001All right. Prairie Hill Community Consolidated School District number 133, Winnebago County regular meeting. Regular meeting. All right. Uh Will Brook Middle School. Today is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025. And it is 6:34 p.m. >> Mr. Alener >> here. Mrs. Anderson >> here. >> Mr. Chuckman. Mrs. Finnean >> here. >> Mr. Keller >> here. >> Mr. Lewis >> here. would please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [clears throat] >> all right we like to start with the fun stuff around here hill this week is the phs helping hands crew. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Welcome everybody. It's good to see such a good representation from PHS. A new
002club that started this year um is our helping hands crew. Um Mrs. Kentner and Mrs. Jenkins, could you please join me up here, please? our lab and one of our RTI teachers decided, you know what, the want to get the students involved in making the physical building and the space more an ownership with all of um of our students. So, I'm going to turn it over to them, but you are the first recipients right now of our cult. here. Tell us about what you've been doing. >> So, we just noticed that there was a lot of room for improvement at Prairie Hill, just some spots that needed a little touch of students. So, we thought it would be really great to have a club where kids can be either working outside or just getting together
003and collaborating. And it's really cute to see the ideas that they come up with and how hard they work and see the effort they put into it. And it's been a really fun. >> I noticed with my own kids that once they started taking ownership of things like around the things like that, I felt like they were more like into helping and showing off their work. And so I feel like our students are taking ownership over, you know, our shared spaces and decorating the front. And I feel like a lot of kids notice like when they walk in the lobby and they see the new decorations. And I heard some of our helping hands crew kids be like, "I did I did that." Yeah. So I feel like they're really proud of the work that
004they've done. We're really proud of that, too. So, thank you, kids. >> Thank you. >> Nice job. >> So, we have these really nice certificates for you. Um, so when I we call your name, come on up. If you would just stay up here, we're going to take a nice big group photo and in my next periodical, we'll put that photo in. Okay. Is Thomas here? >> All right. >> Here [laughter] are Back up. Gio. Oh go >> here. >> Maverick >> Landon here. >> No. >> Owen. Austin >> Livia [clears throat] Emma here. Emma, [laughter] >> Asher, Elijah, Oen. Amelia >> and I believe we have everybody. >> Well, we're gonna call Dylan and Quinn up, too. [laughter] Mrs. Thompson is setting aside. We have this really nice background. Almost there. Thank you for
005>> We'll move these chairs. Let's make a line. Parents, I'm going to take a photo as well, but if you would like to come on over here, families will take a picture of the whole crew. >> Jackie, it won't show, >> right? >> They're gonna cover it up. >> I have third and fourth graders like scrubbing. Raiders. >> All right. And then everybody else right in the middle. >> Christina. >> When did Liv cut cut her hair? >> I think they'll be okay. >> Two days ago. >> It's very cute. >> Sassy Bob. I hope that everybody. >> All right, we want to see those straight up. Straight up. >> All right. >> You want to get one of the One, two, three. >> All right. Stay there for parents. Stay there. >> You can't
006be there. [laughter] Thank you. >> Thank you guys. Thank you for bringing your bite. Not that they've ever since Oh, you don't have a touch. I'm just used to like the housing one. >> I know. >> Okay, moving on. Basketball lost for anybody who didn't hear. >> No. overtime. >> Over time on the buzzer beater, >> I am glad I didn't run back out there to see you just in case again because I already thought they lost one. [laughter] >> Okay. >> As soon as you left the building, they started coming back and maybe consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve the October regular meeting minutes. October committee meeting minutes. November bills totaling $137,99127. November payroll totaling $260,114.91 the November treasures report and the student activity fund >> motion to approve second >> Mer
007>> yes >> Mrs. Zishide >> yes [clears throat] >> Mrs. Finnean >> yes >> Mr. Keller >> abstain >> Mrs. Anderson >> yes >> Mr. Lewis. >> Yes. >> Right. Administrative reports. >> Again, thank you uh to Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Kentner and the helping hands crew for beautifying the school. If you hadn't seen it, they did a kind of a fall decorating in October. The project they worked on this month is the um thankful trees. So, they've had they put hung some tree like uh they they made trees in the main lobby if you were at parent teacher conferences. Um they're up. I think they're still working on it, but each student got a leaf and they're writing something they're thankful for and they're posting it all over these trees. So, that is their
008theme for November. Um, and they're it's doing a really nice job. The kids seem to be really engaged and really like how that how [clears throat] that's been building. Um, on that note, parent teacher conferences are going well. We had our first uh set of conferences last Thursday. Pick a time is uh working well. We'll finish up tomorrow with our second uh and second round of conferences. Special shout out and thank you to the PSA and all the parents and families for volunteering to bring food items for the staff. Um Mrs. Garza, our library parah, thank you for working hard to set up and run the book fair. It opened up on Thursday um Thursday night and then it has only been open [clears throat] Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And she just reported to me
009she's already done 6,000 in sales. Um so we'll get a better total uh when it's all said and done after tomorrow. Um, it works out well. I won't steal your thunder, Miss Samantha, but thank you to the students in the community for their generous donations for the food drive. The particip the participation has been great. We had two pickups. We had one last week for food and another is tomorrow. Um, there we've been donating pallets of food. Pallets of food. Thank you to Miss Dawson for setting it up and Miss Shannon for helping organize and count. Um, I was going to tell you the total, but she's here to tell us how much food our our school collected. >> Our first pickup was 2,250 pounds. Um, and our next pickup is for tomorrow. Um, and
010this pickup is looking a little bit bigger than that. So, we have over two tons of food we've got donated. >> Awesome. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah, >> believe it or not, we were just talking about it. PJ Reading Night is December 3rd, which is only five school days away. So, just a heads up, we're looking forward to that event. Five school days, PJ reading night. So, if anybody can make it, I think you have a cow. So, yeah, we'll be there. Um, our music classes have been working hard. Uh, Mrs. Allen, shout out to her. Thank you. We have our winter concert uh 3 weeks from today on December 10th here at the middle school. Kindergarten and first grade will be at 5:45 and our second and third grade will be at
011700 p.m. Um if you have students in that level, Mrs. Allen will be communicating with you more specifically about drop off and times and things like that. Uh personally, thank you Mr. Sic for covering for me last week when I attended an LEA training. Um it was valuable and it needed training for me uh personally as an admin. So, thank you, Professor Sizzy. And um shout out to the middle school. >> I love the marquee. >> Oh, do. >> Oh, it's like a fun joke. >> I love it. Every time I come here, I see some funny quote or some funny line in here and you know, >> probably tell you all of them. >> Who was responsible for the great >> is this? It's kind of a co I think Chris and I started
012by thinking one and then now that people in the building we catch a little different ones they'll share them with us. So >> the girls were saying like the science teacher did one the math teacher did one we pulled up they're like it is like all girls >> you're not playing the right music in the car. I get more. >> Well, I may have participated a little in help with one, but [snorts] >> you're with like a two two. >> Yeah. >> I like the one like be thankful, be impressed with your parents because they got through school without Google. >> Yes. >> That's like >> I actually took a picture of that. I stopped in the lineup in the morning. It's >> Yeah. I mean, so kudos. >> Pretty similar to like >> I'm
013sorry. Isn't Pretty Love a similar? >> We have a digital one. >> Digital, >> right? So, you have >> I know now >> better capabilities. Mr. Carter, have you ever seen those like >> nine wars? >> Yeah. >> Dairy Queen. >> Yes. >> I think this I mean they're >> great. >> I think there's a board level expectation now. I will say it makes morning drop off like I laugh almost everyone >> and yes for that reason >> and I've seen several parents like staff get out of their car and take pictures. >> Oh really? >> Yes. >> It's a thing. >> It might have started actually because [snorts] can't remember what my first day of school shirt said. maybe something like throw happy to be back or something like that and I think then
014we might put that on and then it just >> I thoroughly enjoyed it. So >> you should uh do some sort of incentive and have the kids think of >> that. I mean subs are >> um just on final note to see each other again uh until December. So happy Thanksgiving to all of you and hopefully you have time to enjoy with your family and friends. >> Thank you. >> I triple dog dare you to put up a giant six seven. It's one about reading something about like the essential number of minutes to read or hours to read or something. It's six like six, seven, I actually have a >> that they quit saying it now because um the parents and the teachers say it now >> and I saw show. They're like, "People, if
015you want your kids to quit saying it, adults start saying it and it works." And now the girls are like, "It's not funny anymore. Quit saying it." >> Do you guys know a running count of what day of the school year it is? Like, >> yeah. >> Well, 50ish. Got to be in the low 60s. >> So, you're approaching 67. >> 67. I believe the sick birthday is December 1st and there has been some chatter >> there's been some chatter in the building about what that day might >> Yeah. I I am married to an elementary principal who realized too late today that it was their 67th day of school and he very much missed the boat on that one. >> Did he get flag for that? Um he just found out that other principles
016had done something and then he like >> thanks for that foundation Mr. Carter. >> All right. I feel like we've had a lot in the music department which I mentioned the participants at about our last board game that was this past weekend. Um had the choir come over today and sing. I think it's really cool to see like where they're going. Um we have our concerts this December. On the 17th is the band concert and on the 18th is the choir concert. Those are always really an impressive show to meet both and kiddos. Um we had our annual evacuation drill last week um where the South Point Police Department came out. We ran a couple different scenarios after the kids watch video and what they could do during the time to ever leave or the
017building. Um they go over kind of how to barricade if that were to be the situation and then think about all those exits and places they could go um if they were to run. What was nice about that is in on our first bleed blue day in October Ryan County to walk them all to our like reification site which is out back at the Keller's property back there. Well, no Santo property but Justin there too. Um so it's just kind of nice for everybody actually walked through the woods see where it is and where to go if they should ever need to. Um we as well started a food drive just this I think it's been this week for the Salvation Army uh grade levels are communicating against women spell sheets we are not having
018as much success in the elementary school so middle school it's a little bit harder to get them to remember those things work it trying um eighth grade took their preac today which is their test high school um and fifth grade went to Milton House today for a field trip that they will go again tomorrow. They split to two of them about um our science department, a couple of them actually went over to the high school that last week or two weeks ago, right? >> last week. They got to sit in on some freshman science courses and kind of see what that looks like. so we can see how to bring some of that back down into our middle school to prepare them a little bit better for high school. Um, and then also speaking on
019that note, um, those of you who have eighth grade parents will have heard this. um through communication I've said but just so everybody knows um every year I would say I have a a handful of parents reach out to me once their kids enter high school and they talk about how much they love their academic experience here they feel that their their child is really not ready for that traditional grading system and like what it does to their what it can do positively or what it can do negatively to their grades. Um, so we still very much believe in the standards philosophy and our goal is to have students reach a grade level expectation by the time they're done with a scalar topic or a particular standard. But we are incorporating in two content areas,
020math being one of them and social studies being the other and traditional grading component. Um, so we're not getting rid of standardsbased but we're having basically two grade books in teacher. So, one will show the standard scores and how they're lining up with their assessments. And the other one will show that traditional um the different categories and weights. So, kids can see like, oh, when I'm not doing a homework and it's plugged in as a zero, what it does for my dog is the best what it does for um they're not necessarily correlated like a three isn't going to necessarily equal an A, but it's to give kids and parents that feel of what it does and give them some practice on how that works before they go to high school. Um so that is
021starting this trimester and next trimester. Um but again it will be an only math kind of easiest to do in math to be honest because it's you know based essentially um in social studies and then um the other classes might talk about it like hey you didn't do this remember it would be a zero or hey like let's pretend this is a grade here's what it would look like. Um but they're not going to report out on it. They're going to report out into situations. So communication went out about that guest together. So um that that should be good to see and hear. >> I have cases and cases of food in the back of my car. It's coming tomorrow. >> Hit the Aldi the other day. >> Not 2000 pounds. All right, Mr. Cynthic.
022>> Yeah, just a couple things. Um, really excited about Craig's new club, the healthy hands. Appreciate that and excited investing in the building there. Um, and then just a couple things real quick. Uh, we talked a little bit about the Illinois report card uh at the cow and uh Jackie and Craig will give presentations on that. um got a little bit more information that we can break down a little bit more with them, but uh at the December board meeting, they'll get some information about that. So again, commendable on both schools, nothing to not be happy about. I know we want to be, but commendable is definitely fantastic. And uh so they'll give some some thoughts on that and uh a little more background. And then just one really big shout out. Um, so the
023uh US News and World Report came out and uh just wanted to let everybody know that Prairie Hill was number 78 out of 3,4717 elementary schools uh making them top 2.28% in the state of Illinois and Willowbrook was number 37 uh out of 2574 at 1.43% in the state of Illinois. Well, while the report card says we're commendable, really good. Uh, and we, uh, we love to be able to, you know, sing the praises to the staff and and all the things that they're doing for the kids. So, thank you very much. We really appreciate that and we keep that going. [clears throat] That's all I got down. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Committee reports information. Um, building and finance. Anything that needs to be brought up or discussed that's not necessarily on the agenda.
024I think I already talked about what's on >> um so tonight I have on there a motion to approve place the county school silly sales tax referendum on the March ballot. Um as you probably saw Rockford passed last night. Um, and again, this is not the district saying they support or don't support. It's just that we want to put the 1% sales tax resolution on the referendum in March and let the voters decide if uh they want to approve that or not. And if you remember, um those are that 1% would go towards uh bigger projects like uh HVAC or parking lots or something along those lines. elves um also with uh some possible tax relief for our community as well. So, a lot of different things that we could do. Um again, it's just
025something that uh tonight you just voting put on the ballot or not and then voters will decide if they want to accept that once we're signed countywide sales tax. >> And then just so since you did say Rockford voted on it last night, I understand it correctly that it will be on the it will be on the ballot to be voted on correct whether we vote for it or not today. Correct. because that bird holds all the population ultimately. Yep. Okay. >> So that was one of the questions I had. So then do we even have >> I mean it's on there. >> It's on there. >> Yeah. I mean at this point we're just recognizing that it's happening in the way [snorts] I look at it. Um because again because 205 folds all the
026population or once we as long as they passed it was a for us just a announcement of it more than anything I feel like and that maybe community members might know about it before they show up to you know to vote and maybe do a little research before they vote too >> and and there will be information that goes out before that. >> For sure. I imagine to emailing as well. [laughter] >> I thought the email was good. >> Yeah, >> this was what you sent out. Yes. >> Y. >> All right. Uh, I will entertain a motion to approve a resolution to place the county school facility sales tax referendum on the March 2026 ballot. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Keller. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lewis. Yes, >> Miss Sombcker. >> Yes,
027>> Mrs. Finnean. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Sid. >> Mrs. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Education and transportation. Any discussions? >> I don't think we have anything. >> Okay. Policy section five review. Is that anything um for tonight or we going to talk? >> No, there wasn't wasn't anything that we needed for first reading. I will be looking into that job description. We have press to look at next committee of the whole meeting. [snorts] Okay. Uh foiler request. No fer. All right. This time I'll entertain a motion to enter executive session um to discuss appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees to C1. Sorry, that's it. Something was highlighted two seconds ago and it disappeared. As obvious as I enjoy