001I would like to call to order the Lake Forest School District 67 Board of Education meeting for November 13, 2025. May have a roll call, please. >> Mr. Reis, >> here. >> Mr. Odamo >> here. >> Miss Yan >> here. >> Miss Angelberg >> here. >> Mr. Lavin >> here. Miss Fitzgerald >> here. >> Motion carries. >> I invite all members of the board, administration, and community to stand at attention facing the flag with their right hand over their heart to recite the pledge of allegiance. All right, we're going to start off with the best part of our meetings, which is the student spotlight, and I'll hand it off to Megan Nagenro. It's Oh, there we go. Perfect. Well, good evening. I'm Megan Agenra. Um, I'm the principal at Everett and tonight we're going to
002be speaking about our social emotional learning at Everett and the Everick Garden as it relates to our portrait of a learner. So, to achieve the portrait competencies, we knew that we needed to help teachers deeper understand the three key concepts of emotional intelligence, executive functioning, and brain development. Emotional intelligence sets the foundation for our students to understand emotions and executive functioning sets the foundation for how students manage their emotions. These skills are critical building blocks needed for students to display the portrait competencies. And yet they're heavily influenced by brain development which often remains underdeveloped into someone's 20s. So we learned that at the primary grades they significantly depend on the adults ability to model the skills and to co-regulate with children. Therefore we took various steps to incorporate this learning into our professional development and
003curriculum to continue the portrait of a learner work at Everett and to strengthen our supports for students. So for example, we provided professional development on Dr. Ross Green's lagging skills and unsolved problems. Dr. Becky Kennedy's sturdy adults and deeply feeling kids ti boy our district behavior coach presented on the importance of and the strategies for co-regulation with students. We did cooperative learning tra cooperative learning training from Kagan focusing on class and team building skills as well as engagement strategies to support executive functioning and Dr. Mia Greger, a behavioral neurosych, came to speak on brain development with our staff. We also purchased the Chicago Rush Neurosych program for developing executive functioning skills in kindergarten through fourth grade as a result of a spirit of 67 grant. We also further developed our garden program to provide environmental
004supports for our for our learners. So, we're going to talk about that this evening. I'm going to turn it over to Katherine Hensley who's going to share more about the sensory walkway and how it's impacted our students social emotional learning. Thank you, Megan. And Shelley will come on up as well. Excellent. Good evening. Shelley Marks and I, Katherine Hensley, are here on behalf of the Everick Garden Club, which was founded in 2022 to share our newest project, the sensory and pollinator garden, a space designed to connect our K through4 students with nature through all five senses. This project transforms our school courtyard into an outdoor classroom where students can explore science, biology, emotional regulation in a hands-on way through sight, smell, touch, sound, and even taste. Students will learn how pollinators sustain our ecosystem while
005also building focus, curiosity, and calm through sensory experiences. We're incredibly grateful to Mariani Landscape, who has generously donated all hardscape materials, installation, and patio releveling, and to the Spirit of 67 Foundation, whose support makes this project possible. The plants we selected are native and lowmaintenance and help sustain our existing ve uh vegetable garden as well. Ultimately, this garden will serve as a living classroom, one that nurtures both n learning and well-being for every student. We're so excited to see this space come to life thanks to your support. And now I'll call up several children who will come up and talk. Jackson. >> Uh, hi. Uh, hi. I'm Jackson. I'm in second grade at Everett. I love the garden cuz it helped me feel better. Cuz I water it every day. And when it's gloomy outside,
006I still love the garden. I feel more confident because the garden makes me feel calm when I last. One one way the garden is part of my school routine is I planted sunflower seeds in the garden. Thank you every >> Lily Ren you can come up too. Hi, I'm Lily. I'm in fourth grade at Everett. I think the Ever Garden is special because it is dedicated to Dr. Fitz Simmons and that's a great way to remember all of our memories with her. It is also it also allows kids to be outside and learn in a new environment. Lastly, it's a sensory learning experience and you are encouraged to touch and feel and interact with nature, which gives you a break from sitting in your classroom. One way the garden has helped me grow as a
007student is with citizenship because it allows me to help others and show them different things about the garden that help the plants grow. Thank you for letting me share why the Ever Garden is special. Hi, I'm Ren and I'm in fourth grade at Everett. I am share I am I want to share a memory from the ribbon cutting. I enjoyed the ribbon cutting because it was a special moment of opening the garden after its renovation. I got to cut the ribbon and eat lots of fresh food from the garden. The garden allows you to take a break from your classroom and get some fresh air. It It's fun to run around and play. I love the garden. One way the garden helps me grow as a student is because it helps me with confidence. I
008am able to grow my own food and help everyone else grow food too. That is why the Ever Garden is special to all Everett students. Thank you. >> Happy birthday, Dr. Ian Rrow. >> Thank you. Hi, I'm Suzanne Thomas. I teach third grade at Everett. And um I just want to add a little bit that the Everett Garden Club continues to grow and develop or the garden continues to grow and develop thanks to our wonderful volunteers um in the Ever Garden Club and their willingness to collaborate with teachers. When I think about how it started just a few years ago as just a dream and a vision, I am in awe of what it has become. Not only is the garden beautiful and peaceful and it helps us with emotional regulation and building confidence and
009citizenship, it has also become a dynamic place for inquiry, reflection, and thoughtful decision-making, which are key components of critical thinking, another one of our portrait of a learner competencies. Students learn about plants and ecosystems in our kindergarten and second grade science curriculum. and our Everett garden reinforces that learning and allows students to apply their knowledge outside of the classroom. A school garden is like a living laboratory that encourages cause and effect reasoning, reflection, and collaboration. We are so blessed and grateful to have this space for our students. Thank you. In just two years, Everick Garden Club has grown from an idea into a living, breathing part of our school story. The Everett Garden Club helps nurture the whole child academically, emotionally, and socially. Since 2023, the Everett Garden Club has helped almost 500 Everett students
010plant, tend, and care for their own plants, inspiring curiosity, patience, and a lifelong love of nature. With every seed planted, rock painted and hand in the soil, our students are learning that they belong, that they can nurture life, and that together they can make something beautiful grow. We'd like to acknowledge all our partners who have helped us thrive, and sincerely thank you for the opportunity to share our story this evening. We invite you to come visit Everett Garden, explore the space, see the growth of our students have cultivated, and experience the joy of a garden that enriches everyone, children and adults alike. Thank you. >> Yeah, we have a video up to their Do you have time to watch a couple? >> Here's one on one side. You can see Poppy running through the garden.
011>> And then >> these are carrots. Guess what happens with long hair? Sometimes long hair. Are you guys ready? >> Pull as a team. And you can see the carrots felt this thing. They were so excited. >> Outstanding. Thank you so much. >> A huge huge thanks to everybody that has made that happen. Um that's a fabulous video. I I wish we had a before video because to see the transformation from what it was to what it is today is just fantastic. So, thank you to everybody that that made that happen. And then could we have the students come up um and the presenters and we'll take a picture with the board of education, please? I know. >> Thank you. So, we're going to move on with the rest of the meeting. And what I
012will say is everybody's welcome to stay. However, we also recognize everybody has very busy lives and we will not be offended if you have other things to do. All right, we'll move on with the president's report and I'll just have a brief report while I want to make some comments about one of the agenda items tonight and that is the tentative tax levy. Um the the tax levy is one of the most important things that the board has responsibility for. It is something that affects every single taxpayer in the city of Lake Forest. Um we take our responsibility in passing that levy very seriously because we recognize the impact it has on families. Uh each and every single person on this board is affected by that tax levy. So we have a vested interest in
013making sure that tax levy is necessary and appropriate. Um we spend a lot of time looking at the financials of the district and the tax levy is based not on how much we can get but how much we need. Um, we spend hours looking at what the next year's budget looks like, what the five-year budget looks like, what the 10-year budget looks like, how much it's going to cost to fix roofs, how much it's going to cost to fix HVAC. All of these things go into how much do we need to have an appropriate tax levy. So, the board collectively along with the administration has spent a lot of time looking at what the proper tax levy is. Um, and that's all led up to tonight where we'll pass or vote on uh the tentative
014tax levy. So, I want to make those comments just so everyone understands how important it is uh to the board to to make sure we get that right and keep a close eye on making sure that the tax levy is necessary and appropriate for the needs of this district. So, with that, I'll pass it along to Dr. Montgomery for the district leadership report. Thank you, kind sir. The topics of tonight's report will start with the 2025 state report card and then finish with upcoming events. We have several topics for you. Uh Dr. Dr. Fitz Simmons is going to lead the conversation uh around our report card and we have great news to share and I will kick it over to her. >> Thank you Dr. Montgomery. We have been waiting for this board meeting for
015quite some time and as you know on October 30th the state released the report cards. The data were no longer embargoed and we are so happy to share that all of our schools all six in 67 and 115 were exemplary and Dr. Montgomery and I with Dr. Fenton who's in the audience here tonight have had the opportunity to go to different uh venues around the community. We were at the AP exec meeting at CCC which is our curriculum coordinating committee and we just had a wonderful presentation in our educational committee this evening. So if any of the details in our presentation are um too high level or too general, please feel free to look on our report card or on our website so that you can see more of the specifics. So in starting off
016we have our ELA performance. As you know, the state rightsized those cut scores or those benchmark scores for the state. And even with those new right-sized benchmark scores, we are pleased to share that we had a 7 and a half% increase in our proficiency scores with an overall proficiency of 84.3% of our students meeting or exceeding standards. One thing to note at the bottom is that we have achieved our board priority and our strategic plan metric around percentile. So if you'll look in 2023 2024 we were in the 93rd percentile. We have advanced up to the 96th percentile in ELA. Very proud of that work. If you look at our comparables, not just in the state, but according to our peer groups that were selected by our board of education, of these 19 peer groups
017that we consider our comparables, we moved up and I had talked to you last year, Mr. Ramos, about our desire to do this. We have moved up into the middle. We moved from 14 out of 19 to 9 out of 19. This is a huge celebration as well with our math performance. Even more exciting with the math performance, we have shifted five percentage points up even with those right-sized proficiency with without with the old benchmarks. And now we are saying if you look on the left column 79.8% of our students are meeting or exceeding standards. We have moved to the 98th percentile up from the 96th last year. So we continue to skyrocket and we are the 13th district out of 763 elementary school districts in the in the state. Our performance with our peer
018groups moved to the ninth place out of our 19 peer groups. We are extremely proud of this as well. And if you move to science, one of the interesting things was that the state actually raised the cut scores in science. So you will notice that we shifted from 81% to 83% with the old benchmarks. But what that looks like with our new state standards, it is an actual decline to 73.4%. The entire state did have a shift obviously. Um but that is definitely an indicator to us that the state's right sizing of those benchmark scores mean that we really need to look at this more deeply and district 67 has already been doing that. Dr. Fenton is working with our teachers in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. And we are also focusing on our our
019teachers next in K through five. So, this is something that we are looking very seriously at. And we also know that while we have a lot to celebrate here and we have a lot to thank our teachers and our students and our families and our leaders, we know that we want to make sure that it's not just about the scores. Dr. Montgomery will share with the public in his different speaking tours about how important it is to have those durable skills. We're confident that our work around the portrait of a learner will bring us to that next level of greatness. >> Thank you Dr. V Simmons and your leadership. And as a reminder, while we're seeing progress, we are far from arrived and we are in a state of continual improvement. And I hope that
020the board was reassured with the education committee of just where we're headed and what we have in place to show growth for this year and beyond. >> Are we allowed to ask questions? >> Absolutely. >> Go back to the slide with the math percentages by school and the deer path east. Is that I know last year we had struggled with the fifth graders. Is that still kind of a pain point for us? >> We made a lot of shifts and that was a a a focus point for us. We had our coaches just present to us an ed committee. That was an area we really worked on. And if you notice in the fall map assessment report, we saw great changes there. So it while still I would not call it a pain point, there
021have been a lot of changes. Everything from staffing to focusing on those skills. The deer path east, you can see that even with the old cut scores, we increased there by six percentage points. So there was great growth that happened at Deer Path. I'm sorry. And then the fall assessment report of fall of this year. Um we're seeing even greater scores um which is showing that these changes that we're making are continuing to progress. We're getting more formative data with the the fall map. >> Yes. So on our website you can access the fall assessment report which is telling you right now where we are at. While this is as a reminder this is from the 2425 school year. We feel confident about where we are going and I think it's a combination of everything
022from our more the pathways we've created the earlier on-ramp to some of those acceleration pathways if you will in fourth grade tightening some of those up and not making it as flexible with still providing on-ramps for students to access the curriculum but just a little bit clearer and then our differentiation that we're doing across all grade levels but fifth grade especially we're proud of that work and so you as Dr. Montgomery said we are making great strides and our fifth grade progress is is is impressive. >> I will tell you that it uh while we use different norman nomenclature fifth grade was an area of focus particularly with Dr. Shin and we're trying to find a balance because it is not middle school um and we're looking at how that schedule can be manipulated in
023um Dr. made changes to help uh alleviate some of those pain points this year. And we'll continue to evaluate moving forward to see how to make the blend of fifth grade still being quasi elementary and giving those students the space and the time that they need before they emotionally mature into the middle school grades, which I classify at sixth grade. You bet. Any other questions about this before I move on to uh the next topic? Thank you all. Uh so I uh wanted to make sure that everyone was aware that aware that on the heels of last month's grateful grateful market district 67 AP food drive has kicked off and runs through tomorrow, November 14th. Um if you have not uh donated and have uh the ability to do so, first grade is canned broth,
024second grade is canned beans, third grade is canned corn, and fourth grade is canned veggies. All donations will be distributed to Beacon Place in WKEAN, Cool Ministries in WKEAN, North Chicago Community Partners in North Chicago. We are also uh we also encourage our community to donate directly to Project Fool, a district 67 and 115 initiative in which students, staff, and parent volunteers work together to collect and distribute food and funds to families facing food insecurity in our community. And we sent out a message about that one week ago, I believe, maybe two weeks. U another one Mrs. Oakley saying in this Friday's newsletter where we were trying to meet concerns of food insecurities within our own communities and then also give those individuals who were interested in supporting uh donating within our own community an
025avenue to do that and uh um this is where we thought the um the project full was the best place for that to live where we can help out our fellow neighbors. Uh, beyond the budget, episode two, after the budget is approved, is now available, hosted by Whitney Drager, who is a director of business operation. The video explains what happens after the budget is finalized, including five-year projections, annual audits, and year-end checks, highlighting the DI district's focus on accuracy, transparency, and fiscal responsibility. Episode three will be coming mid December, which is titled Understanding the Tax Levy. Very timely based on what board action will happen in December. uh and it'll break down how the levy is determined and what it means for our community. Earlier this year, we released the first Beyond the Budget video,
026which is an overview of the entire budgeting process to educate the community on school finances and show how public funds are responsibly used to support students. As a reminder, this video along with full financial reports and documents for the 67 or district 67 are available on the website. Oh, I skipped one, excuse me. Uh on November 3rd, I had the pleasure of hosting Jeff Celingo who wrote New York Times bestselling book Dream School. There was over a hundred people in attendance. A timely topic. Some of you were there and I want to thank uh Fan and Alani uh who does a masterful job of finding leading thinkers across the country and brings them to local settings. I want to also thank Gordon who were tremendous partners because it was hosted at Gordon. If you there
027was a post today of everything that happened last week at the Gorton Center and I was blown away by just how much is happening and how much they're supporting our communities and I'm grateful um to live in this community and to attend many of their events. Uh now for a big reveal. Um I am proud to announce that Sheridan School has officially won the Spirit of 67 Cross Town Challenge. The Cross Town Challenge is a annual competition amongst the five districts, 67 campus locations, Cherokee, Everett, Sheridan, and DPM East, and DPM West to raise family donation participation percentages. This friendly rivalry to rivalry to see the uh which school families have the highest participation concludes with the prize money for the schools, bragging rights of course, and an all school prize. This means that Sheridan
028will not only receive 1,500 in grant funding, but also an additional $500. We congratulate the families of Sheridan and the students and we're excited uh to see how much they love the prizes. This year we um don't celebrate school board members enough. There are two there's an official day uh and the official day is November 15th uh which is tomorrow two days from now, forgive me. And it is uh Illinois School Board Member Day. Just so you all know, there's another time that we're going to be celebrating the school year, the schoolboard week. I think it's a national school board recognition. Uh long story short, these uh uh wonderful seven individuals, one missing, uh give up a great deal of time and energy uh that is uh for unpaid public service uh to their communities.
029And I thank each and every one of you for your leadership and your partnership. Some upcoming events, we have the Spirit of 67 grant visiting author Bruce Hail on November 17th through the 20th in all district 67 schools. We have Thanksgiving break on our on the horizon. It seems like time is flying by right now from November 26th to the 28th. And then on December 4th, we have the fifth grade band orchestra choir uh concert at the DPM auditorium where we'll celebrate um some of our middle school musicians. Uh thank you so much. And that concludes the report. I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have at this time. >> The only question I have Why do we keep putting Monica next to the tallest board member? I'm I'm sorry. It is certainly
030by design. >> It's a power play. Um I don't know whose power we're playing, but we'll continue to do so. All right. Any questions for either Matt or Renee? All right. Um the board will now hear public comment. Subject to board policy 2230, there will be two opportunities for public participation. Um, this first opportunity is limited only to items listed on this evening's agenda. Please hold all other comments for the second opportunity for public participation later in the meeting. Are there any members of the public who would like to address the board concerning uh items on tonight's agenda? Seeing none, we will move on to the liaison reports. Um, Greg, do we have a true north update? >> A true north meeting in six days. We'll be voting on uh at the time an approval
031of an amendment to the articles of agreement. Um, things have progressed relatively positively. I'm pleased with the direction of it. We we are are going to vote in favor of it. Um, and I think it will be a it's a a good development for the district as well as uh 115. >> Any questions regarding true north on the legislative front? Uh, just a report on something that we already discussed in workshop and that is um at the upcoming ISB meeting. Uh the uh members will be voting on various resolutions and we discussed those as a board and how we will vote um and Mr. Adamo will be attending on behalf of district 67. So, thank you to Mr. Adamo for the attendance. Um, and then Megan, do we have a spirit report? Nope. Okay. We
032will now move on to action items. Um, may I have a motion to approve the adoption of the 2025 tentative tax levy? >> So, moved. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Miss Yan, >> yes. >> Mr. Reis, >> yes. >> Miss Angelberg, >> yes. >> Mr. Adamo, >> yes. >> Miss Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavin, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Next up, uh, may I have a motion to approve the architectural services proposal for Deer Path Middle School Cafeteria project phase C? So moved. May I have a second? >> Second. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Miss Angelberg, >> yes. >> Mr. Adamo, >> yes. >> Miss Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavin, >>
033yes. >> Mr. Reis, >> yes. >> Miss Yarn, >> yes. >> Motion carries. May I have a motion to approve to wave first reading of 430 revenue and investment policy? >> So moved. >> May I have a second? >> Second. Any discussion? I have uh a little bit of discussion. We had a discussion about discussion about this uh in workshop. I wanted to indicate I'm inclined to vote against it. Um because I out of some concern that investing in local school boards or local bonds will is highly correlated with our own uh funding sources of bond rating. So I that's about the only issue that I wanted to address on the record, but I will I'll be voting now. >> Any other discussion? >> May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Mr. Odamo.
034Nay. >> Miss Yan. >> Yes. >> Miss Angelberg. >> Yes. >> Miss Fitzgerald. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lavin. >> Yes. >> Mr. Reis. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. May I have a motion to approve the 430 revenue and investment policy? Second reading. >> So moved. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Yan, >> yes. >> Mr. Reis, >> yes. Miss Angelberg, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavin, >> yes. >> Mr. Odamo, >> no. >> Miss Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items listed in this evening's agenda? Moved. May I have a second? >> Second. >> May have a roll call vote, please. >> Miss Angelberg, >> yes. Miss Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mr. Adamo,
035>> yes. >> Miss Yon, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavin, >> yes. >> Mr. Reis, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> So, for foyer requests this month, we've got uh two that were completed, one for Philippe Milin and one for Heather Kerr. Um, we will now have the second opportunity for public participation. Uh, at this point, the board will now hear a second opportunity for public comment subject to board policy 2230. This opportunity for public comment will be limited to 60 minutes. Are there any members of the public who would like to address the board and I've got a whole set of rules I'm supposed to to read here. Um, uh, interested speakers should state their name before addressing the board. Members of the public will be granted a maximum of three minutes each to provide
036comment on school district matters. Individuals that have signed up for public comment cannot yield their time to other individuals in an effort to give others additional time above three minutes. All those speaking are expected to act with respect and civility and to conclude within three minutes and if requested by me. Everyone has a right within reason to be heard respectfully. Members of the public will not be allowed to speak a second time until all members of the audience who wish to speak have been allowed to do so. Public comment should be not be redundant and all comments should be directed to the board to provide accurate response. Detailed questions posed to the board during public comment will be listened to and taken under advisement. The public is always welcome to meet with school officials to
037receive information, discuss ideas, or express concerns. If the public has any letters or other written materials, they may be submitted to the board clerk for the public record. With those ground rules out of the way, we welcome public comment. Uh my name is Ryan Evans. Superintendent Montgomery, members of the board, thank you for this opportunity. I'm a League Forest parent with two students in district 67 and a third child entering the district in the next few years. A group of district 67 parents have requested I speak tonight about their concerns regarding the use of iPads and other tablet devices in classrooms, particularly in grades K through 4. My wife is one of those parents. Suffice to say, my participation here tonight was not optional. In short, these parents want complete cessation of all tablet use
038in K through4 classrooms. To provide some context, a recent petition circulated among parents at one District 67 elementary school garnered over 100 signatures in support of removing tablet devices from K through4 classrooms. Here are just some of the comments made by signitories to that petition. Please remove iPads from K through 4. There's no benefit to the students. iPads are unnecessary for young developing minds. This is backed by research. Remove them from DPM as well. I would like to see iPads phased out of elementary schools and less relied upon at DPM, especially in fifth and sixth grade. No iPads until high school. Clearly, this is not just a K through four issue. Parents from other grades are voicing their concerns as well. To date, none of these concerns have been adequately addressed by the administration. To
039be sure, telling a district 67 parent that they have the choice to send their kid to a private school if they don't like the district policies is neither appropriate nor productive. I've come to learn that discontinuing tablet use may not be feasible because these devices have become so imshed in the curriculum. And if true, this is very concerning. Why is any part of the K through4 curriculum dependent on the use of tablet devices? And if the curriculum does not depend on tablet devices, why is there so much resist resistance to reassessing their usefulness? District 67 parents don't know because the only answer they've received thus far is the district has no plans to change its tablet policy. I appreciate, as we've seen tonight, that the score, the achievement scores of district 67 are among the
040best in the state. But I've seen no evidence that tablet devices have contributed in any way to this success since their introduction. Correlation is not causation. Research shows that the use of screens by young children >> Sir, I apologize. Your time is up. >> May I have 30 more seconds? If you'll just excuse me. I folded my last page of my notes into here. The parents are happy that you changed the policy to keep the these devices at school rather than sending them at home with the kids, but this merely scratches the surface. At the very minimum, the board must immediately reservey all district K through4 students or parents as to their preference regarding the use of tablet devices in the classroom. And if a majority favor complete removal of these tablets, the board has
041an obligation to provide a compelling explanation backed by evidence as to why it will not honor these parents wishes. I thank you for your attention. Thank Thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts. We appreciate it. >> Are there any other members of the public who would like to address the board? Just a few announcements to wrap up this evening. Uh Thanksgiving break starts November 26th. Um school resumes December 1st and then the next board meeting is on December 16th and that will include a finance committee meeting. I have a motion to adjourn the Lake Forest School District 67 board meeting for November 13, 2025. >> So moved. May I have a second? >> Second. >> May I have a voice vote, please? All in favor say yes. >> Yes.