Barrington 220 Board of Education Meeting June 2 , 2026

001here. Steve Wang >> here. Harathi Shvasta here. Diana Clapton. >> All right. Will you please rise and join me for the pledge? >> I pledge algiance 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. >> All right. >> Again, welcome to our meeting. Um, we have several recognitions this evening. So, I'm going to turn it right over to Dr. Wman. >> Thank you very much. Yes, we have uh several student recognitions and a staff recognition to share um with the board and our community this evening. Um, our first recognition is our superintendent and high school principal art award. And I think we have some slides that Janine is going to uh get up on the screen

002in just a second. Here we go. Um, so I think in order I will go first if that's okay. Uh, Dr. Mc Williams. >> Um, could I invite Amelia and Mallerie to come up front and be recognized? if you want to come right over here by um your artwork, that would be great. So, we have so many talented uh students uh in in our schools and and certainly if you walk through the halls of the district office, uh you can see a lot of the artwork. But this is a special award where we actually select um two student pieces that will be displayed in our front lobby here at the district office for everyone that comes to the district office to um enjoy and get to see throughout the year. Now, you may be wondering

003if there's a superintendent art award and a principal art award, why did the superintendent invite two individuals up? um you may recall we have a superintendent for the day um every year um that uh when JJ uh Jaden served as superintendent it just happened to coincide when we went over to the high school to see the artwork in the gallery and she was a superintendent so I said do you want to pick one and you know it's for real when you're the superintendent you get to make decisions she goes absolutely um which actually went really well because there were so many talented uh pieces for us uh to choose from. So, we bent the rules a little bit and so [snorts] we actually will display two pieces um here at the district office. Um I

004went first. Uh this is a new thing for for my selections. I've not selected a 3D um you know uh piece before. So, this is Amelia's piece that um I just thought was so detailed and so colorful and um I liked the symbolism in it. And so this is the um piece that I selected. Um and you can see there's some description from Amelia as to her inspiration and her thoughts um as she was creating this piece. Um but I'd like to also give you an opportunity to share a little bit with us about your piece beyond um what you have there. >> Um so this was for my investigation for AP. >> Would you please pick up the microphone? Sorry. [cough] >> I want to make sure everyone can hear me. Here we go.

005>> This is for my sustained investigation for AP drawing and painting. And I investigated the relationship between predators and prey. Um, so this is based off the yin-yang symbol which represents two opposites being interdependent on one another. So the tiger represents predators and the serero which is a type of goat represents prey. And um the tiger's dependent on the sero for a food source and the sero is dependent on the tiger for like manage management of its population. >> So cool. >> Thank you. [applause] >> One of my favorite things is actually to be able to interact with the artists. How long did that take you because it is gorgeous and I was just curious if it was a click process or something that you worked on throughout the semester if you could tell us

006a little bit. Um, so the first month, well, I didn't work on anything outside of class, but the first month was just like building the whole piece, and then the second month I spent painting everything. So about >> Wow. >> It's very, very pretty. Very cool. >> Wow. >> Any other thoughts or questions for Amelia? >> Did you do any kind of like sketch or study before making the actual piece, or did you just kind of go at it? Yeah, I went through a couple of sketches like the tiger having its mouth open. >> Um, that wasn't part of the original, but it's something I added afterwards. So, yeah, it changed it changed a lot throughout that process. >> It's beautiful. >> Well done. >> What about the color of their eyes? I was noticing

007the Sarah's eyes and then I looked at the tiger's eyes. Yeah, that's um since it's based off the yinyang symbol, the tiger has the eye of the sparrow and then the sero has the eye of the tiger. >> Oh, that is >> very cool. >> It is awesome. All right, how about one one more round of applause? [applause] And thank you for not having any blood or guts or things of it because when I pick it's got to be age appropriate for everyone that comes to the district office. And so I really like that too. So um if we could pull up Maller's piece then next. >> I'm trying. I'm so sorry. >> This is where we bent the rules a little bit. So there's two superintendent art awards. They'll both be out in the

008lobby. >> That was very I think you should do that every year. >> Oh yeah, you're okay with me. >> More art is better. >> Yeah. Never enough art. All right. And so Mallerie, our uh superintendent for a day, one of our fifth graders, uh was accompanying me as we walked through the gallery and we just, you know, walked through and looked at everything first. And then I asked Jaci, I said, "What drew you or what, you know, kind of caught your attention and stuff." and she walked right back to your piece um and said she really liked the detail and the coloring and she was wondering about what the um individual in your painting was thinking about and then she started really looking at all the details and she's like oh there's like technology

009here and stuff so it your piece literally drew her in which I thought was really uh cool and I think maybe the inspiration or portrait may be a person to your and [laughter] accurate. Did I get that right? Did I hear that story correctly? >> So, >> there's a lot of amazing artwork in that gallery and how we ended up the two of us picking [laughter] these two. We did not know that which I thought was just so unique and special, right? Because there was, like I said, there was so much to choose from. So, um I'd like to extend an opportunity also. Mallerie, can you tell us a little bit more about your piece? >> Yeah, so my piece was also uh part of my SI for AP drawing and painting. My SI was

010mainly about uh how technology in the digital world impacts our real lives. So I wanted to kind of show that through having a human eye be labeled with different technology parts and having the brain there which kind of represents like the core of like how we process things. And I have a processor down there being labeled with the different parts of the brain and the brain stem. >> Very cool. >> Such good detail. >> Very cool. Any follow-up questions or >> I know you said take Oh, go ahead. Same question. How work in time? >> Um, [snorts] I say this one is probably maybe 25 to 30 hours. >> Wow, that's a lot. >> Amazing. >> Wow. >> I know you said uh it says mixed media there, but it looks like where did you

011use pastels, some pen drawing? What specifically? Yeah. So, I used um alcohol markers as my base and I went in with some colored pencils and acrylic paint. And then the eyes and the brain is ballpoint pen. >> Oh, wow. >> Oh, >> very cool. >> I doodled with ballpoint pen in high school, but never like that. [laughter] >> Did you go through several iterations on this as well? >> Yeah. So, first off, it was me trying to find like who I would draw cuz I knew I wanted to have a side profile. And then I kept shifting between the eye and maybe another part of the body, but I ultimately went with the eye. >> Very cool. >> Wow. Wow. >> All right. Well, serendipity. >> I know. Looking forward to seeing him every time

012we're here. >> How about one more round of applause? Amen. [applause] >> So, I promise we will take really good care of them for the next year. Thank you for sharing them with us. And then I'd like to turn it over to our high school principal, Dr. Mc Williams, who's going to introduce his student and his selection. >> So, I chose Haley Stern's piece. Haley, are you do you want to come on up? [laughter] photography. >> Haley's excited to be honored for her work, but I'm not sure that she's excited to be standing up here next to [laughter] me waiting to ask questions. But um um what drew my eye to this piece is um I'm I'm a bit of a photographer. Spent a little time in the dark room and just the amount of

013contrast that you had in there from the from the white of the house to the even the clouds in the background. It's a pretty amazing job there. And um I'm imagining that you did quite a bit of dodging with that. No >> picture. >> So why don't you explain to people what what I'm talking about with dodging. They can get a little inside of on photography. >> Um the dodging is you kind of just put your hand over the picture and go over where you want it to be lighter. >> Um and that's really all it is for that. But I didn't have to do anything for this one. It was very simple and very long and that was really it. >> So, how many how many prints did you have to make to get

014this just perfectly? >> Um, I think I did two or three. I started with a really small one when I started and then as when I got into AP2D um I was like, "Okay, I need to make a bigger one." So, that was learning how to add more time to it and then getting more contrast out of it. But there wasn't much to do other than >> not much to do. >> Well, it is amazing. Enjoy looking at it every [laughter] day. Um, and uh, maybe we can talk later if you've got like a copy or maybe we can get one of our talented arts teachers to maybe make a print of it for me because like to hold on to it if I can. >> I've got to interrupt and do that. >> Oh.

015VERY [applause] photo teacher. Very, very talented. >> Yes. >> Obviously. >> Yes. >> Congratulations. Thank you. It's awesome. >> Drew my eye right away. >> All right. [applause] >> [cough and clears throat] >> Eric, do you want a photo with >> Eric? Should we take a photo with them in their artwork? >> Okay. >> We should gather around the art. >> Just be very careful. >> Oh, yeah. >> Don't touch it. >> [clears throat] >> artist up here. >> Come on. >> Should we do two rows? >> Yeah. >> Fill in. You want us? >> Yeah. You want to get in here? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Look right here. Two. [applause] >> Well done. >> I know. I like really want to take a look. >> It's so much nicer to see them up

016close. >> Wow. all night. >> I think we're need >> I did. >> That would have been awkward. >> I know. Isn't that great? >> So awesome. >> Well done. >> All right. We also have talented athletes. Um, >> yes, >> in our school district. So, at this time, I'd like to invite our associate principal from Prairie Campus, Jeff Hellberg, to come up and introduce one of our students, our sixth grade students um that competed recently in our track program. [clears throat] Well, uh, board, I'm once again thrilled to be able to be here and talk about another amazing student athlete that we had at Prairie Campus this year, uh, in the IESA state track and field championships. Just a couple weeks ago, we have sixth grader Aaron Lindell that won the high jump uh,

017competing against even seventh graders. She got a personal best at the state meet, which is the absolute best time to be performing at [laughter] the state. And um the way that events like high jump work and like pull vault is that if you tie when the heights are done, they have to go to series of tie breakers. And the one of the first tiebreers is number of total misses. And so Aaron and another girl had the same number of misses. And so what you have to do is then you have to have a jump off. So whatever the height was that you both missed, you then go back down to the last made height and then from there it's really high pressure situations. And Aaron, correct me if I'm wrong, but you made it the

018first attempt back at that height. Correct. So that was 4t 9 1/2 in. And that is getting your entire body over the bar. And then the other girl missed the first attempt and that's it. She's done. And so then Aaron gets to do that. So that is a lot of pressure for any person to be performing their best in front of a lot of people. But then also now you have to tie and you crank up the pressure [laughter] and then she gets able to make it the first attempt and absolutely do her best. We are so proud of her. She has worked tremendously hard this year and we know that there's going to be a lot of really great things for Aaron in the future. So Aaron, come on up. [applause] >> Told you

019this was going to happen. Everyone [laughter] >> So we'll start with is this your first year doing high jump or is this something you did in middle, you know, like before in elementary at like the >> I did it in elementary. >> Okay. But like we were kind of just like jumping over it. We weren't really like >> Yeah. You got serious this this year. Okay. What's your favorite part about high jump? There's so many events you could do. Why Why jump? >> Uh >> you could say I'm good at it. [laughter] Um because like sort of um when you make it over and like you sort of when you make it over and you're just falling back to the mat, all that like pressure is gone and it feels like you have like a

020wave of joy sort of. >> Yeah, it's great answer. I love that. >> Great answer. >> A wave. >> Yeah. >> Bard, any other questions? Well, Aaron, it's just it's incredible to make state as a sixth grader, but to be state champion as a sixth grader is just [clears throat] mind-blowing. So, congratulations. That's awesome. And under all that pressure. So, so 49, was that your personal best or was it even higher than that? Was that the jump off? >> 410. Okay. And can I ask how tall you are? I'm just curious. >> About two. >> So, you basically jumped your height just about. That's That's amazing. So cool. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Erin, [applause] can we do a picture first and then I promise [laughter] you a quick picture? >> You really don't have

021to if you don't want to. You're going to stand right here and be the star in the middle and they will follow around you. >> I love your sweatshirt. >> Oh, yeah. You should definitely wear >> it. Yes. >> Good call. >> Embarrass. [laughter] >> Let me take a picture and then I'll get out of the way. >> Fan out this way a little bit. I can see. >> Perfect. All right. >> There we go. >> Aaron, what's up to your right, please? >> This way. >> Which Aaron? I'm sorry. [laughter] >> Here we go. >> You're good. One, two, three. Perfect. >> Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> Okay. >> All right. We have >> one more >> talented artists. We have amazing athletes. We also have outstanding coaches. Uh, our next

022recognition is for one of our coaches. And I'd like to invite associate principal from station campus, Mr. Tim Hopped up to introduce our coach of the year recipient. >> Oh, there he goes. >> Oh, coach's hall of fame. Excuse me. What did I say? Coaches. Coach of the year. Yeah, coach of the year, too. But coach's hall of fame. >> All right. So, this is not easy to introduce someone who's uh as great as Perry Peterson. But I'm going to try with the 30 minutes that Dr. Winkler. [laughter] >> Well played, Mr. Hop. >> Yes. So, first of all, I would say if you asked 99 out of 100 people, um, what do you think uh, Coach Peterson is going to get recognized for, most people would say softball. Uh, he's very well known for

023softball. Uh I think one term that I heard recently is legendary and that's very fitting for him for someone who's uh third in the state for wins. Um softball. Some people would know Perry Peterson for their PE teacher. Uh he's a very good PE teacher uh teaching the joys of fitness, games, sports, uh along the way, teaching them about sportsmanship, the value of team, and uh just building confidence. So many students would know him as their PE teacher. And then you have some even here tonight that would know him as their colleague. Uh someone that um is very uh humble but accomplished. Someone that people throughout the district would go to him for advice. And you don't walk away from Perry without feeling better about yourself. He's not shy about giving compliments to everyone that

024he talks to. But yet all of that and we're not here for any of that. We're here for basketball. something probably out of all the things about Perry, probably one of the lesser things that people know, but yet here he is. Basketball over 400 wins that he has accomplished over his time as a middle school basketball coach. So, on behalf of Station, we are very grateful that you gave us this opportunity to honor someone who is in the Hall of Fame, not only for softball, but now for basketball. Coach Peterson. [applause] >> [applause] >> I will use the microphone, but I'm usually not one to use the mic at home. There we go. All right. There you go. That makes sense. So, >> thank you board and thank you Tim. Tim Halp was kind of

025I have a feeling has something to do with this and so I appreciate that. My wife is here, Jennifer, who works with us at Station Campus and my colleague in basketball, Adam Olsen, is here tonight. So between all of us, we enjoy every day at station. I've been at Station now for three decades and just love it. I started to give you a quick basketball story. I started in 1992 at Bington High School and coached basketball for three years with our Hall of Fame girls basketball coach Bobby Barrera. And after three years, our assistant principal at the time was Dr. Brian Harris. And Dr. Dr. Harris brought me into his office one day and said, "Coach, I think it's time for you to transition from coaching basketball at the high school to now coaching basketball

026at the middle school." So, I became the eighth grade basketball coach. And I have done it ever since. It's a great experience. It's so cool to take kids that are transitioning from coming up through elementary sports now to middle school sports. And I try to get them ready. I usually get the best kids in the school. We try to get them ready for Brian Tucker and coaching uh playing basketball at Bington High School. So, it's been awesome. Uh, we've done it for a long time. I would also like to thank Dr. Wkelman because in 2017, Dr. Harris and Dr. Wkelman added an ESA component to middle school sports. That has been amazing for so many people in so many sports. And we had the pleasure one time in 2022 of going to the state finals

027at Taylorville High School. And that's like the Hooers of Illinois basketball. Amazing stadium. Uh, and we played and it was great. And so many of those kids still play basketball today. They'll be seniors now coming up. So, it's fun for me to go to Bington High School and watch a boys game while we're doing concessions for the softball season and all that because those kids on the floor are the kids that I used to work with in eighth grade. So, I love it. It's great. It's been fun. And, uh, thank you taking a moment just to recognize what I do. I appreciate it. And thank you to Mr. Hop, I think, for helping out make this process move along. So anyway, >> that's my that's my thoughts for the moment. >> Yeah. [applause] [applause] >>

028Well, and and Perry, I'm glad you brought that up about the advancements because I know in your role, you always are looking for more opportunities for students to do things. And so prior to that, our students played here locally and we had a lot of great activities and games and so forth, but be able to bring our students to that next level, especially at at the the middle school uh h has been, pun intended, a game changer for for our program. So, thank you for being an advocate uh for us to be able to provide additional opportunities. Um 400 wins, there's a lot of them. Does any one stand out to you [clears throat] as as one that you'll always look back on fondly or are they equally, you know? I don't know. Um the

029game to get to state, we went to Rockford and we won at Guilford High School and we played the team that we had lost to the year before in seventh grade and so we were able to defeat those guys. That was a nice accomplishment for the >> uh that was exciting. Um I mean there's been so many cool things. We used to have the Colt Classic at Bington High School. We play that in the Bington High School gym. That was fun. Okay. That's a big we've been, you know, in the conference. We've gone to almost every school and played a championship game somewhere. So, that's been fun. So, yeah, maybe that one game to get to state was kind of >> Yeah, that's awesome. >> Well, board, any questions or comments for Coach Peterson? >>

030Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Congrats. >> All right. Thank you, Kyrie. [applause] All right. Uh that concludes our recognition. Uh we normally also have a student speaker. Um but it is summertime, so we did not invite any students from across the district, but uh if you stick around, I do have a little montage of all of our students that participated this year. There's a little teaser in my superintendent report if you stick around, but no pressure. >> All right. So, next up is my report. So, I just wanted to say uh thank you again to Amelia, Mallerie, and Haley for illustrating and to Erin for bringing to new heights how every day in Bington 220 we are empowering personal excellence in every learner. >> Well done. [laughter] >> So, welcome again to

031our uh first meeting of the summer and um just wanted to recap a few things that have occurred since we met last. I know I reminded everybody of them last last meeting, but since we met, we did break ground at the high school for transform 2020. So, very exciting day. >> Yeah, more cheers for that. Um, on that same day, we also hosted the innovation showcase at the high school and innovator pitch night and we also introduced the Taste of 220, our new food truck. So, thank you again to the Bington 220 Educational Foundation for supplying us with that food truck. That food truck that evening or afternoon featured a churro item inspired by Elurro Loco, a fifth grade team from Sunny Hill. So, that was very exciting. Also, an excite another very, very exciting

032event since we um last met was graduation, Bington High School graduation. So, congratulations again to the Bington High School class of 2026 and thank you again and best wishes to all the retiring staff that we recognized um that evening as well. Um Barry and I also attended the student disciplinary committee as I reported last uh meeting and Barry's going to give us a quick update during our committee reports and it's actually on our consent agenda as well this evening to report from that meeting. Um, and we still have so many other high school activities that are still going on, some sporting activities that are still going on. So, I think maybe we're going to get some updates throughout the night. >> Yes, if I receive if I receive messages, uh, girls lacrosse did win uh

033earlier tonight. >> Okay. >> And uh, we still have boys lacrosse and boys baseball are being played. So, if I receive any messages, I'll definitely share them throughout throughout the meeting. >> Please share throughout. Um, and then board, I have one logistical item. Um, we've got a couple board members that have conflicts with our meeting on June 21st. So, I'm going to be reaching out to you to see if there's another time that what did I say? You said >> uh July, sorry, July 21st. So, I'll be reaching out to see if there's other avail another availability for another date if that if that's possible. Um, so we'll we'll bring that forward at the next meeting too if there is a possibility. And then last, I just wanted to take a moment to reflect upon

034the year. Um I am truly proud of all of the work that this district has accomplished in this past year and thanks to the board members for help helping me remember some of those um exciting things. We've had leadership in so many areas. Um framework 220 um the work that the CPAC committee has done, the work that the social media and digital citizenship committee has done. Sunny Hill moving to commendable so quickly um and all the professional development and all the cultural things that we've done. really just wanted to take a minute to thank the staff and the students in the community for supporting us in all those endeavors. And you know, we start every board meeting with so many great celebrations and then we leave here with full pride of all the appreciation for

035all the talent that we have here in 220. So, thank you again. Okay. And with that, next up is our is the portion of our meeting set aside for public comment. The board values your thoughts and opinions and we will ensure that all voices are respected and heard in accordance with the board equity statement that states that we recognize, embrace and defend the identities, abilities and voices of our diverse school community. The board has agreed to the rules set forth in the policy in which the commenters have also agreed to abide. Um just a quick reminder that this is a board meeting that occurs in public. It is not a public meeting and public comment is not a conversation and does not necessarily reflect the views of the board. So if any comments require further

036attention, we will ask Dr. Welman to follow up and report back to the board. So with that, David Lawer, please come forward. >> All right, thank you. Um, is this on? Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. >> All right. Uh, good evening. My name is David Loer. I have two children, one currently in the Mandarin immersion program and the other set to join it next year as a kindergartener pending this board's decision around kindergarten TI. I recognize the difficulty the board faces with declining enrollment. The size of the incoming kindergarten cohort is a real constraint and I do not envy the decisions that come with it. But the solution being considered combining kindergarten and first grade will cause measurable documented harm to the very children this program exists to serve. Two points.

037One, a peer-reviewed study in early childhood research quarterly archived by the National Institutes of Health specifically examined 5-year-olds in multi-grade classrooms. The findings were unambiguous. Kindergarteners in mixed grade settings made smaller gains in math and literacy and showed me measurably weaker executive function, which is the ability to focus and self-regulate compared to peers in a single grade classroom. Why? Because a 5-year-old cannot sit quietly and learn independently while the teacher addresses another grade. The youngest learners are the most dependent on direct instruction, and this proposal cuts that instruction in half. Two, the proposal places 5-year-olds and seven-year-olds in the same physical space every single day. The developmental gap between a kindergartenner and a first grader is not merely academic. It is physical. These children are meaningfully different in size, weight, social maturity, and understanding of

038boundaries. Research on mixed age early childhood environments consistently flags elevated rates of social conflict and intimidation bullying even in well-managed classrooms. We would be asking our smallest students, children who still are just learning what school is to navigate that environment while simultaneously acquiring the skills necessary for a successful academic career. That is not a reasonable thing to ask of a 5-year-old and it is not what their family signed up for. This program was built on a promise, a dedicated single grade immersion experience for every cohort. Families did not simply enroll. They signed commitments based on that promise. Restructuring the program's foundation without their consent does not solve an engagement problem or enrollment problem. It breaks a contract. A new kindergarten cohort will walk through that door in August. They will arrive trusting that this district

039means what it said. The board was elected to be the voice of this community to protect the commitments already made not to trade them away when they become inconvenient. Every student and their family in this program is counting on this board to do one thing. Stand firm in the commitments already made. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, >> Kristen Bowman. Good evening board members and [cough] district leaders and thank you for your service to our schools and students. My name is Kristen Bowman and I'm a mom of three children, a rising fourth grader and second grader at Rosland Elementary with my youngest set to begin kindergarten in 2027. I'm here as a grateful parent who deeply values this district and wants to help ensure we continue setting the standard for excellence. Tonight, I'd

040like to propose that the the district explore implementing a district-wide screen time transparency tool such as light speeded or a similar platform. These tools provide parents and educators with meaningful insights into how schoolisssued devices are being used, including overall screen time and categories of websites accessed during the school day. Recently, students as young as first grade at one of our elementary schools discovered a website called Classroom Resources, specifically designed to bypass school internet filters in order to access games. While some of the content was relatively harmless, other games contained violent and age inappropriate material. For example, one called Buckshot Roulette, a first person horror game involving a shotgun with randomized live shells. I've also spoken with middle school parents who report that students have found ways to circumvent existing safeguards [cough] and continue accessing sites

041such as YouTube during the school day. I recognize that no filtering system is perfect and I really do appreciate the considerable effort the district already invests in student safety and digital citizenship. The issue is certainly not a lack of effort. It's that technology evolves quickly and students often discover workarounds just as quickly. Greater transparency would give parents, teachers, and administrators another valuable tool to identify concerns early and reinforce responsible technology use. My request is simple. Explore and implement a district-wide monitoring and reporting solution that provides parents and educators with clear age appropriate screen time and usage summaries before the start of the 2026 2027 school year. and also share periodic anonymized district or grade level usage trends so families and educators can better understand how technology is being used and address emerging concerns proactively. District

042220 is one of the best in Illinois because we consistently work together to solve challenges before they become larger problems. Adding this layer of transparency would strengthen the partnership between schools and families, support teachers, enhance student safety, and help ensure that technology remains a tool for learning rather than a source of distraction. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your comm continued commitment to our students. >> Thank you, uh, Chiao. Sh. Good evening. So um I'm actually currently we just moved to this program um this district in April and for the CI program. So um I would like to share some concerns about the potential uh implementation of multi-grade class approach within the CI program. Uh the primary concern is not only about the concept itself but the lack of clear communication about the

043rationality um how the teaching strategy and implementation planned. Um I have heard a family um have have um every family have heard about the possibility of the significant change but we have not been provided with enough information to understand how it work and how student outcome will be protect. As a result, uncertainty has began to impact the trust and confidence in both the school and programs. Um parents wanted to make a decision for their children. But it's very difficult at this moment for us to know um you know without knowing the change how it's going to be impact and I wanted to give a very clear example. I really want to promote this program. So I recently um I share information about our CI program in a local Facebook group. Um five family contact me

044afterward. They are interested in that. Three of them are with live in the district already and after they are aware of this uh potential u multi-grain change with the limited information. They all hesitate to invote this program. They are waiting for me to come back to them to tell me how is limit this meeting go. So um I also want to share some of question they have asked me about it. Um they say what education goal or challenging is the multi-grade uh approach intend to address? Um is this being considered as a temporary solution or it could be extended to additional grade level in the future? Um what teaching strategy and class structure will be used to ensure student in different grades continue to receive um proper instruction? How are teacher being prepared and that's

045really critical for us and support this change. Um and what is a safeguard will be in place to protect academic uh rigor and student achievement? Um when will be the final decision to be made and communicated to the family? Everyone is waiting for this one. And finally, is is this approach being considered only for the CI program or it's kind of across all the district um 220? Uh because I do know you guys have multi-program for the extent service. So if so then I think you know parents should if it's interesting multibrand will go for that program but not for the CI program because we will not come sign up for that. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. That concludes our public comment. I know um the the

046the social media and digital citizenship team is already working on some of the feedback that was discussed here tonight. So we'll continue um to include that in our research and and as that committee moves forward. And I know that we have communicated with the Chinese emerging parents if to make sure let's just make sure they know when the when the curriculum how it be decided. I know it's not part of your report tonight but how that class. >> Yeah. I would say in a general sense, you know, we had conversations um with the board of education a few weeks ago. Um the board gave some direction on some of the options that were presented. Um we've been in the process of closing out the school year, but also simultaneously looking at those different program options.

047Um, we are aware that we want to inform our parents, you know, on the model that we're selecting after working with our teachers and our department of teaching and learning uh the last few weeks. Um, there will be an opportunity for us to provide an update uh to our community as well as parents that have signed up for the program in the coming weeks. Is that fair to say? >> Yeah. So, stay tuned. I promise uh more information will be uh coming out shortly. >> Sounds good. Yeah. Um and then yes the uh technology as well. Um you know we are fully aware community's interest but also our own internal interest on on this topic and as was noted in the presentation next steps I think really four and five uh speak to some of

048the things that we've been hearing. >> We've been hearing for sure >> and I heard the committee report on >> a few few weeks ago. >> So >> ongoing efforts Thank you. >> Yep. >> Why don't you continue with your report? >> Okay. So, we were on the same wavelength um because I have several things that are similar to your report. Um it all up. >> You were. Yeah, [laughter] absolutely. Um so, uh you know, my report tonight, I will touch upon some of the uh culminating events that have occurred over the last few weeks. Um many of which you highlighted. I think we were calling the what was it, Eric? the quadruple. What was the expression for the [laughter] >> for May 20th? >> For for May 20th because we had a lot of

049really significant uh events across the district. So, I'll report on that. Um I do have some information tonight. You know, we like to make uh decisions uh based on evidence um uh versus intentions. And so, I do have some uh highlights and updates on uh learning uh in my report tonight. and then a little bit of preview of uh things to come. So uh with that, why don't we go to my first slide? So here's some images to uh help uh reinforce and capture some of the things that um Sandra you had mentioned. So, uh, innovation showcase, uh, these were, uh, a couple of images of our students that participate in our CTE or career technical education courses, and they had a chance to showcase, uh, their portfolios, their projects and, uh, products that they

050have created through that coursework. Um the opportunity provided a glimpse for families especially those with younger students uh you know of for what is offered and what's available for them um in Bington 220 schools and then also um our creativity project participants. So students display their passion projects that they have worked on throughout the year um with the help of mentors in art uh performance STEM and charitable endeavors. Um they were very proud to share their work and you can see a couple highlights of some of the projects. Um as you mentioned, next slide. We also unveiled our new food truck, the taste of 220 uh which was provided by the generosity and donations from our educational foundation. Um, this will be uh further developed now that we have the truck and we will continue

051to build out our curriculum and then share updates uh with our board of education and our community on some of the more specific details of the use of that truck and so forth. Um, you mentioned incubator pitch night. So, yeah, this uh this uh program um it's our 13th annual business [snorts] incubator pitch night that occurred on that same day on May 20th. Um we had numerous students take the stage to present their ideas uh impressing our judges with their creativity, preparation and entrepreneurial thinking. Um this year was really hard uh for the judges to select and they actually selected to uh support three of the pitches. So, uh, congratulations to Recover Ease, uh, for its athlete recovery kit featuring tools and, uh, video guides, uh, focused on injury prevention, and care. Uh, we also

052had team PatchPro, uh, for its helmet patches designed to reduce acne and irritation and sweat buildup for our athletes that wear helmets uh, for their um, sport or activity. And then uh the third group was Trunet um who received funding for a peer tutoring program that actually supports students um through personalized learning. So that was pretty cool. >> As you can see in the photo there there we actually picked not just one but three. Uh we also then had our ground b groundbreaking. So exciting things uh are coming to Bington High School as we celebrated our groundbreaking project. Uh certainly want to take know another opportunity to uh this is made possible by the support of our generous community. Um and Janine if you go to the next slide you may have noticed we didn't

053waste any time. >> Hello. [laughter] >> So we had the groundbreaking. We had students still in session on Friday. And if you came by the high school bright and early Monday morning, you saw that there was workers and fences and excavation was already going on. Um so uh we tried to quickly capture what has occurred in uh 48 hours. Uh and you can see here they've started to do um some work in the top photo um adding um some because we're adding more Nicole, keep me honest. We're adding more parking stalls which are impervious surfaces, right? Um, so we had to expand the amount of area that we have for detention in order to capture the runoff. Um, so you may have noticed in front we we have a small detention area that the water

054collects. We're expanding that. So you can see that that that is being dug out. Um, certainly we're now doing the earthwork next to the high school um in the lower left photo. Um and then in the right photo you can see where that area of additional stalls is going to be um added adjacent to the parking lot. So those we're calling the ring or perimeter parking spot. So uh we are wasting no time. We're taking full advantage of the summer months uh starting on day one with lots of work being done uh because we're on the clock and we intend uh to put as much back in place and together so that um we can welcome our students back in the fall um and not have uh some of the construction occurring uh at that

055time. All right. So, as I mentioned, I also want to provide an update tonight on uh our e-learning plan. Uh the board uh you may recall that back in the spring of um we were concluding our existing e-learning plan and um we surveyed um our students um and staff and looked for ways to improve the plan. And on the screen here, here's four things that were identified of ways that we could uh improve our e-learning plan. So, we identified that it was important that if we're utilizing the e-learning day, it shouldn't be a separate or um different activity, but it should actually be continuity of uh the curriculum and instruction. So, learning experiences should um align with what was occurring in class prior to the e-learning day. We wanted to include both both asynchronous but

056also synchronous learning opportunities. Um so, opportunities for our students and staff to interact uh directly on those days. uh we looked at the development and implementation uh of e-learning itself and how uh what our conditions were as well as the resources. So making sure our students had access to resources and materials but also how to access uh assistance if they needed uh assistance on e-learning days. And so with that, we resubmitted and created a new e-learning plan that we implemented this year. And while we didn't have to use a lot of days, we did have an e-learning day uh this winter. Um, and so, uh, in March, we went back out, uh, to our students, parents, and staff and asked some questions to see how our new plan, uh, was going. And so, uh, here's

057some of the results that are aligned to those four areas. I mean, there was a lots of questions that we asked, but those are the four things that really emerged. So um aligned with the idea of things being aligned and engaging for our students, uh you can see that students in all grade levels reported that they agreed or strongly agreed that the learning activities were aligned to what they were previously learning in class. And students in all grade levels also reported that they agreed or strongly agreed that the activities were engaging. We also asked questions around the synchronous sessions and so students in all grade levels reported that they agreed or strong strongly agreed that the synchronous sessions helped them better understand the learning and that our open-ended responses indicated that some students preferred the

058option of less structured asynchronous time to complete assignments. Thus, the responses to 4B among older students may indicate that some students prefer asynchronous synchronous schedules um rather than indicating less understanding. And then students in all grade levels reported that they agreed or strongly agreed that they completed their learning activity activities by the end of the e-learning day. board. You may recall we uh gave some grace period uh in our initial e-learning plan um which may have had the opposite result that we had some students say I've got 5 days to get that done maybe I'm not tuning in today so best intentions but that was one of the things that emerged that we fixed and you can see that uh most students uh majority indicated that that uh that they were in fact able to

059to finish their work and their learning activities in the same day. Um, and then we also asked students uh that overwhelmingly reported that they knew where to find their assignments and the majority of students uh reported that they knew where to go for technical support on e-learning. So these are just a couple of the high levels. Um we've shared the full report uh with our e-learning. Um, you know, so overall feedback indicates that our adjustments to our new e-learning plan uh improve the experience for our students uh during e-learning days. Um, but like everything we do in Bington 220, we're not satisfied uh with these changes. So, our team recently met and they analyzed all of the feedback that we collected from all three groups and they've created some uh next steps to further improve

060uh learning uh next year should we need to use an e-learning plan. So, as you see on the screen here, um looking at creating a common bell schedule for middle and high school, we do have some crossover with staff that provide instruction at both levels. And so, having a consistent um schedule would be advantageous. Um developing a just kind of a simple e-learning one-pager of just what to expect and how to access things uh uh emerged from uh the feedback we received. updating technology troubleshooting tips and e-learning FAQs will be de developed. Uh revising our professional learning for all staff. So making sure that our professional learning that we provide to staff in the fall prior to needing an inclement weather or e-learning experience and that we're building that in and then always looking to

061update the content on our our web pages and make that information um really uh easily understood and accessible uh for students and parents. So you can expect that. And then um while per policy the superintendent uh me presently uh is responsible for determining the use of an e-learning day um no one inclement weather day. Uh they're all different. There's different factors of what is happening overnight, what's happening during the day, what does the weather look like, what what changes, what factors can we get transportation through. There's so many things that go into it. But um I thought it was important to also get information from the preferences of our community. So on the next slide um we did ask we asked and all subgroups uh students, parents and staff all preferred the majority e-learning days

062to snow days. So 55% of elementary parents preferred e-learning, 62% of middle school parents preferred e-learning and 70% of high school parents preferred e-learning. when we broke it down within that parent segment. Um, I know there's been some thoughts and feedback and so forth. So, again, there's still too many factors. I'm still going to make the call on that day. Um, and there may even days that I want to do e-learning. Um, but there's no power. There's power outage. That has happened recently in in the area. Um, so it's not a one-sizefits-all solution. But I just think it was important just to kind of get a pulse now that we've been doing e-learning for a few years just to to see what our students, staff, and parents uh think about as far as a preference.

063All right. Uh just a couple more things. Uh I am happy to share a new partnership uh that exists between Bington 220 and Aurora University. Um we have partnered with them uh for our newest micro credential focused on executive functioning. Uh this course will launch in the fall and participants will get be given the opportunity to earn graduate credit from Aurora University upon completion of their coursework. Uh the course will be taught by Bington 220 educators uh who have been approved by Aurora University and we're excited to share this one-of-a-kind opportunity. I know the board has heard uh different updates and reports from uh our administration and staff around the importance of making sure that executive functioning skills um are um a large part of what we provide in our classrooms. Um and sometimes we

064refer to those as durable skills that are not content specific and so forth. So I think this will be a nice addition to the ways that we uh pro provide professional learning for our staff and opportunities. All right, on to students. I am very pleased to share um we talk a lot about um college and career pathway endorsements for our students. I am pleased to share that this past year in 2026, we uh awarded 164 endorsements. Uh students earned a college and career pathway endorsement. was up from 95 students that earned that designation in 2025. So big jump for us. Uh you can see on the slide there um that we had 87 students uh earn the a food and natural resource uh endorsement. Three students earn the arts and communication endorsement. Uh new that

065was new in 2026. We had 13 students earn the finance and business services that was new in 2026. uh 49 students. Uh this continues to be um a popular area uh for students uh here in [clears throat] 220 earning the CNA endorsement in health sciences and technology. 11 students [clears throat] for human and public services endorsement and one student who earned the information [cough] technology endorsement which was also new in 2026. So we continue to add opportunities for our kids which I think is just it's phenomenal. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> That's great. All right. We also have a tradition of senior walks in district 220 and you have several uh photos that we captured uh uh last week as our students uh participated by going back to their elementary schools. I I just I

066love this. I think it's really a unique opportunity really speaks to the power of a unit district that our students get an opportunity to go back and uh visit and be role models to our younger students. Um, and just wanted to say thank you to I know the buildings, the PTO's and everyone involved to make this uh tradition. The the the looks on the students faces, and I mean all of them, the younger students congratulating them [clears throat] as you can see in the lower left as they go through the hallway and return and just seeing our staff and teachers reconnect with students and just for like I said, our students to be great role models for our younger learners. It's really phenomenal. >> Uh we as you mentioned also had BHS graduation. Uh it

067was a wonderful evening uh highlighted by amazing student performances, noteworthy accomplishments. Boy, you know, Dr. Mc Williams shared so many things about the class of 2026 and and of course, you know, moving speeches uh by our students uh who shared an address uh for their classmates and just want to thank everyone at the high school uh in particular the the Debs, the Debbies that uh work at the high school that really helped make this event uh possible. they put so much into it uh for it to be just a really meaningful uh experience uh for our students, staff and parents. We also uh had a Bington transition program. Uh so we congratulated our students that participate in BTP as they prepare to embark on their next adventures uh beyond uh district 220. We are very

068proud of them and all they have accomplished and uh look forward to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for them. You may recall a few meetings ago I reported that we had one of our students from Prairie participating in the spelling bee. So wanted to provide an update and congratulate our regional spelling bee champion. You may recall seventh grader, a DD from Prairie on an incredible performance at the national uh the scripts national spelling bee in Washington DC. She represented us very well. Adidi advanced all the way to the semifinals. So she ultimately placed 30 out of the 247 spellers nationwide. So that was pretty cool. Uh outstanding accomplishment and a testament to her hard work, dedication, and talent. We're incredibly proud of her and all she's achieved on the national stage. Um and so

069we look forward to next year's spelling be. But congratulations to her. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. And you may uh just wanted to to mention uh this year our nation is celebrating its 250th anniversary of the United States. And while there are several events in our communities this summer as like kind of culminating uh activities on the milestone of being celebrated on July 4th, um many of our schools organized learning activities uh in the schools so our students could also experience and I know there was a bunch of things going on across the district. Um I had a a chance to attend uh Barbara Rose. They actually had um a dayong event uh where there was different learning activities all around um our country and uh the the pride and celebration and uh experiences were really

070cool and I had a chance to read to a couple classes of first graders. Um I loved that boy uh who dressed up for the day [laughter] uh showing his pride in in uh the United States and it was just a really cool event. And so I want to thank I was there but there was also a bunch of different community members and individuals that came in and participated in the learning activities. So again that partnership of our community uh coming together around different events is so strong uh here in Bington. And then here's my teaser. You you may recall uh some have called it the best part of the meeting is when [laughter] we have our students uh report on what's going maybe for some >> [laughter] >> um uh that'll remain nameless. Um

071but uh I I wanted to uh highlight since we don't have a student here tonight um our communications team put together um a montage of just short snippets of all of the students that [clears throat] joined us this year. Uh this is something that Eric and his team came up with and I thought uh it'd be neat to kind of just take a moment and reflect on the students that uh spent some time uh with the board and sharing highlights for our community. So let's go ahead and roll the tape as they say. >> Members and the community for the opportunity to speak here tonight. >> When there's a problem, there's always a solution. >> And he is wonderful at playing what else? >> Piano. Oh, >> I cook at home. >> You cook at

072home? Do you cook at school, too? >> Yeah. >> One of my favorite memories would be playing Philly football my junior and senior year. Decorating the jerseys is one of my favorite things about the tradition. Character John has made a huge positive impact on our school. I think everybody is a better person because we practice important traits. I have enjoyed my time here, my awesome teachers, and the great friends and memories I have made. >> I have been able to work closely with the two of them and see their growth, not only as students, but also as human beings. >> Being real to me means showing up as your genuine self, whether it's school, extracurriculars, with friends, or even at home. >> I show up as my real self in my learning by following my

073passions. And at BTP, I like to do micro business with candles. >> I like to go shopping at Jewel and to buy cookies. Having a community like Chinese immersion and extended classes has built my courage and my ability I want to thank the district 220 board members and the community for the opportunity to speak here tonight. >> When there's a problem, there's always a solution. >> And he is wonderful at playing what else? >> Piano. Oh, >> I cook at home. >> You cook at home? Do you cook at school, too? >> Yeah. >> One of my favorite memories would be playing Philly football my junior and senior year. Decorating the jerseys is one of my favorite things about the tradition. Character strong has made a huge positive impact on our school. I think everybody

074is a better person because we practice important traits. >> I have enjoyed my time here, my awesome teachers, and the great friends and memories I have made. I've been able to work closely with the two of them and see their growth not only as students but also as human beings. >> Being real to me means showing up as your genuine self, whether it's school, extracurriculars, with friends, [music] or even at home. >> I show up as my real self in my learning by following my passions. >> And at BTP, I like to do my business with candles. >> Yeah, >> I like to go shopping at Jewel and to buy cookies. Having a community like Chinese immersion and extended classes has built my courage and my ability to work with others too. >> I show

075up as my real self by sharing my thinking even if it's I think this is one of the reasons why mine is so >> theater especially is a very important part of my middle school experience. It's helped me better express myself and communicate with my peers. >> Because of the amazing teachers like Mrs. Curtis and programs at Rose, I'm ready for whatever comes next in middle school. I'm so fortunate to have had these wonderful opportunities at VHS and I hope I can continue to be a part of communities like this in the future. >> Let's be real. I am the only Martian invited to address the board of education. Tonight and thank you. >> All right. I can't do better than that. That that concludes my report unless there's any questions from the board, but

076we'll make sure it's in the newsletter so you can enjoy that too. >> Enjoy for sure. >> Dr. Wingleman, can you tell us what game is next for the girls lacrosse team after their win today? Is it super sectional? Is it sectional? >> Yes. Hold on. I think I actually have that and I have the time, I believe. Hold on. >> Yes, it is. And it's 1:00 at Hinsdale Central. It's actually state semiinal. >> The state semiinal. >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> What day? >> Thursday o'clock in Central. >> Thank you, Eric. >> So, if we win, we play for the state championship. >> Correct. >> Thursday. >> In two days, th this Thursday. >> All right. Go Phillies. >> They will be guaranteed to play Saturday in either the championship or the third place.

077>> Oh, okay. >> So exciting. >> Where's that? Enzel. Okay. >> Same location. They are the host. Okay. >> Okay. >> I bet you Thursday. >> Okay. >> So, I just wanted to piggyback on the senior walks. I had never seen them. So, I went this year to North Bington. >> It was phenomenal. But icing on the cake for me was that two retired teachers came back to see their kids. So I saw my kids kindergarten and first grade teachers from 30 some years ago that you know have just recently retired but they came back to see their the graduates and it just was phenomenal. It really was a great experience. >> A >> that's so cool. We I mean we are we are we are so fortunate in so many ways. Thanks for sharing

078that. That's great. >> Yeah it's a that's a really great tradition I think. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> That's great. Thanks to our staff for coming back too >> and that did that occurred. I I know staff typically come back after retirement. I know I think Mr. Als was at Huff even a former principal for those students. So yeah, it's it's a nice way to come together as a community. >> That's great. >> All right, so next up isformational reports. Any questions on them? >> No. >> All right, board committee reports. I don't know if anyone met. >> Well, we hear that one. >> Yeah, I I want to report on the disciplinary committee. >> Sure. >> Uh we met on May 21st. >> Um and just for more for the community, the disciplinary committee

079is now a boardanding committee which meets at least yearly. It's a combination of the parent teacher advisory committee and the behavioral intervention committee with administrators, educators, parents, and community members present. Sandra and I attended. Our task is to review policies and procedures from a disciplinary view with a lens on positive behavioral interventions and restorative justice. We reviewed the following four policies: student rights and responsibilities, student behavior, suicide depression awareness and prevention, and misconduct by students with disabilities. And our goal was to try ensure that our policies aligned with our student handbook. We made some suggestions for minor updates to our handbook, but found that there was much alignment, which was very good. And um just for the community and for the board, there's a memo in our consent agenda for further information and clarification. But

080since this was a new committee, we wanted to just emphasize that uh you know, for transparency why we're having it. And um I think Sandra and I, you know, enjoyed the experience. So >> yeah, certainly. Great. >> All right. No, no other reports. All right. Um, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Tonight on our consent agenda, we have minutes from May 19th, both open and closed. There's a revised personnel report, the student um disciplinary advisory committee report that Barry just mentioned. Um, the hazardous crossing resolution, which we do every year, uh, and there were no changes that were recommended there. um the list of authorized depositories and per policy that um we establish that the per policy that the CIO has to

081establish a list of deposit depositories every year our post issuing tax compliance report and last uh to renew our treasures bond. Any questions or comments forward on any of those things? None. Okay, hearing none. Um let's go ahead and do a roll call. Sandra Bradford, >> yes. >> Leah Kister Lazari, >> yes. >> Steve Wang, >> yes. >> Harath Shriasta, >> yes. [clears throat] >> Aaron Chanding, >> yes. >> Barry Elcheler, >> yes. >> All right, motion passes. We have um several items on uh action items. Then um do we have a motion to con um to approve the summer break of 2027? Make sure that's clear. Um for the Bington High School choir to go to Italy, Slovenia, and Austria. So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Our board policy does require um that the

082board approve any overnight trips taken outside of the contiguous United States. Um and the entirety of this trip is in the summer. And as I mentioned, we'll travel to Italy, Slovenia, and Austria should this pass. Again, not this summer, but in the summer of 2027. Board, any other questions or comments? >> Sounds pretty awesome. >> I know. They need any >> to be a chaperone. They need any chaperones. We're all volunteering. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. I had a choir student, a couple choir students. >> Roll out my resume. All right, let's do a roll call. >> Barry Elcheler, >> yes. >> Leah Kister Lazari, >> yes. >> Harath Shivasta, >> yes. >> Erin Chanding, >> yes. >> Sandra Bradford, >> yes. >> Steve Wang, >> yes. >> All right, motion passes. Do we have a

083motion to approve the intergovern intergovernmental agreement with the village of Bington? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. This agreement um supports a collaboration between district 220 and the village of Bington related to the proposed relocation of the rectangle rapid flashing beacon or RRFB um uh um to Bington High School in the district administrative center right here at this intersection right outside this building that we've talked about several times. >> So moving the one that's currently at Hagar down >> any other questions or comments on that? I just I guess I'll just comment. I appreciate the village being willing to um advocate on our behalf, >> which is essentially what the agreement says. And just to be clear, we're eliminating the one that currently exists, but we'll be building a new one for us.

084So, it's not moving the existing to stay the existing, >> right? So, we're gonna >> potentially upgrade >> bigger and better, >> aka the mother of all beacons. [laughter] All right. Shall we do a roll call? >> Leah Kister Lazari, >> yes, please. >> Barry Alt Schuler, >> yes. >> Aaron Chanding, >> yes. >> Sandra Bradford, >> yes. >> Harath Shivasta, >> yes. >> Steve Wang, >> yes. >> All right. Motion passes. Do we have a motion to approve the Bington Swim Club contract? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. This is an annual renewal that we do every year with the with the swim club. I don't remember. I forgot to ask beforehand. Were there any renovate or any revisions that were made in that contract? >> Very minor, if anything. Just updating

085a few things. I don't think it's uh been fully revamped for a number of years. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments from the board? >> Let's do a roll call. >> Steve Wang? >> Yes. >> Erin Chanding? Yes. >> Sandra Bradford. >> Yes. >> Harathy Shivasta. >> Yes. >> Barry Alcheler. >> Yes. >> Leah Kalistister Lazari. >> Yes. >> All right. Motion passes. Um, do we have a motion to approve the transform 220 bid? >> So move. >> Second. >> All right. This is the electrical bid. Let me pull that up so I can quote the numbers that are there. Unless you've got them real handy. Um, do you have them real? >> My screen has been circling. >> Okay, I've got it. I got it. >> Okay. >> Um, so, um, I'm just

086going to read the abstract here. It's not that long. Administration is recommending the approval of the revised electrical bid proposal from Krauss Electric Electrical Contractors for the Bington High School and Middle School Transform 220 projects. Following additional discussions with the contractor, the district was able to re to negotiate, sorry, a voluntary reduction or deduct of over $600,000 from the original proposed amount, aligning it more closely to the budget estimate. Um, administration continues to recommend rebidding the remaining two previously rejected bid packages in the fall of 2026. So, a significant reduction reduction there. >> Yes. So, we came to you a couple of months ago um letting you know how the bid results were on transform bids and we had a couple that were out of our budget and this was one of them. This is

087one of the largest ones but through negotiations and great work from our team as well as our partners. This is now falling within our budget which is fantastic news because this is a really important item for us to have this summer. >> Glow would be good. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, we're we were really thrilled to get this information. [cough] >> Just for information, what are the two bids that are still outstanding that we're going to re rebid? >> Do you remember? >> I'm so happy you're here. >> I'm [laughter] sorry. >> Carpentry and drywall and general trades. >> I'm sorry. Say the first one again. >> Carpentry. Thank you. >> Carpentry and drywall. Just in case you couldn't hear. >> Thank you so much. All right. Any other questions or comments? Let's do a

088roll call. >> Harath Shriasta. Yes. Sandra Bradford, >> yes. >> Erin Chanding, >> yes. >> Steve Wang, >> yes. >> Leah Kister Lazari, >> yes. >> Barry Elcheler, >> yes. >> All right, motion passes. Um, our last action item. Do we have a motion to approve the modification of the project work order number 12 to the Pepper Construction Company master agreement? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Um again this is to accommodate um the modification from that bid and some other um uh projected construction costs. So whenever we award a new contract, we do a work order with Pepper to adjust the overall cost. And so we did one a couple of months ago when we awarded the other transform bid. So this is the sequence that it would happen. The board would

089approve the new contract and then we would approve a work order with Pepper. >> Excellent. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? All right, let's do a roll call. >> Aaron Chanding, >> yes. >> Steve Wang, >> yes. >> Leah Kister Lazari, >> yes. >> Sandra Bradford, >> yes. >> Barry Older, >> yes. >> Hari Shrevasta, >> yes. >> All right, motion passes. That concludes our action items for evening. We have one discussion item, one very exciting discussion item. Um we've got a few people that are going to come forward. >> Yeah, the board has heard several updates from each of the departments and tonight um the presentation uh an update from our communications department. All right. [cough] Come on, technology. >> All right, perfect. Well, good evening. Thank you for having us. Um, I'm

090Eric Stackling, director of communications for Bington 220, and I am excited to update the board tonight on what has been a fantastic year for us. As you can see on this first slide, it starts first and foremost with capturing the stories that take place across our buildings each and every day. Whether it's cheering on our special Olympians, witnessing the passion and pride on display at a multicultural night, seeing the look of surprise on the bottom right there when a K9 therapy dog comes in for a closer sniff, or celebrating the accomplishments of our amazing staff. This team here helps bring all of that to life and provides a front row seat to our family, staff, and community about all the great things happening in our district. They don't need much of an introduction, but I

091am pleased to give them one here. We're incredibly thankful to Dr. Dr. Wkelman and this board for supporting the growth of this team. Joining me tonight is Miss Annie Louise, coordinator of the communications department and graphic designer extraordinaire. Miss Lynette Farmer, communications specialist and chief storyteller who is finishing up her first year in this new role. And Cassie Mariki, an invaluable source of behind thescenes help, especially with our online presence. You'll hear from all of them soon. [applause] >> Well, that's a first. You don't even have to present. >> [laughter] >> two slides. We're done. >> Uh we are heavily involved when it comes to the work of framework 220. This team is charged with communicating all the initiatives and great things going on in this district. You'll see highlighted throughout this presentation in the

092upper right corner with some of the honeycomb symbols as it relates to some of the areas. So first and foremost, you know, our team is intricately involved with a number of things I'll call front of house or initiatives you might see if you're a parent or a community member. We support communication efforts for major initiatives like transform framework and safety 220 uh to reflect the work accomplished every month and throughout the year. >> Um our team also manages the district and all the school websites and this year we implemented a new process for website updates across the district. Um, we created a form and have tried to train all of our staff to fill out the form when they have requests so we can start to kind of track how much how many requests we

093get for the website, how often we're updating it, um, how big those updates are, all that kind of stuff. So, this year so far, we've had 230 update requests. Um, and that is just through the form. U, that doesn't include kind of the training of getting people to use the form. >> Those are the people following the rules, right? So, >> [laughter] >> That's what I meant. Still a learning process. >> And we also manage the district's Facebook and Instagram accounts, which we use as vehicles to tell the story of learning on a day-to-day basis. >> All right. New this year, we stood up Parent Square to effectively distribute district communication, including crisis and time-sensitive notifications, the board of education recap following each meeting, and the 220 connection, a monthly district newsletter on the second

094Tuesday of each month. in there. We also intentionally created space to share relevant news and events from other government entities and nonprofits aimed at a K12 audience. We did an emergency test of the system back in the summer and plan to do another one this coming August before school starts. Families can also expect to see their principal start using it this coming school year. And I feel very confident about that because as we presented to the [clears throat] board last August, the initial plan for parent square was just to use it at the board and the district level. That was it. year one, we're going to ease into it, right? But it quickly became apparent as I got a little more settled that it could be a very useful tool when it comes to communication

095about high school extracurricular activities, which didn't really have a defined tool in place, had a lot of varying practices. So, starting in early fall, we kind of quickly got together and said, "All right, we have to launch this at the high school." We mandated that all extracurriculars that hadn't started their club or their season begin using it. And with not a lot of time to prepare, I'm proud to say that we've seen a high level of usage across the board with over 2,000 posts, 21,000 messages, and a growing number of calendar events just at the high school alone. I want to commend the staff at BHS, especially Brad Gillette with activities, Ryan Rubenstein with athletics, and Bridget Tileston with fine arts for helping pivots on the fly here and and getting this stood up very

096quickly. The number one, this is a fun fact that Craig doesn't know is coming. number one parent square user in the district this year with 173 posts since last June. You would think it would be this team. You would think it would be Craig. Any guess? >> Mc Williams, >> Amy Winkle, [laughter] right? Nice. >> She watches these, so she probably [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Um Okay. So, last year we did um what we called a spring update and a or a fall update and a spring update um that we sent out mailers to the community. This year we kind of ended up um revising that a little bit. We did a winter update. So, we're kind of doing um halfway through the year and then we are currently working on our summer update uh

097that we were just kind of waiting for graduation to wrap up. Um I'm working on that right now. Um the winter update went out to 17,963 homes and businesses in the community. [snorts] Um the summer one should follow the same. >> It should. Uh as you know, the quest to be real and discover authentic learning was a major emphasis across the district this year and we wanted to get Dr. Wkelman into the buildings and discover the authentic learning going on. So over the course of the year, we produced, filmed, and edited six episodes of Authentically 220, taking us on an early learner field trip to Rosalyn where they just launched, you know, TV news anchor style announcements. We went to Prairie, where we found out he is surprisingly very good at walking backwards [laughter] out

098in the community with VHS students like Da, who who you see on the left, who's an intern at Main Street Smiles. And then, of course, we had to end with our Bington Transition Program and all the wonderful things they do. That's Logan there. And I believe he's already as part of our shoot. Dr. Winkkelman asked to be part of the production team for next year. I think he was hunting for a job with us next year. So, we'll see. >> He's looking for season two. >> So, we'll see if we get him in there. Uh, we also played a big role in assisting the development of Be Here, Be Now, Be Engaged as we prepared it to be communicated out to families last fall. I want to give a ton of kudos to Matt Fuller,

099Joe Robinson, and the various teams. They oversaw before I even got here. Uh, we had a lot of great content already ready to go and developed and our team helped package it to get it ready for families and the community, but they deserve an extraordinary amount of credit for their work. [applause] Now, to some things I'm calling back of the house, maybe a little more behind the scenes. This year, our team initiated regular meetings with communications leaders from the Village of Bington, the Bington Area Library, and the Bington Park District, so we could update each other as public entities on what's going on. Uh, how should we message the community? What's working? What isn't? Oh, you have a big thing coming up. We won't send anything out that week. That's fine. I think it's a

100really important network to have because we're all competing for the same attention span. And if we're all sending something on the same day, we all lose because people can only read and digest so much. So, it's really important for us to coordinate our efforts on that. We've also taken professional development on things like our website and parent square. And this department serves a vital role in just trying to make things easier and clearer for our staff. Whether that's supporting our building leaders in crisis situations, helping with presentations and talking points. Annie made some awesome email signature templates that you see many people using in the district. But [snorts] one thing I think that's also really made a difference is the weekly word, a documents shared between my office, exec council, others in the DAC principles

101and building admin assistants sent midweek. It's a helpful organizer. We would like schools to include in newsletters a heads up on upcoming district communication, some things to keep them in the loop, maybe kind of behind the scenes, don't send a note about this, but here's kind of what's going on with that, and an opportunity to show them how we're showcasing the great things in their schools. They have really gone above and beyond inviting Lynette, myself, and our team out to cover things. We want to turn around and show them. We didn't just take that picture and never use it. We put it out there for the community to see. So, there will always be last minute things. You know, we'll always need to send one-off emails, but we've really made a concerted effort over the

102year to reduce inbox clutter, put it all in one hub for the buildings that comes out every week, so they are, you know, not saying, "What's the latest from district office? We haven't heard about this." So, really good feedback on that. That takes us to uh one of the favorite things I think that our department gets to do is tell all the amazing stories happening around the district. Some of them are really high-profile. You see in the [clears throat] top left here, CBS 2 came out here in the fall. It seems like forever ago, right? But they were at Bington High School. 13 live shots. We covered all kinds of cool things. We had over a hundred kids involved in all of that. Sometimes we hear about opportunities happening like, you know, Mr. Jose down

103there in the bottom middle. Barbara Rose celebrated him, gave him kind of a high five clapout, fed it out to our media partners that ended up on NBC. Not everything's going to be like that, but we also need to make sure that we're capturing those everyday special moments. And thank goodness we have Lynette for that. >> Thank you, [laughter] >> Lynette. Take over. >> Okay, great. So, what makes Bington 220 special, as we all know, is our people, our students, our dedicated staff and teachers and our committed parent volunteers. And my goal this year was to share the moments of learning and creativity that happen every single day across our schools and tell those stories in a way that strengthens community pride. And it's been so much fun. [laughter] I'm really loving it. So the

104next slide you can see throughout the year we showcased unique voices and accomplishments of each school. We highlighted stories. Can you go back one? I'm sorry. Sure. And we highlighted stories such as BHS culinary students opening a restaurant, Huff's afterchool service club making a difference in the community, and our Special Olympic athletes preparing for competition. We also captured authentic moments of learning both inside and outside of the classroom. from KAB students learning to dance, STEM students learning to build pull toys, and Broncos committed students encouraging middle schoolers to make positive uh choices with Amy. These stories demonstrated the meaningful experiences taking place throughout the district. So, one new initiative we had this year was doing a monthly recap. So, I get to go out to all the schools, which is really cool and exciting, but

105I'm like, how could we bring this back to the community and show them just one of the many, many things or some of the many things that are going on every day in our schools. So, I hope this works. Um, but this is um the debut of our May recap video. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Um, our 246 social media posts this year, which I didn't realize we had that many. Who's counting? Um, our newsletters, videos like those and partnerships with local publications, we've shared the stories and experiences of Bington 220 with both our district community and the broader Bington area. Um, some of our favorite projects include ReadAcross Bington, which I think you guys watched a few board meetings ago. Um, we also expanded our use of video storytelling

106overall this year. Um some highlights include Huff students reflecting on gratitude, winter wonderfest, choir and jazz festivals, Lion's first multicultural night, and the student superintendent for the day. Um we also continue to partner with Quinton Central Bington to share our stories with the wider community. So it's been just a real privilege to get to share these stories with everyone this year. I appreciate the whole department's help and everyone here and look forward to another wonderful year of sharing stories with the district. >> Awesome. Thanks, Lynette. >> Sure. Another major push from this team this year, you've heard me talk about this a lot, is to really consider how we're presenting information to our families and our general community. And I can't thank Cassie enough for all the work she's done in this area. And she's

107here to share more about that. Thanks. Um, I'm going to highlight um our focus on improving the user experience, beginning with our commitment to strengthen uh communication across the district. Our guidelines clearly outline how the community can efficiently review information and determine who they should contact with questions. These guidelines are posted on our website under the families tab for everyone to review. Um in keeping with the theme of improving user experience this year we created centralized hubs as we call them um that contains important information for our district community. Our centralized hub pages serve as a single comprehensive destination for information on a specific topic. Um rather than requiring our users to navigate multiple pages, many different clicks um and trying to find kind of the road map on their own. We have built these

108hub pages that bring all of the relevant information together in one location, creating a more intuitive and in and efficient experience for our users. Um, one example is our online registration hub page that um hopefully many of our u families have um experienced and had an opportunity to look at. It's a one-stop resource that includes registration timelines, required documents, step-by-step instructions, and contact information. Instead of the information being scattered across different sections of the website, users just go to one page um where they can find all of the information. Um, at the beginning of the school year, we created a centralized hub for back- to-school information and you will see that returning with the 20 2026 27 school year. Um, we also continue to monitor Bolt um, which is our AI chatbot. Um, he has

109supported the website visitors by answering over 10,900 um, questions throughout the 2526 school year. Um in keeping with um streamlining important information um we will be or sorry we successfully launched the ready set kindergarten page um as part of the grade level program and program transitions. Um this was an opportunity for us to um have our parents of new kindergartens come in and see all of the information that they would need to know again on one central page. Um in the works for the um upcoming school year, we will be creating a centralized [snorts] hub for middle school um transitions and then also developing a high school transition guide as well. Th both of those will be available um in the first half of the school year. And of course it has to look good

110to sell the message. You got more on that? >> Um so another way that I support our team is with branding our initiatives. Um we have a pretty strong brand here at Bington and it's my job to kind of carry that through with all of the different initiatives we do. These are just four examples. um obviously transform 220 and anything that has to do with our referendums or what comes out of the referendums like the build and the transform um our theme each year we create a logo and then that kind of carries through to the whole year um together 220 was is a staff initiative that we are engaged in this year and will continue to be um and 220U these are just four examples um we've been focusing a lot more on our

111PD this year and we created a logo around that and kind of a theme of learn with purpose, grow with intention. So, it is my job to make sure that the theme and the the branding of Bington kind of comes through in all of our different initiatives. Um, it's also my job to do um the programs throughout the district. Um, so I do almost all of the fine arts programs at the well all of the fine arts programs at the high school, many at the middle schools and sometimes the elementaryaries. Um, so that includes band, choir, orchestra, orchestas, the plays, sometimes the sporting events. So I do work on the um football program and the rosters. Sometimes the banquetss like this baseball banquet program. um some of the sports teams come to me and have

112me do their programs and um some other booklets and things that end up on our website like the career pathways booklet. Um I'm working with Greg this summer on an endorsements booklet that is going to kind of go handinhand with the career pathways. Um so there's many many many of those throughout the year. [snorts] >> Oh my goodness. >> Um some months more than others. [snorts] Um, and this you guys have all probably seen around the district. We just got this up and running on the 20th, I think was the debut. >> Um, so we're calling our food truck the taste of 220. Um, I read somewhere that we're like the second district in the state, I think, that has their own food truck. Um, so anyway, I designed like the wrap of the school,

113the truck to represent all the schools because it's going to be throughout the whole community and going to be parked at a different school throughout the year. Um, so all of the schools including the BTP are represented there and um I think it's I think everyone's really excited about it. So, >> and very attention to detail because we don't have the front image here, but if this is behind you, not only is a huge red truck behind you, it says Bington 220. Like, you know what's coming at you b no no matter what angle you're sitting at there. [laughter] So, yes, Annie did a great job getting that done on kind of a tight timeline, too. And it looks it looks really good. Um, our work is meaningless if it's not reaching our audience. Every

114year, we have people coming and going from Bington 220. Families that have kindergarteners may have vastly different communication styles than those that have high school seniors, if they're still talking to you at that point. [laughter] As part of framework 220, we understand the importance of continuing to measure the effectiveness of our practices. In the past two years, surveys had been done in the fall, but we intentionally, with all of the changes this department had this year, moved the survey to the spring to allow families in the community more time to become familiar with Parent Square and some of our new practices. So, we had 559 responses and here's a highlight of some of the results. Overall, we're doing a great job with the urgent time-sensitive messaging using parent square. 93% of respondents gave us either

115a strongly agree or agree on this question. Our re-imagined monthly newsletter, the 220 connection, is also getting nice reviews with 79% scoring it favorably. The final issue of the year comes out next week. >> [snorts] >> Overall, people seem to think the amount of information meets expectations. This is always a hot button question because you always get people that feel very strongly about. I don't hear enough from you. I hear too much from you. >> Those are the people you all probably hear from too, right? [laughter] Our principles and whatnot. But when we ask the overall general public, 79% say the cadence from the district is just about right. We know this could change every year. We know this could change by month. So, I think it's an important question to keep asking. a challenge

116that will always be present uh and that we can continue to work on. 63% of respondents rated as favorable on. I know where to go, where to look, or who to contact when I have district level questions. Because we are such a layered organization with so many departments and buildings and all of that. It's something we'll need to continue to hammer away at through our streamlined approach of centralizing information, explaining clearly, never assuming people know something. We always have new people coming into our schools and our system and we can't take that for granted. This question was strategic. It shows the opportunity that lies ahead. 83% of people responded favorably to I would appreciate the district and schools streamlining communication through as few apps or systems as possible even if it means learning something new.

117We're gonna frame that and hold that when they get mad at me [clears throat] about the next thing. But as we move into year two of Parent Square, I wanted to intentionally ask this question to see if the appetite was there for change. We can take away some things and smooth out the process over the next few years. And this to me shows overall our community will come along with us. Now, this next slide, if I'm framing that and keeping that for me, I'm going to give this to all of our principles and front offices. When asked to pick which sources of information users regularly consume for information about the district, my school's newsletter was the clear top choice. This again underscores the importance of that weekly word document I showed you before. Aligned principal

118messaging, aligned building messaging, working on cadence and communication that we will continue to do, especially with new building leadership next year in some of our schools. And finally, as I mentioned before, the people we serve change every year. We have a whole group of new parents with new tech habits and consumption tendencies and other preferences. So, we need to be aware of that. We asked, "What are your top three preferred time slots for district level messages, excluding emergency or time-sensitive things?" Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning boardings rose to the top as the top three choices. So, for instance, we've been sending the 220 connection on Tuesday evenings. Board recaps on Thursday midday. That's an easy win. We can adjust if the community is saying they want to hear from these us in these time frames.

119We can adjust our calendar to do that next year. We'll also share that with building leaders. As we look ahead to the coming months, we're in the midst of producing, as Annie mentioned, a summer community mailer. Uh should hit every mailbox here in the next few weeks. As Cassie mentioned, we're developing a middle school and a high school transition page. In the same vein as Ready Set Kindergarten, uh middle school will be ready to go for the upcoming year as we start the back to school hub. High school will be geared towards our rising eighth graders next year. So if you have an incoming freshman this year, you already hopefully know a lot of what's going on. This is really geared towards the eighth grade families for next year. We will be extending the use

120of parent square to principal level communication for next year. All front offices have received initial slides and self-paced training and we will make sure to get out and train them some more. Dr. Wkelman and I will be working on a new opportunity for internal communication when it comes to together 220 and our team. In fact, we had a long lunch lovely lunch meeting today about this today. Uh is in the extensive research phase uh and will soon be bringing some of my colleagues at the Genius Bar into the conversation about enhancing digital accessibility. You're going to hear me talk about this a lot and I know some board members have been at some committee meetings when I brought this up, but we have just under two years to work on new federal guidance when it

121comes to accessibility. There's definitely work ahead to do when it comes to communications and other facets of the district. So, we're excited [snorts] to continue that conversation. Let's give you a few more dates before we finish. We're already thinking ahead to next year. Uh we will try to leave families alone for the most part in July. We'll try. We'll see. Uh but we do have our district back to school checklist slated for Wednesday, August 5th. Uh right before schedules are released. We did that intentionally the last two days. We know people are paying attention on the 6th and the 7th. By Tuesday, August 11th, families should see a welcome back message from their principles using Parent Square for the first time. We will run another emergency messaging test on Wednesday, August 12th, which gives us

122about a week to fix if somebody's email is off or their phone number is off. And then the first day of school for our first through 12th plus graders is Tuesday, August 18th. We are happy to take any questions, but I'd like to just finish by saying we live in a day and age where we are well aware that we are competing for the attention of our families, staff, and community when there are so many other things that fill their inboxes and feeds on a daily basis. This team here is committed to being thoughtful and intentional about communicating clearly, respecting our audience's time, giving them different ways to consume information, and above all, promoting and elevating the stories and voices of our students and staff. We are happy to take any questions. >> Thank you

123for all you've done. I mean, you've been here a year and it's, >> you know, it's been a breath of fresh air just with all you've implemented. So, I, you know, appreciate all all of you. Could you just talk more a little bit more about the web accessibility requirements? I mean, what we have and what we have to change, what just, you know, explain in English what what's what is what's expected, you know, just >> translation. I think that is a hard question to answer because there are so many components and facets to it. It's making sure that everything we put online uh makes sense to a screen reader is accessible using all of the various tools and things that are out there for people with different challenges uh and disabilities and things like that.

124It's making sure that materials that we're posting online, you know, the the business office and a lot of financial documents and things. Can a screen reader read those? Can we make sure we're uh formatting those in the right way where they can be accessible to all? It hasn't been a requirement in the past. So over the next two years, how do we collectively brainstorm as a team? Whether it's changing the way we do things, looking at vendors that can help us with it. It's not just us. It's all public entities. So school districts, villages, park districts, libraries, all of these entities. We're all talking about this. >> So it's very much still kind of in the research phase. And we're lucky because the biggest entities like city of Chicago and stuff like that only have

125a year. We have two years. So, it's also a little bit of like see what they do right or wrong and maybe follow their lead a little bit too. So, it's it's a big >> excuse my ignorance, but do you see big deficits with what we have right now? I'm just wondering, do we have to make wholesale changes or just little tweaks? I'm just wondering what you see >> based on your knowledge currently. >> Well, so for example, if um this is like big on my end because I'm designing things that look really pretty. If you were to take um our school profiles for example that are designed and formatted to look nice and flow nicely in a booklet, if you were to put that online, which it is on our website, and have a

126screen reader try and read that in order from front to end and have it make sense to somebody, it wouldn't if a screen reader doesn't know what to read first, what to read second, what to call an image. So, we have an image of the superintendent with some students. A screen reader doesn't know to say that that's what that image is so that the person sitting listening to their screen reader knows what they're what they're seeing. Um, so there [snorts] are tools we learned about today. We're trying to kind of research what the best tools will be for us to use for the website in particular, but where you can kind of click a toggle and it will take that document and make it accessible so that a screen reader is going to read through

127it in order and it's going to make sense to somebody. So that's what we're trying to get to with everything on our website, the pages, the PDFs we link to, the Google Docs we link to, and that's just communications and like our website. The whole district is going to have to be doing this for kind of everything that we put out there. [snorts] >> And Barry, it's closed captioning on videos if they don't have it already. It's alt text on images so that screen readers and other things can see it. It's things that, you know, probably should have been done all along and everything that's produced, but it wasn't necessarily federally mandated before. So, it's cleaning up practices, too, and just saying moving forward, this is how we do things. This is how other people

128do things. So, there's there's a lot of components to it. >> It's going to be varied. Some stuff that's like more straightforward text will be very easy to convert and we'll be in compliance fairly quickly. some things we're going to have to look for other tools [cough] and resources to help us with the conversion and that's where that timeline is helpful. >> Oh, thank you. I just wanted to get a sense of >> Yeah, it's new the enormity of it. So that's why >> Yeah, it is new. >> I understand you have a lot of work to do. >> We have just over a thousand pages um amongst all of the district websites. Uh the other piece is that if it is actively being used by our families, by the general public, then it applies

129and needs to be remediated and make sure everything is fine. If it's archived stuff, then it doesn't necessarily need to be touched as long as it's labeled as archived stuff. So, half of the battle here is going to be what is active and live and what needs to be remediated and what can we designate in an archive section so we don't spend time working on something we're not required to work on necessarily. So, it's it's going to take all of us and then some. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Uh well done with both the external and internal communications and a lot of the new things that we've launched and all of the graphics and making things visually appealing in the videos. Um so yeah, just so much work and and um yay. Um really really

130quick question around um around social media. Can you explain a little bit about our procedures if there if it's something that that you have posted on behalf of the district? If there's, you know, somebody comments or, you know, critiques the district and there's misinformation there or just something erroneous, is it our procedure then to correct that person? But like if there's misinformation on other social media sites, we might leave that alone. Can you kind talk a little bit about Oh, and if I'm guessing if there's just like a general question, maybe you would answer it if it's our post, but not if it's, >> you know, ex external to our social media. talk more about that process. >> We obviously monitor social media, Google alerts for Bington related everything, right? To make sure that we

131are um if somebody is talking about us in a good way or a bad way. Uh we want to make sure we're aware of that. When it comes to um our own pages, um obviously we are monitoring it to make sure there's nothing profane, there's nothing, you know, that is is crossing the line of, you know, kind of decency. there are freedom of speech protections for people um where if something they're saying is not obscene or you know patently false we can't necessarily take it down. I know Dr. Winkl and I have had comments about comments. Um and you know that's a that's a subject a lot of school districts are talking about. Do you disable those? Do you allow those? Um, it's tough because it could be easy to just turn everything off, but

132then we miss the hundreds of people that comment on our graduates and our retirees and all of the, you know, a few bad apples ruins it for for a lot of good people. Uh, but we do monitor it. I I don't think, and Lynette, correct me, I we have had two-way conversations with people via Instagram and Facebook and stuff. We tend to not comment on a post where hundreds or thousands of people can see it and prefer to deal with people one on- one. I wouldn't say we've had any examples this year of anything too egregious. >> Yeah. Like 99.5% of the comments have been kind and good and >> that's awesome >> uplifting. You know what I mean? And then there are some that come in through messenger and though we won't respond to

133those or direct them to the right >> department or place, but for my first year at least, it's been pretty minimal. >> That's good. >> And and Erin, we're being pretty strategic. Not to say that we don't welcome criticism or feedback or whatever, but I think we see, and correct me if any of you disagree with me, uh, social media is a place to celebrate what's going on. Uh, we have opportunities and ways to talk about the parking lot closure at BHS and all of those other things that maybe people have strong feelings about. Facebook or Instagram may not be the way to do it. We have that as a tool and a vehicle, but we can reach all of the families directly. We can reach the community through our newsletter. So to post it

134on social media maybe isn't always the best vehicle for it. So that's why you see that being a lot more celebratory and a lot more um you know look at what our kids are doing versus here's the issue you really want to get mad about. >> Yeah. >> It opens us up to a lot less. >> And and I also feel like a lot of our comments every now and then if you if there is a negative comment it's like without us even having to do anything a lot of people kind of combat it. M >> so then we get all these this like influx of positive comments and it kind of just makes that one go away and so we don't engage with them in particular. I don't feel like >> Yeah. For sure.

135>> Yeah. >> Takes care of itself. Yeah, it it does kind of by like the good the good in the district and the people who are celebrating the positive and kind of reminding. I think sometimes people see those comments and they want to just remind everybody like why we're here. >> And if we were going to engage, I think taking it offline and having a one-on-one conversation is much more productive than trying to just jump into the Yeah. >> Yeah. I think that's wise. It's always like this tenuous balance between making sure people have the right information and not getting engaging in like this back and huge back and forth online, right? That's not productive. >> Yeah. And I maybe the surveys that we do every year will show us differently, but I I think

136if I go back to the slide, um checking district social media was actually the lowest rated of all, right? Sorry, Lynette. [laughter] >> It's still really important. >> The really important messaging, you have a direct way to reach them. Social media is not the way to do it. And with the added caveat of it opens up that forum that maybe isn't the right place for it. So we are strategic about what we put on there, >> right? Like a parent square message would go to everyone. Not everyone is checking social media. So we don't want to put all our most important information there. We want to get it directly to the people who need it through other channels. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And I wanted to comment on parent square. So really appreciate you

137guys, you know, really utilizing as a resource and also making sure that student activities are put through there because I know we've gotten comments in the past parents not wanting their kids and again, sorry, Lynette, not using social media per se and I know historically that's been a resource for student activities and sports and all that. So that's been that's received I know very positive feedback. So thank you for that and love the idea of using it even more so going through order. >> Yep. I just wanted to say thank you and having multiple kids and multiple schools. It's been very very useful and very helpful. Do you have an idea of like how many people or percentage- wise aren't on Parent Square yet or if there's a way to maybe even like add a

138link to this news like how to sign up for parents that don't know how. >> Yeah. As we move into next year, that was part of the back to school communication last year is like, oh, there's this new thing in case you get something. I think the messaging last year was you're going to start to see messages from you all and Dr. Wkelman through this new platform. You can trust it. It's okay. I think that now switches to, hey, now you've seen a year of it. You can trust it. Download it. Make an account. The nice thing about Parent Square is we know we're going to have some uh families that that it's really a oneway. We're talking at them, but they never really engage back, right? You don't need to have the app. You

139don't need to have an account to receive stuff from us, which is the most important thing. But you're right, there's a lot of cool features, especially if you have kids at multiple schools and you get the app. They're all toggled. You know, you can flip between your kid at Huff, your kid at Prairie, and your kid at BHS all in one app. So, the potential for it is is really impressive. >> Excellent. >> Great comments. Thank you so much. >> Great job. Thank you. >> Thank you. Should we give him applause? [applause] All right. Well, the board does need to go back into close session, so we will not adjourn at this time. We won't be coming back in. We won't have any further discussion items or action items to take. So, thank you all.

140We'll see you in a few weeks. >> All right. >> Okay. >> All right.