community has benefit Peggy Buffton would have plenty of opportunity to either calm me down or better inform me to help me understand here at the board table. Um, and I consider myself quite data driven until I met Peggy. Peggy was relentless with research. Peggy to this day and literally in these waning months was often lifting myself up and other board members to be more informed appropriately on any decision we were making. Um, but more than anything, I think the benefit of these four years with all these board members, Heather and Abid, Terry, Osma, Catherine, and specifically, as we're talking about Peggy, is the tremendous

034opportunity to pick up a good friend and and what what will be a lifelong one. So, there's lots of there's been lots of benefit that the uh community has derived from Peggy. And I think what Dr. Lock said earlier about the tough work we do when we engage with the cabinet and administration and certainly the community is I felt like Peggy always was able to center me focus me certainly through the lens of being student driven first and foremost but also to be objective in our search for what was right, what was best and to balance the scales between what's right for the student, what's what for the student interest. And that could be a timing thing, whereas someone like myself would want to do this and do it now. Peggy would possibly be on

035the same page. But if she wasn't, there was always a good reason for it. And she made she made me I know she's rolling off the board, but she'll continue. Thank you, Peggy, for making me an even better board member in the next two years. I'll be forwarding you all the agendas, the public ones, and I'll be grateful for your assistance because Peggy and each of these board members and some of the other board members who are no longer on the board have made me a better one. So, thank you. Thank you, Peggy. [Applause] Last but not least, thank you, Terry. Terry Walker. Uh Terry served this district uh from 2021 to 2025. She was elected April 6th of 2021. Board President 2021 through 2022. Board Secretary 22 to 23, HHSDA negotiations 23, facilities committee

036chair 21- 25, HR committee chair 21 through 25, and PTAC from 23 to 25. every day. You made us a better board and you made me a better person. It takes a special person to be in HR to understand total picture to appreciate um multiple perspectives sometimes that don't necessarily uh come together very easily. um and to articulate all of those perspectives in a cohesive way so that the board can understand right an HR committee HR committee report or even at the table. Um I'm sure it was exceptionally hard the past couple of years as an HR professional. There was a lot of um we did a lot of interviewing and you led the way. I appreciate you so much. Um when Jeff talked about um the relationships that we've built and all the meetings

037that we've had that we've been together and learn to um understand each other, get to know each other. I can honestly say, Terry, that you have absolutely made me a better person and I appreciate that. It's not easy being board president. It's not easy. Thank you, Terry, for your service. [Applause] Thank you everyone. Thank you. I just have a few words. I I just wanted to say I'm honored to have had the opportunity to serve our community, our district, and most importantly our students these past four years. Um I'm very happy to pass the torch to our next board as they continue to move our district forward. Thank you all. um and will work along with their talented board mates, the district administration and the staff. It's been an honor working with each and every

038one of you. I appreciate [Applause] all. Okay, moving on. It's now time to administer the oath of office to new board members. Per policy 2 col 80 board member oath and conduct. Each board of education member before taking his or her seat on the board shall take the oath of office. Will the newly elected board members please come forward for the oath of office. microphone together. Thank you. Please like other duties. I can see it. Guess I'll just if you guys want to stand back here so you can take pictures. because otherwise you're just counsel. Are you ready? Jeff, ready? Yes. Okay. Raise your right hand and read with me. I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of Kingsdale Township High

039School District 86 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability. I further swear that I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. I shall abide by majority decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. As

040part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Hinsdale Township High School District 86. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement in all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law. I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students and our community schools to advance the vision for Hinsdale Township High School District 86. and I shall strive to work together with

041the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision the board has created. Fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. You have been sworn in. Is there a motion to adjourn the 2023? Oh, board members. We haven't adjourned. They left. It's not. Is there a motion to adjourn the 2023 board of education of Hinsdale Township High School District 86 sign? So move. Second James. Motion Raman. Second James. Is there discussion? Please call roll for last. Member James. I. Member Aris. Hi. Member Cartunus. I. Member Raman. Hi. Member Walker. Hi. Member Waters. I member Greenspun. I motion carries 70. Bye guys. [Music] [Applause] We have cupcakes and water for to celebrate and to welcome. Please enjoy. We're going to take a few minutes as an

042intermission to get our new board members seated right back at it. Nice to meet you. Congratulations. I don't know. I don't know yet. Let me know where you Okay. Hello again. Board of Education selects a president prom and secretary prom to oversee the election of board officers and to run the meeting until permanent officers are elected. Any board member may make a nomination for president to protest. Board members may nominate themselves. Nominations do not require a second. Floor is now open for nominations of President Pro Te. I nominate member Waters. You've done it for two years. I think you're really good at it. I humbly accept it. Here we hear him. No other nominations, the board recording secretary will call the role. With no other nominations, it is um acclamation elected by acclamation. Jeff Waters

043will serve as uh president prom. Any board member may make a nomination for secretary prov. Board members may nominate themselves. The board may elect to have the recording secretary serve as the secretary prom. Nominations do not require a second board. The floor is now open for nominations for secretary prov. I nominate um Deb Krellski, the board recording secretary. The board recording secretary will now call the role or do the acclamation thing. With no other nominees, I will serve as recording secretary. Promp promp. I call to order the May 5th, 2025 organizational meeting of the 2025 board of education of Hinsdale Township High School, District 86. The time is 7:13. President Prom Kagski, please call. I'm sorry. Please call roll. Member Aris here. Member Fischer here. Member Greenspun here. Member Lea here. Member here. Member Satchwell

044here. Member Waters here. The board will now elect officers. The process for electing each officer is the same. The floor will be open for nominations. Anyone nominated will be eligible to receive votes for the position for which they have been nominated. Board members may nominate themselves. Nominations do not require a second. Election of an officer requires a majority of those voting. If there is only one person nominated, the president may declare the nominee elected by acclamation and announce the new officer. If there is more than one person nominated, board members will cast their vote by stating the name of their preferred nominee when role is called. Per policy 2 col 220, the sequence for casting votes is rotated. Until officers are elected, the sequence begins by seniority and then alphabetically. If there is a tie

045or no one receives majority of the votes cast, a second vote must be taken. Voting will continue until one candidate receives majority of the votes cast. The secretary prom may ask if any candidate chooses to drop out of the vote before voting begins again. If no candidate is elected, the president prom serves until the president is elected. Once elected, the board president presides over the meeting as the board elects its vice president, secretary, and treasur for nomination and election of board president. The floor is now open for nominations for board president. I nominate board member Greenspun. I'd actually like to nominate Mary Satchwell. I'm gonna talk a little bit about Mary now. I'm thrilled to nominate Dr. Mary Satchwell for president of the District 86 Board of Education. Dr. Satchwell comes to district 86 as

046a career educator and highly experienced schoolboard member. Over the last 20 plus years, she has served as a special education teacher, school psychologist, and professor. Dr. Satchwell is a seasoned board of education member with eight years of service at Marker District 60, making her the most experienced member of the 2025 district 86 board. During her time at Marker, Dr. Dr. Satchel was board president for four years and has served as both vice president and secretary as well. She deeply understands and has employed best practices of board governance in the law overseeing public bodies including OMA and FURPA the federal law protecting student privacy. She has experienced building relationships with different constituents and values consensus building compromise and collaboration. Dr. Satchel knows that increased transparency builds trust within the school community. She solicits feedback from multiple

047stakeholders and asks questions to better understand challenges and potential solutions. And Dr. Satchwell recognizes that while the board president has additional responsibilities such as collaborating with the superintendent to create meeting agendas, she is one of seven board members, all representing the community with equal voices and votes shaping the district's direction and policy. Dr. Satchel is a true leader. She is humble, respectful, welcoming, and always prioritize the best outcomes for every student. In the face of adversity and challenges, she's a thoughtful, calming presence who understands that doing what is right is often not easy, but does the right thing anyway. The community recognizes and values Dr. Satchel's leadership, experience, and character. She received the highest number of votes in the 2025 election and has broad community support winning precincts in Oakbrook, Hinsdale, Willoughbrook, Dariion, and Westmont.

048Even if 2500 fewer people had voted for her, Dr. Satchel still would have been elected. In a municipal election, she won by a landslide. District 86 has experienced much change over the last several years. I thank President Greenspawn for helping the district navigate some huge changes since her election in 2023. Some of these changes, however, have resulted in strain relationships between the board, community, and district and school staff. And these relationships matter. Schools are powered by people, and they require strong relationships and trust to find the right path forward for students. Electing Mary Satchwell would provide a needed reset in these relationships and enable the board to collaborate better and meet students needs effectively. Dr. Satchel has prioritized students in both her professional and personal life for over 20 years and she'll continue to do

049so at District 86. Our students and community would be best served if Dr. Mary Satchwell is elected Board of Education President. Thank you. Are there any more nominations? Is there any more discussion before we call? Yeah, I I mean I'm game. I agree with everything Liz just said. I think um board member Satchwell brings all of that to this board and we're lucky to have two really strong candidates. I end up I ended up feeling like um part of why I ran and part of what I said as I ran was that this board has done fantastic work and I wanted to support this board's work going forward. Safest way to do that is to go with someone who has led who has been on the board. So I think everything said about Mary is

050true. I think she's going to be a great leader on this board. Um, I would just like all of us new folks to bake in for a year before we um try to take charge of this thing. I would echo what Bob said, Mary, I think he'll do a wonderful job. We we as a community were blessed to have certainly all seven of us, but specifically the most recent four who were elected. You know, the community spoken loudly. Um, I do think that the pres president Greenspan's tenure as president is appropriate for a third year for a reason. You heard some of the accomplishments of the board that a community member brought up earlier. So, I I won't go back over them, but there's more. And while the community sometimes is under the impression that

051certain things are out of whack or not aligned or perhaps um indicating that there's some drama, I think a lot of that comes out falsely digitally where stories are often incomplete or underqued and very um misrepresentative of the collaboration that the board president has driven not just with the board but with the same cabinet administration staff that board member of me that you're referring to. So, if any of the existing board members felt otherwise, I think you would hear that tonight. And this one does not. It's definitely not a lack of support for any of the new members to serve in any executive roles. It's more a resounding and hopefully brief endorsement of uh of President Greenspot. I was nominated last year by a few community members at the microphone and I said the same

052thing I'll say tonight which is we've had the best president for two years and we'll be fortunate to have her for the next for the next session. The level of engagement that she brings to empower fellow board members the the um the exogenous events that are independent of what we do that she chooses to do to serve kids the outside events, if you will, and the collaboration and consensus that she does try to drive to the table, not always to my liking sometimes on some of our phone calls, but there's a reason why we have good leaders and she would have been and last year when when um I supported Greenspun. The first year I chose some somebody different um out of allegiance to a former board member and Katherine has done nothing to nothing

053to prove um any other endorsement than a full one for myself. I I'm grateful you're on the board. the community who is largely uninformed. Certainly not the people here tonight could not be more fortunate to have you at the helm and I look forward to another year of you doing the same hope. So I look forward to working with all seven of us collaboratively fostered by you Katherine. So thank you. Thanks Jeeoff. I can just hop in for a second. Oh sorry go ahead. I just wanted to say just I just want to say respectfully I think a lot of community members are a lot very informed even if they're not online and not listening. So just want to flag that as us recognizing the community is paying attention to what's going on here whether

054they're watching or not as well. Thanks Um I wanted to uh support um and appreciate that we have congratulated the new member forward to the collaboration um and continuing the work ahead for our students in district 86. um in support of continued um when I entered when I got elected two years ago um I had been an advocate and will continue to advocate for those points of stability um and commitment to our students and reviewing in terms of the records of what President has been has brought to this um the past two years and review the records in terms of the way this group the previous just seven members including two members who were appointed in the past I believe 18 months um if you review the record of the ves and the commitment to

055continued um stability uh I echo Jeff's sentiments in terms of contin opportunity for the new members um to be able to build their capacity I'm looking for each of you uh to build your own leadership capacity, to build your awareness, your knowledge. Um I highly encourage you to come in after what said about an hour ago. Um and we'll hopefully hold you to task of being able to bring yourself to as much knowledge and context of what we have done in the previous board. Um and I'm as I always said that I'm available to help answer any questions. For those reasons um I support um fund to continue for this upcoming academic school year for president to say thank you so much member for the nomination. I am humbled by your incredibly kind words. Um

056I um am grateful to you member Gmont for your service on the board and as a leader of the board. Um I am absolutely confident that I understand what the role entails and would be able to serve if elected and would be honored to serve the board and serve the district in leadership role now or in the future. I will give my two cents. Uh first of all, I want to say thank you to um all the community members who expressed um their perspectives on this particular question and questions in general as I've gotten up to speed. Um uh you know, it's not always easy and um so I really appreciate folks reaching out and folks I reached out to. Uh, I would say I feel pretty confident in all seven of the people uh

057that we have here. Uh, we've got a really good crowd. Um, and I would feel comfortable really with any of the seven of us um being president. Um, uh, so uh, but we we definitely want to choose one and we've got two to to look at. And so my thinking goes, first of all, I'd be pretty reluctant to nominate anyone who's brand new to the board. None of us Um, not that I would ever rule it out, but I'd be reluctant to. Um, not because I'm actually worried about any of us, but mainly because I haven't, you know, we haven't worked together yet. We'd love to see some, uh, you know, kind of what Bobby said, just see, um, you know, see us work together for a little bit, see some votes and, uh, on

058the books. Um, but I feel pretty good about, you know, everyone. That's just a concern I would have. Uh, just best practices. And uh so for me that leaves um the existing board members. Um and uh you know I think that uh you know one of the one of the biggest reasons that I am sitting here made the effort to to be here is because uh you know the district really has gone through some tougher times and it's doing better now and we're moving in a positive direction. we still have uh ways to go to fulfill our full potential. You know we have you know one of the best school districts in um you know in in the state in the country you know in the world. Um and um you know we we uh

059we're starting to move things in a good direction. We're seeing objective numbers moving about direction. I think that uh you know the kids probably get the best um the most credit for that their parents and the teachers but um do credit is due to the leadership um that's uh that that's gotten us here and uh so for those reasons I support Katherine for president um and uh you know I think Mary I think you're great as well. I support Catherine comments before we call Secretary, please call. When I call your name, if you will please indicate the name of your preferred candidate uh nominee for board president. Member Aris, I'm sorry. Um this um need to affirm accepting the nomination. I apologize. trying to make sure we're following the protocols. Yep. We are calling the

060role on the two nominees for board president. And when I call your name, if you will indicate who you are casting your vote for. Okay. Greenspun. Member Greenspun. Greenspun. Member Waters. Greenspun. Member Fiser. Board member Greenspun. Member Leica Greenspun. Member Metha Mary Satchwell. Member Satchwell. Mary Sel. Five votes for Greenspun and two votes for Satchwell. Congratulations. [Applause] Once elected, the board president presides over me as the board elections vice president, secretary, and treasur. Right back at you. The floor is now open for nominations for board vice president. I would like to nominate like to nominate uh Bobby Fischer for vice president. I accept. Are there any other nominations? I'd like to nominate Mary Saw. I accept. Are there any other nominations? Is there discussion? Deb, will you please call roll? Great. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry.

061Asma. That's okay. I also had to support nomination for vice president Mary Satchwell based on her experience with the previous school board and again um in keeping stability they had a transition of allowing our new board members to build their capacity and their leadership. Um, I do want to support Mary as you move into the new role. Um, hopefully that uh you're able to create more experience and um understanding of this context of um our districts for district 86 and keeping our students as number one priority and having that opportunity to build capacity also support. Anybody else? Jump in and say a couple words for Bobby. Um uh you know there are a lot of things that are great um and and why I would why I support Bobby for it. Um uh for one,

062he's been pretty well involved in D6 um issues for a really long time, you know, as a parent and um as an active participant. Um so has a pretty deep to that. Um but also in the course of the campaign um just u following along a lot of the ideas and the perspectives that he had I I feel most comfortable with um you know where where his vision and what he sees policy wise and so that's kind of my most the thing I'm most uh most important to me just having a a strong understanding of where folks stand policy wise. Um, and you know, I go on about his leadership qualities and so forth and keep going, but I feel pretty good about it. And again, you know, Mary, I think is awesome as well.

063I think would do just fine. Um, and you more than fine. And um, Bobby for for uh, that was very kind. Thank you. Is there further discussion? Deb, will you please call RO? When I call your name, if you will please indicate the candidate for board vice president that you're casting your vote in favor of. Member Greenspun. Fisher. Member Waters. Fisher. Member Fiser. Fisher. Member Lea. Bobby. Fisher. Member Mitha, Mary Satchwell, Member Satchwell, Mary Satchwell, Member Aris, Mary Satchwell. Three votes for Satchwell and four votes for Fiser. Congratulations. [Applause] The floor is now open for nominations for board secretary. The board recording secretary. Oh. Do we have any nominations for secretary? I'd like to go ahead and nominate to build capacity members. Um support them as they transition. I accept. Thank you for thinking. Yes.

064Are there any other nominations? Okay, [Applause] now we have to appoint the official recording secretary. Is there a motion to appoint admin chief of uh staff Deborah Kadrski as board recording secretary? Second motion waters second. Is there any discussion? So we have I'm sorry. Go ahead. [Music] You've done such a great phenomenal job. Um it's been such a pleasure to collaborate with you. Um always timely. you respond vigilantly and effectively. Um you your is always very appreciated. Um so I'm hopeful that um all board members support. Thank you. W please call. Member Aris. Hi. Member Fischer. Hi. Member Greenspun. I. Member Leica. I. Member Mitha. I. Member Satchwell. I. Member Waters. I. Motion carries. 70. We need to affirm the treasurer. The treasurer of the board shall be either a member of the board who

065serves a one-year term or a non-board member who serves at the board's pleasure. Uh May 28, 2018, the board of education approved resolution number 1 19.02 for appointment of treasurer and approval of treasurer's bonds. This resolution establishes CFO Josh Stevenson as treasurer of the board to serve as the board at the board's pleasure. Is there a motion to affirm CFO Stevenson as treasurer of the board? So moved. Second, Mitha. Motion. Fisher second out. Is there any discussion? Will you please call roll? Member Fiser. I. Member Greenspun. I. Member Leak. I. Member Mitha. I. Member Satchwell. I. Member Waters. I. Member Aris. I. Motion carries 70. uh designate employees to complete training. All board members must have training. In addition, the open meetings act requires that all public bodies designate employees, officers, or members to receive

066training on compliance with this law. Each board member must designate at least or each board must designate at least one employee or member to receive training on compliance with OMA 5CS120-1.05. 05 as the head of the public body, the board president shall designate on behalf of the board and each board committee the superintendent and other employees to receive the training on compliance with the open meetings act that is required uh by section 1.05A of that act. I designate superintendent lock recording secretary Kadrowski and backup recording secretary Lauren board to receive training on compliance with MA and request that the recording secretary submit these designates to the office of the attorney general. Okay. Appointing the FOYA officer. Each public body shall designate one or more officials or employees to act as its freedom of information officer

067or officers. As the head of the public body, the board president shall appoint an employee to serve as the district's freedom of information officer. That appointee assumes all duties and powers of that office as provided in FOYA and policy 2250 access to district public records. I appoint chief admin chief of staff Deb Kadski to serve as chief Hoya officer. Moving on to organizational items, we need to affirm the schedule of regular meetings through June of 2025. In accordance with the open meetings act, the board shall fix a time and date for its regular meetings. School code states that this task is accomplished during the organizational meeting. The board of education announced their schedule of regular meetings at the beginning of the 2025 fiscal year. The new board must now affirm this schedule at the organizational

068meeting to implement both laws. Is there a motion to adopt the board of education schedule of regular meetings approved by the prior board through June 30th, 2025? Some motion stat. Is there a second? Second Fiser. Second Fiser. Is there any discussion? Will you please call roll? Member Greenspun. I. Member Leica. I. Member Mitha. I. Member Statchwell. Hi. Member Waters. Hi. Member Acris. Hi. Member Fischer. I. Motion carries 70. Appoint standing committee members. Uh, the board president may appoint committee members or request that board members provide notification of their interest, reserving appointments until the next meeting. Deb, can you read up the um, eight standing board committees that we have? We have the finance, the facilities, uh, academic, policy, HR, ANO, uh, that is a special committee, PTAC, um, CSMR and the close session minutes review.

069Yes, right on that document. Kind of small. So, um, instead of putting everybody on the spot tonight, I'm hoping that we can think about it, you each think about it, and then send me a note, uh, before our meeting will appoint, uh, board committee assignments on Thursday. Okay. Uh, moving on to board orientation to district 86. State of the district spring 2025. administration will provide a high level overview of district 86. Before superintendent lock starts, I just want to express my deep gratitude for this presentation. This is the first time I don't know maybe in the history of these things that we're having such a public presentation on the state of the district u which includes data. So thank you. You're welcome. And this was a team effort. So team, come on down. So, um,

070newbies, can I call you that? That's what I have been calling you internally. That's I'm sorry. No, I said newbies. Um, so here's uh here's what we wanted to do. Um, I wanted you all to get the chance to meet the team, understand a bit about what they do, what they wrestle with all the time, um, why while they are welcome to be responsive to my needs, they have so many other things going on. So, you'll learn about that. We'll do a real highlevel view of what our outcomes are mostly focusing on students and then even more briefly just a highle preview of what's on the horizon for all of us. So let me dig into organizational units. Um, Principal Walsh is not with us today, but Principal Ferrronto, she can talk about any school

071she wants. So, um, can you just give an overview of both Central and South? Absolutely. Um, please. Hello everyone. Welcome to the new members. Uh, Dr. Carrie Panto, principal of Hitsdale South. I am sporting my red today in honor of Principal Walsh not being here. Um, so I I will be speaking on both schools. So you'll see on the slides, the slide before is about Hinsdale Central, the and the slide you were just looking at is Hinsdale South. The same information is on both slides. This is uh pulled from our school profiles which are found on the website. So you can find all this information about those schools. Um but you'll see on Hinsdale Central slide um student enrollment is listed at a little under 2500. you see all of our athletic um competitive programs,

072our student clubs, and on the right side, you'll see um how many graduates were last school year with percentage attending college, our national board uh commended and semi- finalist students at Hinsdale Central. Um and you'll see the same information at South. Um some notes that I will say is both schools even for the size of Hinsdale South have the same amount of athletic programs, competitive athletic programs, which is wonderful. Um and our AP classes, you'll see at Hinsdale Central that there is 30 listed and 27 for Hinsdale South. And that is solely because um three three district 86 AP courses are not offered at South, but they're offered at Central. And our students at South are able to take it at Central. And that's AP Seminar, AP Research, and AP Spanish Literature. Um uh as

073principal we oversee a lot of different leadership groups with building leadership teams, curriculum leadership teams, which is our department chairs and um we focus on all things operations instruction and and all the fun things that happen during the day. So thank you. Excellent. Thanks. Dr. Smith, you want to talk about TC? Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Carrie Smith. I'm the assistant superintendent of student services. I will be talking about the transition center. So we serve approximately 80 students with individualized education plans. Um and they are students who per their IEP have been recommended to attend the transition center because they need additional support in areas such on such as education and training, employment, independent living um to to meet their postsecary goals. So, at our transition center, we serve students who have met the requirements for

074their diploma after 12th grade and then up until the year that they finish, they are up until the age of 22 and they can finish out the school year based on an Illinois law. So, just on the slide, you'll see just some of the information about our different um offerings that we have, including a minimum of community based instruction for our programs, a minimum of two times a week, as well as um listed on the side are some outcomes. So, in order to meet some of these outcomes, our students are volunteering, they're um working within the community, those kinds of things. Thank you. We wanted to start with the schools because schools where is where it's at. I believe that schools are the unit of change and now you'll hear about everyone on the team

075who supports the schools and we're going alphabetical here I think. So Jason take it away. Good evening and welcome again everyone. Jason Marque, assistant superintendent for academics and as you can see here um really three broad areas uh that our academics team works and coordinates. So the curriculum certainly which we talked a lot about. So you can see just some some very broad numbers. Again it's very comprehensive curriculum spread across multiple departments nearly 300 courses roughly. Um and as Dr. Ponto mentioned 27 common districtwide AP courses with those additional three that were mentioned at Hinsdale Central. You can see our assessment program which I think we've talked a lot about over the last year. I think everybody's fairly aware of that transition from the SAT suite to the ACT uh comprehensive uh testing program that

076we have now with the preACT for our 9th and 10th grade students and then the ACT for our 11th grade students. You also see listed um uh the mention of the alternative assessment for students uh who have an exception to the ACT as part of their IEP. Uh so that's the DM assessment. And then additionally just two other mentions for our multilingual learners part of their assessment program is the annual access test uh which is how we uh determine their proficiency and their progress towards uh proficiency in English. And then finally we have continued to provide the optional PSAT NMSQT test. So if you're not familiar with that when Dr. Pronto was mentioning all the national merit uh qualifying students that is how they're able to qualify for that uh scholarship competition through that test.

077So in order to provide our students that opportunity we continue to offer that as a potential or as an optional uh assessment. And then for our professional learning which is one of those areas that I mentioned you can see there's a number of ways that we uh try to leverage that. Some are more embedded like instructional coaching, our evaluation program, our informal work uh with colleagues and formalized work in our early release Wednesdays and within and across departments. And then certainly we have more organized days in our district improvement learning and planning days uh in our institute days that we formalize that in addition to all sorts of other ways that we do that and people are independently learning and then how we organize that work largely in the academic team. We have an academic

078cabinet um that works around the leadership of that with the assistant principles, the directors, myself and Dr. Smith largely serve in that team and then our district curriculum leadership team. So the building's two curriculum leadership teams come together usually once a month uh to organize our work. Thank you. Business office talk about money, Josh. All right, Josh Stevenson, CFO for the district. Um welcome. So members uh the business office. Uh there's six members including uh myself. Uh we house all of the payroll um and uh procurement functions of the district. All the financial operations, payables, financial reporting, budgeting, etc. Um some key just financial numbers. Uh about $141 million budget is what we're operating uh this year. Our operational fund balance at the end of last year was uh 26.9 million. puts us at about

07924% of our budgeted operating revenue which is borderline right on where you get an excellent rating at the state of 25%. Uh 94% of our revenue comes from u local sources predominantly from property taxes and then our operational expense for people is just under $31,000 a year. Comes Alex. All right, Alex Mesa, executive director of communications. This is the communications department right here. You're looking at it. As we speak, I'm posting your photos to social media, so you can look forward to that. Um, some some data numbers up here. Parent Square is our mass notification system. So, that's what we use to send out our emails and robocalls and snow days and text messages and things like that. So, within that program, we have over 10,000 contacts of people we can reach when we need

080to. Um, social media, you see mainly the districts on Facebook X which was Twitter and LinkedIn and then the schools drive our Instagram content and obviously our clubs and activities have hundreds of other social media accounts out there. Um across the district we have five websites. So we have the district site, one for central, one for South, one for the transition center and then obviously the D86 community site which if you're not already familiar you guys will become very familiar with. Um lots of local media contacts. We've got a couple in attendance today. Grateful anytime they're able to help us share good news and the outstanding stories that are happening here in the district and um we've been showcasing those inside 86 videos here at the board meeting. uh have a lot of fun putting

081those together, me and the department. Um and it really give an inside look onto what's happening, how we're helping the kids get a great education and the great things our students and teachers and leaders are doing here in the district. Facilities Josh again. Hello again. All right. Overseeing our facilities, we have our director of operations and we have a site manager uh at at central and at South. Um we and then we have 30 um custodians, grounds, equipment managers and maintenance staff members uh that are supporting uh the district facilities. We have uh just over a million square feet uh between Inale Central, district office, Inale South um and the Darian transition center. We also have the bridge transition center which is a leased property um which is an additional 13,000 square feet and um

082you know I'm sure most of you are aware, but we we've been doing significant upgrades uh over the last few years. Um about $167 million of funding predominantly from the referendum funds um but also additional operational funds um invested in significant facility upgrades over the last five years. TB all things governance. I think governance is a fancy way of saying utility player. I too am a department of one. Um but I like to think of myself as a department of all because my work is your work and the outcome of your work. And so the information I've reported here is the work of the 2023 board. board meetings um are for the one board of education that consists of seven board members and uh between uh 2020 seating in 2023 and tonight's meeting we held

08372 regular and special meetings to do the work of the board. In district 86, we have eight standing committees. Um, there are three board members on our committees in district 86 and we held 106 committee meetings and I have the breakdown on which committees held the most meetings if you want to ask me that as you're thinking about your recommendations for president. Um, in addition to that uh we launched D86 community which is an inprogress tool uh to help the work of the board. It does house a significant amount of information going back 10 years to 2015. Um, and all of our board of education meeting minutes and videos are available there. That is uh unique to district 86 and uh part of our transparency initiatives. Um, I also work uh with you and uh

084the cabinet team here on policies and procedures. Um we have an online board of education policy manual, eight sections. Um each of the different cabinet members have an assignment for which um policies they help oversee and shepherd through the committee. Last there are 193 policies in the manual. Um and the 2023 board had six press issue updates and 124 policies were reviewed some of them multiple times. We uh utilize press and the press plus service. So we not only see IASB's model policies, but we also um receive automatic update recommendations to our policies based on the changes in the law from Press Plus. You might have heard some mention that I also serve as the FOYA officer. Um, in district 86, we report 100% of our foyer requests to the board. Um, during the board's

085term, there were 248 requests, as few as one per month, and as many as 24 in a month. During that time, we have an online portal which allows for folks to um submit their foyer requests, track the progress, receive their responses, and then we have an online uh FOYA log even after items are archived off the log, they remain accessible to the initial requesttor um as long as they are still available according to our local records act. Um, I like to uh think, um, I like to say if my work is going well, then you don't see much because you're focusing on what you should really be focusing on, which is our students, HR. Joey, welcome. I'm Jody Bryant. I'm the assistant superintendent of human resources and welcome to the board. We support and manage

086616 employees in seven different categories. Certified staff, student aid, supervisors, security officers, support staff, information tech, building grounds, and administration. Those seven groups of employees are organized into four categories. The first being the certified staff in the the teachers union. Their contract began in 23 and expires in 27. The second being the pair of professionals and student service supervisor union. their contract 23 and will expire in 26. And currently we are working with our SEI group which is our buildings and grounds union contract 2020 through June of 2025. And then our last group is our non-union support staff group and there are three members of their human resources team including me. We do lots of fun and exciting things like benefits coordination, recruitment, title n compliance, compensation, labor relations, employee services, personal uh records, and

087retirement to say just to name a few. And again, welcome. Josh, you want to talk about security? Absolutely. So, security is led uh by our director of security and we have 18 security officers in the district. Many of those are retired uh law enforcement personnel. We have hundreds of years of law enforcement experience on our staff. Um they have a a wonderful team and we've continued to kind of build over the last really the last six or seven years uh of really kind of building and adding to our our different layers of um security. Many of which you can see kind of listed up here. Um, and we'd be happy to uh any board members that have interest in learning more about security like to come and tour our campuses or walk with some of

088our security personnel. We'll be happy to do that with you. Thank you. Student services. Dr. Smith again. Just going to use this one. Okay. So, student services up on the slide you will see some of our numbers. Um we do oversee and provide support to students with IEP, students with section 504 plans or students who are Mckin Vento eligible or homeless as and we also oversee discipline. So you'll see all of those areas noted up on there as well as attendance, health services, um counseling, social work, the other related services as well. Um I think I think that's all. I didn't want to forget anybody. Um, in terms of organization, you'll see that we have a student services cabinet and that group is made up of our directors of counseling, directors of special education, director

089of student services. Mr. Murphy also joins us to make sure that we have that flow of information between academics and student services or director of multilingual learners, our director of deans. So this is a group that meets just on a monthly basis to kind of you know talk through those things are not that are not purely academics but expect our students experience within the schools. Tech Keith Good evening. Welcome new board members. Keith Ble, chief information officer. Uh I consider our department the wizards that work behind the scenes so to speak. Um we're very unique in sense that we've got 6,781 devices that we manage. There's not many places where you see such a concentration of devices all in one location that consists of Chromebooks, laptops, virtual servers, physical servers, etc. Um, a little technical

090stuff on our internet connections. We try to have as much redundancy for our teaching staff and for our operational staff. So, we have as much 100% uptime as possible to try to keep the systems running. We are working 247 on security and keep the systems up to date and secure. Our primary software applications infant and campus is our student information system. Infinite envisions are our finance and HR system. Uh canvas our learning management system and Google workspace which is email our office applications etc. Our annual spend on software is over a million dollars and we try to contain that as much as possible by a software addendum that we do provide to vendors to limit the increases that they try to give us each year. So we really try to limit those costs. Um, we

091have 14 staff including myself. Very talented team, one of the best teams I work with. Uh, Sam on on the tech side over here helping out with the AB. And, um, I also handle operations cabinet while Josh's team handles building operations. Uh, we also talk about um, building operations, security operations, student information system, grading timelines, a plethora of other topics. registration, for example. Uh to Mike's credit, and he gave me a lot of work this last year, uh we served up almost 400 data requests since he was announced last at the end of February last year. We also I worked very closely with Deb on FOYA, fulfilling Poya requests, and worked very closely with the rest of the team on any operational or instructional software programs, data analytics, etc. Thank you. All right. So, that's

092that's our two great high schools and one great transition center and a flurry of great offices and teams that support them. Now, we'll talk a little bit about our what are our outcomes? How are we doing? And I talked to Josh and we sort of said, how can we describe our financial picture in one slide? And so we thought the cleanest way to do that would be to sort of talk about a history and the projection of what are the balances going to be in our fund. Why don't you give us an overview here as a preview to many finance committees down the road? So the slide you're looking at here, this comes from our five-year forecast which is completed um after adoption of the budget in the fall. Um so here you'll see kind

093of historical fund balances uh current fund balance and then the projected fund balances moving out to the future. Um you can see there was some building of fund balances you know over the past few years and you know happened kind of during some of some of the things that happened during the pandemic years triggering a few um you know in interest rates or some somewhat higher higher replacement taxes. There were some unique things uh financially in that period of time that led to some uh surpluses in the budget. Um, typically the the district works to to try to budget, you know, revenues and expenditures to be very even and we're not looking really to build um fund balances year-over-year. Um, and then just looking out, you know, as a projection, you know, we're looking, you

094know, that line to be flat. We're looking for financial stability. If we see that going down, we obviously know we have a concerning trend. So, that's really what we're looking at in this chart is is looking at, you know, where we're at and where we're we're going and we want to see the things look financially stable. Warning is good. finances. Um, let me talk a little bit about our students. So, um, our enrollment continues to decline about 13% drop over the past seven years. I should actually preview this all this information. All this is coming from the Illinois report card. So, there's nothing new here. Um, uh, you may see it sliced a little bit different way, but it's all just the the recent downloads that gets updated every year. Um, over the past seven

095years, uh, here's how our demographics are changing. Generally flat, though, the proportion of Asian and Hispanic students is increasing over that time frame. The biggest demographic change we're seeing is an increase in the proportion of students who are designated as English or English learners as the state calls it multilingual learners as we tend to call it. Um this is this is from the state data. Otherwise things are pretty flat about uh as Dr. Smith mentioned 14% of our students have an IEP. Again this is from the report card. I think the takeaway here is there are an awful lot of variance within those IEPs. And while the highest bucket is students with a specific learning disability of around 31%, there are many many other kinds of particular IEPs that we deal with and it's a

096testament to her team um to figure out exactly what the right kind of support is for each of those kids. Um the state every year gives us a rating. Uh it gives each of our schools a rating. Um Hinsdale Central traditionally for the for the past few years has received an exemplary rating. It's based on eight metrics which I'll uh I'll highlight for you in just a moment. South uh has gotten a commendable rating. Uh exemplary I'll just highlight um to earn exemplary you have to be in the top 10% of schools. Um commendable is just all the schools in the in that same bucket but not in the top 10%. Um uh year-over-year um the majority of our weighted score categories improved or stayed the same across the district. This is the year-over-year trends

097um that you can see. You'll see we we went down in the climate survey. Big the climate survey is actually measured by the response rate on surveys. It's not actual what students or staff say, which is one of the reasons you heard me so many times cajoling people to fill out their five essential surveys because it it turns the dial right on that one. My getting question actually asked Carrie with the change in the continuer code legislation how um Oh, I'm asking both carries. Yeah, I was both. We're going to figure it out who you were asking. The question is um have you calculated how that will change the graduation rate at Hinsdale South? We don't even know what the calculation is yet. So, the last I looked at the business rules, there wasn't a

098clear answer yet. Okay. We have some webinars coming up. Hopefully, you'll have that answer for that point here. So just my expectation is and I'm wondering if it's yours too that the graduate the graduation rate the score the weighted score will change uh quite a bit for Hinsdale South based upon the way that they've been calculating in the past it should be I wouldn't be surprised if South is also not accept next year we we certainly are hopeful and optimist istic about exemplary. I remain continually optimistic but incredibly pessimistic about anything from Isby. Uh and we have not seen in writing any new business rules or process that suggests they could improve how they calculate uh the various graduation rates that are that are part of that. So, we're hoping, but I don't want to

099count on it. Um here's our test score data. This is um the SAT scores for 11th grade in Illinois high schools. 11th grade. Spring is the high stakes accountability exam. This year it was the ACT. That means it will be difficult to compare things year-over-year for some time. Um but you'll see um uh this past year her scores were slightly lower than the previous year but slightly higher than the year before that on uh English language arts and a slight decrease in mathematics though some sort of interesting shifts among the uh the buckets there. Both of those changes while not exciting or things to be proud of were in line with the statewide trends. Um, we did do some analysis about growth. This is a slide that we uh we drilled into pretty hard at

100the academic committee and I'm happy to give you uh some of the research base behind it. Um but we looked at basically growth on uh the PSAT test from year to year, spring to spring and compare that to the national distribution of test takers and generally um what you would expect is you would expect 68% of students to sort of be within a typical amount of growth. and um 16% above uh above the typical growth and you'll see on our data only 8% were below the expected growth and a higher proportion were in the within and the above amount. To us that means we are successful at students growing meaning learning more than we would expect them to in a given year of instruction. However, while they are learning more, it's unclear if they are

101learning enough to catch up um given where they uh come into us. Um, this is a chart, um, probably my favorite chart on the Isby website, and I'd encourage you to look at it, um, live on the screen because every single one of those dots represents an Illinois high school, and you can move your mouse over them and find what are the comparables. On this one, we plot the on the x axis the percent of kids who are low income in the school and on the y ais you'll see the percent of those students who are proficient on the SAT. To me, what this tells us if we're looking at kids designated at low income, you can see South has the triangle, Central has the circle. Both of our schools are are performing in ways

102that we should be proud of. There are also schools in the state where if you go up, they have the same proportion of kids who are low income, but those kids kids are scoring higher. And that tells us of uh we got some work to do to catch up to them because we want to be we want to be better. Um, one of the last things I'm going to highlight is the five essentials data. Uh this is also on the report card. We've talked about that less at this table. I think it's real important for a few reasons. Um it's outcome data because it's on the report card. If anything, this is the data that tells us not only what we need to do, but also how to do it. Uh this comes from surveys

103of students and parents and staff. We haven't gotten enough parents to respond to this, so their data isn't included here. And those surveys are uh calculated using a set of complex pro uh complex uh processes to provide a score in five areas. Effective leaders, collaborative teachers, ambitious instruction, supportive environment, involved families. Moreover, the statistics and the theory around that shows that improving scores in those five areas are theoretically connected and have a correlational relationship to improved outcomes for students. Test scores, freshman on track rates, graduation rates. So, we should take these pretty seriously. And you can see the picture of school of of our two schools. That's central on the left. South is on the right. Ambitious instruction. It's strong. It's not very strong. Uh we have a higher rating for involved families at Central

104than South. Both are strong. Sort of neutral on collaborative teachers and some opportunity to improve and effective leaders. Let me be really clear about the leadership piece. Nobody I know in education thinks that it's one person who makes the difference. Schools do not. The principal leads the schools, but the act of leading is done by many, many people. Just like it's not the superintendent who's going to make the difference for district 86. It's the superintendent plus a team plus seven board members and the whole community. It's all all of us working together to do that. But this, you know, if we want to improve our instruction, we probably should work on teacher collaboration, enhancing the leadership within our entire organization based on this information. So that's all the data we have. Happy to take more

105questions if you all want. On the horizon, a couple things for board members. You will see in your purple folders or in your inboxes on online or in the 86 community somewhere, you'll see um an operational calendar. This is our plan that says board members, this is the work you're going to have to do in the months you're going to have to do them uh to plan these things out. And you know, you will need to review budgets, you will need to vote on staffing, you will need to uh vote to approve the program of study. And we've got that all planned out. This is your future. This is what you're going to need to do. For us, for me, we've been spending this year trying to understand what it means to work like a

106team. Couple weeks ago, we talked about some organizational changes that we think are going to make our ability to function as a team in our schools even stronger. Happy to talk to more to you more about that when it comes. We've been spending a lot of time trying to understand the current strategic plan and think a little bit about what goals and metrics in a plan might look like for the future. We've been trying to understand what does this word alignment mean and why is it so charged with meaning here? What are the things we can and should do to help our students who come in needing more support? How do we figure out how to really tackle our mental health challenges? We're seeing how that fits into the plan and we'll use that to

107figure out our northstar. some goals, some strategies, some beliefs for all of us to share that will set our direction for the future. So, thanks. Oh, and these are the skippy slides that hopefully shouldn't get posted to community because they're in the drafts. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Then moving on, we will hear audience comments. The board will now hear in person and virtual or in person. We'll hear audience comments for a total of 45 minutes. Any um we will each speaker will have three minutes to speak. If there's anybody that would like to speak, will you please step forward? Will you please say your name? Sure. Hey guys. Hey guys. David Molinus. Been a Hinsdale resident since March of 2020. And we chose Hinsdale. It's a professional move,

108but we chose Hinsdale because of the historic reputation of the school districts here, particularly D81 and D86. When we got here in March of 2020, uh it quickly uh quickly came to uh to our realization that what we were walking into was not what we heard um and what we researched. We were really on a bad trajectory. And it wasn't because of COVID. COVID really just exacerbated and spotlighted what really amounted to extremely poor leadership at the administration level emboldened by poor governance by the board. And so I wanted to thank the outgoing board today. I should have done it earlier before most of them left. Uh, but you guys have done a really good job of writing the ship and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable that what we bought into, what we moved

109to is really becoming what it uh what it has been in the past. So, thank you for your service. Just want to offer two points of of advice or things to remember, things that have already been discussed here, which I'm very happy to hear repeatedly. One is focus on the students. It's not about any of us in this room. It's not about the administration. It's not about unions. It's about the students. Do right by the students and everything else will make it it's its path uh straightforward. Two is we're in the business of academics. Academics have measurable outcomes, a lot of quantifiable data that we need to review meticulously and regularly. and that was not happening when we moved here at the most damaging time for our kids. So, I'm extremely grateful to see that

110rigor starting to restore uh at these at these meetings and being discussed here because it matters. Thank you. Hi, I'm Robera Packer and I wanted to share three urgent priorities. Number one, figure out alignment and give autonomy back to the schools. It was stated that it was not supposed to be lock step homogenization, yet that's exactly what it is. Sure, there will be many same or similar courses at both schools, but sometimes each may have different preferences as with the freshman social studies courses. There's nothing sinister about this and when the board looked at these courses, there was nothing but praise for how they are working out. Alignment was also not supposed to be curriculum overhaul. Please, no more proposals where the goal is to find the one set of classes that will be enrollable

111and sustainable at both schools. Future proposals like this will fail again and waste more time. Pivot from the former superintendent's approach to aligning. Give each school what it needs and everyone wins. Alignment has also gone too far by requiring teachers of the same course to rewrite courses, offer the same tests, and agree to the same grading and retake policies, not just within their own building, but also with the other building. I agree with the board members who have said they'd like more teacher latitude, but then these lesserk known rules need to be removed. It has taken forever. Department chairs didn't teach for three years to align and early release days have been dedicated to it. It's not done. It never will be. There will always be new standards to be absorbed into our rigid process

112or an insistence on continuous improvement. enough. Two, address grading fully for August. It can't be changed in the middle of the year. Return grading autonomy to the teachers and know that we have department chairs who can oversee any outlier issues. Get rid of the no to low formative high summitive fad that drives students crazy. It doesn't value preparatory work or being present or participating. Nor does it allow for teacher discretion. Our schools should not be test factories. If you can't revisit this for August, I implore you to fix some lowhanging fruit for next year. Some classes have too few summitives running the risk that any given test counts for more than the final exam. The 100 and 9010 summitive formative waitings need to go. Document all operating rules and clear up old wives tales like

113extra credit can't be given, which to my knowledge actually isn't true. Bring grading back into the buildings. Setting grading and retake policies with teachers outside one's building makes no organ organizational design sense, wastes time and money, and doesn't ensure seamlessness. The teacher student relationship is negatively impacted when there is no ability to make these decisions for your own classroom. Three, the above can't get done unless we give academics back to the administration. This means ending the academic committee which was supposed to be temporary and putting our trust in Dr. Lockach. If the board gives high level direction, then admin can deliver solutions and appropriate critiques can happen with the full board. The problem is that the committee is taking on major topics that are inappropriately shaped by a subset of board members, not to mention

114creating more layers. The business of the district is academics, just like Starbucks businesses selling coffee. Their board members don't sit on the coffee subcommittee and plan the launch of the iced lavender oat milk latte. The board should be a check on admin, not help it do its work. High school districts have finance committees, but not academic committees because they are superfluous. We need a plan to turn the page in D86. Thank you. [Applause] Again, thank you very much to all board members for your service. We have a fantastic amount of talent on this board and I feel that everyone will have a chance to express their talents and um assume a leadership role in their term. Um I strongly support equal academic opportunity across the district. It's we need um the pro- alignment community does

115need to unite around a doable and practical alignment plan. We're never going to get to 100% scheduling satisfaction. We cannot be two places at once, but we can do better than we are doing. There unequal course opportunities are unfair. They should be illegal and in fact they are illegal. No one getting less appreciates getting less. There's no such thing as satisfied with less. Um also I'm a huge fan of the academic committee. The members are not dictators. They have to bring everything back to the full board. There's a tremendous synergy and dialogue among all sides including administration and board. District 181 has a thriving academic committee. It's not at all unheard of to have one. Plus, the meetings are a lot of fun. I think the data presented are pure catnum for the academic studies

116geek. So, um I would just like to speak in support of equal course opportunity across the district. No one has ever complained about opportunity, only lack of opportunity. And to support the great work of the academic committee, I think I've attended every meeting. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation tonight. I think that was incredible. What a great way to get this board started off knowing who's who and what they do and hearing it from actually the people who do it. I hope that in the future we start to see the department chairs and the teachers coming back to academic committee to the board doing the presentations. Um admin are great but they don't have the same kind of passion that the people in the classroom have. It would be much more valuable for all

117of us to hear from the people who are boots on the ground. Thanks. Is there anybody else? May I have a motion to adjurnn to close session for discussion under 5CS 122C11 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the public particular public body has been filed and is pending before court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. May I have a motion? So move. Fisher. Motion. Fisher. Do I have a second? Second. Ma. Second. Ma. Is there any discussion? De will you please call role? Member Aris. Hi. Member Fischer. I. Member Greenspun. I. Member Lee. I. Member Mitham. I. Member Satchwell. Hi. Member

118Waters. Hi. Motion carries 70. The board will now adjourn to close session. The board will not take action following close session. Thank you.