District 57 Board of Education Meeting 9/25/2025

001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Before we get moving into our regular agenda, I would like to make a statement on behalf of the board regarding the incident, the false lockdown incident that occurred at Lincoln Middle School on September 4th. So, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge this incident. We know it was unsettling for our students, staff, and families, and we want to assure our community that we take this matter very seriously. This evening, our district administrators will present a full report on what happened, what we have learned from the experience, and the steps we are taking to strengthen our systems and procedures moving forward. In short, the incident was

002caused when Lincoln's pre-recorded lockdown announcement was inadvertently tied to Westbrook's panic alarm during summer systems maintenance. When the Rusbrook panic alarm was activated during a plan drill, it mistakenly triggered the lockdown announcement at Lincoln. Mount Prospect Police quickly confirmed there was no threat and Lincoln staff acted swiftly to release classrooms and reassure students. Since then, the district has taken immediate corrective action and is implementing a number of improvements including auditing phones and speakers, adding new notification methods for non-classroom spaces, installing additional speakers in common areas, and updating the pre-recorded lockdown message for great greater clarity. We're also reviewing procedures in collaboration with the Mount Prospect Police Department to ensure they are as strong and effective as possible. We want to thank our Lincoln staff and families for their calm and cooperation, and we remain committed

003to learning from this experience so that our schools are even safer moving forward. We'll get there. Um, I'd like to move on to board recognition and start with our National Hispanic Heritage Month recognition. I'd like to recognize National Hispanic Heritage Month observed from September 15th to October 15th. It began in 1968 and expanded to a month in 1988. The start date honors the independence of several Latin American countries with Mexico and Chile following on September 16th and 18th. Hispanic and Latinx people have shaped American history since long before our nation was founded, and their contributions continue to enrich our culture, politics, and society today. In support of this celebration, our teachers have access to a variety of inspirational classroom resources, including activities and biographies of influential figures such as Sonia Soto, Roberto Cle, Roberto Clemente,

004Freda Callo, and Mario Molina. This is an opportunity for our district to celebrate diversity and highlight the important role Hispanic and Latinx people play in shaping our country. Okay, thank you. Um 2.2 on the agenda is a spotlight on adaptability. We're going to actually have to push that to next month because of some um technical issues. So we'll move on to an acknowledgement of our new newly tenured staff. >> All right. Well, this year we are so proud to congratulate Grace Brunzel and Cindy Larson. Um, Grace is a first grade teacher at Westbrook School and Cindy Larson is our LRC director at Fairview Elementary School. They represent um the best and the brightest as well as our staff and we are so grateful that they have chosen District 57 as their their place to call

005their work home. They make a difference every day and we are so proud of them to have received this honor. [Applause] Thank you. Um we will now move on to our student board members report. Okay. Um, so with the lockdown that happened at Lincoln, we thought that it would be helpful to share our experiences of what happened that day since it was a very big and important day and we saw what we needed to fix and how scary it was. So I thought it really came out of nowhere. I was sitting in KTW and suddenly the alarm went like the warning went off and the whole room went quiet and so we all rushed to the windows but I felt extremely safe because I knew that nobody could look in, nobody could see us and

006that my teacher would definitely like protect us like she stood outside. She stood outside the door with like a chair and I knew that would be safe. But yeah, my experience with the lockown drill felt like an emotional roller coaster. At first, at first, my teacher barricaded the door and my class classmates and I followed the procedure, moving to the corner and staying out of sight. Even though we did everything correctly, the situation highlighted issues with communication and how students and staff quickly and how students and staff issues with communication and how quickly information reaches students and staff. So, some of the classes didn't hear the warning announcement whatsoever. So, they didn't have a chance to close their doors, hide, and turn off the lights. They just resumed class like usual. So, if there was

007a legitimate threat in the building, the students in those classes wouldn't have been wouldn't have been safe or away from harm. Um, this is an example of many of the new implement implementations of our safety such as going over drills in lunch, recess, and in PE and having long longer warning announcements. This is extremely comforting to know as students if this situation actually ever happens and I know that this is a higher chance that everyone will be safe. So, we started interviewing some seventh graders for the seventh grade student board member position. And so, we thought that they had so many new and cool ideas to share with us that we can use to improve the school. And we could tell that they were really excited to be joining us and helping and making the

008students at District 57's uh school years as memorable as possible. Overall, we're having a really hard time choosing someone because everybody is all all of them are really excited to help the community and represent the entire student body. Um, and we were grateful for member Dorer to join us as well. We have a couple more candidates right tomorrow morning. So, um, did you guys have any feedback about moving from being being interviewed for the role to being on the other side of the table where you were doing the interviews today? >> Um, I think the experience was very eye opening cuz when you're sitting on the other end of the table, you're really nervous and it's like really nerve-wracking. But also on the interviewing side, it's also like really hard to choose someone the best

009fit person for the job. I remember how scared I was to be getting interviewed by a bunch of people for like a such such a big position such as this. And seeing those other kids who were in the same position I was last year, it made me feel like I wasn't alone in feeling that way. And I just wanted them to feel as comfortable as possible being interviewed by us so that they would be their natural and happy selves because I know when you're nervous, you act a different way than you actually are. So I wanted them to be true so that I could see who they really are. They were amazing. So great job you guys. Does anybody have any questions for our student board members? I was just talking loud. Is that okay?

010How many kids were interviewed? >> So, there's going to be 12 kids in the total today. We just interviewed nine. So, we have three more. Awesome. Is it an even number six and six right now? >> Like six boys. >> And are you choosing a boy and a girl or could it be two boys? All right. >> All right. Thank you again, Michelle and Josh. I always appreciate having your voice. All right. Now, we're going to move into the public hearing on the 202526 fiscal year budget. On August 21st, 2025, the board of education reviewed and approved the tenative budget for the 202526 school year as drafted by Dr. Jason Kay's, the D57, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations. In accordance with legal requirements, the board published that the adopted tenative budget would be available

011for public inspection for a period of not less than 30 days. At this time, Board of Education, which is to conduct a public hearing for the purposes of presenting the annual school budget and to allow board members and community members to address the board. May I have May I please have a motion to open the public hearing to the 2526 annual school budget? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Member Jer. >> Yes. >> Member Fay. >> Yes. >> Member Kalek. >> Yes. >> Member Leto. >> Yes. Member Nelson. >> Yes. >> Vice President Cho. >> Yes. >> President Bren. >> Yes. >> Excellent. >> At this time, I'd like to ask Jason Case to address the board. >> Sorry, jumping on. I'm just so excited to talk about the budget as always. Um so we

012are we have um uh discussed the budget over the last two uh months starting with a review of fiscal year 25's budget and how that um looked at the end of our fiscal year and then talking about preliminarily looking at fiscal year 26 budget uh back in July. In August uh we then approved the tenative budget and then we're here today to talk about our final budget. Um and there has been um no change uh from the tenative budget to our final budget. So although we made some changes after July um after August there have been no changes. But I want to review with you today uh where we stand uh with the budget um point out some different things um and answer any questions you might have. And uh I always like to tie

013it back to the strategic plan with um you know talking about maintaining our balanced district budgets each year. Um it's definitely a goal of ours. Um I want to thank um our budget administrators who really help as we both develop the budget but then also make sure that they adhere to the budget throughout the year um so that we um are doing all right towards the end of the year. Um just as a reminder for our budget process um uh it typically starts in March with the approval of the staffing plan and that's when we start um I start building the budget. I work with all of our different budget uh administrators um throughout the district. Uh we will sit down, we'll discuss uh the prior year and look at next year. We talk about

014are there anything is there anything special that's happening for the following year? Is there anything different? Um really having that conversation. We talk about zerobased budgeting. So really we start fresh. It's not this is what last year was and therefore we're just going to carry it over, but it's about what does next year look like and let's talk about it and have that conversation. Um we and then as we talked about in July we we look at some of the assumptions that we're going to make. In August we approve the tenative budget and then we're here in September for the final budget. Just as a reminder our budget is structured uh by funds. Um and this year more important than not more important but a little different I guess than uh in previous years. um

015because of the referendum um you will see um and I'll keep reminding you that we um will not be looking for the most part tonight at the referendum dollars trying to pull that out. It's that's money that was approved to set aside specifically for a purpose um with the construction at Lincoln and Westbrook. And so um I've pulled that out to really give you a better idea of exactly what our operating funds are. And so we've pulled out debt service um and capital projects from um most of the conversation tonight and I'll point out when it's included um but for most of the conversation tonight it's not. Um also just as a reminder this is in the board packet but it's also on our website um each year uh we put together an annual budget

016report um that I put up onto the website for anybody to see but also just kind of helps look at what that year is going to look like. uh compares it a little bit to last year as well and gives um I think some good information for everybody on just how our budget works. Um and so as we jump into some of the charts um so this first one u really the the idea behind this is is just pointing out that most of our money come from local sources and of the local sources most of that comes from um taxes our property taxes. And so you can see there um that we have a total uh revenue within our budget of uh just over $37.7 million. Um and as we look at how that's broken

017down, um really um nothing I think that that jumps out too much. A couple things just to point out. Um that corporate uh you know, property replacement tax um that is something that has increased over the last couple years. Um the first year it increased. was a a bit surprising to me as well as all of my um counterparts in the other districts. We received it was about a million dollars more than we had anticipated. Since then, we've been better at um being able to anticipate exactly what we will receive. It's it's hard sometimes to get that number. Um but we do expect it to decrease based on what we've been told uh by the state for next year. Um in addition, the interest earnings um have increased over the last couple years. Again, that

018was something that really hit an all-time low postco. um now has has gotten back and we do anticipate that it's going to continue this year um based on what we're being told. So I've built that into the budget as well. Um and then that third bullet just again a reminder that this is operating funds only. Um it doesn't include any referendum uh revenue because we did sell uh revenue you know bonds in July that would be included in this year's budget but it's not included in these charts. When we look at expenditures, um again, um not including any of the revenue expenditures for this year, um it looks pretty similar to to past years. Um you know, salary and benefits make up uh a majority of what we're talking about. Um but then obviously we

019have purchase services, uh paying somebody to do a job, fixing buildings, a lot of that comes out of our our facility um um fund. Um but then we also have supplies and materials. Uh there's capital outlay um and other things as well. um that take up just a little bit of the budget. Um here you can see it broken down um by the salaries and the benefits. Um everything we you know really just talked about um some of the things you know that we've just included over the years. Insurance continues to be something that's just it's a little out of our control. We definitely look around. We are part of a co-op which is helpful um because we are a small district. Um but we still, you know, the the insurance companies do continue to

020increase uh their premiums and we continue to um do what we can to make sure we're we're we're being as fiscally responsible as possible. Um again, this this chart does not include operating funds, but I do want to point out, and I'll talk about it in a little bit, uh we do earmark every year $2 million towards um capital projects in the district. Um and so that is part of the budget this year, and I'll talk about it in a little bit. it's just not part of these charts yet. Um, capital outlay does um increase a lot. If you're looking at this chart, that would be something that jumps out at me. Um, and that's just it's part of our tech budget next year. Um, and that's just what the tech needs are. Uh, Mr.

021Fior will work within his budget. So, it's not that his budget increased that much, but sometimes the needs are different. And so, that this next year there was a big need for capital outlay. This very small chart up on this on the screen, and I apologize for that. This is actually taken straight out of our budget document that gets um submitted to the state. It will be submitted tomorrow hopefully with approval. Um and what this shows the top line shows our fund balance at the beginning of the year. Um and then at the very bottom it shows the fund balance at the end of the year. This is the one chart in um this is the one chart in this presentation that does include referendum dollars. Um I don't have a pointer on here, I

022don't think. Um but the um if you go straight down on the capital projects um line there is um just over 20 million or so dollars 23 million I think um in expenditures that's anticipated this year. And then as you go further down to the second last line and third to last line they're both the same. Uh there's the 34 million that we received in bonds. Again that's all money earmarked for the construction not part of our typical budget but the state needs to know about it. So it is part of our document. So when you look at the fund balance at the end of the year, um it looks like our fund balance went up a lot because it does include um that refere those referendum dollars that will be in our bank at

023the end of the year. Um so just something to point out. Um so just a bit of a summary and this is where we'll talk a little bit about that 2 million that I um in capital projects. Um so the total revenue is 37.7 million just over um our total expenditures is uh just over 35.6 million. Um, but when you put in also that $2 million that's earmarked for capital projects, um, and do the math, our surplus, and I'm excited that there is a surplus, um, is, um, a surplus of just over $113,000. Um, so originally when we first talked, I think we're we were definitely lower. Um, we've been able to, um, get some more information about revenue that has helped then increase our budget, uh, to where it is right now. And of

024course, as we all know, you know, this is um uh a lot of the budget um we can figure out a lot of the budget, some of the budget we can and and we need to look at either um prior experience or we look at the state to give us some guidance, but um sometimes it doesn't always work out. So, um you know, we have to do our best. Um but the budget's really just at a point in time figuring out what it's going to look like for this year. next step. So, um obviously after this board meeting um we uh will reconvene uh CFAC, our citizen finance advisory committee. Excited to bring them back together. Obviously, they were so much help during the referendum and came together um sometimes on last minute notice uh

025to help support and give us um guidance and really guidance to the board um or at least options. Um this year, again, like always, we'll be looking at creating that five-year uh financial projections. um as we did last year, we'll make sure to include um anticipation of full day kindergarten starting in 27. Um they'll also be reviewing uh the impact of the bonds um and now they can do that with real dollars. We've we've done it in the past um just with what we think is going to happen. Um and we'll be discussing the sale of the additional non-referendum bonds which we've talked about I know before and we approved uh recently um but we'll be talking about next steps for that as well. That's everything about the budget. I know it was quick. I

026know we talked about it the last couple months, but questions you have um about this process or anything else I can answer. >> Um not really budget related, but I know we're interviewing all these students right now for the this board position. I'm just curious. I'm wondering if it makes sense to also then talk to them about SEFAC as a potential like other way to get involved. Um so I guess very in some ways I'm looking at you and Ray for like um just thinking about other ways to get students back on that because I know you haven't had a current student in a bit. >> True. >> Yeah. The last couple years we've we've put something out to students. Uh, Principal Larson has helped me put some stuff out and then we've talked to

027some teachers who, you know, either might run a club that might work for that or or um might have some students that they think are interested. So, we've tried um so far at least the last couple years we haven't, but we'll keep trying because it's great to have students on the on that committee. >> Yeah. >> I was just thinking about these like, you know, 12 students and two of them are going to become student board members and absolutely >> there's 10 more that could potentially uh join CFAC. >> Absolutely. All right. Any questions or comments that the board would like to share? >> Thank you. >> All right. At this time, I would like to ask if there are any member of the audience who wishes to share a comment with the board regarding

028the budget. Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? >> F. >> Yes. Yes. >> Member Leto. >> Yes. >> Member Nelson. >> Yes. >> Vice President Cho. >> Yes. >> Member Darner. >> Yes. >> Vice President Bennett. >> I'm sorry. President Bennett Hill. >> Yes. >> Okay. Let's move on to our community comments um section. The District 57 Board of Education welcomes community participation in an effort to both listen to our stakeholders and keep the meeting moving. I want to remind everyone of our public participation procedures and guidelines which is available in board policy 2 col 230. Individuals wishing to address the board can do so during the community comments portion of the agenda. Individuals should provide their name and limit their comments to three minutes. Please remember that this

029is not a dialogue between you and the board. The board is in listening mode during this time. Individuals wishing to contact the board of education are welcome to do so via the district 57 website under the board of education tab. Individuals should behave with respect and stability towards others and abide by board policy 8 col 30 visitors to and conduct on school property. Do we have any community comments? I didn't realize all these people. >> Hi, I'm Gina Lozano and I am a proud grandmother of two district 57 um students. One is beginning her journey as a kindergarten who I like to say says she's famous because she's on the website for district 57. And the other who is ending her journey, she is an eighth grader at Lincoln. Um so I came to to

030speak because at the last very very very long meeting uh board meeting you addressed um NSSO and as a 26-year staff of NSSO. I want to come and thank you. I want to thank you for your compassion that you spoke out of our of our school. I want of our students because they are our students. And I want to thank, you know, one of your board members said that we were the specialists and they kind of gave me warm fuzzies because, you know, we do our best to make sure that our kids are safe. And so I want to thank you because I know you get paid a lot for these gigs. So I want to thank you for all you do because you are making the hard um choices and decisions for not just

031my grandchildren, but for our students. So I want to thank Dr. board for always being passionate about everything for our students, for your staff. It is it is amazing to see and I get to see a lot of um superintendents because I something I like to do. It's a little hobby of mine. Um but I also like to thank Chris because every time I come to this meeting, I am so proud to work for NSSO when he speaks. Um and having go to all of our schoolboard meetings also, I get the opportunity to see him there, too. So having him the having the courage to always ask those hard questions. I know when you the um the last meeting when you made the choice to not uh approve that that situation that we're going through

032and it it and it did it did go through. But the fact that you took that compassion to ask those questions and to make sure that you all of you took the time to realize how important we are and that makes us feel good. So I want to thank you very much for all you do. We appreciate you. NSSO appreciates you because I know I go to all the board meetings and I also want to thank that was the quickest and best budget hearing I've ever been to and so thank you for that. So, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you very much. Are there any other comments from the community? All right, seeing none, let's move on to the staff and superintendent reports. And we'll start with a safety update. Uh Mark and

033I want to come tonight um and talk to you a little bit about um the panic alarms um in the district. Uh before we jump in I I'll talk a little bit. Um we um wanted to talk about maybe try again. Yes. Thank you very much. Um, so, uh, just before we we talk about the panel specifically, um, just a reminder that in school year 2425, we rolled out to the entire district the I love you guys standard response protocol. Um, it was something that was taught to, um, all staff, um, students. Um, we had started actually the process the year before, um, with some education as well. Um it really um puts um I think um it allows staff I think to know um what exactly is being asked of them in different crisis

034situations. Um I think we we we went from a very large binder that had every possible um thing that might happen to really a one sheeter. Not that there's more information of course to read um but really trying to be as succinct as possible and specific about exactly what to do in any crisis situation. So the options as you see up there um are hold uh to call for a secure uh lockdown, evacuate and shelter. So tonight we're going to talk about lockdown um and then specifically about panic alarms um but just wanted to remind you that that's where we're at um in our district and really lots of districts are going this way. We've worked with um us at the police department and the fire department as we've rolled this out. Um and they've

035been great partners. Um we have panic alarms in our buildings. Um and when a panic alarm is pressed, um 9 911 and dispatch is notified. Um in addition, uh pre-recorded announcement is played in the school announcing a lockdown. Um and then text messages are sent to district and school administrators and now also um some police um officials as well um alerting them to a panic alarm and providing a specific location for the alarm. Specific meaning which school um or which area I'll take it from there. So that that slide's important to understand when we reference working as expected. That's what we mean by working as expected that those three things happen. And so today I'll kind of walk through um you know an overview of what happened kind of what our experiences was what we

036learned and what our next steps are. So taking back to summer just to kind of give some context to what we do over the summer as part of that testing is we do test the paging systems bell systems and the panic alarms each year. So over the summer on August 8th we did test um all of those and they did work as expected. They uh created an announcement. They texted or they notified dispatch and our alarm company. Um and it went text messages went to the appropriate people. So on that day we felt things were working. Um the following week as we're preparing for the start of the school year. Um we noticed a bug in our our bell system which is called Revolution. This the software that manages it where um we couldn't create

037new bell schedules for the year. And so with schools starting in a couple weeks, this obviously was kind of an urgent matter to get this fixed and to create schedules for the year. And so with that, we worked with our vendor to kind of identify what the issue was. They identified that there was a bug in an update. And so at that time, we rolled back. Now, when we rolled back, we did not know or realize at the time that there were things uh settings that were been in place prior to the roll back that did not come over. So, I'll kind of talk more about what that looks like and obviously what we experienced. So, on August 22nd, we did do a panic u alarm test at Lincoln as part of our scheduled um

038testing. Um so, we did test again. Bells were working uh or our bells were working as expected. So, we went into the lockdown drill on the 22nd and at that time the button uh was pressed but the announcement didn't go. Dispatch was still notified. um alarm company was still notified, but immediately we recognized that the alarm the pre-recorded announcement did not go over. And at that time, Principal Larson made a manual announcement to the students. And so we had recognized pretty quickly that there was um the setting that we had in place for the testing on the ETH was no longer in place. In a rush to kind of fix that, um we believe well I'll get to the next slide. So um on September 4th, we had a scheduled lockdown drill at Westbrook. Um

039that panic alarm worked as expected. But as we found out um as part of that fix on the 22nd, we recognized that Lincoln the what we call paging group essentially where those announcements go was inadvertently added to the Westber panic alarm. So when the West panic alarm was pressed, it did trigger an inadvertent pre-recorded lockdown announcement at Lincoln. So very quickly, we recognized this through the text message that went out as part of the test test um the test group um Jason Kay's myself um of Mount Prospect Police Department were on scene at Westbrook conducting the drill communicating with Lincoln staff to verify that there was no actual alarm, that this was a false alarm, and that dispatch knew that this was a false alarm and that they they had not been contacted. And so

040at that time we trace that back to that that setting on that 22nd which was linking the Lincoln announcement to the Westbrook panic alarm. So on September 4th we sent feedback to staff. Obviously you heard there was some issue potentially hearing it and part of that issue was really the unexpected nature of it and a very short announcement at the time. So, as we kind of looked at that process and gathered that feedback, we met with staff on the four or on uh September 8th as a staff meeting again to get more feedback, what's working, what's not, so that we can really re find any issues with um any classrooms that were not working or were too low. And we tried to make adjustments to that over the last few weeks. So, again, staff reported

041that the announcement was hard to hear in some areas. So, one of the first things we did just even recognizing that that initial pre-recorded announcement may not be enough to notify because it was pretty short. It repeated several times, but didn't have a tone in front of it. Um, it may have sounded like a regular announcement. So, we modified the pre-recorded announcement. We put these leading tones on there that are not jarring, but they are they get your attention. Um, and they don't sound like a bell. They don't sound like a page. So, our hope is that if you hear that um pre-record or that tone and the pre-recorded message, it's going to repeat for almost a minute or almost two minutes. So, it rings the uh it'll ring the tone, it'll repeat the message,

042and then it'll repeat itself a total of four times. So, we made that adjustment knowing that that announcement might have also been the trigger or been part of the issue. We also again worked to identify any phones that were off either offline, not receiving pages, issues with volume, went room by room throughout the entire school um to make sure what was working, what's not. And so we've partnered with H Heartland Business Systems who has done our other intercoms to add additional speakers throughout the school. Um it's a combination based on a walkthrough that we did um and working in coordination with the Lincoln administration to determine what spaces do we still have concerns about. So we're putting a combination of um clocks like that which we call kind of a flasher clock where it has

043not only a clock on it. It plays the announcements and there's a light on the side of it that is called a flasher that essentially will notify anybody um if there is an announcement playing. So, one of that pieces of feedback was, you know, the cafeteria is full of kids. How do you know that there's going to be there's an announcement playing that's really crowded? So, we're going to utilize that and we're going to utilize those clocks with flashers in common spaces so that immediately if you aren't sure that there's an announcement, you can look up and visibly see that if you're in a crowded area or common area. So, we are working with them on that. We actually just placed the order. Um we have an ETA of about four weeks on that from

044the vendor um Valcom who makes the speakers. So we want to rush that and get that in. Um in the meantime, we've also conducted additional tests, raise volumes where we can um worked on individual phones again to make sure that everybody is able to hear that page moving forward. And we did that last Friday. >> Yes, last week. Yes, we did that last week and we did verify that everyone could hear that announcement at this point. So, our goal is to get the equipment in and then test again once that equipment is in um to make sure that it's meeting our needs. So, in addition, um we last spring the board approved um a vendor to do our safety audit. Um and we talked about the fact that we wouldn't do it right at the

045beginning of the year, but but about a month in. And so, last week um West 40 came out. Uh it was on our calendar. They came out two different days um to do a safety audit. They walked um all four buildings and our administration building. Um they met with some staff. Um they also came out uh the prior week at night just looking at things, testing lights, um different things like that. And so now we've met a little bit, but they're in the process of then writing up uh their audit. Um and then they will come back and obviously review with us and review it with um the board in a close session as it's about security. Um, so we'll have that conversation. So, um, just wanted to make sure you were aware of that

046as well because we had started that process in the last spring and wanted to bring you up to date on where we're at with that. Any questions about anything that was talked about tonight? I just wanted to add something. Um, I know that tonight Jason and Mark's presentation really talked about the technical and sort of the timelines and the um that aspect of the experience, but as was heard tonight by our student board members as well as the staff that experienced what happened, there is deep awareness about the impact of the reality that was just shared and um an acknowledgment, you know, of how this affected kids and staff. who did not have the luxury of knowing um that this was a false alarm and that this really felt like a real experience and was

047very upsetting and you know traumatic in some cases. So I just want to acknowledge that you know principal Larson and Mr. Jonas and you know it's the entire team um really that was there and all that they did in the staff both in the midst of this happening as well as in the aftermath you know of just trying to come together and the staff being willing to be really honest and candid about um their experiences and the impact and how they're trying to listen to kids and understand as well. So, I know your opening statement acknowledged that beautifully. Um, but I just wanted to add that in on on behalf of our entire team. >> Any questions? >> Yeah. Kim, can you explain one more time what the full scope of the drill on the

04822nd looked like? because that was as close as we had to typical. Is that right? >> The the August 22nd drill at Lincoln was a planned lockdown at the end of the day. So, um teachers and students were aware that there was going to be a drill that day at like 2:40. Um when we went to hit the button, which is what we've done at all the schools, um it hit dispatch, but it didn't play the announcement. So at that time, Principal Larson went on the intercom and announced the lockdown and conducted the lockdown drill. >> Okay. So which of the I guess schoolfacing aspects of of a lockdown? What are the school facing aspects? So you mentioned a message goes out to 911 and to dispatch, but that's not something that the students are

049aware of. What are the students taught and expected to hear and and understand when that happens? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, the announcements which is new for this year um that is what the students would hear and so they still in that drill on August 22nd heard the announcement. It was principal Lson saying it instead of the automated um but >> yeah I was just going to say it's the script from I love you guys. So it's the lock lights out of sight repeated several times is recorded announcement. >> Okay. So when the incident then happened several weeks later, some of them at least heard an announcement >> and it was the same announcement. It was the same words that they heard in that first. >> Okay. I guess that's what my question was. I wasn't

050sure if there were other alerts that are typical to a lockdown that maybe were absent such that just the announcement would have been maybe a little confusing or >> you know would have been in and of itself a tip off that this wasn't a proper emergency like a true emergency. >> Yeah. No, there's always a goal of having lay layers in a in a crisis. Uh right. And so if something doesn't work, you're trying. However, when it comes to trying to alert an entire building at once, the announcements is the way to go. And so that that is what they would have heard. >> Okay, understood. So again, that sort of put us in a place of some people having just practiced this several weeks ago >> and not having had a heads up that

051this was a practice like they did before maybe understood this to be a serious incident. I guess the only other thing I wanted to say is that I I find it providential frankly that this incident happened in the way that it did when it wasn't in fact an emergency and we were able to be alerted to some of the deficiencies in the system without there being any true danger. I I agree and understand sort of the impact of perceived danger and that's a very real thing that I know a lot of people experienced. Uh but I I do take it as a grace that you know we were able to discern and and remedy the areas of weakness in our system in a way that wasn't truly a crisis situation. So I appreciate the work

052that you all did to to put us in a better place in the event, god forbid, that something true, you know, truly catastrophic were to happen. and and we'll continue and um you know all the schools do drills and you know the goal always is afterwards to have that conversation whichever drill we're looking at to say what worked, what didn't work, what could we learn from it, what should we try next time, things like that. Uh the crisis teams at each school do a great job. I've been around to all of them. I was around to all them um when we were rolling out I love you guys and listening to them. So it's a great opportunity just to um you know for people to reflect on exactly what just happened and and that's why

053we do the drills too. Thank you. Um, so I appreciate both of you and the thorowness of of this update and I think that's really appreciated not just by the board but by the community. Um, I I guess this will sound a little like Monday morning quarterbacking and it's not meant to be. It's meant in the spirit of lessons learned, continuous improvement. But I guess my my there's two things that really happened, right? One was the the false alarm in Lincoln, but the other was some fairly significant structural issues with how the Lincoln system was working in the first place, right? So I guess my my my question is, you know, the the whole idea behind a drill kind of presupposes that the system is working and now you're just making sure that the students

054and staff are executing things correctly. Why was it that we didn't catch that? I mean, in all the testing that was done over the summer, how did we not notice that these problems were problems in the first place? >> Sure. I mean, I would jump in and say that I think that is why I'll give you an example that we um you know, we've obviously been doing fire drills for a very long time. And so many schools will at times then start throwing what I'd say like a wrench into it. You know, they might have a door that doesn't you know, we're not going to use this door. Like, well, how would it work? Same thing here. So, I think, you know, when we do a lockdown drill, everyone's ready for the drill, right? They're

055they're quiet. They're in their classroom. They're waiting for a drill. That's different situation than kids maybe being in a cafeteria or in a hallway. And so, you know, as as board member Fay said, it is an opportunity obviously not one that we would want to relive and and want to go in this way, but it was an opportunity to say, "Oh, wait, that's something that we do need to work on and therefore let's address it right away." So I think um you know when we test it in in the day and even you know we've gone around um even after that and and try and test it but it is different when there's kids in a hall or you know 150 kids in a in a cafeteria. Um and so we're trying to recreate that

056to make sure that we can hear things when when possible. So, but I think I don't know if that answers your question about, you know, we can test that the the the technology works and of course technology we know about, but um but you can't always test everything and so that's how we're trying to get there now. >> Sure, I get that. But the technology wasn't working, right? During the first drill, Lincoln, the pre-recorded message didn't go out, right? >> Correct. It >> So, the technology wasn't >> Well, yeah, at that point. Correct. And that was our alert that there was something wrong with again as I think we had mentioned and talked about the roll back impacted those settings and we didn't catch it and that was a mistake and so on the 22nd

057that was the indication that a mistake had happened. Unfortunately it was compounded with another mistake. So at that time Lincoln was fixed but that announcement was also connected in the programming to Westbrook inadvertently. So it was addressed at that moment. Unfortunately, just in that haste, another mistake was made where that was inadvertently tagged with a different school. So correct. At that moment, it wasn't working. But that was also our indication that there was an issue and in that effort to fix it created another issue. >> I appreciate that. So, what I think you're saying, and maybe I didn't appreciate this, is that on August 8th when you did the testing, everything was working. Okay. >> Pre-recorded messages were going out. Okay. I didn't fully appreciate that. Um I guess the the followup question then you

058know having dealt with software in my professional life I know how you know the the unintended consequences of making any change as a as a lesson learned are we going to have as just standard practice whenever we change software we just retest everything and just make sure everything is working. >> Yeah. Particularly around the software as it interfaces with a couple different systems. So to your point, you know, it was um again a situation where that that fix was implemented to fix a different issue. Now having learned that lesson, correct? I think we would definitely if we know we're going to be doing an update, it it would ideally be scheduled and then we would build into that procedure to then review back to the panic alarms. Um again, that is new to this kind

059of system this year. Um these were really the first tests of that automated system. Um, so again, I think it was a situation where um, that being new, I don't think it was necessarily on our radar to test. Having lived that experience now, you better believe we're going to be testing it um, with any update that comes from that software for sure. >> Awesome. And I guess last question, um, what is the, and this is just a general question on the system, what is the guidance for students who are out of the building when a panic alarm is triggered? because obviously they're not hearing I'm assuming the pre-recorded announcements or are they or is there some other indication to them that this is happening? >> The the pre-recorded announcement should be going playing outside. So

060we did we did yeah we did verify that even on the um I I get my dates mixed up but on the S September 4th when the the false alarm went off that it was heard um in the speaker briefly in the can do a lot and then part of outside in the courtyard. Um so that is part of it. Um maybe Jason could talk to what the procedures are for staff. >> Yeah. Yeah. Procedures if you're outside um that you you know we would like students to obviously follow teacher direction and move away. There's uh teachers know that they're supposed to be moving away from the school whichever direction makes the most sense but then eventually getting to their reunification site. Um but in the end getting away from the school is where they

061where they would go. I guess just one more quick question. Have we have we enlisted any input from staff on just what ideas do you have for how this could go smoother next time or just any kind of feedback input suggestions that that we could implement? >> I believe um that there was a input but tell me if what was the input that that was um sent out to Lincoln but I'm not but I'm not sure if it that specific question. that might not address your question. I mean, we we asked for particular feedback about their experience of what they could hear um and and what it sounded like. So, that was one layer of feedback. Um I I believe there were some conversations at the building as well after that and kind of debriefed

062to talk about like what had happened. Um and I I yeah, and I would say that it's not a bad question. I think we attended the staff meeting, so I feel like many staff came up afterwards, but um I would I'm happy to send something out too. I want definitely to hear from staff and hope they feel comfortable telling us. >> Sure. >> Well, thank you for sharing all the timelines and all the things. I know smart point dates get a little confusing in there, but um I think you just said this, but how long has this specific panic alarm system been in place? Like what is the the timeline for the >> the panic alarm uh came in? Two summers ago. two summers ago. Um the connection to the intercom was this summer. >>

063Okay. So those were the shifts that were made over time. I knew that we talked about these >> the panic alarms came the same year as the door propping and we we had done a lot of different things. That was all in that that one summer. >> Okay. And then were changes also made at Fair View Lions Park in Westbrook based on what we learned at Lincoln? >> Yes. So like those same thing about like the lights on the front, the tones and all that stuff has also been >> shifted to >> the tones and the length of the announcement. Yes. >> And are the lights going to be on >> well where they where they exist. So in the in each of the schools, Fair View, Westbrook, Alliance Park, um there are flashers in

064the gyms and multi-purpose room. Um and again different common spaces at Fairview and Westbrook. They're also in the hallways as well. Um, so yeah, in those situations that would still be the same. The flashers would go. >> Okay. So those changes were then made kind of districtwide as we learn more about what could be heard here and all that. >> The the the flashing with the clock is is kind of a built-in feature. So any any announcement whether it's locked in or not would was happening when that went off. >> But the tones and the extra time and all of that has been kind of done district. Okay. And then the student board members mentioned that they had gotten training in like the c and what to do in like the cafeteria and what to

065do when they're outside and kind of all those different spaces. Did that train same training also happen at Fairview Lions Park and Westbrook? >> I it's a great question. I'd have to check. I'm not sure. >> Okay. >> I I know we talked about it right away at Lincoln and so um but we haven't regrouped yet to to talk about the other schools. >> Okay. >> But that's next time. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? >> She has my question, so I'm good. >> Thanks. >> All right. Thank you very much for the thorough overview. I appreciate it. >> All right. Moving on to Westbrook and Lincoln construction bids. Mr. Keys. >> Excellent. Just stay up right up here. Um I want to introduce Well, first of all, we're just excited obviously um

066in this next stage um of the construction. It's been a lot of work. I do want to introduce we have some people here tonight. So Mike Henderson from STR who's been helping both um with Westbrook and Lincoln. Sandra Moon who is our go-to person for everything Lincoln um and really appreciate both their work at STR. And then Dave Torres from Nicholas and Associates um is here. And I'm going to invite actually Dave to come up and talk us a little bit through just the bid process. Right. >> Thank you Jason. Good evening. Well, for those of you that aren't familiar with our bid process, once documents are finalized by the STR team, we collectively at Nicholas package them into individual what we call bid packages. So for Westbrook, we have nine individual packages. For Lincoln,

067we had 10. Uh we issue a public adder notice. That's just part of the public process. and that goes out uh in published in the papers and then we host a mandatory pre-bid meeting. So for Westbrook, most of the information I think is in your guys board write up, but we had a great turnout at our pre-bid meetings for both Westbrook and for Lincoln uh invitations to bid that came out from our office on top of the public notice. We sent out about a hundred uh bid invitations to contractors. Um throughout the design process, I should say uh there was a lot of excitement building for your projects. Um, these are great projects with uh schedules that contractors really appreciate and like. So, you know, coming into the pre-bid meeting, I was not surprised at

068all by the numbers that uh we saw and the interest u that the contractors were taking in the project. So, on bid day, uh we had great coverage again amongst the various bid packages. Um I think at at Westbrook we had close to 50. Lincoln we had over 50 prime bid packages. uh as part of you know developing taking the plans and throughout the budgeting process you know we looked at where we were at budget-wise and kind of built in some what I'll call bid day flexibility with some alternates so as we're kind of talking through budget internally um you know these are things that we look at where you know if there are budget constraints we can kind of peel back a little bit so you know I think in your write up you've

069got a list of alternates uh but again based on where numbers came in at. Uh things were very favorable. Uh contractors bid very aggressively. So we were very excited about the turnout and uh yeah excited to be able to move forward uh with the bulk of the alternates as well. So in general it's a it's a great story to tell and we're very excited uh to get started at Lincoln first. Um and that's pretty much it. Any questions on the bidding process or just anything construction wise? >> You did kind of go with the like all the low bids were the ones that took and but you felt comfortable with all those companies that you you chose. You worked with them or experience with them? >> Yes. So after bid day for both Westbrook and

070Lincoln, we give oursel a little bit of buffer to kind of review all of the low biders and to confirm that they have the entire scope covered. So yes, everyone that's being recommended this evening, we've either done work with them personally, they've done work in the district, uh but yes, we had we have great contractors, so even our team is very excited uh to get these jobs kicked off. Thanks so much, Dave. Um, and so just to um kind of move into that unless there's questions about the bids and you can still ask them. Um, but to move into then that building brighter futures update. So, uh, we're excited, you know, our next step um is to, um, we have a groundbreaking at Lincoln on September 30th. So, next Tuesday after school, all invited uh

071starting at 3:15. Um should be just um a great opportunity to really celebrate all the work so far and start getting or continue to be excited about what's coming uh forward. Uh we know it's going to be tough. Um but I think um the silver lining at the end is is is great in the rainbow that's going to be there. So, um we anticipate that fencing will be going up then the following week, the week of October 6, I believe that is. Um and then we believe that con construction will really start then the week after um uh the week of October 13th. I am excited that you are going to see um the uh we have a video of the inside of Lincoln through a rendering. Um I want to thank STR for putting

072it together and Sandra wants me to make sure everybody knows that this is very preliminary. Um the furniture has not been chosen. So, any furniture you see is just um examples of what it could be in those spaces. Um but really want to just give you an opportunity to look at the video. I'm going to move out of the way maybe but maybe just can't see. Sorry. Because I was going to talk you I'm going to talk you through it a little bit. All right. Do you mind hitting it? Yes, please. Off to the side. So, uh, this is our new link coming up to the front door. Straight ahead would be the staircase. So, when students come in in the morning, they can go right in there, go up or go straight into the

073first floor, but this is coming into the secure vestibule in the front. Um, so there's opportunity for people to sit. And then as we walk into the office, we passed a conference room on the right. Um, and we're going to head into this is um, the common. So, the current Lincoln uh, has its nice commons in the front. This is obviously a nice bigger space that people can uh relax, hang out in. Um it's right outside of the cafeteria. Um a place where, you know, maybe clubs are meeting after school or groups are meeting and coming down. Uh if we went left, we would go towards band, choir, and orchestra. Straight here. Um on the right is the gymnasium. If we went straight, we'd go to like art and some of the tech classes, but

074we're going to go into our gym here. Um this gym can be divided into four bays. Um so we're excited about that. You can see that based on like where the basketball courts are. Um on the left uh behind us is a fitness room. So it's attached to the gym. Um and then there's locker rooms. Um those gray things against the wall. Those are the bleachers cubbies for kids to put their stuff as they're in gym class. We're going to head on out. I enjoy seeing all the different people and uh many on a cell phone for some reason. I'm not sure. >> And coffee. Yes, absolutely. Um we're going to head into the cafeteria. The cafeteria um you will see is set up uh seating for 300. So that was our goal. Um we

075don't have 300 in a class, but we want to obviously be ready. Um like I said, furniture has not been uh chosen, although uh circular tables is something that definitely came up during some of those student focus groups. You can see some built-ins against the right wall there. Um all the glass in the back leads out to like a little courtyard area um that kids can go out to. This is um I should say it's our cafeterium as it has the stage in here as well. Uh can convert into where we have concerts and different things. U food services is to the left and actually behind the wall behind us is uh the custodial area. So it's um obviously everything that we try to put together and with uh STR's help uh to make sure

076that there's just a nice flow to everything. So it makes sense that obviously the maintenance area is right behind the cafeteria. Um we're going to head back out of here. Um, slowly, nicely. I'm going to fill some time here. Nice cubbies here as we can put stuff in. Uh, as we go back outside, just a reminder that we're going to head down to the academic wing. The academic wing um is three floors, uh, one grade on each floor, and so we're going to head down just one wing, but it's they're all the same. Um, there are a total of 10 classrooms. Um, the 10th classroom can be divided into two uh, half classrooms if needed, so some flexibility. There's also three half classrooms, permanent half classrooms for uh special education or ML u multilingual learners.

077Um but as we walk down the hallway or glide down the hallway, I'd say uh we are going to head into one of the classrooms. One of the things that um was a real interest um to the staff was having some breakout rooms, breakout space. So you'll see here's a classroom and in the middle of the two classrooms is that breakout space that um a small group can go in and work. Um a student can finish a test, things like that. Um, we'll go in. So, there there's kind of like a shared space there. Come back out the classroom. Um, as we go back down the hall, at the end of each hall, our science room. So, we have two science labs at the end of each hall. Um, we're going to go in one

078of them. Um, and again, I'll remind you the furniture hasn't been chosen yet. Right before we get there, though, this is a team common. So, a great opportunity for, you know, students to hang out, for a class to come out and work, um, or just groups of students to come out and work. Here's our science lab. uh really having those lab stations around there. Obviously lots of sinks and lots of opportunity to do different labs. We're gonna in a second jump up to the second floor. So we just flew um and just see the library up here. So down that hall there lots of offices for social work, speech um psychologist. But as we go into the library, that big space is actually a wall that does go up. it opens up um and you

079can see um just a really nice big space that has multiple opportunities for different classes to work at the same time. Um all the furniture will although we haven't chosen it yet would be pretty flexible so we can move things around and really open it up if we want big groups to be in there. You can see two breakout rooms back there with, you know, the idea for green green space. Um, yeah, green walls. Um, and then there's some different offices to the left. Um, but just a really exciting time. Um, so we didn't get to see every part, but uh really just a good idea of like what the interior of the building can look like. Questions about any? So just excited to start Lincoln Westbrook, just so you know. I mean, we we

080have some work that's going to get done winter break and spring break, you know, outside of of students being there. Um, but really the bulk of work with with Westbrook would start then next summer. >> Question. The new Lincoln is being designed with what capacity >> 850 >> current question mark, >> sorry, >> does that sound right? >> I'm looking back >> about there. >> the I know one concern was like that all the students couldn't be in one space at the same time. Can they all fit in that auditorium space? >> The gym. >> In the gymnasium. Yes. >> The auditorium space. They can't all be where they can watch on stage, but they can all be >> the auditorium. you saw seating in there for 300. If we didn't have tables and chairs,

081there's obviously going to be more, but it's not going to be an entire school. Um, but the gymnasium, the bleachers by themselves right now hold 450, although we're talking about if we can get more. Um, but then but even with that, that the floor would hold enough and so for sure they can hold uh the entire student body. >> That's where like whole school assemblies. >> Whole school assemblies in the gym. Yep. And that's and we have projectors in there and so we can, you know, they can show presentations and do what they need. Yeah. Want to >> make sure we had that space. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> All right. Thank you. >> I had one more question. Y um so I noticed on the uh Lincoln bid packet that did not appear to be

082at least that we were recommending alternates four and seven. >> Correct. >> And I didn't know if that was if that was a budgetary choice or there was some other >> No. Yeah. So I think you know the alternates are there for a couple different reasons. Obviously, if bids were way over, we we had some flexibility, but it's also an opportunity for us to say this is something that maybe we'd want to do, but let's see what the cost is. And when the cost came back, they just weren't in the realm of what we would look at. So, so yes, in budgetary, but not because, you know, but I think we would just rather spend our money in a different way. >> Thank you, Dr. Case. >> All right, moving on to our summerbridge program

083report. Dr. Vonar. Thank you. And you should have a memo in your board packet. Uh last month I shared with you about our new summer enrichment pilot program which was very successful. Um and I shared that I would come back to you to talk about summer programming and our um kind of vision for Summerbridge moving forward. So I'll just give a brief overview and then I'd be happy to answer any questions. Um, Summerbridge really started for us in 2021 uh using ESSER funds. So, these were federal funds that were given to us um because of COVID. And um our program started uh through Zoom and then we moved to in-person learning. And then our program um we've been using ESER funds for the last few years and then this year we no longer have those

084funds. Um, and so really our goal was to to have summer enrichment to help offset some of the costs for summer bridge, but we wanted to get student feedback, staff feedback, um, also look at fall benchmarking data, attendance, uh, to really make recommendations moving forward. Um, last year when we had Summerbridge, we had 93 students who were invited and only 40 participated. And this year we had even fewer students. Um so we invited 40 students and only 27 students participated. Um we targeted our students who fall under tier three. Um so these are students who qualify for math and literacy support. Um we had a smaller number of students. I will say our our student feedback was overall pretty positive. Um staff feedback was was mixed. there was um they staff felt that students made

085progress. However, there was a lot of inconsistent attendance. Um and just to jump to that, so again, we only had 27 students. Our average daily attendance was 70% and then looking at students who missed three or more days, we were close to 50%. So, we had very um limited attendance. And then when we were taking a look at our fall benchmarking data, we could only look at 18 students just because some students moved away or we didn't have data from our first graders who were in the program. And there were really mixed results for our programming. Um we saw better achievement for our students in math compared to reading. But again, the summer bridge program was a uh program for students who were low in both math and reading. I will say when we highlighted

086the enrichment we did have several of our students who wanted to go to that program. Um so again attendance was even lower. Um and then looking at the financial analysis uh I shared with you that summer enrichment um we did uh ask for a fee for that programming and we were hoping that some of that would cover the expenses for summer bridge. We did find that we had um some students who dropped out of summer enrichment and then again our summerbridgeidge numbers were lower um and we decided to continue to run our summer enrichment program even though our um class sizes were a little bit lower than expected. Uh so it did cost um the district about $14,000 this year. Um and so moving forward based on all of that information, uh we would like

087to continue to offer Summerbridge, however, make some significant changes to that and really reducing um the time so that it is more targeted to students who are receiving math or reading support. So it's not just students who are receiving or who qualify um for both math and reading just to make it more targeted. We do want to maintain small class sizes for for that instruction. and keep the program invitation only to prioritize the students with the greatest needs. Continue to increase communication, make it earlier, um and really refine our reading especially because we saw those mixed results for fall benchmarking. Uh we do want to charge a program fee equal to summer en enrichment. Uh however, have waivers for families who are who um qualify for fee waivers. And again, we want to keep those

088class sizes small. So, we would blend some of our title one federal funding with enrichment revenue to help sustain those small class sizes. So, that um is what we would like to do moving forward for summer bridge. Might be happy to answer any questions. I just had a quick question about the funding. Uh, so I know you mentioned when we ran this program previously, we had ESER funds and I don't recall were those funds covering the entire cost of the program or was there any outlay at all by the district even with that grant? >> It covered the entire cost. >> Okay. So this was the first year that we had any expense. >> Yes. >> But then I know you mentioned the the cost of the enrichment program covered. >> We were hoping it

089would cover some of that. Um, and that was our plan. As we were looking at class lists, um, we had some families who dropped out due to family trips and things like that. And so our class sizes were lower than expected. We decided to continue to run it for this year, um, to see how it went. Uh, so we did incur costs this year. >> Okay, understood. Thank you. >> I think that's it. >> Thank you. Next, we're going to talk about the opening day professional development. >> Evening everybody. Good to see you. Uh Erin Wilkins, assistant director for professional learning. Um as always, Kristen and I like to talk to you about professional learning for the year. Um and you also have a memo for this in your board packet. Um I just want

090to give you a quick overview of it and then take any questions that you might have. Um opening days this year were um a great success. We made one structural shift that um that we were really banking on and I think really paid off. Um uh instead of taking uh cycles of trainings that we would typically do out to the buildings and then uh essentially interrupting building and collaboration time on that initial opening day. We brought the whole group together. We had a lovely breakfast. We got to see each other after the summer. Um Dr. Gore gave a a a fun and inspiring opening. And then by school, the rotations came to each of the groups. Um and that really saved a lot of time later in the week that folks um appreciate it. And

091those rotations include things that we do each year and we prioritize safety as you can see again in the memo. Um there are some state requirements that go along with that with like faith's law training. Um and then deescalation strategies um uh were another piece. Um so what that means then is that the rest of the day that's all on Monday. Um that means that the rest of Monday is uh collaboration time for folks uh with their teams back in the buildings. Um same thing for Tuesday and Wednesday. So our teachers are um engaging in meetings with one another uh team planning uh things that principles have planned for them of course as well. Um during that time um Mark Fior and Heather um Serno also went around and did some additional like work time

092with teachers that was uh very much appreciated. Um and they did that uh filling in where the buildings had time. So again, the the whole goal of all of it was to preserve that preparation time that we know our teachers need. Um, and the feedback was fantastic. 75% of our staff said that this was uh the best or among the best of our opening days. Um, and you can see a chart in the packet uh that we included for you. Um, those were the opening days. uh based on on that feedback that we've gotten um we plan to do the same thing next year um because it felt efficient and it also had that element of fun to get the year kicked off that we all enjoy. Um I would move on now to talking

093about professional learning for the year. uh for 202526 school year. Um you know we do as we always do uh uh professional learning uh its topics and our approaches um really are uh being inspired by a number of different areas. We've got curricular goals, we've got student needs and then we have the individual goals and and development needs of our staff. Um with that uh this year we are focusing on three main areas that still tap into the work that we've been doing along the way. So in terms of cultural responsiveness we are uh all engaging in a training called speak up. Um for differentiation we're working with the center for talent development out of northwestern um finding and fostering strengths. Um and then we are also doing a cycle that focuses on data and

094making data meaningful. So how do we look at map um uh AR the science assessment uh and then build that uh fast bridge as well and and then how do we how do we understand that data and how do we bring it down to classroom level work. Um all of these ideas um have been developed with our professional learning committee. Um you've got the list of folks who are involved in that. Uh we did a lot of work last year. Um and we've got some really great goals for this year ahead of us and we're excited about the content that I just outlined for you. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Nope. Thank you very much. >> It's a good Thanks folks. >> All right, move on to 6.6. The total compensation packages over 75,000

095report. So this is a standard um inclusion in in our um annual uh board agenda. So, this is something that um if you have any questions, Karen Schwarzwell, director of HR, is available, but it's pretty straightforward and consistent um with annual practices. Um as well is the administrator and teacher salary benefits report, which is also a complianced driven report that we're obligated to have board review and then posting on our website. So, if there are any questions, we're happy to answer, but they're pretty straightforward. So go right go right into Foya. All right. Um so you have your FOYA report as well in your board packet. District 57 received six foyer requests between August 21st, 2025 and September 19th, 2025. We have um set our responses and a detailed report is available for your review

096in the board packet. And this concludes the foyer report. >> Thank you Dr. Gore. Uh, moving on to the consent agenda. Can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? >> The bills. >> All of the bills. I'm so sorry. Representative or vice member, Vice President Choke, whoever you are. >> That's me. Yes, I did bills this month with Jason. Everything looked good. A lovely conversation about the fact that it was actually a fairly boring normal bill session. So, appreciate the conversation. >> All right. Thank you. And now, can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? >> Second. >> Member. >> Yes. >> Member Leto. >> Yes. >> Member Nelson. >> Yes. >> Vice President Cho. >> Yes. >> Member Dorner. >> Yes. >> Member Fay. >> Yes. >> President Ben. >>

097Yes. >> There we go. Um, we'll move on. We have uh our unfinished business is to approve the fiscal year 26 budget. Can I have a motion to approve the fiscal year 26 budget? >> Second. >> Member Leto. >> Yes. >> Member Nelson. >> Yes. >> Vice President Joe. >> Yes. >> Member Dorner. >> Yes. >> Member Fay. >> Yes. >> Member Kala. >> Yes. >> President Betty Hill. Yes. >> We now have a second opportunity for community comments if we have any members of the committee that would like to speak. Seeing none, we'll move on to new business. We're going to take some action approving the Westbrook and Lincoln construction bids. Can I have a motion to approve the Westbrook and Lincoln construction bids? >> So move. >> Member Nelson. >> Yes. >> Vice

098President Choke. >> Yes. >> Member Darner. >> Yes. >> Member Fay. >> Yes. >> Member. >> Yes. >> Member Leto. >> Yes. >> President Bale. >> Yes. [Applause] We're going to see you with a shovel right now. >> Couple strobe lights. >> I won't tell you. >> We got our shovels. >> That ground's going to freeze pretty soon. >> We're gonna work through it. >> Thanks for being here. All right, we're going to move on to board communications. Chris, can we have the NSSO report? >> Yes. Uh, so the NSSO governing board met uh Wednesday, September 3rd. Uh, on behalf of our board, I did vote no on whether to move the proposed articles of agreement forward. Uh, I was one of two districts that voted no. The other was district 59. However, it did

099pass 6 to2. Uh, and so as a result, the proposed articles are now officially moving forward to a through a 90day comment period. Uh, the goal that Dr. Schneer has is to try to collect any comments uh on the articles for review uh no later than October 15th. Uh, the request is to have those comments, suggestions uh to run through the uh governing board members. So, so through me. Uh districts are doing this differently by the way and we haven't I guess can here discuss how best to do this. Some districts are doing an entire committee of the whole meeting to discuss them as a group. I'm not proposing to do that. I am more than happy to collect comments, concerns, questions, and funnel that through the governing board for our discussion. I I will

100say because I do want to kind of hit on a couple of the concerns that I I think we had collectively and kind of where we stand on those because it is important. Uh but there were two main themes that I think came out of our discussion last month. The first was, you know, well, gee, uh, we just started or Dr. Schnore just started the superintendent council in May, right? So, only a few months ago. Why not allow that to to work to see if that will help close some of the perceived communication gaps that are out there? Um, we did talk about that at length and I subsequently had additional discussions with Dr. Schore on this and I think, you know, the point she's raised and I think it was a good one and

101I want to pass it on to all of you is that I I think there is some concern that yes that superintendence council is great to get additional feedback but wanting that feedback and those discussions to be in an open forum so that the stakeholders of that group can kind of hear what's being discussed right so when you have a operational board that is subject to rules such discussions have to be out in the open and there's an additional level of accountability there. Uh and I will acknowledge that's that's a fair point and and I think there's been some suggestions that you know I don't think for many of us or or from Dr. Gourd or our admin team that you know sometimes decisions are made and we're not really sure where they came from.

102So if having an OMA compliant operational board will help that then you know is that is that really a bad thing. So I I sort of understand that that point of view. The second topic that we discussed uh was that well if we are going to make decisions on how taxpayer dollars are spent those decisions must be made by the body that is directly accountable to the taxpayers. Right? And this is something that I will just say I have really been this is really my in my mind the strongest reason not to have a separate operational board that is making such decisions because I do not think that's something that the governing board the elected members of all the member district boards should be seeing right and and so again having some additional discussions with

103Dr. on that. I I will say that there is still a little bit of ambiguity as to exactly what this operational board is going to do. Um you know if you interpret the articles one way you might say well their job is to make recommendations to the governing board and the governing board can either follow those recommendations or not but they're really just making recommendations. Right? The other is that well there will be a subset of decisions made by the operational board uh that they will be empowered to make right and that could influence how taxpayer dollars are spent. And I think you know I and I think we would have an issue with that and so I think that you know as we've had this discussion that is probably more than anything else a

104topic that really needs to be fleshed out and not any ambiguity around whatsoever, right? And so, you know, as we go through this process of reviewing the articles, you know, I will say that that is something that I I'm going to insist on is that there is clarity on exactly what the proposed operational board will do and what they will not do and there cannot be ambiguity around it. So, um so that's the that's kind of where we are with this. Now, it did go forward The goal that Dr. Schneer has, which I think personally is is a little bit ambitious, is to have all of this wrapped up where the governing board would vote on the articles in December. I I personally don't see how as many I mean, you think of eight member

105district boards, seven members each. That's a lot of people include not and that doesn't include the admin teams who are going to be making comments and suggestions and you know if you've ever been a part of one of these documents getting put together it just it doesn't happen that fast right so all that said I think that's a good thing I don't think this is something that should be rushed through um NSSO is a really important organization to to us uh to me personally and I think we We need to make sure we go about this the right way and that we're doing what's best for the kids and that we're creating a situation where the co-op is functioning well uh but that we are not opening ourselves up for for potential concerns down the

106road. So with that uh questions, comments, thoughts, I'm certainly happy to hear them. uh there are strong opinions on on how to best approach the articles and what to do with them. I'm happy to hear that too. >> When's the next meeting? >> Yeah, but it's Wednesday, October 8th. So, we have uh what a little bit less than two weeks. >> Absolutely. Please do. >> No, I'm going to be meeting tomorrow afternoon to just try to provide some input about maybe trying to refine some of the supplementary documents that they had um begun to to put together. And I think, you know, just to reiterate the goal of clarity with all the amounts of people involved in this and just trying to keep refining the what and the communication, what this is, what this isn't,

107what's being proposed for feedback, what isn't being posted for feedback. I think that's been a real barrier to just this process because there's just still a lot of um some of which is to be expected, others to which probably just to quickly get um the conversations that need ahead. >> I was just say so the the process for getting you feedback, can we just review? So are we going to get a copy of the articles? >> You have a copy? >> No, I know. We can get them again just again. Sure. >> Yeah. Love them again. >> Um and then are we just emailing you the things that we I mean like what's that? >> Yeah. So, so I would prefer if possible a uh not a marked up version of the articles because then

108I'll get vers. Uh but if you could do it in a way where it's, you know, here's my comment page whatever clause whatever this is what I think or I don't like this or what does this mean? and kind of go about that way. And if I had a question, obviously if if by the way if any of you just don't necessarily want to write something out, but just hey Chris, what does this mean? Just let me know. >> Sound good? >> Sounds good. Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks, Chris. >> Oh, one more quick thing. Sorry. Harvest Fest. Some >> less uh some some lighter names, but Harvest Fest. So, everybody uh remembers Harvest Fest is at the Sunrise Lake facility. It's always a lot of fun. They've got literally a gigantic pile of leaves

109for kids to to roam in and pumpkin launching into the lake. Uh and lots of other fun hi space cleaning. Uh lots of good times. So, that is going to be on November 1st. I'll you all about that at our next meeting, but just put that on your calendars and make it if you can. >> Now, >> all right. Thanks, Chris. Uh, can we have the education foundation report? >> Uh, so they're actually meeting Sunday morning, uh, this coming Sunday morning. Um, I will not be there. If anybody wants to go to Keer and have, uh, you know, coffee with the Ed Foundation, um, feel free. I will be out of town. So just uh they keep changing the meeting and so that I just found this out yesterday. But um the two things though

110that they did want me to share. One is the public house event uh is on Saturday, October 4th. Um you've probably receiving a lot of emails about that. Um they are changing kind of changing it up. So it is a family event. So it's $50 for adults and $15 for kids. There will be games there, food, drinks included. Um, and the money is going into this grant cycle to support the innovative projects in the classroom. So, um, if you can make it on October 4th, I know they're excited for people to sign up. I'm happy to share the link if you don't have it in your email already. Uh, and then the tentative date for the gala is going to be on February 28th. Um, there is more information to come for sure. Uh they

111do think they're going to keep the casino uh kind of theme they've had for the last couple years, but potentially changing the venue. Um so lots more information to come there, but that is that and the public house event will probably what they're discussing on Sunday. So we'll have more information about that soon. >> Do you know what time? >> I believe it's 6:00 to 9. 5 to 6 to 9. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. What is the date of the um >> it is going to be right now February 28th. >> I will let you know if that changes, but that seems to be where they they've decided to move it up a little bit to see if that kind of gets out of some of the um >> yeah, out of the

112like baseball season and out of some of the the spring sports and all of those things. And then also um February is kind of a a tough month in Chicago. So they're hoping that this will bring a little light to your your tough month in in Chicago. Thanks, Jan. All right, PTO reports. Let's start with Westbrook. >> West was um it was a great meeting. I'm always so enthused and impressed with the energy that comes out of the uh PTO members. Uh this this meeting was an overview for the new PTO members of of the organization, how they start, what they're working on, um their fundraising uh goals. Uh they're one of the exciting things that they're looking to do, they're hoping to do would be a celebration of cultures like what the village had

113done. And so, um, Laura Degrroot was mentioning opportunities for, uh, PTO members to bring forth the their own culture, and she mentioned some some things that people could do. Doesn't necessarily have to be bringing food. It could be um, if you're Irish, Irish dancing. Um, I thought of you right away. thought, how can I get her? >> I used to do it a long long time ago. >> Um, and I think that was good. Um, the birthday books uh fund uh was increased and that was good. So, um, the uh sweet celebrations uh was a very positive uh new program last year and they're going to increase that. Um, let's see. Heather spoke about equity um that she has lots of training. So, she is on the equity committee. Jen is doing the LRC weekly

114schedule where parents, PTO members can come and read to either their children's classrooms or anybody's classrooms. Um I've done that in the past and it's and it's been fun. You know, you have them sitting in front of you. It's fun. Picture day will be on uh the 23rd. Uh October 3rd is a big day because that is the B fold. And so that's uh the day before uh Friday that they're off. So that will be fun. Discussion about uh parent square, how easy it is to use and maybe they should have uh the PTO directory on a separate parent square. that was a possibility. Um, trunk retreat, another very important event, um, will be uh, Saturday, October 1st, I believe. That doesn't sound right. And they're looking to have 24 to 25 cars and instead

115of having the people who are decorating their cars also provide the candy. They're looking for donations of candy. So that some people don't have to decorate their cars, they can give candy instead. And then the people decorating their cars and putting so much effort into that can relax about having to do both candy and um they mentioned staff appreciation week November 7th through the 14th. They did highlight the education foundation um uh fundraiser at public house and um encourage people to come. But there were I mean this was really good. There were one two there were five pages of print outs of what the PTO meeting is and what it does. It was just so organized. It was so so good. And I think that's it. You know, they're just so I I always feel

116so good when I when I when I'm there. They're just so enthusiastic and so um eager and so supportive. It was light otherwise sad things that are happening world. >> Thank you. Um fair please. >> Okay. Well, our meeting was a past Monday. Um we started a new thing called supportership instead of membership. So I we do I guess I think it all but part of it was for the kids um they sign they have and um part of it is where parents then if you do the supportership you can do um say your kid you rock happy birthday or things like that and then they're going to start ways like they do shout outs for $10. So way to make money not to spend anything. Um they have they were told that the village

117invited them for their arbor date in April 226. So the village will be giving care of tree and so they already have a location picked out for stuff. So don't think they have a tree yet. The thought I don't know what tree it is yet. Um but that will be coming in April 26. They have um they had their successful back to school night and back to school picnic. Fairview was also the winner of the Mount Prospect Library summer reading program. They had had it for several years and they kind of lost it, but they came back and they got it. And so the winners of the program get a school as their bonus. So it's very exciting. Um then they have their principal advisory council which they something. So, can't wait to see what

118they have this year. Um, they have a thing tonight here. Uh, they have their family reading night and bookings. Um, they had their special launch. Oh, they have tomorrow. So, it was good. Um, the next meeting is on Tuesday, October 7th. Thanks, Emy. Winespark. >> Um, so, uh, the Wines Park PTO meeting was on Monday, September 8th at Mrs. PB. Uh, there was a great turnout and a lot of enthusiasm. Uh, surprisingly, their new board members were voted in uh, unopposed. Um, and you managed to be voted into their position. So, that was always good to see. It's a real nailbiter. Um, so but yeah, there there's some definitely some new uh board members of the PTO, which I think is always fantastic to see new people get involved. Um, just a few highlights from

119the meeting. Uh, we talked about the our the first parents night out event is coming up on Thursday, October 9th from 79 from 7 to 9:00 p.m. at Kinopoly. Um, so there's information out about that that has been going out from the PTO. So an opportunity parents just to get together and socialize with each other. Um, and uh, the Roaring Run, which is Lions Park's largest fundraiser for the PTO, is tomorrow, Friday, September 26. So, uh, if there's any parents or families out there going to be getting some last minute um, donations in. There's still certainly time to do so. Uh, but it looks like the weather's going to be beautiful and, uh, the kids are going to have a great time. Uh, one of the other things that was talked about was second grade

120connections. So, I know that's something that has existed and I think this year, uh, the PTO added some additional events not only prior to the start of the school year, but also, uh, some ones early on in the school year where they were putting on opportunities for all the, you know, second new, uh, second grade students to get together, kind of meet each other and stuff like that. So, I thought that was a great idea. Um, the last thing I will give another shout out to Parent Square because it definitely came up was uh, Lions Park has traditionally done pizza Fridays throughout the school year, but prior to the school year, it had always been where you had to kind of register one month or a couple months at a time throughout the entire school

121year. This time uh they did something where they said basically you can buy the entire school year worth of pizza Fridays at the beginning of the school year very well received by parents to not have to remember to do this every single month and again being able to do it directly through parent square and I think will uh and I think uh the PTO member who's kind of oversees that program is talking about how they're definitely seeing a lot of parents take advantage of that opportunity to just kind of pay for it once and give it up for the whole city. So that was great. Uh and then finally their next meeting will be Monday, October 6th at >> uh Lincoln's PTO meeting was on September 15th and um I just had a couple takeaways

122from that. uh Principal Lararssson was in attendance and he talked about uh the principal advisory councils that he's um in the process of setting up for each grade. Uh I know he mentioned that um sort of at the inception of the program. The intention was to have the groups meet after school which started to become a problem with extracurricular activities. Um so they've shifted to a model of meeting during lunch so that more people can participate. I didn't even see you beyond the podium, so I'm repeating all of your words. Um, I thought that was a really great idea to just encourage uh, you know, consistent participation. And I also thought it was really exciting and a fun opportunity that the participants of the principal advisory councils will get to sort of staff the school

123store and uh, be in charge of scanning all those uh, lions bucks. So, I thought that was super exciting. Uh there was also a conversation at the PTO meeting about uh just soliciting ideas perhaps for the eighth grade endofear experience. I think traditionally for many of us even those of us who are very far removed from 8th grade the uh the field trip has been to uh Six Flags and apparently maybe that's not what cool kids do anymore. So uh there seems to be a drop in interest or in attendance to that event. Um, so there was some conversation about um, you know, changing that up and what would that look like and um, just preliminary preliminary maybe seeking some input about that. And then I was trying to find out about the color run

124and maybe Principal Larson, you can help me out. I it's it's >> it's on uh, it's October 1st. >> October 1st. Okay. Um, so that was a big part of the conversation at the meeting as well, sort of planning and preparing for that. Um, and similar to what Ray mentioned, this is the PTO's biggest fundraiser of the year, this event. Um, I did happen to see the good news that they have already hit their fundraising goal for that event. And so, of course, we want to see them surpass it and surpass it beyond even um, what they might otherwise expect or hope for. So, if there are those who haven't signed up, such as myself, um you might want to go ahead and do that. Um and then the next meeting is October 20th, uh

125which will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Lincoln LRC. Thanks, Kim. Uh board president report. So, as we heard a little bit earlier, the Lincoln Middle School groundbreaking is on September 30th at 3:15. Very excited to be there. Everybody gets to wear their t-shirts. Um, our October 2nd 10th meeting is not needed, so that'll be cancelled. Um, prior to the October 16th regular business meeting, the board will be in close session for an IASB governance workshop. And there are also two events coming up. One is an Edra lunchon on October 20th and the other is a IASB division dinner which is on October 2nd. And um, it was pointed out to me that we missed >> 22nd. Sorry, 202. There's one, too. Um, it was pointing out to me that we missed a recognition

126that we missed a Hey. Hey. Um, the our school board was um honored by ISB received the school board governance award, which is awarded to I think only 42 school districts out of the hundreds that are in the state of Illinois. and um we were thrilled to be nominated and also also um to receive this honor. I don't know if you have anything you want to say, Mary. >> Well, first of all, I want to credit the lovely Heather Solo who is filling in for the lovely Rea Flack tonight, um who did a beautiful job compiling all of the um the words to, you know, submit this award. But I would also say that it was quite easy. It what was challenging I think about it was to stay within the word limit because this

127is such an accomplished board that at times we had to say we just can't fit all things that they do in and it felt kind of limiting. So maybe we need to shoot for a national word next um that doesn't have a word count. But anyways, we were not at all surprised to see that this was the decision they made and that you had this honor. It truly it was a no-brainer to us that this was needed and we were not at all surprised. Wouldn't you agree? >> I'm completely for two years in a couple years >> and we will. >> All right. Thank you. I just wanted to take a moment to mention that as I understand it um the the term of the award was sort of the the school year leading up

128into this year which means that unfortunately our board member Ammeritus Vicky Chong was not properly acknowledged in the photo in the coverage in the will. So yes. Yes. So just wanted to call that out to the public that you know we we still very much honor her contributions to our board and um are so proud of her success now as she's moved on from us to uh to 214. So thanks Kim. Um we don't have anything for board discussion. Uh suggestions for future meetings. Does anybody have anything they would like to propose? I was going to propose um maybe discussing having more um input or more something from our school board me our school student school board members. like tonight just for an example with the presentation with the panic alarm and what happened at

129Lincoln and presentations at New Lincoln. It would been nice if they had any questions and that maybe could start something else to think about. So I mean I think it would be great especially if there are certain um presentations that we have that kind of directly affect them all but something that >> you know to hear their kind of input something that they would know about and could actually >> give us advice on I would like to speak and I think that I mean I think that's a great suggestion. I think that even last spring when um Sarah and you know the student meeting and I think just trying to have a more regular practice of their input and reviewing of presentations. I I think I agree even tonight just I'm really trying to push

130them especially our eighth grade members to really stretch themselves and to um speak about their experiences and I know right reiterated that today just how much there's an to really let them speak from the heart and not be um so you know no one's expecting perfection. So um to be prepared to have kind of presentation but also to speak freely and and be um respected for their experience because that really was the desire of this board in this program. So I think I can do things on my end to support that without it requiring them to stay sometimes as late as some of those conversations happen and you know try to find a how we balance between their time and their um priority of like rest and homework and all the things they do but

131also maybe frontload things like I know tonight you'll be talking later about this we wanted to share some thoughts about X you know preview the presentation that you're going to be hearing we compiled some notes about it so or that I can potentially be ready to speak on to say what they shared about things. So I think we'll I definitely am open to continuing to to integrate that more. >> Thanks Amy. >> Go ahead. >> Sorry. >> I I just had a question and now I do. Um it occurred to me coming in that we typically um have a conversation around this time about community engagement. Um you know years past we usually do two sort of events where we will meet with the public and discuss a particular topic whatever that looks like. I

132know last year with the referendum a lot of that, you know, we sort of deferred our community engagement or it was driven, you know, with the end of um educating about that, but I wasn't sure where we landed on this year. I know obviously we're still busy educating in some capacity, right? Talking about what's actually going to happen, what these buildings are going to look like. So, I wasn't sure if that was something we were going to pursue again. And if so, that's, you know, we typically have that, I think, around this time of year and then again in the spring. So, I just wanted to bring that up. >> Thanks, K. >> Chris. >> Oh, uh, yes. This is going back to the student topic. I I like your idea, I think. It's great.

133I I also just wonder I think the the student board members we've had are amazing students and people. Is there should we be talking about maybe a little bit more just amongst ourselves? What do we really want to get out of this program? What are the what will success look like? How will we know that we have really developed a a best-in-class student board program so that you know Dr. War can nominate us? I I don't know that we've ever really had that discussion and I'd like to I think if we're going to talk about the student board member program, I'd like to get an answer. What What do we really want? >> Thanks, Chris. >> I would second that just because I have the microphone again. Um >> I you know and not to

134dive into it now but you I understand we approached that um the implementation of that program really thoughtfully and intentionally. I do think that piece of the conversation was missing in terms of course not just what what do we as a board hope to get out of it but what are we hoping to impart to the students? What are we hoping that this experience will be like for them? I think we had sort of a general idea maybe and certainly now that we're in our second year of it, it would probably be good to focus in and you know decide how to shape that more um more intentionally. >> All right, cool. Um I do have one thing to add. I would like us to um talk about increasing our liaison assignments to include local

135state representatives and other municipal organizations. Um, I think that might dovetail nicely with Pam's uh desire to talk about participating with other community organizations as well. So, I wanted to just put that out there as well. It's exciting to look at all these ideas. All right. Yes, ma'am. I don't know if this is appropriate to say here, but I did the second of the two-part training for the coalition for immigrant and refugee rights for the court and So that's my that's that's one of the things I can do for my community. >> All right. Thank you, Pam. >> All right. So, moving on. We don't have any need for close session. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So, move. >> Vice President Choke. >> Yes. >> Member Darter. >> Yes. Member Fay. >>

136Yes. >> Member Kal. Yes. Member Leto. Member Nelson. >> Yes. >> President.