001Check. One, two. One, two. Okay, cool. Good. Okay. I said I'm glad I'm here. Scott. Wow. Really large as well. Yeah, they've got like things in the back. Oh yeah. >> Oh. Not anymore. >> Well, that's amazing. Thank you for that. >> Testing. Sorry. Are you waiting for me? All right, I think we Hello. Hello. Test test test. Okay, I apologize for the three people online. Uh, we went long obviously. So anyway, um, we are already in session. So just a a good evening. Um, and before we get started, I'd like to uh invite everybody to stand the pledge of allegiance, please. All right, thank you. Um, so we're going to jump over to be uh are we doing no LFHS update is not happening. Right. So, uh, president's report uh, being that I took
002too much time in the other meeting to listen to other things. We're going to for forego that today because there's enough being done with the district leadership report. And [clears throat] so I will come back with uh some updates and information on the uh in the March report. I think it'll be more appropriate at that time. So with that um let's gain some time back and we'll move over to Dr. Montgomery, if you are ready with you and your team. Good evening everyone. Thank you for your patience with the technology. Uh tonight we are covering uh several topics as you can see starting uh with some really exciting news with our dance team and finishing with upcoming events. Uh as always this report will be shared between Dr. Lonard, Dr. Fitz Simmons and myself. So,
003we will start with the great news, which is celebrating our state champions for dance. Um, and a shout out to um our new coach um who some of us know very well of Megan Wein Brener and we are over the moon excited and proud of these ladies and the work that they've done >> and um may or may not be here with us as well. Uh so, um we congratulate you and a round of applause for them. [applause] OKAY, moving right along. Dr. Lonard. >> All right, so speaking of female athletes, um we are proud to welcome back uh Ashley Dell. She's the current head coach, and this will be for our second now annual, because the second time doing it, so we can say that now. Um National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
004Um Ashley is the head coach for the men's and women's swim and diving at UIC and she'll be speaking to our students on February 5th as part of this new annual tradition. We will be celebrating all of our female student athletes in a clapout following this presentation. Thanks to Lake Forest High School athletics, LFHS Boosters, Lake Forest Scout Nation, Salt, and Lake Forest High School alumni for sponsoring this event. And we invite the entire community that evening as our female Lady Scouts basketball team take on Libertyville in high school hoops in our competition gym starting at 7 PM. So, let's come out and let's support our ladies every night, every time that they compete, but especially um on this National Girl and Women in Sports Day event. So, oh, by the way, proceeds from this
005game will benefit Fill the Stands, an organization designed to give high school student athletes confidence and pride by filling the stands with fans. Um, next up, and I'm actually going to call on our student board reps to kind of weigh in on some of these things. We had the scout experience, and this is where we welcomed the class of 2030. Um, Ethan, do you guys have a microphone over there? Do you want to talk about your experience with that? Um, what's really cool about this event is not just seeing our parents and our students come in, but it's seeing our current scouts interfacing with our students. It's fun to see them, getting them excited. So, Ethan, what was your experience? >> Uh, so I was there for Josie and I were there for uh um
006student council and I also was there for a few other um clubs or sports I'm involved in and we thought it was a really good um turnout. There were a lot of eighth graders there who seemed pretty excited about the high school. Everyone was pretty interested in what student council was and um we explained it and they seemed pretty excited. Every table I went to was usually had a few people at it and there was some interest in a lot of different clubs, some new clubs and also existing clubs. And um yeah, I thought it seemed like a pretty positive overall experience. And um yeah, I forget was it I think student to student was leading um like tours around the school and we Josie and I talked with a few people that were leading
007those and they said that they um they thought it went really well. So yeah, I think it was pretty positive. >> Um, I also feel like the Scout experience is like a great opportunity for like junior like or I mean all high school students to be able to like show those eighth graders like what it's like to be at the high school and like get involved right away. I think it's super great to like start them off like freshman year like getting super involved and because they have so many opportunities. There's so many clubs, so many sports, and it's just such a great way to like kick off their freshman year. >> It's fun, and the excitement is really fun. I It's just a It's a great time to welcome our newest families, too. We've
008often had requests for um parents and students to hear from the administration on this evening. We've actually moved the LFH LFHS 101, which is that partnership with the AP um in district 67 where the Lake Forest High School administration usually comes to this room and we present to our rising nth grade parents. We're going to move that to the little theater and we're actually going to do that on March 2nd, hopefully welcoming even more of our rising nth grade parents. March 2nd at 6:30, it will be me and the leadership team talking all things LFHS. Another fun activity that we almost thought wasn't going to happen, but then it was going to happen because it was super we had a cold day. It's not a snow day, but a cold day. That was a first
009for me. Um, but we had our winter formal and we wondered how many students would actually come and we had 650 tickets that we sold on that cold night and we set a record with coach for sure. There was a long line. Elizabeth, do you want to talk about the winter formal a little bit and your experience as a senior? Um, I had a really positive experience this year. I feel like it was really fun. Um, honestly, the weather I didn't even I really didn't hear anybody complaining about it really. No one The accommodations for the weather were great. Coch was awesome. People were in and out of the top floor really fast. The doors, they made sure they weren't opening a ton. It was really, really nice. And I think a lot of the
010kids were just really thankful that it still happened. Um, and yeah, the overall energy of the dance floor and downstairs and everything, the food was great. Everybody had a really, I heard from a lot of people a really positive experience. It was really fun. >> And they did have the Friday off so they could rest up right before the big dance on Saturday. Another fun event recently at Lake Forest High School, we had the Mark Wood orchestra show. And that was um a combination of the spirit of 67 and Applause. And Mark Wood is one of the founding like master musicians from the Trans Siberian Orchestra. When I read that, I was like, "What? He's coming here?" It was amazing. He spent two days with students from Lake Forest High School and um from Jeropath
011Middle School. And then they put on an amazing show. He actually he makes his own instrument so that he can be a full rock band. And when you watch him play, I don't know how many of you have gotten to see any video and you can see him here. It's effortless. So, he's, you know, playing, you know, some Journey song and it's effortless and he's putting on the entire the entire song. um because I think he's just I know he's just that talented. So, we're very lucky and very and thankful for the spirit and applause of course for um continuing to support our students in this way. Um we're really excited to announce um this is the fourth year in a row row that we have received the school honoral um AP school honoral distinction
012of gold. Now, um, AP awards, uh, recognizes schools with strong advanced placement programs that both improve student achievement and expand student participation. And that's really important. Only 7% of Illinois high schools are gold and only 7% platinum. That's the one above that we're constantly striving for. And most of the platinum schools, with the exception of just a handful, are actually selective enrollment schools. One of the things we're looking at at Lake Forest that we can continue to reach for that platinum status, it really has to do with three main categories. And those three man main categories are students taking it, just taking it in general. There there are points scored for that. How students score. So scoring a three or above, a certain percentage is that. And then another piece is when they take it.
013So there's a certain percentage of that. And we really need to look at what are our ninth and tth grade offerings for AP classes. what are some opportunities for students and where maybe do we have an opportunity to expand? And I believe once we really start thinking about that and planning accordingly, we can we can reach towards that platinum status and join the very the handful very few of public schools um in Illinois that actually do reach uh platinum status. >> Thanks, Aaron. It is CSCI time again with our survey being administered on February 25th to our faculty and students. If uh remember this is a state requirement and part of our report card. So we're encouraging participation. Should you or your um student uh not want to participate, please contact John Maher at jmaherlfschools.net
014and he will help you with the opt out process. >> Very quickly, if you are listening in the community, please please call and ask questions if you have any questions about that. next year with the new accountability system it will be more crucial than ever to have 95% participation. So please call if you have any questions that survey is very important to us. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Fitz Simmons. Um if I continue on to provide some exciting updates around the progress of our referendum you can see uh a great deal of demo happened over winter break and simultaneously we opened new English classrooms. So, we had the destruction and the rebirth of two different spaces in within LFHS. And then we provided to the community a virtual construction update and you can use
015the QR code for that that was released in January. And then also there have been um conversations or questions asked from our current scouts on what they think about these new spaces and those videos can be found in the second QR code beneath it. >> Wonderful. and a nice tiein to some of our work with the referendum. But one of the joys of my role is I get to spend time in classrooms. I get to see teachers teaching. I get to see students learning. And this last week I had the priv privilege, excuse me, of spending the day in some of our math classes. The integrated math class, um, as you may remember, is one of those pathways for students that may not necessarily want the calculus track. But this is a wonderfully um it's
016a locally developed course which means ultimately designed by our teachers. I was invited in by Andrea Lumpky who was really she was passionate about bringing real world mathematical problem solving. So, I don't know if you can see the um projection on the wall, but it is a Froot Loop cereal box. And ultimately, the question posed to the students that day was, if this claim is true that there's 20% free in this box, um how much was the original amount? And you know, there were many of us around the room, myself included, thinking, boy, I kind of calculated it, but then we had to do the algorithm. You can see my my scratch there in the bottom. We all solved them together. We collaborated. We moved around the room. We really discussed. We used the whiteboards.
017And what I saw in that class and integrated math 2 that day was phenomenal. The engagement, it was truly, it warmed my heart. And to see the success and the engagement with the students and the teachers, fantastic. Um, on the referendum note in our user group sessions with Perkins and Will, they're listening. They're listening to the teachers and the departments. They're exactly in this particular case, the math teachers are asking for more white whiteboard space. So the walls will be full whiteboards and we're looking at how do we get the tech not on the walls taking up the whiteboard space. So if you can even just see that little space. So kids were using it but they were crammed. So the idea behind this is there is a lot of listening going on and we
018want student voice as well. So, we're engaging with all of the students and just making sure that that voice is incorporated into some of those decisions with the next phase. Thank you, Renee. Uh, I'm excited to report that after a incredibly competitive selection process, we are announcing the new LFPD school resource officer, Officer Matt Allen, who will be taking over uh for Mark Long starting the 2627 school year. And there's a robust transition plan as Mark goes back to the force. And we have we welcome Matt. This will start a four-year rotation of the school resource officer position. And we're thrilled to welcome Matt to the team. And you will see him around campus uh later this winter and early spring as they work together to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible.
019We have created a technology working group that has been um talked about a couple times, but I think this is the first time announcing it in the superintendent's report and we are looking for additional 115 parents and guardians of students in grades 9 to 12 to join this working group. The purpose of the group is to foster open communication about the role of technology in our children's education. At these meetings, we will review our D115-year technology plan, discuss the use of AI at LFHS, which continues to be a ubiquitous topic regardless of the setting in which I'm in, and seek the input on priority areas for future exploration and discussion. We're eager to hear your perspective, share insights, and collaborate at the intersection of technology, education, and well-being. The group will meet once per trimester
020during the school day with in-person and online meeting options. Updates from the group will be shared with me, the board of education staff in our community. And we would ask you to reach out to Jordan Salis, our chief technology officer at jalislfschools.net if you have an interest to be a part of this group. Um, just as an aside, um, I was not exaggerating when I talked about how frequently the topic of AI comes up throughout the school day as we continue to try to navigate this new technology. It is imperative that we have many voices as the at the table as we try to navigate this because I think each community will have their own contextual input on how this manifests or not and to what degree within the school community. So, we need your
021voice and these opportunities. Um, should you decide to engage, know that in any community group that we've created, whether it be the capital project advisory, the superintendent advisory committee, the principal advisory committee, your voices are important and they are valued and we often pivot based on the feedback that we are getting real time. Thank you. Erin, kicking it to you. >> Yes. So, coming soon. If you if the board remembers two years ago now when we approved the calendar for this year, we had said that we would um survey the community once we figured out how the bid packages would work with um construction to see if they'd be interested in starting school earlier and getting out of school earlier, which would in fact then move finals before winter break. Well, it's that time. Um,
022we've actually prepared the survey and we currently have it with a couple of different stakeholder groups um asking and those stakeholder groups are asking for certain details to maybe be included or or considered by the community as they're making their selection for potentially an earlier start to the school year. Finals will be before winter break or maintaining the start that we have and leaving finals after winter break for the 2027 2028 school year is when we think we can actually build the calendar based off of the survey. Um I do plan on engaging pack um the principal's advisory council on Thursday um to gain a little bit more information from them on what they believe because students will be taking the survey um what they believe should be included in the survey as a consideration
023as well as our AP on Thursday as well to see what they believe should be included in the survey as a possible consideration as families, students, staff members uh make their selection. This is an advisory vote. Um, and then we will of course bring our recommendation to the board based on that. Um, and we'll be working with the board a little bit more too on the survey. We want to get this right and make sure it's right. Do the students want to weigh in a little bit on finals? Your seniors, um, you just experienced them. You've experienced them both ways. It's okay to be honest. Um, I heard we actually with um our Vox box that we put together with um Thomas Gity and Melissa Oakley earlier in the year, we um one of our
024questions was about the like the students opinion on finals before after winter break and we're yet to really go through it, but from what I've heard um I think people enjoyed the week before uh finals where you kind of reviewed and didn't really learn much, but they did prefer it before in a break just to have it off their mind um over the break. And I think from most people I heard that they didn't study over the break, which is good, which is what most teachers told them to do. They were like, "Take a break." But then others I heard studied like the entire time, which is crazy. But um yeah, I also I heard mostly that they preferred it before break just so they didn't have to think about it over the holidays. But
025some people did like like Ethan said the week before where you just kind of review for all your finals. I've definitely heard mixed reviews, but a lot of them were leaning more towards um finals before break because they felt that the break felt less kind of like a break because all they were thinking about was finals and they did feel like finals before a break. winter break actually felt like kind of a reward because then it's like you're done. So I think a lot of them did kind of enjoy finals before break and coming back some people said it still being first semester didn't really feel like a new year. So I think a lot of students were leaning towards finals before break >> and it's but it sounds like there wasn't a clear delineation.
026This was absolutely terrible. This was it kind of worked out. So this will be an interesting survey. We're not taking bets. At least we're not advertising that we're taking bets on how this is going to come out, but um we're excited to see what the community thinks and bring that information to you. >> Thanks so much, Erin. As we move forward, I want to uh announce that we have a new beyond the budget series on the tax levy. And in this episode, Dr. Hermus is talking through how the levy is developed each fall, taking in account factors such as inflation, operating cost, planned capital projects, and property values. This series is a commitment that we have as a district for fiscal stewardship and our outreach to make sure that our community is informed about how
027budgeted budgets are developed, how money is spent, and how the board um is uh holding the district to high standards um as we continue to fulfill our commitment to these communities. Some community outreach that or engagement that we have had since we last talked. Uh Dr. Lisa Leali and I have been on a little road show which we do annually around this time. The first one was spending time with the newcomers club of Lake Bluff and Lake Forest uh where we went to Gorton and we gave them a mini state of the schools and then engaged in thoughtful questions and answers and then with the help of Mrs. Oakley and both accounts but especially the second one we invited our realators our chamber of commerce and community partners for a state of the schools update
028on January 30th with both Lisa and myself and the questions were phenomenal. We had some pre uh created questions in case the audience was needed some direction, but I uh they came to life and had a lot of great ideas for us and we're thankful for them. It was a snowy day, cold um but I think we had around how many people do you think 40 people show up uh and spend some time with us and then they went on a building tour afterwards uh which allowed us to showcase some of our new spaces and there were rave reviews. Um Whitney came back and shared just how excited everybody was who stayed for the optional tour. Some upcoming events and I know John will hit some more later, but here's a highlight reel from the
029winter play uh to the dry tri district board mixer which is always a day that I look forward to. Dr. Lenard brought this idea forward where we invite students to interact with all three boards from 65,67 and 115. So the boards of education can hear real time from students in the student experience. That my friends concludes our report. Thank you for your kind attention and happy to answer any questions of course. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> All right. So, this is the moment for public participation if uh there's any folks that wish to. I think everybody sitting here is uh eagerly awaiting Dr. Sass. So, I think we're going to uh we're going to move on to that item and I think the the public the public is going to have to wait uh for
030their participation. So, uh Dr. Sass, I think you have the floor for the uh 26 uh postsecondary report. So, thank you for being patient with us and look forward to hearing some wonderful stories. 67. Okay. Well, good evening and thank you for giving me the opportunity on behalf of educational services to present the 2025 postsecondary report. I'll go through some of the items. Uh what are you doing to me here? Moving the slides ahead. Let me see. Sorry. Okay. Um, so, uh, tonight in brief, we'll go over some feedback from where the class of 2025 went, as I typically do during this presentation, get a sense of kind of what were the trends for the class of 2025. Uh, we'll do uh, a brief overview of current college uh, and postsecary programming uh, at the
031high school. U, I'm excited to get some feedback from students tonight at the end of my presentation. Um, >> can you okay um uh we'll look at uh some brief senior feedback from the class of 2025 about their experiences with post-secondary planning at the high school. Uh every year I send out uh uh uh a survey to alumni first year out. So this year's the class of 24. Share some anecdotes from them about the things that they how well prepared they felt post Lake Forest High School and some of the things maybe we could have done better and aspire to do going forward. Touch on our updates on our career pathway programming. Um and then obviously address next steps and take questions from you and hear from our from our student board members as well.
032What did I do to do this? Okay. Okay. Okay. So, for the class of 2025, they applied to 132 schools in total. Uh the Midwest continues to be a hub for students. Uh the the trend towards Southeast schools that was evident the last 10 years has leveled though it's still strong and as you can see the distribution throughout the country uh it is heavy in the mid midwest and the southeast and up in the north. Uh we saw uh states like California increase this year. Um and we saw six students choosing international destinations as opposed to one last year and I think we had three the year before. So definitely there was uptick in that. Breaking news, Miami of Ohio fell out of the top 10 in schools that our students attended which is the
033first time since I've been here. Uh but Auburn and Purdue uh entered the top 10 this sh this year for the first time. And then as always when we ask students what was what were the factors that um influenced your decision for where you decided to go campus setting was is always the number one. Students want that field that fit uh that that accompanies them. They want the weather uh that matches um their interests. These are the top schools the top five schools uh that students apply to. University of Illinois Champagne's always the school that's applied to most from our students. Typically Madison is the second ranked school, but this year Indiana and Iowa jumped up in terms of applications. Madison and Boulder are frequently in the top or always in the top 10. In
034terms of schools attending, uh we saw Indiana take take the victory this year um with Illinois which has traditionally been one and CLC 2 over the years in uh Illinois was number two with Boulder Iowa and then um as I said uh Auburn and Purdue uh joined the ranks this year and I'm always interested in speaking to counselors in the spring about okay anecdotally what are you hearing from the students? What what was it about Auburn? Well, I'm sorry. What was it about Auburn or what was it about Purdue that really has was different this year? And I'll share those as they come up. In terms of uh college programming, as I as I said before, um as I said before, you know, our counselors get to know our students right in the eighth grade.
035On Thursday and Friday, our counselors will be going to Deer Path Middle School to register uh eighth graders at Deer Path. and in a couple weeks they'll go to Lake Bluff and then they'll have the private schools come in before the end of February. Uh counseling seminars are held quarterly in small groups with counselors and their students on their case load. Gives counselors an opportunity to get to know students genuinely uh individually as students and as learners. Understand what their interests are, what they're involved in. Freshman seminars key on getting to know the resources in the building. Know who your team is. Uh begin to advocate for yourself. build a four-year academic plan and a post-secary plan. Uh, and as they merge into sophomore year and junior year, it's about expanding involvement, getting potential summer
036or during the school year employment, doing service hours, making connections with employers in the community through the different uh, programming that the school offers. And then as junior year arrives and we're at the time now where counselors are going to be meeting with their juniors in March to really start dipping their toe into the the the family meetings uh with counselors around beginning the college search process and what that looks like. We're excited that we're trans we're upgrading our platform Kifer College search and post-secondary planning to Maya learning next year and I'll touch on some of the migration that's already going to happen in February and March as our students will get an opportunity uh to experience that new platform. Uh but utilizing that platform uh we're able to use decades of student data, LFHS
037student data to give families real real data as it as it relates to uh uh acceptance rates and um the uh standardized scores uh that are part of the um application process. As I've said before, uh May, uh April and May is the time that begins to wind down for counselors, especially from a college uh advisement. And that's when they hit the road and they go all over the country uh visiting colleges in sections around the country, bringing all those resources and the information about those colleges back to their team to build on the beta database of information, the personal information they have on colleges around the country. always trying to find another interesting off the radar college experience that might be a niche opportunity from for some of our students and families. This is
038our uh post high school uh career and and career exploration framework. It's based very closely on the um PACE framework that is asks uh encourages public high schools to utilize. You'll see that these experiences or access to experience for our students ranges from uh researching career areas and doing interest inventories a as freshmen to building a resume and uh uh exploring um coursework in the student guide that courses can align to specific areas of career interest and pathways their junior year. uh they they they build on one another. So students have the opportunity. Now students will experience these these um ex will have these experiences not just in counseling seminars but through the coursework that they choose to take through internship opportunities that may be arranged through the school or within the community, their employment
039experiences and any other of the post-secondary planning uh that we're offering and continually expanding at the high school. little feedback from the class of 2025 and I and I I'll highlight it here as you look at the numbers, but 86% of the class of 2025 responded to this exit survey in May. 94% reported that outside of the seminar experiences, they met with their counselors. So, students were meeting with their counselors on a regular basis, not just through the quarterly seminars. 89% said they utilized their college their c their counselor for the purpose of college search and application. 99% reported being able to see their counselor um in a timely manner and I always say year after year availability is one of the most important abilities for our counselors and they maintain uh open offices and
040walk-ins are welcome. 96% rated their counselor good or excellent. And I always go through the um the SAT and SA ACT submissions. 36% of the class of 2025 sub reported submitting their ACT. 19% reported submitting their SAT and 33% reported not submitting a score for college admissions purposes. Uh this is feedback from the class of 2024. Like I said, I asked them uh I send them a a rather comprehensive survey that asks, "How well prepared did you feel when you got to college from Lake Forest High School? Reading, writing, critical reading, analysis of texts, uh uh and some of the soft skills. How well were prepared were you for the the new social scene, the bigger campus, living with somebody you've never met, uh getting involved in groups and activities, uh time management, things like
041that. The up the up the uptake from the feedback this year was we had 39 responders, a relatively low response rate. We're working with the alumni sit foundation as well as trying to turn uh really lock down on seniors transferring their Lake Forest High School email to their personal email address. We also want to use LinkedIn more more regularly because as students get on and develop their LinkedIn profiles, we'll always be able to stay in contact with them through that. But of the 39 responders, 54% said uh uh rated their academic skill preparation a nine or a 10. 87% uh rated their writing skills preparation eight or above. 62% rated their math skills eight or above. 92% rated their critical reading skills eight or above. and 64% rated eight or above how ready they were
042to migrate and assimilate to a new social environment. Uh 13% of those respondents did say they were preparing to transfer to another school their sophomore year. So again, we know and we we we we preach that this is not a this is not a four-year contract students are signing. They want to pick the college. They want the right fit. They want to make the decision based on as many factors uh both objectively and subjectively as possible, but they're also free to move to another co college if they find out that the the um the initial experience isn't what they wanted it to be. What could we do better? Um I put a couple things up here. As always, they were blunt and honest, and that's what I asked them to be. Um a lot of
043them said, "Look, it was awesome. We loved Lake Forest High School, but there was a throughine to some of this feedback." Uh one one alum said selling yourself professionally getting into a club in a large university is a herculean task. So they want to continue to get more postsecary professional experiences when we talk about building a LinkedIn profile. Another alum said pursuing professional experiences like co-ops, technical projects, internships. Uh this should be pushed harder on students. we are working towards those and building internship programs and internship experiences in our community. Uh career development again a career professional perspective uh as making my resume and preparing for interviews. I'll talk about uh uh some ideas this spring about career uh resume writing workshops and interviewing workshops and uh professional panel opportunities. And then my favorite, I
044didn't put it up here, was quote, "Living by yourself, a cooking class would be awesome." And I think we all would agree that uh fending for yourself in the cafeteria and in your apartment is a tremendous transition uh when you're 18 years old. So in terms of an overview and overview of our career pathways programming, again the the expansion of this programming has been um robust and yet tempered by the fact that and and and I've worked very closely with Steve Douglas and the career pathways department on this and the counselors as well and their vision of how to prepare students postsecary, post Lake Forest High School. But these pathway programmings programming is based on authentic relationships with community members, employers in the field as well as our students and our families. You can see
045here uh for the second year in a row uh our business accelerator students went down to the Salesforce headquarters at Wolf Point, got a tour of the facility, spoke to uh executives there, and spoke to salespersons that might probably weren't more than six or seven years older than they were about what a day in the life is and all the targets they need to hit on a monthly basis. We hosted the fifth annual alumni panel where we had alumni from one to 13 years out of Lake Forest High School. Uh um reflect on their time at Lake Forest, share their journey to where they are now, and provide advice and tips to our students about things they might have done differently or things they would recommend students absolutely do before they leave the high school.
046And here's an alum in the lower right presenting to uh business students in the business incubator. Um, last year we had over 100 field trips at the high school. So, a 100 field trips, students leaving campus and going on site, whether it be to open lands uh or to Elawa Farms or down to Salesforce or to the uh Wrigley Field to to look at the production booth in in in the uh stadium, meet with people, the professionals that run those operations and get a snapshot and real real world experiences on what it means to run the business and be in this field. Aaron Sarasi was an owner of a digital media company came in in December to speak to our digit digital arts classes and our new media classes about what that meant. And I
047have a story about that um momentarily. Uh we had over the last two years we've had over 50 outside speakers come in either in an individual a push into a classroom or a P panel presentation uh format where students get to hear from them about what it's like to be in the field, what their journey is, recommendations or advice they have for for our kids while they are still students or as they as they um uh graduate and move to postsecary uh post Lake Forest High School from a career pathway endorsement program. Uh I I've said this in the past um my work with Steve and career pathway department, that's the science department. Um we have been able to stand up 12 career pathway endorsement areas. Uh this year we are applying for two more.
048Um but this has never been an arms race. This has always been meant to determine where our students interests lie, where the community employers interests lie, the relationships we have and can grow, and then how do we start building the pathways as as we've mentioned before, a foundational component of a career pathway endorsement is six hours of post high school instruction. So, that's going to be AP courses or or dual credit courses. Uh you'll see on the right the number of students taking dual credit courses this year has ballooned in no small part to the creation of a business principles program which is foundational dual credit course addition of law one as a dual credit course. Those are foundational courses where students can then tra traverse into a a marketing uh career pathway endorsement an
049accounting a law or a business entrepreneurship career pathway. Our students are voting with their feet. They want to take dual credit, rigorous post-secary experiences, and they see value in the alignment of the career pathways which manifest in a 60-hour internship as well as other work-based learning opportunities. the numbers for uh currently where our seniors and and students are in terms of making progress or being on pace for a pathway in the new media program which was the OG DC class uh in the school. Uh we have 10 seniors on path to get a career pathway endorsement in new media and we have 20 other students on path should they choose to follow through with all of those to get an endorsement by the time um they graduate. Pardon me. In business entrepreneurship, we have 15
050on path to get a a career pathway endorsement in entrepreneurship and three to five in accounting with a three to five additional in the agricultural uh environmental sciences um which we opened up two years ago. In all, there are 25 seniors on path to get a career pathway endorsement this May. And right now 16, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders that should they stay on their current trajectory would also be eligible when they when they uh graduate. We had seven endorsements last year. Okay. So, you can see it's growing and it's growing with the the right efforts being placed on the appropriate elements of it. We'll get to an internship program when it's time. We're building dual credit pathways and AP CA pathways because our kids are saying we're going to sign up for those and
051we're going to take them and they're valuable experiences. Um, in general, we're going to continue to try to, uh, expand our dual credit and internship opportunities next year. Uh, environmental engineering is one that we're going to that we have applied for. And then digital media and production. Environmental engineering came out of our relationship with Open Lands and Elawa Farm and our environmental science endorsement. in meeting with Eloa personnel over uh in November, uh the conversation turned to what are other resources in Lake County around environmental sciences and the the person at Elois said there are a lot of environmental engineering firms in Lake County and they would be they would love to partnership partner with your students on internships. So knowing we have robust engineering classes, we have the six hours of uh AP uh
052in in environmental sciences um we have put in an application to have an environmental engineering endorsement plan. And then secondly is the digital media and production which grew out of Aaron Saras's visit to the media arts classes really talking about there are opportunities for internships in that field and now we have a cluster of students and a teacher who's really passionate about about building that endorsement in digital in digital meeting uh media uh expanding the pathway endorsement areas as I mentioned but inhouse we're looking at how can we in increase those professional experiences that our students students were asking about in the survey to the class of 2025. We're in the process of investigating, can we have a career exploration day in October where the whole morning is devoted to our students getting career exploration
053opportunities. Our SAT day in October is a half day. It's it's a low stakes day of instruction. If we could reformat that day into our juniors take the test and our freshman and sophomores do day of service things and attend professional panels and speaker series and get the opportunity to maybe do a resume writing workshop or an interview skills workshop uh as well as the day of service and our seniors can come get help for their college applications and help and volunteer uh for this career exploration day. I think it would be a wonderful experience that we've never been able to to to give to our kids. Lastly, we are looking this spring at at in addition to the summer workshops program that we offer in early March, maybe setting trying to set up a
054resume writing uh opportunity for students, an interview skills opportunity for our students. And then we went to Lake Forest College in October and saw a speed networking night that they had maybe doing a micro version of that before school. and Melissa and the AP uh volunteers have been uh exceptionally helpful in that regard. And then lastly, we're migrating to a new platform. Maya Learning is uh what Navian used to be, but it's so much more uh than what it could ever be. It is the platform that students will use to develop their own personal profile. It will have uh academic planning. It will have uh their service hours. It will have employment opportunities and internship opportunities. It'll have as much as they put into it. There are touch points along the way for scout seminar
055teachers, counselors, and other staff to get students into Maya learning throughout their time here. Uh in terms of immediate migration in March, counselors will be meeting with their juniors. They will have their licenses and they will begin this college search process like they did in Navian last year, but in Maya learning this year. And then excitedly in May, Scout seminar teachers are going to lead freshmen through an onboarding into demaya learning and get them taking the career interest surveys and the interest in aptitude surveys that they would have taken in. But we're really really excited about the uh about the possibilities. I want to thank the educational staff as I always do, the counselors and the support staff who do what they do every day. I want to thank the career career pathways department and
056the other departments who have given their time and energy into building this programming and continue Melissa and communications and our AP volunteers for what they're helping us with. It's all it's all teamwork. It's building. It's incremental and it's thoughtful and will continue. So, I want to thank Dr. Montgomery, Dr. Lonard, uh Dr. Fitz Simmons and George for your assistance and of course the board for your support. I'd love to hear from our three students about any thoughts they have about their experiences at the high school the last four years. >> Yeah, I think um just from what you were just talking about, I think the resume writing workshops and also the interview uh like you know etiquette and other just ways to navigate an interview. I think that would be really helpful as um students
057step into the college process with um you can submit your resume and stuff. But I think regarding the counselors, I my counselor is Miss Stson and I think she's she's super nice and she does really hard work for all of us and I adore her. But um I think just the main thing is we do our um we have like one seminar with them with other people during your English period in the beginning of the year and you go through and you set up your Naviance and um you like go through and get your common app colleges into your Navvian you can navigate it easily through there and I think that that meeting was helpful but then after that we were kind of on our own and I did one of the workshops over the
058summer where you helped to set up your common app and start all your um your essay [clears throat] and everything but I think if I didn't do that, I would have been super lost. And I know a bunch of people did not do that. So, I think just maybe one or two more meetings to help start your essay and then also continuing to meet up with them and check in on how you're doing with your applications and all. And also um I think something that my little sister who's a freshman, I I don't mean to put her on blast here or anything, but um she has um obviously like coming into a new school and trying to keep her GPA up is a really stressful task and she has been working super hard at it.
059And um I mean she did well, but also she met with her counselor a few days ago to separate her next classes and she was saying, "Well, I feel like they like she was kind of like like not really giving like that praise and maybe some um like I know obviously you want to have a little bit of tough love and make sure you aren't too satisfied after just one semester, but I think just acknowledging that hey you're on a good path right now and you have been doing good work." I think that would be helpful towards students, which I know I kind of saw a similarity and I heard that from some of my friends when you go in your junior year with your parents to meet and talk about colleges like you're talking
060about colleges who like in the end I don't even know how to say it, but like just colleges that are probably below where you want to be aiming. like a target school would be like a not as academically in like inclined school, but um I don't mean to say that in a bad way or anything, but um I think it would be helpful just really to have an actual estimate on what schools you want to be applying to because most of the schools I was applying to we were not talking about and I know some of my friends told me about that as well. Um, oh, sorry. To go off what Ethan was saying about like the college process, like in the summer in the beginning of the year, I feel like we really worked
061with our counselors and were like doing the Naviance, the common app and all that. But then I feel like once we like submitted all of our applications and then like if we got deferred, some people just like didn't know what to do. So maybe if there was something where the counselors were able to help us with like doing all those deferrals um because some people just felt lost um on that part. And then also um I have a great relationship with my counselor. Um I went to talk to her multiple times out of like our meet our scheduled meetings. Um but I feel like we could build that relationship sooner. like freshman year when we were in a group, you couldn't really like do one-on-one things as much. And I feel like if you get
062that relationship and build that throughout the four years, it's going to help even more with like your like picking your classes and the entire college process. Um, and off like picking your classes, also getting um like those credits in sooner. I feel like a lot of people this year were like, "Oh, I still need my consumer ed credit. I still need like some dual credit. Um like some of my friends had to take like business principles accounting this year because they didn't have their consumer ed. So I feel like incorporating that like freshman and sophomore year to not like get it out of the way but just know that you have already taken a class like that um would be awesome. And I find the internship opportunities that you guys are planning really interesting. I
063think that would be great. a great opportunity for students to be able to like have more opportunities after high school. Um, adding on to what Josie was saying about the internship opportunities, I think that would be really cool. I talked to a lot of my friends and people outside of just all the seniors and a lot of them were mentioning that we do feel like it would be really cool to be able to see life and professional life outside of just the school building. And I also think talking to freshmen. I think there could be more of a push about or just more direction about getting involved and volunteering in what your major is going to be. I think students, freshmen, all they're thinking about is at first the course load, but it's hard for
064them to understand that that all ends up going towards college. So, I think really directing freshman a little bit more. I think there also has to be a balance obviously between not putting too much pressure on freshmen, but I do think speaking from my experience and for my little brother and his friends who are all freshmen, I do think that there can be a little bit more pressure and a little bit more direction on them. Whether that be meeting with their counselors about the college process earlier, opening up the high school college visits. I love those. I know a lot of people that attended them and thought they were really helpful whenever the colleges come to the high school to talk about it and creating a more strong relationship with the admissions officers to figure
065out where you want to go and really get that relationship going. But I think in order to get that relationship going, students have to understand what colleges they want to go to. And I think directing freshmen at an earlier age will be really beneficial to them in the long run. I do know that a lot of people felt like, oh, I didn't know I needed this GPA or I didn't need this ACT to get into my dream college. And it was kind of like, well, by junior year, they kind of felt that it was a lost cause, but it didn't. It wasn't. But I think feeling that sort of way, it could be more helpful to encourage freshmen to look into their colleges and to become a little bit more wellversed about it freshman year.
066Obviously, not too much pressure on them, but I do think that that could be really helpful towards them. >> I appreciate all your comments. They were personalized wonderfully and um I I took notes. Uh this is we've had conversations um about ch using scout seminar and now my learning to get them in and start looking at what the value of a GPA is. You're right. We don't want to scare them away and we don't want them to forget that it's wonderful to be a ninth grader and love your time here and grow. Um, but it doesn't hurt to have uh to to see things sooner and give things and I and I and I appreciate the feedback about that period of time at the start of your senior year after applications were in and what
067could potentially fill that gap in. So, I really appreciate you guys giving that feedback. Any other questions from the group? >> Patrick, I have a question for you. um after listening to the students. So my my kids are older. They all went through Lake Forest High School. And I have to say my oldest who graduated Lake Forest back in 2012, so a long time ago when she was a freshman, I remember not just her, but her peers and even um kids of other parents who were a year ahead of her, two years ahead of her. I feel like back then, Lake Forest High School, when you walked in those doors as a freshman, there was very much an immediate awareness that grades were going to matter at the end of your four years. And I
068think that this community tried to make efforts, and I'd like to hear from Patrick, tried to make efforts to maybe pull back a little bit because we were really, I think, stressing our kids out. And it's interesting to me tonight to hear like Elizabeth, you said, your brother's a freshman and maybe isn't aware of what he's going to need to do over the next four years in order to get into the school he wants to. Do you feel because I know you were there back in 2012 when Kendall was a student. Do you feel like we as a um as a high school did we change our approach with our freshmen at all in order to aliv alleviate some of that stress that we were putting on them? Do you think there was a was
069there a concerted effort made or has it been a slow evolution as we've seen mental health decline in young people? And so I'm just curious, was it concerted? Was it is this just a byproduct that occurred without intention? And are we now maybe going to overcorrect and go back to where we were? I don't know. I you've been through all this and and and you were a part of Lake Forest High School at that time. I'm just sort of curious what you've seen. >> I wasn't here in 2012, but um you no, but you summarized it very well in terms of the factors, all of which I think are Yes, they they all in confluence with one another have informed changes to not necessarily postsecary planning, but maybe um just the tone that is sent.
070I I've been at meetings here in this room in the last eight years where we said, "Okay, let's look at our programming. Where are we contributing to student stress? Where are we adding to the stress?" So, how do we take things off the plate? So, I I think those definitely were conversations as far back as 2017 when I started and I'm not not surprised uh going going further back. Uh I think I appreciate that you all felt like you know what you would have appreciated. So, you're not saying stick my brother with a lot of pressure. you're saying, I would have benefited too. And I think we've already had conversations as a scout seminar team to say if we're going to see our if we're going to get our students into uh Maya Learning in
071partnership with um counseling seminars that go on, why don't we why don't we do a um uh there's a there's a an activity in there the value of the GPA and it really gets them looking at okay your GPA matters and over time you can only affect so much more change as you take more and more credits and you're building that profile if you your first semester, freshman year, doing so in a caring manner such that students don't feel like junior year. It's a foregone conclusion, but never having to look back and say, "Gosh, I wish I wish I'd known." So, I I think to to your to your point, it has been a confluence of things. I don't think the pendulum is going to swing too far back such that we're going to be
072looking to embed terror into the minds of our freshmen as our curriculum, but it's it's it's it's truth and advertising. This is where we are and the these are important. you uh you know and I think I you know last thing I'll say is I I think so much of the focus has turned to if you're struggling here are the resources you can and we have so many resources at the high school now uh that uh that that may have turned it away a little bit to grades are important the second you walk in the door which is not what you're saying but uh to more of a academic achievement it's there for you can do it and here are the resources when um you find yourself struggling. So, I I think we'll continue to
073evaluate what's the message our freshmen are getting and what's developmentally appropriate, but what needs to be there. >> Yeah. Um I have something adding on to the like the importance and stress about the GPA and your grades, but I think that it I don't think it's overstressed you need to have a good GPA, but I think it's under stress that you can't only have a good GPA. like there's so many people across the country applying to these same schools um that have you know a 5.2 or 5.3 GPA but you know that like that doesn't cut it. I think there's a lot of people who are shocked with their college results because like that is what they have to show for their like high school experience that they got these good grades. But I think
074that the colleges are also looking for the passion that you have towards any certain subject. And then also I just I think it should be stressed that you can't only just focus on having this good GPA because you know college campuses want to have a person on their campus. They don't just want to have someone who will have good grades but someone who will enhance the college experience in the community around their campus which I think is just important because I don't know. I feel it's stressed a lot like like this is your GPA like what else do you like like this is my GPA and ACT or SAT score and then like that's where I draw the line and people overestimate their odds of getting some of these schools. >> I may take that
075recording from what you just said and plaster it everywhere. That was well said. >> Yeah, that was great. Well said, Ethan. And I think I said it last year uh with snippets from co college counselors around the country that uh they go days looking at at at uh applications and don't see a C a C grade, right? So what is it that's going to make you jump off the page to the person who's reading their 47th application of the day or their personal essay of the day? Uh and so uh they're all at the end of the day all of those criteria are important. Uh I think absolutely our counselors try to be a centering person in the lives of their their their the kids on their case load and the families to at least
076absorb as much of the the the the tension and the anxiety as they possibly can by reassuring students um that there are there are different ways to represent yourself that matter to a variety of locations. So thank you Ethan. Thank Thank you very much. Thanks. Great great input and thank you guys. Really appreciate it. All right. Uh we're going to move on to uh liaison reports. Uh Ed Red legislative update super quick. Uh Matt and I have a brief conversation coming up again with Senator uh Chapel um I think sometime end of March, end of February. So, I'll have something more on a couple little things we're working on um in regards to that area of things in March. Um True North Educational Cooperative Update, Amy and and Matt. Um our last meeting that we
077had was to discuss um who in the cooperative wanted to move forward staying in the cooperative after the efforts of a lot of people to make it work um in a in a different format and it was positive all but one decided they wanted to stay. So at this point um leadership is in place to figure out how to make that happen. Um, and that's where um they are right now. And obviously they're they're still working um every day just like they have in the past, but trying to figure out the um changes and what needs to happen to keep it running smoothly. >> If I may add, I am still an active member in the reorganization committee. We meet weekly. We have our meetings Tuesday morning. So I met with them this morning. uh
078Jim and Jim Jimmy Jim and Jimmy both uh co- leaders of the cooperative are doing a phenomenal job and the focus of the energy right now is uh building reduction and force list for the re-imagination of this next year because that is the human resource um is taking the greatest amount of effort as we move towards the deadline contractually uh to notify those individuals who will not be a part of the organization next year. Um, so I give those gentlemen a great deal of credit because while we have moved forward to we are reimagining what we're doing, there are many people that are going to have to find other means of employment and both those leaders are charged with making that happen. I want to thank them for their group for that work. We are
079also meeting as an executive committee. We started in January monthly uh to which is of all the superintendent and I'm I'm pleased with how that is progressing. um onward but not without a great deal of impact on humans as we move towards this new program pro programmatic structure. >> You have an idea when that may conclude or you have some Janu or July one we will be operating on the new system for next school year. Uh the reductions in forces will happen this spring. The contracts will uh conclude for those individuals who are not staying with us on June 30th and then we will have the new structures in place for the 26 27 school year. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you for all the hard work and the time um policy committee committee report.
080Uh Annie, >> uh we actually have not met since our last meeting. I think um we before I know that the second reading of press issue 120 is on the agenda. I believe I spoke about it before. It's largely just footnote updates and so um nothing major to discuss. >> All right. Thanks. Uh we'll move on to the action items. So uh first up uh action item number one, acceptance of the uh 2020 2425 annual financial audit. So may I have a motion to accept the 2024 2025 annual financial audit, please? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion on this? I don't know if I know we met with the auditors. I don't know if Dwey you want to share any your insights real briefly. >> I think we had a very productive meeting
081with the auditors. I think um the finance team has done a very nice job responding to some of the insights that they provided to us this year and I think we're very pleased um with the work of Baker Tilly who's a first year auditor and the fresh perspective that they brought to us. >> Thank you. U may I have a roll call vote? Mr. Sve >> I >> Miss Holmes I >> Mr. Weinbrunner >> I >> Miss Zenzer >> I >> Miss Connell Donahghue >> I >> Mr. Noble >> I >> Mrs. Gamrath >> I >> motion carries. >> Thank you. Item number two. May I have a motion to approve the purchase of the Chevrolet K35000 4x4 dump truck in the amount of $63,754. >> So moved. >> Second. Second. >> Any discussion? >>
082I'll just quickly touch on this that we um were not planning on doing this this winter or this school year. We're planning it for next year. The uh the dump truck just didn't. The one we had in place required $8,000 worth of uh improvements and that was not a sound investment. So, we decided to accelerate our program in terms of buying a new truck this winter. No, I understood that it this was not planned and the winner came. Um, so thank you for jumping on that. Uh, uh, may I have a roll call vote, please? >> Mr. Wein Bunner, >> hi. >> Mr. Sve, >> hi. >> Mr. Noble, >> hi. >> Mrs. Gamrath, >> hi. >> Miss Helms, >> hi. >> Miss Connell, Donahghue, >> I. >> Miss Zinder, >> I. >> Motion carries.
083>> Thank you. Item number three. May I have a motion to approve the second reading of press issue 120? Let's see. Item number three. May I have uh a motion for the approval of the Lake County School Mutual Aid Response Team LCS MART uh intergovernmental agreement, please? >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion on this? Right. May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Miss Connell Donahghue. >> I. >> Miss Zenzer. >> I. >> Mrs. Gamrath. >> Hi. >> Mr. Noble. >> Hi. >> Mr. Sylve. >> Hi. >> Miss Holmes. >> I. >> Mr. Wein Brener. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Thank you. Item number four. Um, the approval. May I have a motion for the approval of the second reading of press issue 120? So moved. >> Second. >> Uh
084we already discussed any discussion additionally. All right. U may I have a roll call vote please? >> Mr. Noble >> I. >> Mrs. Gamrath >> I. >> Mr. Sylve >> I. >> Miss Helms >> I. >> Miss Zinder. >> I. >> Mr. Wein Brener. >> I. >> Miss Connell Donahghue. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Item number five. Uh, may I have a a motion to approve the W and to wave the first reading of the updated policy 3.53 350? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh, discussion-wise, this is simply just to wave the first reading. Um, so we need the motion to do that. So, uh, any other comments on this? All right. Can I please have a roll call vote? >> Tom, Miss Helms, >> I. >> Miss Zinger, >> I.
085Miss Connell Donahue. >> Hi. >> Mr. Sve. >> Hi. >> Mr. Weinbrunner. >> Hi. >> Mr. Noble. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Gamrath. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Great. Thank you. Item number six. May I have a motion to approve the second reading of the updated policy 350. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I'd just like to say that I appreciate the hard work that the finance team put in in responding to our um information requests and inquiries uh related to this new policy. >> Great. Thanks, Dewey. May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Mrs. Gamrath, >> I. >> Miss Holmes, I >> Miss Zinder, >> I. >> Mr. Noble, >> I. >> Mr. Sve, I >> Miss Connell Donahghue. I >> Mr. Wein Brener. N. >> Motion carries. Thank you.
086All right. So, the consent agenda items uh one through five. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, move, you know, there's only three on our >> I think the script is off tonight. So, it is one through three. >> Sorry. [laughter] May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items one, two, and three? So move second. U may I have a roll call vote? >> Miss Zinder. >> I. >> Mrs. Gamrath. >> Hi. >> Mr. Sylve. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wein Brener. >> Hi. >> Miss Helms. >> Hi. >> Mr. Noble. >> Hi. >> Miss Connell Donahghue. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Thank you. All right. I know. It's great. So, I don't even know which one to read for this one. So, foyer requests.
087I'm just going to say with they uh one of one Robert Dodson approved or completed CT Mills 202 completed uh Alan Balen Garins I apologize to you uh I can't pronounce the name 101 completed parents care two of two completed Owen Wang 60 of6 completed Sherry Reed smart procure two of two completed lallet one of two and uh one completed one and two is in progress uh public participation uh no I don't see anyone there so we're going to move on to announcements Wednesday, February 18th, joint board coffee. Uh, president coffee. It's probably going to be a vice president coffee. Hopefully, you can maybe attend in mystead. Uh, so you mark that down. Otherwise, we'll we'll find some other willing board member to be there for me. Um, let's see. Then we have that will
088be at the Lake Bluff Police Department at 6:30. Tuesday, March 3rd will be the next uh board meeting, education committee of a whole, 5:00 pm. Board of Education will be at 7 p.m. we hope. And this will all be here. Uh we've added at the bottom of our stuff press releases. So part of the communications we've been doing is trying to increase the communication out for the public to find stuff and a couple different sources and ways. So thank you uh Miss Hley for uh that change. And so that is another new item. Those are linked linkable here, linkable and searchable in other places. So with that, um I think wet voice. Uh may I have a motion to adjourn the Lake Forest Community High School District 115 board meeting for December? >> February 3rd,
089uh 2026. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor of the voice vote say I. I. I. meeting adjourned. Thank you.