001especially in dance. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance to 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. Can't see that. No. No. Charles here. Gorson here. Moons here. And tire here. We're six tonight. Thank you. Um, perfect. Thank you. All righty. So, two more. I think this one and then the May meeting. Um, we are smack dab kind of right in the middle of the semester here. We've got quite a couple weeks left. The seniors are obviously looking forward to our bit of celebration. We'll have prom this weekend and then we'll have senior sunrise next week. So, that'll be nice for all of us to get together out in the stadium and kind of
002showcase to the world, if you will, where we're going. Um, and then we'll have more celebration along the way with athletics. So, it's kind of a celebratory transitionary month between here, April and May. So, starting off with our big community- based event, we held our annual kilometers for Africa event. It used to be named kilometers for Kenya. It's now named kilometers for Africa. And the National Honor Society puts that on as one of their big second semester events. Um it also works as more of a fundraising event, right? And then that money is sent off to um countries in Africa through the uh Angaza center which is what we actively use um as sort of our way of liazisoning between the countries and us um to provide more technological access. So we are, you know,
003giving them technology. We're giving them computers, laptops, phones to try to increase digital literacy in that region. Um, we had over 260 students run laps. That's a lot of students, especially those who are involved in track and field and cross country, really enjoyed this because this is something they do, I guess, on a daily basis. Um, we even had one team run, I think, close to 70 laps. They raised $540. So that was really fun. You know, it's physical, it's active, but we're also raising money for a really good cause. And a lot of these students, I think it was humbling a little bit to get out there with their teams and then recognize how big a lap around that track kind of is. And so, some were able to make it 70, others made
004it about two or three, but you know, nonetheless, it was a fun fun event. And um it was it was really well put together by the National Honor Society. So, kudos to them. And then last week, we held our annual anti-racism and inclusivity week. So, the fire club, which is our fostering intercultural respect and empowerment club, worked with all of the other affinity and cultural clubs to put on various events throughout the entire week. Um, so there were performances, as you'll see. There was a food making event, there was an art show, and really students here were able to take part in various different things both throughout the school day and then after school and before school. There was just a lot of activities encompassing all the different divisions. um students were really able to
005take part in what they enjoyed and and find cultural connections to the things that they do on a daily basis. So, this was a really nice community building event um in the month of April to bring everybody together and celebrate our diversity. Career and academic wise, we've had a number of different academic and career clubs honestly kind of round out their season, if you will. um right up leading towards spring break, even into the first couple of weeks now that we've gotten back from spring break, we've had a lot of state competitions. And so on the bottom right, we had our HOSA club, which is our healthcare club. It's got a huge, huge showing. Um had their state competition at Springfield right before spring break. Um we had 10 finalists, 19 state champions, and 50
006students who qualified in their events within the top three. And so if you qualify within the top three, you then advance to nationals. So we've had over, I think, 50 students now qualify for nationals. And just to kind of give you a perspective on how big that is, that's just the the population of students who's qualified for state. There was also a regional before that. So that club has hundreds and hundreds, I think it's like close to 300 members at this point, maybe even more. It's one of our biggest clubs at Stevenson. Um, and it's just really nice for those students who are interested in the healthcare field to connect with healthcare professionals when they go on to nationals. Um, you know, they get networking opportunities that way. Many of them secure internships. So, it's
007just a great hands-on, you know, competitive environment for them. Then on the top left, we had our FBLA state competition. So, similar to HOSA, but for students who are involved in business, on the top left, we had 112 students compete and 51 as well qualified for nationals. So, similar to the healthcare field, the business field, we're we're well represented there as well. Um, and same thing with healthcare, right? They'll be able to get networking opportunities when they attend nationals. So, another huge club um for them. And then that national tournament or competition will be in Anaheim, California in the summer. On the top right, members of our sports broadcasting club traveled to the Marquee Network studios at Wrigley Field to sort of look at what professional sports networks do and how they process and how
008they work to do what they do. Um, and so I think that was really nice for students who obviously we know what our broadcasting teams do here for all of our events. They do an impeccable job. This was nice for them to see on a larger scale what it's like to do it for a professional sporting event. Um and then so yeah, those are the main events that we've had. And then on the bottom left, we had our uh 80 students from our computer programming 2 class um travel to the Google headquarters to learn more about from the students and alumni what they do there. And so again, scale, we have 80 students involved in a computer programming 2. We have multiple computer programming classes. Students who are involved in engineering and enjoy programming and
009computer science love that opportunity to see a real world experience of that. So, continuing off more career-based or academic raced ones. Um, we had our table tennis team on the top right, which was more ac more athletic and academic a little bit. Um, they traveled, we had two members travel for the Illinois, they represented team Illinois against the state of Wisconsin. They were the only two players from Stevenson that represented Illinois. Um, and they finished with a perfect record. So, congratulations to them. Um, the not surprised. I know. everywhere we go. We're now going across state lines, too. Um, on the bottom left, we had our science reach team, which is one of our science related clubs in addition to the science olympia team here at Stevenson. Competed a regional fair at Wheeling where they
010took home best school or the top high school award. And then on the bottom right, our entrepreneurial tactic classes hosted sort of a showcase event for the Stevenson school. Um, it was a trade show that they hosted before break. And so 19 student groups presented their ideas and I guess pitched them to younger students who came by during I think it was the lunch periods. And so that's nice for students who take that class. Obviously this is something younger students a lot of freshman sophomores saw and so now they may be interested in taking that class when they were juniors and seniors. So that was a great event for them. Athletic wise, um we're kind of in the full swing of things when it comes to spring athletics now. Obviously our teams are up and
011running. Um, this will be kind of the last bout, if you will, of athletics that we have before we graduate. Um, we've got boys water polo on the bottom left. We've got girls water polo water polo on the bottom right, which was undefeated last I checked. Um, we've got girls softball on the top right. That was their inaugural kind of home opener. Um, and then we have bad mitten on the top right, which defeated all of their opponents at a quadrang quadrangular event that they had hosted. They were also undefeated at that point. So, for our statesman spotlight this month, I have two stories. I've got one which is sort of the co-curricular fair and the planning that goes on with that. And then the second story is a photojournalism piece from our Stevenson Statesman
012crew that went out to see girls water polo and actually took photos of that. So, that was really cool. Um, and then the co-curricular piece kind of gives you more of an insight into the planning that it takes and what student activities and the National Honor Society does to put that entire event on. Um, that is one of the last events that our incoming freshman students have when they kind of work through their transition to Stevenson. They've now picked their courses. They've met with the divisions. They've u done course selection fully and now they've been able to see what all of our clubs are like. So, it's a it's a jam-packed night the co-curricular here. You got a bunch of parents and students in there. But it's really nice for us, especially as seniors, in
013many of these clubs, to kind of showcase what why we enjoy the clubs that we do. Um, and hopefully convince future students and students to join them as well in August. So, up and coming, we've got our freshman wellness day tomorrow that'll be put on while the sophomores are PAC testing. And so, that's a nice event for all the freshmen to come together and continue to build that spirit of community. I think it's really cool that we have that event. Second semester, we'll have prom this weekend. and the seniors are excited about that. We'll have our uh SASA showcase. So, the South Asian Student Association will host a showcase event with dance and food. Next week, we'll have senior sunrise that Thursday. Um our Polish club will host a Polish community night with fun games
014and dance. Um as well, we'll have a spring dance concert next weekend. I know the dance division's behind us, so look at that. Um we'll have a choir a a choir concert the following week as well as a music production showcase. So those of our students who are involved in choir, orchestra, band, music production uh courses are still busy at work. Um there's still plays going on and so it's a lot for them to be balancing their academics with also their um interest in these musical productions. So big credit to them. So that's all I got tonight. Next meeting will be my last meeting with you all. Um but I'm really excited for it. We still got one more left. Um and we'll be introducing the new student rep at that meeting as well. So
015thank you all. Thank you. [Applause] Actually, I I want to supplement your report. Okay. This is weird. Um, we went to uh we have a neighbor that we went to breakfast with recently. I'm not going to say what his name is, but he's a PhD in electrical engineering and he's been judging at science fairs for the last 20some years. Um, and this person is really talented. He one of the things he did in the past he was one of the senior people maintaining our nuclear arsenal in in Cynthia National Labs. Okay. So this guy's good. We hope we hope um I could tell you some stories he shared too. That's another name. Anyway, he was at the last regional science fair and he said that in looking at all the schools that were present that
016the quality of the Stevenson students was in his mind equivalent to graduate level work at a university compared to what the high school what the other schools are presenting. Yeah, it it was there wasn't even a comparison and to to have someone PhD just just you just said graduate he said masters you're right I wanted next time where we'll shoot for PhD but it was really uh he he made he went through a number of examples and discussed in greater detail but he was really impressed with the Stevenson students and I just wanted to share that with Thank you, Roger. Thank you. We have any visitor statements tonight. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, tonight um we have uh members of our fine arts division uh here to present on their uh seal work and I
017will let John uh introduce your team. Thank you for being here. All right. All right. Thank you everyone. I'm excited to introduce three outstanding educators from our uh dance team. We have Melinda Kriler, Angela D. Also dancers, you guys. Are we what? Are you Are you also dancers? You want to dance a little bit? Actually, be careful. I walked myself into that one about 20 minutes ago. So, let's just keep going. The answer is yes, we can. Um, so I said, uh, Melinda Crigglar, Angela Dolphin, and Tik Tan Clee. Uh, together they bring a ton of teaching experience and we're more, uh, more importantly, a deep commitment to student growth and creative expression. Tonight, they'll be sharing how our dance program is not only nurturing artistic techniques, but also building community, belonging, and agency through
018intentional environments and meaningful student relationships. Please join me in welcoming our dance team. And here is some photos. Do you wanna introduce yourselves at all with You just did it. Okay, there we go. Um, so the first thing we want to start off is just showing our dance pathway. These are the opportunities and choices students can make to take courses here at Stevenson High School. Um, dance is unique in a sense because we meet students where they are. So we have a very strong dance community both in the studio and competitive dance settings but not necessarily our consortium K8 school system. Um so we have students coming here with sometimes years and years and years of experience and some that have never stepped foot in a studio before. So we've always built a program where
019through uh course placement auditions students can take assessments and we can place them in the appropriate class. Uh you may recall students may uh elect to take dance in lie of PE while earning a fine arts credit on their transcript. That at least for our students it could be important for um college admission like SEC schools or even some colleges in in uh in some states specifically California. Um the dance one through four classes and contemporary are contemporary modern dance classes. Well then also we have jazz fusion which is more of like a hiphop musical theater jazz based class. Um and then ballet jazz which actually that's an old image that should be technical skills more for our advanced movers. Um, also an exceptional uh, leadership program for dance leaders. Initially modeled after the PE
020leader program where students um, interested in not only coming with experience, want to help others um, but really have some educational opportunities that can lead them into teaching dance outside in studios and maybe beyond music uh, dance education. What's really exciting for us being elective areas is that over the past three years from what you're going to hear from our dance team is how we're continually seeing numbers increase both from new students and retention and that's significant to the work that they're doing and trying to build bridges with our consortium schools where we don't have the ancestors. So, we're trying to get our foot in the door, trying to form relationships we can have good articulation to prepare our students to come to Stevenson and also operating operating or offering dance opportunities to students in
021PE just small segments, but at least so they'll know what to expect while they're here. So, with that, I will pass this over. Thank you. I have my notes. Um so um first off just wanted to share a little bit over the last two years in our rise training um our focus really has been on fostering a strong sense of community among our dancers. Um we've worked really hard to create classroom environments where students not only grow their dance technical skills but they're also feel a deep connection and belonging to the dance class and their peers in class. Um, we have really used the idea of intentional environments to cultivate classroom um, settings that prioritize the relationship building and student engagement by clearly defining what our course roles and responsibilities are. Um, consistent routines for
022our dancers. um implementing um structured peer-to-peer evaluations that help foster accountability and growth for our dancers through our class uh relationship standard. Um this is where students dancers are supported by building meaningful and inclusive relationships and developing their ability to collaborate um effectively with peers throughout their class. Thank you. Okay. So, in the school year of 2023, we're still coming out of those COVID years. And what we noticed that year is that we really need to reestablish student engagement. And we had to again start fostering a genuine appreciation of our art stance. And so last summer what we did is we um decided we were going to concentrate on the dance one curriculum. And so in doing that we aimed at emphasizing dance movement initially and then following that up with um redefining refining their
023technique and that's completely opposite of what we used to do. Yeah. We want them to know as much as they can technically so that then they can execute that movement. But um so we decided to reformat and restructure that the dance one program and that approach became known as just leap all right and that is because you know we'd give them some foundation so that they didn't hurt themselves but we're like just just try it just go and literally I was literally saying across leap leap just leave one foot to the other one foot to the other um and so what that did it kind of we had very posit positive results come out of that. Actually, we found that there were students who were um taking more risks. They were getting out of their
024comfort zones. They were supporting each other and having fun. You know, if they were not so worried about the technique of it because they, you know, their new learners dance one, they really didn't know quite what they were doing yet. But then if they got it, they were really excited. They were okay to fail and the other students were cheering them on. So, it really did have a positive impact on our classes and as you can see it um had positive results on our SPS survey as well. So, students really did start feeling that they were able to um you know, we're cultivating this type of environment as we've been saying within our um within our classes and they're supporting each other and so this is what we see happen from that. Um, and this
025is actually a plus because Oh, hey, look at the little thing you stuck. In case you in case you wanted to know the percentages. Okay. Um, all right. You I don't mind me. I sneak in little things. Adding things. Um so uh and again as John said you know in terms of retention we noticed that you know reestablishing this sense of belonging and um giving these students this form this supportive environment we noticed that they really started seeing the dance studio as their dance family. And so this is um historically we decline in student enrollment from freshman to sophomores because they usually have to take some of the required courses in their sophomore year. But um we see that they do come back to us now because they are feeling very much that we are
026the community their community. I think um one way we build student agency is through both teacherto student and studentto student feedback. So this is an example from dance 4 teaching unit. Students lead their peers through a dance class taking on the role of teacher and I take notes in the back documenting their successes maybe some areas of growth um and offering suggestions and then at the end of class they come over and meet with me. So this is an example of what notes look like after that. Um they're very eager to meet with me at the end of class because it it builds their enthusiasm. They take it really seriously. They take mentoring their peers um very seriously. It deepens the engagement and it helps them to better understand their peers as people and as
027learners. Um, additionally, we do something similar in dance one that, um, after students complete a flexible grouping type choreography project, uh, they provide feedback on their groupmates on a Google form. And the beginning of the Google form is a liykered scale using the success criteria of the class relationships rubric that you saw in an earlier slide, but it ends with a free response prompt where they can talk specifically about each person in their group. Now, you might expect most students would use this as an opportunity to tell the teacher maybe some negative things that happened in the group, but I have been surprised every single time that the majority of it, if not all of it, is positive and thoughtful feedback about their peers. And these are examples um of some of the notes that
028dance one students are writing about each other. And I believe that this kind of feedback is a direct result of the intentional relationships we're trying to build between them in our classroom from the first day of school on. Um this is from um our dance 4 uh teaching unit uh that first paragraph in the top. But our dance leaders also are helping us lead classes in dance one. And they're building agency by modeling movement and explaining how the movement is done and watching the success the observable success of their students and their peers. um many and I do have them do a reflection at the end of the unit. And this one I think is an example of pretty much what every student has said that when they begin to teach they realize that how
029they understand it in their mind and what works for them doesn't necessarily work for everyone and they have to constantly be thinking about the best way to approach it or the multiple ways to approach information so that it makes sense. And um one thing I say pretty repetitively repetitively in class is details matter. And that consistently came up that being really detailed and asking specifically for what you need or what you want seemed to be a really um big success criteria for them in working with their peers. Um, so in kind of wrapping all up this information back to the data, we've seen growth in from dance one through dance 4. You can see that we've grown in our classroom climate, our pedological effectiveness. Um, I believe if I press this again, I think it's
030going to say it goes up 12%. Yes, I was like, do I or don't I? Um, I do trust you now. Um, and what I really want to say about pedological effectiveness, because I feel like it's a little misleading when you read it, it seems like it has to do with what the teacher is doing, but a lot of the questions on the student voice survey are about how the student finds strategies to help themselves in class and how they are as learners. And so, the fact that that went up 12% when after they had to think about, well, how do I help my peers? How do I learn? How do they learn? How do I use the resources and get comfortable to talk to the other people to maybe help me? That that felt
031like such a big win for us. Yes. So, just leave. Y leave. We're not We're not going. We're not leaving. So, one of the best one of the best um experiences for us this year in building community in our classes was our New York dance trip. Um this trip was for um 26 students went with us. Um there were freshman through seniors that were on the trip. Um they got to take master classes. They got to go to see a musical. Um we did some sightseeing. They had to navigate the city of New York. um and work together. Um and there were two stories of students that we really wanted to share. One of which is Alexandra who is a freshman whose mom let us know that she initially did not want to go. She
032was scared she would have no friends. She wasn't going to know anybody and that seemed very daunting to her. Um after the trip her mother shared with us that she was inspired by the classes that she took and that more importantly she developed a whole new community of friends um and really loved the experience and was glad she did it after all. Um our second student is Karina and a Karina was a transfer student last year. She's an ML student. this is her senior year and we were walking from our hotel to one of our master classes and she talked with us and just said, you know, I didn't learn to speak English in my English class. I didn't learn to speak English in my science class or my math class. I learned to speak
033English in my dance class because it was required of me to interact with my peers talking about dance, which we all were there because we loved it. um but talking about the technique, talking about the composition, but then along the way you just start to talk to your friends and you meet people and you really start to learn and embrace the language. And that was for us like this really wonderful moment for her to share um because it really for her not being from here was a place that she developed community, a sense of belonging and really a love. And so that was like probably one of the best moments of our trip to have a student validate the importance of um what it means to be in our classes. And so um for us
034Oh, I have to get for us that was the best thing. These are some more pictures of them. We did have a very I have to share this part. We had a eight hour delay um in which I didn't couldn't find a photo but the dancers were amazing and hung out and there might have been some sidewalk electric sidewalk dancing um which entertained a lot of people and some rehearsals. Got the time. I'm like go rehearse. up, give them space and they will dance. So, we thank you so much for taking time um to give us to share with you. Are there any questions? First of all, it was great. Um I really enjoyed that. and the slide that you put up where they gave the feedback in the comments on the other I didn't
035have a chance to read through it real carefully but the little bit that I read you I mean it was so thoughtful it really is but one of the things that popped in my mind is standardsbased grading too it was like they were to me identifying the skills and saying how well they were being mastered and I'm just curious can you comment on how the and and the grading works together particularly in a class like dance I mean is this is it feed off of each other is it um complement each other is any thoughts definitely complements what we do because it's a in real time work it it complements the fine arts in general because you're constantly learning you're constantly trying to improve on what you're doing and so as you're learning it's your
036body is your instrument so You constantly have to give that feedback and then you know we do a lot of videoing in our classes. They have a lot of video portfolio. They have to look at themselves. You know you have to watch yourself dance and then you have to get that feedback. and the way our rubrics are set up, you know, to really um get detailed in terms of what it is they're being assessed on or even if it's in this case where they needed to just talk about the relationship versus talking about dance in general. So, it's it's a constant feedback. We we always are giving feedback and they're always asking questions like the way we pace the room, the way what we're asking of them. I it's constant talking and dancing and counting
037and yelling and music. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's a constant cycle. And so these are the OGs of standardsbased grading. These were the founding team that started it at Stevenson High School. It made more sense like standardsbased grading made more sense with the art form than trying to put a percentage on things. Yeah. How do you put a percentage on just Exactly. Exactly. So, it's a big challenge. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um, it's a big challenge when you have u incoming freshmen who like you said before like some have had tons and tons of dance and others are total. How how do you guys address that in the that dynamic? Well, we do have uh our placements um and so students get the opportunity over two days to show us what their technical skills are
038and so we have cl our classes are mixed classes. So we have classes that have freshman through senior in them. Dance one obviously has a tendency to be more freshman. Um, but it is interesting when you're talking about someone who maybe came to dance and it's natural for them, but they haven't had a lot of training. And so in those situations, you realize that there is a learning curve um to that. But I would say because we have the opportunity to place them, there's a little bit more balance to their understanding of the art form when they come to it. What's your ratio in terms of students who are brand new to it versus how many come in? Do the majority come in with some experience or do you get a fair amount that every
039year that have not? It es and flows I would say but again because of our um our placement auditions we are able to meet them where they need to be. We have about six or seven sections at dance one right then two two of three one of four. So every year you must get definitely more new new dancers than experienced dancers. So in one of the slides it said um special education students. Yes. And I didn't talk for special education. I'm glad you went back to that. Um so what we what we are trying to show there is even our students that are multilanguage learners and special education. Um so with 23% of our population is multil- language learners, 12% um special education students, they are also growing and and um at the same rate
040as our general education students and our students who have more experience. Um I I always love uh the fact that sometimes our students have IEPs or 504s, but they're our strongest dancers. And many times this is where they excel um on physical things. And so that that's always been very joyful for us um to like have a place where everybody can shine in in their own way. Yeah. Um so I just the SPS dance one data was really interesting that 25% 17%. If I'm not mistaken, those are some of the biggest leaps, Lori, of any team that we've That's why I That's why I had to put it in. That's why they kept telling me the story of just leave. It was Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so I mean, not we'll see 5% maybe 7%
041but nothing like that. And when you shared it, it um the idea that you know may maybe leading with technique, you know, was something we did the year before, but leading with community is I felt like there was more you could say about that. So just can you add any commentary to that because I know that you guys are passionate about dance technique and you want kids to you know kind of learn the the craft and yet you know when you jump that high something significant is different in the class and to your point about the enrollment we know something because we can track you know from our vantage point we see the enrollment fluctuations as a factor in what's happening in the class. So can you how's that going? How did you guys feel
042about that? It was hard. Thank you. It was really hard. That's what I thought you wanted to say, but feel comfortable saying it. So, can you tell us tell us how that made you feel? We have more classical training and I So, we wanted to lead with spend a lot of time on, you know, the just anatomical parts of things. And we realized over the course of the last couple years when we would do a fun jazz phrase or when we went to the schools, the theater schools, and we did like just a fun, more athletic upbeat, the kids were so engaged. And so we said, "Well, we're showing them that we do this when we visit, but in our class, we start like this and maybe we need to get them where they're at
043and build on that love and build on that community and then start to really say, "Okay, so do you want to get better at that leap because we can show you how to do that, too." And yeah, we didn't want to lose the integrity of what it is we're trying to do. And yes, Eric, it was really hard. It was hard. I felt like there was something behind that. I was like, what? I really appreciate you sharing that because that that that tells me that this was a meaningful change for you and that it it's having an impact. And yeah, I appreciate you pushing that a little because the one thing and they they told a beautiful story almost a year ago, I guess, at this point when we first had the our conversations about
044not only did they move to this just leap, but really the importance of them of they did not compromise the rigor or the integrity of the dance that by the time they get to the end of their programs and when you look at the dancers who went to New York, all of those things still remain. And yet to their credit, it really embraced to Steve's original question of how do they complement each other? Why the seal and the rigger become so important to play off of. So I have to give them the utmost of credit. And just to share with you how um intent they've been on focusing on technique and body and movement. I don't know if you're still doing it, but pre-COVID didn't used to do units with the anatomy and physiology classes
045where they would like literally go joint teach a class. And I don't know if you're cutting up cadaavvers or anything, but literally studying how the muscles move and I mean like so this is a group that really understands dance, but then also, you know, wants kids to get it as well. So you guys are amazing. Thank you so much. This was really, really good. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Terry, I've come every board meeting with you the past 29 years. So, thank you too because I heard this is your last one. We're gonna miss you. Thank you guys. Have a good night. Thank you so much. Daughter was a dancer. See your daughter was I understood. I wish a good lesson for her, right? Totally. That was impressive. That's a good way
046to put it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um that takes us to um an action item for tonight. Uh last month we did a first reading. Tonight we are bringing forward um the 2526 guide book. Uh and tonight we are asking you to approve the uh changes uh from the previous year. Uh all of those were tracked. You had a chance to review those. I don't think there was anything particularly significant um from this year to next year, but tonight it's being presented here. Could I get a motion? So move. Second. Any questions on that? Okay, then all in favor? I have to. It says voice. It's voice. Okay. Yep. Okay. Oppose. No. Okay. And then the next item is just a first reading. Uh the administrative team is nearly done uh with uh reviewing the letters
047of intent for the 2627 um school year. Uh we may have one more uh coming uh from the English department over the course of the next uh couple weeks. We'll keep you posted on that. Um but remember um this is just the first step of multiple that you will have to uh give us some feedback. Um and then Mark I think next month we'll ask you maybe to do just a quick little dog and pony showing the board kind of what we're bringing forward. Okay. Uh so in the meantime if you have any questions feel free to let us know. I have a question. Yes please. So I noticed when I was looking through it there's the advanced music production which is now going to be um the dual credit. How did how does that
048how do you identify and how do courses become dual credit? So dual credit is a designation with a university. Um, so we we so a couple parameters. We don't allow dual credit in any courses if we have that as an AP exam because we would rather have if we're going to get college credit, we'd rather have our kids get the college credit through the AP experience. If it doesn't have an AP experience, we'll offer college or offer a dual credit class with different universities that we have partnerships with. So I did not see which is this Lyola. Yep. Most of our dual credit experiences are with Lyola University and we have a really solid dual credit relationship with them. Um but usually it's a kind of end of the scope and sequence course um or
049a standalone course that might be an elective in a university. And the benefit to the kids is that you know that's college credit that's transferable. Um, but does John decide? So, like we talked about earlier, our directors always collaborate on issues of curriculum with Mark and Troy and then Mark and Troy bring those to the administrative team and then as a team we approve all the letters of intent before we bring them to you. So, nothing gets kind of no nothing comes up from individuals. It all goes through the administrative team. Maybe I'm gonna You're saying how do we make the connections with the universities? Oh, I'm sorry. How does Yeah. How does the class is parallel? The syllabus has to be parallel to the same course at Loyola for instance. Somebody is looking Mark
050and the director sits down with the rep from the university and they go through the syllabus pretty much unit by unit in some cases to make sure that there's parallel And there's and there's a teacher qualification for many of those too. Um so where a teacher has to have a certain set of education or a certain set of requirements that that gets vetted also. Interesting. And then a lot of a lot of times our teachers become faculty members at the university. Even though they never go there to teach it, they become faculty members there. Sometimes we do it with um College of Lake County. We articulated credit. Correct. Yeah. that that um that there may not be a college class, but there's a class at CLC that could be the capstone class for some of
051our students and they get they still get college credit. Yep. But it's from CLC, not not Lyola. Yep. Great. It's a great program. I have a quick question. Yep. For the college algebra, um the course is new course. Is this a 4.0 course or yes 4.0 it's a non AP for students so after completing algebra 2 and then have a chance to study eligible for a little further advanced level but without hitting AP level that's correct okay and we'll talk more about that next month but we want to be very careful not to force kids into an AP track if that's not something they're interested in, right? Like some some of the way that our curriculum was lined up, these are unintended consequences, right? Like the science curriculum, for example, it it kind of forced
052you into an AP class when you might not have really wanted to do that, you know? So, we were trying to be very mindful about the pathways to give kids more choice. So, okay. But again, next month Mark will do a little tap dance on that. Um, so personnel items, uh, there are many because March is our most significant personnel month. Uh, but April is the second most significant personnel month because a lot of the required dismissals per the school code, um, we then come back and rehire those folks, especially part- timerrs. So, you'll see a long list of those, but a couple notable um recommendations tonight that'll be covered in consent. Um you know that Doug Liyall is retiring from uh communication arts after an amazing career here. Um and uh Kim Yuslaf, you
053approved last month, this month. Um Nicole or sorry, Christy uh Kolaris is being recommended um for the assistant director of uh communication arts. uh Hhabib Hman is being recommended as our director of facilities and operations. We talked about that last month as well. And then you'll see a whole host of um new faculty members that we are recommending and then a lot of the changes um based on the actions from March. So that'll all be covered in consent. Uh we will not need an executive session following the meeting. Too bad. But that takes us to the only action item that Sean hands tonight and that is the approval of the extension for auditing services. So Sean, you want to give us a quick update? Yep. As we discussed um last month, our uh contract with
054Labbach and Amen expired um with the completion of the FY24 audit. Um after further discussion uh both with Amy, Steve and and others, um we do feel like uh this is a partnership that is going to benefit us um over the long haul. And so we are recommending a 5-year renewal term um at an average annual cost of $35,000. And while that represents a a 4.4% 4% increase. Um, this is well below what our market peers are paying for auditing services. I know Steve and I had some questions um about um the pricing, so I'll I'll probably bring back more of that information and put it in the meeting. Uh but tonight we are um recommending that the board of education approve a five-year extension with Labbak and Amen at a total cost not to
055exceed 176,000 for fiscal years 25 26 27 28 and 29. Could I please get a motion? Second. So okay. So the 176 is an that's a fiveyear it's a fiveyear total cost. That's correct. And that does include not only our audit but our single audit as well which required for um uh federal grants, right? And I think we covered this last month but Steve spent a lot of time speaking to them and really did a lot of homework on this. So you feel good about it, Steve? Definitely. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Terry, could you please? Sure. Cho. Hi. Gerson. Hi wounds. I tire I cross no hi approved six to nothing and then Sean you have three four first readings. Yeah bunch of first readings. Yeah. However the even though um the the
056FY26 budget and FY25 amended budgets are first readings. There are a couple of action items associated with that. Um so as we talked about at the finance committee, we're looking at a 1.8% increase in expenditures um at this point and our revenues are going to increase by about 3%. Um we do we don't have to vote on the budget tonight um as we're still developing it, but we do um need a uh put the we need a recommend or we're recommending sorry tripping over my words. Uh but we are recommending that um the board of education put a tenative 2526 school year budget on display um for public viewing on Monday, May 12th um as part of the uh procedures in the state code for approving a budget. And then following that, we also are
057recommending that the board of education set a public hearing for Monday, June 16th at our board meeting um for final approval of the budget. Could I get a motion to put the budget on display for public viewing on May 12th? So moved. Second. Any other questions about that? Okay. Could you please? Sure. Coron. Hi. Wounds. I Tyer. Hi. Ross. Hi. No. Hi. S. Hi. Carries. Okay. And then could I get a motion to set a public hearing for the budget on Monday, June 16, 2025? So moved. Second. Any questions about that? No. Okay. Terry, could you please pull? Sure. Moons. I Tyer. Hi. Cross. Hi. No. Hi. Hi. Gorson. Hi. Carries. And similarly, we have the same set of procedural items that we need to do for the FY25 amended budget. Um, as recall, we
058do need to amend the budget because of the bond sale. And in addition to that, we are also going to take advantage of the budget um to avoid having to bring to the board budget transfers that happen typically in June. we can take care of all of this in one lump sum. But we will need um to we are asking for uh two approvals of motions again. One to put the uh amended FY25 amended budget on display uh Monday uh May 12th and then another one to set a public hearing for the purposes of reviewing the amended budget on Monday, June 16th. Could I get the motion to put the amended budget on display May 12th? So move second. Any questions? Okay. Terry, could you please vote? Tire. I Frost. Hi. No. Hi. Cho. I
059Carson. Hi. Moon's eye. Carries. And then Oh, sorry. That's right. That was only one. A motion to set the public hearing for the amended 2425 budget on June 16, 2025. So move second. Any questions? Okay. Terry, please. Frost. Hi. No. Hi. S. Hi. Gorson. Hi. Am Moons I and Tyra. Hi. That one too. Now we have a couple of first readings. Um one is the approval of the treasurer's bond. um that is to it's a shity bond um to protect the district um for me and any kind of actions I may take. It's typically about 25% of our average fund balance and the cost is about $1,000 per million dollars of fund balance. So we'll be reading the exact numbers to the board in May. The second one is also our um annual music bid
060uh music instrument bid. This is for those items that either are new or that um have basically worn out. They're at the end of their useful life and we need to go ahead and replace those. So, we are conducting a bid on uh Thursday the six uh 17th. Um and so we'll share those results in the mid meeting member so the board's prepared in May for action. And then lastly, we have um we had a busy month. Um in terms of foyer requests um you can see them. Uh they're all there. Um I I did we did respond to the financial records number nine. Um all of those one through nine financial records um is um they they were going around the entire county. So the entire county got all of those as well. um
061that's not just germaine to Stephvenson, but all of the other ones you can see are um on there and have been responded to. And why do they want these records? Um they don't have to tell us why. Um they told us it was not for commercial purposes. That's the only um reason. That's the only thing we um know for sure. Um however because of the number of requests that they have um we can now treat them as a frequent requesttor um which allows us more time to respond uh to those requests. We get 21 days instead of 5 days now moving forward. We've also just told them look at our AFR. Yes. um we with advice we we to ensure that we follow the letter of the law while that is public information we do
062need to provide those reports as well and so I've started to include those reports at the uh advice of our legal counsel as well you suspect that that's a bot no it's it's definitely not a bot I think it's somebody that's collecting data throughout the county for some purposes of research who knows I don't know to what Agree. And you want Sean, can you click on number eight? The financial record ones. Yeah, there's some correspondence in there to I don't know if you wanted that in your um that's that's okay. That was from our um uh our um attorneys on how we should respond to that. I can pull that out too, but absolutely that to what degree. Yeah, that is protected by attorney client privilege. So, but thank you for Yeah, I should probably
063have not included all that. And that uh brings up all of the business items. Could I get a motion to approve the consent agenda, please? So, move. Second. Any questions on agenda? Terry, can you please? No. Hi S. Hi Gorson. Hi Moon's. I Tyer. Hi Frost. Hi. You're curious. Okay. Uh and then finally, I just wanted to share a couple student profiles there. Thank you to Jamie and Ree for pulling those together. Um some things that u weren't necessarily in the um student activities report. So it's always fun to see our kids doing fun things. uh also included uh the results of our uh sectioning uh meetings um for next year. Uh and so we are curious to see what um summer enrollment brings us, but uh right now we're at about 4,822 students um
064about about give or take. Um and uh it we you know if the projections hold we could be closer to 49 um next year. So we'll see. Uh but based on all that um this is what uh we're recommending for sectioning for next year. What is CIA division? Uh that is Mark is the director of the CIA. I even have a b cap earpiece radio director of curriculum instruction and assessment. So title um there's some board dates there uh and uh some ELC news as well. and uh Miss Moons had her final ELC meeting with Renee and uh Kate uh last week and so um in the spirit of thanking Miss Moons for all of her years of service, thank you for everything you did for the ELC as well. Uh the three board members
065who all rolled off this month were the founding board members. So Kate, Renee, and Terry had been there for 10 years, kind of birthed the ELC, if you will. Um, and uh, it is now going strong. It's considered one of the premier special education cooperatives in the state. So, thanks to Terry and her leadership for that. And and Amy and don't screw it up. Four words for you. Don't screw it up. So, say Amy is going to represent Stevenson so well uh, extremely well. has a great knowledge of of of boards and how boards work and she will learn lots more about how that ELC works, which is not like any other board I've ever been on. And there's a lot to learn. And uh Amy will also be serving as the president of the
066ELC board. Well, that's not exciting. Maybe. I would hope so. Didn't we do that? No, we didn't do that. All right. Well, it might be a little I don't think we can make that up. All right. Anyway, um stay tuned. All right. We'll come back to you on that. Okay. All right. I should probably just stop. Yeah, you should. I'll take over from you. So, as many of you know, Steve and Wendy and Sean and I had the privilege to join Terry and Jerry, their son and daughter-in-law in Springfield. Um, got to go in the gallery and watch as Dan Diditch presented a House resolution. Um, and it's I have a copy of it right here. House resolution number 235 offered by representatives Daniel Didditch and Sharon Chung. Whereas the members of the Illinois House
067of Representatives wish to congratulate Terry Moons on the occasion of her retirement after 40 years of dedicated service as a board member of Adlay E. Stevenson District 125. And then there's literally two pages of all the wonderful and amazing things that she has done. So I just we can all look at it later as I just pulled out a few things that really struck me. Three thou 33,736 students have graduated under her leadership. Three of them your own and many of our [Laughter] check your diploma to see if my name's up. is leader of site and facilities committee overseeing four major additions including the original 1987 edition the east building EVA1 edition and the Patriot Wellness Center. So you took it from the tiny little one building into what we have today, which is amazing,
068and was an instrumental part of shaping the administrative team, including the hiring of five superintendents and eight principles. That's what it says right here. It was officially signed and everything. And then it ends with resolved by the House of Representatives of the 104th General Assembly of the state of Illinois that we congratulate Cherry Moons on her retirement after 40 years of dedicated service as a board member of Atly Stevenson High School District 125 where she has demonstrated unwavering commitment, leadership, and integrity in advancing the mission and goals of the district. And be it further resolved that a suitable copy of this resolution be presented Terry Moons as a symbol of our respect and esteem. Thank you. So this is your official. There's the seal. Oh wow. And um Dan did say that he has requested
069more. So you'll get extras if you want to give them to your kids, you know, give them out as gifts at some point. And we also and we will be getting a copy of it as well that we can keep in the district archives. Wonderful. So, well, thank you just doesn't seem quite enough, but it has been it has been more than enough. this I just can't I just can't tell you how wonderful and warm feelings I have being a part of this board a part of a variety of this board uh over the years thank and uh I have loved doing this I have I really except for the few incidents early on in the in the 80s with difficult board members Um, I I have I have loved doing this job. I have
070loved serving with all of you, laughing, carrying on, going to those that those conferences downtown that we would go to um and just really representing our community um and our kids. And what's more important than our own kids? I mean, not our own kids, but 3,000 of you 33,000. Check your diploma. See if my name's on it. Um, and that's what I said. So, you know, we had three boys who graduated from here. And their friends still hang out. And every once in a while, I'll say, "You looked at your diploma lately?" No. See whose name's on there? This is Moons. You signed my diploma. Well, with an auto pen. But, um, it's really exciting and it's exciting to see how we have grown and matured. and and become such a professional place that you
071can hold your head up high wherever you go. I'm a member of the Stevenson staff. Uh this is what we do. We are a lighthouse. We are a driving force education in this country. And when they do those surveys and we come out on the top beating out Thomas Jefferson Charter School in Virginia, I'm always happy about that, too. and and our local nemesis that we like to beat too. U this name we do not speak out loud. U this is a wonderful place for our children to grow and learn and to live in a school for four years with a microcosm of what the real world is when they get out into college into the working world. meeting different people, understanding different cultures, learning to be with people who are not like you. I
072think that's exciting. I think that's wonderful. And that and that we've been able to foster that kind of openness and acceptance and drive that students want to come here. Gilbert Carak used to say that in the bathrooms all over the world. If you've got a special needs student, come come to Stevenson High School in Lincolnshshire. That's when she was director of student services. I say it's all over the world says if you want your child to have a worldclass education, you figure out how to get to Lincolnshire, Illinois and send your kids to the school because we are by far the best. And I don't care what anybody in the outside world says. We know we are. We know that we're good. We know our kids are good. and that we provide the very best
073opportunity for them. I mean dance who who listens to somebody talk about dance and social emotional learning and yet here we had three examples just today talking about how they're able to take that kind of information and put it into their classroom and the response that they got from their students. Dance, this is not science. This is not English anatomy. This is dance. That's what we're about. And go see a student play and go watch some of those concerts. You're amazed at the kind of talent that our students have and that they're showcasing. Anyway, I I've always been glad to be a part of this. I'm going to miss you all terribly. And what more can I say? But thank you. It's been a good ride. No, no. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
074you. I finally get her back. What are you going to do on the third Monday of every month? Maybe go out to dinner. Maybe go out to dinner. Maybe go out to dinner. Well, we have one more little special little celebration on May 15th. Okay. We'll save some other comments for you then. Lord. Okay. I'll be there. All right. Thank you. Move to Could I get a motion to move? Second. All in favor? I