001All right, Tom. Are there any items to add or remove from the agenda? Sorry, I was talking kids. Yeah, no. High priority. No. All good tonight. All right. Uh, at each board meeting, we like to celebrate students and staff members for outstanding accomplishments. Tonight, we have a few to share with you. Uh first this evening I would like to welcome Ming Shelby the director of professional learning to introduce Kid in America nominees. Thank [Applause] you. So the organization Kindest Kid in America, their mission is to do our part to invest in our future leaders and support our educators in creating kinder school cultures in America. and we're so excited that three of our students in BPS were nominated. So to highlight each of them very briefly, this is Tristan from Grace McWain. What one of
002his teachers shared about him is that he's one of the kindest students she's had the pleasure to teach in years. He looks out for others by ensuring everyone is included in activities both in the classroom and on the playground. He encourages others to be their personal best and he advocates for himself and others. He's empathetic and a great friend to all of his classmates. Tristan is a silent leader and role [Applause] model. And then we have Abby from HC Storm. She always speaks kindly to everyone, no matter who they are, and goes out of her way to truly listen when others speak to share. She befriends students who really don't have other friends and embraces them with warmth and grace. She makes cards or writes letters to those who are sick or just having a
003bad day to share her kindness with those around her. Let's give a hand for Abby. And we have Ellie here if you can see her. She consistently seeks opportunities to make others feel included, valued, and cared for. whether she's thoughtfully creating special bracelets for her classmates, noticing when someone feels left out or quietly offering help without being asked. And her acts of kindness leave a lasting impact. And something really special and unique about Ellie is that she's the first winner of kindest kid in Illinois. So we had assembly. So, please join me in recognizing Tristan, Abby, and Ellie one more time. And um make kindness contagious. Thank you so much. [Music] Thank you. Do we want to try to get a picture if we could real fast? Don't let Don't run away. We're going to
004try to go up and let's get a picture. All right. Where are we going? Right up front. I think I might have one good one. All right, everybody else. Thank you. All right, you got it. Y Thank you. Right back. Okay, next we are proud to recognize a remarkable HC Storm Elementary student tonight, EMTT Cruz. Could you please come forward? You head right to the podium. Thank you. EMTT was recently honored with the blue star award from the boys and girls club. This is a distinction given to just one student at each boys and girls look uh boys and girls club location. He was selected from among 35 honores across the organization which serves nearly 3,000 students. The blue star award celebrates students who embody leadership, engagement, positivity, and kindness while at the club. EMTT,
005we want to thank you for being an incredible example. We're proud of you and who you are and how you've stepped up as a leader in the afterchool program at HC Storm in its first year. If you would like, we'd love to EMTT, do you have any words you want to share about your experience before we do a group photo? Um, I think I'm good. Awesome. Well, EMTT, congratulations and thank you for your student leadership. back up. I'll let him go first. Great. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Next, we would like to celebrate three of our staff members who were nominated for King County Educator of the Year Awards. Lisa Hatfield is our fifth grade band and orchestra teacher. Monica Hubble is a social studies teacher at Rotolo Middle School and Heather Mandel is the principal
006secretary at Ro Middle School. Would you please join me in welcoming Lisa, Monica, and Heather up to the podium, [Music] please? All right. So before you you you're we're going to give you a chance to address everyone, but uh one of the comments I want to just share is that education is a people business and our district was very fortunate to have three of our amazing employees represent us at the King County Educator of the Year Awards. Lisa, Monica, and Heather rec are not just longtime employees of the district, but committed to our students and our community. They did a remarkable job in representing the district and the work they do at the and the work we do at that ceremony. Thank you for everything you do. And to Monica, who I know is not
007here, we wish you the best in retirement and your next steps. [Applause] Um, well, thank you so much. Looking around this room, I see so many band and orchestra parents, band orchestra students. So, music and is alive and well in Bavia. Um, I love what to do of what I do and to be recognized for other people loving what I do too is really cool. Um, I have had the privilege of being nominated with these amazing people and uh, I thank you all for your support throughout the years. 19 this is going to be so we're going strong. Thank you. Um just kind of you know reiterating what Lisa said like Betavia really is so amazing and being acknowledged for everything that we do is just outstanding. Um you know every Routolo employee and I'm
008sure Betavia employee um comes to work and we try so hard and we work so hard for every single student that walks in the door. Um, and kind of like what I said in my interview, like my goal is to make sure that every kid who walks in that door just feels safe and loved and knows that coming to school is just amazing, even though it might not be the most fun every day. Um, but it really is all about, you know, the kids. And it's amazing that there are so many parents and, you know, fellow staff members and you guys that support us and kind of help make it easy to do our jobs as well. So, thank you. Don't Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere. You guys are There's gonna be a photo
009op here. That's [Laughter] great. Congratulations. Oh, more. There's more. [Laughter] Nice job. All right. And last but not least, uh tonight we are honoring Gina Greenwald, the retiring principal of Hooverwood Elementary School after 11 years of service to the district. Don't we want her at the podium? Yeah. Yeah. So, Gina, could you please come to the podium? You got to get up there. So before you speak, Steve, would you like to share some words? Sure. Yeah. Steve, what is this guy gonna say? No. Um, people may not know this, but I actually was a young 23-year-old the first time I met Gina. I was a first year teacher and she was probably a third, fourth year teacher maybe, I don't know, probably. She taught young. She taught junior grade books. So, we actually started I
010started my career knowing Gina and then fast forward uh maybe 11 years ago and we're looking for a principal at Hooverwood and whose name pops up at Gina Greenwald and I'm like I remember her. She's probably a pretty good candidate. She knows what she's doing. She's uh uh she's uh got strong opinions on things. Uh she shoots straight with people, lets people know what she thinks and I think she could be a good leader and she has been. And uh as evidence we have some uh Hooverwood staff here. Thank you for coming to support her tonight. This is like her 10th retirement party on um but uh Gina's a special person. She actually uh I have a dog at home that started their life at her home. That is correct. So we have a lot
011of weird connections, right? Um but I I really Let's share them all. Steve, let's share them all. But I've really I've really enjoyed working alongside Gina. Um Gina has done a great job. She's been a real asset um to Hooverwood, to BPS 101, and that the whole community. And uh she'll definitely be missed. But I also know that she has some wonderful things on the horizon and we uh definitely wish her well and I'm sure at some point uh this summer or next fall she'll miss us. Um but uh certainly we wish you well in your future future pursuits and we certainly thank you um for just all the moments um all the conversations all the nights all the early mornings and just all the different things that you've done uh to support the students
012uh the staff and the community at Hooverwood and then the uh BPS 101 community at large. So we're grateful for your service. Thank you. Yeah. I don't know if does Tom have anything to add here. Well, I always if you want, but Gina just wanted to say thank you for your leadership over the last 11 years at BPS 101. Gina has served honorably in supporting the students and staff under her watch. Gina's experienced leadership and student focus has helped bring learning and activities to Hooverwood that empower student voice and curiosity. Her teachers are able to try and explore different ideas with her support while others other leaders in the district call her a mentor and use her as a sounding board very often. While Regina's career, she has made a difference for thousands of students.
013Any conversation with her will bring you to a point where every student is thought of and accounted for, especially those who might need to be thought about the most, but could accidentally be forgotten. On behalf of the board and BPS 101, thank you for always being an advocate for students and we wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you. Thank you. That's so nice. Well, it's been 11 years in Bavia, but 33 years total. So, as bittersweet as it is to retire, it is time. And I am very ready for what lies next. And of course, I appreciate all the support that the um the school district has given me, but most importantly, the support of my staff who have been wonderful. They've changed and evolved over these 11 years, and right now they're
014at their peak of greatness. So, I I feel like I I'm leaving um the next principal to come in with a fabulous staff. And of course, the students, those are the the hard part, you know, to get to miss your students that you see on a daily basis. and for six years really you are intertwined in their lives when you see them from little 5-year-olds to as they're leaving you in fifth grade. So it's been a wild ride in education over these last 33 years and I've loved every moment of it. So thank you so much. [Applause] Oh my goodness. [Laughter] It's the board. It's the board. It's the board. I already took a photo with her. All right. Okay. Um, at this time to everybody who's here, we're going to take a brief five
015minute pause to our meeting. If people would like to, you know, hang out there there's some treats in the back. Uh, but we're giving you an opportunity to just take a break and then if you at this point would like to uh leave the meeting, feel free. If you'd like to stay and see the rest of the business for the board meeting, you're more than welcome to. So, we'll reconvene at 19:21. All right, the time is 7:22 and we're going to reconvene for the meeting. Next up is section 4.0, public comments. Miss Dman, do we have any public comments this evening? We do not. All right, then. Next, we'll move on to our BPS partners. We'll start with BEA president, Mr. Drew Ray. Drew. When I'm done speaking, do you all want to take a
016picture with me? Sure. I keep the flow of the meeting going a little bit reception. Oh, yes. Oh, cookies. Perfect. Fantastic. Um, all board meetings should be like that. Um, hi board. Happy uh May meeting. Uh, May is always an exciting time of year for staff and students. Um, the excitement and anticipation of summer vacation is palpable at this point from EC up to 12th grade and there is very much an electricity in the air. Tomorrow night, we will be celebrating the graduating class of 2025. Graduation is an incredibly special night, not just for students and families, but also for our staff. It marks the end of a long journey, and one of the most rewarding parts of an of being an educator is witnessing the culmination of our students years of hard work and
017perseverance as they walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. This May also marks one year since the May 2024 schoolboard meeting in the BHS cafeteria where the Bavia Education Association expressed its optimism about the board and district's recommmitment to transforming our educational environment, specifically by addressing issues related to transparency and trust. Prior to that meeting, the BEA and district leadership identified core issues related to collaborative decision-making, climate and culture, and systemic inefficiencies that had contributed to a continued lack of progress. To address these issues, the BEA and district leadership committed to several action items, including a review of our ELA curriculum, re-evaluating our school leadership teams, restructuring the curriculum assessment advisory council, better known in this district as CAC, uh adhering to our collective bargaining agreement, addressing contract grievances transparently and respectfully, and fostering
018overall cultural improvement. I've spoke with many members uh across the district over the past few weeks as well as the BEA executive board regarding the reviews on the progress made in these areas one year later. There are definitely bright spots to note. We are in the early stages of a comprehensive review of our ELA curriculum. CAC has invested a great deal of time and effort into refining its structure and we've been able to address contract issues this year with district administration transparently, collaboratively, and respectfully. When it comes to the overall cultural improvement, the sense of progress often depends on perspective and whom you ask. Whether it's from a building level view, a district administration lens, or the district as a whole, it really depends on several layers of context. And that's the thing. Cultural improvement
019in a district like ours doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. It takes empathy. It takes continued collaboration. It requires being able to feel it and see it. Trust is built. It doesn't just appear out of thin air. So, let's continue to build on our progress this year as we set our eyes on the 2025 2026 school year. When trust is baked into the cake of our district, it becomes the wind in our sails pushing all of us towards fulfilling the promise and commitment that we strive to live up to every single day to serve, nurture, and support the students of Battavia Public School District. Uh on another note, uh last Tuesday I did have the honor of attending senior award night at BHS. That was the first time I've ever actually been. It's a really
020uh uh uh wild, crazy night. Uh good stuff. Uh, and the BA was able to award two $2,000 scholarships. One to Chase Wells, who will be attending the University of Louisville majoring in nursing, and Riley Bainter, who will be attending uh Illinois State University, majoring in elementary education. And it's my understanding that students from BHS were granted over $800,000 uh in awards. Is that accurate? Yeah. And that just blows my mind. So, the BA was thrilled to be part of such a wonderful night. Uh, and finally, to our members, uh, union educators like you are the backbone of our district. Thank you for everything that you've done this year to lift each other up, advocate for what's right, and to support our students. Enjoy your well- earned summer vacations. Uh, congratulations to the class of
0212025. Go Bulldogs. Solidarity forever with our brothers and sisters in BESBA. Good night and good luck. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ray. Next up, we have the best president, Kevin Bman. Kevin, good evening, everyone, and thank you. uh our last appearance here for uh with you tonight uh for the uh uh school year and it's been a very busy year for BESPA uh we you know began the year by celebrating Greg Bowler and Tory Prior's induction into the Betavia Hall of Honor uh with the class of 2024. And that was a big night because it's the first time a big night for best. It was the first time that two of our members were inducted into the hall of honor. Tory Prior being a campus monitor. Greg uh Bowler being a longtime uh maintenance employee
022with the district who retired last year. Tori of course is still a longtime campus monitor with the high school and uh someone that we're very proud of. So that was a great way for us to kick off the new year. Earlier tonight, you heard about Heather Mandel's u award as a uh King County employee of the year or educator of the year for special ed or not special education but support staff and something that uh particularly at Rotolo we were very proud of and and happy for for Heather. Something else that um has received a great deal of attention uh during the year was the new contract between the district and the support staff. something that um from the support staff's perspective was not only something that we're very grateful for, appreciative of, but just
023so very happy that we reached this agreement with the district and something that we're looking forward to working um over with over the next uh three years of it. It's something that um I I can't even express to you how important it is to us to have that agreement uh set and finalized and what it means to us on many different levels to have reached that agreement with you. And then finally, this is my final appearance uh with you as best president. We are currently in the process of electing a new board. First day of voting uh is today. Uh second day of voting is tomorrow. Things will be concluded. We'll announce the results uh Thursday. There will be um some uh new faces, some familiar faces uh together. None of them will be as
024handsome as the phrase that stands before you tonight, but that's you know how it goes. In any case, um some of them you are familiar with. They were uh here before you uh on different occasions. um they worked with some of you on uh the contract. One of the things as I take away uh from this whole experience, I've been on the executive board for a few years, but tonight or the earlier today, the executive board had a regular monthly meeting with um Dr. Kim, excuse me, I keep calling doc Mr. Kim and members of his cabinet. And at the end of uh uh the meeting, it was a very productive meeting. I think they would agree as well. Uh but there was a lot of um good spirit and and laughter at the end
025of it and we all talked about this was a great meeting. We got a lot done as um I was not present but I was there by phone and as I hung up the phone I thought well geez this is the whole tone and spirit of these meetings have changed so much or has changed so much in the few years that I've been on that and much of it has to do with Mr. Kim, but also with the people on this side of the room and how much they have contributed to the change in attitude and and uh common spirit of working together. All of you on the board, particularly the new members, need to hear that and know that um it is a night and day difference from how things were when I joined
026VESPA and particularly in the time that I've been on as a member of VESPA's executive board. And I wish to express to you just how much members at BESBA appreciate the cooperative nature and the collaborative nature of the relationship between uh the people who work in this building and those of us who work in the buildings in the in the district and with the students. So it it um it really has been just a very positive and and uh wonderful change over the years and we certainly do appreciate it. I certainly appreciate it and I will will miss working with that uh effort. So all of you thank you uh for for everything. One more change that or our thanks that I have to extend is to Drew and and his uh brothers and sisters
027in BEA. They were tremendously supportive to BESPA over the years, particularly the last uh year or so when we had so much transition. Uh Marsha, our previous president, left abruptly to take a a position here at RJC. Um then I stepped in, but as you know, I had a medical emergency. Drew and his staff was right there with us to help us move forward, particularly as we were at that point of starting the the bargaining talks. And they played a crucial well role as as did Susan uh Thorson, our uh NEA rep, and keeping things moving forward for us and and with you you folks. and um made a tremendous difference in keeping things on track and moving in a in a positive direction. So, we at um at best, but myself in particular, thank
028Drew for for his help uh during those challenging hours. But for myself, I' I've gone on probably the longest I have in a long time here at the podium. Thank you very much. Good luck to everybody. I will never say I've learned it best, but never to say This is my final thing because something always comes up with fast. So hopefully I'm scheduled that this is my last appearance with you, but you never know. But I look forward to uh working with you uh uh on matters committee assignments in the future, but as I understand it, this will be my last time as president. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a wonderful summer. Bye-bye. Now, I'll just make one comment. I want to thank Mr. Bman uh since this is his last uh time
029presenting to us as the president. I know you've had a lot of challenges professionally and privately and uh I've always admired your work ethic, your spirit, your spirit of collaboration and uh we're going to miss you, but we appreciate your contributions. And I might be out of line here, but we've taken so many pictures. It would be inappropriate for us to take a picture of Mr. Bman as he's exiting as president. You're the board of education. You're my boss. You do what you want. Got the camera in her hands. Okay. I I don't expect the reception thing. I've been there before. The door opens and I step into by myself. Hey, I'll take Kevin. There's some good snacks. That's pretty hilarious. I'll get behind you. I don't picture you weren't here. When we do your
030budget draft, we're gonna do a photo. All right. All right. Next up, we have our student ambassadors. I think it's ambassador tonight. Yes. Um, this is our last time this year because school year ends on Thursday for us and seniors are already done. So, no more Zara and Darit. But, uh, the end of the year is kind of just winding down, but we still have had some big wins in sports. Um, track was ending. We had Elizabeth Wendy and Abby Worth set two new school records, so that's really huge for them. Our track team, uh, girls and boys are always doing phenomenal at all of our meets. It's just a great environment, too. Everyone on the team is just a sweet person. You can tell that they learn collaboration through the sport. So, that's great.
031Um, they also had second place finish with nine events and qualifiers in three sectional event champions. So, lots of wins there, too. The girls soccer team is ending. I know they had their senior night or that's coming up. So, the seniors are being honored. We saw that in softball, too. They had their senior night. Uh, the fifth grade district track meet happened. I think we have a picture on there in the middle. So, uh, that was really fun. They trained the kids for sports at a really young age. I know our football team starts at like first grade. So, I mean, that's why they're so good. Uh lacrosse is going to state. I know that there were a lot of wins and losses throughout the season, but we are super proud of them. Uh volleyball
032is over. We have a picture on the bottom right of our girls volleyball team. And then pickle ball club just started up. That's new this year. Two juniors, Kushid Baru and Lucas Hubert, started up a team. I have more pictures on the next slide of that, too. But it's fun to see our students kind of being passionate about something and taking the initiative to start it. on this side, senior everything has happened because they're graduating tomorrow. So the top right is senior sunset where seniors like wear their college shirts in the beginning of the year. They have senior sunrise like to start off the year and get excited and so they had senior sunset and all the seniors got together. It's really really special. Senior breakfast was this morning, a different morning that was recently.
033Graduation's tomorrow. And then prom happened right after the last meeting on the Saturday after. And it was unofficially Rapunzel themed because we can't afford the marketing for that. But it was like under under the lanterns or something. Lots of purple and gold. It was super fun. I was there. The fun way after everyone talks about and everyone goes to. It's not like anyone goes off and does something else just because it it's just a really special thing. We have lots of raffles happened. Um, they were giving out like TVs and hundreds of gift cards, which was super cool. Uh, pickle ball club, we already went over that. So, pickle ball club, Kush is in the second bottom left picture. He's playing. He's one of the starters. And then the team is the second top left
034picture. So, they have a lot of people for this brand new club. And then middle school, they are going to iFly for like an end of the year celebration, sixth grade. So, they're going all throughout this week, which I mean, that's fun. I don't think I ever went to to iFly, but something new to try. And then our last slide just has pictures of where all the seniors are going to. This is like two pixels, so you can't tell what anything is, but they're spread all around, so it's really fun. Um, I also wanted to say Lisa Hatfield was uh awarded recently. Like, we got to hear from her. I had her in fifth grade and I talk about fifth grade band class all the time with my friends. We had All City the other
035day and I was just talking about how all of our percussionist we got bandana on and like got bandanas and I don't know it was just a really special class and I don't think I've ever appreciated something as much as I have with that because she started a community that I don't there's nothing really that matches that. The band students are all so close. I'm still friends with people I had fifth grade bland in class with and that's where I met them. So, I'm really excited that she got this award because I know as a student from her, I am so eternally grateful for all the work she does. And then just thank you guys for this experience. I didn't even know this existed until the fall this year and they're like, "Hey, do you
036want to interview?" And I said, "Sure, that sounds fun." But this has been really great. I am appreciative to have here heard what you all do and learn more about the board of education but also got to represent Betavia High School and the rest of the Battavia schools. So, thank you for the opportunity and I won't ask for a picture. I promise. Thank you guys. [Applause] Great job, Grace. All right. Now, we'll move on to the consent agenda. According to our board policy, we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion before board action. These items generally are routine, recurring, and can be grouped together for efficiency. Steve, would you like to go through the consent agenda? Absolutely. Uh 5.1 is the approval
037of the uh April 22nd, 2025 regular meeting minutes. 5.2 2 approval of the April 22nd, 2025 meeting number two, the special meeting minutes. Uh 5.3 is our personnel report. And if you took a peek at that, you'll see that there are lots of new hires there. And I actually I can't say this definitively, but uh I'm pretty sure we are ahead of hiring much farther than we have maybe in my career here. Um, I really appreciate our principles, um, our, uh, teacher teams that have been supporting that process. They've done a great job and we're very excited about the, uh, new staff that we have coming on. Uh, 5.4 is our payroll and bills. Uh, 5.5 is our acceptance of donations. We have a number of them this month. From stage to Office Depot, Betavia
038Youth Athletics, Betavia Wrestling Club, the Louise White PTO, the University of Houston, and the Betavia Mother's Club. 5.6 is the destruction of our close session recordings from October 24th, 2023. 5.7 is the authoriz authorization to renew our power school support. Uh 5.8 8 is our uh BHS overnight field trip approval for orchestra and choir. 5.9 is the approval of Red Rover Tech uh for both absent uh management and electronic time tracking system. That's one I know Josh is very excited about. 5.10 is the approval of our school ERP pro subscription. 5.11 is the authorization of renewal of our Microsoft uh volume license agreement. 5.12 approval of frontline education software subscriptions. 5.13 the authorization renewal of contract for content filtering and monitoring. 5.14 is the text approval for an anchor text. 5.15 is our CNI software
039renewal. And then finally 5.16 is the approval of uh this comprehensive consent agenda. All right. Does the board have any questions for Mr. Pierce or anyone else? I have a question. So for the 5.2 for the personnel report, um, for the certified positions, how close are we? I know because you said it's a really, you know, huge list, how many after these, how many like open positions of certified? I think we have two. Two. Yeah. Which is again way ahead of the game. Having said that, we have had some recent internal movement um with our uh voluntary uh plan and I actually uh think you're going a couple more are going to pop open. You'll probably see a 101 all email from me by the end of this week. So that that number of two
040may go up to five. But I'm um I'm very excited because of uh our hard to fill positions. Um I think that um everybody in here who works at Routollo or supports Routollo knows that we have uh struggled to find Sykes and uh we are fully staffed with two psyches at Routollo for next year in May. So we're excited and um we had a Louise White psych resign recently. I think that was last month. And we have a potential Drew this is new news um for a psych over at uh Louise White. So, it's been a really successful season, and I'd like to think that um we've worked hard and partnered and been very creative with uh both BEA and BESBA uh to meet the the staffing needs uh here. And um certainly the collaboration
041and the the cooperation that we've all uh done together, I think we're seeing some of the fruit of that um in the last couple of weeks. So, it's been good. So, thanks for asking. Thanks. Any more questions? I have a question about the field trip. Are those typically fully funded by the music buffs? They are not fully funded, but the students participate in service and fundraising to help their account. Okay. To fund those trips. So, it does get funded. I'm just thinking if are there accommodations for students that financially can't Yeah, they take that into account. provide opportunities. I had a question about the FOYA too, about the one that was denied. What was if there's any more information that could be provided about why a FOYA request might be denied? There are only certain
042reasons as prescribed in state statute that you can deny a foyer request and that one is related essentially to safety where we don't disclose those records because it could compromise our ability to surveil the campus. People would know where the positions of those cameras are and it doesn't work out well for us. I actually have a question. uh 5.14 the text approval. Uh if you look in the comments, there's student quotes. I was wondering if Dr. Newkerk could just sort of explain like the process of how students might have access to a text that hasn't been approved yet or Sure. So there's different levels of text and anchor is a text that we expose all students to and then there's a level below that that um there's more choice for the teacher and for the
043students. So there might be a bank of texts that student teachers can choose based on the class and interest of students. But when we decide that a book is something or a text is worthy of being exposed to all students, it goes through another process. So we gather data about how that book is perceived, how it works within a classroom, and then those that team of teachers makes a proposal to our curriculum assessment advisory council. And then if it's approved there, we ask the superintendent and then it comes to the board of education because only the board can name like an anchor text that we're going to make every kid be exposed to. So there's different levels of the text, but they start at a lesser level that's approved by CAP for supplemental so we
044can see how students respond to those books. It's kind of a data collection process for us. Okay. Thank you. Any more comments or questions? All right, then I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Motion by Raquel. Second. Second by Rob. Cindy, will you please lead us in a roll call vote? Yes. Thomas, yes. Arandu, yes. Geral, yes. Yes. Slider, yes. All right. Now, we'll move on to reports. 6.10 foyer requests. Tom, will you lead? Yep. So, board, the foyer requests have been presented to you. Um, we did have the one question which, uh, Miss Carol has asked and has been answered. Other than that, that's the report for this month. All right. Any other questions? We're good on that one. Moving on to 6.2, the treasurer request. Tony.
045Yeah. So this month I do have a comment on the treasurer's report. You'll notice in the expenditures portion that through the end of April we've spent a little more than 60% of our budget in terms of expenditures and a little bit more than 48% it's been collected in terms of revenues. So there's a difference. And the reason why I want to point that out tonight is because we're going to talk about the budget a little bit later. And we're going to talk a lot about in particular fund balance. And fund balance is important because that isn't an anomaly. That difference at this time of year. It's very customary for us to spend more than we've taken in at this point in the year. And so we rely upon what's in the bank or our fund
046balance to pay those bills. And it wasn't that long ago where we had to borrow the money to pay the bills and the payroll. And we very much don't want to go back to that place where we had to essentially do a payday loan to pay our bills before the tax before the the end of the the tax season started and people were paying property taxes. So just wanted to point that out. So is it a matter of the timing of the payments from the taxes or is there an issue here we need to discuss? It's a matter. Yeah, this is gone. This is the typical pattern. This is just the timing of when we receive the vast majority of our revenue which is property taxes and school districts who are in the same physical
047position as we are follow that that same cadence. But historically, we didn't have enough cash in the bank in the bank to be able to fund all those expenses. And it's only been in the last I want to say five years that we have been able to. So, and that went back probably 30 years prior where we weren't we were borrowing money for about 30 years for anywhere between 30 days and 90 days so that we could pay all of our bills before those taxes came in. So, we think maybe like June, July, we'll see it. Yeah, we the money will come flowing in before the end of May. Actually, I I don't remember with the first release date. It can vary from year to year depending on when taxes are received by the treasur,
048but it very much is we receive almost all those payments before July. Some trickle in afterward, but it's a cash flow problem. Imagine in your household if you only receive your paycheck twice a year can create some cash flow issues. More questions for Tony? Good. All right, then we'll move on to 6.3 committee updates. time. So, um as as customary will and any of the board members want to speak to their committees, feel free, but I know uh plaque and CAC did not meet this month. Uh that was due to the wrap-up of the year and and everyone's calendars and schedules, but uh we do have some of the other reports in there and I don't know if anybody wants to start out. Go ahead. Kristen, do you have anything to report? No, I do
049not. All right, Rob. Okay. So, uh for the stipen committee, that work was wrapped up um here a couple uh about a week ago or so, I guess. Um and interesting thing here, so um we had uh 14 proposals to review totaling 900 uh sorry 93,000 in requests and we had a budget of 10,000 to work with. So um this committee did an outstanding job of vetting all the proposals um baselining. They did the research. They went and talked to um affected parties and had to make some tough decisions but um did get down to pretty close to meeting the the budget. Maybe a little bit over but uh pretty negligible over. Um, so, um, so it was a great job and, um, we're getting ready for the next year. The dates are already set,
050so forward to that, uh, the next school year. And then I will say just on rack, um, so there's the explanation there. I won't go into all those. Um, there's a few different items talked about there in the summary. Uh, and Tony already mentioned it, but we're going to talk a little bit more about the fiscal year 26 budget. Um, and it it's in there. But, uh, I think the thing to keep in mind here is, um, one, it's a little ahead of schedule, and the reasoning for that is, um, lining up with resources with the start of the school year. So, that's that's a that's a good thing. And then also um the clarity and simplicity. Um there was a big effort Josh and Tony and their teams uh worked to try and make
051that budget or that the proposal um easier to read and um so hopefully you'll we'll see it and you'll agree with that. But uh so good work there by Tony, Josh, and the rest of the team. We don't Yeah, we didn't PL or yeah plaque didn't meet and then we have a policy meeting tentatively in July. July. Yeah. But I have nothing reported there. Uh I had equity on uh last week. So um they focused on the structure of next year um which includes what representation they want to have um in the committee. I think they're going to try to keep it to um like one rep from each school, but they also want to ensure that that representation covers various groups like you have your sped, e, you know, whatever other programs maybe that
052are necessary to ensure that there's um coverage through that. Um and then discuss how to get their information uh because uh through the internet there's not a ton of hits on like the equity page. So kind of using their SLT, which are their school leadership teams, um to kind of push out that information from equity to the schools versus trying to rely on individuals to visit the web page, the internet. So if there's important information to push out using the SLT, which was a great idea. Um, we heard from student services um committee um and their focus on uh portrait of graduate and um continuing education. I think they're really leaning into more of the um adult seal and just also trying to continue to bring student voice to the table. Um so they were
053updating us on that part of it and just seeing if there's like overlap with equity. But I think as a whole um I'm I'm sure we're going to switch over committees, but equity really has had some discussions on bringing student voices to the table and um maybe like some community outreach because we know we have data, right? We have various data, but we don't always have the stories that go behind the data to kind of understand why things are happening or maybe where we need to fill in the gaps. So, um during my time there, that was those were heavy discussions. Um they haven't really started work to decide what that's going to look like, but it was something as they wrapped up. It was something that's still there. And so I think they're going
054to try to meet. I don't know if Tom, one thing I was going to ask is um talking about bringing BESBA voice to the table. I'm just thinking of Kevin. Is that something that they were interested in? We ran out of time. So I'm going to be reaching out to them. Okay. Email. Okay. And that I mean that's great with that collaboration. Um and then I think they're possibly going to meet in June. I don't know if that's been discussed, but that way they can kind of further discussion of what next year is going to look like organized. All right, Tom, any others to add on that? Nailed it. Nailed it. Okay, thank you everybody. Sorry for my absence. I had to go do a work thing, which is one of those things you can
055be excused for. So, um, next is we are um I assume what what Sorry, I had a question with 6.3. We just went around the for the committees and the updates and then I was just gonna have asked a question before we move on. Go ahead. Um so for the uh the rack um in like the um the attachment it says um that they talked most a lot about JB and AGS. Um but they said they assessed ways to reduce electricity demand at four buildings. Just what were the two other buildings? My recollection is there. Uh, this is now you're testing my my recollection. Mark is gonna correct me if I'm wrong. We can just have Mark say it. Mark, you may as well start talking. Go ahead, Mark. Okay, I got I got it
056right. Did you really? I don't believe it. You wrecked. Right. That was all I had. Thanks. Thank you for jumping in there before I moved on too fast because we're moving into close session. So, it's kind of hard to recover from that. So, all right. So, I um the board is going to go into close session. We will have action items after the close session. You're welcome to stay. Some of you have to. If you like, if you decide to leave, we thank you for coming this evening. So, we are journeying to close session. So the time is 7:56 and I will entertain a motion to move into a closed session as allowed under the open meetings act for the purpose of exceptions 5 ILCS120C5 and C6 move. So moved by Raquel second. Second by
057Aaron Cindy. Please lead us in a roll call vote. Arando yes yes. Gonzalez Thomas. Yes. Gilbert. Yes. Meadows. Yes. Spider. Yes. Yes. You We shall be back. And we have returned to open session. Cindy, would you please lead us in a roll call vote? Present. Meadows. Present. here. Present. Yeah, I got I got Oh, you already got All right. So, item 8.1, adopt a resolution authorizing the sale of real property at 709 709 Leam Street by public bid. Josh, would you please walk us and anybody who cares to listen through that? All right. So, what you have here is a property that was purchased in 2008. And the original intent of the property was to build a house on it, uh, have kids do that in building trades, too, and then sell the house and
058have that experience. But, uh, that class no longer does that portion of the curriculum, and there's no plan to use the property. So, actually, the district tried to sell the property back in 2014 and was unsuccessful. So, we're looking to sell this property with your permission. Um, it causes Mark's team a lot of work to maintain it. Um, and it it has no yield for the district. So, what you have here is a process that you guys have some choice in. Uh, it has to be a public bid, but you guys can decide to set a minimum price on the property. Um, and if you do so, then we can accept a bid at that price. And if no bids come in, we can give it to a realtor to sell on our behalf. If
059you do not set a minimum bid, then we can either repost it again um or if there is a bid that we don't want, we can reject it, but we cannot give it to realtor if we do not set a price for the minimum cost. Questions? I think we're recommending and can object of setting a minimum cost of $50,000 and if it doesn't sell then we have the option of going to a real estate agent should we so choose. Anybody object to writing the resolution that way. Okay. No other questions. Um, I will entertain a motion to adopt the attached resolution authorizing the sale of real property located at 709 Leam Street by public bid at an amount not less than $50,000. So moved. So moved by Raquel. Second. Second by Danielle. Sydney, please lead
060us in a roll call vote. Meadows. Yes. Yes. Gonzalez Thomas. Yes. Yes. Slider. Yes. Yes. Arandu, yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Josh. Item 8.2, authorized contract for enrollment and facility planning services. Tony, we talked with the board uh last month about the possibility of conducting an enrollment study of our schools. It has been over 20 years at this point since we have made any modification to our elementary school boundaries and with the offing of several developments in town, we believe it is time to take a close look at that. doesn't necessarily mean that we need to make adjustments to our elementary school boundaries, but it is time to at least evaluate that because in the instance of two of these developments that would take place in Aurora, they would be within a mile and a
061half of Hooverwood School and unfortunately as it stands now though that particular area would is actually assigned to JB Nelson School. So when kids can walk to school, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put them on a bus and send them to another one down the road. So we've got some decisions that we need to make, but to make those decisions, we want to make sure that we have the right data in place. We want to understand what the dynamics are with our enrollments in a little more depth than I can do with my enrollment projections. And further, we want to make sure that we have a full understanding of our building capacities. particular how we use and program certain spaces in our schools right now and where we might have some
062opportunities to to move things around. So that's what the purpose of this particular contract would do. It would again look at our enrollment. It would look at uh housing in terms of how uh certain types of houses and um the v various number of bedrooms generate on on average a number of students. It would also look at how much space we have in each of our schools and how we program those spaces to meet the needs of students. So, uh right now let's take HC Storm, right? So, we have a capacity like right now in place, right, of what how many students there are like we can house. So, this company would just look at H Storm again and kind of say, "Okay, like there's a huge storage closet and we could use this for
063whatever." Um, and then maybe make this for like another classroom or something. Is that what that this is kind of doing? Yeah, that's an excellent question that I did not go into detail on. So, thank you for asking. There are two types of capacity. One, there is a building capacity that essentially, you know, the fire marshall would put on the wall and say, "How many people you could fit in a classroom?" Uh, and then there's the effective capacity from a programmatic standpoint is we're operating a kindergarten classroom, for example, and a kindergarten classroom has certain size space needs, but it also has certain functional needs, especially when it comes to toileting and the accessibility of water fountains and the like. And so this study would look at that functional programmatic capacity and say all right
064uh this is how many students that you can fit in a school which is a much smaller number than the effective building capacity but it depends on how you use that space and these are the options that you have. If you use it this way you can fit this many. If you use it that way you can fit this many. Does that make sense? Okay. But that's what they're going to be looking at the programmatic capacity and not necessarily the building capacity. Any other questions? No, I mean this is I've been involved in a few of these processes before and so like that that I've heard the term also functional capacity so that the building is functional. So like an example of the how programs you could do it is and you can imagine the
065challenge cafeteria is only a certain size can hold only certain number of kids. You have to have a certain number of lunch periods. So yes, you can have all the classrooms in the world, but you can only fit eat feed so many kids at a time. So then kids start eating at 9:00 am when they walk in the door and they're taking their last lunch at one so that you can maximize the classrooms because you can to a certain extent and within the allowable amounts of our our collective bargaining agreement, we have a certain capacity of classrooms, you know, and that have some flexibility to them in some cases. So, and then they're looking at also not just one school. They're kind of looking at all of them across the district because it's a bit
066of a push and pull game as I understand. Yeah, it is a it's it's a puzzle. You got to figure out where all the pieces fit. And so, what you're saying is their crystal ball is just a little bit better than yours on the uh projections. Yeah, they do this for a living. So, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I I don't do this for a living. We've pressed Tony in the past about what he thinks projections might be like, and he's like, "My crystal ball is not very good at that sort of thing." And it's very hard to guess based on a house how many people are going to come as a student but there are other people with better metrics I guess. So really really quick when they do this will they give us like is
067it just a year out or how many years out would this be? Like if they you know they we do this and they say okay well we're projecting 2027 to be this 2028 this 2029 this. It's a fiveyear projection. Yeah. Not bad time to do it considering we just effectively are instituting our strategic plan which has a similar kind of time frame. And keep in mind though with these developments how they go. You know, we talk about developments and you know there's a chance it might not necessarily pass muster with the city council. So or maybe it takes longer or maybe you know they don't build them all as quickly or you know there's a whole host of factors that come to bear a whole host of assumptions that you have to make. So, um,
068even with a forecast, a lot can change and that can go the other way, too. They can sell them faster than they expect. So, all right. Any other questions? Okay. I will entertain a motion to authorize a contract with RSP and Associates for enrollment and facility planning services in the total amount of $33,100. So, moved. Motion by Rob. Second. Second by Aaron. Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Yes. Yes. Meadows? Yes. Sligger? Yes. Yes. Gonzalez Thomas? Yes. Motion passes. All right. Item 8.3, software approval. Mr. Newkerk, would you like to walk us through? This is a a three-year contract that we're seeking for just over um $25,000, which is the threshold for the board and or a multi-year contract. So, this is taking two pieces of software that we currently have to
069help facilitate things in the district and moving them to one company that has better usability. So, we have a system that we use for um managing professional development within uh the district. So, We run an institute day or things that teachers earn uh credits for. So PD credits for which they need for their license renewal. So every four years or so I have to renew my license. I need about a 100 hours of continuing education. So like many professions we we need that. And this keeps a a transcript for me of my 100 hours and then I put that in the state system when I go through that renewal. So it's very convenient for staff. It's also meeting for um signing up for things, especially if there are multiple sessions. So, we currently have a
070piece of software. It's not great. Uh we get a lot of complaints about it. It's not easy to use. It's not easy to access. So, we're recommending an upgrade with Kickup. And then we also use a piece of software and have for for many years uh to run our teacher evaluation system. And um well, there's nothing wrong with it. It's not been updated in about 10 years. Um, and we don't have all of our staff in it. It's just our licensed teaching staff. And with the new BESBA contract and other things going on in the district, we'd like everyone to be in one system. So, we're recommending and this system doesn't um distinguish between licensed staff and and support staff or administrators. So, we're looking to add more people to that system and to increase
071its usability in web interface. So again, they kick up learning and kick up growth modules to help do something that we're already doing but a new company that we would use. What was the cost of the previous systems that were used? This is about in total $5,000 more I believe. So it's fairly comparable but a little bit more. I was at the plaque meeting when we talked about this and uh I've never had to sign up for professional development here in the district, but there was a lot of complaints and it's like you have to use your phone and then your laptop and then you have to make sure you do all this. So when they gave the demonstration, they're like, "Okay, what do we do?" She's like, "Okay, you just do like these two
072steps." And like, "Okay, now then now what else?" And they're like, "No, that's it." Like, "Really?" And they're like, "Yeah." Like so easy. Um, so so it was an enthusiastic It was It was like, "That's it?" and they're like, "Yeah, and if you don't sign up the night before and you can still sign up that morning still very easily." Whereas with this older system or the one we're currently, it's like it's a big process to get signed up that morning when you forgot to sign up. So, but they were very enthusiastic like that's it. So yeah, after institute days, we pay a lot of clean up with our current system and have to put people in manually. Any other questions? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the purchase of kickup learning and
073growth modules in the amount of 28,585 for a period of 3 years. So moved. So moved by Raquel. Second. Second by Katie Cindy, please lead us in a roll call vote. Carol, yes. Arandu, yes. Kilber, yes. Gonzalez Thomas, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, that concludes our action items for tonight. So for board discussions, uh item 9.1, DMG recommendations. Yes. Uh so board and as you know this is been the series of work we've been doing uh throughout the school year. Um this has been part of our collaboration with our uh BEA colleagues through the DCC, our district coordinating council committee. And um as the board for those that were on the board in January, if you recall, the district management group also provided a board workshop on governance and looking at our district's strategic
074plan that the board approved last June and how we ensure that we're executing our plan while also monitoring um at the different stages and levels of in within our organization. Uh tonight we have uh one of our consultants from district management group uh Simone Carpenter. she's here in person. So, I want to thank Simone for taking time to come out and be with us tonight. Uh Simone has been our principal consultant um in our DCC meetings and has been working with us on the structures and um goals and how we as a group, our district coordinating council ought to think about approaching this work as we transition to next year. and with all the curriculum work and everything else that's coming into the district, our social emotional learning, um provided us some training on what
075those protocols might look like. And um yeah, so tonight you're going to hear a presentation. This is for the board discussion. We will at uh be asking the board in June if the board is ready to take action on approving that structure and that monitoring pro process. Um, and Simone, I'll go ahead and take it. You can take it away. Perfect. Thank you. Um, good evening everyone. Can you all hear me? Okay. All right. Perfect. It's great to meet many of you, see many of you. Um, and I'm thrilled to be here this evening with all of you. My name is Simone Carpenter. I'm a director with District Management Group. Um, and in my work at DM Group, I've worked with about a hundred school districts in over 20 states, helping districts think through how
076do we align our strategy to achieve results for students, and do that in a way that thinks about what's best for students, what's best for our staff, and what's best for our budget. Um, and I've had just the pleasure of working with Tom, the leadership team, and the DCC over the last few months. um and really digging into BPS 101's strategic plan and thinking about how do we create a coherent path forward that creates a unified vision for where we're going? Um the strategic plan provides a unified vision for where we're going, but how do we get there and how do we measure success? Um, and you all I know many of you met John back in January um for the board retreat and I had the pleasure of working with Katie and Kristen this
077afternoon kind of catching them up on what they missed with the Chilean mining rescue uh case study and the work that you all did around school governance coherence. Um, and so we're excited to kind of bring this all together today to talk about what is a short set of measurable goals that you all as board members can start monitoring progress of success and failure of the strategic plan and the direction the district is going. So, I have some slides I'm going to share with you, but um, and I know this is a formal board meeting, but I'm a pretty informal person. I like to have this be conversational. If you have questions or comments on your mind, I'd rather you speak them up now. Ask them, provide the feedback so that come June, you feel
078fully informed and prepared to approve of the structure of implementation and the goals hopefully that you want to move forward with um for the strategic plan. All right. So um this evening we'll do some brief introductions um and then I will introduce the structure of strategic plan implementation here in Betavia and what that has looked like over the last few months and what that will look like over the coming few months. Um and then we will get into the meat of today which is um those measurable goals. I know John said to everyone back in January, a short set is better than a long set. And we truly believe that. So, we've helped um align on a short set of measurable goals um and put together what we believe are aggressive yet achievable goals for
079Betavia. Um and then we will end with just talking about how the DCC has started and and subcommittees have started um prioritizing strategies in the um strategic plan to say what do we want to focus on now um and where we'll go from here. So, for those of you who are newer to District Management Group or didn't meet John or uh are just getting introduced to us now, um over the last 20 years, we have partnered with public school districts um to work on our mission to achieve systemic improvement in public education by combining management techniques and educational best practices. And our logo on the right here really is all about the intersection of three things. So we think about systemic and lasting change as um the intersection of first and foremost what's best for
080students. Everything should be about what achieves student outcomes, but to do that in a systemic and lasting way. You also have to ask the question, what's best for our staff and what's best for our budget and how do we find things that are best for all three of those. Um we've worked with hundreds of school districts coast to coast, different shapes, sizes, and locations. um to bring about transformational um and sustainable improvement. And we've done that work in a few different areas. So we have our DM learning which is our professional development. We have um conferences and we have a journal we put out uh every year. We have our consulting uh part of the organization where I live working directly one-on-one with school districts. Um, our DM schedules, our cloud-based scheduling software and our
081breakthrough results, which is 10 week cycles of fast action to achieve results quickly. And you met John, you're meeting me now. Um and in addition to John and myself, we have a colleague uh Lucy who's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to really analyze and understand data and also bring together Betavia's data in uh the context of national kind of trends and and what we know about uh education. So um I always like to ground our conversation in what my objectives are, but I want to make sure they're aligned to your objectives. Um, three objectives for tonight's conversation. First, you all will leave tonight saying, I have a good understanding of what strategic plan implementation means and what is this process like? How do these pieces work together and what's my role
082as a board member in supporting that work? Um, second, you all as board members will have a chance to review some draft measurable goals and be able to provide feedback. what sits well with you, what doesn't sit well with you, and tell us where we need to to move so that you feel comfortable moving forward with these goals. Um, and then finally, you will understand what was prioritized so far and what why did we prioritize some strategies and where are we moving forward from here? We good with this so far? All right, great. Um so overviewing strategic plan implementation. So you probably saw this in January. Um and actually your strategic plan reflects this um framework really really well. This is our framework for strategic planning. Um it starts with a mission and a vision.
083That's the long-term aspirations for a school district. And then there's a theory of action which I know you spent a lot of time in January talking about what is a theory of action. It's the fundamental belief around what do we believe is going to lead to change and lead to us being successful in what we're promising to our community. Um, and then a short list of priorities. And I love that you have three priorities. That is a great short list. It's saying we're not doing everything. We're doing a focused set of things that we believe are most important and salient to our students and our community. Um and then you have the bottom part which has this green box around it which really is the crux of implementation. So you have priorities but how do
084you measure success in a way that we call it like a smart goal specific measurable aggressive yet achievable relevant and time bound. How do you have a smart goal tied to each of those priorities? And then you can drive your initiatives which are like the things you're focused on and your action steps. what's actually happening in the classroom. So, an example of a really strong initiative that I've been hearing a lot about is this ELA review, curricular review that's happening in Bavia um that Drew mentioned earlier tonight that there's been a review of ELA curricula materials. That's an initiative and the action steps are reviewing what's currently happening and thinking about creating those, you know, salts teams that are reviewing the actual work and creating new materials. Those are really good examples of initiatives and
085action steps. So you all, as I said, your strategic plan has a lot of these pieces. You have a really strong mission, vision, and set of values. And I put this here because as board members, it's important for you to ground your conversations around goals, around outcomes, around initiatives, around action steps, around what do we really believe and what are we really focused on in the long-term future. And that is that every student empowering every student to achieve their unique potential and fostering an environment of continuous improvement and student success. um and some really great values that I've looked at many strategic plans in my life and I think you have some really good uh unique values here in Battavia that represent the community well. You also have three key priorities. And something uh I
086just want to say I've seen something really strong tonight is almost every agenda item or maybe every single one has had a tie to a specific priority. And that's something um I said this earlier. I work with so many districts that spend dollars and time and resources building a plan and then it sits on a shelf and it's never reviewed again. And so one thing that you should keep coming back to is how is all of the work we're doing, work that's the same, work that's different, work that's new, work that's old, tied to our priorities. Something I just want to give you all a shout out for structuring your board meetings around your priorities, enhancing teaching and learning strategies, fostering inclusion and behavior and belonging, and then operational excellence and resource strategies. So when
087you have these priorities, how do you actually implement change? Um and we have an implementation structure we've used with many many districts um that we've seen be really successful and it has different levels of um involvement and support from different folks both internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. So you see here on the left of this slide um BPS's roles and implementation. So district leaders, they're the key decision makers. These are the folks that are saying this is the direction we're moving. This is the like final sign off on you know what are we moving forward with in each of these initiatives, strategies and action steps. But that's informed by DCC members who have organized themselves and you all sit on many committees have organized themselves in committees that are focused around these priority areas. So
088that includes the CAC, the plaque, the rack. I'm learning all of the acronyms. Um it's easy because they rhyme, but um the TCC has worked to um work to look at your strategic plan and say, "We have all these strategies. How are we prioritizing them? What are we measuring ourselves against? And how do we measure progress throughout the year?" And are working with those other committees, plaque, rack, sack, CAC, student services, equity, all of the different ones. um to build action plans and collect data and pro moni monitor progress. And we have you all the school board on the right here because you've heard John say this so many times. You'll hear me say this so many times. Your role is setting the conditions so that these teams can be successful. What is setting the
089conditions mean when it comes to strategic plan implementation? It means allocating resources towards priorities. It means holding the district accountable to results. And it means supporting communication with the broader community. Any questions about this piece here? You don't have to have questions, but and I know no questions doesn't mean there aren't questions. I started my career as a teacher and saw silent rooms without full uh knowledge. So I know that doesn't mean no questions. Um the DCC I've been working closely with over the last couple of weeks and or couple of months and their role is really critical in strategic plan implementation. And when I talk to Tom and the leadership team about who should be your working committee, this kind of big group in the middle that helps align on what strategies are we
090doing, figure out what uh what we should use for initiatives, provide feedback on what data we collect. They immediately said, "We have this group that's the DCC. They represent all of our other committees and they're an interdisciplinary group that really knows the district well." So that's why we've been working closely with them and that team has had the chance to see all of the materials from today, provide feedback. Actually, a lot of the goals were influenced by that group. Um, and they also are ones who are building action plans, collecting data, analyzing that data or reviewing that data and setting a direction for what needs to happen next. Um, and how this all fits together. So, on a monthly basis, the DCC is meeting to uh review action plans. So, and what I mean by
091action plans, I'll show later. I should have probably pulled that up earlier, but building out specific steps that say what are the things that we're going to do um or that our teams are going to do that's going to um be lead to change on our specific strategies within our strategic plan. Um, and then at the dcc it's reviewing each other's action plans and saying, "Hey, I come from the resource side of the world, but I have a lot of questions. What does this mean?" And having that open discussion around how where have we made progress and where has progress stagnated and how can we move forward? They also spend time reviewing data. Um, we spent time yesterday looking at um some early spring data and saying, "What does this really mean for us and
092how do we want to move forward? um and problem solving. The subcommittees also meet month monthly as you all know and sit on many of them and subcommittees should actually be building those action plans. So while the dcc is reviewing them, the subcommittee is building them and might be collecting some relevant data especially progress data like how many teachers participated in this PD um that we had or signed up for this new software. So that would give an indication of whether or not it's successful. So those two teams meet very regularly and their work is really progressing is really creating progress and then staff and the board are updated on a regular but less frequent basis with much more information. So the information at a board meeting is includes a summary of what did we
093prioritize this year and why what did we do and what have we seen from that and what's the data and a similar update is provided to staff on a semester basis. Tom I was going to kick it over to you at this point um in case there's any other context related to this. Sure. So, um, board, I know you're aware that, you know, we had our presentations that were done in November and December by both the buildings and then the district team respectively. Um, and actually based on the feedback after that first round of presentations, that's why we've set up uh set aside special meetings for next week and then in June right after our regular board meeting. And those are the opportunities when you take a look at our uh updates, those are the
094those monitoring updates that'll be provided so that when at the building level, our principles and their SLT teams are talking about the goals they had set out and how they went about trying to accomplish those and how did they do and report back. Um, you know, that's one component. The second component then is at a district level supporting the uh specific board goals that will be discussed later. you know, how how have we done as an entire district and that'll be our presentation? Um, and then if you take a look on that slide, you know, you so dcc meetings typically occur once a month and it's on the Monday before the Tuesday regular board meeting. Um, the staff updates are, you know, that conversation I just had right with you right now where we're we're
095presenting to you twice a year. And then um the subcommittee meetings, those are the committees you're currently sitting on, you know, and that's where the work kind of comes down and flows through all of our committee structures that are outlined in our collective bargaining agreement. Just making sure I provide clarity for that. So when we talk about collaboration, that is one of the essential value core values that is in our strategic plan. that, you know, was something that was um heavily brought up during the strategic planning process and, you know, we heard that being alluded to today by uh Drew in his um uh BEA update. So, that collaborative process, heavy ELA and reading material work going on, uh a lot of focus about how we're going to implement that successfully next year. And that's
096just one of those key examples of how there will be some good opportunity for the board to monitor that progress and data next year. All right. Uh so now let's get into the meat of today which is the measurable goals. We talked about strategic plan implementation structures and systems and your role in it. Um and now talking about measurable goals. in your strategic plan aligned with each of the three strategies is what I'd call a fairly long list of metrics that um could be used to track progress on these goals. And um the reason that I'm a big advocate for a short list rather than a long list of metrics is when you have 10 things you're looking at to tell us are we making progress on this goal and you see in those 10
097things we made progress in three, we regressed in three and we stayed the same in three. The seven of you might have very different ideas of whether or not we were successful. But if we have a short list, one or two that we say these are the things that we believe by improving these everything else will raise with it and there is some very uh there's evidence out there around what those should be or could be. Then we can say if we're measuring progress in these areas and we're breaking that out by subgroup, by population, by the things that are important to us and valuable to us, we can actually get a really good sense of are we moving the needle for all students in the things that we uh really care about. So this
098long list of metrics that does not mean not all of those should be looked at and should be reviewed on a regular basis. They should they absolutely should be collected, reviewed and analyzed because if there are hot spots of things that are coming up as big challenges or big successes, those should be understood. But what does evidence tell us are the things that we should prioritize that by growing those everything else comes along with it. for enhancing teaching and learning strategies, the percent of students meeting their growth targets is one of the best measures that brings along everything else because if everyone is growing and growth targets in MAP to be really clear are um set based on where a student is starting. So a student who's starting further behind their growth target is more
099because they have to cover more content to get closer to grade level. a student who's starting at the 99th percentile, their growth target is going to be uh a shorter amount because there is a ceiling for achievement. But if we can get more students meeting their growth targets, then achievement's going to be raised. Um the percent of our students who are on track by the time they get to high school will be raised. Um we'll have, you know, more opportunities for students kind of all these other things will come along with it. Now, there's a challenge with using growth targets in MAP. And that challenge is that MAP is only third through 8th grade. So, that only gives us our finger on the pulse for how we're doing in elementary and middle schools. So, we
100had to add um a high school metric and um we aligned on the ACT because that is an indicator of post-secary readiness which is really aligned to your mission and your vision and strategy. Now I'm happy to get feed as we show you the goals happy to get feedback on if these are the metrics that matter most to you all but um this is what you know kind of evidence tells us by if we move the needle on these things other the other prioritized metrics will come along with it on foster inclusion and belonging. There's a lot of evidence out there that if we can increase a student's sense of belonging in school that things like discipline referrals um will drop. Uh there's a connection between sense of belonging and participation in extracurriculars. There's a
101connection between sense of belonging and attendance rates. So there's a lot of evidence out there that sense of belonging is a really good metric if you're going to look at one thing when it comes to fostering inclusion and belonging. looking at a sense of belonging is a really good way of understanding or removing the needle for our students. And you have uh with Panorama, you have a great tool that uh works with many districts to measure sense of belonging and is normed nationally and uh in the state. So um as we talked about what could be a good power metric for sense of belong or for foster inclusion and belonging, sense of belonging was the number one thing that really came up um as we looked at your data and as we heard from uh
102district leaders. And then for the last one for operational excellence and resource strategies, this one there was many different things we could use um because it's not as much like if we have this thing then you know facilities is going to increase. But when we really thought about what's important when it comes to operational excellence and resource strategies and a metric that's normed um and indicates kind of financial health of the organization, um we thought about the ISBY financial profile score which is a state norm score that tells how kind of financially healthy the district is. Um and so it's a state norm score. It's provided by ISBY. Um, but it just gives a pulse check on things like fund balance to revenue ratio, expense to revenue ratio, things like that that give a sense
103of is this district in a good financial uh position. Anything you'd add there, Tony? I know less about it than you. Good job. Great. If I could just real quick. So then for the board that comes back to the comment that was made a few slides ago at the board governing level one of the conditions for success that you bestow on the district for teachers support staff administration is the budget right that's a part of what's incorporated into to this healthiness of the district score and you know when you're able to approve things and ask where is this strategically going to support our plan that is, you know, like you're giving the district the resources to go out and get that work done. And that's why this is a really important um metric under this
104particular area to monitor because without that fiscal uh responsibility and resource uh asset for the district, it becomes much more challenging for us then to say, you know, what else can we try or what else can we do as we plan out in our committees the work for the district. I have a question. Yeah, please. For the extracurricular participation rates, what are we at right now? Do you know? I don't have that information. And then the second thing is is you're looking at that. Is that every single extracurricular activity that we have, whether that be like a a book club or is it only like IHSA, ES, you know, the elementary No, all all activities all activities all activities and outputs is what we track. And we would consider that metric there really an input
105versus sense of belonging as an output. So if we think about and like when I say input and output, what do I mean? When I say input, it's like what are the things that we're doing? You know, we're getting more students to sign up for extracurriculars. But by why why are we doing that? because we want them to feel more connected at school. We want them to have be excited to come to school. We want them to feel connected with adults in their building. Like those are all kind of the outputs from participation in extracurriculars. And so that's why um bolded here is that SEAL survey is that sense of belonging because you know if we're measuring things like extracurricular participation rates what we're saying is by doing those things we hope that sense of
106belonging or we believe not we hope we believe that sense of belonging will improve for our students and and there's there's studies and evidence that says that some of those things that feed up to that yes that if you are able to It's almost like twofold. I'll I'll just go two ways and help me make sure I understand it right is that so on that like the extracurricular participation rates if those go up then tends to tell the SCL surveys that those will go up and that will lead to higher attendance higher and that leads to higher attendance which is the other side of that because now they feel comfortable because they're inclusive on the extracurriculars they feel they are reporting scores that feel that they're comfortable which happens to show that now that those
107two are being met the attendance goes up. Yes. Okay. And so sense of belong like for this middle one sense of belonging there's just a lot of evidence that by measuring that that's the that's like kind of the crux piece because if we measure you know and I'm not saying you shouldn't measure all these other things but if we measure extracurricular participation like that is an input to increasing sense of belonging by increasing sense of belonging discipline referrals drop attendance rates go up all of these other pieces um kind of come along with it. So by measuring sense of belonging, it's like we call it like a power metric. It's like one of those things that if you look at that and you see the trend moving in the right direction, you're very likely based
108on the research and evidence out there to see all of the other things kind of move up with them. And you're proposing all these others are still studied at like the are interpreted at kind of like the committee or subcommittee dcc level. They're watching those. So if there's an outlier that looks like, oh no, bullying's going up, we need to figure out why before our SCCL rates are hit. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, that is a great um a great summary of exactly what uh I was intending to say. So subcommittees and the dcc should be looking at more than just the bolded items. you know, they might look at um attendance rates, discipline rates, extracurricular participation, and if what they're seeing is like, oh, there's a big drop here before we get to the end of
109the year. Can we course correct to make sure that, you know, those big things that we know are going to move the needle for our students in the long term are going to be met with what's bolded here. Is this I'm getting a little confused between the language shifting of like goals and metrics. Yeah. Are you is this what's re you're is this the recommendation for the board to focus on the growth the LCL survey scores and the resource allocation is that what you are recommending that we are measuring yes so are we not looking because we haven't had like a really comprehensive data discussion as a board yet um where we can kind of talk about what we feel is important so are we not going to have board level discussions on the other
110parts of the metrics. Is that what you're recommending or how does Great question. So my recommendation is the bolded things are the things that you're holding the highest level of accountability on. So when you as board members are saying are we moving the needle on our strategic plan, the bolded things are from our recommendation are the things that are going to move the needle most significantly in the priority areas that you all have identified. There is should still be a discussion around some of the other pieces. Um so it's not to say that the board presentation on data will only show you know sense of belonging. how did we do but can say hey here's some of the other metrics that moved along with it or how are we doing but what you should be
111holding Tom the leadership team accountable to um is a short list of metrics and the bolded ones are my recommendations or our recommendations on what you hold accountability towards so like I'm sorry uh for the foster foster inclusion belonging part and it's the survey scores I think in some like community discussions that I've personally had there were I think so is that panorama is that okay panorama sense of belonging yep there's conf a little like u concern around the vocabulary that can be used like if we're using that as like a really large marker alone kids are answering do you feel safe and it's like yeah I got here I'm okay and I I go back to that there's not there's not always a really great way that kids are actually able to attach themselves
112to these specific like metrics that really tell a kid like um what's bullying because to every kid bullying is different. Do I belong? You know, it means a lot of different things. So, I I personally am just a little like I guess a little Larry on the survey scores. I mean, we've made some great progress in including other grades to it, but I just get a little concerned that we may miss some big things. But if you're what you're saying though is that we're not just using survey scores. We're still going to be looking at some of these other pieces here that would maybe catch some of that little those gaps and other issues. Yeah. My recommendation is like as board members, you should be informed on kind of how are we doing overall and
113that might be on a lot of these different metrics, but when you're saying are we moving the needle in terms of fostering inclusion and belonging, we need to align as a board on what that means in one or two metrics. I would say like my recommendation is one metric because as I said when you have 10 metrics three move this way, three move this way, four stay middle, the seven of you may have different outcome, different ideas on whether or not that's successful. And then that means that the following year it's really hard to then move in one direction based on did we miss the mark, did we make the mark? And so then when we have those outcomes and we have, you know, maybe a lack of alignment or coherence on the direction we're
114moving, then we start moving in many different directions and we don't see progress in the big ways that we want to. So my my recommendation is and and I think this the process that I'm recommending and presenting to you is that no, you don't only look at one thing, but you choose one thing that's at, you know, that you have a smart goal attached to you that you're saying this is what I'm holding accountability to the district on. So we could look at those survey scores and if they go down take a deeper look at some of the things listed underneath it to see okay so which of these things might be responsible for absolutely absolutely that might be a part of the accountability right so like if scores dropped okay well why why oh
115oh well bullying is up or this is what happened and this is what happened and then we can start to understand the why because I in my perspective and this is for discussion then we would when they come and say this is our propos those path forward path forward to resolve those issues. they would probably relate to these sub and that they don't mean they're less than just their kind of subset yes kind of goals to be able to say okay if our issue is you know extracurricular participation rates we're going to on advertising we're going to try to get kids out there we're going to do whatever we do and and see if that starts to push the number up right okay yes I was going to ask and you said it a couple
116times but I want to make Sure. Um, but while you said that these are kind of your recommendations, this is your recommendations based on the support of the DCC and any of the other subcommittees that have participated in this process. Yes. DCC district leaders subcommittees. Yes. Yep. And actually, as I'm going to show you, so I'm sure there are other questions, but I think it might be clarified by showing you the actual smart goals that we've started drafting. Um and these smart goals, you know, we took a first draft based on historical trends in data and kind of national and state norms. But then we brought those to we first brought them to district leaders like kind of worked with district leaders and said like, hey, let's adjust based on your kind of context of
117the district. And we brought to the DCC and we got really really good feedback from the DCC on why are these metrics good? What might be a challenge about using this metric? you know, why might this goal be really aggressive? Why might this goal be really achievable? And actually made some real adjustments that you're going to see in just a minute. Um, so yes, these goals have been reviewed and discussed um at that level, district leader level, and um at subcommittees. Before I jump in, just like four, it's not caveats, that's not the right word, but just things I want to note about data as we look at it or about kind of uh goals as we look at it. And the last one is the most important one, which is that as you are
118as a board are looking at data and you're looking at it um on a semester by semester basis that yes, you're tracking progress towards specific targets, but more importantly is if we take our glasses off and all we can see is the fuzzy lines, is the line moving in the direction that we believe it should be moving? And so, you know, a one point like, hey, our target was 74 and we hit 72 this year. We shouldn't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, maybe there should be some tweaks so that we can hit 76 next year, but are we moving in the right direction or hey, we've regressed this year? Like, let's really like when we take our glasses off, the trend is moving the wrong way. We need to make significant
119and substantial changes. The other three things to note are just kind of uh like data science item. So the first is that when you implement something new often we see a check mark in data. So a check mark meaning hey we have a little dip because everyone's everyone's struggling in learning in the classroom. We're struggling in learning the material we're teaching. We're you know it's awkward. We're trying something new. So we might see a little dip and then we see a check. We see it go from above where we first were. And we know based on all the conversations that I'm sure you all have had that new curricula is being adopted and uh new materials are being adopted. And so we might see in ELA uh in elementary and middle schools there might be
120that little bit of a check mark. Um and then the second and third is stuff that's out of our control. um but is that um national and state organizations change tests and it's the most frustrating thing as someone who looks at trends over time to have spent a lot of time looking at a trend and have it be completely changed um but MAP is overhauling their assessment. So as NWA comes out and says hey this is actually the new norm then maybe you want to revisit the targets that are set and say is this aligned to the new norm and ACT is brand new this year as an accountability metric. So what you see in historical data is the SAT the ACT and SAT are not the same as we all know. So when the
121ACT releases their state data, we'll revisit and say like is this kind of normed to what we expected to see? Do you have a question? Yeah, I have a question. So I kind of understand in theory what you're talking about is you focus on like a top line like if this is healthy then we're generally going in the right direction. My question is you know so let's say like uh resource allocation ISB financial pro profile score is trending in the right direction but we see some of these other metrics facility condition index stakeholder satisfaction they are not going in the wrong direction I'm trying to understand as a board what's the proper level of engagement for us to discuss those uh subcategories yes that's a really good question Um, and that example is a really
122good example because is the financial profile isn't necessarily taught like sense of belonging. If you're seeing sense of belonging going up but attendance going down, then there's a question around like why are these two in in disagreement with each other? But in your the example you just gave, um, that's a really different story. So, um, as a board member and as folks who are looking at kind of all of these different data pieces, yes, you're saying at the highest level, we want to make sure we're financially healthy because that is the thing that indicates that we're going to be able to do all these other things in our strategic plan, but if we're financially healthy at the expense of our facilities being, you know, kind of in uh in shape to warm, clean, dry, I
123think is the language you all use. Warm, safe, dry. Warm, safe, dry. clean safe drive. We'll take clean at the expense of warm safe drive. And yes, like as a board, it is your responsibility to say like, hey, should we be shifting our focus and our resources in this area to ensure that we're, you know, warm, safe, dry, all of these other pieces. And so that's why the data review that happens in June isn't just going to show like all right we're on finances here's our financial resour financial resource but it should say here's our ISBY score and just so you know here's how all the other data points um kind of laid out and and where we're seeing things maybe we need more board attention or focus on and you all as board members
124should be asking the questions of like how do we you know allocate resources like in a way that supports all of these other goals. How do we allocate resources? How do we set conditions for success? Like why is are we doing financially healthy but our school conditions are uh not up to what we want them to be. Um so asking those questions and helping think through how do we need to shift our focus and our resources. So in that especially in that last one um I think is important to not just look at that one. Yes, that's the one we're saying is overall health of our organization but for those other pieces are we doing that at the expense of our other priorities. Am I answering your question? Does that make sense? Well, yeah, but
125I'm trying to figure I'm trying to like kind of play this out in my head. Yeah. June or December, we get a presentation and uh you know, let's say like the SEAL survey scores are going in the right direction, but there's two or three of those metrics that are, you know, in the wrong. I mean, it's possible, right? I kind of understand what you're saying, like we don't want to get bogged down on like micromanaging every single one of these metrics because then you're just sort of like we're churning and we're you don't we can't get anything done because we're trying to put a hundred fires out at once, I guess. I'm not sure if I'm even that's a very good analogy, but um yeah, I'm just trying to figure out like when that presentation
126happens like yeah, this is good. So, I guess if it's good, are we supposed to be like okay, I guess here we go. Or well, three of these were kind of not we're still bad. What's like would then like Tom, would your team say we're aware of this and we're happy with the top line. We are making progress, but we know that these areas need we're taking action. You know what I'm saying? Not sure. I think that's No, no. Uh I think I I think I'm I'm getting a sense down and like going through every single one of these and say, why don't we fix this? Sure. Put more time on this. So, I think there's a I like I promise you I'm processing like a few thoughts in my head right now. Just like
127one, I think that is our job to really analyze that and tackle that. And I mentioned earlier, you know, one of the things we spent time with Simone on is how to do data protocols, you know, where when we look at something something that's going really well or something that may not be going so well, the next question we have to start asking ourselves after we look at that data is what's the root cause for that? That's part of that protocol is like what's the why behind this? And then we as a committee start working on that. And if it's not dcc that needs to be looking at that, it might be a specific group, right? So, if you're talking about sensible, it might go to the student services committee. Um, it if they were
128talking about uh your initial example was the financial score, profile score, it might need to go to RACK. Rack might need to have a hard conversation about why some of our buildings have become uh at a point of disrepair, right? Like we we got to start talking about that, but then it comes back to DCC. So, like each layer is understanding what data and work it's got to own, right? I mean, that's part of how the whole structure of our CBA is outlined with our committee and our collaboration. So, with you, Erin, you had made the comment. So, how would we tackle those fires? I don't I don't I'm not sure as a board, you're the ones that are supposed to be tackling the fire. That's kind I'm getting at. Yeah. Right. Kind of like
129if we go back to that case study we did in January, the board shouldn't be actually in the mind with the engineers trying to figure this out, right? like the Senate, all the politicians, they had a role in that case study and theirs was to ensure that the resources were being given to the engineers to figure out the problem and they had the the tools, the food, the resources and that they weren't also being attacked by the media at that time that wanted, you know, to be on site, right? Media was was asking for comments and video and talking to families and the politicians handled that part of it, right? So, I think we all have a role. Um, and as Simone's kind of outlining, that's been the process that we're trying to make sure
130we outline so that when we have that kind of data and those kind of discoveries, we have a process that we will be able to follow that really gets to the root cause. And then the great part about it is we don't get to like sit there with it and just spin our tires in the mud. The next question is now what we must come up with some steps as to how we move forward. All right. Um I'll just add um I think you outlined it really well. um at the data review meeting like Tom and team should be sharing hey you know bottom line sense of belonging here's the direction we moved as we looked at all of this other data here's the things that also stood out to us and we are you
131know moving forward in these areas because there were red spots but for you board the you know the bottom line is we're moving in the right direction but also we know that all these other things are really important and here's what we've identified as things that are, you know, supporting the idea that things are going well and things that are not moving in the direction we want. And we're like in June, in December, you won't just be seeing, you know, three charts, one for each one. You'll be seeing here's the bottom like lack of a better term, bottom line, here's the power metric, but also we looked at these other pieces. we dug into this data as a dcc, as a subcommittee, and here's what we've identified as our, you know, biggest priorities moving forward
132for you all to um to react to, provide feedback on all of those pieces. But yes, as Tom said, you know, as board members, you don't say we dig here. You say like you need to get those minors out. How do I give you the resources and the time and the ability to focus on getting those minors out? If our goals are aggressive but achievable, is that what you Yes, that's what I'm saying. Then I would think that those other things would have to be tackled as part of being an aggressive goal. Yes. Yeah. So let's jump into the aggressive yet achievable. And so before you like look at numbers and all of the charts here, I want to get really clear on what this is. So we looked at historical. So this is map
133growth scores. So what is a map growth score? If I Simone and then Steve and Brad and Tony, if the four of us took the MAP in the fall, we all were at different percentiles. Then MAP says based on where you need to be and how students at your starting percentile are, you each have your own unique growth target. And so as a district, we can see how many of the four of us reached our growth targets. And if all of your students are meeting your growth targets, then achievement is raised. All of these other pieces go up. If only one of us is reaching our growth target, then we're probably not going to see a significant improvement in things like achievement or like in the percent of students meeting grade level standards. So, it's
134a really personalized um score. Um, and that's one of the real benefits to a MAP growth score. And we looked at historical data and historically Betavia has actually been higher than the map like N what NWA says the percent of students who should be meeting their growth targets. Betavia has been consistently higher and has been growing and and so we took those trends and that information and what you see in the non-gay uh rows is what's our aggressive target for what we believe can be successful here in Bavia. So increasing the percent of students who meet their growth targets in MAP. We're currently like last spring we had 72% of our students meeting growth targets. just to note that's incredible. Um and grow goal is by um 2029 80% of students are meeting their growth
135targets because they're individualized. All students should be able to meet their growth targets. But MAP actually says the expectation is 50% of students meet their growth targets. So when the organization that puts out the assessment says 50% of students then saying 80% feels like are we setting ourselves up with a goal that's really aggressive and not aligned with the actual assessment. So we have here a goal 80% that is the goal and what we call a guardrail which is saying the guardrail is saying we want to stay above what map tells us is kind of the national norm 50% of students meeting their growth target. What this means is you should look for that upward trajectory. You should be aiming for that 80%. But you should start sounding the alarms when you're getting, you know,
136around that 50%. Because that's what MAP puts out as expectations. And in so in math that's 80% and in reading based on historical trends that's getting to 64% in five years. So these targets were discussed with the dcc. Yes. And all partners said these are worthy and achievable goals. And the dcc was actually the ones who pointed out that hey map says 50%. So, how do we make sure that we're not, you know, we're not setting our sights so aggressive that as the assessment might change or as as things might change in in the environment, we're setting ourselves up to not see success. So, that's why those guard rails we actually put in place. And we do this in a lot of districts where we have a really aggressive goal, but we want to say,
137what's the point in which we raise the red flag or raise the alarm bell as, hey, we're really not meeting success here. And that's like kind of where that when those two diverge from each other, you want to be yellow zone is in between, green zones at the top, red zones at the bottom. Also, bit of the challenges is you're now starting at 72, right? Yeah, that's true. You know, you're not starting hopefully we can maintain. Yeah, that's not too ambitious really. But uh I know movement is difficult. It's hard to move the needle. Yes. And looking at achievement scores, there is a cap on for achievement. Like there is a cap on how much you can not a cap on how much you can grow, but um it's really hard in achievement to go
138from 95 to 100% of students meeting grade level. But growing in the percent of students meeting their growth targets, still really hard. I'm not uh arguing that that's not really challenging, but because it's an individualized score, you can um think about it in terms of like a student at the 99th percentile, their growth target looks different than a student at the 45th or than a student at the fifth percentile. Because in a lot of ways, it's in theory to say you need to focus more of your resources on the kids that need to get the farthest. in a lot of way is that they have the most need growth growth that they need to hit like they need to grow the most in order to meet their growth target and Brad anything you would add
139here I know n the next one is ACT scores so we all know the caveat with ACT so historical data here is SAT um but ACT is Illinois's new measure for um college readiness standards and um based on SAT scores. There's been positive growth in Betavia. Um but of course these annual targets are drafted based on SAT scores and Illinois has not yet released ACT scores for 2025. So what I would really focus here on is not the numbers but is actually just we want to increase the percent of students who are meeting college readiness standards on the ACT and ELA and ACT and math. The actual numbers will probably look different if you ask two months from now once we understand how baseline ACT performance went in Betavia and state norms in terms of
140performance on the ACT. Um, and one of the really important things to keep in mind, we talked about this earlier in the semester, the state of Illinois Board of Education is working very diligently right now to overhaul all of their accountability systems and metrics at, if you recall, our state holds our districts and students at a higher level of what they rate as proficiency in academic performance, higher than any of the states around us. They're working on re-calibrating it so that we're compared fairly to every other state in our region, right? If not the country. So, when we talk about calibration here, that is also kind of that factor. um when like the the school and and district report cards get released in the fall. Um this has been part of the ongoing work that
141the state superintendent has been sharing publicly that we're you know all going to be part of. When I say all of us, I mean all the school district, all 850 school districts in the state of Illinois. So I have a question about these targets. So, I know like there's like the state average or norm or whatever we're using, but like are we also referencing it against other large unit districts that have similar demographics to us? Like are we like comparing ourselves to other peers? Like maybe not the Fox Valley isn't always the best example, but like like sometimes I think maybe comparing us to the rest of the state is not fair because we have a lot more resources and a lot we're like maybe we shoot higher than that. I don't know if that's
142the right way to put it, but you understand what I'm saying, Tom. I do. So, what would be an important factor for a district to be compared to us in your opinion? I didn't know you're going to ask me that question. I know. I mean, but there's like the resources, demographics, but is fund balance more important to you? Is the EAV of that school district more important to you? Are the FTE levels of that district more important? Like, I think this is a conversation. When you ask that question, my response is how what metric does the board of education want me to use then if we're going to look at comparator school districts. I'm not trying to trap you in this. I'm just asking to to elicit more reflection and thought on that question for
143everybody. Um because no doubt like our our accountability system, if you look at the state's report card system, actually has the tool feature for you to be able to compare school districts if you check off on certain boxes. So you can line up how we compare to other school districts. You get to pick. Right. So your question is fair. I'm just saying your question is a fair question. But my my point is which are what are the variables the metrics or the data that's being reported on specific districts that the board would care about to say this is who we want to be compared to. So that might that might be a that statement I just made might not be I guess the genesis I'm thinking is um I think our potential is vast and
144I want to make sure we're setting challenging goals. Yes. That I know we want to achieve them but I'd almost rather set a goal that's slightly higher. Mhm. You know, if you want to run a 4-minute mile, you know, maybe you only maybe you're at 4:30, maybe you get to 405, but because you were pushing to get to four, you achieved further than you could. Is that maybe that might be a better um you know, there's been a Yes. Yeah. I I I think I hear what you're saying. Um you know, there's been general support from the board. For example, one of the things that we do really really well is our uh dual credit programming. I've said this to you before and I've said this publicly in any space I I I talk about
145this. I would put this district up against any district including the Northshore. The level of access that we give our students to get early jump starts on college tuition, college credits, excuse me, to save on tuition. If you think about it from even an equity lens, this is an opportunity through a public educational school system to give kids a chance to go to college if that's what their desire is. But our programming goes beyond that. We also offer kids if college is not their future, but they want to start a career pathway, we can do it. They can do it here. And so to me, I value that. If I'm being honest with you, that that's one of the things I really I I want us to protect and grow that particular aspect of our
146teaching and learning pathways uh for our students because that is the future that we're heading heading in right now, right? Like you know, some of the articles I might be sharing with all of you talks about the vast expansion that's needed right now to prepare our students for the workforce, right? Um, right now Springfield is considering a bill to allow two-year post-secondary institutions to award bachelor's degrees, right? And it's being met with some resistance right now, right? There's some um bargaining that's happen that's happening right now over that bill, but there's a reason for it because our career pathways are the the industries are telling us we are short of people qualified people with the training and certifications to do some of these things that we desperately need right now. Um, so if I were
147to use that metric, I would definitely want a dashboard to to to show, well, how do we even do that better, you know, and and you as a board um approved uh some extra counseling FTE for our middle school because that's a part of where our next steps in our programming have to go. Um, I'm not using the same example that Simone's been referring to, and I apologize for that. I'm just trying to answer actually your question right now to help give us an example. No, and I'm not questioning the validity of the numbers. I guess No, no, no. I didn't say you were, but scrubbed it though to make sure that because I mean if I just look at this, I mean go to 48 to 59 in 5 years is pretty ambitious. Yeah.
148Me very ambitious actually. So I'm not I guess I'm not doubting the numbers. I'm just saying to be really try to Well, and it goes back to the steering committee conversation that you and Rob were a part of a year and a half ago when our steering committee and the representatives in that group talked about their concerns that the goals might be so aggressive that there was frustration around using the number of 100%. Right. And I thought both of you articulated a really nice strong message that we have a role. We need to make sure that the district is accountable to growth for our students, but this isn't a gotcha. This is about showing progress. And I think Simone's really articulated that well that as long as let me drift from your visual like we
149may see this but if that general bandwidth is heading in the right direction that's the progress monitoring that I think Simone was trying to articulate the board ought to look at because uh Kristen I think you mentioned it like so if there is certain data though that we have to flag even though we may be making progress but could we be making more progress if we fix this particular subdata that a committee has detected right? Uh through our monitoring protocols and we fix that or at least try and and bring solutions to elevate what's happening in that under that particular data set that might actually then impact the band to go up a little bit further. How does focusing on with going with looking at the data and the um with the targets that I'm
150just trying to go through like the metrics and you know we're moving up let's say but how are we ensuring that it's not just moving in upwards fashion for like our top 80% of students because we could be moving upwards where we're still having these certain individuals or certain subgroups or Uhhuh. So, how does that take this into cons that into consideration? Yes, really good question and I'm really glad you asked it because that is a really critical piece of um any sort of data presentation and and when the dcc and subcommittees dig into really specific like looking at all of this data, they should be breaking it down in every way that they can and um saying, "Okay, you know, overall map growth, we're we're improving thing, but our students with disabilities are stagnant
151over the last few years. So, yes, as a district, we're moving the needle, but there are students who are not moving the needle at all. And it's that those groups should be digging into the data at really specific like subgroup as as detailed as they can get to really set the direction of how do we move the needle for each and every student um and not just for all students as a whole, right? Um so that work like of breaking that data down digging into it and setting direction based on it is the work of subcommittees but as a board you won't just again just be seeing like bottom line how is MAP going but how does this break down by our different groups and what has our committees identified as the most important things
152for us to focus on based on the data are seeing here. So, is that like if we're trying to meet that, you know, overall foster inclusion and belonging and subcommittees dcc Tom's able to and they're able to bring to the board, hey, like we're we're going upwards, but we need to allocate more resources for for this specific group or we need to do, you know, what we're realizing is actually not based on one metric, but if we look overall, there's a couple of groups, one or one or two groups that we're not seeing progress on teaching and learning. we're not seeing progress on inclusion. We need to think differently about how we support that group. And you as a board should be saying, how can we allocate resources, set the conditions, and communicate effectively so
153that the district understands why we're focusing on one group of students rather than, you know, every group of students. And yes, it's a really good question. I'm glad glad you asked it. Um so jumping to fostering inclusion and belonging. So we know panorama is new this year and we know that in the first year of implementation there's a lot of challenges with like it's the first time students are seeing these questions it's the first time staff are seeing these questions you know um so we took a baseline this year um and on the spring data which you'll see more in June um 70% of elementary students reported a sense of belonging um in their schools and 66% of secondary students reported a sense of belonging ing. Now, Panorama puts out a lot of research. Um,
154they because they work with so many school districts, they collect data from so many school districts, they put out research on both why is sense of belonging really important. So, y'all can look at that and see what, you know, why is this metric an important one to look at, but also what is an aggressive yet achievable annual target for movement. And what they say is for a district of your size, one percentage point a year is an aggressive yet achievable target. that yes, you might have a year where you grow three percentage points and then the next year you grow one percentage point or no percentage points, but that based on what they see working with districts and the research they've conducted for a district of your size and a student like a population of
155your size, one percentage point a year is what they consider uh an appropriate target for um growth. So, uh, as you see here, we've, uh, gone based off of, we've set targets based on what research tells us is an appropriate target each year. So, that's one percentage point getting us to, you know, I would say generally about 75% threequarters of students at the elementary level and 70% of students at the secondary level. And if we norm that nationally, you know, based on Panorama's data, that's in like 70 75% is in like the 90th percentile nationally and 70% for high schools is in like the 80 90th percentile nationally. So if we're norming this to like, you know, is 70% aggressive yet achievable because that might feel like, hey, that's only 4% higher than where we
156are now. That's still being at almost the 90th percentile nationally. in terms of student sense of belonging um score. So wanted to share that as well. Does this one have a guardrail like the other one? No, it does not. Is there a reason? Um mostly because this is really normed. The reason that for the guardrail in the map one is because the guardrail is actually what map norms as kind of what is appropriate growth uh appropriate growth targets. So 50% um but you all are outperforming map. Um this one is based off of what Panorama put out. So we didn't need to set a guard rail that was saying we don't want to drop below any percentile because this is what's normed based on what they shared. I think the other aspect is there's a
157lot more historical data and results with map in the district. Yeah. We don't have any here. Yeah. The panorama's new. This is the first were using it. And to Danielle's point earlier, we ch the panorama group changed some of the vocabulary and structure from the fall test assessment uh fall survey assessment to the spring one because of understanding of language and vocabulary and concepts. So the spring one what we even understand Brad correct me if I'm incorrect on this but the spring one spring survey we believe gave students maybe a truer understanding of what the questions we're trying to ask and to get that's why they re yeah we switched some of the categories that were really focused on and then there's all sorts of research around the more times you're exposed to questions you
158think deeper about them you understand the vocabulary around them So you'll start to see some shifts just based on the test itself and then students understanding. Um the last one there is a guardrail for and that's the financial profile score. So uh incredibly right now Bavia has a perfect score a 4.0. So, if we think about the trend line, we're hoping it's a nice flat line across the top. Knocked it down this year. So, fired up for this one. Um, we'll talk more about it later. Tony fought this pretty hard. Now, we said that we understand um or like when we talked as a DCC, we were like, well, maybe more resources as a result of all of the other work happening on the strategic plan, we have to shift resources and allocate more resources
159towards uh you know, it could be towards facilities within operational excellence. It could be towards, you know, efforts to increase belonging or to increase, you know, student participation in activities or it could be efforts to improve college and career readiness. And if we have to allocate more resources, we don't want to be dinging ourselves on another goal at the expense of allocating resources towards something that we believe is really important. And so we said, yeah, in an ideal world, we're staying at financial recognition 4.0. We don't want to drop into what's called financial review. There's no like recourse for dropping into financial review from the state, but that's dropping below a 3.53, but we might need to drop from a 3 4.0 to a 3.8 because we had to allocate more resources and dip into
160our fund balance and had less cash on hand. So, by doing that, that means that for this year, we dropped to a 3.8. That doesn't mean we're not financially healthy, but that does mean that we want to make sure we're, you know, staying above that 3.53. So, I can offer a great example to this. Brad is the source of this conversation for me. So, Brad, let me give you credit. And if I mess it up, I'm sorry. You correct me. But the Fox Valley Career Center this year is experiencing the most student requests I believe they have ever had. They received amongst the districts that belong to the Fox Valley Career Center over 700 student requests for their programs. It's the most they've ever had. The result of that is they cannot financially afford to
161take every single kid from all the districts and they have to deny. So, Betavia us, we have students who get denied going into like the nursing program or the auto mechanics program. And you know, for us that kind of stinks, right? because those are pathways some of our kids really are going to jump into immediately. Uh one of our graduating seniors was just recognized by the Tri City uh exchange club because he's uh he just passed his actually he we just learned he passed his MC uh mechanics uh level one license test. He'll be walking graduation after having gone through tons of setbacks in his life and is going to be walking that stage going to Aonzi because he wants to study business and then open his own uh mechanic shop, auto shop doesn't happen
162like without that experience though and getting that certification through our programming partner at Fox Valley Career Center. Brad and I have talked like how do we find facilities or resources that we can when they get denied there we have a backup option and to Simone's point that will possibly I'm sorry Tony I don't know if we've talked to you about this but we may have to look more into like well it's going to cost us money it's resources but it's directly going to what the kids need and want their voice is the ones that are telling us this they sign up for Actually, I have modeled the preliminary budget, which we're going to talk about next. Best case scenario, it's likely that we'll be a 3.9 next year because we won't have as much cash
163on hand after we've spent down our fund balance. Worst case scenario, 355 because our fund balance threshold could fall lower than we wanted to, but it's a budget. We don't know what's going to happen yet. I believe we'll attain the goal that we'll maintain the um the recognition rating which is why we need to have some bands to operate within but as has been said you have to in this case you need to put the resources where the need is and you might that might come at the cost of achieving the goal. I will say what I really do like about this though is you know before you know as a board it's like how are we doing we didn't really have a benchmark we were just sort of kids are doing well in general
164we're paying our bills but it was sort of like amorphice and we didn't really have a way to like say here's where we're trying to get to are we achieving goals of growth we never really had a way to measure that and now we're putting this out there for the community and the whole world to see like this is what we think we're capable of. If we're hitting these numbers, then you know based off our definitions and our strategic plan, we believe the district is progressing and and uh and then if that's happening and students are uh achieving and so I do really like the fact that now we sort of have numbers. It's like okay here we go. But we know based off what we all decided, are we moving in the right direction
165or the wrong direction basically because you know I know we're not always going to achieve every single one of these every year it's going to be up and down but uh when we do take a step back it's going to give us extra motivation focus I think to do what we need to to keep moving in the right direction. Yes. More accountability I guess. Yes. And more coherence too. That's, you know, you heard all about coherence from John in January, but you know, if I asked you all a year ago, how's Betavia doing? You might all have similar overall answers, but different, you know, data and points behind it. And that might still be true in a few months. Like I'm not saying that by having, you know, five goals that suddenly all of you
166are going to be fully aligned on how is Bavia doing. But you can say, hey, we're moving the needle in these areas. We're not so much in these areas or or we're struggling in these subgroups or these uh specific metrics. But overall, you all probably will have a more similar picture of where the district needs to go and why decisions are being made uh at the district leader um school leader, classroom level um to move the needle on these on these areas. I have two discuss or we don't have to have a full discussion because it's 10:15, but I have two questions for all of you, but I want to allow you all to ask any follow-up questions you have for me on on these before I ask my two of you. So my two
167questions for you is just and and these don't need to be again don't need to be discussion tonight but two questions that coming out of tonight and between now and June when you're saying like do I believe these are the goals that we should be focused on as a district. You should be thinking about what's my role in helping the district achieve these goals. And so do I believe that I can uh you know help set the conditions for success so that we can achieve these goals. By set the conditions for success like do I believe I understand the levers for change that I can help exercise to ensure that we see success and then in what ways can I as a board member help communicate these goals to the broader community. Especially when you
168have like I actually really love the idea of goals and guardrails, but when you talk to the community and you're like we hit our goal or we didn't hit our goal but we stayed within our guardrail like how do you communicate that effectively and how do you all create a craft a message that uh ensures alignment in the direction that the district is going. So again, not questions that we have to answer tonight, but two questions I'm posing to you all that between now and June when you revisit these goals, you should be thinking about, do I feel like I can set the conditions for success and do I feel like I can communicate these goals to the broader community? All right, the last piece is, you know, just implementation of strategies. So, so what?
169So what's actually happening from here? Um, and this is a screenshot. You don't need to look at any of the words on it intentionally like size two font so that you don't need to strain your eyes. Um, and but what this is is it's an action planning template that DCC members and committees are using to go from measurable goals to initiatives and action steps. So there was a strategy around you know um an evidence-based uh literacy curricula going from that strategy to saying what are we actually doing to gather uh to evaluate and implement that curricula and who is doing it on what timeline in what classrooms you know all of those pieces who what where um now this is not the level of detail that you all as board members members should be providing
170feedback on. You should be providing feedback on are we actually seeing success on our goals and the dcc members and their committees are saying how are we taking the steps and our our staff, our students, our leaders taking the steps to make sure that we're achieving success on those goals. So, I'm sharing this with you so that you know what's happening, not um that you will be seeing this level of detail in the future. Um, and the other thing that, um, you heard me talk about short list is better than a long list with goals. The other thing that we've been working with the DCC to say is, hey, you have somewhere between five and seven strategies for each priority area. Doing five to seven things per strategy means doing, I don't know, let's say
171on average, 20 things a year. 20 strategies a year. That's a lot to be moving forward on, making progress on. So, we had um subcommittees like CAC and plaque and rack look at all of these strategies and say, what have we already made some really good progress on and what do we know we're going to focus on in the next school year and really select those areas for building out that really detailed um action plan. So the CAC did it with um the enhanced literacy instruction. The plaque did it with um professional development. There's work around amplifying student voice. Um and the reason that this one specifically was selected is because this strategy like a power goal that's bringing a lot of the others with it. This strategy is deeply tied to actually a lot
172of the other strategies in um fostering inclusion and belonging. and then rack um focused on facility maintenance upgrades. So I'm sharing this with you again not to you know get into the weeds and details of what action steps are happening but just to say that it's the work of the DCC and the ACT committees to um be prioritizing what are we focusing on this year and they're doing that based on both what do we know is important and what is the data telling us we need to focus on. Can I jump in and ask really quick? I don't know if it's really a you or like a Tom question, but just like when we're talking about DCC and the all the acts and all that, why is equity not within those groups? Um, I would
173say equity is just like student services committee and some of these other committees that exist. It's just the acts have been the primary like uh collectively bargained bodies that have been traditionally used as part of the collaborative process here. Okay. But that's not to say that that that's not happening. You know what I mean? Like in many of you are assigned to various committees that don't have the act name to it but you know there that is part of that work. Okay. Yep. And especially as you look at some of these strategies, they're definitely they might fall definitively in some of those other committees and those other committee should be involved in building the action plans and digging into the data around those. Um, any other questions or comments? I'm sure there are and I'm
174sure that there some there might even be some questions that you're like I don't even know what my question is. I just know that I'm not sure about something and that is okay. So, um, as a followup from this, um, we will make sure that I know you have the materials, but that you have the materials and you also have my information, um, along with the leadership team because we want to get your feedback prior to June. We want to hear from you. So, you know, what are your questions, your comments, your concerns, the things that you know, you're aligned with, the things that you want to make sure you would get clarification on, or the things that you even want to have a bigger discussion about before you say, "Yes, I'm approving these goals
175moving forward." And so, we want to get that feedback from you. So, I'm going to make sure that there's a formal channel for you all to be able to provide that um to me um through or not through the district leaders and then we will work to make updates to this um based on that feedback, those comments um those questions that you have. And so, we'll update the measurable goals based on today's feedback, but also what comes out of today's feedback. and you all will hopefully review those updates and hopefully approve of some goals at the next meeting so that um you have set those set of goals prior to the June 25th data shareout meeting where there'll be a uh data update from the leadership team on many of the metrics we've talked about
176today. And the reason I'm saying like cart before horse or or horse before cart is I by establishing and approving those goals, you're doing it before you've kind of dug into the data. Um and sometimes when you've already dug into the data, then you're saying like, oh, I'm shifting in my thinking on what's important here. But you should be really saying like as a district, what are we, you know, saying is really important for us to measure? and then let's dig into the data on are we moving the needle in those areas. Um the DCC is continuing to and and subcommittees are continuing to refine and update and implement action plans. Uh I know there's a summer hiatus, but that will hit the ground running in the fall. Um and you can expect to continually
177get an update at the December and June um data sharing meetings and salt team meetings. There's so many acronyms that I'm learning here. Um, and finally, my last next step is for you all. So, I know I I named those two questions to you, but I want you to keep coming back to those as you're in the June meeting getting a full district data update. Um, you're, you know, hearing from your subcommittees about the action plans that they're building. What you all should be doing is saying how can I set the conditions so that we can be successful? Do we need to change our resource allocation like where we're allocating resources? How do we hold the district accountable to the things that we believe are important? And how do we communicate with the broader community?
178So I want to end with uh how you all should be thinking about your own role moving forward in these measurable goals. All right team, what did I not catch that you that I should have? What did I not say that I You got it. All right. And that's all for me. Thank you so much. Couple couple of things. Um so with the timeline, I'm going to give everybody kind of chance for one last comment. Please um is I would like to establish a deadline for the questions so they have enough time to react. Give us enough time to review what comes out in the board book. Are we okay with this component of the board book coming out on the Thursday Friday before? Do we need it a little earlier so that we can
179see kind of the final version more than just the weekend in a couple days? I'm just putting it out there. So, does everybody feel kind of our typical board book date when we see it is enough time for us to review it and be confident about it? No. Keep in mind, we've already asked a bunch of questions at that point. We're just making sure that those questions were implemented and we can ask why they weren't if we care. Are we seeing the questions that were asked and like were we seeing what's being updated before then or is this going to be the first time that we're seeing everything? I think they said they're going to update as they go along. I'm sorry, I missed it. Um, and I think it really, like I said this
180to Tom, it really depends on what type of feedback you all have. So if there's things that come up that are like really substantial changes, then I will want to make sure that you all are seeing it more than two days before the board meeting. So we'll set up a structure to if if what we're hearing is like, hey, I'm, you know, really not sure about using this metric in general, then like we should be, you know, having conversations before June. If the feedback is hey I think it should be 63% not 64 like kind of overall is like we need to adjust the targets minimally then you know probably would be uh shared in a weekly update or yes something like that I would like more time than just over the weekend me personally
181so if the the kind of updated version of this presentation of sorts is what think we would be given to us. So like if it's we got that kind of end of the day Tuesday which gives like gives us basically a week to review it. What I'm getting to is how far back do I go to get the questions? Yeah. To them. What is the date of your of your June board meeting? So what that would be is basically we'd be looking at the 17th end of day. So that that 18th morning of is what we would expect it all in our inboxes. Yep. So to that point, the June board meeting structure, we have our regular business board meeting on the 24th and I think just um with all the staff and the leadership
182that has to prepare the board book for that 24th's meeting and then to have the special board meeting on the 25th, which we also have to prepare for and have a presentation ready for all of you. Um, if you want the board book for the 25th, the presentation a week ahead of time, I think uh my ask to make sure that we have time to prepare that for you and DMG has time to work with us on all of this uh would then be a little bit earlier window of when the board submits its questions. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm trying to get to. So I would say if you want it on the 17th, can we have it by like the second, which gives you two weeks between now essentially to June
1832nd to be able to process what you want to submit because it will take us time to do that kind of work. Um, feel like that's I mean I get where you guys need time, but that's a little rush. That feels kind of rushy just to kind of process everything and if I'm emailing Simone a question or I'm giving input and she has something to come back to, we're expecting all that to be done in two weeks ideally. Well, what you know, I don't want to speak for Simone. Simone, do you want to No, but if you want the deadline of us, our deadline to be the second of when we give our final things. Oh, sorry. So, you want us to send in our questions by the second? By the second. And is there
184a conversation back and forth after that? Yeah, if need be. I think if need be. I think I think that's the point. We don't know what we don't know yet. Yeah. Right. If all 70 of you submit things that are very aligned with one another, just aligned to each other and aligned overall with the structure of what's been discussed tonight, we could probably turn this around much quicker. But if uh to Simone's point, all seven of you submit some items. But they're all different from each other. Or this is this is a bigger tackle, I guess, right? Because if there's like four amongst seven board member feedback, there's four different competing schools of thought going on. Well, we're going to have to figure out how to process that. So, initial questions and feedback by the
185second so that we have a week or two to take all of those questions and feedback, incorporate them, and get back to you. There might be multiple iterations within that two weeks between the 2nd and the 17th. There might not be depending on what we kind of hear from all of you, but by the second sending, hey, I've had time to process, think about this, read it over. Uh, you know, here's the things that I think are really great. Here's the things that I want to see differently. Here's the questions I have. If there and for some things, I'll just get back to you like, hey, thanks for your feedback. Here's answers to your questions based on what I'm understanding. Um, but if everyone's like, I really want bigger changes on these areas, then probably
186there'll be another round of back and forth between the 2nd and the 17th. Does that timeline work for folks? We'll send that call to action to all of you as soon as possible so you have it and and know. June 2nd is that good. June 2nd. Awesome. Thank you. Anybody have any final comments on this? The one thing I I'm really getting out of this that I wasn't I was I'm finding enlightening a bit is the inter relationships between all of the various measurable components is the way I'm going to put it right now that feed up to in theory right now because we're figuring this out the kind of Uber goal power goal that we're trying to make sure we monitor and how those are all I can kind of see a little bit
187where like someone's like, "Oh, I personally think that this component is going to drive all these, but it may not." And we may need to be able to that because I'm constantly kind of reconciling in my head, at least for myself, like I'm not an expert. I know what I know, but I don't know all of these other things. So, I have to kind of rely on people to be able to help pull some of those subset goals and categories together to see how they feed up to that big one. So, that's kind of what I'm finding a little bit enlightening about this right now. Anybody else? Okay, thank you very much. Thank you all so much. Budget analysis. This is fine. 9.2 preliminary 2026 budget. Tony, all right. There's three things related to the
188budget that I want to talk about tonight. Um and that is the adoption process and what will transpire between now and the time we adopt the budget. That's this the new budget document that we're sharing this information with you is a new form and then I want to talk about some of the content itself and really the highlevel trends of what's at play in this in this budget. So here uh is noted in the board report that um we'll go through multiple revisions to the budget. This is the preliminary version. This is our first look at it as a you know public document. Next month in June we'll publish what is called a um a tentative budget. We'll share that with you and that puts the budget on public display so anybody can interact with
189it. In July, we'll hold a public hearing where members of the public can formally come and um learn more about the budget and ask questions here at board meeting. And then finally, um we'll adopt the budget on August 19th. So, you'll notice that that is a month earlier than is been our traditional cadence. Last year, we did adopt the budget in August. uh and we've been pushing everything up further into the beginning of the fiscal year. And the reason for that is is that we believe that that allows us to better allocate resources toward our needs. Whereas historically, a lot of the budget work was done in the summer when the organization leaves and goes on summer vacation. When times are good, that works out well. when times require a moving of resources and reallocations
190of things the organization because we value collaboration as we do it requires everybody to be here to do that. So we're trying to push this deeper into the the process. Now that's not to say that the budget work hasn't been happening and this has been going on in earnest for since November although technically we started in October. Um and a lot of it is driven by our staffing plan because the vast majority of our resouring But anyway, that's the timeline. Second, um the new document, the old document was very rich with numbers and graphs. Um it was very light on narrative and context. And this document follows a standard that's prescribed by the Association of School Business Officials International. And the premise behind that is is that it's more along the lines of a pyramid.
191And it's there's a lot of text, there's a lot of numbers, and a lot of charts, too, of course. But the text really provides the context around what's happening in the district and what the numbers actually mean. And as you dig deeper into the document, you dig deeper into the detail. So if you wanted to stay in the first five or so pages of this document, you'd have a pretty good understanding at high level what's going on with our budget for this fiscal year. But if you really want to know details, you just keep reading and going deeper and deeper. And we'll keep adding more deeper in the document. Um this is very much a draft. It's preliminary version both in the sense that it's our first uh pass at the budget in terms of
192numbers but it's also our first pass at this document in terms of how we're presenting it and as it stands now there are a lot of charts and graphs that are missing in this document that I'm populating it just takes a lot of time to get this stuff in there but once I do future versions of it will be much more easy to maintain. The second thing that I would note here is that when you go through this document, you'll notice that there are columns for future years, fiscals 27, 28, and 29. Historically, when we adopt our budget, we adopt the budget for the current fiscal year, and we do it three months into the fiscal year. So, we're already a quarter in. And, you know, and uh then we start working on the financial
193forecast for the next five years. And the problem with that is uh and you heard some of this tonight is you're making decisions today, but you don't quite know how they're affecting things in the future. And so we're trying to build in this forecast into the budget document so you have an idea. Now it's layered assumptions, those sorts of things, but it's better than nothing so that when you make certain decisions about, well, if I spend this dollar today, what's the consequence and what might not I have available to me tomorrow. We're trying to build that in. So, that's coming and you will see that in a future version of this budget before it's adopted. Uh, and then um, uh, let's just dig into this document now, Holly, if you wouldn't mind, and we could
194check out the executive summary. So the other part of this document is that we're trying to build a strategic plan into it and and show and demonstrate those linkages between what we're trying to do and plan as a school district into how we build our budget because that's the whole purpose, right? Is that we're we're putting our resources where they need to be. So you'll see references to the strategic plan in here and you'll see organizational overview aspects and you'll see informationational aspects related to that context where if you dig deeper all the way into the bottom of this document you'll see what we are we project our tax rates to be not just for this current fiscal year but for future fiscal years. Typically we don't show you that information until November when we're
195talking about the levy for adoption in December. So here I'm trying to show that to you now when you're adopting the budget. Keep going down a little bit. Holly talk about some of our key allocations where we're spending our money. This year we'll spend over $20 million on warm save dry. We're making transfers in our budget to move monies from our fund balance and at the education fund and operations and maintenance fund capital projects so that we continue to build out that warm safe drive program. Go ahead and keep going. and we talk about what's happening overall. So, at a high level, um we expect about $130 million in revenue and expenses at $147 million. And so, people are, "Holy cow, you're spending a lot more money than you're taking in." And it's true, we
196are, but we're spending the that that excess in our capital projects fund, and we're using our fund balances to do that. This was all planned, so we don't have a structural deficit. We're working on taking care of our facilities and we're spending money out of our bank account to make that happen. Um, overall, if you keep going, Holly, to the image, you can see that that green bar is our expenditures standing proud over the blue bar, which is our revenues. And you see a cutting across and the yellow line are fund balances. So while it has been increasing in the recent years post pandemic, it's going to take a pretty sharp dip downward in this current fiscal year. I have not yet filled out 27, 28, and 29. We're working on that as I mentioned,
197but um it will level off and hopefully will not continue that downward trend if all things go our way. We all will be taking in less money this year in terms of revenue than we were last year. And there's two reasons for that. One is we're paying off the last of our bonds and our debt from work that we've done in prior years. So we will be as a school district debtree. That means there's less money coming in this year and less money coming in to pay off those bonds and debts in 2027. So that was all planned that we'd get less money. But there's one other thing that's happening that we are particularly concerned about and that is that uh state money is going down. We estimate at this point in time to be
198$1.2 2 million. Now, why is that? Uh, the state of Illinois has been facing structural issues in terms of its budget for 40 years and only in the last few has have they actually had a balanced budget and that it was in large part because of federal funding for COVID. And now that all that money is spent and gone, we're grappling with that structural imbalance once again. So, they have limited money that they can put toward education, and they have chosen, and I think wisefully so, to put that toward EDF, or the evidence-based funding formula, which funds at a base level all schools. They're going to put $150 million worth of new money into that formula. Unfortunately, only about $4,000 of it is going to reach us. So, for a lot of school districts in
199the state, they're going to get a lot of new money for them. in some cases many many many millions of dollars in new money. We unfortunately and for the last several years of getting very little but because they're putting another $150 million into EBF they've decided that they can afford to put more money into what they call the mandated categoricals and this is funds for in particular special education and transportation. We spend money uh in those areas, special education and transportation, and what we spend, we submit for reimbursement in the following fiscal year, and our costs keep going up in those areas. But the state of Illinois is not adding new money to keep up with those rising costs. And so that means they're prorating the amounts of money that are owed to us. And
200depending on whether you're turning up the air conditioning or turning it down or you're increasing proration or decreasing proration, the net result is we're going to get less money in mandated categoricals about to the tune of about $1.2 million because there just isn't enough money there to pay all bills. Now, if you asked me four months ago if I had seen this coming, I would say that I did not. The other part is is that we're keeping a pretty close eye on what's happening in Springfield and the state house right now. They have not adopted their budget yet. These are all just signaling that we're seeing from the governor's office, requests from the state board of education and so forth. But this looks as if how it's going to play out, but we won't know
201for sure until the general assembly takes action. Generally, they do that in late May. The good news is is by the time we adopt our budget, we're going to have a pretty good idea what state funding is going to be, but this is how it looks for us right now. And this is how it looks for us for the foreseeable future. And I would tell you that when we did our financial forecast last fall, we were not anticipating losses in federal or state money. We were anticipating stagnant state money, but not losses. So this changes the calculus for us. That you add on to the fact that things are happening at the federal level, different administration, different approach to education, different funding expectations. That might change things for us as well. I do know that
202um the Trump administration released what they're calling the the skinny budget for the Department of Ed. And the monies that we receive from the feds don't appear to be directly offended by what they u they won't be affected by what they anticipate funding in fiscal 26. I'm more a little bit more worried about what will happen in fiscal 27, but that's a problem for another day and that's just speculation. But we are facing, you know, serious inflating costs. Uh, I think some of the other trends is we continue to suffer from staff shortages. Steve and his team have been doing a incredible work getting folks hired, but we're still suffering from shortages in particular for pair professionals. We're excited about the VESPA contract and what that might offer in terms of making those jobs more
203competitive and we hope that we can fill those vacancies. But if we are not able to, we'll have to rely on uh a third party contracts to provide many of those services which will cost more than actually hiring staff directly. We do see enrollment stabilization. We'll learn more about enrollment forecasting and trends based off of this contract the board approved earlier tonight. excited to see what uh that pretends. But there's a lot of stuff going on in Battavia in terms of developments and a lot of moving and shaking. I see enrollment at least stabilizing, perhaps increasing in future years, but we'll see. If you keep going, Holly, um we will pay off all of our debt. Uh but we're going to make some pretty substantial investments into our schools to keep them quite literally warm,
204safe, and dry. And that's what when we say warm, safe, and dry, I mean we mean it. That is the absolute bare minimum essentials to keep them in basic shape and condition. Predicting about $50 million to do that over five years, but construction inflation is really going to make that challenging for us. And so whether or not we have to consider other means of doing that or delaying projects, you know, we're going to have to figure that out. Um and uh if you keep going, you'll see more of those highlights. We're going to keep class sizes steady. The teach student toteer ratio is predicted to remain at 7.5, average class sizes of 23 students. Um a little bit of increases in terms of staffing and we're going to pay off all of our debt. But
205if you keep going through this document, you you can there's a lot of great stuff in here. But it even covers, you know, where we get our legal autonomy and fiscal independence. If you scroll all the way down to the very bottom, Holly, where there the tax information is, we even show people what average tax bills will be in future years. And as I said earlier, I would appreciate your indulgence. Not all the charts and tables are in here just yet, but they will be. And um right about just a little bit more. You see that there is a chart of our EAV as it's growing and predicted to grow. We've seen substantial increases into the taxable value of our school district. You see our tax rates are actually going down. You'll see the net
206effect in 2024 of paying off that debt. A lot of re the driving reason as to why the tax rates are going down is we're not levying to pay off debt anymore because it's paid off. And then just a little bit further tax collections. We see we're going to get less in 20 for levy year 24 because we've don't need as much money to pay that debt. And then you'll see here what an average tax bill looks like. So 2020 that tax year just under $6,000 and 2024 just over $6,600. Anyway, happy to entertain any questions that you might have. This first look at the budget. Nobody. That 10:40 slot Tony is uh not primed for Brad asked me how long this was going to take and I said an hour. We condensed it. We're
207not getting good advertising dollars right now. Well, my thing this is only preliminary. So why ask questions now? It's going to change. It's going to change. next month. All right, that's I'll I'm waiting. I will though say to any to the extent that you have feedback that this is helpful or not helpful to you, I would appreciate it because that this that's the point is that we're giving you the information that you need to make the decisions that you need to make to make sure that everything's headed in the right direction and the resources are aligned to the mission. So if we can you have ideas as to how that needs to be, I'd appreciate your feedback. All right. Since nobody has any stunning questions for Tony, we will move on to administrative comments. I'm
208logging back in. Sorry. All right. Um, so I'd like to begin uh by just taking a moment to express my sincere appreciation for uh some individuals who have made a lasting impact on BPS 101. First to start with why I'm wearing this t-shirt this evening. Um I know I'm usually in a jacket or suit, but uh it is to honor our senior who will be graduating tomorrow night, Rachel Igro. She was um recognized at the city council meeting last night. Um Rachel was the one who designed the city of Betavia flag during the competition a little over a year ago. Um and and due to the efforts of some of our uh city council uh folks leaders, they uh made a push to adopt it officially as our as our uh city of Battavia flag.
209And so that happened last night. And the reason why I'm wearing this t-shirt is because uh she um you know is a product of the uh graphic arts and and med graphic media programming and courses that are offered at BHS. Uh Miss Tyrion Ton was one of the uh was the person introducing her and and is the teacher that's you know worked with her closely in that project. So I just wanted to say uh well done. Um, you know, just another example of one of our students that has made an impact not just in our district as based on comments that were made about how younger students look up to the work that's been done, but just on the community now that it's become our city's official flag. Um, I didn't get to say this
210last meeting, but to Dar and Zara, who will also be graduating tomorrow night, they are our graduating student board ambassadors. What an honor it has been to work alongside both of you as as our board student ambassadors. Your leadership, focus, empathy, and all-around excellence, both in the classroom and beyond, have been nothing short of inspiring for me. I'm genuinely excited to see what the next chapter holds for you. And I have no doubt you'll continue to lead with purpose and heart. And on a personal note to them, I want to thank them for welcoming welcoming me so warmly to the BPS 101 when I first began. Those two are one of the first students I was able to engage with and it was awesome. Uh I know BPS is incredibly proud of both of you
211and we'll be cheering you on every step of the way in your life. To all of our seniors who will be graduating tomorrow night, many thanks for the contributions you have made to our district and making BPS 101 of the best in the state. Your younger peers have great shoulders to stand on in taking our district to the next level alongside our wonderful adults in the district. I think tonight's highlights earlier at the in the meeting just are that are just the tip of the iceberg in regard to all the amazing things happening in our district. This does not happen by accident or overnight. Um examples like this are a result of a district that has amazing people working in their roles. And earlier this month, we celebrated teacher appreciation and and we also recognized
212several of our educators earlier today. Um I think it's due to the efforts of all of our people. We are a people business and it's through a system that is continually working on getting better that this happens. When I began here, our former BEA president, Todd Swanson, shared both publicly and privately with me that progress moves at the speed of trust. As my second year is clo is nearing a close, we have adopted a new strategic plan. Are undergoing massive curricular overhaul with teacher input in ELA, math, social studies, and science. Expanding connections with the community and engagement through social media, reaching families in their home languages. Expanding clubs and activities so every student can find a place for themselves such as the Boys and Girls Club and esports club. Expanding extracurricular busing so students
213may participate in activities. Increasing our social emotional standardsbased learning for students and adults. increasing our staffing FTE to support students needs. Holding collaboration meetings with the city of Bavia, the library and parks district uh park district leadership, expanding supportive resources for students and families, which include counseling and parenting services paid for by the district, creating more dual credit and career pathway opportunities for students, shared decision-making with our teacher and support staff leaders. There is no doubt we are all moving at the speed of trust and I appreciate the BEA and BESA leaders and helping us continue to make that collaborative momentum continue to move forward. As you heard tonight from the district management group presentation, the collaboration is supporting our work to ensure the execution of the district's strategic plan. The collaboration is a must
214in this district. We will be facing some big work next year. work that is going to require us to ask very hard questions about our practices, our roles, and our abilities to finance the things we need to do for our students. I trust that the decisions we land on will always be centered on what is best for our students. And speaking of our students, tomorrow night will highlight one of my most personal favorite things as an educator. Hundreds of seniors will walk the stage and graduate our district. They are a bright reminder of why we do this hard work. Goldilocks. Thank you. You save something for tomorrow night to talk about? Oh, I got it. It'll be brief though. It'll be All right. And then board comments. Uh just because we have our two new
215board members, what I'd like to do is kind of go through the um previous round of board members. So start with you, Rob, then we'll go in and then give Kristen and then and then Katie a chance to wrap it up and I'll just close it out briefly. Okay. Um so first of all, just thank you to um the celebrants today. So, uh, Tristan, Abby, Ellie for their kindest kid awards. Uh, EMTT for the Blueest Star award. Uh, congratulations to them. Just great examples of the kind of students we have here in Betavia. And then also congratulations to uh, Miss Greenwall uh, on her retirement and um, good luck to her in the future. And then also uh, Miss Hatfield, Miss Mandel, and Miss Hubble. thank you for um your contributions and it was nice
216to see you recognized uh as well for uh for all that you do for our students as well. Okay. Um couple other things. So, I had the opportunity to go to the awards night. Uh, uh, Drew mentioned it earlier in his comments and to me it was a very powerful evening and what I gathered out of that was what a strong community we have within uh, Betavia and the strong collaboration we have with the high school and with the students. We had so many community organizations there that were um represented that were able to uh recognize our students um and in in a lot of cases give them financial support for their next endeavor. So, um it almost was a little bit of a tearjerker at certain points of that evening because it was just
217powerful some of the stories um and the backgrounds on these scholarships and these awards that were were given. So, it was just a very emotional night. So, I really appreciated being there that that night. Um then finally um I had an opportunity my niece graduated from the University of Texas um Austin and went to her graduation about 10 days ago or so and um the featured speaker was uh Taylor Sheridan. If you know who he is, he's the creator of Yellowstone and some of those other types of shows um that go with that. that um he had uh I mean it was a it was an okay speech but he had a he had a uh he had a good quote that resonated with me um reading that and I just wanted to share that
218with uh with uh you all today but he said um we don't necessarily control our destiny but what we do control is our behaviors and actions that will lead to our destiny. So, and I think about that in terms of our graduation tomorrow night. So, congratulations to those seniors. Um, they they worked hard. They've earned their their degrees. So, um, as they move forward in whatever uh path they have chosen, um, you know, hopefully they'll make the right um, decisions and actions that will help them become their best selves. So, um looking forward to being there tomorrow night and celebrating with them. And also want to thank um for the summer um teachers, staff, administrators, thank you for another great school year. Um hopefully some of you will be able to enjoy some time off
219here and uh recharge and um ready to go at it back in August. Thank you. All right. Uh, so mine will be um, congratulations to Tristan, Avi, and Ellie for the kindest kid award. Congratulations to Emit for the Blue Star Award. Congratulations to Heather Mandel, Monica Hubble, and Lisa Hagel for their nominations of the King County Education Awards. Congratulations to Gina on her retirement. Uh, happy Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Happy Jewish American Heritage Month. Uh, May is also National Mental Health Awareness Month. So, just take care of everyone and take care of uh each other and others. Um, thanks to all the BPS employees. I'm knocking on wood because we have a couple more days, but for another year under the belts and um for those that are off for the summer, I hope
220you just relax and enjoy it. Um, congratulations to the class of 2025 and I hope everyone has a healthy and safe Memorial Day weekend and summer. Very nice. So, uh, my comments are just like to start off Raquel and Rob. So, everybody who got their picture taken tonight, congratulations. Um, congratulations to Principal Greenwald on her retirement. Also, all the retirees. If you go up front, you see the names of them all listed there. Kim Anderson was back here. She's retiring in two days. So, congratulations to them. I want to thank everybody, too, especially as someone who still has two students in the district. But thank you to all our teachers, all the staff, all the admin for their hard work and commitment to students this year. I know my kids have grown a lot this
221year. I want to recognize board secretary Cindy Rodriguez. You won't find a more committed or compassionate person for BPS 101 students and the work she does to support the work of the board of education. I want to thank my fellow colleagues for serving on the board. And I also want to thank former board members Lock and Matthysse for their commitment to serving the district and the community. And uh like Rob, I want to thank uh all the incredible organizations, partners, and army of dedicated volunteers who generously support BPS 101 students and schools with your time, talent, and kindness. Your impact is immeasurable. Uh last week, I had the opportunity to attend a a thank you breakfast. Miss Geralt was there. She was actually recognized for her work as the president of the mother's club. And
222um boy, after hearing everyone tell their story, I would have been able to walk through a run through a brick wall because it was so inspiring. Everyone was sort of building off everybody's energy. I mean, like Rob said, you know, when I think of how our kids achieve, part of it's because obviously they're amazing kids and they work very hard, but also because they have this army of support from the community of people that don't know our kids, but are still contributing their talent and time and finances to make sure they succeed. And that is a pretty rare thing. So, I just want to make sure that they know uh we appreciate all they do. without their contributions, uh, we would not be able to do what we're able to do and our kids would
223not be able to achieve the way they do. Uh, to BPS 101 students and families, I hope this academic year was filled with growth and positive experiences. Uh, our district is deeply committed to serving every student to the best of our abilities and will continue striving to improve to support student success and to create a sense of belonging for everybody. Uh, and finally, congratulations to the class of 2025 and their families. uh it is the best day of the year I think. Uh we can't wait to celebrate their achievements. Uh and really we celebrate them but we also do celebrate the community because again I do think a graduating class is a reflection of a community and uh we have much to be proud of. So congratulations to all the graduates and their families and
224best of luck. I echo everyone and their uh congratulations. I wanted to um just give a little like um story about actually it's Avi and your daughter Elsie. Um they they brought up um Ming had brought up how Avi loved to like write cards to people and when I was a lunch monitor I still have these um they're like little notes and they had like their the best drawings ever and it was just like I love the job sometimes like you know just getting something from these kids it was just like we really love you and you know like it was just telling me like how good of a job I did and then when I was leaving they created another card for me and just about how they they're going to miss me And
225I I pretend like I still matter to them when I see them. Like I'm like, "Oh, but I know better." Like I do have a daughter who's in seventh grade, but it is really amazing just the kindness and the love that these kids already have. Um you've done a wonderful job with Elsie, obviously, but it's something that I will always remember. And like I said, I still have them on my nightstand, so I just wanted to add that in just as someone who has been on the receiving end of that kindness that we are celebrating. Um, other than that, congratulations to the class of 2025. Um, thank you to the entire BPS uh community for getting our kids through another year. And again, we have a couple more days. So, um, I hope everyone has
226a safe and fulfilling summer and we'll see you back in the fall. Well, fall, August. Yeah. Uh, as Mr. Kilberg mentioned, I was fortunate enough to attend the uh thank you breakfast that the district held to recognize some of the local organizations that support Betavia public school students. I don't think most people realize how much goes on behind the scenes to help some of our most vulnerable kids. The district outreach coordinator works with many local nonprofits and individuals to provide food and clothing, scholarships for preschool, summer programs, support for teachers, afterchool programs, and more. The room was full of selfless people with big hearts and a passion for helping kids and families. Uh with the permission of caregivers, stories were shared of students that feel safe and supported are able to thrive in our schools.
227Some of them are receiving their diplomas tomorrow. A big congratulations to them and to all of our graduates and to the parents, caregivers, and local helpers that paved the way for their success. I'm looking forward to cheering all of you on at graduation tomorrow. It was heartwarming to hear of so much success and it's inspiring to know that we are capable of so much more. The fact is that there are some students that will graduate tomorrow who maybe didn't feel like they belonged, who are harassed or bullied, who struggled to keep up, or whose parents feel like they didn't receive the supports they needed and asked for. There are students who left the district because of it or didn't graduate. We should celebrate our successes as a district because there are so many. And we
228should also acknowledge when we fall short. Sitting in that room at the thank you breakfast, I was surrounded by people both inside the district and in the community who are ready to step in and help our students. I know that with their help, our district and this board is capable of sort supporting all of our students and creating an environment of continuous improvement and student success. I've spent the past few years closely observing and sometimes speaking to this school district. Uh over the past few months as a candidate and now a school board member, I've been doing more listening for where our words line up with our actions and where they don't. Over and over again, I've heard us say the same things. That we value belonging for every student and staff member. That we
229seek equity. That different perspectives make our district stronger. But saying it is not the same as living it. Leadership isn't just about holding a title that gets you into rooms where you can say these things. It's about opening doors to those rooms for others. It's about knowing when to lift up and amplify someone else, especially when that someone brings something new, needed, and long overdue. If we want to build schools where everyone truly belongs, we have to be intentional about who gets to lead. Addressing long-standing equity issues like who's gotten in the door and gets listened to doesn't just happen. Doors don't open by themselves. They require deliberate choices and actions. Once they're open, it takes people willing to ask questions about what it took to access the doors, to be uncomfortable, and to stand
230aside so others can have a chance to get through. Not some someday in the future, but right now. Kristen wanted to run for her seat a couple years ago. And when she sought out and listened to perspectives different from her own, she knew there was opportunity for more equity at this table if an underrepresented voice could have a real shot at being here. Kristen was and is respected, electable, and fully qualified. And she stepped aside. That act didn't diminish her. It multiplied her impact. Because of that choice, three new voices that represented groups this district needed input from got to this table. She now serves with the very diversity she helped create space for. She's the reason so many of us are sitting here and that is leadership. That is belonging and action. And that
231is why it was so hard to hear what happened recently within another institution of learning in Betavia. I heard someone had the opportunity to step aside to provide leadership space for someone in an underrepresented group group and chose not to. This is not aligned with any of our stated goals or any of the solutions to our problems. When I think of the audacious privilege it takes to get and keep white people in leadership roles in our district and in the institutions that support it, I'm so sad at how poorly we make space for new voices to be heard. That decision not to step aside and hold open a door wasn't just disappointing, it was disheartening. It reminded me how often we say we want change, but back away when it asks something of us. It
232makes me question whether we truly mean what we say about belonging and equity when we aren't willing to live it out in real time. When we don't say the thing that needs to be said, or when we say too much and leave no room for anything new. I don't know if I can trust the talk of people who aren't walking the walk. I will spend my time and energy supporting those who are willing to do the hard work. The ones who embrace the discomfort and understand that measurable progress towards our goals will mean us giving something up so that someone else can rise. When that moment came recently, as it has too many times before in the last three to four years I've been watching and listening, we didn't choose students. We didn't choose teachers.
233We chose familiarity, comfort, and power. What if that had been the moment that finally changed the trae the trajectory for the kids most often overlooked? The kids we know were failing. The kids there's no question we're not helping achieve equitable educations. The kids whose data we shy away from but can't improve despite incessant input from what feels like dozens of committees. How can we expect to move forward when we're taking the same actions over and over again based on feedback from the same people? This moment has come before. It is before us now. And it will come again. The very next time it's here. I hope those of us privileged many whose white voices are over represented through these door doors, in these rooms, and at these tables will choose courage. I hope we will
234choose change. I hope we will step aside, not because we're being asked to, but because we've learned we're the very things standing in the way, and we understand what's possible when we move intentionally out of the way. The kids of this school district need us to do and be better. So, let's maximize our dividends for all of them, especially the ones who most need it, and be courageous. Next time is now. All right. Well, thank you. Um, my comments are going to be saved for I'm graduating class tomorrow night. Um, and thank you to the teachers and to the board here for the work effort that they've done so far and shall do in the future. um the teachers and staff. Again, I thank you guys for all the hard efforts that you do in
235the year and to to have good stewardship for our kids um and for each other and support each other through those efforts. So, thank you very much. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Ke second by second by Aaron. All in favor? I opposed. It is now 11:10. The meeting is adjourned. We need Okay, she's already got it. Awesome. Oh.