001I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, Tom. Are there any items to remove or add to the agenda? as if I don't know that there already are. >> Yes. Um uh thank you to board member Geralts for catching something. Uh we are going to need a correction to the minutes uh for the July 30, 2025 special board meeting which was related to the construction tour given to the board. Um the correction is going to be removing uh communications director uh Holly Deman and adding the RMS principal terapai attack uh as far as who is attendance um for that meeting that'll be the correction there. The second item um
002board member has requested to have item 5.7 under consent agenda voted on separately. Did I is that accurate? >> Yep. Perfect. So, uh, when we get to that point, I've already asked Steve to make sure that he reminds all of us when we get to that portion of our agenda to not read 5.7 into the rest of consent. And there'll So, there'll be two votes on consent. >> All right. Okay. >> Thank you. Any questions on that from anybody? You good? Seems like we're good. Okay. Tonight, we're celebrating the opening day of the Early Childhood Center at Alice Gustoson Elementary School. Yesterday, we welcomed our bitty bulldogs to the building for their first day. Here to tell us more about the program is Pette Ali, early childhood coordinator and assistant principal. Welcome, Pette. >> Thank
003you. Good evening. As he said, my name is Plet Ali. I have the privilege of serving as the early childhood coordinator for our district. Our early childhood program is housed at Alice Gustoson Elementary School under the leadership of Principal Kristen Ste. Yesterday, we opened our doors and welcomed 142 three and four year olds into our early childhood wing. This was a special moment because our classrooms are mixed age, meaning our threes and our four-year-olds learn side by side, building friendships and developing skills together. Three-year-olds join us through our community lottery, which runs from early November through late January. And while the lottery is open to both ages, most of our four-year-old spaces are filled by returning students. Children have already spent a year growing with us and are ready for even greater challenges. Our early
004childhood program is rich in history. It began with a small team of dedicated educators in one or two classrooms that focused solely on supporting students with special education needs. These pioneers were strong advocates for early education, laying the groundwork for growth and innovation. Over the years, their dedication has helped build a fully robust program with a deeply rich tradition supporting at risk English language learners and general education students, engaging a developmentally appropriate play-based curriculum while maintaining a profound respect by our community. The legacy and vision from many years ago lives on in every classroom and every team member today. This year, our early childhood program is thriving with seven classrooms offering both morning and afternoon sessions. We have 11 blended sections, meaning classrooms that include both community students and students with identified needs supported through
005an IEP. We also have three instructional classrooms designed for our most complex little learners, ensuring that every child gets the right support in the right environment. Our students are surrounded by an exceptional team. Our early childhood teachers are not only experts in early childhood education, but also endorsed in early childhood special education and English as a second language. They are supported by an incredible group of pair of professionals as well as a talented related services team that includes speech and language pathologists, a social worker, an occupational therapist, and a physical therapist. Together, they bring both expertise and heart to everything they do. In our classrooms, learning is both joyful and intentional. Every day, students engage in at least 45 minutes of free choice experiences. They build towers in the block center, roleplay in the kitchen,
006explore math, literacy, and science activities, or create art or new letters in the writing center. All of these activities are tied to our monthly theme that is aligned with the Illinois early learning and development standards. We have two large group learning times each day. one focused on common instructional practices of pre-iteracy and pre- numeracy and another dedicated to language and literacy which focuses on vocabulary comprehension sequencing and concepts tied to our unit plans. Our three speech pathologists not only serve students with communication needs but also co-e in budent classrooms to support the child's every child's communication development. Our social worker plays a key role in helping students develop social skills, emotional regulation, and positive relationships. She supports both our students and our families. All aspects of our lessons are aligned with those early learning standards,
007and we track growth using a tool called teaching strategies gold. We share progress with families three times a year, similar to what families experience at the elementary level and beyond. Our OT and PT collaborate each month on a motor group that blends movement skills like balance, jumping, striking, and kicking with our monthly learning theme. In the spring, we celebrate these skills at our culminating event in partnership with Special Olympics Illinois unified programming. Students rotate through fun motor skill stations and are recognized with awards presented by local law enforcement. We've had officers from Beta Betavia, Geneva, and Cain County join us. And last year, Betavia's comfort dog, Officer River, brought even more smiles. Beyond serving our enrolled students, our early childhood program supports the entire community. We offer monthly developmental screenings to identified children who may
008need support. For the past three years, we've partnered with the Betavia Apartments to host screenings on site for families who may have difficulty attending at our center. We also collaborate closely with the state of Illinois's early intervention program, ensuring trans children transitioning from birth to three services enter our program without a gap in support if they still qualify. We provide walk-in speech and language services for children with mild to moderate delays. And since 2022, we reserved at risk spots in every blended classroom. These spots are for children with certain life factors that put them at greater risk for entering school with delays. By offering these opportunities, we can give these students a strong start before kindergarten. The Early Childhood Center is truly a place of celebration, learning, and growth. It is a community where students
009are honored for their unique strengths, where educators collaborate with passion, and where families are welcomed as partners. Every day, we see growth in language, in skills, and confidence. This year is already off to a wonderful start and I'm so proud to work alongside this talented team to provide our youngest learners with the very best foundation for success. Investing in early childhood education plants the seeds for lifelong growth and the board of education's commitment to these learners transforms futures. Our program and families thank you for your dedication and support. >> Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much, Holly. Uh, Holly, do we have any speakers wishing to address the board? >> We do not. >> Okay, move on to item 4.2 BPS partners. Drew, seen you for a bit, so you got a fancy new haircut.
010I see. >> I did. It's the It's the I'm still in summer Drew mode. >> Summer Drew mode. >> It's uh It's It's been hot out. This is actually kind of nice. Um, but yeah. Yeah, long time no see. Uh it's been a while. Um first of all, right off the bat, great start to the school year. Um thanks to all of our district staff that worked their butts off over summer break to get everyone ready to welcome back our kids. Um it's always great to start the school year on a positive note and there were overall positive vibes across the district. I think a lot of you were able to see that. Um so listen, I've gotten to know many of you over the past several years either through our mutual work in the
011district because I've had your kids in class or because we're neighbors. But in case some of you don't know much about me, I thought the start of the school year might be a good time to reintroduce myself. My name is Drew Ray and I'm proud to be both an educator in Bavia and the president of the Battavia Education Association. This is my 13th year teaching social studies in the district. Um, this year I'm exclusively teaching APA American government and politics, excuse me. So, this is actually the first time in my career I'm not teaching freshmen, which I'm a little little bit sad about. Um, my family and I moved here in November of 2020 so that our kids could attend school in BPS 101. My son Davis is in first grade. This is uh uh
012over at HC Storm and his little sister Leona will be starting kindergarten next year. One of my favorite parts about teaching in this district is getting to work with everyone on our staff. And I know it sounds cliche uh but it's inspiring to be surrounded by such dedicated people. It reminds me why I love working in public education. I tell you all of this because like all of you, I care deeply about the success of this district. and I spend probably too much time thinking about how we've progressed as a district since my first year in the fall of 2013. I've seen a lot as have most of you. Uh ups and downs, highs and lows, best of times, worst of times, everything in between. As I expressed to our membership last Tuesday at our
013general meeting, I believe we're moving in the direction that we need to be moving. While the speed of progress can be frustrating, it's important to sometimes take a step back and reflect on that progress. Even though that can be difficult when there are still things that we could be and should be doing better. And that's okay. It's something we should never lose sight of. This summer, I was very fortunate to be able to spend some much neededed time with my family, which I hope everyone in this room was able to do as well. Reconnect with some amazing friends and spend time collaborating with fellow union members across the state. For example, every summer, some of our BEA officers, as well as those that are stepping into leadership roles within our local attend the IEA summer
014leadership academy in Bloomington. This year at a round table for local presidents, we received some sage words of advice uh from our IEA vice president Carl Gakei. In response to a question regarding how to bring members with varying viewpoints together in order to tackle a common goal, he responded with a question which I'm going to pose to all of you now. Which is better, inhaling or exhaling? I'll give you a moment to think about it. I had to think about it. I was inhaling exhaling. It's a trick question. All right. You can't have one without the other. What he meant was that a union as large as the Illinois Education Association naturally brings together people with a wide variety of opinions and interests related to our profession. Working together is like breathing. Inhale and exhale
015may be different, but you can't survive without both. Success thrives when each person gives and receives in balance, keeping the team alive and moving forward. So, while we may hold different viewpoints on how we do things, what must unite us are our shared values. That simple but powerful point hit me right here and made me think about us, Battavia Public School District. We may approach challenges from different perspectives, but we have many more values that are the same. And fortunately for us, BPS 101 has a clear set of values that all the stakeholders can stand behind. It's on the district website. It only took me like 20 seconds to find it. They are collaboration, equity, excellence, innovation, integrity, lifelong learning, and respect. Of course, there will always be differences in how we put these values
016into practice, but these principles should serve as the blueprint for our work together as a district. Our students deserve nothing less than a continued commitment that every stakeholder will act in good faith toward the common goal of providing all of our students with a highquality public education. Finally, happy early Labor Day. Remember, Labor Day is a day to celebrate the working people who built the n this nation, and solidarity is how we will protect what we've built. Speaking of solidarity, the BEA sends all the positive vibes in the world to the Neapville Unit Education Association as they continue to fight for a fair contract. Solidarity forever with our brothers and sisters. Go Bulldogs. Good night. Good luck. >> Thanks, Drew. All right. Uh, BESA president Jill Jillian, how are you today? >> Good evening. I'm
017doing good. >> Good. >> Do you want to go ahead and put up my pictures? >> So, I'm going to take a few minutes and introduce our new BESPA board. Um, we have a whole new board. Um, and so I kind of want to give you pictures of all of us. Mine are kind of fun. Um, so go ahead. So, this is my family, obviously. Um, so I'm excited to introduce myself as your new BESBA president. I currently work at Rola Middle School as an administrative specialist handling all things financial and athletic. This is my first my third year at with the district. Last year, I served as BESBA board treasurer and was also part of the negotiating committee for our new contract. I have lived in Battavia for six years with my husband of
01821 years and my two sons who are 19 and 16. My oldest is studying electric electrical engineering at Bradley University and my youngest is entering his junior year at Bavia High School. I am an animal lover and what feels like a zoo at home. I have two dogs, two cats, and a tortoise. I also love to travel and I'm a huge Disney fan. Okay, if you can go to the next one. So, this is Laura Marquort. She's obviously the older one there. Um she is our new vice president of BESPA currently serving her first term on the board. She's excited to continue the great work already established and toi contribute new ideas to help strengthen the union. As a Bav Bavia resident for 25 years, Laura and her husband of 28 years have raised three
019children in the Bavia school system. Their two oldest have graduated from Kiteon University and the University of Kentucky while their youngest is attending the University of Louisville. Over the years, she has been in the Bavia school district from seen the Bavia School District from many uh perspectives as a dedicated parent, volunteer, substitute teacher, kindergarten enrichment teacher, contract negotiations committee member, and early childhood parah. Although she was once considering her ECC her forever home, a district change has led her to a new opportunity as a campus monitor at Routollo Middle School this upcoming school year. Okay, one more. This is my secretary, Sharon Watowski. And Sharon um is been in the district for 23 years. She has spent seven years at Storm School and the past 16 years at Rola Middle School, working in various programs
020including ILP, DO, and now eighth grade general education. In addition to her role in the classroom, she also coaches seventh grade volleyball. She has lived in Battavia for 34 years, who has been and been um she with her husband who has been retired for 11 years. They have two sons, Ty, a data scientist, and Cody, who works in logistics. As a family, they enjoy visiting breweries, attending Cubs games, and golfing together. Okay, one more. And this is my treasurer, Kristen Gorski. She has been with the district since August of 2021 as a paraprofessional at JBN before moving to Routolo Middle School where she now works as a registar in the student services, a role she truly enjoys. Kristen has lived in Betavia for over 20 years with her husband Doug and her three sons Jake,
021Andrew, and Jackson. They have they also have a dog named Oreo. In their free time, she enjoys watching sports, especially the White Socks, traveling, reading, and relaxing with good Netflix series. Our BESA board is excited to hit the ground running. The BESA board is pleased to share some wonderful things we have been working on. So, if you can go to the next one. Thank you. So, the first thing is building connections. The union board's fresh perspective and commitment to open dialogue. The newly elected BESBA union board is bringing a fresh perspective, renewed energy, and a strong focus on collaboration. We recognize the real progress happens when communication is open, respectful, and consistent, not just with our union, but across all areas of the district. Our goal is to strengthen the relationships and build meaningful connections
022with our best union members, our BEA partners, the board of education, and the district administration. By fostering open dialogue, we hope to create a culture where every voice is heard, concerns are addressed with transparency and teamwork drives positive change. As we move forward, we are committed to being accessible, responsive, and proactive in advocating for our members while also supporting the broader goals of our school and community. Together, we can ensure that all staff feels valued, supported, and empowered. We also have shared key concepts with our union on we got a new contract, so we're very excited about that. Um so one of the best board's top priorities is keeping members informed about the most recent um and important aspects of the new contract. Transparency again is communi in communication ensures that everyone understands their rights,
023benefits and opportunities under the current agreement. Our goal is to ensure members are empowered with their knowledge and supported in navigating these terms of our contract. We also started a new um committee. It is our training and mentoring committee. And this newly formed training and mentoring committee hit the ground running this summer, collaborating with Carrie Rue and her team to ensure a smooth and successful start to the school year. This effort played a key role in preparing meaningful training experiences for support staff during the critical first days. This early collaboration not only laid a solid foundation for the year, but also highlighted the value of open communication and construct constructive feedback. By working together and learning from each experience, the committee is well poised to continue enhancing training and mentoring opportunities for our staff moving
024forward. Um, and then in May, we started um the BESA board started collaboration with our new um lead, well, it's not new, but an updated lead campus monitor uh job description. And so we began developing a more accurate and detailed job job description for lead campus monitors. Through monthly meetings with administration and with valuable input from principles across the schools along with the current lead campus monitors, we will a we were able to fine-tune the description. We are pleased to report that we are nearly in the completion of the final description for this important role. Moving forward, we plan to continue reviewing and updating all staff support staff job descriptions over the next year to two years to ensure they're accurately reflect the responsibilities and expectations of this position. And then lastly, but not least,
025um collaborating with administration about par profofessional recruitment and staff solutions. The BESPA board is actively collaborating with district administration to address paraprofessional recruitment and staffing challenges. By working together, we aim to develop effective strategies that attract and retain qualified pair of professionals, ensuring that students receive the support they need. This partnership focuses on identifying staffing gaps, improving hiring processes, and exploring creative solutions to build a stable, skilled paraprofessional workforce. Through open dialogue and shared goals, we are committed to creating a positive work environment that benefits both staff and students alike. We are excited about the promising opportunities and positive changes ahead with our new BESPA board this year. The BESBA board wishes all students, staff, and and um students, families, and staff a successful and rewarding school year. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Jim.
026>> All right, student ambassadors will be here next meeting, so we look forward to having them. Grace and uh Grace Nelson and Kaia Olden at next month's meeting. All right. So, next is our consent agenda with a slight modification from what was posted. According to our board policy, we designate a portion of the agenda as consent agenda for those items that do not usually require extensive discussion before board action. These items are generally routine, recurring, and can be grouped together for efficiency. Steve, would you please take us through the process? >> Absolutely. Uh just a reminder, as previously mentioned, uh item 5.7 will be voted on after the board votes on the rest of the consent agenda, and we did make some corrections to item 5.2 in those minutes. Uh 5.1 is the approval of
027our July 22nd, 2025 meeting minutes. 5.2 is the approval of the July 30th, 2025 special meeting, which was the construction tour. Uh 5.3 is our monthly uh personnel report. 5.4 4 is our monthly payrolls and bills. 5.5 is the destruction of the close session recordings from January 23rd, 2024. 5.6, uh, we had a couple of donations from a local scout pack and Office Depot to, uh, JBN and HC Storm. We're appreciative to them. Uh, 5.8 is the review of our close session minutes. And 5.9 is the approval of the consent agenda. >> Right. Thank you. Any questions on the items that remain? Okay, hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with changes as requested in the minutes in 5.2 and without agenda item 5.7. >> So moved by Katie. >>
028Second by Aaron. Sydney, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Yes. >> Thomas, >> yes. Pilberg, >> yes. >> Meadows, >> yes. All right. Item I 5 5.7. We will now vote on consent agenda 5.7. Does the grow board have any questions or comments? >> I have questions. >> Okay. So, for uh the Dennet Meyers, uh we used her last year, correct? >> Yes. >> And did she work with teachers or admin teams? >> Both. Um, and then whoever she worked with, did they give positive feedback on her ELM? >> Yeah, we don't gather formal feedback, but the anecdotal feedback that I have is very positive. >> How many hours did she work with BPS on the assignment? >> A little over 200 hours. >> Then how often did she meet with BPS
029personnel? >> I don't know the answer to that exactly, but pretty often. in terms of like my team or overall >> guess just overall >> she did a lot during EL world revolves a lot around the access testing so there's a lot of upfront work and then during the month of February there's a lot of access testing and they last year because of new staff supported that >> um for Angie Sman how many teachers are in their first year >> 20 >> second Of those teachers, how many are veteran teachers versus non-tenure teachers in their fir in the first year? >> I believe they're all tenure teachers that are in BPSU, both cohorts. Is that correct? >> That's accurate. Yeah. >> So, of those veteran teachers, how many have over 20 years of teaching experience
030and are within five to seven years of retirement that you know of? >> My estimation was around three or four. It's always hard for me to predict people's retirement because it's a little individual for each person, but kind of based on what I know, that's what I came up with. >> So, I know that our retention is good at 92%ish. Um, but I think maybe we need to look at having half the slots allotted for tenure teachers. Um, because we want to keep those non-tenure teachers. How many teachers reached out to Angie for assistance in their BPSU project? They're all required to do that. >> And this project goes is it second year only or is it for the leng the duration of holders? >> It's the duration of the program and then it culminates
031the September after their two-year commitment where they present their projects. >> Did the teachers who sought Angie's feedback give positive reviews of their experience or interaction with her? >> Yes, very positive feedback. Uh, most of the feedback that I've received goes, I wasn't really looking forward to that, but it was one of the best things I did. >> How many times did Angie meet with teachers face to face to help with their projects? >> She does a lot of her coaching virtually. Um, so I don't know about face to face, but she's working one-on-one with teachers um, morning, noon, and night depending on when the teacher can meet. >> And how many instructional coaches do we have? We have uh four at the elementary, one full-time one at the middle school, and then the equivalent
032of one FTE at the high school split between two people. >> What are the instructional coaches responsibilities as far as classroom support? >> Well, that's they're there for teacher learning and this year we have really used them and are going to use them uh for the really important board initiatives and the strategic plan. So, our ELA um curriculum roll out and then we have a math roll out that spans all of the middle school and a little bit into the high school. So that's going to be a big part of their work this year. >> How many hours did Angie put in last year meeting with the BPSU cohorts? I guess my maybe another question. So if there's 40 participants, did she meet with each one on average like an hour, two hours? I don't
033know the answer to that, but there's like different phases of the work. So, they start by having some coaching conversations. Then they videotape themselves doing a lesson or a part of a lesson and then they review that lesson and because out of their teaching practices is where we want them to draw their action research project for, you know, that the rest of the the time in BPSU. So, I would say it probably depends on the person too. Some people are really reliant on Angie to kind of guide them through the process. Others are more self-sufficient, but I don't know the answer to that question. >> How much did we pay for Angie last year? >> It was around the the current amount that we're asking for here. 76,000 is what we budgeted for her last
034year. >> We don't know if she was over or under. We don't know if we were over or under. >> I I didn't go through the bills, but I can do that. >> Um I guess my question is just if we have I don't know and you guys would know more of the answers, but if I have 40 students, let's say I reached out to Andy for Andy an hour each student, that's hours a year. And if we have instructional coaches, which the instructional coaches according to job description is work in various capacities, including supporting teachers and personalized learning, implementing common data protocols providing professional development and creating resources for instructional improvement. And Angie's contract says to support educators in their efforts and meaningful reflective of pedigogy. Let's get that one and develop action research
035projects that have a direct impact on the classrooms. So I feel like the instructional coaches and her are doing the same thing and I guess is the BEA contract. Do we actually outline what the instructional coaches how much time they are to give to those teachers in the schools and how many times have the teachers reached out to the instructional coaches for the work in the schools? And I don't know if you guys would have that answer. >> Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean for me um this past April 8th we met I met personally with our instructional coaches and um when we talked about where we'll need their support for this current academic year this came through CAC and plaque and our dcc with the literacy roll out that was coming. So we had to
036really like work hard to realign kind of some of the focal points of what our coaches are doing on their day-to-day operations um including math actually. I'm sorry. Uh we also have the major math uh curriculum roll out that you approved. On top of that um the coaches are not only focusing on the heavy lifting under priorities one and two. The coaches are also spending time doing actually Raquel exactly what you're talking about using the other balance part of their day on their teacher case loads working with teachers who have reached out to them to get assistance on you know teaching practices things they want them to come in and see etc. um a variety of the things that you're outlining as to what the coaches would be doing. Um what they shared is that
037they feel like they do have a very heavy workflow and case load and and need to support the teachers or support the principles in the buildings. Um this is definitely going to be one of the other big things as Brad has noted that has been um added to their plate and helping us successfully implement our field test with amplify. Um, so BPSU would be like one of those other things you're adding on to, not necessarily um, you know, something we could probably incorporate. It's also something that takes place outside of the school day. If I'm not mistaken, we meet Wednesdays. All of our people meet on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. So yeah, it's just a little bit of different programming, I guess, the best way to put it. understandable. Um, but >> there's also a
038heavy component to teacher leadership in the curriculum. Um, I know some of the books that they've read in the past couple of years have focused on mindset, leadership, um, teacher leadership and teacher voice >> in BPSU. >> Yes. So, Michelle Thompson, um, did we work with her before? >> Yeah. >> Um, and I, so I read the schedule A, but, um, I'm going be honest, I don't know exactly what that mean. Is she going to be a speaker at professional development days or is she meeting with instructional coaches weekly? >> So, what Michelle does is facilitate professional learning. So it can be large groups. So she at the Bavia Library in the Homestead, we did three sessions for our staff for um the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan and she planned and facilitated those three sessions
039and then she'll do um she did some at the high school during our second institute day and then um she'll work with me and the instructional coaches on monthly PD for the buildings to kind of follow up from that and keep that learning going. Um and that and then we have also the ELA salt team. She's a resource for that team as well. So that that's primarily what she's doing. >> That's all the questions I have. >> Others. I I guess I'm I'm thinking just based on all of Raquel's questions there, it made me think about is this is a a value question, excuse me, is are we getting the value for our limited our uh limited dollars that we have um that we have to be very careful about how we spend. So, are
040we being redundant with some of these efforts? Um are we being efficient with some of these efforts? And I guess at least that's what I got out of your questions. They're trying to get to that point. And um is there some way we can measure this and build that business case and that value story so that we know that this money that we're spending is is being used wisely. >> Are you talking Rob, are you talking about the instructional coaching program or BPSU? >> Their services. So I'm going to I'm going to just be very general here. All three of hiring. Yeah. So, you're talking about everything >> three individuals. Um, what value are they providing and how do we measure that value? How do we say we're paying $75,000? How do we know that
041uh what are the things that were done? And and maybe it's just the documentation. It looks like, you know, they've done all this stuff, but do we have the metrics, the feedback, um, documented so we can say, "Yeah, we this consultant was hired for this purpose and this is the outcome of that." >> And as as we as we go for renewal of these these kind of services, kind of building that business case, if you will, >> on um why we need to renew Yes. And I would say collectively it's over $155,000. So it's it's a substantial amount of money. Um I I have similar concerns. Um and I noticed that uh Angie Sutherland's address is listed as Geneva, Tennessee. uh on the ARS website and all the others on that website are Illinois. Some
042of them are even in Geneva. So, I was curious why we're using someone that's out of state. And does she ever travel to our district to do any of the work? >> Yeah, she's a lifelong Bavian born and raised, went to school here, taught here for 27 years, due to a family job transfer, she lives in Tennessee. We do have um Kristen, it's a good question. I we do have some uh but our other consultants who do travel from other states here uh most recently uh two of our amplify consultants with the new curriculum or field testing don't actually live in Illinois either and they they will come on site to work with our teachers and administration. So, >> I have questions if and if anybody minds. Um, I will actually start with a comment.
043Uh, I probably have talked to like 20 teachers in and out of the district in the last couple days. Um, and the anecdotal feedback I get regarding consultants generally and in some cases these consultants specifically from teachers is not glowing. Uh I would call it negative um very negative feedback um on the usefulness to teachers of these consultants. Um most of my questions have been answered. Um I had asked when is the last time any of these consultants were in a classroom? Uh and I was told we don't have that information. I went on LinkedIn and a couple other places. It looks to me um and this is just general research. One of them has never been in a classroom and the other two have not been in a classroom since 2012. Would you say
044that's accurate? Probably. >> I don't know. >> Okay. >> I know that I can speak to Angie Sutherland. I don't know when she left here, but she was a instructional coach and a tech coach here in Betavia. I don't know if that's by the definition of in the classroom is if someone's defining that. I don't know when she left here. Maybe 2017, 2018. I'm guessing. >> Um, so I can only speak to Angie >> before before CO. >> So none of them have classroom experience postco. >> No, I'm not I will only speak to Angie as far as I know. No. Okay. >> Having said that, um, and I, and I'm only going to say this because I don't think this has been stated. Um, and I'm only speaking about Angie because she's the person
045I interact most with most with because of BPSU, but we have a massive capacity issue. We're basically teaching um, arguably a a two-year internal masters course um, with BPSU sim two of them simultaneously. And being honest, we all have full-time jobs to teach the course and we do need help. And I would say that um you know, I don't know, Drew Ray is a uh a very proud graduate of BPSU, and I don't know if we were having Angie services at the time, but we brought in Angie to try to enhance um some of the work we were doing because we were struggling with in our own roles to be able to give our teachers the right like support and direction for that work. And so, um, I completely hear where you're coming from, but
046I just wanted to make the statement that, uh, um, from the BPSU lens, part of it where we need assistance is for a capacity issue to provide like a solid robust program, um, for our BPS students because we don't we if there's been lots of people who have gone through it and like it's it's hard work and I think there's a lot of benefits from that hard work and collaboration and the capacity that Angie has provided for us um and I can just speak personally for me um in my role as one of the uh chief instructors has been really really valuable because it's it's one less uh portion of our programming which is fairly comprehensive that I don't have to be there and be present for and take care of all the little details.
047So I'm sorry if I spoke too long there but I just want to be clear about the capacity situation. >> Thank you. >> Can I sorry go ahead. Um if BPSU is not it's unique to our district. Correct. >> Yes. >> So if this is not how other districts do it, why are we doing that doing it? >> That was my question. Could you explain what BPSU is? >> BPSU is a great program. Um it actually came out of a bargain two bargains ago. I want to say three bargains ago. Two bargains ago. Thank you. um as a way um to uh uh really attack things from a lot of levels. It can increase compensation for our teaching staff. We also uh know that the uh learning that they're getting is aligned to our work
048and our strategic plan as opposed to a random program where I don't know who's instructing it, we don't know what they're teaching them, etc., etc. So, massive alignment. Um it also doesn't put our teaching staff into debt. um they're able to essentially get an internal university uh programming and get compensation for it without spending 30 or $40,000. Uh lastly, and something that we don't really struggle with a ton. Um but you get a BPSU degree here that doesn't go with you anywhere else. And so arguably it could help with retention. Um, I will say that, um, we've had, I don't know, six to 10 local school districts in this state and probably three or four nationally that have reached out to us and we've met with and talked with so that they can learn about
049our program to take to their systems. And I can tell you there's multiple um, Illinois districts that have made efforts at replicating what we do. So, I'm very invested in this, obviously, you can tell. Um, but I would I would I would argue that um it's a it's a pretty powerful thing that we do and it's one of the best things in my opinion that has come out of bargaining and our our contractual process where nobody had this idea. We had we had like a shared interest in providing increased compensation, better more focused learning and this was the outcome and I think it's been a beautiful thing. Um, so if you want more on BPSU, we'd be more than happy to come and give a presentation to the board. >> Sorry, there's some questions. >>
050I did share with the board the uh BPSU current perspectus that's being used for our current two cohorts. Uh, so that's been updated over the years with each cohort when they apply for the program. Um, I think I made note uh we typically have a little over 70 applicants um and our cohorts fill to about 20 per cohort. So just kind of going off of that and one of the comments that I made. So you know of all of our teachers in BPSU and they're all veteran. I guess the other question would be of those veteran teachers, how many already have master's degree and how how many already have the master's plus? And I know we're trying to be equitable and I know with BEA contracts certain things it's a lottery. However, are we really
051being equitable to those non-tenure teachers who you want to stay in the district who don't just got out of college, don't have the means to go to a master's program. So, if we're if we're hosting our own internal master program, why would we not want to give? Again, I know it's in the PEA contract, so I'm not like a rhetorical question, but why would we not give, you know, reach out to after these first, second year teachers saying, "Hey, we have this great program and all lot them so many slots, you know, um veteran teachers, yeah, they get a bump up in pay. So, if I'm three years from retirement, why would I not want to go for this to bump up my pay?" Um, I just think that >> I could try to answer
052a couple of those questions if you like. I mean it's up to you if you want to. Yeah. It was a subject we talked about it extensively at the bargaining table because these are factors that affect obviously the BEA's members and I don't speak for the BEA but I can talk about to some some degree about what we wrestled with when we made some of these decisions and the one the primary one when it comes to non-tenure teachers and one of the real reasons why we felt it wasn't in our best interest to offer this to non-tenure teachers was because we wanted them at an early stage in their career to focus on their classroom and we didn't feel as though it was um this could be a distraction for them when they're new to
053the district and they're learning a lot of new things and um it's it's a challenge. So that was a key factor in in that decision. And then lastly, uh you know, with the way our retirement incentive works, uh it is offered where if uh to be eligible, you have to retire at the first year that you're eligible for what's called a non-discounted annuity. And so the way that for tier one pensions in Illinois and TRS is the way that they factor your um your your annuity, how much you earn, >> right, >> is the last four years. >> And if you earn uh more than 6% in those last four years, and then the the school district who paid you, the last district of record pays essentially a penalty. It's not technically a penalty, but
054it's the cost of them paying that increased pension. And it's very expensive. It's extremely expensive. So if you earn more than 6% in those last few years, um it's not and you wouldn't want to incentivize teachers to retire because in addition to that teacher retiring, you're going to pay a penalty of sometimes in excess of $100,000. So when you earn this degree program and you have a pretty substantial raise as you're retiring, it doesn't make financial sense for the school district to to offer a retirement incentive. and give large raises if somebody's retiring. >> Can I add one piece that I think is important that um some people may or may not know too is that and this is good news um in the state of Illinois uh they continue to shift what tenure looks
055like. Um most recently it was four years and it's gone to three years. There's also something called accelerated tenure. Um, accelerated tenure is if someone in their first two years uh gets an excellent rating in their evaluation for performance, um, they become tenure day one of year three. And so you all saw in the personnel report, it's a pretty extensive list of teachers that are tenured. Some many of those people in there, I don't know how many, I could determine that and let share with you. Uh but many of that 37 are people who are literally starting their third year um in Betavia and they're now tenured and that means this March when we have our applications for compensation for uh education to increase their compensation they would be eligible. So, um tenure is doesn't
056take as long as it used to. And a lot we're seeing a lot more um um of our staff who are attaining tenure uh after that second year. So, that that also uh you know, while they are tenured, they're not somebody who's been here a long time. And I think that's a positive for them to get access to a program like BPSU. And if I could follow on, um, going back, I didn't do a very good job articulating it, but looking at the non-tenured staff, one of the other factors that we considered was that this being an internal university in the essentially the equivalent of a master's degree program, if those teachers invested their time and we invested our time and money into them, they would come out with a program that would work well
057for them in Batavia schools. But if they decided that Betavia Schools wasn't a place for them, that credit would not be portable. And so that's a factor. I mean, there's a host of others. Um, but we wrestled with this stuff at at the bargaining table with the BA. all these factors >> and the we on that is you and the BEA and that discussion was a collaborative discussion >> and I say right Russell in a in a good sense like we had very good productive conversations >> and this the whole idea of what BPSU is and became is I think is a product of of our collaboration. We never went into the bargaining went to the bargaining table with this idea in mind nor do I think they did. The way that we do negotiations
058in this district is something that I'm proud of and it's I'm always amazed at what comes out from it because we really wrestle with the issues and figure out the various perspectives and then we problem solve them. We brainstorm ideas and we come out sometimes with things that are absolutely fantastic and that in this particular case BP is one of the crown jewels of Betavia schools. Have you ever done any um anonymous reviews from the teachers that have been through the program to get honest feedback about how they feel about it? >> We haven't done anonymous. We've done where they they actually answer it and tell us the feedback. Um and we get dynamite feedback on BPSU. I just want to be clear, we also need to stay on our topic of related to the
059specific question at hand, not BPSU in general. I think there is a great need to maybe have a deeper conversation about this. >> I'll talk about it forever. >> I'm aware and I'm not I just I want to make sure that we're focusing on the questions at hand for these three these three consultants. So, um and additionally, as far as like reviews and people's names and everything else, we would need to be cognizant about kind of talking about people's names or at least being reasonably inferable positive or negative reviews about them. We might need to go into close session if we're going to get into that depth of conversation about it. So just as a heads up. So any other questions are do we know how the bea feels about the consultants being proposed? Is
060that where do they stand generally on consulting or these specific consultants? Because again, I I heard overwhelmingly from teachers this week that the best education they receive, the best personal development they receive is from other working teachers like themselves. Um, and that there's just no comparison to bringing a consultant in. Um, and for $155,000, I just wonder if we have staffing shortages we could cover or just I don't know. It's just it's a lot of money and I I did not gather good feedback or reactions to this set of consultants um and and honestly just consulting in general from working teachers. You heard a little bit about Angie and Danette and Michelle both are building principles that have a track record of success in really tough districts. Um they have district level experience as well.
061So that to me is really valuable in terms of them helping us lead these initiatives. We have a curriculum team of three people. Um so we do have capacity issues in a lot of this big work and they bring a level of expertise that is needed to keep those things going. >> Okay. Um, I've also heard that the teacher of the year program is encouraging school districts to choose from among teacher of the year recipients and select them as consultants for the district, which I think adds a really interesting layer of I think ownership. Um, if a teacher from our district is providing consulting and PD, um, have we considered that route? I think we have several teachers of the year like currently teaching in Betivia. Is that right? >> Okay. I think Okay. Thought
062I found four of them. >> So that's not something we're interested in exploring. >> I have not had a conversation with the union specifically about that. Okay. I would also love to I'll I'll look deeper into I don't know Katie if you want to send me a link to what specific program with ISBY you're speaking to um I'd love to see that I'll look more into it for sure. If if these people are not accepted tonight as an action item, does it make the job difficult to do the services that you need to do in this coming year? >> Absolutely. Is the board interested in obtaining some feedback about the qualities or some of the because what I'm hearing from a couple of you is about like a kind of feedback process about them. Is
063the board interested in this staff and admin kind of gathering that information and that data and giving them an opportunity to kind of provide a value based discussion about that? >> Is your question about consultants or these specificants specifically? not these three I think I don't I I think in general consultants >> so just to keep in mind then what that opens up is to the general pool of consultants our district does use um you know we have train experts that we consult with on a regular basis about our HVAC systems we use consultants um um this is skipping me right now I apologize but even you as a board have use consultants for your own work as a board leadership team. So, I just would like to this is kind of uh I'm going
064to use our board protocols. For me, I feel like I'm being caught by a little bit by surprise about some action and direction that the board's coming up with tonight. There was questions that were submitted yesterday and I did my best to make sure we could get answers to you for those questions on the discussion that on item 5.7. I feel like the discussion is expanding into a much larger scope at the moment, which is fair. you're the board of education. I'm not saying that it's not fair, but in terms of us as the team and working with staff carrying out the board's mission of having prepared for this year's work, um this would be a pretty significant pivot um to everything we've outlined for the year. I mean, if I were to show you,
065our learning calendar is is from end of year working all the way backwards, our team has mapped it all out already. So, what I would like to at least ask for consideration from the board is that if there's going to be a larger conversation about our use of consultants, love it. Could we spend a little bit of time talking about what that looks like, but in the meantime consider what we're looking at under 5.7 if that makes sense. >> Yeah, I'm I'm I'm going to be a yes on this, but I I just like I said, I going forward when we come to these kind of uh issues, if we can build that business case and value story, help us make that decision. >> Whenever we have consultants, I think I always ask, was there
066feedback from whoever they worked with? I know I've asked that question multiple times. >> Yeah. I guess the question is it a more formal process as opposed to this is what I'm hearing and this is what people are telling me because as Katie has talked to people and said that she's hearing one thing and seems like other people are hearing other things. So I don't know how to manage that. I didn't talk to any of the people Katie talked to. So um and then just for a matter of uh knowledge, we do use other consultants through like the ROE or other um like University of Illinois for smaller strands of our uh consultative work and professional development in the district. Um I think I made note of one that I sat through last week which
067was the uh inquiry journey, right? That was the one I noted, right? Uh for social studies and Dr. Wilson did a great job of building in his lens of how you approach inquiry and social studies curriculum uh utilizing that lens of inclusion and equity. And so the thing is those do get feedback directly just to make sure you're all aware that that those do get feedback from our our staff that participate in those sessions. Um we're required to do that due to ISB's requirements so that we can issue professional development credit. Um, so it's not like we don't ever get feedback. I think um I'm what I'm hearing though is that you would like to see that on some of the areas that we may not typically gather formal feedback from our from staff. Right.
068>> I haven't really spoken to any I've been think through all the questions. I've been taking this all. I'm definitely not an any sort of expert in this area. Um, so when you guys do bring us stuff, I think what's this is sitting weird for me because we we do get uh things under a consent um agenda where things are shown to us, but you know, a lot of times like if uh we're asked to approve a contract, there's been a lot of work to compare. Hey, we've looked at this person, this person, and this person. I think this is the third time that I or maybe second or third time that I think I'm approving the same people or being asked to approve the same people. Um but I haven't heard about I guess
069there's some questions like I don't knows and some we're not sure these the data is not being collected. So I just kind of feel like in general we do look to our experts whe whether it's Josh whether it's Mark whether it's you all to kind of spread out hey we we've looked at this we've looked at the data behind it we've looked at the value behind it we're for sure this is what's what's working right like best for us. Um, we also looked at these services like I don't know Angie and I'm not trying to go on on anything specific but lives in Tennessee. Is there someone here? Um, are there staff members here? I don't want to get too far into that, but I guess for me there's a lot of questions and usually
070we're kind of given a lot more solid answers and just kind of like there's been that flow of work to kind of back up where we're not putting our hands in it necessarily because you all have have shown like yes, we sat down, we considered this person, we looked at them compared to this person and I haven't heard that and so that part kind of sits weird with me and I think when you're speaking about how we have different people we bring in. Um I think a lot of time we do you all do that work of let me see what the service is, let me see what the services from company A, B and C. All right board, we we looked at company A, B, and C. We compared I mean we did that
071with DMG. We didn't just go with DMG. You had a committee that went up and and actually looked at a couple places and uh went back and forth on the pros and cons. Um, so you know, I guess without any data that backs up the work of these specific people to over and over, it's kind of I would like to Yeah, like with Rob what Rob said, I would like to see the metrics behind it. Um, but I think there's a little bit of a difference from what is being asked tonight versus what we get some other times. >> Yeah. And I think so that comes back to then like why there's a a state statute and in board policy where we're required to bring to the board an approval whenever we enter any contractual
072services uh between the district and a third party group, right? Um the reason being is that that that sum of money in our board policy, it's $25,000 or higher. Um and we have to come to you for those approvals because at that monetary level, you know, that's uh from a fidiciary standpoint, that's one of your primary charges as the board to ensure that the larger sums of money that are being expended are, you know, meeting what you need as a board of education, right? Or what you believe that should be approved. anything below that, you know, part of that standard um is partially due to the fact that there's also recognition that we as administrators have to approve and make decisions on a daily basis all kinds of decisions that result in some financial expenditures.
073And so Danielle, if we if we were to bring every for example over the last several institute days that we had to open the year, you know, those are all part of the big plan that fall under the strategic plan, the scope and sequence of everything that everyone's been working on. Um, but to provide these in like one to two month settings for approval as we're using the summer to plan these things would really hamper our ability to prepare for institute days. Um, not saying it'd be impossible, but it would change the scope and that's part of the reason why they talk about anything below 25,000 that has the administrative authority to move forward with that work. um because some of these consultants that are working with us, we're getting surveys and feedback, but it's
074also in in alignment with what we're trying to do as a district and following some of the plans um such as the Illino Illinois literacy plan or the inquiry work and the changing standards in social studies or the changing standards in in science, you know, and so we have to kind of make sure we're staying up to speed with that. So one one question I have is historically and I'm a person who effectively works as a consultant to a lot of municipalities and firms and I'm I'm I'm going to provide my perspective on your statement Danielle about it is DMG came to us as a here's a number of options because it's the first time we were engaging with any of them. it was the first time we were engaging in that process, right? So,
075at that point, then it kind of starts the clock when typically when you're kind of bringing forward or approving people as you kind of go along if they've got a history of an experience with the district, then they can continue on that, but we still have to approve them. So that's a broader question about is there a time clock that says okay every five and this is why he was I think he was saying we need to be able to maybe have a broader conversation that is there a time clock that says okay every five years a consultant should be evaluated within five years or is it an every year basis is it all our consultants or a couple of consultants is it you know like that's the challenge of trying to figure out how
076to manage this level because as I understand it outside of what Katie you had said with what you found they seem to meeting the needs of it. They're you're putting forward the same people that have worked with us for a while now in most cases. Um and you don't have any reason to expect that they would not continue what you believe is successful execution of their contract and their work? >> Yep. They're very good. >> Okay. >> I guess my question would be we have a consultant and let's say they charge us $10,000 a year. They can do whatever they want. So, it really doesn't matter how I feel about that consultant because they're already doing that. >> So, it's like, well, if I'm going to spend over 25,000, maybe we just need to have
077a little I don't know how many consultants that is. You guys would know better. So, do I want to know if you consult a window guy that's going to charge you $5,000? Probably not because that's your scope. Um, but again, I don't know how many consultants we have that are over $25,000. You guys would know more. And I think that would be an exhaustive list. So if you guys say it's 150 consultants, then I'd be like, okay, maybe we don't need a cons something on all 150. Um, you know, but I don't know. That's just my view. >> Um, but yeah, if it's it's under 25,000, they're just going to do it. So it's like >> I think I'll u echo Mr. Arlandu I think it would be like I'm thinking of like when we
078have technology and we're spending money it's like well how is this helping students how is it helping teachers so I want to trust your expertise to pick the right people uh just having a little more background on why we're deciding to use a consultant instead of an inside resource and uh I'm not saying we need like pages and pages of definition but maybe a little more context because on a lot of these inst instances we're approving expenditures. I'm thinking of other instances. Sometimes there will be a question why are we doing this? And there's a little bit, you know, a little bit more to that rather than we just done this the past three years or whatever. You know, I'm not saying that's bad on any of these people. I'm just saying it just gives
079you a little more context of why we need a consultant and what they're doing. I think that's where I don't know if this is what you were trying to say, but I don't want to just do things because that's what we've been doing kind of thing, right? I want to understand when it comes to our level because that is our responsibility. Um, when it's at this point, right, we need to understand and I I looked at it, I didn't I was like, I don't understand. I thought it was just like a me thing, but there's a lot of good questions that back up some of the questions I had and some of the misunderstandings I have. I'm still a bit lost. Um, however, like I I understand some of the points to consultants and I
080don't think that any of us would expect to reuse an any team unless we can say, "Yeah, we were really satisfied with this. The people who are using it and being, you know, utilizing it and supposed to get what they're the services from it, I want to know what they feel." Um, and that's how I'm going to understand like, yeah, this is a really effective consultant like with your backing on it, with the people who are using it, their backing on it. Um, so yeah, again, just it's a lot to take in and so I know that you said that there's a lot writing on this and I'm not seeing any board direction. It's just a curiosity. If for any reason this did not go through tonight, I I'm not saying that's what's going to
081happen, but just out of curiosity from one of the point conversation points, is this something that comes back next month with more information or is there a possibility like to ease some of the doubts and and and maybe have more understanding behind it or is that not >> I don't know what this type of thing >> I don't I don't know the timing on this. I don't know whether or not this is if it doesn't get approved today that there's some challenges on executing the work that they need to be doing and would cause problems with BPSU and other things. >> It would >> I don't have any idea. It sounds as it' be difficult work has already started. Michelle's done work for us. Um, >> so Michelle was involved in training over a hundred
082teachers um who v who elected to take the option to be trained in the summer on the Illinois literacy plan. So she's already kind of in good faith started that work with our district. >> That wasn't from last year's fees that she did. That's from this one. >> Well, the training took place over our institute days. So it it was in this calendar year. >> Okay. Um and that and and that by the way that's a pretty common practice as you you all have pointed out we have been using her so you know as a vendor who's been previously approved by the board you know for us in terms of getting these plannings uh this planning ready because we have a a mechanism with the BEA that allows a swap from an institute day during
083the school year to frontload a summer training day if the teachers would like to use that for the training. And so, you know, as you're aware, we have just a little under 50 teachers who are pilot field testing our new curriculum. And um but in the meantime, one of the designs of getting us ready for a full-blown ELA switchover is to make sure all the other teachers who did not participate in the work last year are getting brought up to speed on context of the Illinois literacy plan. the why, the what, the how, and and it's helping trying to help them understand this is why the ELA salt team CAC and even through our strategic plan process two and a half years ago where the biggest outcry was we really want to reook and revisit
084our ELA curriculum, right? Particularly K through five. And so that's uh been part that's why we had to get this work moving. Um, so >> to sorry to clarify, so some of what is up for approval tonight has already been done. >> Is that what you're saying >> with Michelle Thompson? >> Yes. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, I want to clarify my comments that um like on a lot of these things, there's a tremendous amount of trust that we're giving to Tom Kim and his team. And so when I say I want feedback like um just to help me understand better, but ultimately um you know I'm entrusting him to be the expert. I it would take years to probably gain your level of expertise. So I just think it helps us. It's like a
085HVAC system. If Mark Anderson comes up here, none of us are going to be able to install an HBA system and understand the components, but we can kind of understand the general and then why we're using it and why we're spending it and why that's a good use of taxpayer dollar and and district resources in this level. And so that's where I'm coming from when I'm looking at this. I'm not, I'll be honest with you, really interested in litigating like any one of these people individually as far as their efficacy because I trust them to make a good judgment >> litigating them. I'm just saying I'm not looking not litigating but I don't if they say these are the three people then if we're hiring consultants and this is our budget and these people fit
086in those slots to do this work and they think they're the best people for it then I am going to go with them as long as they can if they can make the case of why we're using consultants and what they're doing and to Rob's point it is providing a service that's advancing the education of our teachers that's benefiting our students and it's good use of tax dollars >> do I guess yes and I think my other question and I agree with that po that point. I think the question that rides along with that is how are the people who are receiving those services feeling about it, right? Because we know that Brad, Steve, Tom, yes, I trust them with that their expertise on that part. I also want to understand the expertise of the
087people in the rooms and that are getting those services. You know what I mean? Like how is it applying for them? how is it bettering their abilities to do what you know what we hire them to do to do their jobs. Um that is I think some of the information or the metrics that are missing from me when hearing the questions and the conversation. >> Yeah, I'm happy to design a process with the board. That's not been something that we've done in the past. So I don't know what you're looking for exactly. So I can definitely work with the board. I think it's also important to involve plaque, our professional learning advisory council in that process. So this wouldn't be something that I can get the board even next month because it would be a
088lot of work to get a process and then we would have to execute that process of time. So I would since it's going to take some time what I'd like to do is put this as a board discussion element at our next meeting so that we can figure out what extent because I'm hearing everything from I want I believe I'm hearing everything from I want kind of in-depth surveys to I would like which is where I my head is sitting of when someone comes forward and says this is a consultant we have um we feel that they're very important and that this is necessary for the work we don't have this combination of people of one person that can do all of this work. So that's why there's three separate people on this particular I'm
089making it up. I have no idea about that being the case here. >> Oh, I'm actually this is great information. I know. I wish we would have had that. >> I'm just explaining that this is like that. I'm I'm kind of use casing it a bit. And so therefore, >> we've gotten our input from our our own administration and the teachers that participated or the staff really because some of them could be best for what you know the staff that participate in that process. So that's as we're renewing contracts is that's that's the other end that I'm hearing from it. So, what I'd like to do is say, "Okay, we've kind of got enough information about these particular ones here potentially and could call for a vote and then for a board discussion at our
090next meeting, we could try to map out so that I don't want him designing a process with us. I want him to make a recommendation that he feels meets the goals that we're asking for." >> Absolutely. >> So, I would like us to be able to at our next meeting establish the goals surrounding this. >> Okay. Okay, >> Rob, >> I just I agree with you 100%. I think but it >> to Brad's point, I don't know if we need like a formal like one sizefits-all, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. >> I don't think that's the case. It's going to be really dependent on each particular item where we may want a little bit more for one item versus, you know, a couple pieces of information may be okay for another. So,
091it's it's really going to be dependent in my mind on what it is. >> Let us talk about it at the next one. Yeah, we'll try to give you some clear direction at that one for any goals and or a way to sort through the one-offs that every one of them could end up being. >> Yeah, that's a good point, Rob. So, all right. I would like to call for a vote. >> Motion. >> A motion. I would like to hear a Let me get back to my part. I will entertain a motion to approve item 5.7 CNI support contracts. >> So moved by Aaron. >> Second by Rob. >> Can you please lead us in a roll call vote? >> Arandu >> yes. >> Gonzalez Thomas. >> No. >> Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Meadows.
092>> Yes. >> Sligger. >> No. All right. Thank you very much. >> All right, Tom. Foyer reports. >> Um, we've presented the foyer reports to you. Are there any questions? It was a little bit of a lighter um period. There was only three foyas this this time. >> Okay. All right. Treasure reports. Tony. Um, the usual in terms of the treasures report this month. Nothing out of the ordinary. >> Any questions? All right. Committee updates, Tom. >> Um, so as Brad pointed out, our committees have not formally met yet. We just got started with the school year. So, as we roll along, we'll have more committee reports, but I will uh slide us into 6.4 if you don't mind me writing that for you. Okay. Uh so uh under official uh policy first reading for
093the board's policy committee um we have that ready for you tonight and I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Raquel and Aaron as the co-chairs for the board committee. >> I'll turn it over to Raquel. She's got hot potato. >> All right. Uh so I know we got a packet and I know in our packet that was sent out um there was just a lot of procedures that were included. So, I'm not really going to go over those procedures because we don't vote on them. It's just um so forth. So, the very first well, we're going to do 2.11 at the end. So, we're going to start with 6.150 the home and hospital. Um and that was basically just updated to um cross reference uh home instruction for students attend due to
094pregnancy related conditions, fulfillment of parental obligations to help the child file um health and safety concerns arising from domestic and sexual assault and just so everyone is aware this also includes not just the mother but it is the father as well. Any questions on that one? Um for uh 6.235 235 that is the access to electronic um network uh networks that was just um policy and footnotes updates um that address the use of artificial intelligence um enabled in schools. So there's a new option for the use of intelligence enabled schools um about this policy. I did ask um at our policy meeting what was wanzi community college policy because we do have a dual credit with them. So, um, they were a little bit behind. >> Okay. >> Um, they really don't have really, I
095think, a policy on AI or >> I think it's an emerging field for everybody right now and not not just emerging, but it's the the technology is changing so quickly right now. So, but um, yeah, that was a good question. >> Yeah. Uh, so 7.040 040 uh non-public school students including proial homeschooled uh homeschooled students. Uh the policy and footnotes were updated um in response to a five-year review. Um and on page three we had basically a homegrown section which was the extracurriculars activities including intercolastic competition. Um and we felt that we were just going to remove that. So that's what we basically if there's any questions on that one. >> Wait, what what's removed from that? >> Uh we have a home is a homegrown. >> Yeah. >> Um and it's about uh extracurricular
096activities including intercolastic competition. >> So are I mean that still happens or are we just removing our language behind it? >> Yeah, because that's homegrown. >> Got it. Okay. >> So it wasn't it's not like a um >> wasn't a recommendation from press or anything. >> Okay. Correct. Okay. So, we're just removing that. Um 7.070 um exhibit for codes and attendance. Oh, that's just an exhibit. So, let me go down. I'm going off of our last one. 7.19 is student behavior. Um that was uh updated to clarify regarding um sex text sexing. So, um there was a lot >> expanded the definitions. >> Yes. Um, so I don't really um if there's any questions on that one. Uh 7 um 7.2 two was the suspension um procedures and um we do we did have part
097of this we the procedures it was just the footnotes and policy were updated in response to um providing suspension review and hearing an expulsion um and was updated for domestic and sexual violence situations. Um, we did have, it's not in here, but we did have a procedure. It's a, um, suspension appeal procedure, which is homegrown. Um, >> yeah. So, we're Yeah, thanks. Um, we discovered that we have no um, and Brad, please forgive me and correct me if I'm getting my facts in correct here, but we have not had a suspension appeal window like the time frame for uh, students or families who want to appeal. So, um, we found that to be somewhat problematic because technically, uh, let's say Tom Kim was suspended and my mom wanted to appeal it a year later, she
098could. Now, what would that do? You know, I mean, like, what does that look like and what reason? You know, that that's a different conversation. But that that we just found that logistically and operationally to be a very odd thing. So, I did ask um the King County superintendent what they would have and yeah, we were the only ones without a time limit. So, um so we have a recommendation um that we're going to put into our procedures to put a time frame on that. Um and it's not to rush the clock. It's a favorable window, Brad. 10 days, >> three days for the initial within the building and then about 10 days total to request >> the business days. business >> business days. Business business, right? That's right. Business days, not calendar days. >>
099And that somewhat aligns to what you're seeing at other districts. >> Yes. Yes. Um and then um and the other part that we didn't have procedures on that, uh other King County districts shared was that um in many districts, the suspension appeal goes to the superintendent for decision. there's a hearing and then that hearing officer's report goes to the superintendent for decision. In our case, it goes to the board. So, that would be a question for the board to decide whether they want the superintendent to do suspension appeals or um that would come to the full board. Expulsion, you don't have an option. You get all those. But suspension, there is an option for you to designate Tom as the superintendent, as the person that would get that appeal and make the decision. Do we
100have will we need to be able to do an action on that or a consensus on that first or is that something that's already in place? >> That would be >> it would be a change. So if you if the board so with first policy discussion you can kind of share now what that feedback is and if there's conflicting feedback we can try and get consensus as to what the board would like in second reading >> if you would like to uh one keep it as is. suspension uh appeals would just come to the board or two uh with consensus say we would like to see a second policy reading changing that and making the superintendent the uh final appeal to that process. It's totally up to what the board would like to do. >>
101Are other districts generally at superintendent? >> Yes, because they're lower stakes. Most of the time a parent wants their kid returned to school, but that never happens when you go through the formal appeal because we do have a hearing and we go through that process. So the kids's usually back in school. So um a lot of districts turn that over to the superintendent as the final appeal. >> Can that also mean that that the process can happen faster? >> Yes. >> As opposed to waiting a full month >> waiting for a board meeting or >> for board meeting. I'm just trying out >> because even if we convene a special board meeting, right? Yeah. I mean, >> by the time that's done, a three-day out of school, five day out of school might have already
102been served, >> right, >> to try and get a special board meeting in. >> They don't happen that often. >> I'm not I can't remember how many times in >> suspension. I think >> probably one that's gone all the way to the board. >> Six years. I can't remember. >> 15 years probably one for me. >> So, it doesn't happen that often. >> Knock on wood because I want them to start coming out of the woodwork. Does anyone have any is anyone specifically opposed to it being Tom? >> No. >> I really can if you want. >> I'm opposed to it being >> Yes, Tom. That is a very good question. >> Handle those. >> These kids get me. >> Okay. So, then moving on to 7.210. Expulsion. Um policy and footnotes were just updated
103basically due to the suspension procedures. Just they kind of aligned. Um That's all that was for uh um was a support student services um and that's basically this change requiring the 12 years of age and older be annually notified of the availability of counseling designation at least one staff member in each building as a resource to those students. Any questions? 7.255 255. Um, this is a brand new policy where students who are parents, expectant parents or victims of domestic and sexual violence. So, it's brand new. Um, it just kind of outlines. >> Is it not in our report? >> It ended at 725. >> Oh, did it? >> Yeah. So, can we still do a first reading on that or do we need to >> just wait till next? Well, we presented it at policy
104committee. >> So, I think we do have a provision that says if it's recommended by press and it's to implement the law >> that we can skip first reading. >> Okay. >> so why don't we just at least update us while we're in the process of confirming all of that >> audit >> so that we're all at least up to speed up. And to be clear, it is a recommendation from press and it's implementing a law. >> Yes. >> Correct. The policy was in response to um this law requiring the districts to ensure that they have policies, procedures, and resources in place um to ensure that the uh students are providing services. >> Really wasn't anything that that struck us out. It was just all because it's brand new. >> Um yeah, brand new law.
105That's the law. >> Incidentally, it is posted on the website as being a proposed revision. It's just doesn't happen to be in the board book. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Tony. >> And then in the packet that you guys got about a monthish ago, um there was some um procedures that go with this. Um so, I mean, I'm not going to go over those because that's just for awareness. Um and I think that was it. That was the last one. >> Yeah, that was the last one. And then there was other some procedures. >> Those just made for awareness. Good job. >> Go for it. Um, all right. So, we decided, uh, we've received feedback from three people that wanted to discuss changing the policy. So, um, what we're going to do is have a
106a public discussion about it. And, and before we have that discussion, I would like to ask the board for permission. Um, per request of Tom, we got feedback from our attorney, Mr. Fester and from our IASB Representative Laura Martinez and ask for their feedback on our policy and their recommendations when in terms of Mr. Fester. Normally this is confidential uh communication between the board and our attorney but for this case for the sake of conversation and our to make a good decision uh with the board like to vote thumbs up to agree to wave that in this case and I will read a synopsis that uh Raquel and I both reviewed from Mr. professor that articulates what his position was as far as a recommendation. Is that all thumbs up from everybody? Okay. So, first
107I'm going to read um a synopsis from our board attorney and then the second statement will be from Laura Martinez from IASB. So, from board attorney Mr. Fester, if there is agreement to change the policy, it is not a legal matter. However, his recommendation to protect protect the board is to make the change effective. The next scheduled election, which is April 2027, this is due to the argument that all three officers were public act publicly acted on by the board by a policy that stated a two-year term. Did everyone hear that? Do you want me to read that again? >> I know I stumbled a little bit there. And then the second statement is from Laura Martinez from Illinois Association of School Boards. Since the IASB's sample policy 2110 says the term of the president
108is two years, I think that that would be IASB's recommendation. I also recommend a two-year term versus a one-year term. There needs to be stability in board leadership, and holding an election for board president every year could be problematic if a different board member was elected each year. To me, it makes sense to follow the board member election cycle and hold the board officer election every two years when new members join the board. End of statement. So then I guess you would open it up for discussion. >> Okay. Or like >> I will start if you want. >> I I don't mind. I I think that the I hear the 2027 term um part of it. That was a curiosity that I had um if we are, you know, since I don't know what it's
109not that they took oath, but that we elected them in um for the two-year term. I had curiosities around that. Um with Laura's statement, I'll just kind of give my own feedback and my own on it like from my own experience. It's really hard coming in waiting on the terms and coming in being uh sworn in and then immediately going to choosing who's going to be you know president, vice president, secretary when you are just joining you you haven't had any a lot of times no interaction with people. Um you don't know what's going on. they're learning a lot and it just takes to me it takes away that ability. I mean we work as a board as a whole and we all work with Tom. Um so it to me my personal opinion is
110it makes sense to be able to have that experience for various members. Um potentially someone who's like I'm interested but two years is a long commitment. It opens that door. But mostly I mean it's really hard coming on and literally turning around and having to make that vote that's locked in for two years. It makes more sense to me for someone to be on the board for a year and be able to understand who is working, how they work, and how things are working. Do we want to keep the current roles or do we feel that there's a better ability to maybe mix things up? Um, I think that's where my question of that came. A lot of it was from it was really hard. like I'd never met you guys and I was like,
111okay, I'm basically being told who I'm going to elect in that case because I have no idea, right? And I'm not going to do it if I'm just getting on the board, but I my interest may be paid along that way. And then at that time, you're you're signing four new people on to ask them to do the same thing. It's really it's bizarre in my opinion, but >> can I get a clarification? Are we talking about modifying this such that it's just the president that's going to a two-year term or is it all >> all current two-year officers? >> Okay. Just want to be sure. >> I do understand the because that was a question of mine too was since the current officers were elected under the current policy, would we have to stick
112with that policy for the two-year cycle? Um, I don't personally find an issue with doing it yearly because it could end up being the same person, right? >> Um, my experience being on a board, it was a different type of board, obviously. It was a nonprofit, but we actually had a one-year limit um because we didn't want anyone to feel ownership over that role. Um, and I think it's good to get new perspectives if someone's willing to step in and take over. If not, then, you know, it continues. I'm good with the two years as is. Um, to me, this is a position. in all three of the positions are you're taking on extra added responsibilities and I commend people for doing that. So there is a little discomfort if you're a new board member
113and you don't know the people particularly well. Um, but then I tend to trust the existing people and the fact that they're volunteering to do this in the first place to take on this extra responsibility uh once again to me is uh speaks to a little bit about their desires. Um the other point is I think two years is not that much time and especially I'll say board president um it's important to have continuity there. one year. I don't think if if you happen to be changing people, it it probably takes a good year to learn the facets of being a board president. I know Craig does a lot of extra stuff that um behind the scenes um that's required for that uh that position. So um and then I also believe in if there
114is an issue with performance that they're given a person is given an opportunity to correct that. And I don't think you can do that in a year. So I think two years to me is the right length of term. Understand totally understand the discomfort it it puts on new board members but um but I tend to trust the existing board members um and the people that are volunteering to take on that additional responsibility. >> I guess I'll speak up. So I'm also for maintaining two years. My three reasons are again I think stability and continuity is important. There's issues that overlap over years. There could be contracts, capital projects that are pretty complex that you have to have knowledge on. Uh I will acknowledge it's I think for everybody when you get elected the first
115thing you do is basically seat a new board of of people you don't know. But uh even with one year every other year we'll be doing that basically. So that will still exist. Uh, I also think having a two-year term for the majority of time keeps the board focused on governance. We're not really talking about elections. Now, to Rob's point, if someone's not performing, if they can't perform, there are provisions where we could do that, but that way the board is not always in transition or we're not talking about this except for every two years. Um, and then I do take the recommendation from IASB to heart. they've got well have experience in this with best practices and uh they've seen a lot of boards and so when they make a recommendation unless we have
116a very compelling reason internally to go against that I think that uh we should take their recommendations to heart >> I'm I am I'm in favor of leaving the policy as it is. I'm always a little bit of a um concerned about unintended consequences particularly when we aligned like IASB or others. There's just things I don't know out and and be kind of impacted as things move forward. Um, one I will echo and say I appreciate you, Rob, for saying, you know, that the the extra work that all the officers put in and yeah, there's a little bit um from a board president kind of like the relationship that you need to build over time with the superintendent and the other staff's kind of critical um to be able to understand because in a lot
117of ways, yes, while um Tom is our only employee, we I work with the most with him right now and whomever the superendent it might be. So I I kind of feel like I'm kind of like the HR department that kind of has to help make sure that their goals and objectives and what they're trying to do and are they aligning to what we are and then coaching the board into a a a not coaching working with the board on figuring out the right way of getting to where we are in a way that fits within the the work and and the uh responsibilities that they all have. That takes a lot to learn. So, if we have an opportunity where this turns into a one-year term, that could take time. So, between the glide
118up of learning to learn the job, being on the job, and then if there's a point where the board is somewhat contentious at any point in time, and people need to kind of campaign and work through it and make big choices and that sort of stuff, that could take a month or two. So by the time you're at that point, you're really only effective and inefficient for about four months at a time, which is a challenge for me to be able to kind of I could see sitting in the seat. That could be a challenge for someone doing that. Um I do understand that this is an option that someone could maintain the same seat, but I've seen plenty of boards where that becomes a bit of a hot potato over time, you know. Um
119and that that that be can become a challenge as they move forward and where there's continual an adjustment. I appreciate entirely, Danielle, what you're talking about because all of us were in that boat where they sit down at the chair like, "Wait, what? I I need to pick these people and it's a challenge." And and um I I at my time I came in and I reached out to the existing board members and I talked to them. They said to me, "Hey, just FYI, I think it was a superintendent at the time." So, FYI, you're going to be doing this and it's weird, so you should reach through. So I think there's a maybe a mechanism that we could also work on a procedure effectively with incoming board members to help glide that in a
120little better than it has been in the past. So so for those reasons I'm not in partic as well as I'm not reiterating things that others have said as well. So I agree with all of those from this policy committee. Um there's basically three things we can do right now. One, we can vote to try to change on it. Two, we can leave it until a year from now because even if we nothing's going to change till 2027. So, we can table it in one year, we can come back to it and say, "All right, do we want to change this for a year or three? We'll leave it the same." That's kind of the three things that we have because no matter nothing's going to change now until 2027 for those that want to
121change it. So I mean it's up to us what you guys want to do. But I have a question that I think is relevant. Does so the board workshop that we have does that happen every year or just when there's >> we try to do it every year. We've done it every year as long as well. No, >> there's an opportunity every year to at least have discussions about >> how well somebody's doing their particular job or just adjusting roles. Absolutely. Yes. >> Yeah. It also gives an opportunity for those that are in those particular roles are like, I don't think this is working out or I need I need more help to bring that up as well. So, anyone in favor of waiting some time and voting on it prior to the 2027 date?
122>> I don't think anything's going to change. For me personally, I don't think anything's going to change from now in the year. I don't know that we need to I don't know that I need to revisit it. I don't think anyone's going to change sorry any input that they have on this. like I'm ready now. I don't And we can always if if anyone changes their minds, we could always revisit in a year and change it again, couldn't we? I mean, if it really like came down to it, if there was something like we're like, "Oh my gosh, like we made a mistake." I I don't >> Yeah. Then we change this policy and then there's another policy that we would change >> 2.2. >> Yeah. It it because it touches like um there's another
123policy that would specifically speak to that when >> Yeah. Right now, it's all tethered to uh board elections cycles. >> I'm going to be honest. I think I'd rather just table this for a year. That's my That's my opinion. So, >> I'd like to just vote as keep it or I want it as is. I don't think we need to wait or re-evaluate unless someone brings it up like you're saying. If someone wants to bring it up in a year, fine. I don't think we need to make a formal statement say we're going to revisit it in the year. I'd like to keep it as is. >> But if if I guess the question is if we either vote now and it's and and the vote goes the way it goes for whatever people choose
124to do at that time, right? And then it and that's it. Or we leave it as is right now and vote in a year so that people have had in theory have had time to think about it, consider it. Maybe at our next board workshop there's more discussion about it. Whatever else I'm just throwing that out there. Is that am I interpreting that right? Option one is to vote now. That's it. It changes the policy as a second read or first read or whatever it is. Or B we table this for a year. Those are two effectively the binary kind of votes. >> Yeah. I guess you're not as is. No, nothing's required. Right. >> Right. We wouldn't do a second reading, >> right? We would end at the right touch. >> Right. We might
125need to later if we're going to do that official change. >> I think I'd rather vote now like right now about where we stand on it. >> What? >> Nothing. >> I guess now I have my own thoughts. All right. >> Isn't it? >> Any everyone in favor of voting now? Thumbs up. >> Voting now. >> Okay. We have enough to vote. How many? That's four vote nows. Okay. We have enough to vote now. >> So, is that a is that a formal action? >> That's it. >> No, it's just consens all your This is first reading. So, you you have consensus to now make a decision. Do you want this policy revised? so that we can bring it back to second reading next month and stipulate that it's a one-year term. >> So now
126is effectively >> if you there isn't consensus to do that then we're leaving the policy as it is. >> So right so here's my question is then next month let's say we change it then we have to bring 2.2 up for first read. >> Yeah. Um I >> organization >> which is the reorganization >> that's the reorganizational meeting even if we bring it up as one as a first reading that's fine from a timeline perspective because this isn't this isn't going to run into December you know what I mean so you'll be fine because as some of you have already pointed out it would impact to 2027 and then moving forward 2028 2029 that >> so is this just kind of a thumbs up all in favor and all just just you know if you
127>> thumbs up is to change the thumbs up >> however you want to word it. Yeah thumbs up >> I think you got to be careful about this. >> All right let let me let me be the moderator. Hang on. Let let me play the moderator here. I will >> uh so as a board please provide a thumbs up if you would like the policy to be changed to a one-year um one-year term for all officer positions on the board. Okay, >> that would be a thumbs up. >> Oh, >> I can't see it. >> That was >> one, two, three, four. Okay. So, there's consensus to bring it back as a second reading. >> Okay. >> To a one-year term with it written. >> Do you have that noted, please? >> Yeah. I want
128to make sure we have this button language being changed to a one-year term of office >> for all offices >> and then we'll have to um address the second policy that talks about the reorganization meeting. >> Okay. >> And then that's where you guys will take formal action on that. Okay. All right. Next item is dashboard. Tom, it's item 6.3. >> Yeah. Sorry, I'm just making a note to myself real quick. Okay. Um, so, uh, as promised, based on the July board vote on the power metrics that kind of completed and shaped out everything then we've been working on for the last couple of years. So, um, I'm not going to speak too much to it. I'm going to let my team take over the presentation of the actual dashboard. Um, but I think this
129is meeting some of the dynamics that mirrors exactly what our strategic plan is focused on while also giving the ability for the community members to dig a little deeper where on certain parts of the strategic plan and empower metrics that people would want to look at. And then just as a quick reminder, our website will still hold all district uh report cards and school building report cards published by ISBY. So it's all still part of that that program. So, I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over at this point. So, our objective was to there supposed to be a drum roll or something like that. Do you have sound? >> Sure. >> Uh to make a interactive dashboard that helped the community get to the heart of the strategic plan and see where we were
130in terms of progress. And we used as inspiration the DMG model. The colors are a little different, but it's essentially what you'd find in the DMG model. You can click on the mission and vision and see it. You can click on the theory of action or you can collapse it, but you can essentially dig into any one aspect of this without being overloaded cognitively with too much information. You want to just simply short circuit to the goals and the priorities. the priorities and their their respective goals themselves, they're there. Um, this particular graph when you mouse over various data points, you'll be able to see the the data that's behind it. So, you can see that. So, that's for 2024 at 2023 at 57. I can't read that far. Um, or you can also remove
131some of the elements at the bottom. So if you click on math growth target that'll go away and you can focus on for example just the reading targets and that's the case for any of these graphs. No, I'm just for clarity. We don't have the 20 24 20 because that are in that we don't have it the data yet, right? >> We just Yeah, we will have it. I think we have it. We just we can put it into the graph. We just didn't have it when we were building this um this dashboard, but I think it's available now. So, we'll have it very soon. Again, we tried to distill this down to the the the essential information to minimize overload, but also give the community pretty solid sense of what our strategic plan is
132and where we were in terms of our progress. Scroll down a little bit further, you'll see the individual strategies related to the priority that's selected. And then um you click on one of those, give you some more information. And then you can also see where we are in terms of our progress. >> When will this go live? >> It's already live. >> Okay. >> So, um, we can continue to make adjustments to it as we learn more and um continue to hone in on what works and what doesn't. I think it looks good. I appreciate all the hard work and putting this and I like that it's engaging so it's not just static information. You can click on things. I know we had a discussion about this a while back about making it a little
133more dynamic than rather just static charts. Um and I like that it's going to be a living document that is because I know data will flow as we collected on certain metrics over the years. So it will be continually updated. So I think this is a good document for the community to understand the mission and track progress. >> So as you're looking right thank you Aaron. As you're looking right there, that graphic at the bottom of the screen that Holly's displaying, that's the the model that we used to build the strategic plan with PMG. And that was the inspiration for this dashboard is distilling it to the the bare essentials. So, how often would this get updated and after every like testing cycle, >> you could put interrum data in there certainly. And so generally
134when it comes to the testing cycles for MAP testing, there's fall, winter, and spring data. Right now we're just showing spring because that's where you're making comparison is spring to spring. Um I'm not sure exactly what the cadence is for priority two. Twice a year, >> Three times a year. So you could upload that as well. And then when it comes to priority three with the financial uh profile that comes from ISBY, it's only once a year >> and we're still going to have like Illinois report card data on the website and all that kind of stuff. >> This is all linked in here. >> Yeah. There there are links to the Illinois report card from here too. We note that that data is available. >> Okay. >> And just a reminder, uh, board, uh,
135the Illinois, uh, excuse me, Isby releases the updated report cards every October and it's always a year in the rears, so it'll be a reflective of last year. Is this I don't know if I So this is is this a dashboard that like when we met with you all and we looked at panorama all that is that the same thing or is this one just like related to those power goals? >> Power metrics. Yeah. >> Okay. Do we still have that other dashboard the one with like the static images? We talked about maybe like leading things to panorama where there's like the different levels. We never actually had a board discussion on it. was the one that I've asked about. But is this is this in addition to this? Is this in place of it?
136I don't do we even still have that other dashboard? >> We have it internally. Um we still use that data. What we decided was when looking at that particular dashboard that was panorama, wasn't designed to be a community-based dashboard and it wasn't going to work well. It worked well for the panorama data, but it didn't work for any other data or anything to make work. So we looked at a couple of other opportunities or other providers too and um just what we needed right now >> and Panorama um does not have the capacity to create a public login. So we can use it and log in as staff to that dashboard but to just make a general like email address for people to log into that system um they don't have the capacity to do
137that. So >> we could do that's how we ended up with some static imaging that we were able to put out but not interactive because they could not do that level of >> that anyone could log in and look at it. >> Is is the goal of like when you come back and and so these are monitoring priorities um when you guys come and do your regular presentations to us that some of that static imagery will be pulled up in support of these goals to help. So, like this is why this is trending this certain way. We see it here, here, here, and here. >> Yeah, I would say, you know, I would defer to Brad and Steve on that, but this doesn't preclude us from looking at other data, especially when we're doing those
138updates to the board. This is just what is always available to the community when they want to know where we are in terms of our progress on our strategic plan because these are the board's goals. I guess I'm I'm I I don't I love this. This looks great and it does reflect DMG how it flows down. I think it's a lot more simplistic and it gives someone the ability to go through if they want to kind of like go down. I think I'm still a little person this aside from this I still am a little stuck on that we've not ever had a board discussion about what a dashboard like that has a little bit more information for the community or even for ourselves like we I don't know where we got off of that
139topic but I know last October we had talked about having like a special meeting um where we could talk about what data was important to us I know that these are like our goal datas but just so we can have an understanding and we're doing some of it through those presentations um but I remember we had talked about what was important for like the community to see and what was important to be accessible. Um, but we didn't actually have that board discussion. And so I think we're for me it's missing some of the if this was going to replace the other one. It's missing some of the stuff. I I get this for the power metrics. I'm just wondering like is there an end to it or are we doing away with that? Does that
140feel like it's better just to leave it like this? Because we never really kind of dove into that. >> DMG's advice to us was to stick to this >> for the public. >> Okay. Is there a reason why? >> Yeah. This is where these are the goals that we're stating that we're going to make progress on. This is how we're measuring our success. And isn't to say that the various other metrics don't inform our progress in those regards, but they are subcomponents of the of the goal. And um they're not necessarily something that um inform you know any one thing that whether it's going if it's improving or decreasing indicates whether or not you're making real progress. Ultimately, we're focused on priority 1.1 and goal 1.1 and making those targets. Anything else is just a
141metric. It's information to help us see. It's a collective piece. All these pieces of information to see if when we're moving in a positive direction on priority one and goal 1.1, do these metrics help us understand that we're making that particular progress? We'll know when we get there. when we get to the goal or we meet the target. I'm I'm spinning here, but the premise here is that the goals are what we want to communicate and our progress to the goals are what we want to communicate to the community and whether or not we're hitting those targets. The metrics are some information as we're going along the way that may be increasing or decreasing that can help us contextualize our progress and fine-tune things, but it's not necessarily something that the community needs to see
142in real time. That's something that we as you as a board and we as a staff need to keep an eye on and check in periodically through the year. But ultimately measuring our success is this dashboard right here. >> I don't think I understood that that's what we were going to that it was going to affect the dashboard and I didn't vote through the DMG thing anyways, but I don't think that was part of my personal understanding because I personally don't and I'm I'm not the expert so take that for what it is. But I think as a community member, I would want to understand a little bit more than just the the three main goals to understand where the district my students are attending, how it kind of looks al together. Um, with some
143more data points and there was there was quite a bit more before and I understand the need for us to be able to understand the health of the district not by looking at 15 different goals but three main goals. I understand that point for the board, but for the community, I I was not understanding that that was what the community was also getting at the same time. So, I think that's where my questions kind of come from. I understand what you're saying, though. I understand what DMG's points were. >> There's also a lot of information available on the Illinois school report card. >> Okay. >> A lot. >> Okay. Illinois, by the way, is pro probably the best in terms of the amount of data that it offers to the public and the way it's
144organized and the way it can be consumed and compared to other school districts. So, we have that resource that most other schools in other states just don't have. >> See that linked here? Okay. >> Any other questions? Okay, thank you. All right, action item 7.1, adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget. Tony, thank you. Uh Holly, if you wouldn't mind pulling up that slide deck, run through this. Not much has changed since we spoke last on the 2026 budget. The action before you this evening would be for adoption. To recap where we've been over the summer, we held a public hearing last month on the budget. We also held a public hearing on fund transfers. We'll take separate action on those after we re review the budget. Uh we shared with the community a tentative
145budget in June and has been on display all summer. Uh we've of course gone through several revisions since then and u this is our best estimate as to how things will play out for this fiscal year and of course it's built on a whole host of assumptions um and we'll see how they play out but this is our plan for the year. Total funds are 132.2 million in revenue over 142.6 6 million in expenditures or that includes on behalf payments and totaling some 24.5 million. It's money that doesn't actually touch our coffers. It's money that the state of Illinois pays on behalf of the board for our the the costs of our teachers salaries for their pensions. So that leaves a fund balance difference of $10 million. So that is more revenue or excuse me
146no more expenditures than we're taking in. uh and that is due entirely to us spending on the warm safe drive plan and that is us spending fund balance to to uh make those uh capital improvements. Good news for us is that um we are paying off all of our bonds this year. So there's about $4 million outstanding that'll be paid off by January. And when that's complete, taxes will go down. The tax rate, the rate that the school board taxes, as we talked about last month, will go down in total about 10% over the last two years. Um, operating funds, can you go back to that, Holly, for just a second? This is what we focus on in terms of the day-to-day operations of the school district. Total uh 103.2 million in revenues with 98.4
1474 million in expenditures. We are transferring 14 million out of those operating funds, the education fund and the onm fund to fund those capital projects and the warm safe drive plan. So we expect a deficit of 9.2 million in those funds. Now it isn't a deficit in the sense that we're spending too much more than we're taking in that we have a structural issue. This is a one-time expense. If we go over to the next slide, it'll demonstrate that for us. The blue bars being revenue, the green bars being expenses. You see in 2026, the year that at hand, we're spending more than we're taking in. The yellow line that crosses the bars, you see decreases in 2026, edges upward slightly in 28 and then back down in 29. So, our fund balance is going
148down significantly, but not so much that um we have to worry about tax anticipation warrants as we did in years past. We're we're spending down that fund balance, but being sure that we don't put ourselves in a precarious position where we don't have enough cash to weather a severe storm or to pay our bills. >> So, you're comfortable with that level of fund balance? >> I don't want it to go any lower than it is. I don't want it to go any lower than it is right now, but um or would be, but um yeah, I am comfortable with it. So, um it's it's Yes. Then so that's all of our funds and then I'll show you the operating funds and explain this to you again. The blue bars being revenue, the green bar being
149expenditures, the yellow line being our fund balance. Those red bars introduced here are other financing and those are the fund transfers. And you can see we've been doing fund transfers for capital projects for the last several years. Moving money generally out of the operations and maintenance fund to capital projects to pay. you see a pretty significant increase in that amount in 26 and then declining in 27 and increasing through 29 and that's the operating fund commitments to funding warm safe dry in future years so that we can afford to execute those projects. um this year being the largest increase, the largest amount transferred. Um but it will continue to grow at about a 15% increase each year so that we can afford to fund those projects. And it looks like we're going to have to
150have a couple more. We originally expected to have five years of warm safe drive. We're probably going to need to have six or seven years at least because of some other issues that I'll talk about here briefly when it comes to revenue. So we can go to the next slide. As I mentioned earlier, we're transferring $10 million from the education fund to the capital projects fund, one-time permanent fund transfer, and a little bit more than $4 million from ON&M for the same purpose. This simply recaps all that. We do expect a slight deficit in 27, a surplus in 28, and a deficit again in 29. Those aren't structural deficits. Those are deficits for from us after transferring those funds into capital projects when the timing of those projects and the payments for those projects come
151due. >> Can you repeat that Tony? So the reason why it's deficit surplus deficit is more about the timing of the payments projects. >> Yeah. >> It isn't a structural deficit in the sense that we would have to file a deficit reduction plan. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I also did forecast uh the ISB financial profile and um as you know we came from a financial wash a number of years ago over a decade ago and we have been in financial recognition for the last several years. We've gotten away from the tax anticipation warrants and in the last couple years we've enjoyed a perfect 4.0 rating. Unfortunately it appears we're not going to maintain that 4.0 perfect rating. uh it's going to be 3.9 for the foreseeable future. And the reason being is we're moving
152this money into capital projects and we're spending those fund balances down. We won't have enough days on days cash on hand to have a perfect rating in that regard. We're going to do really well with debt. We're going to get a perfect score when it comes to short-term and long-term debt because we won't have any. Uh next slide, please. We are losing money, however. We're expected to lose money in what were called state categoricals and those are reimbursements for what we spend in transportation and special education primarily. The state is facing some fiscal troubles and it can't afford to necessarily fully fund education. The priority for the state is an EBF dollars or the the evidence-based funding formula. So, a lot of districts around the state are receiving new money, but a lot of districts
153like us that are more affluent, being a tier four district where our the amount of money that we have on hand exceeds what they consider to be adequate, they're pulling back some of that funding and they're not putting any new money into these bins for categoricals. So that what that means is that as costs go up each year and we turn in our claims for reimbursement, our costs certainly go up every year, especially in transportation and special ed, that's where our costs go up the most. And that happens statewide. And if there's the same amount of money in that fund to pay all those claims each year, the amount of money that everybody gets goes down. Most school districts that uh are getting more new money in their evidence-based funding formula, they can, you know,
154it's kind of moving, you know, Robin Peter to pay Paul, but for us, the total amount of money that we're going to get from the state is going to be going down. So, we'll have to keep a close eye on that. Of course, things from a federal level have been a little unstable and uncertain. Uh I don't expect that we'll lose any federal money in the next fiscal year. Uh but I do believe that the at least the increase in terms of federal aid is going to be very very slight if and if at all. Um as I mentioned earlier, we're seeing rising costs and special ed and transportation. Um we do see um some staffing shortages for pair of professionals, but u as Steve shared with BESA this evening, we've been making progress on
155hiring pair of professionals. And so we're hopeful that um the end is in sight in that regard. The next few years we expect enrollment to remain stable about 5200. Um it has been bouncing up and down just slightly, you know, with a handful of students here and there in the last couple of years. And we expect that to be the case. So meaning it might go up by 30 or 40 students in one year and go down by 30 or 40 students in the next depending on how things shake out. Um, and we'll be able to continue to make progress on warm, safe, dry without adding new debt. And the last slide is enrollment is down at 7% since 2020, but we expect it to be stable ahead. And so, as I said, the last
156couple of years, it's fluctuated just a bit, and we expect that to remain the case. Class sizes on average for our K through eight core classes is about 23. Last year it was 22.9 and that's the lowest in recorded history when it comes to class sizes. So we're historically low as it has been. Uh and we have about 73 FTE which continues to increase. Um, as I mentioned earlier, we'll retire all of our debt by January. But depending how things shake out, especially with that revenue from the state and how much we lose, we might have to extend out our investments into warm safe drives that we have the capacity to do so. That of course I assume when we do will be subject to construction inflation and that's >> significant. >> Takes a chunk
157out of what we can get done. But that's the reality that we face. The sooner we do it, the less we'll spend. But we have to be careful about putting ourselves in a precarious position of overspending with maintaining that fund balance. We don't want to spend. We need that fund balance to pay our bills and pay anything unexpected that comes in to hand. U we don't want to get back to where we were with tax anticipation warrants. It just wastes money and limits what we can do. It really ties our hands in terms of options. I think that's it unless you have questions. Sorry, questions. Um, state student enrollment you said is down 7% from 2022. Was the enrollment down in 2024? >> I don't mean that's just from I mean that's 5 years ago.
158So I'm just curious like you know what was it was it down in 2021? I'm not going to ask. So I guess that might and then >> if you wouldn't mind Holly if you could go to the the agenda item and then pull up the budget >> if you Yeah, click on the budget summary there. Not the dot. Yeah, the link. I think it's section E2 or something like that on the left hand side. You'll you can use the table of contents take you right to the the history and the forecast. So, look for E2. I guess it's not E2. It's like it's E5. I'm sorry. >> Yes, >> there it is. Can you zoom in on that level just a little bit, please? >> Perfect. So in 24 we lost about >> 15 students
159but we in 25 we were expecting in so that the last year we were expecting to lose as I recall like 30 students but we lost only one so projection would have called for 30 fewer students but 30 more showed up than we expected and um it's unclear what our enrollment is at present but it's 5237 forecasted and I think we're pretty close to that right now. >> I was going to ask I know we don't do the official enrollment till is it October? >> It is. Yeah. And so what October 1st is the what they call the f fall f fall housing report. That's when statewide we collect enrollments and so that we can make comparisons and that way you can compare yeartoear where you were in terms of enrollment. So we'll have the
160official enrollments on October 1st and I'll rerun the models and the numbers and whatnot and share an enrollment forecast with you and enrollment projection. So, one thing I noticed going through this is and so I believe was in 2020 like a record graduating class or that was sort of like a peak moment in enrollment at Betavia High School or around that time. I thought I remember going to commencement. We had like 540 kids and it was >> my first year was from what I understand my first year here was the largest graduating class we had had. >> Was it? Okay. >> Well, one thing I noticed is our enrollment is going down but we actually have more FTE than we did. Is that correct? want to mistate. >> Yeah, that's true. >> So that's contributing
161to the low class size though. Probably >> it is. Yeah. >> I'll point out too is like so yeah that the largest his graduating class in history rolled out of the doors in the last few years. And you'll see that the way that this has broken out is the yellow is high school, blue is middle school, and green is elementary. And you can see how elementary enrollments are fluctuating. They went down and then they're coming back up and they they bounce around. You see enrollment at the middle school is was relatively small last year but has now started to increase as kids m metriculate and overall because of declining birth rates the high school enrollment has been going down for a few years >> but it I mean you have a very good crystal ball
162but it's a tricky thing because I think I remember one of these presentations that was like well we're going down and now we're sort of kind of leveling off a little bit at a level you know and now we're getting all this growth of building couple big developments in town so it isort sort of a tricky game of >> it is a tricky game and in nationwide birth rates are declining but I do expect that um you know with some of these new developments more or less I don't think it will fully offset declining birth rates but it'll slow it down. I do expect that for the foreseeable future our enrollment is going to be right around 5200. That's about as accurate as it can get in terms of any projection. >> So um I
163apologize. So you said it's about average class sizes 23k through 8th core classrooms. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> And the reason why we I don't do averages on high school classes is there are a lot of sections >> right >> with really small uh uh enrollments and really large enrollments. And so it really skews averages. So question if you have a co-taught class how does that figure in like so if I have a co-taught class due to e students in fifth grade and that that class is 24 kids let's say so you have a co-taught so now miss asking is that now two teachers or how how is that >> it's by section it's not by assigned teacher so we're looking at the average of the number of students in a section, not assigned to
164a cheap teacher. But overall, when we look at our total FTE, we do a ratio of how many students we have versus how many staff we have, and we keep an eye on that ratio. We look at teachers, and then we look at support staff, and then we look at the total, and we map that out over time, and we keep an eye on it, and our ratios are are as low as they've ever been in that regard. But in this particular case, when I say our class size is an average of 23, that's the section. It's the kids assigned into that classroom for that core section. Whether or not there's one teacher in there or there's two, that's the average number of students in a section. >> So, if there's 23 kids in a
165section and there's two teachers, we're not saying that brings it down to 12.5. We're still >> That's what I was saying like what's the average? Like I didn't know like if those two teachers, let's just say fifth grade. I'm let's say it's fifth grade JB Nelson you have 20 teachers and then you have two EL like that co- teach so then that's 22 teachers so is it 20 so is it the class size but 22 or is it the class size 20 that's so then so we have the 703 full-time st Those are just >> I guess I just want to make sure because the full-time staff is certified teachers. >> It's full-time equivalents. And so there are I don't off the top of my head I don't know but probably something like 780 790
166staff members of those 703 full-time equivalents and that includes all staff. Um because some people like a 0.5 I remember like ask question how can you be a half time half employee you know. >> Yeah. >> So you're saying all employ so that's office staff. So if I'm a full-time office staff >> no I'm not saying you're full-time. I'm saying full-time equivalent. You could be office staff and only work four hours a day. You would count as 0.5. >> No. But what if I am full-time but I guess >> then you count as 1.0. >> That's what I'm saying. So it's fulltime >> Equivalent. So, so JB Nelson has a I guess so here's my question. So JB Nelson has full-time equivalent. So let's say there's two full-time secretaries. Um do you also count administrators
167and librarians? >> So anyone in that building then is cons. >> Anyone >> equivalent? Yes. >> Full time. That's equivalent. the number of hours you work a day essentially. >> Okay. So, so the average is the 23 to fulltime equivalent or >> Nope. When I when I find the average, I am not looking at staffing at all. I'm looking at sections. So if I walked around JB Nelson school in your example and I said, "Hey, there's 20 kids in that first grade classroom, but there's two teachers who work in that classroom on a daily basis >> and there's 30 kids in that fifth grade section and there's one teacher who worked in there." That would, you know, be a big difference, but I'm only counting the number of classrooms essentially where kids are assigned. I'm
168not counting the number of employees that are in the building or assigned to those sections. >> So then if you were to go, I guess Rolo, you only count the core classrooms. You don't count the like uh wood or art or >> right? So PE sections are usually larger. They're like 40. And then there are band sections that are even much larger. So we're not looking at any of those sections. We're only looking at core classes, meaning bulldog block, home room, those sorts of things. How many kids are in those classrooms on a basically on a team? So, if I went to Mr. Thomas's classroom and there was 28 kids in there, >> you would love it. >> That's how I'm counting it by. But if Mr. Thomas was working with a co-teer, it doesn't
169matter. We're counting that >> in that classroom. >> Was in that classroom. >> Okay. Thank you. I was kind of a little I didn't understand like how we got to the 23. >> It is confusing. Now, one thing I will point out and when we're looking at 73 FTE, we rely extremely heavily on outsourcing in this district. So, if you went to Geneva, for example, and they have a similar number of students enrolled, we're going to have a much lower FTE than they because they have their own they run their own buses. They have to employ mechanics and bus drivers and dispatchers, all those people who do transportation. For us, that's outsourced. Same goes for custodial. Many school districts run their own custodial services and they have those people on staff. We outsource them. We
170have our maintenance folks on staff, but our custodial are outsourced. And in addition, our food service is outsourced. So, it's you have when you're comparing school districts to one another, you have to be really careful about what you're comparing to. So we have a larger percentage of purchased services or buying those services from uh Illinois Central from GS uh GSF and from organic life and so those costs are higher. So salaries and benefits in Geneva would be higher. So it just for it's just my point is simply being making comparisons to other school districts or looking at some of those students to staff ratios can be really tricky. So, one other question in like all these projections as far as like payroll and all that stuff. Has BPS ever been 100% fully staffed to like
171let's say payroll is let's just say five million let's say that for the year. Have we ever been like fully staffed where it's been five million or do we always have like not that it's one or two salaries is gonna make a drastic change but you know I'm just curious >> yes in 2020 we were fully staffed now we'll have somebody leave and then couple weeks or you know few days later we'll hire somebody else behind them you know so there's always you know some sort of churn u but I would consider us fully staffed you know in 2020 and when the after the pandemic hit and you know things in the market changed. We suffered from some pretty serious and chronic vacancies in all areas of staffing, especially for psychologists and um other related
172services like um >> Yel and nursing and paraprofessionals and campus monitors. I mean, it was everything all at once. And just in the last year or two, I think we've all that has kind of we've been able to address all that and get everybody on staff that we want to with the exception of about 12. Is it 12? >> It's actually as of tomorrow it should be 10.93 FTE repairs. >> We had a meeting tonight where I had to share that number. That's why I know that there's the only reason why >> I would like to say Raquel Raquel this is the first year since co that we were fully staffed with our licensed uh personnel this year which is incredibly exciting. Carrie would attest to that in many ways as with the staff at
173Routollo who has not had psychologists for se fully staffed in psychologist for several years. We didn't have any psychologists I think at RMS for last two years. Two years >> which is very very challenging. >> So we're in I we're you know we've got some improvements to make but we're we're making good progress. >> So when do you think we need to re-evaluate the warm dry and extend it? >> We're going to have to do it on an annual basis. We're going to have to kind of >> That's what I'm saying. like when >> play it by year >> like you know because I know you're going to work on everything. So that's I was just curious like when would you recommend we say like in December like hey we need to look at this
174and evaluate >> we always need to be a year ahead. >> So Mark needs a pretty long leeway to make these things happen and we're you know we have to find we have to you know architects have to design plans and engineers have to you know figure out how things fit together and then we have to bid those projects and line up that work. So, we're always on a one-year plus um runway, but each year that we're adopting our budget, we're going to have to play it by ear in terms of all right, how much can we put toward warm, safe, dry this year and next year? What's safe? What's dangerous? What could we have shovel ready if things change? You know, it's going to be a year-to-year thing, >> but it's safe to say
175it's changing. >> It's changing. >> Yeah. >> I have a question about the major capital projects for the current year. It lists the HC Storm improvements and the Routollo and High School LRC renovations, but then it also has Louise White improvements. Is that what's happening next summer? >> Yes. And so some of those bills will start coming due in this fiscal year and we have to have money available in fiscal year 26 to start paying them even though that work won't be anywhere near done until we're you know about this point in 27 fiscal 27. >> And part of that is going to be uh similar to what happened at HCS. Louise White crews will be standing ready at as soon as staff and students dismiss for the summer they're going in. Um, and so
176that's where some of that fiscal year billing comes in this fiscal year. >> Mark's Mark and his team did an excellent job. We knew we were a little aggressive in terms of what you could just practically cram into one summer and they did some pretty phenomenal work and, you know, credit to the HC Storm staff because they're enduring some, you know, there's some punch list items that they're enduring like air conditioning, you know, in the office kind of thing. You know, they've got a temporary solution there. Um I I'm you know we've got it's it's a lot of work to do in one one summer. >> I mean you said warm safe dry. You said cool safe. >> You're getting rewarm guys. >> She's appearing at the comedy boat. >> Other questions? I I just
177want to say thank you Tony for putting this document together in the time I've been on the board which is not that long. I think from a ability to access the information and understand it for someone who's not an accountant doesn't have uh looking at financial statements um it's fairly clear to understand and follow. you do a nice job of high level, but then if you want the data and the one thing I will say is, you know, a common thing we talk about is transparency and you know, if you own a home or a property, you're paying your property taxes twice a year and we have a portion of that. Obviously, I would encourage everyone to review this and understand it because uh I'm proud of the position we're in. We're paying our bills.
178We're in excellent financial position. Despite two failed referendums, we're still able to make improvements to make our students warm, safe, and dry, hopefully cool, too soon. Um, but this is a document that I really, if someone wanted to learn about the district and where our priorities are, this is an excellent place to start, I believe. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. And we're also uh, you know, I was hoping to have it done, but we're not quite there yet. This fall, we'll publish this in an interactive format online. It's not too dissimilar from our dashboard. is hope hopefully it'll make this information more accessible from you know from a reader standpoint for those who might have disabilities that might have that inhibit them from reading this easily in a Google doc. It also makes it responsive
179on a phone and it will also make it easily translated as well. So I'm excited about that. It'll come at some point late this fall. >> All right. I will entertain a motion to adopt fiscal year 2026 budget as presented. >> So moved. >> Motion by who was that? >> Danielle. Thank you. Second by >> Second by Kristen. City, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Slider. >> Yes. >> Meadows. >> Yes. >> Gonzalez. >> Yes. All right. Uh Tony, can you lead us in the resolution for permanent transfer to the capital projects fund? >> All righty. Yes, we did. And so that was obviously a key feature of this budget and this is just to make this official and clear that we're implementing this budget. The board is directing the administration to
180make those transfers now and immediately so that money is available in the con capital projects fund uh as the budget prescribes. >> So it' be really hard to say no to this one since you just approved a budget that said yes. >> That guy sometimes don't make All right. Are there any questions? >> No. Okay. I will entertain a motion to adopt the resolution to transfer $10 million from the education fund and $4,48,000 from the operation and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund. >> Motion by Rob, second by >> Second by Aaron. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. >> Sper, >> yes. >> Spiki, >> yes. >> Gonzalez Thomas, >> yes. >> Geral, >> yes. >> Kilberg, >> yes. Arlandu, >> yes. >> Meadows, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you.
181>> Um, one more thing. >> Sorry, one second. I forgot. There's one last slide on that deck. >> Ollie, am I going to change my vote? >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to give you a heads up of what's coming next. >> Um, very next month, Josh is going to present you an request authorization to begin the 2027 budget officially. So, we're going to start on next year straight away. We, as I mentioned earlier, Raquel, we'll bring you that enrollment projection in October. We'll also bring you actual five-year financial forecast. What's cool about this new budget, there's three years in there. So, it was actually a very helpful exercise. We've never done that before where you can see a little bit of the forecast in the budget, but we'll actually bring you a full 5-year
182forecast in October. That'd be followed by the tax levy. So, this budget sets essentially what we assume, make all of our assumptions come true with the tax levy. So more there will be a formal adoption and you know those sorts of things when it comes to the tax levy in November, but you adopted this budget and you're kind of setting those pieces in motion already. The administrative team will bring you probably a draft staffing plan in January, maybe February, but we'll be again back to you in June and July and August with preliminary and tentative budgets. So we'll repeat the process again and we'll have more conversations about where things fit with warm, safe, dry and how all the pieces fit together. So, thanks. Sorry about that. >> I'll forgive you this time. >> Like
183it's me that has to forgive you. >> Okay. All right. Uh board comments. So, administration first 8.1. Tom, anything? >> Yep. Um so, just like to say thank you to all the operations teams as we just discussed uh the opening of the school year and our some of our buildings had uh some work done over the summer. Uh just wanted to say thank you to all those teams and our our partners who helped keep our be uh buildings clean and ready to receive people. Um they did a tremendous job. So I just wanted to say thank you that and our buildings were uh it was great being around. It's been a busy opening but uh it's been awesome to see all the energy and smiling faces coming back into the buildings and that's not possible
184without our staff, all of our teachers, our staff and our building leaders. uh working together to make sure that students were coming in well received for day one. And so I have to say the energy was contagious and at the same time walking around I felt it felt very focused um like there was a just a really strong sense of purpose and community at every building I visited. I loved it. So um and so having said that I'm going to keep it brief. Uh I'm just going to pivot to uh something else I want to share some important words. You know, on my fi final note, our community experienced a terrible tragedy this weekend. The district is here to support our students, our staff, and our families if any of them were impacted by this
185tragic incident. Um, I want to thank our student services team and our mental health service teams and leadership behind it who quickly prepared to support our students and staff on Monday um with very minimal information. Um, as as many of you may be aware, this is still an ongoing matter. And so as a school district, it's difficult to sometimes do some laser pinpointing s uh supports, but we want to make sure that people get that message that we have supports here for anybody who needs those resources. Um so to all of our teams in our buildings and and to the leadership team here who dropped everything to help prepare for this, thank you. Um to our city colleagues, I also wanted to make sure we said thank you for their work in supporting our students
186and our families and the communication that they could try to make available in the information during this uh terrible time. Um and then as a final reminder to our students and our families, the district messenger was sent out on Sunday evening uh which shared resources and supports and points of contact. Um, I really encourage any of our families or our students to utilize the resources and supports that this board has approved uh over the last few years and is stands ready to support our kids. And so on the final note, I also urge that the broader community uh remember that this matter is still an ongoing investigation by our law local law enforcement. I just ask everybody that you check in with your child um see how they're doing. remember utilize everything that we we
187are here to help and provide for Pavia. Okay. Uh so I just want to say thanks to everybody and that's it. >> Board comments. >> Uh one thing is we talked about putting on the agenda a discussion about and I just want to be clear so that Katie can get it right on her list. The um >> consultants just generally speaking out about consultants. Is that what we're putting on? Okay. >> Like if there's the way I read it is what we would want as board members to be able to make an effective decision about expending those dollars. Is that a reasonable way of summarizing it so that if we and we would have to discuss and tell them what we think we would need as a unit as a group? >> Is BPSU part
188of that or just consultants in general? I understood it as consultants in general, not specifically them, but whatever framework we or goals we would ask, I think >> some of them are used for BPSU. So, I don't know. >> I think it would apply to them is my guess. >> Okay. >> But that's part of the discussion. >> Okay. Uh and then my other question is I saw that Tom had shared Bick dates and I couldn't remember how we had decided how we were going to divide those up. If we're all >> I think it's based on when I think it was I'm available. I'll take this date. It was not getting assigned specific ones because I don't know. It's a Saturday morning. I don't know anybody's Saturday mornings. >> Should we let you and
189Tom know or? >> Yeah, just let if you let me and Tom know and we'll sort out. >> Do you guys know the dates? Did we get the dates? >> Yeah. >> Put it up. >> I missed it. >> We can get them. I think it's it wasn't one of Tom's updates. Uh, the other thing I wanted to say was kind of in relationship to what Tom said that it's been a heavy start to the year um for some of our community and I'm thankful that we live in a district that has mental health supports in place. Um, and I would just encourage anyone that's struggling because, you know, there's ripples to this. There are teachers that are affected by this too. Um, reach out if you're struggling. Uh, and I just hope have a
190great year. I'm excited. >> Yeah, it was an interesting start of the school year for myself personally. It was the first time in 15 years I didn't have a child uh going to a Betavia school. So, it was a new new experience for almost a little bit. >> I've been through this before. Uh, but it did make me reflect and I actually thought about, you know, Jacob's kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Baji and at Grace McQuain and Julia's was Mrs. Miland and also had Grace McQuain. So, they kind of gave them their start in in school and education. So, very appreciative of that. And, you know, way too many teachers to name throughout, but so many great teachers that they had throughout the throughout their tenure here in Betavia School. So, I just kind of reflected
191on that this year as as I went to the um opening day and I did go to Louise White School, which was really cool at Katie and her family uh as well as a number of other parents out there and talk to them and did engage them uh for the most part and I and I get it. they're not going to really maybe get too much feedback, but I did ask them how their registration and you know the communication with the school went and um for almost all the feedback was positive and I like I said I know they're not going to necessarily always share their their opinions but uh at least what I got gathered from them it was pretty positive. So, um, kudos to the Louise White team for for that and uh,
192cool cool tradition there with the ringing of the bell. So, really enjoyed that. So, positive vibes for the first day of school. I think you said that, Drew. So, >> uh, yeah, just thanks to everyone who helped get the school year, all the schools ready for this school year, and I just hope everyone has a healthy and safe school year. Uh, I want to welcome all the new teachers, staff, and families who are attending BPS 101. Welcome to the family. I want to thank everybody prepared for opening day. Uh, there's a million things that have to go right and uh, like Mr. Arandu said, I got a lot of feedback that things were good, running smoothly. That's a challenging thing to do to start the year. And, um, so I want to wish everyone a
193great year. here. And then I do want to recognize Mr. Arolando and I are both taking children to college tomorrow. And there's a lot of families right now that the kids are leaving to move on to that next chapter, whether it be school or work or uh going to the service. And so I want to recognize that. And I'll just share one funny story with that that even after you leave BPS 101, you're still part of the family in that uh the first day of school for my younger two, I took my oldest daughter who's now technically a junior at Missouri because of all her advanced credit she got here at Betavia. We had lunch and her old music teacher from JB Nelson came up and recognized Emma and gave her a big hug and
194they had a nice chat. So that was like kind of a nice full circle moment there. But um but yeah, I just want to wish everyone a good year. And then I do also want to recognize the heaviness and as Kristen said, there are resources for people. So don't be afraid to reach out if you need help. >> Yeah. Also just want to um recognize the tragedy in the community and just say that my hearts my heart and thoughts are with um all the students, staff, and families that are um affected. Um, so, uh, yeah, I didn't really prepare anything today, but I just kind of thinking of, um, all the first days of school. I want to say all the work that was done at Storm. It just like blew me away. I was
195I was emotional there kind of because my kids go there and I've been there since, you know, Ally was there in 2016, I think 2017, and it's just amazing. And then I had all these kids talking about how like it's so amazing in here. And they were like commenting on the some of the safety features of it. They recognized that sort of stuff like how when you walk in there's doors and then you can't you know and they were saying it's like it's like a hotel in here and I was just like I was dying because it was like fabulous. So part of me was like oh and then the other part of me is like if we only had the referendum we could do so much more. But you know I'm grateful for what
196was done and it was mindblowing to see how fast things were done. I know you guys are in the field and like maybe to some people it's normal, but I was just like how did all of this get done in that small time period? It's just >> it's kind of scary. It's like whoa, we got a lot to do here. >> It's it really and like I mean I can just from the outside the difference. It's just it's awesome. And as a parent sending my child to that school specifically, I cannot comment on the feeling, the relief of knowing that all of the doors I went around that because I had to walk my my kiddo around the back. All the doors are new. all the windows, the entryway, like it's it's so safe looking
197and it's just that is a huge relief because every year it was hard to think about those entryways and the doors not opening and closing properly and all that type of stuff. So, um I just want to say a huge shout out to the work that was done and I can't even wrap my mind around everything from Storm to the LRC's. Um hope everyone's uh year is starting off right. You had made a comment about always being in the family. Um, I just actually said goodbye to one of our previous students, Martin Burn, and it just reminds me, you know, every time they come back, they never left Battavia. Like they they're so engaged in not just the school, but the community, all of like the various vulnerable groups and like that's the student we
198want to know comes back. We're always like, I hope that the pe the people that leave this district come back to work here, possibly be teachers. And it just is such an immense pride to know that like they're choosing to come back and be so active. Um, and I just I know there's other kids like them too and it just it was just amazing to kind of like reflect on that as they're leaving to Philadelphia tomorrow. So yeah, you you can it's nice when people do stay in the family. So um other than that, yeah, I just hope that everyone's years smoothly. Okay. Uh to the surviving family, friends, neighbors, witnesses, and loved ones of the man who lost his life to gun violence in Betavia on Saturday. I see you. As a gun violence
199survivor myself, I know the healing in the aftermath of this trauma will be some of the most arduous and most injuring work of your lives, requiring immense community support. I am proud our district has committed to doing our healing work beside you and all who are touched by this loss. To the public, I hope you will reach out to the district and elsewhere for support around this tragedy. Whether it's overhearing or seeing an uninformed comment or wondering how we can help. Let's speak up. Let's ask. Let's acknowledge that gun violence affects all families and that by virtue of taking place in America, this was not an isolated incident. It was one rooted in deep systemic failures from which most of us benefit in which we all participate and of which we are all apart. I
200urge our administration and the public to stay informed in questioning of the social media commentary and the in-person conversation that is already taking place around this devastating event uh which our children may engage in, hear, see or repeat. Let's make sure Betavia schools will not tolerate hate in response to catastrophe. I hope for most of us it's been a soft and gentle landing on a new school year. For anyone struggling to feel held, heard, seen, and free, I am in solidarity with you, and I carry with me an unwavering hope that this school district and the greater Battavia community will come together for the greatest good in the best and worst of times. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Katie. Uh just going to say um on I'd like to commend uh the staff. I I
201got to be witness to kind of the immediate reaction in emails that were kind of going back and forth before they can be informed and just continual reminders about um kind of really pacing kind of the focus on those affected students, getting things lined up for them, getting staff ready, getting people knowledgeable with when what they needed to do. So, I commend, you know, Superintendent Kim and the principles involved and all the staff that try to queue up those resources for uh anyone that would really need that, most particularly the families directly involved and anybody else in the near area. Um, other than that, just I really uh look forward to this new year. I think there's a lot of good things. I think that we're tracking a lot of good uh information that I
202would like to see how and I look forward to seeing how that evolves and I look forward to working with you all on another school year for the school district. So, thank you. Um and we are moving into a closed session next. Um my notes them away. Um so we will be adjourning. There are no uh closed there's no board action after this. So people could stay or go any uh but I would um entertain a the board will go into closed session. We'll not have any action after the closed items. You're welcome to stay here if you like but if you'd leave we'd like to thank you for coming out this evening. Um, and the time is 9:44 and I will entertain a motion to move to close session as allowed under the open
203meetings act for the purpose of exceptions 5CS120 C and two. So move. >> So moved by Raquel. >> Second by Katie. Is this a roll call vote? I can't remember. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Arandu. >> Yes. >> Gonzalez. >> Yes. >> Meadows. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you very much.