Batavia Public School District 101 Board of Education Meeting December 16, 2025

001and also I found it in freshman year and found it as a really cool interest. So I really wanted to take that as a little career path. So >> congratulations and thank you for [applause] >> Thank you. of pictures. >> Yep. >> All right, guys. Come on up. Come on. You can't get out that easy. [laughter] >> Double double duty tonight. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right, next is esports. We uh welcome the esports coaches Connor Lgeretta and Cody Murphy to the podium. [applause] I brought the Cowboys with me. [laughter] Um, thank you to the board and Dr. Kim for allowing us to share the success of our esports season in the fall. Um, I'm Connor Leerrett. I'm a special education teacher at the high school and also the sponsor and coach of the esports

002club and team. Mr. Murphy could not be here tonight. He's a social worker at the high school, but our Minecraft team was wrapping up tonight, so he is at home. Um it's hard to believe we started this over just over a year ago. And while last year was um a strong year between the dedication of our coaches, tech department, and most importantly all you our students, um it has taken this program to another level, which was recognized by the head coach of Bloomington and treasurer of IHSA as a juggernaut and school to be reckoned with. This fall, we had 28 students compete across six titles. All 28 qualified for playoffs. 19 advanced to state and several complete competed in multiple games. We had strong state performances in Marvel rivals, Mario Kart, Raala, and Fortnite, including

003multiple podium finishes. So, at this time, I would like to recognize our state placers. Guys, as I call you, just stand up. I thought there was going to be a little more room. Stand [laughter] stand up and until I'm done, so I'll call you and just stay standing. Okay. So, first I would like to recognize our Marvel rivals team. Uh, senior captain Jacob Cooper. Uh, one quick thing. I didn't know if we could talk about it. Um, got permission from his parents. Jacob is now our second um athlete to sign um signed to play in college at Carthage. [applause] Senior Captain Andrew Devela, Liam Cervantes, Brennan Crawford is not here, Brian Johnson, Junior's Tyler Throd, Jackson Webb, Dylan Mile, Owen Milo, uh Micro Agro, who is not here, Blake Gilbert, who is not here, and

004and four freshman. Grayson Purdue, come up here. [laughter] >> Okay. Okay. >> Joel Gilmore, who is not here, Shane Ermanus, Tyler Britain, the Ethletes behind me, well, I wrote this already, committed around 10 plus hours a week to the team on top of their other sports and other school work. They were one of six teams out of 74 in IHSA to be invited and compete at the Illinois Education and Technology Conference in Springfield in early November. They built off their spring season of making the playoffs to end the fall season with a record of 115 and earned the second ranked team in 3A going into the playoffs. They use that momentum to qualify for state, ending the season with a third place trophy. Congrats, guys. [applause] >> [laughter] >> Yeah, guys. That's all you got

005to do. You guys good with that? Unless somebody wants to come up and say something. >> Didn't think so. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Next, I would like to congratulate and recognize our Mario Kart team. We have seniors captain Dom Allen, senior Brian Johnson, junior Dylan Milo, junior Owen Milo, sophomore Sam Het, [snorts] and then two freshman Grayson Purdue and Bryce Das. The team was able to battle back from an 0 and2 start to the season, finishing the reg regular season 5-2 and earned the number one seed in 3A. They were able to capitalize on that to advance to the state finals to take second place, losing to two-time state champion Stag High School and the last cup of the finals. Congratulations, guys. [applause] You guys are good. Then I would like to recognize two of

006our solo solo gamers. First, we have junior Dylan Mile. It's okay, Dylan. [laughter] Dylan was able to accomplish something that is a first for Betavia Esports, but also hasn't been seen at the IHSA EA level. He was able to be a three-time place winner for the fall season. He was a starter for our second place Mario Kart team, a starter for our third place Marvel rivals team, and also ended the year 11 and four and the number two seed in the game Brahala where he earned third place in the state finals. Congratulations, Dylan. [applause] >> [applause] >> There we go. And last but not least, junior David Williams. Stand up. >> You're okay. So, David, we are proud to introduce Betavia High School's first esports state champion. >> Oh, yeah. [applause] >> [applause] >> David

007ended the season 13-2 and secured the number one seed in Brahala. He was able to run his way through the bracket to his eventual title. Betavia High School and the community are very proud of what you were able to accomplish and I think I can speak for David. He will bring another title back to Betavia next year. [laughter] Good job. [applause] To all the athletes here tonight, your parents, coaches, Betavia High School in our community are incredibly proud of your hard work, dedication, and accomplishments. But I'm here to say that we're just getting started. Whether that be our Apex team, who we found out tonight will be competing tomorrow night in the state finals, or this spring, where we expect over 45 students to compete across 12 titles to continue to grow and build on

008the success and cement ourselves as that juggernaut in Illinois esports. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this program special and a proud part of the Bulldog family. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> This will be >> and almost all of them are taller than us. >> Totally. We'll be We'll have to do the squat in the front. [laughter] >> Why don't you hold the sign? >> That's so bad. I think we're going to have a couple good All right. In three, two, one. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, guys. [applause] Sorry. >> Before you leave, can I ask a question? >> When you guys compete, is that open to the public to attend the competitions or how does that work? >> So, we're working on that. We finally got our own space

009at the high school, so we do have stations set up. Um, it just depends on the game. our privacy didn't compete at home and at school. Mario Kart did come to school and we're hoping like in the spring we can start transitioning. We do have parents come and see. >> Yeah. >> But we do have a YouTube channel and a Twitch channel that we stream. >> Yeah. Just to see watch the game or matches. Yeah, >> it'll be good. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate everything, man. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you parents. Thanks for coming tonight. Can we go from one of the most popular? >> My kids will know that that's okay. [laughter] >> This is kind of funny, right? >> There's nothing wrong with it. I >> No, no. I mean, [laughter] >>

010do you Oh, I wish we had >> Dave and Josh are here. >> All right. >> They were just in the other room. >> They're just hiding. >> Oh, hello. [laughter] >> Should we just call a meeting? >> Well, [laughter] >> so I think that thus concludes Yeah. >> That was exciting and fun. >> Love that all the parents came out. Is everybody settled down a bit? >> All right, that was exciting, wasn't it? That's good. All right, now on to the regular items of our meeting. Welcome to the meeting, board of education. If anyone wishes to address the board this evening, please start a recording. Secretary, submit a form for addressing the board. Please put your full name and address on the form. In general, the board will not answer questions or engage in

011dialogue during public comment. This does not mean we do not value your concerns or public or comment seriously. that the board values active community community participation in the district's endeavors and encourages people to engage with the district using appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind. Board members are not involved in day-to-day operations of the district and cannot engage in district business individually. If you have specific questions or would like 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, >> we have one. >> Good to see you again, sir. Good to see you guys, too. >> Thanks. I'll be brief. Uh, I'm here just to say how much I appreciate the effort that the board,

012the administration, uh, have put in to making our schools safer for our students, faculty, staff, and community. And so I tip my hat to you and give you all a salute. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> All right. Uh we do not have any BPS partners with us this evening, but we wish them all a very good break and we'll see them after the new year. So consent again, according to our board policy, we designate a portion of the action items on the agenda as consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion before board action. These items are generally routine, recurring, and can be grouped together for efficiency. Steve, would you please share with us the agenda items? >> Absolutely. 5.1 and 5.2 is the approval of the

013November 18th, 2025 meeting minutes and close session meeting minutes. 5.3 is the approval of the December 4th, 2025 special meeting minutes. Uh 5.4 is the approval of the December 9th, 2025 special meeting minutes. 5.5 is the monthly personnel report. 5.6 Six is the monthly payrolls and bills. Uh 5.7 uh are our donations. We are thankful to Beefy Boys wrestling uh King County Credit Union and the Geneva Foundation for the Arts for their kind gifts. 5.8 is the uh authorization of the renewal of our cyber security platform. 5.9 is the three-year contract renewal with Assured Partners, who is our insurance broker. 5.10 10 is the uh BHS overnight field trip approval for band in November of 2026. 5.11 is the approval of uh Amplify CKLA. 5.12 is the authorization updated memorandum of agreement with the Boys

014and Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois. 5.13 is the approval of the board of education expenses for the joint annual conference. And 5.14 is the approval of the consent agenda. >> Thank you. Anyone have any questions? I don't have any questions but uh just to give a little background on the uh CKLA so during CAC our last CAC meeting which is on 20th I believe um this is they went around and uh they gave the feedback on this and um everyone thought that it was a good program for the elementaryaries to do. So just a little bit of background on that. >> Thank you. >> And I noticed that there's materials out there I believe attached to that. How long will those be on display for the public? They go down after tonight. >> They've

015been on display since the last meeting. We've received no public comments on them yet. >> Okay. >> Probably keep them out for a few more days till break. [snorts] >> I uh went to Mrs. Gunderson's third grade class. She had invited us if we wanted to come observe. Um I think you did too, but she said, "Yeah." >> Uh and it was really really great. I I mean the curriculum, you know, it touches on grammar in just one session. It was like grammar and uh vocabulary and writing and reading comprehension. And they were even, you know, the the prewriting that they did was about an excerpt that they read previously. So, they're like having to recall something that they had read before. And it was it was cool to see. Seems great. All right. Any

016other questions? Any other [clears throat] topic >> on the agenda for the consent agenda on this or others? >> CK CKLA, I also had an opportunity to observe a fifth grade classroom. Um, and I did notice kind of a difference between this the what I felt were like the challenges for each class. The third graders, I think, were taking to it a little easier. the fifth graders, I think, having had a different type of curriculum for much longer. Um, so I did just out of curiosity wonder, do we have any supports in place for like the fifth graders who are maybe having a little bit of a tougher time with it? >> Yeah, a lot of our instructional coaches are working with the the couple of teams that are piloting in fifth grade. >> Yeah,

017>> you're right. They they've been kind of accustomed to one thing for quite a long time. >> You could tell [laughter] and the rigor is is very high with these materials. the reading levels are on grade level kids. >> So our instructional coaches are working with them on a couple of things. One are engagement strategies, >> right? Because kind of sit and get doesn't work for kids. So like how do we engage them uh with more kind of learning strategies which aren't like specifically spelled out in the materials but are needed to get kids engaged with the materials. And then secondly is really how do I scaffold up that to that level of rigor with students, right? So, like, how do I get them to that level? We're not going to just expect them to

018be at that level. So, what are the strategies we're going to use within the classroom to get them there so that they feel successful? >> Okay, great. >> Uh, I noticed that the contract mentioned sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, but it was initially tested just K through five, right? So, is sixth, seventh, and eighth getting rolled into that? >> Yeah. And Jen is here because she's been a part of those discussions firsthand and I'm a secondhand person. So she's here to talk a little bit about that middle school process so that we'll have a K through8 articulated program for our kids. >> Good evening everyone. It's exciting to continue to talk about literacy in Betavia because as Raquel said at our CAC meeting, we had a report and share out of all of the subject

019area leadership teams and where each team was. And we have a phenomenal K12 leadership team, but each level is at a different spot. So at that meeting um we were talking about ELA which is still an Amplify product and the team at the middle school had identified after looking at 12 resources that Amplify ELA was the resource that they wanted to use. So they were super excited. They've heard the successes of K5. And so as we were continuing to work through the CAC process and talking about who was going to field test, one of the salt members went back to the building and started to talk about how excited they were about a middle school product that is designed for middle school students that recognizes their voice, their story, is highly engaging, has a variety

020of um on grade level reading, writing, grammar, everything embedded that we've seen with our K5 process. and um everyone in one grade level wanted to participate and then they emailed and then it was a similar in another grade level. So then we worked with the routollo administration and at our CAC meeting we said everyone wants to join and be part of the resource implementation at rtolo and with the structure at rtolo and the team pieces there are co-teers who teach who are case managers for our students with IEPs as well as our e students and they share teams so they could be on a field test team with one teacher using amplify and another teacher using a different material. So that provides an obstacle. They can't have PLC meetings. They can't talk about data together

021and it isn't very inviting to have one person in a grade level that's not part of it. So with the feedback from the team and from CAC and CAC really said we need to have the salt team members make that decision. The salt team members gathered and said it would be best if we all could learn together. We all want to grow together. We all want to support one another. So we know that that changes the definition as CAC has established it as a field test, but we really think this would be a powerful move if we could all learn together and grow. So with that recommendation, we came back and said, "Okay, we want to move forward." So CAC has not come up with an official word for this new piece because all of

022this has really happened in the last three and a half weeks. So we're excited that we will have these materials. We have the same support from Amplify that we've experienced with our K5 team. There's a lot of parallels and it is exciting to be able to have a solid resource that is articulated all the way through kindergarten through 8th grade with common academic vocabulary, common routines, common structures so that our students can continue to grow. So, you're right. This was a little difference, but it's been in response to what our teachers are really asking for to be able to come back in 2026. That January 5th will be a professional learning day for the entire team to be able to really dive in, work with the Amplify implementation staff, and be really excited for the

023second semester at Rello. >> Any other questions? >> Uh, well, thank you for that presentation. I have a question actually for Dr. Curt, Mr. Kim on this. >> So, uh, we've spent quite a bit of time this month, um, looking at data, seeing how we're doing in reading and math and other areas belonging. And so, while it does, it's exciting to see everybody enthused about this new curriculum. Um, what I'm kind of wondering is, um, obviously we're doing this so that we can maximize every student's potential. Um, and I know sometimes when you implement new curriculum, there's a little bit of a dip before you start to see progress. When would be like a reasonable time frame from the board where we could say like, okay, we should start to see the benefit of this

024greater student population. >> I think you're going to start to see that almost immediately because of the text that students are exposed to, right? We're asking students to perform at grade level and giving them the tools to do that when before we would probably give them them below grade level text and then wondering why they weren't being successful on the high stakes test assessments like if they A which only gives them grade level text right so I think GI gives them that grade level text plus the supports that they need to get there so I think we'll see that pretty immediately I think in our our field test in the elementary what we saw is strong rigor within the materials. Teachers were seeing their students on their curriculum based assessments, those curriculum based measures be

025extremely successful on those. They've [snorts] seen huge advances in the students writing as well, which was something that we were really concerned about in the past. So, I don't think it'll be too long. >> Okay, good. >> Go ahead. No, go ahead. >> The So, the contract is [clears throat] five years. at the end of five years if the district decides, oh, this is great. We want to continue. Is that like buying all the materials again? You know, like how often are the the textbooks because there's like textbooks and workbooks and >> there's some digital materials that are a part of this and you're going to pay for [snorts] those forever, right? Because those get renewed annually through the contract covers all five years. So, we're not incurring additional expense, but that's an ongoing expense.

026There's consumable materials for students and those will again be reoccurring and then there's like teacher materials. Those would not need to be repurchased unless we looked at it there's a new addition or things like that. That was one of the questions that we asked through the procurement process was like what's the the likelihood of a new addition which would kind [snorts] of throw us off cycle. I've seen some post from other districts trying to unload um volume two because we're in volume three. Uh but they said they're probably about six years away from the next edition of CCLA. So that gives me kind of heart that we've seen throughout the course of this year they've actually improved the product a little bit based on our teachers feedback and teachers who are implementing this as well.

027So they're ongoing making changes but I was concerned about like when's the next edition going to come out. So they gave me some reassurance on that. We've also leveraged some pricing with them with kind of bundling both the elementary and the middle school together in terms of those materials kind of that volume discount. They've worked with us um just so the board knows uh based on the one the quote that's put in the the board book. We've been able to reduce uh to work with them to reduce the shipping cost by half. So that's $45,000 which is not insignificant. and we're able we have authorization to pay for this over two fiscal years if we need to. So that helps kind of balance those budgetary pieces. This is a rather large I know you know

028like Dave and and Mark they they function in these numbers but CNI does not function in you know these numbers but this is a large expenditure for curriculum but we believe through our process this is probably one of the best processes and I give Jen and Ming and the salt team all the credit because they've really done this in a super collaborative fashion. So I think the teachers are invested in this. They're clamoring to get at these materials. I've seen several of them out here. They knew they were on display because they wanted to get at it right away. So I think that really speaks to the collaborative process that that Jen and Ming used throughout this whole process. >> One other so in speaking to the cost so this is this is spread over

029two years but it's for the full five years. There will be some update refresh subscription costs in the middle but not anywhere near this one I assume. Um, one of the ways I try to look at it like is if you take that cost, divide it by five years, and divide it by eight grade levels, you get down to about $29,000 a year per grade level. So, while it's a big number, the question to me is trying to get I mean, I don't know how many K8 students there are, so I couldn't get it down to the student number, right? But it begins to be approachable because you got to realize this is scalable by the size of our district, you know, in a lot of ways. So that's a little bit way I was

030thinking of how to break down the number in a way that it could feel approachable to me. So >> yeah, it's about what do we say four $4,000 to $4,500 per classroom. >> Okay, >> that's how we looked at >> and we'll be able to draw in a bank of those consumable materials and have access to the digital through that full five [snorts] years. Any other questions of anybody else on any other topics on this? >> Uh, I had one about 5.8. Yeah. Backtracking a little bit. Yeah. >> Um, >> the information stated that there's a 14% decrease from last year to due to state program offsets. Um, which is great news. Uh, is that a new state program? Will it continue yeartoear? >> So, it's a federal grant that provided that funding and they've

031used that to discount our pricing. Um, they've also offered like districts further south have been able to take advantage and pick up some services for free as [clears throat] part of because they've never had it before. >> So, our reflection of that was just a discount. So, we saved 14% to do that. But, it's based on the do IT group that's part of Illinois LTC learning technology center. uh they kind of help all of us kind of work together on these types of things. But do it has been pushing this throughout the state for the past year. So we were able to take advantage of that funding. So [snorts] >> do it and LTC have been updated in the acronyms document. >> I had [laughter] Thank you. >> I put that in there. And I

032also added several suggestions from Kristen [laughter] after 101. So >> you had asked also like if it's going to continue. It's all based on that federal funding. So if they do it again, yes. If not, no. >> Unknown at this point, >> right? Very unknown. Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. I will entertain a motion to approve all items in the consent agenda as presented. >> So moved by Katie. >> Second by Aaron Kilberg. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Ser, >> yes. >> Meadows, >> yes. >> Gonzalez Thomas, >> yes. >> Alandu, >> yes. Arrows. >> Yes. >> Gilbert, >> yes. >> Swiki, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you very much. >> Uh, section six, item 6.1, foyer reports, Tom. >> Yeah. Uh, so board, you see those presented to

033you this evening. Uh, we did deny one request um due to uh contract disclosures uh that uh exempts us from having to release that information. Otherwise, everything else has been provided. All right. Item 62.2, treasures report. Tony, >> the expenditures, revenues, fund balances, and investment reports are there for your perusal and uh nothing out of the ordinary to point out. Any questions? >> Okay. Item 6.3, belonging in BPS [clears throat] 101. Brad. >> Yeah, we're going to invite Katherine Murray, who is our behavior manager, and Natalie Osell, the director of student services up. And this is a little less like a board report and more like a learning session because we're all still learning. BPS is learning about what belonging is, what it's not, how to deepen this for our students because we know it's

034so crucial. They're going to talk a little bit about kind of how all of this works together. We looked at the panorama data, but this will give you a lot more context to what we're working on related to belonging. So, Katherine, now thank you. >> Good evening, board. Thank you so much for having us this evening. We're going to start with a little bit of a different learning experience for you all. I promise it'll be okay. So, just bear with us for a couple of moments. We are going to start with an inclusive welcome which is one of the collaborative for academic social and emotional learning signature practices for in creating inclusive and engaging environments for adult learning. I ask that you take a moment to reflect on a time in your life when you

035felt like you truly belonged whether it be at school, in your family, or in your community. And as you're thinking, consider what made you feel that way and what did others do or say to support that feeling. When you're ready, please turn to an elbow partner and share your reflection for about one to two minutes, but just wait. Uh we'll then invite you after those two minutes are up to share one word you heard from your partner that represents belonging. Your two minutes starts now. >> Uh I would say >> I thoughtific my side. So like the nuclear family was all together and the grandkids >> and just kind of like the the getting along the listening like can you listen to >> that's the way I >> don't feel like >> all right what

036about you mister >> actually it's so funny something very similar >> you know >> um this year it's great we did the first >> I actually think it was the engineering society I belong to it But I decided to try out for a school play. >> No, no, >> just felt great to be around the joyful conversation. But then um >> I'm like dawned on. So that was an example of like I think when we first walked in like hold >> my cousin feel belonging for a while like we just call such an age friendly faces and like want to learn about you like hey >> what would you like and it just I don't know it's less afraid >> listening listening it's an effort like you nailed it is >> the listening >> the

037trying out something. Please wrap up your stories and five belong together. >> It's so genuine >> started late. >> And one, >> thank you so much. Please feel free to share out any of you board members or administrative team the one word that came up for you when you were hearing your partner share. >> Effort. >> Relate. Engagement, >> collaborative, >> encouragement. >> It's two words. Common experience. >> We just make a comment comment. >> Shared. >> You guys failed the assignment. [laughter] >> Just say the words real fast. >> Fine. >> I promised it would be okay. [laughter] Uh that sense of feeling supported, engaged, known, valued is foundational to learning. And in BPS 101, our ongoing commitment to priority item two in our strategic plan focuses on ensuring that every student and adult

038consistently experiences a sense of belonging. Tonight, we are grateful for the opportunity to share some of that work with you. My name is Katherine Murray and I'm the district behavior manager. >> And my name is Natalie Assel and I'm the director of student services. Our work centers uh on strategic priority 2 which reflects the voices of our staff, students and community. Priority 2 emphasizes the importance of social emotional learning, equity, and belonging. Research shows that prioritizing belonging has tremendous impact on our students, staff, and community alike. Sense of belonging accelerates academic performance, health, well-being, attitudes towards school, identity development, engagement, motivation, self-esteem, support of others, and many more. Focusing on belonging is also shown to decrease fighting, bullying, emotional distress, absenteeism, just to name a few. For tonight's learning experience, we are sharing our community

039agreements. These are commitments we make to one another about how we show up and engage in a shared space. Our agreements are attention are intentionally anchored in the BPS portrait of a graduate attributes and our community, including some of you on this board identified these attributes as priorities in 2021. These agreements guide our work across committees and professional learning opportunities throughout the district. Tonight we bring them to this audience as a shared foundation for our discussion. >> Belonging is measurable. In BPS we use a survey tool from Panorama as measurement of belonging. Belongingness questions included within the student surveys are how much support do the adults at your school give you when you're at school? How much do you feel like you belong? How well do people at your school understand the kind of person

040you are? How much respect do students at your school show you? The Panorama survey is one piece of data. Other sources that provide insights in belonging include the student competency survey, attendance data, discipline data, walkthrough data, and student voices captured through focus groups. Together, these sources provide a broader snapshot of skills and learning conditions that drive overall sense of belonging. District and building level teams analyze, reflect, reflect and act on these data multiple times a year. So, what is belonging? Keep going. There are quite a few definitions out there of belonging. And in BPS 101, we are anchoring our work in the UC Berkeley's definition, which is the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others, teachers, and peers in the school environment. To take it a bit further, it's

041the involvement in meaning making and the building of relationships in our um school and educational setting. Students are authentically partnering andor leading the school process when they when we're embracing belonging. This definition centers the affective experience of school or the feelings of being known, valued, and supported. And at the same time, it intentionally leaves out the how. It invites us to define specific actions, practices, and climates that create those experience of belonging in our schools. >> Sorry, we're supposed to have There we go. To make belonging more concrete in BPS, we've anchored our approach in two key drivers, skills and learning conditions. Both align with ISBE recommendations, the ISBE strategic plan and our current BPS 101 strategic plan. Much like academics, we teach skills and cultivate environments where these skills are practiced. For belonging, students

042and adults need core social emotional learning skills like self-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making to understand themselves, to work effectively with others, and to build confidence as learners. Skills alone are not sufficient to perform. These skills must be supported by learning conditions. These conditions include environmental predictability, a sense of safety, strong relationships, and the support for academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs. When present, these conditions create spaces where social emotional skills can be practiced and strengthened together. Skills and learning conditions work hand in hand and are drivers of belonging in BPS. >> Holly, this is going to get tricky because there are pictures that pop up. My apologies. [laughter] So, what does belonging look like in BPS 101? How do we see it, hear it, feel it, and how do we make it happen? First

043and foremost, skills and competencies in EC through8 classrooms. Teacher provide teachers provide explicit instruction and social emotional skills aligned with ISBY's standards and our portrait of a graduate attributes. These lessons and curriculum were BPS teacher created to bring the portrait of a graduate attributes to life in our classrooms across EC through 12. Social emotional competencies are embedded within curricular maps and lesson cycles so all students have ongoing opportunities to build and practice the skills that support belonging within all content areas. Two more. Thank you. Next we have learning conditions. These are the systems and environments that allow our skills to grow. We foster growth and development in learning conditions through practices you experience today. Our inclusive welcome supports identity affirmation, invites voice and agency, and anchors us in healing centered and trauma responsive practices. These

044routines are used in administrative team meetings, collaborative groups, committees, and are increasingly being integrated by staff into spaces they facilitate. You also experienced our community agreements. These agreements support adult skill development and also serve as the foundation for classroom commitments with students. Two weeks ago, you heard from our buildings who are putting belonging into action through their school improvement plans. BHS is expanding extracurricular involvement by centering student voice and identity, learning what students care about, how they see themselves in BHS offerings, and what supports they need to further connect and see themselves represented in extracurricular activities. RMS is deepening its CHAMPS implementation by targeting student engagement. They are diving into opportunities to respond, focusing on student discourse and equity of voice in their classrooms. These actions elevate student agency and contribute to a positive, predictable

045environment, also known as a trauma responsive environment. And one more click. One more. Several elementary buildings are expanding student agency through focus groups, conflict resolution structures, and peer-to-peer partnerships aligned to responsive and restorative practices. This is just a snapshot, an example of how skills and learning conditions are coming together to bring belonging to life across BPS 101. Just as buildings focus on their priority 2 targets, the district is also making important progress to strengthen belonging across BPS. We are currently amplifying student voice through the Panorama student survey. staff continued to deepen knowledge as to how to use the Panorama platform um to notice trends across attendance, behavior, academics, social emotional skills, and belonging and to monitor our progress. The student service committee has been monitoring district-wide trends in social emotional skill acquisition and belongingness amongst

046a variety of our demographic groups. The work has highlighted the need for the professional learning around equitable environments, the fidelity of our tiered systems of support, fidelity of social emotional curriculum delivery, and making sure that we have a guaranteed and viable EC to2 curriculum map for social emotional learning that's standards aligned. Our building level intervention teams are deepening their use of panorama data to strengthen and refine our existing multi-tered systems of support at the tier 2 and three levels to make sure that the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students can be addressed within our district and our building systems. We also have several learning conditions initiatives underway. We're integrating Castle's three signature practices to create more predictable and engaging learning environments. We're strengthening our community partnerships, including those with chip-in, family counseling services, mutual

047ground, GPS, parent series, and suicide prevention services. Classroom work walkthroughs continue uh with a focus on equitable participation in inclusive environments. and professional learning has focused on partnerships with the resilient supportive schools initiative through ISBY um to get our RMS deans and Katherine Murray trained in restorative practices. Um we also are working with the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning and we'll be sending 23 staff members in February to attend the exchange and bring back learning to our district. We also partner with the Kain County Regional Office of Education um learning around equitable MTSS frameworks to improve attendance at all our tiers. These district-wide efforts complement building work and help ensure that every student and every adult in BPS can grow their skills and foster a strengthening sense of belonging. So, what's next? Building

048on this district-wide work, we are continuing to focus on skills and the learning conditions that support belonging. For skills and competencies, we're preparing for the upcoming ISBY social emotional learning standards update expected in either spring or summer 2026. And this update will support the work of student services committee of exploring a new social emotional curricular tool and establishing a framework of professional learning around adult social emotional learning designed to further empower staff to model and support student social emotional skills. Our district salt teams, as you heard Jen Hicks mention earlier, are engaging in discussions noticing the interconnectedness of SEAL skills, student engagement strategies, and how the worlds of academics and belonging collide. Amplify CKLA, which you've heard excitement about, seamlessly integrate social emotional skill building and application of student voice and in their engagement strategies

049and lessons. for learning conditions. We are continuing to use this BPS belonging framework to guide ongoing application and deepen our understanding of effective equitable systems. Through the student services committee, we're launching our Panorama educator survey to better understand staff experiences and identify areas for adult learning and behavior skill development. equity committee a few weeks ago made selections for our panorama community survey and will be exploring best practices to amplify family and community perspectives to strengthen meaningful engagement. SLTs and Blit teams will continue their use of the Panorama education platform to identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth and they will have the new data to explore with the expansion of our panorama surveys. In addition, staff will have an opportunity to engage in restorative practices training in summer 2026, strengthening our equitable, responsive, and

050inclusive learning environments across the district. In BPS, belonging remains the focal point through which we stren strengthen safety, well-being, engagement, and academic success. Belonging also builds resiliency, helping our staff, students, and organization navigate challenges and bounce back from adversity. Our commitment to belonging ensures we are fostering fostering optimal conditions for all to thrive. As we wrap up our discussion on belonging, we will close with an intentional closure. This is the book end to our inclusive welcome. I'd like each of you to take a moment to reflect on one thing from today's presentation that excites you most, something that inspires you to act or think differently in your role. What's one idea, insight or vision for belonging that you want to carry forward for our students, staff and community? I'll give you a moment to reflect

051and would invite one to two share offs. Right away I would share that restorative practices and the adult seal those are really really amazing. >> Thank you. >> No better way to model it for the kids and understand it better. So yeah >> I would say what inspires me to support belonging is it's everything. It's the foundation that everything is built on for our students and staff and community. So, um, it really excites me that we're spending from my seat like a tremendous amount of thought and resources and coming at it from such a wide different varying perspectives to make this a priority. So, uh, that's very exciting. >> We thank you for your time this evening and are very grateful for this opportunity. >> Oh, thank thank you very much. I have a couple

052questions if that's okay. >> So for the 23 BPS staff that's going to castles. >> Yeah. >> So what are the are those all like educators or are they support staff and it across what grade levels? >> Yeah, fabulous question. So, uh, we invited each building to, um, invite members of their school leadership team and key implementers of their building, um, strategic plan or or their plan. Um, and so it's a variety. We have classroom teachers. We have some related service staff. We have some administrators coming. So, it's a wide variety of our staff from early childhood all the way up through the high school. >> And how would their training cascade be implemented into the buildings that they do? >> Sure. So um there's two strands that they'll be participating in. One is engaging

053instruction or the second would be mental health um social emotional learning. And so uh the exchange has been moved to a virtual format. So they'll engage in the professional learning throughout the course of the two days. And then we're going to have um a workg group u debrief as a district with some action items and commitments that they'll be working we'll be working collectively as a uh district committee for those who attend. and then action items for what they're going to bring back to share their learning with their SLT. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions? Thank you very very much. >> Yeah, thank you. >> All right, next our committee updates. Tom. >> Well, all right. So, um board, you can see that the board committee shareouts are are posted in your board book for

054you. Um board members, I go ahead and welcome you to uh share anything you'd like. One thing I do want to note, a great connection to what you just heard in the presentation. Uh the equity committee met and as a continuation of that strand to sense of belonging, the equity committee was asked to um actually help create the family and parent engagement tool through that we'll use through Panorama. And so we were able to complete that. Um, Rob, I I don't want to steal too much of the thunder, so I'm gonna stop there and let you talk if you were planning on giving an update about the equity committee. Um, but that was one thing I I did want to draw your attention to like how all this kind of weaves in and out of

055the work of the district um and the committees that we have. So, all right, board members, uh, aside from what's been shared in the board book, if you want to do your roundout of uh, committee updates, please feel free to do so. >> Well, Rob, since you were called out, you want to start? >> Called you out, Rob. plan on not saying anything though, [laughter] but no, I mean Tom kind of stated it. I I guess uh uh what I really enjoyed um from that meeting was kind of the process um that was used Natalie and um Katherine kind of led us through that um during that meeting, but it was very um collaborative. I'm going to steal the word. I know it's been used a couple times already, but uh but it's true. Um

056but we kind of went through and like reviewed um different areas of questions u for this survey that uh Tom was uh indicating and we all had input um into selecting which ones we thought were the best ones to include in the survey. So, um, and as Tom mentioned, it's going to be used. I think it's planning to go to DCC for review, um, here shortly. And, uh, but, uh, so we'll see how that goes. But, um, enjoyed that process is, uh, my big, uh, statement from that committee. >> All right. Next. >> So, for CAC, um, just kind of go through the science team. They reviewed uh they had some affirming physics come in and kind of just share their thoughts and to help develop a rubric for evaluated materials, the current versus the

057new. Kids said that they kind of want a voice students rather they want a voice in the experiments and they want to kind be hands-on those experiments. For ELA, we talked about CKLA. Uh for middle school, they want to field test amplify in January. Um the challenges are for co- teachers and then ensuring all demographics will be represented like IEL etc. High school savas savas uh would like um they want to field test that in January that would be 10th and 11th grade would field test and they would use the evaluation tool six teachers 253 students and if 10th and 11th grade like it then they would recommend it for 9th and 12th grade and then k and we're going to get together to work on to what CAC needs for as far as new

058resources and then the kindergarten think tank is done. All it was >> Thank you. >> Uh Betavia Foundation did meet uh the highlights would be there was a donation that was in the agenda to RMS for to sponsor AR author visits and the LRC at Routollo. Um we are planning an event in February with the teachers in all the buildings so we can collaborate with them so the process for donations can be more seamless and u better understanding so we get more applications. Um and then the hall of honor I brought my little sheet here uh we are still looking for nominations for the hall of honor. So if you go to baviaoundation.orgallofhonor or slhallof honor. You can nominate people through the end of January. We nominate or induct every year sixavia graduates uh a

059teacher and a friend of the district. And so over the holiday break, if you know someone you think is deserving, we hope you nominate them. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> All right. Well, thank you. >> That's good. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, board policy first reading, Tom. >> Yeah. So, that'll take us to one of the committees that we did have as a board committee. Uh, so the board committee met. Um, >> if my memories are think all of you were able. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. No. So, awesome. So, it's not any need no surprises >> to debrief any of you. You were there. Um, so we ran through the first readings of the policies that were prevented presented that night. Uh I think all of you were comfortable with bringing this

060to first reading. I don't think we needed any other amendments or review there. Um the one policy is up for action that was discussed so that we'll get to that one later during action section of the board meeting, but that was the one that the committee recommended to go ahead and move forward with a fasttrack item. Um and we can kind of give the uh we can discuss the context on that so that anyone uh for the public viewing will know the context of it when we get to it. Any questions on these policies? >> Okay. All right. >> Great. We'll bring that to the next month's meeting then in the new year in 26. >> All right. Item 7.1, Tony. Truth and taxation hearing. >> Yes. So >> truth. >> We call that >>

061in taxation. >> Pardon? >> We're making jokes over here just [laughter] >> Well, there's not usually a lot of jokes that happen when we >> bring up the pretty serious but that good. Yeah, that's all right. It's it's uh it's nice to have a little levity. This is an odd requirement. We don't typically have a public hearing for our tax levy. We talked about this last month, but I just want to make clear that this is an unusual year. We are retiring the last of our debt and we also happen to have Bavia tiff one that is expiring coming off the books and so we have some what is considered new property coming onto our tax roles. And so it's just one of those technicalities where it appears as though we're raising the levy in

062excess of 5% but in reality we're going to collect less from our taxpayers than we did in the prior year. So this is just one of those formalities that we're going to go through. So our obligation is to hold a truth and taxation public hearing, welcome the public to offer their comments and insights or answer their questions. We'll do that. I'll run through the higher the finer points of the levy. If there's any members of the public that wish to address the board, they may do so. Once we finish the hearing, we'll move on to the next action action item where the board actually adopts the levy formal and then I'll submit that to the county clerk and it must be to the county clerk by the last Tuesday in November. So, this is we're

063doing it tonight, which is a good thing because we got to get it filed. >> Did you say the last Tuesday of November? >> December. December. He meant >> I started to sweat right there. >> Yeah. Maybe both. Maybe both. His seat would be empty if that were the case. [laughter] You I have one job. This is I have one job. This is it. This is >> Look at you laying down the lawn. >> No, no, no. Not because of me. He would have been on the run. [laughter] >> I would move and change my name. >> All right. So, the truth and taxation hearing. If we can go to the next slide. As I mentioned, it's required by law because in this instance, our request exceeds 5% over the prior year's extension. But it's

064a weird technicality of how this goes this year. So that's why we're holding this public hearing. Next slide. Uh many people are familiar with PEL enacted in the early 1990s is commonly referred to as the tax cap. And that caps are the increases in terms of what the school district can collect from one tier to the next to CPI or 5% whichever is less minus new construction. So because as I mentioned earlier, Betavia took one is expiring that's considered new construction on in addition to all the other new property that was added to the tax roles in the last calendar year. And the intention of the tax cap is that it protects taxpayers from rampantly increasing property taxes. Now taxes increase certainly year-to-year and painfully so, but in prior prior to the tax cap, it

065could increase at much much higher rates. Good news is that the equalized assessed value or the taxable value of our school district is increased to $1.9 billion. Uh and that's an 11% increase over the prior year. Equalized assessed value is generally onethird of its actual market value. Um but an 11% increase is a pretty significant increase from one year to the next. What that means essentially is the average home in Betavia increased in market value 11% in the last year. >> Just a point of clarification, that's the tax cap. We don't get 11% extra. We get >> the 5% or CPI. >> That's what we get, but the taxable value changes from year to year in terms of what they're taxed on. So the tax rates, the tax rate is going to go down luckily,

066as we'll get to in a moment. Um, but yes, that doesn't necessarily mean we get 11% in new taxes. It's exactly true. We have about 12 where what we estimate the the assessors in terms of the information they're provided to the clerk and what the clerk has then shared with us is that Matavius the school district is see is expecting around $12 million in new construction and almost 15 million in the expiration of tiff number one that combined together is the 27 million. Uh, as I mentioned several times now, that tiff expires. TIFF one, which is functionally much of downtown Betavia, has been uh tiff since the early 1980s or maybe the late 1980s. I think it was like 1987, something like that if I remember correctly. And so now that uh that increment that

067was the difference between they've always paid their taxes the same rate during that time period but when the tiff was enacted the amount of money that that value increased went to the city's coffers to control through the the mechanisms that tiff allows and now all that taxable value is coming back to the original taxing bodies and for us that represents about $15 million in value not 15 million in revenue but in value for their taxable value. And so, next slide, please. 92 million is the proposed total tax levy. So, that's the full extension. We always increase that because these are all estimates. If there's more taxable value that's added to the tax roles that I am not aware of, we want to be able to capture that, especially in light of our current finances. But

068that represents a 7.4% increase over the prior year's extension. Hence the requirement for the public hearing. Anytime it exceeds 5% we have to provide notice and hold a public hearing. Uh and that final extension however is not 92 million. What we expect to receive is just under 90 million. So 89.8 million is what we expect that we'll actually get and that's less than the prior year. So uh really covered this but again um you know we're asking for 7.4. We're getting much less than five. And we do have to disclose now a new law, new requirement is that we disclose our our cash values, cash balances that are in our coffers. And we'll get to that after we get through this slide deck presentation. I'll share that. Um, in some cases, if it exceeds more

069than two and a half times your revenue in a given year, then there are some there could be repercussions and tax objections. Luckily, we're we're nowhere near that. This is a lever request. it doesn't represent its final collections and this is a hearing to do so. Uh as I mentioned earlier too, our debt service is being retired in full. We will be debtree actually just here in a few days. We make our final payment on our bonds and interest on the 31st of December and Battavia Public Schools by all accounts will be debtree since its inception. I don't think that's ever occurred. Uh there aren't perfect records in that regard, but as far back as I can look, we've always had debt and we won't after the end of this year. Um so that means

070that our overall tax rate decreases. Next slide, please. And how much does it decrease? Well, you can see what our tax rate has been for the last few years, right? hovering just at or below um uh six cents or and that is going to fall off from the last year that would be 5.2 to 4.6 and that's a 9.8% reduction. The reason for that primarily is that debt service going away. We paid off the debt. The the taxing authority that we have to pay those bonds disappears when they're paid. We also are facing the ptail restraint constraints and then also a strong EAV. As EAV grows, it drives down tax because of the way that the tax cap works. It's an formula. The tax rate itself changes so that you can cap that full the

071extension. I won't get into that, but um that drives down rates over time. What does that mean for the average homeowner? The median home value this year right at this moment is we're estimating is uh about $450,000 just a little less than that. And that is up that amount is up 11%. In the last year and so uh the median home this year with our school taxes will pay $6,600 roughly in school taxes. That's $300 less than the prior year. So if your house appreciated by 11% and there weren't any major reassessments or anything that anything taxable didn't change either house, you just mirrored the average taxpayer in Matavia, you're going to pay $32 less in school taxes than you did in the prior year. I can't speak for the other taxing bodies and their

072taxes and you know obviously there's a lot of dynamics involved there, but when it comes to the schools, which is the lion share of your property taxes, that will go down. So to summarize, our EAV is up. It's 11%. We're asking for an extend a levy that's 7.4% more than we extended last year. However, that's not what we'll collect. Retiring debt will drive down the tax rate by 9.8%. It means the median home tax bill goes down $300. Our debt is fully retired here in a few days. and we fulfilled our requirement for the truth and taxation public hearing once we offer the public to comment. But before we do that, we break out of this Holly and in that report is a or in the in the agenda is a report called compliance with

073105 ILCS that Yeah, there you go. So this is the new requirement that the general assembly passed that we disclose when we hold this public hearing or when we adopt our levy. You can make it really small so that nobody reads it because it doesn't matter. Uh anyway, if you scroll down just a tad, we have to look at our average total expenditures over the prior three years in certain funds, the education fund, the operations and maintenance fund, and the transportation fund. We look at that. We look at our average total expenditures over those three years, which is $111 million, which is no insignificant sum. We look at that Miller ratio limit which says that we could theoretically have to comply with our fund balances exceeding $270 million, $280 million, which would that would be

074wonderful if we had that problem, but we do not. Our total fund balance as of June 30th was $49 million. And as you well know, we spent a pretty significant sum of that fund balance just in the last six months to do the renovations at HD Storm School and the like. So that number is going to significantly decrease in the current fiscal year. It'll be bel below $40 million, probably closer to 35 and maybe less. And we have future years of more spending to fulfill our warm, safe, dry plan. So we are not in danger of running up against this new requirement, but we do have to disclose it for adoption. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions from the board or any questions from the public. >> Any questions? [cough] I just

075have one comment. So the the big takeaway for me I just like and Tony said this but like my eyes this is like a kind of remarkable moment in the history of the district and that the average home owner in Bavia's value has gone up 11%. And if you ask different people, including the mayor, why people move to Betavia, a strong school system is a primary driver of that. But the actual percentage of taxes that you'll be paying is going down and as of January 1st, we'll have be debtree. That's probably never happened. All three of those converging at one time. >> Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I think that's a true statement. I don't have we don't have perfect records in that regard to know that for a fact but I it's very likely

076true. >> Yeah. So that's something I think people should be proud of because uh to have all those factors aggregate at one time is uh it's unprecedented. So I just want to point that out. >> All right. Do I need to call for public comment? >> Yeah, please. >> Do we have any public comment? hearing. No. >> Thank you. >> Do I need to close this hearing or anything? >> I don't think so. >> Give people an opportunity to speak. So wish. >> We are now moving on to action item 8.1 adoption of the 2025 tax levy. Tony. So, uh, everything that we needed to know to adopt the levy we just talked about, but I think it would be helpful just to pull up the certificate of tax levy so that we can identify

077the total amounts in the individual levies themselves that we're requesting. So, we can just scroll down just a touch, please, Holly. See that total levy amount is 92 million. There's 70 million requested for the education fund, 12.4 million for the operations and maintenance fund, 3.8 million for transportation, 300 for municipal retirement, 800,000 for social security, and 4.7 million for special education. All of which add up to, as I mentioned, 92 million. And I would reiterate that we expect to receive somewhere around uh 90 million just under 90 million in total receipts if all goes according to plan. Recommend that the board adopt the levy as presented. >> Do I have any questions here for a motion? Hold on. Let me get to the right thing so I say it right. I will entertain a motion

078to adopt the 2025 property tax levy as presented totaling 92 million and authorize the administration to file the certificate of tax levy with the King County Clerk. Motion by >> so moved >> by R.J. not R.J. >> RJ. >> Good lord. I need to go to bed. Robot emotions names. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> I get on my head. I get in myself. Rob, thank you. >> Raquel's too busy [laughter] laughing. >> Sorry. Yeah. >> Second by Aaron. >> Actually, uh, Kristen second. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I was laughing too hard. >> We're too busy paying attention to you laughing to hear Kristen. All right. Thank you, Kristen. >> All right. Motion passes awkwardly. >> All right. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Yes. >> Slagger. >> Yes. >> Meadows. >>

079Yes. >> Thomas, >> Yes. Been a day. [laughter] >> All right, Mark, follow that up. >> Item 8.2, award bids for the Louise White building improvement project. Thank you. As I said, seven days ago, I'll be back here talking about the Louise White building improvement. Um, it's very similar for the uh work that was done in HC Storm last summer. Um there's some differences and it doesn't really have to do with what we're doing, but unfortunately it has to do with some financial differences. Before I get to that, I will have um Holly just kind of click through. Um just so we can see it's Louise White that we're talking about now. And it's going to take me a little while because really everything we did at Storm last year, it was when you walked

080in the building to the left. Now it's going to walk in the building to the right. So everything's going to be flipped. Um, and that's actually confusing a lot of people that I'm talking to when like lamp and DLR and like that they have to like really change and it does if you're in the building every day it doesn't but as you can see here we're um it's going to be new security vestibules. So right now when you walk into Louise White um you really walk into the cafeteria before you have to get to the office. Um so that is going to be fixed um with the new sec security vestibles. Obviously, I'm going to probably say this way too many times, but just like if you've been to Storm, it's going to be very,

081very similar. Kindergarten rooms, um, we're going to take B 0 through B2. So, B 0 is not a fullsize classroom, but B1 and B2 for the building. Um, but we're going to take those three and turn them into two kindergarten rooms. And then actually on the back side of B 0 is another room that will just get renovated into um, you know, modernization of kindergarten room. Yeah. Yeah, we're even doing that. So, you can see some nice photos of the roof. This was taken a little while ago. Um, luckily I took those pictures um when it wasn't snow. Um, so those will be replaced. Those are called rooftop units and also doaz units. Direct outside error. That's what doz means. Also, the roof is going to be replaced. Um, this is the oldest roof now

082in the district. Um, 1978. So, you can do the math. That will be completely replaced. >> That's the original roof. That is the original roof and you can see on the right side that's a roof drain. I mean if you could zoom in there's a lot of patches on that and a lot of rebuilding [cough] that roof drain. So again over a little more than 47 years um there's been some repairs done and again it definitely outseed the I mean lifespan. I mean it's you don't get commercial I mean it's basically commercial roof 47 years. Um, so that is a good thing. Uh, and then new doors and windows throughout the entire building. So I again I could have taken multiple pictures, but um the doors that there's kind of hallways that lead to the

083pods, those will be replaced. Individual doors to the classroom will be replaced and the windows will be replaced as well. I think that's probably it. Okay. Some key points here. Um, we put this out to bid um, over the last probably six weeks. Uh, the one bid that we had to put back out was the electrical bid. When we first put that out out with all the other trades, um, I was notified that only one bid came in. So, I advised um, Lamp Incorporated, our construction manager, not to open that bid and to rep put the bid out for electrical. I wanted more than one bid. I wanted to be able to compare. Part of the problem right now with the trade, electrical trade throughout the region is it's very difficult to get competitive bids

084from them because for one of them are getting out of school work because of the tight time frame in basically two months and really don't have the labor to do it. And also really this project isn't big enough which you'd think it's 14,000 square foot but a lot of electricians are going to large renovations in schools. Um so school district have passed you know multi multi-million dollar uh referendums. So that's kind of what we're seeing a little bit right now. So we did get two bids. Um so when you compare those two bids the numbers were very very close. Um, and you can see that I mean I attached the bid tab. Um, so that part was good news. The bad part, um, overall all of the trades when you came in and averaged them

085all out, some went down, not many, but some did go down from last year, but most went up and on average they went 18%. which is a lot more than I figured and I we budgeted for and what our um architect DLR and LAMP are seeing. They're seeing more in the tune of 10 to 12%. Um some of that is we tried to catch as much as we could as far as change orders that happened at Storm. So we put that into the drawings this time. So hopefully we won't have to use as many the allowance that we did at Storm. So there's always allowances built in and the tune of if I do thought my head I believe it's $700,000. So there is those allowances. So anything that we use, they're called CO's change

086orders. We made sure we got those um in the drawings for this year. So hopefully we don't have to use that allowance. That allowance number is built into this total price. So when you see the total price, that is already built in. So if you don't have to use them, that I mean it doesn't really come back to us. You just don't pay that to total amount. Some of the other things that um because I had a lot of questions about this um suppliers, especially in um electric and copper specifically, we're finding out are really starting to put on tariffs and large amount of percentages on tariffs. Um our two trades that went up the most were electrical trade and general trades. Now, general trades, there's a lot of different things that go into there,

087but um the other thing we found out is mill work. So, any cabinetry, casework that you have, like, you know, kindergarten rooms have it, the office has a lot of it, a work room has a lot of it, like mailboxes, cabinets, things like that. Millwork prices have gone up significantly. Um, and it's at a point too that it's very hard to predict, I mean, from year to year how much it's going to go up. So that total amount um we had a total amount for warm safe dry that we were thinking we're going to spend. It's really just kind of taking I don't want to say it but it's really kind of taking away from and spreading out how long warm safe dry is going to take. So really to be able to afford everything

088in warm safe dry with these costs what they're doing it's just going to spread that out. Now, when that happens, I mean, as all we all of us know, year-to-year prices are not going to go down. Usually in the construction trade, um, and we're doing buildings and before COVID, it was pretty much 3%. 4% right there. You could figure it year to year to year. Then it went to like 8 to 10%. It doubled. I hope this is not a trend that's going to continue. um because that's going to be very very difficult if we're literally thinking projects are going to go up 18% every single year and others are seeing it now. Not always 18% but others are seeing significant increases. So yeah, I wish I had better news but that's that's the bidding

089process and that's what it came in. And um we have two yeah no three three of the contractors so the general or the the trades that did storm that are won the bid the lowest um responsible bid and then we'll be doing Louise white as well. So that that that is a good thing that storm didn't scare them away and they wanted to actually come and do it again. >> Any questions? I'll just make a comment um that and I appreciate the presentation and I do think this is essential work that we [clears throat] need to do but yeah what you're stating is uh kind of keeping me up at night because I work in the construction industry and I can echo that my my company for instance used to do like a two to

090three% price increase every January and now that's history and what you're saying I mean I can't look into the future so um but it's much more aggressive than that and I think when I started with the board we were talking about the cost of building a new school Tony you can correct me is like 22 million in that >> that was on the low end but we were probably >> 22 to 25 >> and now just to to do these essential renovations is uh you know 6 to 7 million so you can see how things the world changes how much more expensive things get so um I appreciate your due diligence getting multiple bids so we make sure we're getting competitive pricing but I think um for my chair like we're going to have to

091really uh be prudent in how we make our our investment in capital all investments moving forward because uh well we just went through the tax levy well the tax levy you know value of homes is going up and things but it's not outpacing the cost of goods and services right now so we're going to have some tough decisions to make I think down the road >> any other questions Okay, I will entertain a motion that the board award the bids for the Louise White building improvement project as presented. Motion by >> So moved >> by Katie. >> Second by Raquel. Sydney, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Meadows, >> yes. >> Thomas, >> yes. >> Arandu, >> yes. >> Siki, >> yes. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Mark, could you please

092lead us on the approval of the HVAC equipment and controls purchase? >> So, this purchase has to do with Louise White. Um, so the HVAC equipment at um or on the roof that I showed you in the last presentation. We do a direct purchase um through OMI. It's [cough and clears throat] it's train equipment, but it's through Omnia Partners. Um so, it's cooperative purchase. Again, very similar to what we did last year. Um it's the same thing. Actually, this one's a little bit less than it was last year, but it's because some of the equipment um was purchased in bundle for this project this year. So, it's being stored at the maintenance facility um and being used small small equipment like what are called cab units, so cabinet heaters that go investibules and things like

093that. We knew there was a very long lead time on them. So, I'm like, well, even if this wasn't passed, we would use them somewhere else. So, um that's part of the reason [clears throat] why it's um less expensive. The other thing is is um at Storm we had to put a new exit off the library um as part of the health life safety and we needed a basically a ceiling unit for that too. So between those that's what the low cost but I figured that out and that percentage for that equipment was not if you would add them in wasn't wasn't not nearly 18%. who was more on the seven to 8% range. >> Any questions? >> All right. I will entertain a motion that the board of education approved the HVAC equipment and

094controls purchase as presented. >> Motion by Raquel. >> Second by Katie. Sydney, please lead us in roll call [clears throat] vote. >> Arandu, >> yes. >> Meadows, >> yes. >> Gerals, >> yes. >> Sliger, >> yes. Gonzalez Thomas. >> Yes. >> Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you very much. Item 8.4. Tom, please lead us on this item, the social media litigation. >> Yeah. So, board, I I tried to do the best I could in giving you a little bit of lead time through my weekly updates about this matter. Um this was a more recent development but one of my reflections and I know you're going to talk about the annual joint conference in a little bit. Um but in the reflection on our conversation around personal electronic devices and just concerns that some

095of you had shared you were hearing throughout your connections in community about uh students both in school and away from school with their with their devices and and social media. Um this opportunity came up uh landed kind of in my lap. I was talking with superintendent colleagues and we were addressing uh I was addressing like what what are others doing and some were sharing things that they had and all of a sudden one of my colleagues said hey Tom have you heard about the class action lawsuit that's been filed and it's a nationwide one but hundreds of school districts in the state of Illinois have joined it and so I asked them [clears throat] to share more information with me. Um so they sent that to me and and I provided those documents to you

096so you could take a look. Um, I do know some of the superintendents in the districts that are uh joining this uh class action lawsuit and spoke with them and um so I felt really comfortable. Um I did have our attorneys review this as well. The template uh language and the agreement that is presented to you tonight is uh there is very congruent to what these lawsuits look like. Um there's no financial liability on the district. Um fees would be collected out of any kind of settlement or judgment issued uh from the case. So, the reason why I share this with you is because uh if you looked at the document, if you had a chance, uh you will see I think a lot of this addresses what some of the board's concerns and conversations

097have been um over the last couple of months. And I wanted to give you an opportunity, an option to take some action if this is something of your interest. Um there's no need to make a motion on it. If you guys discuss it and as a board feel that there isn't interest in it, nobody simply can make just you don't have to make a motion on it. and then we move on to the next item. Um if there is uh interest in it then board members you would go ahead and are there any questions or do you want to have go ahead and have a conversation please feel probably at this time is the right time any questions or general thoughts >> you reviewed it with the lawyers right and everything is is fine I

098guess I don't see any negatives >> and I like the positive of making kind of stance on it too. >> All right, I will entertain a motion to approve joining the social media litigation lawsuit. >> So moved by Rob. >> Second by Aaron >> Sydney, please lead us in a roll call vote. [clears throat] >> Arandu, >> yes. >> Siger, >> yes. >> Meadows, >> yes. Kilberg. >> Yes. >> Gonzalez Thomas. >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. Motion passes. All right. Item 8.5, adopt or amend board policy. Second reading. Brad, can you are you leading us on this or is it >> Tom? >> So, this um this policy is we've talked about this on numerous occasions. This is not only state law, but something that we want to get a jump on in

099enacting. So, um, it was a rarity to have all of the board members at a policy committee, but it was really good and we had good discussion about the stance that the district would be taking by adopting this early and moving forward with this. So, this puts us in compliance with that law, but also makes a statement about where Betavia stands. >> Any questions? Uh we had asked Tom to reach out to the attorney regarding adding language about uh training a staff. Um so I know you had given us an update through email, but did you >> Yeah, absolutely. So it was advised that the policy not be um altered in this particular case because it's so tightly aligned to the new safety act and some of the u state mandates that surround that. However,

100um you know, with procedures, if the board has consensus or desire to make sure that the administration includes in the procedure some uh language that shows uh a requirement for training, you know, and understanding of the building's protocols or district's protocols. He suggested that that would go into the administrative procedures. Um you know, and it gives us then the ability to kind of work with that. um we have time uh to create that and then we could always follow up at our next policy committee and and talk about what that might look like and and then possibly even a draft because one of the things we talked about at the committee meeting was we would want to probably clean up our current procedures we've shared and use the template that IB press has pres pro

101provided because that one kind of outlines things a little bit more detail and we would incorporate some of the additional things that we do uh and then we could have that discussion about training So, but overall he advised I wouldn't touch the policy, but you could certainly take a look at putting that into procedures. >> The other thing to note on this is that the board uh decided to move this to second reading and adoption for tonight instead of going the the traditional first reading in one month and then second reading in another month of adoption. So with approval tonight as an action item, it will be enacted. Any questions on the training component or on the Thank you for bringing that up Kristen on anything else related to this? >> Um [clears throat] I

102would like to see something about training somewhere. >> Um and if it can go into procedures, that would definitely be something. I just this is a new thing and I think it's really important um that we make sure that we're training everybody on this. Um so that is something I would like to see in procedures if everybody's comfortable with that. >> Does anyone have any particular issues with putting it in the administrative procedure hearing? None. I think that it's recommended is a strong recommendation if since we don't write procedures, >> right, >> that it gets included in an expectation that we would be looking for that. >> All right. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> We can. >> All right. So, um I will entertain a motion to approve policy revision as

103presented. >> So, moved by Raquel, >> Second by Katie. >> Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Yes. Yes. >> Meadows, >> yes. >> Kilberg, >> yes. >> Gonzalez Thomas, >> yes. >> All right. Motion passes. Thank you very much everybody. I really kind of appreciate the whole a that everybody came to the policy meeting. That was a very good discussion. Um got into a lot of kind of deep discussions about it. I appreciate you showing up, sir, to witness that or and provide your input at the beginning for public comment. Thank you for doing that. Um, and I think in a lot of ways it was a really good example of how these things should kind of walk through the process. So, all right. I uh item nine, discussions 9.1, board

104follow-up discussion. There's a couple of items on this one. Uh, feel free to speak as you wish. You know, this is up to anybody to have that discussion, but one of the things that, um, was kind of talking with Tom on board building tours. uh due to kind of the timing of that and needing to make it a board meeting and not sure when people are going to go or not. Um one of the topics that I had broached was this isn't a non-action board meeting. It is one that is not, you know, a requirement for everybody to come to. So that if it works out that it's kind of scheduled that like I've been every build on almost every building four or five times, I may not need to go on this. That just

105way to keep it efficient and effective and then if it falls below the board kind of the requirements of posting it as a board meeting, we can certainly tell people when they are scheduled here, but you know that keeps us from having to do all the formalities of having you know, someone start the meeting, close the meeting, and everything else. So, does that make sense? And then once they find out who's interested in kind of touring whatever buildings can kind of work to schedule those in the best grouping possible in a way that makes sense. >> That sounds good. Okay, >> that's okay. So, [snorts] the the one thing then too is if the board doesn't mind, uh we've been looking at calendars and talking about the work scope. um if we could push this

106back into maybe a little bit into February or early March just given you've heard some of the updates. There's some ongoing work going on in terms of preparing for our capital projects. So, uh we'd appreciate if we could just back off the January. I know we originally said let's look at late January, but if we don't, we'll go to like February, March. >> Early March. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Might be warmer walking from building to building. >> Awesome. Okay. >> Thank you for that. [clears throat] >> All right. Item 9.2. So this is something I think we started last year, a year before was after going to um the joint annual conference which for those that are watching is an opportunity for because we don't actually get a lot of professional learning opportunities

107and our board processes. So this allows us to go to various sessions, engage with our our fellow board members, some staff, whomever happens to be there over time and learn a few things. So, I wanted to give everybody an opportunity to kind of talk about a few takeaways they may have had if there things they feel like might adjust some of the practices we might want to investigate that this is an opportunity and not the last opportunity to kind of bring those forward. So, I can start if you like if you're still thinking about it a little bit. Um, one thing Tom and I actually already started, which is Tom and I before the board agenda goes out, we meet the Wednesday before so that we will then specifically review that agenda together and talk

108about it. It kind of grows over time and he makes me aware of as the things get added. But that's also just to make sure that we're on a kind of a tight understanding of what's in that. It also would be helpful that way you guys would know that if there's something you'd like included in this discussion part, you know when we're going to be meeting and we can talk about it and therefore you can request it by that Wednesday before the board meeting and just send it to Tom and I. So that if there's a topic you want included for discussion and then in then the theory of that would be we would bring it here as a part of the discussion portion and then if it's determined that we want to turn it

109into a full-blown topic or future action item discussion we can plan that out as a board so it's all open and in front and it it manages a way to give a kind of consistency to the process. That resonated with me because I've heard some commentary from fellow board members that they would like that. So that's one of the things that um I saw in that. Um the other thing that is not on this yet that we are continuing to talk about is a little bit of kind of sitting in the meeting and sitting in that agenda process and kind of identifying potential targeted discussion or lengths of time for each agenda item. So that whether that rolls up into nine is going to be about 30 minutes and eight is going to be 40

110minutes or whatever or each item partially for two reasons. One, it gives us all an understanding of where we are on a time clock, right? So that the meetings we want to get fruitful discussion. This is not about limiting it or stopping it. It's just to make sure that if you know some people not here but this is one of the discussion topics that people have would sometimes get locked onto a topic and find themselves difficult. gives whoever's running the meeting or any other board member to kind of say, "Okay, we have we have a lot of other business to get to. I' I could call for one could call for a vote, one could ask to clarify, you could continue it to a further meeting, but it gives an agenda to kind of a

111spot for that to occur, you know. Um, and then and then that allows us to kind of keep the meetings. Ironically, the name of the session that I'm pulling most of this from was like efficient how to run kind of efficient board meetings. great discussion, not an efficient session. Um, this is one of those, if those that haven't been, they do a lot of like community discussion and engagement and everything else. Um, and it turned into 45 minutes of asking questions by by the people there. I don't think they got through three slides, >> you know, so they said they were sending them out later, but and there was a lot. It was good discussion back and forth. You know, few things that joke was there was one they asked anybody in the room who's

112a board member, who's a board president, who's a who's an at who's the school district attorney because some of them have them on staff. One person raised their hand and then one of them said something along the lines of we were not sure when we're supposed to record meetings or not record them. [laughter] The attorney got up and walked out. >> Yeah. So, it was it was it was a very interesting session. Um, so, [clears throat] um, that's my kind of primary takeaway. I do want to thank everybody that had time to come and kind of get together and hang out. We don't get to time to meet and hang out socially much at all and so appreciate that time. I want to say thank you to Katie for doing the delegate process as well.

113>> That was very interesting. >> Yeah. >> Um, there was your second point about the time agenda was that the public would then also know when the topic was being discussed on our recordings, >> right? that that way they would have an idea of that there's something they could kind of go right to >> hit it 30 minutes in. >> Yeah. >> You know, >> okay, I'll go ahead. Go ahead. So, um I had the opportunity to go to two different sessions and the first one um was a superintendent evaluation best practices and I thought it was appropriate because we we as a board are right in the middle of doing a superintendent evaluation. So, um, so I went to that and I know Kristen will probably talk about session she went to as well.

114So, this one caught me a little bit off guard because it was facilitated by uh, an individual that was part of a company that sells a superintendent evaluation software. And I thought I had like walked into a commercial, you know, for this software. and they were really like and they had people on the panel that used the software and they were, you know, singing the praises and stuff like that. So, I was tempted to walk out um because I didn't I didn't feel like that's what I wanted to hear really, but it actually turned into not a not a bad session, you know, and it it talked about and it's not necessarily these are like revolutionary concepts or anything, but you know, talking about goal setting. One of the things I did uh pick up

115on is um um you know and I and I found this out you know as we're doing Tom's evaluation starting that process is I was trying to you know recollect things that uh happened over the course of the year and they made a point of we should be documenting um significant actions and accomplishments throughout the whole year. So that to me was like a good suggestion and something I hadn't been following and now you know somewhat struggling with to try and um think of things um as I as as we do the evaluation. Um and uh the other thing is uh you know uh goal setting um and being able to uh there's there's probably a ton of goals that we can throw at a superintendent. Um but uh we really need to be um

116prioritized and we need to really focus in on [snorts] what's what's going to be in the best interest of our students and uh and making sure that those goals then we're supporting that throughout the course of the year um and helping the superintendent to achieve goals. by the way, and that's that's another big thing is is we want these goals, but we want to be able to um help the superintendent exceed them. So, um so as we set these goals, we we want success, you know, uh we don't want to set a goal to say, hey, you failed this particular thing. Um in a way, then we failed really if we if we're in that that kind of situation. we should have we should be setting goals to help um the superintendent exceed them. Um,

117and then the last thing I got out of that is, uh, this is, you know, we got Tom currently, but you know, Tom will not, hopefully he's here for a long time, but he won't be here forever. And, um, this is a good basis as you're thinking about skills and what you want out of a superintendent. As you're looking for your next superintendent, you can draw back upon these evaluations and help you to u pick the best candidate to for the for the position. So that was the superintendent evaluation. Um Raquel and I were both in the recruiting diversity hiring uh retention one uh talk. Um so a couple things I got out of that is uh in interesting stuff. It was it was interesting to hear the perspective of the panel. Um they came

118from diverse backgrounds you know. Um but uh one thing name bias you remember they were talking about name bias and it that that one resonated with me is you know we have a lot of biases and preconceived notions just by you know looking at a resume and seeing a name and we can already have made up our minds about that candidate. So they were making us aware that, you know, you got to, you know, understand that that's a real thing to have those biases and obviously try to avoid them. Um, another suggestion that was brought up, which I thought was pretty good, and Stephen, I'm not sure how often we do this or um, but they said, uh, sometimes having school board members at the recruiting fairs, >> um, is a good idea and that

119helps. You know, kind of shows candidates that, you know, serious about the position. You know, you have the school board there trying to pitch and sell you on coming to their school. So, um, maybe we're doing that. Maybe we have done that in the past, but that was another item that came up. >> I can let people know. >> More than welcome to join. >> I'll just build off of the one um which uh yeah was really interesting. Um and I think now with the generation of social media like uh candidates will automatically go to our website to see what what do we have. So if you know someone is minority group, they're going to go and they're going to look to see what's on our website. Do we have diversity on our website? Because

120then that will tell them we are a diverse school district. Um, local school district was on the diverse picture. >> Oh, that's right. Yeah. East >> Easter was on they had one school district that was not as diverse and then they had Easter on there. Go top. Um, and then it was just um because and I think that kind of ties into like that belonging whereas like representation matters, you know, and if a student sees taught by someone that they reflects mirrors them, you know, they're going to have that belonging. Um, so yeah, it was it was a really I feel it was a really good discussion. Um and like there was one she was a former superintendent retired and one that's a current superintendent of a local school. >> Yeah. The one was the

121state superintendent. >> Yeah. >> Uh so I went to dollars and decisions 101. Uh was >> Tony waits with baited breath. Sounds excellent. [laughter] Sounds really good. That sounds exciting. >> Tony perked up all of a sudden. >> Uh, and you know, it it was interesting. They provided explanation of the board's role in shaping school finance and um focused on debt management and budgeting, return on investment. Uh it was interesting because we were at tables and we were given examples of kind of um imaginary school districts that have you know there was one that reminded me of our school district because there was a school district with faired failed referendums. They had to had buildings that needed to be updated. Um and so then as a team we had to decide how we were going

122to allocate funds and how you know are we going to look at health health life safety bonds. It's very interesting. Um so yeah I definitely worth my time. It was great. And then the other one I did was the superintendent evaluation. Uh some which was also excellent. Um some there were a couple things that I took away that I thought I would bring up here. One was that they recommend it was through IASB. They recommend um that before we do our evaluations that the superintendent does a self evaluation. Um probably too late to do that now, but it might be something we want to discuss for next year. Um The superintendent does it and gives it to us to review. >> Yes. >> Which I think would be helpful to hear from Tom what he

123feels his successes or challenges. >> Yeah. You mentioned that to me and I don't know why I didn't think of it because that's what my own company does, >> right? Our staff writes our own self evaluation like you know so and it's just a it's a way to provide context and it also helps us remember those things we may not have remembered. So yeah. Uh, so that's one thing we could discuss in the future. And then they also suggested having a less formal like midyear check-in to see how things are going. Um, and then I think that was those were the main takeaways that I saw. I felt like we are we're on a pretty good path, especially talking to other people. I mean, there were there were school districts that they're like just starting

124to do superintendent evaluations. >> This is our year two, so [laughter] >> side of it, too. >> We are on a good path and maybe, you know, there were some some steps we could take to improve things, but we're we're on the right track. All right, I guess it's my turn. Uh, I also went to two sessions. The first one I went to was called Leading Schools in a Highly Polarized World. It was led by Dr. Ronald Thomas from Towns and University. And it was basically his discussion focused on learning how to depoliticize school improvement and empower stakeholders to work together. And I guess his thesis was sort of three-pronged. It was you need to develop a vision and goals for student learning shared by the majority of stakeholders in the community. Then use evidence

125to document the current reality of performance areas for strength and growth and then identify systems with the most potential to make a significant impact. He also spent spent a significant amount of time talking about how you can have the best people in the world but if you have poor systems they will fail. So you have to have strong systems in place to for success. And then the final thing I took really was uh that we need to focus improvement initiatives on actions that address current needs of the children in the district while maintaining a blame-free environment about the past. So uh I thought it was pretty good. He was actually interactive. He after the presentation he gave out his email address and you could ask him questions or have slides sent to you and I

126did that on a couple of them. So I thought that was good. Um the second one I went to was uh trust the key to successful education leadership. The first thing that was interesting is I sat down I was sitting right next to the U46 superintendent and the superintendent from West Chicago was like on the other side of me. So it was like people from our area. So we had some really good discussions and uh this was all about trust. This David Horseer led the session. He's at the trust edge leader institute. He's a very dynamic speaker. It was very interactive. There was a lot of uh small group talking and basically the thesis of his presentation was that all fun all high functioning organizations uh have trust and they need to build a culture

127of trust and so he talked about strategies on how to build trust across all levels from admin teachers parents students um and he had like eight pillars of trust which I'll share which are clarity compassion character competency commitment connection contribution consistency See, um, there was a little bit of a, like Rob was saying, like he has a book out that he would reference quite a bit that if we wanted to get deeper dive on it. So, I did look at it. I think it was for sale at the conference and so if anyone would be interested in that literature, I could direct you that way if you wanted. >> Um, I was at the delegate assembly which was extremely [cough] interesting that it takes a really long time. Um but the process is very cool.

128Um but the the session that I really really loved uh was one on student board members actually and I had notes and notes and notes and this is not the right notebook. This is from a different conference [laughter] that my partner went to. Whoops. Um, but I I think the biggest takeaway from what I saw was it was uh Asiggo has two high schools and they both uh have student board members sitting on their board of directors and it was really interesting to see like what impact it had on the kids, but even more interesting to see what impact it had on the adults in the room. Um the kids were super enthused about like being involved and feeling empowered to speak on behalf of other students, but the adults felt especially empowered having those

129student voices right at the table with them. Um so that was that was my main takeaway I think from everything that happened at the conference was just watching Asiggo go over that process and what it looked like. So if anybody wants to I know we're going to discuss that in a few months. if anybody wants to kind of just look up Asiggo um or I will find my correct notebook and if you have any questions about it I can I can go into a lot of the stuff they did but that was that was the that was my favorite thing of the conference. >> I actually sat at a lunch uh with a school district. There was a few different school districts but one of them had a middle schooler that was there >> um

130and she was a board member. It was very interesting to chat with her about it. >> And you're right, it was I think she felt very empowered, but [snorts] everyone that was there also the adults were really interested in what she had. >> It was very like Yeah. mutual empowerment at those tables. Yeah. It was very cool. >> All right. Yeah. One of the things I I didn't h I I wasn't able to attend one of the morning sessions because this is when I was at one of the other sessions, but historically I attended one that was like board presidents or board leaders or whatever like they it's just a get together workshop talking about it. So they'll usually say all right what are your current problems but on a board and each table kind

131of tries to tackle a problem much like what you were having. But one of the thing that kind of comes out of it is to me is one is the opportunity to talk to other board members at other not just the sessions that like that's half the time I think I spend more time getting things from other districts than I do from going to a particular session because there's so many sessions to go to and you only have about two or three slots that you can get in to go see that. Um but is just the wide range of challenges that many many districts have that we are fortunate enough here to not have. Um you know we have a collaborative board that yes we have hard discussions. Yes sometimes they're challenging but we're not

132at the point where they're just outright kind of fighting each other all the time and not moving things forward you know. So I just they I always come back with an appreciation for the Betavia community, the school district, and this board in the end. So all right, thank you very much. All right. And then um there's a board follow-up discussion about personal devices. I think you got an update on that. >> Yeah. Um so I shared a note with you. Um going to send the uh so Drew Ray and I worked together on the survey. They were based on the questions the board had. Katie, thank you for uh memorializing those for me so we could just move that into my meeting with Drew when we met about it. Um they uh issued the survey

133and the survey they close a survey I believe Sunday night and then so I started kind of going into it yesterday. Uh what I'm planning on doing is giving uh you a survey but then you will also receive the actual results of the survey so you'll have both. I just thought it'd be helpful to synthesize and plus I haven't had a chance to kind of fully dive into it myself first too. So I want to see it and take a look and then so Drew and I talked about that um and get that in your hands and then hopefully between now and then um to the next meeting, you know, you should have thoughts. I didn't know if the board if you wanted to set up a one-on-one time if you wanted to follow up

134with me if you read through things and you want to just talk about it and what your reflections are. I'd be more than happy to schedule time to meet with you um and take some notes on that as well because that'll give me a chance to talk with Drew about then like how some of the board's reflecting on the results. And then the other thing is um you know we we I think are going to plan on having this conversation at DCC as well so that our committee chairs can kind of have a conversation and reflection with the our union uh chairs co-chairs to our committees about this about the results. So >> does that make sense? Yeah. Well, so then will this be on the next agenda for continued disc? >> Yeah, we'll continue

135discussion. >> Okay. >> Um but yeah, so I'll have everything to you um probably right around the same time I'm giving you the weekly update >> this Friday. >> Is our continued uh discussion to decide if we want to hold a another discussion about like if we actually want to look at the policy is that what we had attended? I feel like that's what I remember us saying like do we even do we feel like we need to have a combo like is the policy working once we heard the information is that what we were doing >> okay >> yeah I think it's to even just in general just what your reflections are you know after you hear what this the teacher results were >> on it and and and then pairing that with all

136the building presentations that had gone on you know kind of just taking it all on whole and then you guys being able to have a conversation about what does this mean to you what are your thoughts And then Daniel, to your point, we can talk about what what are some other steps we might need to start exploring. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, be on the lookout uh by Friday. >> All right. Item >> I have everything in your hand. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. >> All right. Item 10.1, administration comments, Tom. >> All right. So, I just want to say thank you to all who adopted a family this year and took care of our families that are a little bit more in a situation of need during the holiday season. um and supported

137the United Ways program. Living United Way, this this is part of the program for the adopt the family. I just love being at the event. This is, you know, I've been this is my third year here in the district. I've gone and volunteered for this every year. I just think it's amazing to see how many cars are coming in donating things that adopted a family. And all these volunteers are coming from our school buildings and from the various partnership groups that we often bring here to highlight for you. um having volunteers there, you know, you have uh our wonderful leadership team here and Amy and Holly and I don't know, it's such a good thing. So, I just want to say thank you and I wanted to thank also our local VFW for hosting the

138event every year and allowing the volunteers to use their facilities as a storyhouse um a place where we get the work done and then also where the families will come and pick up their their uh bundles of joy and gifts um and life's necessities which the distribution will be tomorrow. And um aside from thanking all the volunteers, one quick reminder to our community. It's such an amazing thing. we hit a record of 394 students who will be supported through this initiative. Um that's more than 50 kids from last year and so we're really happy to hear that. Um also last thing very grateful for the BPS community and those who partner with us [snorts] and I hope that everyone of every background during the holiday season for any faith that you practice finds peace and

139joy with loved ones over the holiday break. get some good rest and let's have a fantastic 2026 together. >> Thank you, Tom. >> Yep. >> All right, board comments. Would anyone like to make any closing comments? >> I guess I will start. Everyone's >> I don't know. Everyone's [laughter] this way. >> The way it works. >> Sorry. >> I think she started first almost every other. >> You should just say Kristen. Do you have any more? >> No. [laughter] Uh, I just wanted to say thank you to um some of the schools that have reached out to uh invite us to activities and I know we're trying to work out how that's going to work going forward. Um, but I volunteered at Grace McQueen at their winter wonderland. That was fun. Um, like I mentioned

140earlier, the CKA CKA CKLA curriculum. I did a kind of observation there. Um, so yeah, I think it's good for me too to actually get into the buildings and see them a little bit. Um, so yeah, thank you. Keep the invitations coming. Uh, and yeah, I just hope everybody has a nice break and finds some time to relax and be with loved ones. So yes, uh, happy holidays to everyone. Um, enjoy your time off. Um, and this is going to show my ignorance here. Are they the high school kids taking final exams this week? >> Thursday. >> Okay. So, >> that's why our ambassadors. >> All right. Okay. >> So, kids go out there and just kick butt on those final exams. >> Do great. >> And then, uh, enjoy your time off. um and

141recharge and get ready for the the second semester and uh same for the teachers and staff as well. Thank you for 2025 for all you guys did. Uh look forward to the collaboration with u with you in 2026. Um and to my fellow board members uh also wish you happy holidays and enjoy the time with your families and um look forward to another great great year in 2026. So um I went to Atollo I think it was the 20th of November for the author reading for the invite I went for one of the reading sessions and it was really the next the RMS library state. [clears throat] So it was like it was a good it was a good reading it was a really good taught them how to like do a certain type of

142writing and it was very interactive and it was very cool. So um and then so uh there have been some tragic events that have happened recently. The Jewish community was targeted and there was another school shooting. So we have to start this holiday season um we have to start the holiday season with Hanukkah, the festival of lights, those padas, the portraying of the journey of Joseph and Mary seeking shelter highlighting unity, hospitality and faith. We have kaza the celebration of values coming up. Um we have Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. And all these celebrations have common themes, faith, celebrations, unity, etc. All of these use lights or candles to help us get into the spirit. And even though we are going through some dark times, my hope is that no matter what

143holiday you celebrate that you can be the light that people need and celebrate our differences and learn from each other. So just have everyone has a healthy and happy safe holiday break. >> Nice. Um, so I'll echo happy holidays to everybody. I know we're wrapping up the semester, so I hope everyone gets some rest, could spend time with friends and loved ones. I want to thank everyone that was here tonight, the student welders who were recognized. Uh the esports, I really loved seeing that unity of the parents and the kids all with their jerseys on. I remember when that got approved a year and a half ago and to see that bigger room and I know it's just going to keep growing and growing. So, anything we can do to get kids together, you know,

144we're talking about feeling belonging. That was a perfect example of that. I hope they felt the love from our end. Um, I want to thank uh I want to say that one thing I went to that was great was the middle school had a concert at the fine arts center. I saw Miss Carol's there, Mr. Kim appearance. It was really every time I attend a theatrical or musical art performance at the district, I always kind of feel like I just need to go to more of this stuff because it just fills you up. I'll say at one point there was snow that was falling on us. So, it was a pretty magical experience. So, I want to commend the band conductors and Dominic for putting on another first rate show. Um, I saw this before

145I came to the meeting tonight, but I saw that Mr. Dennis Puran, teacher and football coach was inducted into the it was a very long acronym but the Illinois coaches uh association hall of fame which is very exciting. So congratulations to him. Uh I want to thank um all the hard work of everybody. This month has been a lot of presentations, a lot of hard work to deliver a lot of information to the board and uh in my eye every one of them was very professionally done, very thorough, very easy to understand and so I know that's not an easy task. So I want to say thank you. I know it's sort of a culmination of all the work we're doing, but uh it is appreciated. Um I want to say thank you to my

146fellow board members. I do uh what I love about us is everyone is very passionate about supporting kids. We're all in this for the right reasons and so I I'm grateful for your service. Um I want to thank my family for letting me serve. I could not do this without their support. Um and then finally, I want to recognize two people uh that make the board's work possible. um Miss Cindy Rodriguez and Teresa Rodriguez. So, um if you call the school district or call here, um those are usually one of the two voices you're going to get on the other side of the phone. And I cannot think of two finer representatives for BPS 101. Um they do an outstanding job. Cindy is the board secretary. Um she's present at all our meetings in close

147session. And I'll just say the board cannot function without your dedicated service to what you do. um you um I'm getting emotional to think about but we really you are a servant leader. You never seek a praise or a claim. You just do the work and you're there to make sure that everyone has success. So um on behalf of the board, Cindy, I want to get up. I know this is unorthodox, but we have a little gift for you that I want to present to you and just say thank you for everything you do. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> For the record, she's one of the hardest people to get a gift for. [laughter] I I talk to Teresa all the time. She's like, "It's terrible, Tom. She doesn't She doesn't do She doesn't want

148anything." [laughter] >> So, I'm done. That's all I had to say. Tom, did we have an over under if Aaron was going to cry at this meeting? [laughter] >> Always take the over on that. >> I'd always bet the over on. >> There's nothing wrong with crying, guys. >> There's nothing wrong, Raquel. You almost made me cry. That was [laughter] No, that was really beautiful. Um the way you put it together in such dark moments, that was just beautifully put. So, thank you for taking the space to share that. Thank you all for all your reflections. Um, I lost my train of thought. I didn't have anything like prepared to share. Um, all of that just made me forget what I was going to talk about. So, must I mean um Oh, yeah. So, just

149speaking of the break, I do hope everyone can kind of slow down. It's been insane. I know everyone feels that way for the most part. Um, so I hope that over this break everyone can take the space to empty their schedules a little bit, slow it down, just pause and just be with loved ones or be alone with the book, whatever it is that you want to do, just take space just to kind of, I don't know, recall the year. Um, and I appreciate you guys all going over the triple I conference. I wasn't able to go. I can't line up child care and my all of our family live out of state, so I wasn't able to go. I may be following up with some of you, but I really appreciate you guys taking

150the time to go over that um and to share what you your the points that you um took from it as well as like what we do when we go over committees. It's just really helpful um when you guys are sharing about schools and everything like that. I used to love being able to go and just personally with my change of my schedule, I can't. And so I just love that you guys do actually take the opportunity to really spell out what you're what you're seeing um what you're experiencing. So thank you. Please keep doing that. Um, the only other thing I want to bring and Katie kind of actually hit on it with her triple eye shares. I just want to just want to remind that I did want to uh make sure whether

151it's January, February, uh, to bring that discussion to the table for the student voices, >> uh, student um, board members. >> Okay, >> that's it. That's all I have. >> Uh, I don't want to be too repetitive. By the time it gets to me, I'm like, "Yeah, what they said." [laughter] Um, I really appreciated the opportunity to view the CKLA curriculum. That was really cool to watch. Um, that was a great day. I walked to Louise White one way and then I went home and had some lunch and then I walked to JB the other way. Um, and I just spent a whole day in classrooms and that was really, really nice. Um, thanks for the building presentations these last few weeks and I just wish everybody a safe winter break. Um, and I hope

152we all find uh moments of rest, joy, and belonging. >> Thank you. Um, only thing I will I won't reiterate everything that was said much better than I would have ever said it. So, thank you for putting it in the way that you did. Um, I will state, you know, that while I do want to say an appreciation for everybody to get their rest and break, that I'd like for us all to remember there are people that don't get time off during this time of year that have to not only work for a living to keep feeding their families and everything else, but have to slay the dragon at our building so that they are ready to be back in session at the beginning of the year. So, this is for a lot of staff,

153this is a little bit of a reset moment while they work to prepare for the next year. So, not only mentally, but also for many of our, as I called, 12 month workers that may or may not get all the time off that some others may get. So, um, appreciate all the time and effort put into this year. Um, and I appreciate you guys as well. Keep up the good work and I know you will and thank you. And with that, um, we are going to be moving to close session. So, um, the band will go to the board will go into close session. We will not ban. That's a good one. band. [laughter] >> Yeah, we will not end rehearsal. >> We will not have any action. >> Pile it back, dude. >> We

154will not have any action items after the close session. You're welcome to stay here if you like, but if um you do decide to leave, we want to thank you for coming out this evening. The time is and I will entertain a motion to move to close session as allowed under open meetings act for the purpose of exception 5CS120C1. Motion by move >> by Raquel. >> Second by Katie. >> Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Yes. >> Meadows? >> Yes. >> Kilberg? >> Yes. >> Thomas? >> Yes. Right. >> The band. The band. He's going to session.