Batavia Public School District 101 Board of Education Meeting April 21, 2026

0017:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. And I call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. Cindy, would you please call roll? Orlando Here. Garrett Here. Gonzalez Thomas Present. Gilbert Present. Matthews Slyger Present. Wasicky All right. We will now say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Tom, are there any items to remove or add to the agenda this evening? Yes. Uh so there's a few items for change here. Um under agenda item 7.4, you will see one new hire has been added to the personnel report. Uh the name is Jessica O'Donnell. Under item 7.5, the purpose of the donation has been corrected to

002show donations to various recipients. And then the final item would be um if the board would like to conduct a closed session at the end of our board meeting, which would be our second closed session for the evening. Um to discuss the student board member program and the specific applicants that have been received. Um the process has now closed at min as of midnight last night. Uh we would be using the exemption 5 ILCS 120 to C 10 uh to discuss the student applications under other matters of students individuals individual students. All right, so I'll poll the board. Does the board Would the like to have that second close session to talk about the student ambassador program? You can just raise your hand if you're in favor of that. All right, so everybody's in favor

003of it, so we'll add that. Very simple. Okay. That's it. All right. Um so I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda as discussion as discussed. So moved. A motion by Danielle. Second. Second by Rob. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Uh Saeger? Yes. Kilburg? Yes. Gonzalez Thomas? Yes. Garau? Yes. Arlandu? Yes. All right, now we get to move on to celebrations and recognitions. We are going to start by the board welcoming school resource officer Jamie Goshi and Batavia High School Principal Dr. Jo Ann Smith to the podium. YOURS LOOKS SO NERVOUS. SO TONIGHT ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, we are honored to recognize someone who has made a lasting impact on our schools, our students, and our entire district over the past 5 years. As our school resource

004officer, Officer Goshi has brought so much more than safety and security to our buildings. She has been a trusted presence, a steady leader, and a caring mentor to countless students and staff members. She has the unique ability to balance kindness with accountability, strength with compassion, and professionalism with genuine connection. Officer Goshi, we are incredibly grateful for the time, care, and dedication you have given to Batavia Public School district 101. While you will certainly be missed, your positive influence will remain for years to come. Dr. Smith, will you please do us the honor and present Officer Gosche with her plaque? I know Jamie belongs to the district, but she lives at our school and she has been such an amazing presence in our school for all these years. Coming off of a really tough time with

005COVID, she was this amazing positive presence in our building and welcoming kids back and built that bridge that we continue to build with the Batavia Police Department and our students and seeing them as a positive force in our community. So, thank you, Jamie. I don't know if you want to say Yes, I have a few words. Um, even though I may look nervous, it's totally fine. Um, so serving as the school resource officer for BPS 101 has been an honor and a privilege and I know it will remain a highlight of my career. I want to thank the district from everyone here at RJ Ack, all of the staff at BHS, all of the staff at all BPS 101 schools, the parents and the students. Thank you for the opportunity for serving the community in

006this way and thank you for trusting me with something so precious, your students. Over the past few years, whenever I've been asked if I have any children, I joke that I have about 5,100 children. And that's really how seriously I took this role. I I knew I was responsible for all of your children's safety and I took that very seriously. Whether I was sharing a daily joke with a student, talking life with a teacher, or helping solve school issues, working with the district safety team to continue to maintain our security, improve our security of our buildings, I knew this role would have an impact. I just I couldn't understand the gravity of it until I was in it. So, I'm leaving here knowing that I have long-lasting connections with students and staff and I thank

007you for that. Um as any parent with 5,100 children, I hope to hand them over and to good hands and I am very confident in Officer David Sod. Um having him the last couple of days it's been very fun to see how excited he is. He's literally lit up meeting staff and students. I know he'll continue to keep our students safe and he's going to have fun doing it. I'm very excited for him and this opportunity. So, I am leaving very sad but uh I'm leaving with a full heart, countless memories, and a deep uh respect for what this district does for all of its staff and students every day and I thank you very much for the opportunity and uh making me feel a part of the BPS 101 family. Thank you. Photo time.

008Not done yet. We're taking one more. All right, thanks. Dr. Smith, if you would remain at the podium, uh uh if you would, could you do us the honor of introducing our incoming SRO? Yes. So, David Saad, Officer Saad, is a Batavia police officer. So, some people don't know that our school resource officer is a Batavia police officer. So, Officer Saad's been with the Batavia Police Department for 8 years, and we are excited to welcome him next fall to the high school as Officer Gooch has said. He He has been at the high school this week and will continue to be there until next week, just learning the ropes from Jamie, obviously. Uh big shoes to fill, but I I have full confidence that he'll be able to do so. So, welcome. Thank you. Yeah,

009it's been great to have you. Thank you. I don't have a speech yet, but I will Nice to meet everybody. All right. Well, welcome to the scene. Uh next, we have our board student ambassadors, Grace Nelson and Kaya Ober, and before they give their report, uh would you join me at the podium? Sorry, guys. Grace isn't here. She's actually Her top two colleges are at Harvard and Yale. She does She's going to be mad that I'm saying that to you guys. So, she's currently at Harvard. Um last-minute trip. Okay. Good luck, Grace. All right. Well, I'm going to say a few words here. So, if you want to maybe stand right over there. You can leave my computer. Nope, you're all good. So, on behalf of the BPS 101 Board of Education and the entire

010BPS 101 community, I would like to thank our student ambassadors, Miss Grace Nelson, who's out doing amazing things, and Miss Kaya Ober, who's going to do amazing things here tonight for your invaluable service to the district. You have been enthusiastic advocates for your peers, and your monthly updates and insights have helped the board and the district better serve the needs of your fellow students. BPS 101 is in a better place today as a district because of your invaluable contributions. We hope being a student ambassador has been a positive and enriching experience for you and your loved ones, and we thank you for all your hard and dedicated work. We are sad to see Kaya and Grace leaving as student ambassadors and students of BPS 101, but we are excited to see what you will achieve

011as you move on to the next exciting chapter of your lives. As a token of our appreciation for your invaluable contributions, the Board of Education would like to present Ms. Olberg and Ms. Nelson when she has the opportunity to receive these plaques in recognition of your dedicated service to the district. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Do you want to say a few words about the experience before you get here before you Yes. I didn't know I was getting a plaque. That's so awesome. I just really want to say thank you, guys. Like, every month I just look forward to coming here, and I make a lot of jokes, and you guys all laugh. I don't know if it's at me or with me, but it's just such a highlight of my month, and I've been doing

012this for what, 2 years now? It's been a long time. I feel like I've grown with you guys. I've gotten better at just kind of speaking, which is great cuz I'm a theater kid. Um yeah, and I just want to say thank you, and I love you, guys, and I'm going to miss you. Yeah, and that's all. I love my plaque. It's really Okay, time for my presentation. I apologize in advance. I'm kind of lacking on pictures this time. No one has been posting anything. Um Starting off with sports. Baseball has been happening. I've been to a few of their games. I got really sunburnt at one, so wear your sunscreen. Um cheer tryouts are happening soon. Track, they're about to move outdoors. They're very excited about it. Um tennis, boys tennis has been doing

013very well. Softball, lacrosse, you know, all the things. Girls soccer, dance team just picked their new captains for next year. So, Quinn Slepica and Olivia Costello Liv Costello, sorry Liv. Um Very excited for them. I'm very proud. Yeah. Okay. Clubs and events. Prom is on Saturday. I don't know if any of you are going to be there, but I'm very excited. Everyone is very excited. Um we have our spirit week this week. Um I didn't participate today. Which I'm a little bit lacking, but I did not get much sleep last night. So, it's okay. Um and then fun way after prom, which is always a highlight. Graduation is coming up. This is my last meeting. Um yeah. So, our speakers have been selected and have been practicing. Um Pride Club actually just painted a mural

014in the hallway. I didn't get a picture of it up here, but it's very sweet. It's a bunch of text bubbles saying things like you're enough, you're worth it, like positive affirmations, so it's very nice to walk through the hallway and see that every day. I got to actually help paint it cuz I TA for an art class fourth block. Um Friday, mock trial has a field trip. NHS had a field trip to Ooh. an art museum yesterday. Don't remember which one. Senior sunset is coming up. Um the ACT is tomorrow. I don't see any juniors in but if I'm missing you, good luck. Um and then NHS had a Cal's Angels fundraiser at Panera a few weeks ago. A few It was last week. Okay. Music. Um the spring play took place last week.

015It was called Ghost Light. I went to see it. It was pretty funny, if I say so myself. Choir concert coming up in I think 2 weeks. Band field trip on Friday. They're going to ISU. One acts are next week, which is senior directed one act shows. There's five of them. I'm directing one. It's very sad. I would say come see it, but don't if you don't want to cry. Um show choir auditions are coming up. There's another band concert. Choir actually took a field trip um two of the choirs, not all of the choirs. I didn't get to go. Um and over spring break, they went to Disney World. Um there's a senior night improv show uh in May sometime. I'm trying to cover a little bit of May, too. So, senior night improv

016show, music awards night is May 11th, and we had a fine arts festival, which Oh, dang it. I didn't put a picture up there, but it was so much fun. It was wonderful. Okay. And then RMS, I have no pictures, but I have a lot of things to say. Um they have basketball is done. A walk, bike, and roll, which I believe is Wednesday, May 6th. So, everyone participate in that anyway, cuz it's a lot of fun, in my opinion. Uh fun way. Sixth grade is going May 4th. Seventh and eighth grade are going May 13th, just to have a little bit of fun for the end of the year. The eighth graders have their dinner dance on the 19th. Um there's a like extracurricular music concert on Friday, which I believe is all of

017the jazz band things, uh vocal gold show choir, and their um oh, I forgot what their orchestra is called. But it's very cute. I think I'm going to that. And track, this is very exciting. Um Colin Gray, who's an eighth grader, I don't know if any of you know him, but he set a new school record for the high jump and I was told it was 5 ft 8. Which is Good job, Colin. And that is all I have to say. I feel like I just talked forever. Thank you guys so much. I'll miss you all. Go away. We're going to get a picture with you after. Okay. Time for picture. I'll see you when I see you. Which I'm sure will happen. Goodbye, everybody. >> Goodbye. Graduation. All right. Next item on the agenda

018is staff union reports, Mr. Ray. Do you have any comments to share this evening? If we keep having turnout like this at board meetings, I'm going to start just crowd surfing from the corner to get to the podium, cuz it'd be it'd be fun. Um but before I start Uh so, Friday uh fourth block, there there was a there was an incident at the high school. It was nothing crazy, but it it a thing. And staff had to um you know, do their thing and take care of it. And Officer Goshi was there to help with that. And it was a kind of intense situation. And I I I just want to say about Officer Goshi, you know, that kind of calming presence. So, like when she's there, we're all like, "Okay, we're good. Like

019we're we're we're going to get we're going to get through this cuz Goshi's here." So, I just want to say thank you to her for all of her service and I look forward to getting to know Officer Saad. And Kaya and Grace, I I want to say thank you, too, for everything that you've done over the past uh several years. Uh it's a bummer that Grace isn't here, but it's very on brand that she's at Yale and Harvard uh in in instead of being here. So, so that's awesome. Um all right. First, I wanted to extend a special congratulations to BEA members Amy Miller and Chad Clary on their nominations for King County Educator of the Year. I first met Chad as a relatively new educator on a previous iteration of our social studies SALT

020team. I don't even know if it was called that at the time. And Chad was always someone that consistently used the lens of what was best for students. And he remains someone gives time and energy selflessly, always putting his students and those around him first. Amy Miller is also someone that I've known since I started at BHS. And I'm a firm believer that the school library is the heart and soul of any school building. Every every building in our district, I think that's the case. It's difficult to describe, but it very much has a pulse. It's a place that encourages imagination, curiosity, and critical thinking and is oftentimes an oasis in the desert for so many of our students. Amy fully embodies and understands this and we are a stronger school because of her. Being

021nominated by your peers for an award like King County Educator of the Year says a lot about who they are as educators. And it talks, you know, it it reflects that impact they've had both on students and their colleagues. Both Chad and Amy are incredibly vital parts of our educational community and our union is thrilled to see them recognized for their commitment to our profession. Second, our next board meeting isn't until May 19th. It's the day before graduation, right? So, that's going to be a a wild week. So, I wanted to remind you that Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4th through 8th with National Teacher Day on Tuesday, May 5th, both of which honor educators nationwide. Teacher Appreciation Week goes back to when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped push for a National Teacher Day to

022recognize educators and by 1980, thanks to the work of the National Education Association and its affiliates, it became a nationally recognized celebration. More than anything, Teacher Appreciation Week is about making sure that educators, not just teachers, but all educators in our lives know just how much they mean to our communities. If the board will indulge me for a moment, please. Uh this is one of my favorite thought exercises. I've done this on a few committees. I'd like for you to think about your favorite teacher or educator in your own kind of personal educational experience. So, for argument's sake, K through 12. So, just take a second, think about that one teacher that really meant something to you, you know, the teacher where you felt seen, that you you looked forward to that class every day.

023You got it? Okay, good. All right. So, um now that you have that person in your mind, I want you to ask yourselves a few questions, okay? What made them such a great teacher? What kinds of opportunities do you think they had to grow and improve their craft? What challenges do you think they faced behind the scenes that you weren't aware of as a student? What supports were in place so that they could keep showing up for their students every single day? If they were teaching in our district today, what barriers might they encounter? Do you believe that the teacher was fully supported by their own Board of Education, administration, and community? And if so, what did that support actually look like? And last question, still thinking about your personal favorite teacher, what would it

024take, not just during Teacher Appreciation Week, but year round, to ensure that all of the educators in our district can be that person for our students. As a district, let's work to turn that appreciation into action that protects students, strengthens our schools, and ensures educators are treated with the respect and support that they very much deserve. All that being said to the members of the Batavia Education Association, forever and always thank you for There's a lot of you here. Thank you for everything that you do for our students and our profession. We're almost there. Let's finish the school year strong. Solidarity forever indeed. Peace, love, and bulldogs. Good night. Good luck. Thank you, Mr. Ray. Item six on the agenda is public comment. Holly, do you have anyone wishing to address the board this evening?

025>> Yes, we have seven. All right. Welcome to the meeting of the Board of Education. If anyone wishes to address the board this evening, please see our recording secretary submit a form for addressing the board. Please put your full name and address on the form, which apparently seven of you have done this evening. In general, the board will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment. This does not mean we do not take your concerns or comments seriously. The board values active community participation in the district's endeavors and encourages people to engage with the district using the appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind. Board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district and cannot engage in district business individually. If you have specific questions or would

026like to further engage with the district, you may submit your questions using the link on the website and the appropriate staff member will communicate with you. Holly, would you like to start us off? Yes, thank you, Vice President Coburn. Um, speakers will be called up in order of form submission. The first form received is the first person invited to speak. When your name is called, please come to the podium so that you can be heard. All individuals speaking will be limited to 3 minutes. A 3-minute timer will be dis- will be started once you are settled at the podium. Speakers should conduct themselves with civility and respect towards others. Our first speaker is Alexia Cesaroni. >> Thank you. If I cry though, that timer should All right, well, thank you. I stand before you tonight

027to put a face to the name on the honorable dismissal letter you signed last week. My name is Alexia Cesaroni and I am the current enrichment instructor at HC Storm Elementary. Regardless of today's outcome, my goal is both an employee and as a parent in this district remains the same. For BPS 101 to thrive because when our schools thrive, so will my two sons and our entire community. Two years ago, I made a life-changing decision. While owning my own business, I began volunteering in Batavia classrooms with Chad Clary and other veteran teachers. I quickly discovered a passion for teaching. When volunteering wasn't enough for me, I obtained my substitute teaching license. And when the enrichment position opened, I fully committed closing my business to pursue education. Now in my second year as enrichment instructor, I've

028been entrusted with a total of 75 kindergarten students and received ratings of excellent on the Vespa evaluation tool. The portrait of a graduate approach runs deep in my classroom. I've devoted myself to helping our youngest learners fall in love with school and feel connected to the BPS community from day one. I've built strong relationships with students, families, and colleagues creating a classroom where high expectations are met with trust and support. I prioritized learning the district's curriculum and actively used it alongside data to guide my instruction. When Panorama data showed a lack of sense of belonging, I responded with school-wide activities that strengthen both community and kindergarten curriculum. When social emotional needs were high, I collaborated with our social worker to implement targeted support. With full-day kindergarten approaching, I've been working toward my provisional teaching license.

029For 6 months, it was understood by myself, my team, and my principal that I was preparing to step into a kindergarten teaching role. I've invested significant time, money, and resources preparing for what I believed would be a long-term career in BPS. In January, I was told I would not be hired because the elementary principals do not support hiring a provisional license. However, Storm's principal supports my hiring, and AGS currently employs a third-grade teacher with a provisional license. Additionally, my dismissal letter cited that my dismissal was due to a reduction in staffing. Yet, there is currently multiple open kindergarten positions, including one at Storm. This inequity and inconsistency is difficult for me to understand. A former parent recently asked me how she could request me as her child's teacher for next year. A letter of recommendation

030from a former parent stated, "I feel utterly blessed that my child was able to experience kindergarten with a teacher who incorporates her heart and soul into everything she does. Her dedication to her students, passion for the curriculum, and drive to make learning fun and accessible for all is the heart and soul of kindergarten." I'm not asking you for an opportunity. I've already proven I can do this job. I'm asking you to recognize it. >> Hi, my name is Jessica Rivera. I'm a parent in the district and currently an elementary interventionist. On March 20, 20th, word began to circulate that BPS was going to dramatically change the supports we provide some of our most at-risk children and academically vulnerable students with the cutting or eliminating of our district elementary interventionists. Um, five out of the six

031elementary school interventionists were going to be cut. This news had a blindsiding effect as none of the current interventionists had been invited to any discussion with senior administration as to how, when, and why these cuts were being proposed or the ramifications that these cuts might have on programs, staff, and ultimately our students. In the short time to address you tonight, I thought it might be helpful to make sure that you all have a common understanding of our tiered MTSS support system that we follow here in Batavia. And the roles that interventionists serve at all of these levels. Students are grouped into four tiers of instructional support based on the district and classroom assessment performances and this is reevaluated three times a year as new assessment data is collected. The tiers are simply known as tier

032three, tier two, tier one, and tier zero. They are categorized based on percentage scores of these assessments. Tier three has students that demonstrate the greatest gaps in their learning compared to their classroom peers scores below the 20th percentile. Tier two students are those that need slight academic boost to get them caught up within the classroom with their peers scoring in the 21st to 30th percentile. Tier one, the majority of the students in the classroom score in the 31st to the 89th percentile. Tier zero are those students that score at the 90th or above on those same assessments. District interventionists focus their work primarily with, but not limited to, tier three students and work in conjunction with our building reading specialists. We typically see students during our WIN block, the What I Need block, for their

033instructional day and we focus on math as needed, reading or reading support services. With reduction or elimination of interventionists, this will change. My fellow interventionist, Todd, is here to tell you more. Next we have Todd Swanson. Good evening. Uh Todd Swanson, interventionist, and I'm going to continue where Jess left off about talking about the impacts of these cuts to each of our tiered levels of students. In tier three, a dedicated interventionist who has taught or worked with and navigated our district math curriculum, Eureka Math, upon which our new math intervention curriculum is based, will be gone. Also, our reading specialists will be tapped to take on these math groups as their reading schedule allows without having a background in Eureka Math instruction and Eureka Math intervention. In tier two, support from interventionists for classroom teachers

034who typically administer tier two interventions, which range from training, progress monitoring, and data collection, will disappear or be added to another educator's responsibilities. In tier one, support for grade levels like our kindergarten and first grade students to assess learning readiness and whole grade level assistance in areas like sight word analysis for all learners will disappear or be severely impacted by increasing the amount of time to complete these assessments and further delay services. In tier zero, the opportunity to take our most underserved students and accelerate their learning past the tier one curriculum will be gone as well. Additionally, a valuable member of each school's blitz teams will disappear. Monthly updates of progress of intervention groups, student problem-solving dialogue support, and grade level team liaisons will be eliminated from that team, adding additional workloads to the remaining

035blitz team members. I regret that I cannot get into much more detail in this short amount of time, but I'd like to leave you with some questions that would be very worthy of your while to get these answers to. As interventionists, we still don't have answers to many of these questions. Number one, who will be providing intervention services when the reading specialist already has a caseload of their own at the same time? Two, with the very clear email that explained the upcoming changes with elementary instructional coaches, don't the changes in our intervention services deserve the same care and attention to detail? Three, how will state quota groups, including parents, be notified to changes in intervention services? Four, what were the processes followed in making these decisions? Was the data used reliable and valid? And how

036were current district interventionists made aware of the upcoming changes? In closing, we have always been told in this district that we believe in early intervention to identify skill gaps as soon as possible and provide targeted instruction to catch students up before gaps widen and students fall further behind. To do so, we use consistent ongoing progress monitoring to determine the success of an intervention and adjust plans if necessary. The end goal is always for the number of students in interventions to decrease. This means that we have done our job and the learning gap for a student has lessened or completely disappeared. It now seems to us that by doing just this and doing it successfully, our roles have been reduced or completely cut out because we are doing exactly what needs to be done for our

037students. We're extremely concerned that those general education students who need the most individualized support will not get what they be needing from these staffing cuts. Thank you. Our next speaker is Savannah Rowland. Good evening. I come to you today as a parent in the district. I have two sons who are currently in elementary school. One is a second grader and one is a fifth grader. My kids are right on the bubble of academic need. Their scores do not warrant IEP evaluations, but they need extra support to be successful in the classroom. I affectionately refer to them as bubble kids. Both of my children have received tier two and tier three support throughout their years at their school and have made progress because of the work of their teachers and interventionists. Our school's interventionist has been

038a household name in our home since first grade. That was when my now fifth grader started working with her. They come home regularly happy to tell me all about what they worked on with her and how they have learned something new. They come home with prizes because they have done something well and she has rewarded them. She is the one that they know will help them when they are confused by whole group instruction and the classroom teacher is busy with other students. She celebrates their successes with them. She advocates for their needs in the school. My kids would not have experienced the growth and progress that they have made without her. I know I'm not alone. Behind every elementary interventionist is a group of families who are so thankful to have their help and support

039because thanks to them, these kids that are on the bubble are seen and known and supported and advocated for. And I'm asking that we keep our interventionists, that we maintain this level of support for our kids who don't qualify for the highest levels of support. They don't qualify for the IEPs, but they do need help. So, please see them and please advocate for them. Thank you for YOUR TIME. OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS ELIZABETH MEL. Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Mel and I am here tonight wearing two hats. I'm the parent of a kindergartner in our district and a pediatric speech pathologist um with 17 years of clinical experience. Thank you to the board and all of you teachers um for all of the care that you put into our children. I'm here to respectfully

040ask you to consider adopting a formal evidence-based screen time reduction policy for pre-K through high school. As a new parent to the district, I was excited to see all the new learning my kindergartner would enjoy. She's learning and growing. However, I was faced with some disappointment early in the academic year when she was talking about cartoons we have never watched at home. And we have a choice to not own a tablet and she does not watch YouTube. So, my surprise when she was independently playing, I heard her recite the phrase, "If you like this channel, please hit the like button." I see the childhood years clinically as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for learning, play, and social development. Those skills are built through face-to-face interaction, hands-on play, and engagement with a three-dimensional world. They are not built

041by gamified learning apps or programs. This isn't just my clinical opinion. My own professional organization, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, has been sounding this alarm ever since COVID um and even before. In a 2023 ASHA survey, SLPs, speech pathologists, pointed to young children spending more time on screens as a leading factor in rising communication challenges, with nearly 70% of us reporting an increase in referrals since 2020. ASHA's own publication, The ASHA Leader, reported research findings that every 30 minutes spent on a handheld screen time device translates to a 49% increase in the risk of expressive speech delay. Research studies published in the JAMA Pediatrics have also found an association between early screen time use, developmental delays, sustained attention challenges, and poor problem-solving skills. In teens, there is now a clear evidence for how screen time dose

042impacts their executive functions I'm not here to demonize technology. I know all screen time is not created equal, and there is potential for it to be used thoughtfully to accentuate or support a teacher's lessons. I'm asking the district to put guardrails in writing, daily screen time limits in the classroom, phone-free classrooms, and a clear instructional rationale whenever a device is used, and also a regular review of whether the outcomes match the promise. Our Batavia students deserve classrooms built around their development, and I'd welcome the chance to be a part of that conversation. Thank you. Next, we have Meredith Davis. Good evening. I am the parent of a first grader at Hoover Wood and I'm here tonight to speak specifically about student access to YouTube on school-issued Chromebooks. My daughter has had multiple incidents this year

043involving YouTube both during the school day and in before school care. I received emails from her teacher about her watching YouTube during class. In Kids Club, she has access to the devices in the mornings and has told me she uses it to play games and watch videos. A few months ago, she shared that she had been watching YouTube videos with an older child. When I looked up the video she described, I was shocked. They were clearly inappropriate for a 6-year-old. I reported this to the principal and the Kids Club staff. What I was told is that YouTube is difficult to monitor and that responsibility falls to the park district during Kids Club hours. But this happened on school property on a school-issued device given to a first grader. I want to be very clear. A

044first a 6-year-old cannot be expected to safely navigate YouTube. Even adults struggle to filter what's appropriate on the platform. Expecting young children to rely on digital citizenship lessons to make those decisions is not realistic. This is not just about my child. It's about a system that is allowing very young students open or loosely supervised access to a platform with content that ranges from educational to deeply inappropriate. At a minimum, I would ask why is YouTube accessible at all on devices given to early elementary students? And if it is, what safeguards are actually in place to prevent situations that happened to my daughter? I am encouraged that this issue is starting to get attention, but for families like mine, this is urgent. I urge you to take immediate steps to restrict or eliminate eliminate YouTube access

045on elementary school devices and to ensure consistent supervision across all platforms that use them. Thank you. Our final speaker is Megan McFirman. I just want to say thank you to the educators who were here speaking tonight. Um I am a resident of Batavia. I have two children in the public school system here. Thank you to the members of the board for listening. You were all very attentive to all the speakers and there are many. Um and thank you for spending your time working to improve our district. I am here to also speak about technology usage in our schools. I have had conversations with our school principal and I reached out to Brad Newkirk, the chief academic officer, about my concerns. I also reached out to Mr. Kim. There is a growing body of research about

046technology usage in our schools and how damaging it is for our children. It is isolating, decreases their attention span, and ultimately we need evidence that any of the technology they use is helping our children learn. If you search technology in schools on Google, you'll see articles from the New York Times, Fortune, and scientific studies with concrete facts to back up what I'm asking you. Get our children off their computers during the school day. Currently, there are no time restrictions for how long children use their Chromebooks at school. The response I received from Mr. Newkirk was that it will take time to come up with time restrictions because the district will need to collaborate with staff who know the students and their needs. I don't know when the district here got their Chromebooks and went to

047a one-to-one ratio, but if I had to guess, I'd say maybe 2021. So, why has there not been a plan at the district level yet to in the last 5 years to limit the time students are spending on technology. My kids use it in their classroom. Their teachers use it for rewards. They use it in art and music. In any given day, they could be on it for hours. Those are hours that could be spent talking to peers, collaborating, experimenting in the real world. Please come up with a plan immediately to restrict the time our children spend on computers in a day. I searched the district website to figure out which of the EdTech companies they that we have contracts with. I'm not sure which of these are current because the contracts do not have

048an end date. Many of the following are ones that I've heard my own children mentioned, so I'll list them off for you. IXL Blooket Math Playground, Math Facts Pro We will write, NewsELA Buzzmath, Pocket Lab Checkology GeoGebra BrainPop, PebbleGo Reading A-Z, ABCya, ReadWorks.org, Osmo, Educo Play, Handwriting and Keyboarding Without Tears, Type to Learn, Math Fact Lab, MobiMax, Eureka Math, Biblionasium, Bottle Learning, Lexia, GoNoodle, DreamBox, Khan Academy, Coolmath.com and more. These are only some of the ones that are listed on for K to 5. So, I ask you please to use our money to get the teachers back in our classroom for our kids. Thank you. May I conclude your public comment? All right, thank you to our speakers. We'll now move on to item seven, the consent agenda. According to our board policy, we designate

049a portion of the action items on the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion before board action. These items generally are routine, recurring, and can be grouped together for efficiency. Steve, would you lead us through the consent agenda? Absolutely. Uh I just wanted to note that uh what uh Superintendent Kim said at the beginning, there's a couple of changes in sub one one change in 7.4 with an addition of a name, and then the change with the uh 7.5 donation. So, here we go. 7.1 is the approval of minutes from March 16th, 2026. Uh 7.2 is the approval of the minutes from April 7th, 2026. 7.3 is the approval of our payroll and bills. 7.4 is the approval of our monthly uh personnel report. We are we

050have now uh we're hiring for next school year, and there's a couple of names in there that will be here. Uh 7.45 is the approval of uh donations. We're thankful to Caterpillar uh for their various donations to a lot of our programming at Batavia High School. Uh 7.6 is the approval of review destruction of closed session recordings from September 17th, 2024. 7.7 is the approval of our food service contract renewal. 7.8 is the approval to award a copy paper bid. 7.9 is the approval of the IHSA 2026-2027 renewal. 7.10 is the approval of the Google Workspace for Education renewal. 7.11 is the approval of Dirk Trace renewal. 7.12 is the approval of the disposal of surplus tech. 7.13 is the adoption of textbook on public display, and 7.14 is the approval of our software renewal.

051Thank you, Steve. Does the board have any questions or comments? Uh 7.10. Is the cost increase a one-time increase due to the new student licensing requirement? Uh and are there any other options that we could explore in the future? So, it is an increase due to the change in licensing model. That reoccurs every year. So, once it's on this new model, we pay every year anyway. But, due to this increase, this is the first time this has actually come to the price increase. Um as things progress, we're starting to change the way you manage these accounts, so you can change the types of. So, that helps us save money that way. The only other option to get out of this is to move to some completely other type of system like a Microsoft or something

052else like that. So, you're looking serious costs if we did something like that. Okay. Any more questions or comments for anyone? Uh yes. 7.14, how much was saved by eliminating the ELA portion of IXL? Um not as much as you would think, right? So, I think last year we paid about $53,000 for both subject areas, but the pricing models it's kind of like a your insurance agent, the more cars and your home that you have on there, the more discounts you get. So, we're only saving like at $15,000 by eliminating math, but believe me, I tried to get half off. Looks like you're thinking, Kristen. Do you have any more >> that was all I had. That was all I had. >> Okay. Anyone else have a question? All right then, I will entertain a

053motion to approve all items in the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Danielle motion by Danielle. Second. Second by Raquel. Cindy, will you please lead us in a roll call vote? Slyker? Yes. Kilgore? Yes. Garrels? Yes. Gonzalez-Thomas? Yes. Arlandu? Yes. All right, we'll move on to section 8, reports. We'll start with 8.1, FOIA request. Tom, will you lead the discussion? Yep. Uh board, the report has been presented to you. So, a little bit of a heavier um a month of requests that came through the district, but uh we were able to respond all to all of them in a timely manner as required by law. Any questions? No? Then we'll move on to 8.2, the treasurer reports. Tony? Anything to add? Anything out of the ordinary this month? Nothing out of the ordinary this month.

054Any questions for Dr. Glaze? No? Then we'll move on to committee updates. Tom, will you lead us? Uh we've got the report there in the board book for you. Uh board members, that if you were a part of a committee that met, if you want to go ahead and share anything beyond that, uh feel free. BRAC met. We got to try some food. Oh. Oh, everyone It's an exciting So, we're warm. Further exploring the um national school lunch program versus what we have right now. So, um I would say overall, the So, we were offered each and then got to choose which one we liked better. So, it was very interesting. There were I think two of the three dishes. I honestly could hardly tell the difference. Uh one of them was a pasta dish

055that had regular and wheat, so it was kind of it was more obvious, but um yeah, so we're just continuing to talk about that as an option. Consider in the future. Thank you for that. Anyone else have any updates they'd like to share? All right. Then we will move on to uh the FY27 staffing board reports. Steve, will you lead that discussion? Yeah, absolutely. Um so you all have a document. It's not uh very large, but it kind of gives a little bit of an overview and I be honest with you, I pretty much uh the template that we used last year and kind of made adjustments to that. Um you know, that that first paragraph just kind of talks a little bit about our process. Where we uh meet with our various leadership groups.

056Uh we look at Tony's projected enrollments. Look a little bit at the needs of the schools and then we kind of make our decisions from there. Um when it comes down to recommendations, I just want to make sure that I'm clear about a couple of things. Number one, um really if you look at like the change in the FTE and this is why I only included the 1.0 FTE to seventh grade. That's really the only kind of additional staff member we added. I think at one of our elementary schools, Hoover Wood, there's a plus 0.5. That's probably going from a half of or a it's a it's an a it's a full section of kindergarten is really what that change is. And so I didn't list on here um the postings that you probably saw

057last week and that are on our website with some of the new kindergarten positions because it didn't impact really our overall FTE. And so if you look at the uh school level adjustments based on enrollments, you can see that at the bulk of our buildings, um we were actually able able to reduce staff except for uh Retolo and then at at Hoover Wood. Um the majority of those reductions um were based upon enrollment. I guess probably all of them were based on enrollment. Um and uh the other thing that I want to remind our board on is that we're always closely monitoring this. Brad and I uh we basically update the numbers um every 2 weeks. Brad usually makes a secret couple of secret phone calls to our secretaries at our schools cuz they know

058a little bit more intelligence on who's coming in, who's coming out, and who may be coming and may not. And so, we're always monitoring our classes to see. You'll note at the bottom we added and and we started putting this in here as a contingency for unanticipated enrollments. And our original number was actually five. And then we realized we had to add a section of kindergarten over at AGS. And being honest, when I put this board report together, the number was at four. Brad and I looked at the kindergarten numbers today because our principals have been telling us they've been kind of growing a little bit. And again, this is very typical. But you'll be seeing a posting or postings going up probably as early as tomorrow or Thursday because we are going to have

059to add um probably three sections of kindergarten at various buildings. So, you'll see So, that that contingency number, Tony, I'm sorry, is going to go down from four to one. I will say if you look at the total number here, with the contingency number going down, it's not going to be that minus 9.5, that minus 5.5 if we use all of our contingency numbers, that's where we'll be at. I will say this, um since I've been here and I I think I've probably shared this to with you all as a board before, but Tony usually comes to Brad and I with his projection as in his enrollments based upon the numbers, and then we have our conversation and we look at the needs of the students, and I don't know that I can say that

060we've stayed within the parameters that Tony has given us because um the needs of our students have continued to go up. I and post-COVID, we've pretty much done nothing but lost students since 2020. And we've added staff um to support our students. And so, this is probably the first time that I can say in my 12 or 13 years of doing this that we're actually seeing a reduction. And I I I believe it's the right time. Um, we're all aware of the uh pressures uh financially that are facing our district. Um, with uh uh uh you know, getting money from our state, from the feds, uh from local our local uh property taxes. And um if we're able to be very um strategic about our staffing, um that is going to save us from uh

061that rubber band effect that you're seeing in a lot of districts where they're laying off 20, 30, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40 people uh staff members to make up for a massive budget shortfall. And so, you know, I something I've always appreciated about Tom is Tom has said something along the lines of, and forgive me if I say this wrong, he's he's like, we can do everything, but we you know, but we we have to be very specific we have to make sure that what we do is working. And so, we have to be very um it's it's very important we look closely at our staffing because that's where our biggest expense is. Um, I do want you to say I know you heard some things about interventionists. Um, as you probably know, um

062across our school system when it comes to special ed students, EL students, and providing supports for them, we always base that on the numbers, right? Um, you know, case loads can go up, we add more staff. Case loads go down, we reduce staff. Um, what we've seen happen at our elementary schools, just to speak to the interventionist question, um just so we're we're clear is that um we're look in the past, we've been afforded the ability to not really have to worry about the numbers because we've had the budget to do this. Um, now we have to be a little bit more uh uh pay a little closer attention. And so, um I I I will say that we we made the decisions with interventionists um based on numbers and data. Um we feel that's

063the best way to go moving forward. And um, you know, we we have plans in place to support these students, but I just want you to know that um, this wasn't just a a a a a cut of all, it was looking um, at our whole staffing plan and saying where can we make the best decisions and we're we're doing our best to make those um, to stay within our means. And so, you know, we have uh, as we do every year, like I said, we monitor uh, class uh, uh, levels across all of our um, elementary schools. That's primarily where we see them go up and down and fluctuate and are a little less predictable than middle school and high school. We'll continue to monitor those and um, after our postings this week, we'll

064probably have one contingency position back and if we have to use that position, we will do that. And if we have to add more positions, which you know, we're we're hoping not to do, but we have to do what we have to do to support our students, then we'll we'll if if that happens, we will come back to you um, to get your approval uh, to add any positions if that's necessary. The last uh, point I want to say and there's a little sentence at the bottom, we did have a reduction in our BESPA staff of 8.5 positions and that's because we had the uh, dismissal um, last month of the uh, kindergarten enrichment um, instructors. Um, having said that, beyond that reduction in BESPA, across our other BESPA positions, we're not seeing any reductions.

065Um, and I would also like to say in our BEA positions, um, while we do have reductions, um, all of those have been done through retirement or honorable dismissal. Um, and we had one vol- voluntary um, transfer. And so, overall, um, I considering some of the stories that we've seen happen across other school districts, I feel like we're positioned very well. Um, we're being fiscally responsible, but I also believe strongly that we're providing the right supports in place to support our students in their learning, which is our primary mission. And I would also contend that some of the things that we're doing pretty well around here with a line curriculum and things like that, providing hopefully quality training for our staff, we're seeing very good results from our students at some of our our our

066the different things that we monitor. So, overall from my vantage point, I'm pretty happy with how the staffing plan shaped up and I'm happy to talk to you about or answer any questions you might have based upon what I shared. Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Pierce? You mentioned that the that there plans to uh kind of fill in the gaps that would be left with, you know, interventionists leaving. Do you have examples of how that might Brad can probably best help us. Sure. So, we we look at the case load of all of our support staff. So, with special education, reading specialist, I think one thing that schools have struggled with in the past is um like what's equal and what's equity, right? So, equity to me means you put your resources where

067the most needs are for students, the most at-risk students. Um but schools are often based on equality. So, like each school gets one nurse, they get one principal, they get that's how we've typically functioned and we really can't afford to literally afford to keep going in that direction. So, we have to look really carefully about where to put our resources. So, when we look at both the interventionist case load and the reading specialist case load, that is something that we took into consideration is whether that person, if there was a reduction, whether that person could take on part of that case load and still best serve their students. I mean, some of their points are very valid like scheduling and all those types of things are still to be worked out, but there is capacity

068within those positions in order to serve our kids. So, a question I would have then is uh based off the staffing we'll have for next year, are we uh fluid or adaptable that if the needs change in buildings, we can add resources to buildings as needed for students that would require them? I mean all I all I would say is I I feel like and I as as somebody who's been in this role for 12-13 years, I think we've been pretty good about doing that when it's necessary. Um we always are going to look at our um student needs and prioritize those at the highest level. Um sometimes it's adding staff. We've done that over the years to be adaptable. Sometimes it's maybe doing something a little bit differently. It really just depends on the

069situation, the need, um how many students need to be supported, etc., etc. So, it can look a lot of different ways, but I would say for a pretty uh you know, an educational organization that's can can be large and can be slow-moving, I think that um at times we can be fairly adaptable and move to support our students better. Um that takes flexibility in everybody, but I would say I think we have a track record of doing a pretty good job with that. We may not be perfect, but we've done a pretty good job of doing our best to try to support all of our kids cuz that's our mission. I have another question just for those that are watching cuz no one else is in here that won't know the answer to this question,

070but could you define FTE and how we get to one FTE? Yeah. FTE is full-time equivalent. It's basically a full-time position, right? And so, a 1.0 is one person who's filling or or it's a full-time position. Typically, one person fills one FTE. Um there have been times, for instance, when we had uh we had a we had our KEI positions that we we just reduced because of full-time kindergarten. Sometimes we had one person filling a 0.5 FTE KEI and a 0.5 FTE kindergarten. That equates to 1.0 and one person fills that. So, hopefully that made sense. Thank you. Any more questions for Dr. Pierce? Yeah, Steve, can you comment on so um the 8.5 FTE reduction in VESPA. So, I guess maybe it goes to your question right here, but um what does that look

071like in terms of like I guess BEA licensed teachers? What what is So, these are non-licensed positions The I know the VESPA The 8.5, right? Yeah, yeah. So, what is that How are we accounting for that in the licensed teachers for full-day kindergarten? So, what what Well, ironically, um it depends. Um in some buildings, for instance, um Brad might have to help me with this a little bit, but in some some some uh we may have had Let's say there was one Again, it's hard because this year this year 1.0 FTE kindergarten teacher, they're teaching two sections, right? Cuz they have one in the a.m. and one in the p.m. And the next year we're flipping it, so like there's a little mix there. But like there could be a school right now where they

072have 1.5 kindergarten sections, right? So, one person is teaching two sections, and then the other person is teaching one section of kindergarten maybe that other section of KEI. So, we got rid of that 0.5 section of KEI. Um and we would have honorably dismissed both people because we honorably dismiss all of our part-time staff members every year. Um kind of see where we're at and then we hire back. And so in that situation that scenario I just gave you, there's one FTE of a BEA person teaches the kindergarten. Um we'd have to add another section to cuz we have two sections from that one person cuz going from two sections of a half day to two sections of full day. And then we probably have a third BEA person to hire to fill that other

073point was a point five kindergarten now is a 1.0. So 1.5 kindergarten sections this year is 1.5 FTE. Next year three kindergarten sections is three FTE. Right. That makes sense. Yeah. But the irony is because of how our numbers played out, we're actually not necessarily adding 8.5 FTE to kindergarten. Or to excuse me um yeah to to to we're we're we're using our existing staff. That's kind of I know that Tony when we first looked at this and knew this was coming, he was anticipating a larger add and it hasn't played out that way because the numbers. I mean in one big one you can see we have minus three people at Batavia High School. That's just a complete numbers game and it's kind of that might be is that that might be the last

074kind of of our reduction that we've had in students over the years that's finally hit at the high school. I don't know that we'll have too much more of that. Joanne would know better than me but Right. This is the biggest one we have. So does that make sense? Does that answer your question? >> sense and my point was I think we're we're shifting our resources around That's correct. to accommodate for for this situation and it's based on enrollment, right? So So this year we have about 8.5 BEA kindergarten positions. Next year we'll have 16 to 18 BEA positions which is like 16 to 18 is a very typical per grade level in elementary number of total sections throughout the district. Which That's That's your math of the 8.5 best of positions. And so of

075the open positions that you're hiring for, how does that usually work? Like could the honorably discharged are they given some preference in hiring? Yeah, we we make it a point um if somebody is honorably dismissed, if someone is a best of member and maybe just got their teaching license, if someone is a building substitute, we prioritize that hey, if you're if you're one of our employees, we're going to interview you. It's all based on licensure. You have to have the proper licensure this year. We you know, made that very clear, which was discussed here. Um in our public comment, but uh yeah, we we like to give um all of the people that have been working for us that opportunity to interview for a position. They're not guaranteed that they get the position, they get

076the opportunity to interview for it. Okay. Good questions. Any more questions on this topic? All right, then we will move on to 8.5 the FY27 preliminary budget. Dr. Inglesi, will you lead us through this discussion? Sure, I'd be happy to. This is our preliminary view of the budget. So, this is the first pass at it. We will pull a place the actual budget on public display here in the summer, in June, probably. Uh which it has to be on display for 30 days, then we'll hold a public hearing in July, and then we'll adopt the budget in its final form in August as we start the school year. Next slide. So our revenues are going up a little bit this year about 2.2 million and our expenditures are going down so it's widening a gap.

077But however, the um the net difference is a minus $5 million. And that's less than it was last year. And the reason being is that we're spending a lot of money on our capital projects. The the difference between what we're spending our money on is going down. And uh that brings down our fund balance accordingly by that nearly $5 million. Uh and our capital investments are going down slightly, too. So in this current fiscal year, fiscal 26, we're going to our deficit is about $14 million. Uh and that's going down pretty dramatically, but it's still a deficit in the sense that we're spending more than we take in, but it's not an operational deficit. It's not in the sense of what we consider our operating funds. We're spending our reserves to put money in one-time

078expenses. They're not they span many years, but one-time expenses into our schools. I'll explain how all that fits together here um throughout this presentation. This demonstrates what's happening. It takes a couple of seconds when you look at this graph to really figure out what's happening. But in blue are our revenues. You can see uh in 2024 to 2025 they went up slightly, in 2026 they're going down, and then we expect them to go up at a modest pace in the future. And our revenue our expenditures, our operating expenditures, are less than those, which is good. That means that we have a structural surplus. However, we're spending more because of our capital projects, the work that needs to be done in particular on warm safe dry. Each year we're spending that fund balance down, so we're

079spending more than we take in. And there's only so long obviously that you can do that. You see that blue line going down from 2025 to 2026? That's because we paid off our bonds and we're not taking in as much money to pay those bonds back. Tax property taxes went down. Now all those bonds are paid off, we're going to make zoom our normal what what our inflationary increase on revenues. You can see that the red line, the operation the operating expenditures, the slope of that line in 27 through 30 increases at a slope or its rate is faster than the rate of growth on revenues. So that gives us pause. Here are our revenues historical and forecasted for 27 and then through 2030. And the vast majority where our money comes from is the

080blue, local, our local property taxpayers. And you'll also notice that the red and the yellow, which is state and federal respectively, is almost imperceptible in terms of the difference both you looking back from 24 all the way through 30. So while it does increase a little bit, it also is decreasing in other areas as we stock talked extensively in M-CATS in particular. Being as that we're a tier four school district by the state's measure, we have adequate funding. They're not going to give us any more in that regard. And they also don't have enough money to fully fund the transportation and special education expenses that were required by law to incur. So we're getting less and less back and we're getting less money from the state. So you can see all the increases are blue

081and they don't look very steep. They don't look nearly as steep as they did on the prior graph, which were distorted because to show the differences between those lines, I had to pick a a different range. But, you can see this there's no range here that goes from 0 to 150 million and those increases on those revenues don't look so steep. That's essentially inflation. Next slide. We have many categories for expenses, but I try to simplify this because I wanted to focus on what's driving costs and that's really salaries and benefits. And while you see a certain healthy increase in salaries as we would expect over time, the largest increase that we see now and in the foreseeable future is in benefits. Can you repeat that? The largest increase that we will see now and

082in the future is in benefits, employee benefits. Unfortunately, we're we're struggling to contain those costs and we don't we're doing our best, but we don't foresee that uh this is something that is going to be easy to do. And this isn't a Batavia problem, this is a nationwide issue. These costs are exploding nationwide. I I just it's hard for me to imagine how we can sustain increases as we have been or we're likely to see both here in Batavia and nationwide. You see some differences in the green, those are the capital expenses primarily and those fluctuate based on when we're spending money for warm safe drive. And the reason why I show purchased services is because in Batavia we rely very heavily on uh third-party contracts that provide custodial services, transportation services, and food services

083to our students. Whereas most school districts have our those employees that do that work are employed in-house. >> And this is the net result is our fund balance. You can see in 2026 we're spending a healthy chunk of our fund balance on warm, safe, dry. And then we'll continue to do so for the next 5 years as we complete that work. The challenge here is that based on our forecasts, by the time we reach 2030, those fund balances will be at our policy minimums. Which means that essentially we're going to be living paycheck to paycheck after that. And we're not going to have enough money if we get below the red line to pay all of our bills in the due course of the school year. And we'll have to borrow money to get through

084that that year, which incurs additional cost and creates cash flow issues. So, next slide. Here's a snippet of our staffing and relative to our enrollment. So, across the blue line is our student enrollment, which is declining slightly. What is going from about 5,200 to right about 5,000 over the span of this forecast window. We expect it to stabilize and stay at about 5,000. Our staffing, however, generally sometimes increases rather than decreases with fewer enrollments. And this year we expect it to go down pretty dramatically as Steve mentioned earlier. Our staffing should have been going down in theory to maintain those ratios for a long period of time. We are making a reduction here this year and expecting that to carry forward in future years. But that's what drives the vast majority of our costs is

085staffing, salaries, and benefits. Our current ratio is 7.4. And here's a summary of our capital needs. By broken out by school, the vast majority of costs are associated with the high school and middle school. That's where the square footage is, quite frankly, and that's where the a lot of the students are, too. It's categorized by health, life, safety items. You'll see those in blue and in red. Those health, life, safety items are identified in our 10-year health, life, safety survey. Those that That's work we must do. It's not discretionary. We must do it. Um is it is integral to health, life, safety. It includes things like replacement of um fire systems that are beyond um their their life useful life. They don't make the parts and pieces for them anymore. And so, um we have

086to replace them with newer modern systems. And then there's um warm, safe, dry, which is in the yellow, which is the bulk of the $50 million that we've committed to um that we've committed to to quite literally keep our schools warm, safe, and dry. They keep They include things like um roofs, um HVAC, uh you know, doors, the work we did at Storm, and the work that we're about to undertake here at Louise White School this summer. And then there's moving outwards on some more of what I would call discretionary capital projects, but um projects that we should consider that would actually serve our programs and make the facilities serve those um instructional functions and programs actually more directly and and better. So, in terms of what we face in the future in terms of

087risks, the first and foremost is health insurance. Right now, our insurance committee is working diligently on that. And we forecast for fiscal '27 an increase of something between 15% and 25%. And that's with reductions and modifications to those plans to keep them within that range. So, we have some pretty significant challenges ahead. We can't sustain many years of increases compounding like that. It drives out other costs, our ability to to provide services to students. As I mentioned earlier, and I I think I do at every meeting these days, is state funding. And increasing pro ration or the reduction of their support for those mandated categoricals. Enrollment declines change graphic demographic trends and they change student needs. As you mentioned earlier, Rob, we've got to be really keeping a close eye on how those needs change

088over time and adapt so that we're our staffing and our resources are aligned to those needs. We're also facing unprecedented construction costs escalation. And as has been mentioned here earlier, as the board approved in December, the bids for Louise White there was 20% increase over the very same work we did last summer at HC Storm School. And it just stopped. It just every time we make an estimate or prediction on what something is going to cost for our schools, we're wrong. And it isn't by a couple of percent. It's by two digits. And so, that's a seriously complicating factor in keeping our score schools literally warm, safe, and dry. So, we're going to have to be very careful about how we time this work. The sooner we do it, the better. We can't necessarily afford

089it. And we have to be thinking about uh the most cost-effective approaches. So, on the next slide, we talk about ways that we could address this pressure. Of course, we Our plan is to spend our reserves. There's about two or three more years of our ability to do so. And as I said, once we get past that, then we will be essentially living paycheck to paycheck. We We adjust our spending. Or are we going to align especially when it comes to staffing? That's the most dramatic change that we can make. Um anything else or otherwise is generally trimming around the edges, but we have to keep that go growth less than 3% in those annual costs. In terms of capital, we can phase or defer projects, but that can only work so long. In this

090case, as I mentioned, pretty serious chunk of that capital work that we identified is non-discretionary. It must be done by law. Another serious chunk of it is our warm, safe, dry project, which is literally keeping our schools warm and safe and dry. Where we have roof leaky leaking roofs. We've got tuckpointing that we have to do at schools so that water isn't seeping between bricks. We've got pipes that are near near failure because they're so old. They're galvanized pipes that are over 70 years old and they're corroding to the point where they start to leak. And the whole building is that way. And if that happens, for example, at JB Nelson School, we we could lose the whole school. That work needs to be done in the near future. We're rolling the dice by not

091doing it. Last is that we have limited revenue. And as I saw you saw in that that slide earlier, the new money is going to come solely from local property taxpayers. So, the good news is that our operations are stable. We have a structural surplus, but we're spending beyond that surplus to take care of work we know we must do for our schools in terms of capital. The good news is that we have some discretionary in that abilities in that timing, but we know that the longer we wait, the more it will cost. And um not just in terms of construction inflation, but generally the longer you wait on deferred maintenance, the more expensive it becomes cuz in some cases you're not just fixing it, you're ripping it out and replacing it. So, we've got

092some tough choices to make in terms of finances here in Batavia for the foreseeable future. Thank you, Tony, for that presentation. >> It's your presentation from 2 years ago, and we were like, "Great news." Yeah. No, but thank you. Thank you. Uh are there questions for Dr. Inglisa? It's the comment. He's painting a very bleak picture for our future here, so. Could I ask to put slide six back on the projector? Sure. So, I know your crystal ball gets a little it gets hazier the further out you go. Indeed it does. But, if you were going to go out on our current traject- trajectory, if we didn't make any significant adjustments in a certain area in certain areas, if you went out to 31, 32, 33, what would be the consequence of uh just staying

093on the path we're on right now? What would be the consequence of staying on the path we're on right now? >> blue that red line went below the uh the blue like so. Fund balance goes below. I know you said paydays. Could you just go into that a little bit? Cuz you lived through a period of that time. Yeah. Yeah. Um I don't recall the year off the top of my head, but maybe 7 years ago uh we were in that state where we had to do what were called tax anticipation warrants because we had essentially we get paid the vast majority we saw of our revenues comes from local funds, and those only come in in May, June, and August, September. So, essentially, while we do get money from the feds and from the

094state that come in on a regular basis, it's pretty small. And um when we get into like this month right now, like March and April, we're we've essentially spent all the money that's come in in the prior year, and we're waiting for that new money to come in so that we can continue to pay our bills. And in the past, for as far as I can tell looking back at records, maybe more than 30 years, maybe more than 40 years, our finances were such that that's exactly what we had to do. It's a kind of a payday loan, a tax anticipation warrant that goes and says, "I'm going to borrow money and I'm going to pay interest like money like like a credit card and I'm going to pay more back than I'm I'm buying,

095but um I'm going to pledge back to you my taxes. The very first thing I'm going to do when these taxes come in is I'm going to pay this loan back." And it requires a a lot of some administration and and you know, obviously costs in terms of interest, but it's not a situation that you want to be in. Worse is that, you know, right now we've been able to invest some of this money and we've been in invested in some cases for more than a year and in some cases up to maybe a year and a half, 18 months. And when we do that, we put them in CDs, we know we're going to get that money back and it earns interest and that interest then we can put to work on other things

096that we need. Whereas here, where we have the complete opposite scenario, where if we spend below that red line, we're not earning hardly any interest. We're spending money on interests because we're borrowing and it's just not a situ- good situation to be in. It means you're living beyond your means. And worse, you know, who knows what the future economy looks like, we won't have the ability to weather any volatility at all. That was my question. So, in 2030, you know, to use your analogy, we're living paycheck to paycheck. If the roof goes or the furnace died or the transmission goes out in the car, like what I know that's a personal example, but like it's to me it's like, well, you got to put it on the credit card then, right? Yeah. So, you'd have

097to you'd be compelled in those instances to borrow money. Uh you sometimes on an emergency basis and usually at a higher premium so that you can get that work done. And now you're pledging money in future years to paying that debt back and limiting your options to deal with real issues, which are student needs. Would our tier change uh so the question is more on uh if the we're down this path um would we be eligible for more state and federal funding? As we get into a different financial circumstance. Unfortunately, no, that's not how they calculate it. They calculate it based off of essentially what you spend on a on a per student basis and how much tax revenue you can generate for for your school district. And so because of our e- equalized assessed

098value or the value of all of the homes in our school district is is high as it is we have the local resources to pay for it ourselves. And even if let's say for example we fell into tier three so I I think last I recall our adequacy percentage is 106. So we have 6% more than 100% adequacy. When you get below 100% adequacy you're in tier three. But even tier three doesn't get that much more than tier four. So tier three and tier four combined is approximately 1% of evidence-based funding. So even if we fell down a tier it doesn't change anything for us materially. If we fell to tier two yeah, you you you would you would get some more money. But uh tier one gets kind of a double dose of money

099for tier one and tier two. The way that funding formula works. It's pretty complicated. But if you'd like to learn more about that formula I'd happen to be happy to spend some time work through the mechanics with you, but it is it's pretty complex. It's all relative. 26 factors, right? 20 26 points of data that comprises what a district's composition looks like. So, you know, one of the other factors is they'll look at your SE low SES rates. Um And what's tricky about it, too, is that it's all relative wealth. And so, it's not just how much money Batavia has, it's how much Batavia has compared to Geneva, St. Charles. And as every school changes, all the schools change relative to each other. So, it's a very challenging formula forecast what's going to happen in

100the future. My colleagues gripe about Chicago because when their tier tier status changed, they're the big gorilla. They received massive amounts of money. When they went from tier one to tier two, things changed pretty dramatically. And then they fell from tier two to back to tier one. And so, they're entitled to a lot larger slice of the pie, and it changes what everybody else gets as a result. Any other questions I can answer for you? I have one more question. Do you have something wrong? No, please. I was going to say, so thank you for this. This is very concise. I remember when I started on the board, the documents were much longer and it's Well, I'm going to bring that. I'm going to bring you some more. >> That's coming. Okay, good. I saw

101your eyes light up when you said that's coming. I said, I know you like to dig in. But if you to the board and anyone paying attention to this meeting watching, uh one or two takeaways from your presentation, um what would they be? I know Mr. Arlando kind of stated one position, but if you could say like, "Hey, you review this These are the two key bullet points you should be aware of." Key bullet points? I I don't want to It does feel bleak. I don't want to scare you into thinking like, "Oh my gosh, we should, you know, start stuffing money under the mattresses and and hide" kind of thing. The reason why these forecasts are important is so that we can understand what the dynamics are and what the pressures are, and we

102can react to them. But this isn't fixed, it's not static, things can change. Um but, we do know that the state of Illinois has some pretty limited fiscal capabilities, and we are not in a position relative to other school districts in the state, where we're not first in line. We're almost last in line in terms of help from the state of Illinois. And the federal government's changing in terms of how what what their philosophies are in terms of support. And even if they did didn't change anything, it doesn't amount to a whole lot. What it really does it come down to is that, you know, our local property taxes are going to continue to bear the bulk of these costs, and we need to be really careful about where we invest those dollars. We have

103some very serious capital needs that we need to address urgently. And we need to be diligent about that. But, we also have to take care of the needs of students. And but, we have to be cognizant of the fact that their needs shift over time, too. So, everything has to be, to some degree, adaptable, and we have to keep an eye on all these factors as we move forward. So, that isn't the one or two points, but this isn't some sort of future that's locked in place. We got to keep our close eye on it and understand all those dynamics so that the board can make the best decisions possible where where the resources need to go. Thank you. Anything else for anyone? Are you ready to move on? I'll take that as a yes,

104so thank you everyone for those reports. We are now on item nine, close session 9.1, enter close session pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2C1 to discuss the appointment, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees. The board will go into close session. We will have action items after the close session. Those in attendance are welcome to stay if you'd like. If you did decide to leave, we want to thank you for coming out this evening. The time is 8:30 p.m. And I will entertain a motion to move to a closed session as allowed under the Open Meetings Act for the purpose of exceptions 5 ILCS 120/2C1. So moved. Motion by Raquel. Second. Second by Katie. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Arlandu? Yes. Gonzales Thomas? Yes. Gilbert? Yes. Slider? Yes. Dusicki? Yes. >> Mhm.

105>> All right, we are returning to open session. The night time is 9:13 p.m. and we have returned to open session. Cindy, will you please call the roll? Orlando Here. Garos Sasaki Present. Seiger Present. Gonzales-Thomas Present. Kilgore Present. All right, now we will move on to the action items on our agenda. We will start with 10.1, approval of notice to remedy. Are there any questions or comments from the board on this item? There's no comments. I will entertain a motion to approve the issuance of a notice to remedy to David Kleinschmidt. So moved. It's a move by Raquel. Second. Second by Mr. Orlando. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call. Orlando Yes. Gonzales-Thomas Yes. Kilgore Yes. Seiger Yes. Sasaki Yes. All right, on to 10.2, adoption or amended amendment of board policy second reading.

106Brad, do you have anything to share on this item? Well, we didn't receive any feedback from the board. We've been I feel like we've been talking about this one for since October. Uh Yeah. I know. So, this is a a long time coming. We we took a careful look at this one just to make sure it was clear about the role of home school students, but also more importantly about part-time attendance for special education students. So, we consulted both with press and tried to align there, but also with the board's attorney related to special education. Are there any questions or comments from the board for Dr. Newkirk? No questions? I will entertain a motion of the Board of Education to amend board policy 7.040 as presented. So moved. So moved. So moved by Mr. Kilmer.

107Second. By Danielle. Second by Danielle. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Carol Landow? Yes. Rosales Palmisano? Yes. Kilmer? Yes. Swaseki? Yes. Slyker? >> Yes. All right. On the item 10.3, authorization authorize the 2024 HLS survey amendment. Mark, I believe you'll be leading this discussion. I will be. Um, we have been talking about this topic, I would say, for a few months now. Um, I feel like I've been talking for a really long time since um, I've been talking to Rick about it as well. You know, the next one. Tried to sum this up um, as simply as I could. Basically, what we're doing is for tonight, this is to preserve the option to apply for the HLS bonds in the future. It does not authorize us doing that at all tonight. So,

108that's kind of what I want to make clear. And then, these projects are required under the state's HLS health life safety framework. So, this is something that we are obligated to do. We we need to do this work. The other piece is kind of your control any any of this will come back to the board. Again, that timeline depending on the state, that could be 4 months, it could be 6 months, but it will come back to the board with full details about, you know, exactly what we will be doing for the HLS bonds. The other piece is kind of the broader piece of this is any referendum that's even talked about or discussed cuz I know that's been brought up. None of that work has really been completely defined. Yeah, there is pieces that

109we've talked about. There's obviously a large um scope of work that needs to be done in this district. Um but that is not really what we're talking about tonight. It's more about just taking the amendment of the health life safety survey. The other piece is the discussions at RAC kind of dates back, I would say not quite a year, but months. Really looking for options, you know, really financially. Um and the RAC voted to do this to amend the HLS survey to really see um you know, exactly what we can do and what the state will approve as far as amount. Um and really the amount that we're, you know, comfortable with. And if you want to just keep kind of keep going. Sorry. Kind of to clear this, there's These are kind of the

110paths as I I really see it. Board can preserve this option. They can move forward towards a referendum strategy. Or they can defer both. Okay? Tonight, again, this is really about the action item is just about amending the HLS survey. But really kind of moving forward, those are really the three paths that I kind of see really the board to, you know, think about. So, to wrap this all up, when you're amending the 10-year health life safety, because if you remember it's been a little while ago, probably a year ago, I brought the 10-year health life safety for your approval. Now you have to approve to amend it. We're talking about the different HVAC um areas, specifically unit vents in many of our schools that are dated. And you were from 1989 to 1995. Fire

111alarms that had been identified that are obsolete that need to be done, specifically the high school and the middle school. And then there's other code compliance items that need to get done, but not nearly at a a scope of the other ones. So, if approved tonight this will come back to the board at a later date with a full recommendation, so scope, cost, and the tax impact. Even in the board report, there was a piece and we've talked about this cuz we came with like 11 million and what that would do for a taxpayer. That's in there. That's what you know, meeting a house 440,000 it's $155. That's kind of the that they would see in their tax bill. Um if not approved tonight, basically this option kind of goes away because there's a timeline

112that needs to happen. So, we need to start doing this cuz again, we don't start this process to try to do work next summer, the summer 2027 gets very difficult just because of where we're at as far as meaning ISBE's approval and really starting the planning phase of, you know, construction. Now, no matter what, this work has to get done, so then, you know, then we would kind of go back and look at another funding strategy that would make this work. Again, I didn't want to shed light on this, make it too simple, but I think just to see it cuz the it is complex. There's a lot of different moving pieces and stuff, but I want kind of make it I guess clear that you're not voting on any, you know, a bond itself.

113You're just voting on to amend the 10-year health life safety sort of thing. And if Questions? Questions, yeah. >> So, I know you said, Mark, that the time timing could be 4 or 6 months, but is there a specific time you need to come back or have a recommendation? To get this work done in '27, um this would need to come back pretty early fall. So, like the August, September time frame. So, that gives us about that 4 to 6 months range right there. So, we would need financing to do that work beyond what we can afford right now. So, that's where the bonds come in and then after we get theoretically that financing in place, then we would move forward with bidding out this these projects or dividing those scopes, all sorts of things.

114And so, fundamentally this is about preserving optionality at this particular moment. If board isn't interested in doing this at all, I mean, you have an opportunity to say no now, but you also have an opportunity to say no later. There's a couple more gates to get through though. The bonds themselves and then the actual work. But all that generally we try to have those bids out and let so that contractors have all their work lined up really before New Year's, if not right soon thereafter, so that they can plan for their all the projects that they try to get done in the summertime. That's the cadence of schools in particular. Some of this stuff being mechanical, usually we like October, November, but some mechanical things you could get into January. The only problem with that

115is then you're dealing with lead times. So, the longer you wait, you just kind of move down the line and it's getting in line for really the same type of equipment that many other districts in well, not only Illinois, but all the surrounding states are doing the same thing. So, I'm clear. So, if we vote for the adoption amendment or the authorization of the survey amendment, we're submitting it to the state. Uh we hopefully they will approve what we submitted on, which should be about $11 million. You'll come back and say this got approved. We have an option to take the bonds out or not. Then at that point we would vote. And then that would that money would be earmarked for the work that would happen not this summer, but the following summer. Is

116that correct? You will have already been through summer at this point. So, we're going through the summer of '26 here soon and then in the summer of '27 some of that work would start. Right. Not Not all of it. Not all of it. But some of it. But some of it would start. Yeah. And then can you go back, Mark? Uh Uh I'm sorry. Go forward now. Right right there. So, the paths are move forward with this that preserves this option with a life safety bond. Mhm. Or you're saying we could defer and do a different strategy of funding like a refer- take out a referendum the voters vote on. Right. Or you could defer both and then try to And then try to figure out >> Figure it out. Figure it out. Yep. So,

117am I accurate that tonight we're voting on this hypo- health life safety bonds. Can't don't know why I struggle with that. But at some point I would assume that the district's going to be looking for guidance on a referendum too, and if we would want to pursue do the work in doing the due diligence for that. Not tonight, but at a future meeting. Is that accurate? If that's a possibility. It's a possibility, yeah. Uh and to consider that as being a possibility, I would imagine that it's not just something you just say, "Hey, you know, it's not flippant by any means. Um it would take work and um it would take consideration and information that would need to be compiled and shared with the board over reasonable period of time to make that decision and

118consider it. So, I guess what I would say to the board is, you know, tonight we're focused on this one item, but on that second item, a referendum, I would say start that. You might want to start the process of getting your head around it and talking to Dr. Lacey about it because of my understanding of it, especially going through the previous referendums, is that uh we would go through a process of probably hiring some consultants or someone to help help us gather information uh if this is viable in the community, if there's an appetite for it. That type of thing. Is that correct? >> That's right. Yeah. We do have a master facility plan that is shared with in this agenda item. But if if that were an option for us to consider, we

119would need to spend more time ensuring that the scope of that work is fully aligned with our program attic, enrollment, facility needs, and the community's intentions, will, and um you know, willingness to to to fund. Are there questions for Mark or Tony or anyone? So, well, just to be clear, what we're voting on is tonight to submit for approval with the state of these bonds and then we're not voting on them but taking them out but we're keeping our options open that if it's approved we would have the option to elect to issue those bonds. Okay. Yeah, a very simple one. So, when the architects put this all together there's literally two boxes. Okay? One says not using bonds, H L S bonds not using or are using. I mean that's I mean that's literally

120what they have to those two boxes that they have to check. So, now it's going back and amending that, checking the other box, but also looking at specific items and putting costs on there for the state to approve. Any more questions? No questions? All right. I will entertain a motion to authorize amendment of the 2024 health life safety survey to include estimated project budgets thereby establishing eligibility for health life safety bond financing subject to future board approval. So moved. So moved by Rob. Second. Seconded by Katie. Cindy, will you please lead us in a roll call vote? Sosicki? Yes. Aralondo? Yes. Gonzalez-Thomas? Yes. Kilgore? Yes. Spivey? Yes. All right, 10.4 authorize plat of dedication. Mark, you're up again. Okay, this is a new one for me and I know it's a new one for Tony

121and probably all the board members. Okay? Um I don't have a presentation on this one because it's basically as simple as what you see. So, the city really when they started the subdivision kind of re-looked at the setbacks and stuff from the curbs and literally in the curve of Van Nortwick there's as you can see it's not really a great picture but there's like a little I don't even can't even call it a pie shape. It's a little piece of land that technically was assumed to be ours over the years, but really is the city's. So, as a board, that's what kind of you do, so you have to give the off, you know, um basically let the city know that you're approving this, so then they can basically redraw the boundary. It's as simple

122as that. Any questions? No. All right, then. I will entertain a motion to authorize the plat of dedication for a portion of Van Northwick property to the city of Batavia. Batavia. So moved. So moved by Raquel. Second. Second by Tanya. Sandy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Councilwoman Thomas? Yes. Councilwoman Tiger? Yes. Councilwoman Kucera? Yes. Councilwoman Londo? Yes. Councilwoman Kilburg? Yes. Moving on to the 10.5 approval of the updated services agreement for the Boys & Girls Club of North Central Illinois as presented. Holly, would you like to share anything about this? We have decided that we are going to expand to AGS for the 26 27 school year, and while we are going through that process for them to start marketing for the summer for students to be enrolled in their before-and-after school

123care, in that building, Louise White school students and families started knocking on the door at Louise White saying, "We want that at our school, too." So, we reached out back out to the Boys & Girls Club of North Central Illinois at so that they would be interested in taking on this as another uh space and facility for them, and they were very excited to offer that to the fifth of our six elementary schools, so um this is unfortunately again having to come back to you just so that you we can put Louise White School as a school for next year. Any questions? No questions. Then I will entertain a motion to approve the attached updated services agreement for the Boys & Girls Club of North Central Illinois as presented. So moved. Who's that? Katie? Motion

124by Katie. Second. Second by Rob. All right. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Gilbert? Yes. Gonzalez Thomas? Yes. Jaros? I'm sorry. Um Slieger? Yes. Suski? Yes. Arambula? Yes. Moving on to 10.6, approval to place textbook on public display. Brad, you're up. Well, I'll try and keep it short here, but the board should kind of recognize this moment as where your strategic plan actually moves the district pretty quickly. So, when that plan was adopted, one of the core strategies was to look at our literacy practices uh K-12. And we have done so, and this is the kind of the final piece of that holistic approach of K-12. So, the board previously approved um CKLA for our K through eight students, and we're in various stages of implementation. We'll be fully implemented at the

125elementary next year, and then we are we're implementing in the second semester of the middle school for for um CKLA there, Amplify. And then the high school had a different process. There's no product that aligns with that, but we used the same process, the same um um really deep look at our literacy practices to find something that works for our students. And while the high school's slightly different because AP require and dual credits require their own curriculum, and that has to align with the college board or with Waubonsee um who we work with as a partner for dual credit classes. We said, "What are those core courses which are freshman English, sophomore English, and then uh it starts to the branch out. So, some of our students their junior year take um junior year English

126and some of them take an AP class. Uh they start that AP track there. So, for our grades 9, 10, and some 11th graders we're recommending that you place on public display. It's out there already. Hopefully, you give me permission. Uh but it would be it's Savvas. Um it's a company that we've not worked with before, but the team went through an extensive process of looking not only what does align with the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan, but what aligns with what our students are experiencing in terms of their literacy instruction in K through 8. So, this is the team's recommendation. They've been doing a field test um since second semester. It is very rigorous, very rigorous. Like the teachers are like, "My kids are struggling." They but they're like, "My kids are growing." And I

127to me that's the greatest testament of this. So, this would be something that I bring back to the month to you for adoption and then we would start the implementation process for this next school year. It's kind of exciting to see like all of these things aligned in in school time, a relatively short period of time, but at the direction of the strategic plan. I've only actually seen it one other time in my career where this kind of happened in this like concerted effort and like every one of my team members and all of our teachers have really pitched in to make this really successful. Any questions for Dr. Newkirk? No questions? Then I will entertain a motion to place Savvas My Perspectives on display for a period of 1 month in accordance with Board

128of Education policy. Moved. Motion by Raquel. Second. Second by Danielle. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Rolando? Yes. Gonzalez-Thomas? Yes. Gilbert? Yes. Slyger? Yes. Swizeky? Yes. 10.7 Approval of BHS percussion equipment purchase. Tom, would you lead us in this discussion? Yep. So, this is a uh purchase um based on the memo, you can see it's a cycling out of equipment. Um there was a board member question that asked about um is there the ability to sell some of this old equipment? And they are evaluating that option. And then um if that is the case, they would follow our business office procedures when these kinds of things would happen. But, they do know some of this stuff needs to be probably replaced now. That's it. Any questions? No questions. Then I will end

129Oh, do we have a question? >> No. I said Then I will entertain a motion to approve the purchase for use in the 2026-2027 school year. So moved. Motion by Katie. Second. Second by Raquel. Cindy, will you lead us in a roll call vote, please? Slyger? Yes. Rolando? Yes. Gonzalez-Thomas? Yes. Gilbert? Yes. Swizeky? Yes. 10.8 Approval of board meeting dates for 2026-2027. Tom? Um so, we uh last meeting shared a draft of the calendar dates. Um just a reminder, uh these dates are important um just for our some business functions that are critical to the district such as payroll, paying the bills. So, that's why there's a a limited option. They usually put these on the back end of the month, so that there's time for our departments to process what they need to do.

130To get things out. So, yeah, I I if there if there's no concern here, then these are the dates that we would say let's move forward. And we did remove the April special/regular meeting, so one point. Any questions on those dates? All right, then I will entertain a motion to approve the 2026-2027 meeting dates as presented. So moved. Moved by Rob. Second. Seconded by Raquel. Cindy, lead us in a roll call vote, please. Susicki? Yes. Slyker? Yes. Kelber? Yes. Gonzalez-Thomas? Arlandu? Yes. All right, we're on the board comments. We'll lead off with our superintendent, Mr. Tom Kim. Tom, do you have anything Just a few brief comments to round out tonight. I just wanted to say to all of our students, uh, they're probably not watching our board meeting, although some may be now. Um,

131uh, uh, that I want everybody to stay focused. We're wrapping up the year. There's a lot of testing going on, board, and I I shared that with you in my update. It's a lot of testing tomorrow. Good luck to our juniors. Go Bulldogs. Nail that ACT. Let's go. Um, we got AP testing on the horizon. Kids are in K finishing map testing. All right, let's go. Good numbers. They've worked hard all year. Um, secondly, as Drew Ray mentioned earlier, in a couple of weeks we'll be, uh, you know, recognizing and lifting our teachers across the district. All educators, you know, cuz there there's other positions as well. And just super proud of the work that's happening across the district, um, and the work that they do day in and day out to support our kids,

132um, and just do what we do in this district. So, very, very proud of that. Um, and then the last thing, it's so busy. You're seeing a lot of invitations, a lot of emails about different events. It's exciting time. This is our why. And our biggest why will come on May 20th when we are all together to see our kids graduate from BHS. So, that's all I have. All right, thank you, Mr. Kim. Who wants to lead off today? Kristen's not in her usual position, so Now I'm looking at you, Rob, if you want to start. Or if anyone else wants to get us going. No, I'll I'll start. Um so, I'll be brief. Um just um I had an opportunity couple fun things I guess I had an opportunity to go to incubator um

133event. Uh I think it was at the end of March. Tony was there. Aaron was there as well. Uh my big takeaway besides, you know, the the kids obviously presenting or talking about their their programs uh or their projects that they're working on. Um was able to talk to quite a few of the community members. Uh a lot of them um no longer kids in the school district, but it was nice to see that they were still engaged um in, you know, a school program like that. Um and uh so, uh I think it's it was a takeaway for me that uh you know, there's a lot of community out there that they may not have kids in the schools anymore, but they're still very interested in, you know, that this school district be successful

134and um they're interested in the students and what they're up to, so. Um and then another fun thing just this past Sunday night um many of us on this table I won't reveal how people placed, but we were at the um uh music buffs um uh fundraiser and it was a trivia night, so there was a little competition Um I I want to thank Aaron actually invited me to join his his group uh at that event, but it was it was fun and a good turnout, I think. A really good turnout. And um had a great time, so at event. And I think I will leave it at that. Um happy Arab American Heritage Month. Um I think we have a perfect storm on May 5th with uh Taco Tuesday, Cinco de Mayo, National uh

135Teacher Appreciation Day. Might be some call offs on the 6th, but Um and then I just hope everyone has a safe and uh prosperous spring break. Definitely. Um I I want to thank everyone who did come to uh to talk today. I to speak today to to us. Um I know it's not always easy, especially as staff members, parents. I mean, you just have a variety of people. Um They are using their voices and um on that same level, we will talk more about the student uh student board member applications, but we got in I think 14 14 15 14. Um and I'm reading through those. I just I know I say this time after time, but I'm just always so amazed at the voices of our students. The ability I just some of their

136emotional maturity, some of their ability to just kind of like have this foresight into what they have hopes for and like for not just themselves, their peers and it's really really amazing. I don't know how in the world we're going to narrow it down. I mean, student ambassadors was hard too and I don't know. There's just such a desire to to represent their peers and um I'm just grateful that at this point we do have that ability to offer for Um and I'm just excited to see where it goes, um, and I'm just grateful for every student. And we had a small, like a really quick turnaround time. So, the fact that we got that many in, it shows that there is a desire uh, for students to have more of a voice in decision-making,

137in the decision-making process of of how everything affects them. Um, and then speaking with Rob, I wanted to hit on, like I I I listened to the podcast, and I did receive my mailer, like where it had, you know, as as far as like what's happening in Batavia. So, I I I do see that there's this this kind of like just turning of like, you know, there really are a lot of people in the community who do care what's going on, and I think that I'm really excited to see what happens with some of these reach-outs and um, I don't know, just hopefully more people are just feeling like they're they're looped in, and that they are part of these kids' lives. I just That's really exciting. So, I'm I'm happy to hear that they

138were at the incubator and everything, so. Other than that, I don't I don't think I have any plans. Please be safe. Um, we'll talk. Uh, I am going to be a broken record and say thank you to Danielle and Rob for the student board member possibilities. I was reading through them last night. I stayed up too late reading. I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop reading them. They're so good. And I am so excited. I I was like, yes, you. Yes, you. Yes, you. Like I want all of them to be on the but they were so good. They were so And I'm just so impressed with the kids that submitted, um, and just so grateful for They just gave me a whole lot of hope last night. So, I just I'm very excited for the

139student board members program. So, that's all for me for this month. Okay. Uh, I also want to thank Rob and Danielle for their hard work, and Holly as well on that. Like getting that many applications in that short span is Yes. very exciting, and I'm excited to see that program up and running running next year. Uh, Alec, well, Mr. Orlando, I've had a chance to really participate in a lot of cool events at the incubator. I'll take credit for us losing on Sunday night. I picked the wrong musical. Um there was a art festival, I'm saying it wrong, at the high school where we had every drama, music, uh painting, sculpture. Amazing. I think I got a sticker here I got from there. So, yeah, it's just this time of year like your cup overflows.

140You feel like you could go to something every night. And every time I go, it's just like I'm just blown away by these kids and also the teachers and community members supporting them cuz like as Mr. Orlando said, it's kind of amazing how many people don't have an active student at BPS 101 that are engaged and invested in those students' success. So, it's really uplifting. A couple other things, uh ACT tomorrow, my son's taking it. I know that's on the minds of a lot of parents. Prom is this week, uh this Saturday. It's a exciting night, also a nervous night when those kids are out. I want to thank everyone who's working post prom at Funway. I'll be there slowing the kids down as they pull into the parking lot, making sure they get there

141and get home safely. So, thank you to all the volunteers in the community that supports that effort so our kids after prom have a safe place to commiserate and enjoy the evening. I always look forward to that night. And then I'll just be selfish for one moment. Before I came to the board meeting tonight, my son's a new member of the track team and he set a personal record >> All right. in the shot book shot put. I had to leave before he threw the discus. Yes, he set a personal record in discus. So, good job, Jake. Keep well. And uh that will conclude my comments for tonight. So, now we are not concluding the meeting. We are going into closed session again pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2C10 to dis- to discuss other matters related

142to individual students. Uh The board Would I have to read this part where we'll we'll come back for action or can we go right to this? You can just go there, but there will be no action. All right. The time is now 9:45 p.m. and I will entertain a motion to move to a closed session as allowed under the Open Meetings Act for the purposes purpose of exceptions 5 ILCS 120 /2c10. So moved. Moved by Raquel. Second. Seconded by Mr. Orlando. Cindy, will you please lead us in a roll call vote? Mrs. Alice Thomas? Yes. Orlando? Yes. Kilberg? Yes. Seiger? Yes. Susicki? Yes.