001PM Tuesday December 19th 20123 and I call this this meeting of the Board of Education to order Cindy would you please call the role yes M pres here hilber pres gonzale Thomas sliger present arandu here thank you next I would invite Aaron to lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all um are there any items to add a remove from the agenda no sir no okay well our first thing is one of our favorite things to do is celebrate a success so um as our celebration this month we'd like to recognize Chris low um will you please make your way to the podium sir Chris has served
002is a member of the BPS 101 Board of Education from April 2015 till April 2023 and recognition of his dedication to inclusivity and fostering dialogue about Equity within the committee the Illinois state board of education has awarded Chris low the prestigious Thomas lay Burrows award for 2023 this esteemed award recognizes Schoolboard members who have made outstanding contributions and have shown commitment to educational equity and Community engagement during his eight-year term as school B board member Chris Champion the importance of Civic engagement amplifying Community Voices his effort have left a lasting impact on the BPS 101 district and Beyond on behalf of the BPS 101 Board of Education congratulations Chris on your recognition would you please share a few things of your thoughts and what this honor has meant to you sir probably surprising no one
003I have prepared thoughts um the last few weeks have been surreal for those that know me I'm not a huge fan of the spotlight and it is especially disconcerting to hear things hear people say good things about me I keep waiting to hear the butt however I'm okay with this one because I don't view this as my award I didn't do this by myself this is something we did as a community I've always prided myself on my willingness to hear and understand the concerns of others I believe this understanding is foundational to building Community I spent most of my experience as a community and Schoolboard member encouraging people to use their voice I taught them about the chain of command I encouraged them to learn how to have their voices heard I tried to bring
004those with common goals and concerns together so they could support one another I did everything I could to teach them how the system works and how to enact systemic change I emphasize their voices were important I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the amazing relationships and conversations I've made and had with community members here are just a few examples if Tim danowski hadn't approached me about the Watchdog program I wouldn't have been able to help bring the program to our schools had students such as Killian Isabella and Martin not approached the board about lgbtqia plus bigotry and racism I probably would have remain blissfully unaware of the suffering occurring under the surface of our often idelic appearing Town had Scott Naylor not introduced me to Amber jersa I would have continued to believe I
005was alone in this fight within the district a few years later she's the North Suburban teacher of the year and I'm here as the State Board member of the year that doesn't happen without that introduction there are many many other examples I'm not including that have led to this moment I am here because of the amazing folks who have risked their own personal Comfort to build a movement while progress may not be where we would like it we have built the foundations of something that can transform our district and our town I have learned a lot over the last few years especially when it comes to equity work tonight I'd like to share some of those things I've learned my hope is others can use the same methods to continue the important Community Building work
006first I apologize if this is long-winded but it is our responsibility to use our privilege and power whenever possible to protect the oppressed and those without power that includes when you have a captive audience and you receive an award when we remain silent we are complicit if we don't speak up we allow it to happen use your voice use your wallet always try to protect the innocent always question those with power I've learned Equity work is difficult work it will drain you both physically and mentally it will enrage you and leave you in tears as a volunteer in our community I have spent hundreds of hours sitting on Sidelines coaching and in meetings I feel a personal connection to many of the families and the children I've seen grow up yet as a black man
007I have seen kids and adults who I thought I had a mutual respect and admiration for commit blatant acts of racism and bigotry it feels as though our shared experiences meant nothing to them these moments can leave you confused angry and ready to give up pace yourself take care of yourself this is a marathon not a Sprint be patient consistent and firm but be kind trust me when I say it will take you to unexpected places I would never have guessed this is where I'd be when I first volunteered at hooverwood school as a stay-at-home parent I've learned Equity work requires us to work on both society and ourselves one of the most difficult things for me to accept was the knowledge that I have contributed and continue to contribute to systemic oppression and white
008supremacy I a black man in America trying to do the right thing and I am still part of the problem every day I make decisions that lead to the oppressions of others it is not intentional it happens when we participate in the system try to be aware of the consequences of your actions when you see you're causing harm try to do better if you can't ask yourself why that is I've learned we must seek out the voices that are not being heard if you have power chances are you know the opinions of those who are always in the room where decisions are being made how are those decisions impacting those who are not there if you don't know the concerns of those you serve how can you properly represent them our systems are designed to
009oppress those without power it is designed to silence those without power I believe it is Our obligation to protect and empower the vulnerable we do that by going out of our way to listen and hear their stories their truth support them on their Journey make certain those voices are heard better yet get them in the room where the decisions are being made representation matters I've learned we must use relationships we create to build coalitions when I began this journey I began because of the pain I was seeing from our children based on their emails and their comments at board meetings I knew they were suffering from many of the same problems I experienced as a child I decided it was time for me to use my privilege and power to help them at first I
010felt I was fighting alone I was isolated frustrated angry and things felt hopeless I felt all I saw was pain and everyone with power wanted to ignore it others as others began to hear and support me I was able to share the burden others were able to share their stories and experiences we were able to create and build spaces where we could safely learn grow and organiz organiz aone voice is easily ignored together we can't be silenced together we can Tear Down the Walls of systemic oppression and Empower our youth to create a more optimistic future for everyone a question I am often asked and was just asked yesterday by our state representative is how do we know if we're being successful I've got two answers for that first is the data driven response to
011know if you're making progress you need to have clearly defined goals and trackable metrics attached to these goals we know our district is overidentifying Children of color for special education we have specific data that demonstrates our students of color perform significantly worse on standardized tests we know 75% of our black students are in the bottom quarter on SAT scores we should use the data we know and collect the data we need Pro to protect the groups we're justifiably concerned about then you have to have a timetable to revisit these goals and a plan to adjust should you not make the progress you anticipated this typically means those making the changes need both power and a budget second and this is a much easier method ask the people you're trying to help if black students are
012struggling and you change policies to make things better ask those black students if they have seen and felt the changes ask them if their lives have improved let them tell you the changes are having a positive impact good intentions good intentions don't always make policies that are effective I've learned it is one thing to say the right words and say you're an accomplice or Ally it is different to actually do something we know oppressed groups suffer simply by existing what have you risked or sacrificed personally to help the oppressed how have you cast in your privilege for the benefit of those without it if we expect the World to Change we need to demonstrate we're willing to sacrifice and lead the way we need to change our approach and admit our fallibility we need to
013help develop the next generation of of leaders from students and staff and provide them with the leadership opportunities we need to seek out their voices and let them know how it is influencing our decisions we need to make sure there are leadership of positions available for them when they are ready that may me mean stepping down from a position of power so others can lead so new voices can be heard new ideas tried I sered two terms and intentionally chose not to run for a third term I believe it was time for someone else to have the opportunity I made a deliberate effort to work with community members to find folks who could be potential leaders we provided information ssts on how to run for office what various elected officials did and the obligations required
014to anyone who is interested we helped them navigate the process for getting on the ballot running a Campa and running a campaign we helped introduce them to voters and educated them on an important issues in our community I am proud to say that after serving as the first black School Board member in bavia history our city replaced me with three candidates of color to the best of my knowledge they are the first to represent their respective groups on the school board and possibly within our community thank you for having the courage to run and be strong enough candidates to win the support of our community I am confident you will continue serving them all well and lastly I've learned Equity work is not passive work we must be proactive if we expect there to be
015changes doing nothing supports the status quo which we know is built on oppression everyone has something to offer it is our responsibility to use our skills and privilege to ensure all of our children have access to what they need to thrive we must be the example they deserve to see with that in mind I want to leave you with two quotes from James Baldwin the first if one really wishes to know how Justice is administered in a country one does not question the policemen the lawyers the judges or the protected members of the middle class one goes to the unprotected those precisely who need the laws protection most and listens to their testimony and second those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it thank you thank you Chris appreciate
016all the work and effort you did one thing I was going to say that I I personally learned because I came on the board while you were on it already is one thing about you that I I picked up is it's never about me it's always about we with you you always do the right thing you always try to forge a path forward might be hard but you you know you're doing what's right for you and what's right for others at the same time so thank you so appreciate that okay next public comments welcome to the Board of Education if anyone wishes to address the board this evening please hear our recording secretary to submit a form for addressing the board please put your full name and address on the form in general the board
017will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment this does not mean we do not take your concerns or comments seriously the board values active Community participation in the district Endeavors and encourages people to engage with the district using appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district and cannot engage in District business individually if you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district you may submit your questions using the link on the website and appropriate St St member will communicate with you our BPS 101 communication manager Holly dman will now explain the procedures for public comment and call up the first speakers that I assume we have thank you president Meadows we have two today
018uh speakers will be called up in order of form submission the first form received is the first person invited to speak when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard all individual speaking will be limited to 3 minutes as you can see there is a timer already displayed up on the screen and we'll start as soon as you're settled at the podium at any time during this meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary Cindy Rodriguez at my right speakers should conduct themselves with Civility and respect towards everyone in this room our first speaker is marann neerman hi I'm Maran neerman and I work at Rolo Middle School for the support staff I had no intentions of being here tonight so I'm not really very prepared
019to speak but it was brought to my attention that we're going to vote on Outsourcing the placement of some PA professionals or something really don't know much about it but I do know that I guess we're going to pay him like 60 plus some thousand dollars of taxpayer funded money to put these people in a position through the end of May I think so it's a short-term fix on a problem that's been in this district for years we've had a problem with getting people to work for our district for years and it might be because we're paying him to start out $424 an hour now keep in mind this agency that we're they're going to vote on approving we're going to pay an agency 60 some thousand it's my understanding and I could be wrong
020because I literally found out about it today to employ a two to three employees okay so 60 some thousand employee couple employees keep in mind if you go directly to District you're to make $4 and 24 cents an hour so it doesn't lead much you know to the imagination as to why we can't find people to work here right I've worked for the district over 16 years and I don't even make $16 an hour but we're going to allow a person to come in here and work for an agency step in to a par professional position and make make probably more than I make a lot of talk about Equity just now and I am a reasonable person and I am open to any feedback that somebody can come and bring to me to help
021me to see this as an equitable proposition for the existing employees support staff at Roto middle school or I guess the district um I'm a fortunate person my husband has a job makes a good living so I am not one of those people that are doing it because they need need it but there's a lot of people out there that need the money and $142 24 an hour isn't very Equitable I know a lady that works in the district she's been working here 22 years she makes $27,000 a year but we're going to give an agency $660,000 to put a couple people in place to fix a problem for five months so what are we going to do in August when August rolls around it's my understanding those people it's a shortterm contract May it's
022over with August comes around we're going to have the same problem what are we going to do you think they're going to negotiate it for $60 some thousand I wouldn't if I were them they know we're in a not very good position right so we're going to allow these people to come in and pay people that have zero loyalty to our district we have a lady that's been there 22 years and she makes $27,000 an now so there's a lot of the morale is just a little bit in the tank right now people try to stay upbeat there's a lot of good relationship with the students there I question the relationship that these people that are going to have a f Monon contract with our district are have with those people with the students and
023aren't we here for the students really aren't we here for the interest of the students I find it hard to believe that this is going to end in five months and that they're going to be able to develop those relationships thank you next we have Tracy gayus um I am my name is Tracy Gus um I used to work at Early Childhood Center um as a par professional um I recently resigned um just to tag along with you due to the pay um it's isn't enough to make a living however that is not my main issue here today my main issue here today is um safety concerns at JB Nelson and also behavioral concerns it also tags along with the prior comment we do not have the resources at JB Nelson to manage the behavioral
024and safety concerns at the school every day there's five plus needs at that school for Subs I should also say I'm also on the list to be a sub I help out at JB or wherever um and there's just not enough hands there's so many behaviors across the district across I mean the entire United States with kidss I'm sure Co had a a lot of lot to do with it everything else home life whatever we don't always know um but there's just none enough hands we can't get the people and if that's first I've heard of what you were saying um it's a lot of concerns there we've had recently had JB Nelson lots of safety concerns with particular students um every day there's safety concerns things aren't being handled I don't think properly um
025on the safety behavioral and possibly even the bullying front um and I don't know really what else they add for that I wasn't really prepared to really be here until 30 minutes ago um but yes that's all I really have I think I just want to make it known I need I need it looked into because I'm at that point where I'm either going to pull my kids out or I'm going to I moved here for this district and I'm fed up so that's it yes I made time thank you very much next is our BPS Partners uh Todd with the Bea good evening everyone um before I start um I was just on the way in here I had like a memory flashback so last December was the first time we were formally introduced
026to Tom and he was here with his wife and his daughters and they were all sitting right here and it kind of shocks me that's been like a whole year ago already but I the one thing I remember is I made a connection to um home alone and you being our John Candy coming in here and like saving the day and so um it was just funny that I had that recollection so again um even though you've only been here I know you count the months and and reflect on how many months you've been in your position we've known you for more than a year now so that's really kind of amazing how time has flown so I just wanted to share that and the rest of my talk for tonight is about Chris low
027so first off I just wanted to say uh congratulations to Chris in being recognized by not only the State Board of Education for his contributions to the BPS school system while serving as a member of the board of education but more importantly for being recognized by your colleagues and the here tonight your student focused lens rooted in your own experiences with equity and inclusion brought a perspective onto the board that was at times itself underrepresented or misunderstood by those without similar experiences you sought to not only educate those around you but to motivate by your words and your actions thank you for fearlessly speaking your truth standing up when it seemed you might be the only one standing and keeping the lens focused on whose voices weren't being heard and how to support our staff
028to ensure their needs were met so our students can continue to grow from the Bea Chris you have our respect our gratitude and most importantly our thanks for what you accomplished while you were on the board and for what you will continue to do as a community leader in bavia thank you very much and then that's all I have for my comments tonight so I'm going to wrap it up and just say um I'd like to wish you all a very happy holiday season filled with peace joy and time spent with those that you love make the most of every opportunity that comes your way and have an amazing winter break and I will see you all in 2024 thanks thanks to thanks you're doing okay over there Chris you're doing okay all right next
029is Laura from Besa hi Laura okay so um it is an honor to introduce to you Mary labau um she is a dedicated special education par professional who has been an invaluable part of BPS 101 Community for the past 20 years her journey is one marked by Passion resilience and an unwavering commitment to help students overcome challenges Mary's career began at Early Childhood Center where where she spent an impressive 15 years in the instructional classroom her profound dedication to the program and the students there was undeniable however five years ago her journey took a new direction as she transitioned to hooverwood elementary school she embraced the role in the K2 developing opportunities also known as do classroom for two years followed by another two years in the three to five grade classroom this current year
030Mary has returned to the K2 Doo classroom developing opportunities program is a therapeutic instructional program designed for students in kindergarten through fifth grade who experience social emotional challenges that affect their school achievement classroom Behavior social skills and relationships with others the program is divided into two classrooms catering to the different age groups in her personal life Mary is a mother of three grown children each of whom graduated from BPS 101 her children have gone on to pursue diverse and meaningful paths one is a social worker in Alabama another is a third grade teacher at Louise White hi eron and also her son serves as a paramedic firefighter with the West Chicago Fire Department Mary's personal life is equally fulfilling she's been married to husband Greg for the past four and a half years they reside
031in Geneva they share their lives with her three stepchildren living in Florida and Tennessee and two beloved grandchildren whom they love to spend time with and to spoil together they find joy in attending sporting events country concerts and exploring new places one thing that Mary wishes more people understood is the vital importance of their roles in the programs that they support over the years Mary has witnessed the profound impact she's had on the lives of students parents of the past students often reach out to her sharing stories of the positive influence she's had on their children it is a testament to the dedication and unwavering support that she provides one of the most Cherished Memories throughout Mary's career has been witnessing students who graduated from self-contained do program thriving in the general education classroom this
032transition represents the ultimate success of the program and the students it serves however there is one aspect that Mary feels should change the compensation for par professionals after dedicating two decades of her life to BPS 101 Mary is currently making $20 and 61 cents for 20 years of service she believes there should be recognition and compensation for the years of service within the district particularly given the intensity and physical demands of her role dealing with challenging behaviors including scratching spitting kicking hitting punching biting are just a few that can be part of a daily routine for the par professional yet Mary and her colleagues persevere because they believe in the program and are committed to helping students succeed in closing Mary is more than a special education par professional she is an advocate a mentor
033and an inspiration her unwavering commitment to students and her desire to see them Thrive is evident in her dedication to her work her story is one of compassion resilience and the pursuit of excellence and education thank you for your outstanding service Mary you Laura according to our board policy we designate a p in the agenda as consent agenda for those items that are usually are usually repetitive and do not require extensive discussion before board action do committee reports oh yeah sorry thank you my vice president reminded me we need to do committee reports I jumped right over it I'm sorry anybody have committee reports for today Danielle did you have one yeah okay let me find gives everybody a chance to exit where' everyone go don't take it personally Chris doesn't want to sit through
034this yeah right he's like did it long enough what the heck time okay no it's okay um plaque met on November 16th I was not in attendance but from a notes um it seems that they've begun to strategize and produce their preliminary professional development planning with listing goals they'll continue with discussion and revision at the next meeting um discussion at the next meeting will also include BPS bpsu and its offerings that next meeting is scheduled for January 25th um Equity met on December 7th and the commune it definitely is having really productive conversations it's it's really exciting to hear them come together um the the last meeting kind of went over their priorities and focus of the group discuss what's going well what's not going well um within the district and there was honest and
035encouraging discussion behind that which was really nice to hear you know you have different points of views and everyone give allows the space and kind of feedback um there was a bit of time taken to find a way to bring the student voice to the group a lot of that was Logistics and what will feel comfortable for the kids we talk about equ Equity within the kids whether they can uh come to Something in person stream in what will they feel comfortable and safe with um so there's a lot of that to consider so um I think the next meeting will continue that conversation and I that will enable them to really decide what to focus on they want to hear student voices since everything is for the kids and decide what the main focuses
036are because I mean it's a long list of obviously different things but um they'll continue that conversation the next meeting is on February 1st I don't have as complete a report as that uh the insurance committee met and um I'll just say say we uh shared some good cheer and we reflected upon the past year and discussed uh the work ahead uh and so the next meeting will uh I'll probably have a little more substance as far as topics of discussion did I miss anything Tony that covers it okay not a comence that covers it Rob um I I don't have too much to share I I did uh attend the the last curriculum committee meeting and um was more listening and observing and learning um during that process so um getting the feet wet
037and getting going on it so it's a big topic yeah I just want to draw attention to the on on the BPS 101 website the stiping committee has a nice new page created there um it's really uh transparent helps with the knowledge I'd say covers the purpose statement the scope of their responsibilities DET telling the contract uh agreement also their guiding values and uh if you want to learn about the application process there's a nice Ro map explaining everything so it's really nice well done website or I should say page on our website it's underneath the groups section on the B website that's it all right uh rack meets later this week Thursday Thursday so uh we'll have an update at the next one can I go to consented J okay thank you sir all
038right according to a board policy we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion before bared action these items are generally retained recurring and can be grouped together for efficiency Steve would you like to share anything before we take action I don't know why I asked that as a question I will happily share oh thank you thank you sir the consent agenda with you uh 5.1 is the approval of the meeting minutes from November 14th 2023 5.2 is our monthly uh Personnel report 5.3 is our monthly payroll and bills uh 5.4 is our donations if you click into that there were four different donations um all sizable and appreciated from uh bavi Arts Council David and Alice verelli office dep Depot and beefy
039uh 5.5 is our board member expenses 5.6 is the approval to renew our student photography contract 5.7 is our special education contracts 5.8 is the approval of the 2425 academic calendar 5.9 um is the curricular material display which is right outside and 5.10 is the approval of the consent agenda anyone have any questions I um I think it might be appropriate if you wouldn't mind expanding on item five .7 yeah I mean uh I can share Carrie Rue came to uh cabinet um this was a cabinet level decision led by Tom Kim um with uh significant challenges uh at our high school with all of our specialized programs um we have entertained and tried to do a few things over the course of this year to uh get better staff there and we have not
040had great success um therefore she came to us with a concept cep of um utilizing some uh contracts with some outside agencies uh to give some context over the last few years we've done uh these sorts of contracts to um hire uh various specialized positions like psychologists uh social workers speech pathologists um uh certified School nurses uh all those sorts of things um and to uh meet the needs over at Pavia High School um we have uh brought this contract to you to get a couple of uh par professionals uh Carrie uh when she made this request um and we processed this in cabinet uh it was determined that uh the area of greatest need is bavia High School in addition um you are also going to be approving uh a a couple of uh
041staff members uh we're shifting kind of the structure of the program um because of a lack of staff and so we're actually hiring additional coach co-teachers um that will start January uh 8th um in an attempt again to uh better serve our kids so that's kind of the backstory of those um we certainly understand um how some may perceive this but uh one Central issue is that we have students who come into our buildings every single day and we need to meet their needs um and be properly staffed and so um we have to make these kinds of decisions I appreciate that I I know we've tried lots of things to get folks in here um so I appreciate it I also wanted to call out then on this Personnel report if I'm not right
042if I'm not right if I'm wrong there's three pair professionals leaving again in this month yes what are your thoughts on that as far as the need for replacement there we have to take the same route probably not necessarily um I'm not going to get into each individual's unique circumstances um but yeah it's it's anytime we lose uh any staff members in the midst of a school year it's obviously a big concern um we have continued to keep the positions posted um again when we're making decisions about where to allocate staff we really look at the greatest areas of need and uh so I can't necessarily say what will happen uh over at uh two of them I know were at Rolo one in early childhood um Early Childhood uh for whatever reason has been
043in very very good shape this entire school year with par professionals I think that uh that job um at the Early Childhood might be a little bit more uh appealing um to someone as opposed to working with uh larger students who uh have have maybe more significant needs um so not exactly sure I don't I don't when we uh we worked with our bestas association um on an agreement uh an Mo MOA to uh to to do the special education contracts and I believe we put in there up to four pair professionals um we have two um but like anything it's not like uh the Contracting agency has a list of 25 pair professionals that are available okay um we were actually very happy to scratch out too so we'll have to see where that
044goes I appreciate also the knowledge of the mo MOA with the with Besa yeah that makes sense it was a question I don't wasn't going to ask cross my mind I ask one other thing does anyone else have anything on on those two I do have feel so are these vacancies will they stay posted and be filled if they're filled then what happens with the contract do we have lots of needs we probably I think we're short 12 to 14 PA pros and so um that was a part of our agreement with Besa was that absolutely we will continue to keep these posted and we will hire as many people as we can I think it's a bit farfetched to think think that we' be replace all of our Paro positions um but certainly if
045we were able to get a handful of paros then we would allocate um staff uh PA Pros as needed to the greatest areas of need okay and what's the likelihood I I read in there about the um the rate for overtime what is the likelihood of that happening probably very low okay yeah because essentially their day runs you know their regular work day um I can't think of a whole lot of instances where they would be working any overtime um Beyond like an emergency situation where we had like maybe a shelter in place and had to wait several hours to get clearance and and get kids home when those things happen um you know that would be extraordinary unique but that might be something but the the body of their regular work by the nature
046of the position generally speaking does not require any overtime so just also as a clarification the $62,000 number is a grand total between these two correct I have not done the math but yeah looking at their hourly rates and what we anticipate their work year to be for half of the Year okay and that's a fully loaded rate with whatever they get paid because you're paying through an agency that's not their take-home per se it's their insurance and whatever else the agency covers for them that's the agency fee yeah okay thank you any anything else on this topic did you have another one I just want to throw out there the item 5.8 the academic calendar I peppered these gentlemen with questions about the calendar and there was a lot of really good really thought
047out um answers to my questions so I feel like it deserves a little bit more credit than just another line item you all put a lot of work into it I saw you worked with the the union members on it as well and um got a lot of insight to it so everything I was like but what about but what about they're like we can't because of this we can't because of that so um I I don't want to be a part of that process so don't ask me thank you all for doing that work with the calendar yeah one of the yes thank you one of the things I learned early on and because the block calendar system at least from my perspective kind of like forces you to have to end things at
048the high school level before you know Christmas and so that's a lot of what I learned anyway when I was going through this the first couple times that kind of pushes everything in a certain direction as well so but I will say I do concur that now that both of my boys are in college they were well prepared for their college life based on that kind of block schedule Arrangement even though they don't ever use a locker and haven't since middle school so it's different okay any other questions on any other items before I entertain a motion thank you very much I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so move second motion by RJ second by Aaron this an all in favor or we doing roll call uh nope Cindy
049please leave us in a roll call Vote Yes Yes Meadow yes yes thank you very much motion passes Tom is there anything to share under reports or would you includ share items of are report yeah I'll start with uh for Foya there are no Foya requests to report the and then moving on to our Treasures report yep Treasures report Tony I'm I'm leaping to a conclusion it's going to be you it's yeah um yes it's me and uh nothing out of the ordinary to report the standard investment report and uh revenues and expenditures and fund balances are that okay enrollment projections enrollment projection I will give you some highlights enrollment did decline last year or excuse me this year compared to last year uh and is continued the trend although I it is what's notable
050is is that we actually have more students enrolled this year than we had otherwise expected given our projection model so as a matter of fact there are more kindergarteners here than we would have otherwise expected that were born in King County and there's a number of reasons why that might be the case we don't exactly know for certain but a lot of it we believe has to do with the housing market there could be some variance of course too in the number of students that happen to be born and reside in bavia U but overall we see that as a good sign there's about 50 more kindergarteners than we would have otherwise expected 50 did you have a question 5 Z 5 Z yeah and they weren't equally peppered across the district where they they
051are they they they're they don't don't ever show up in uh equal dispersions uh that's never the case they're always clumped and they're usually clumped in the places that you would least have where you have the least room uh so uh but we do hope that you know that's an interesting turn we we do hope that it continues all said however enrollment will continue to decline next year they're just as I like to say we're not manufacturing as many as we used to we graduate classes of over 500 students and there's only about 300 50 or so give or take that are coming in behind them so enrollment obviously goes down then there's not that many students moving into the district in a given year to offset that decline we do believe that given birth
052rates as they are right now that enrollment will stabilize over the next 5 years at about 5,000 students and the declines that we will see will primarily take place at the high school as those smaller classes enter the high school so this graph that's shown here that yellow bar you see the yellow components of the bar graph getting smaller and smaller those are high school enrollments you can see that roughly speaking the green and blue bars are about the same those are middle school and Elementary School enrollments so um interesting data now can I add I believe that what you referenced that I believe two years ago was the largest graduating class that bavia high school had in its history so that was a spike that we had so that's not the norm to have
053that many students and it's all downhill from there for the for downhill from there in terms of new enrollments um if you scroll down just a wee bit please Holly this just a breakdown of of who is coming to us when they enroll just a little bit more get to the bottom of this table we'll see that roughly um seven or eight% of the students coming to us that are new have uh IEPs special needs needs 30% low income and 25% um are not necessarily English speakers and so uh what's interesting is those numbers and for non-english speakers are increasing primarily due to what's happening across the world students have different needs and so we keep an eye on those things so that we can continue to um make adjustments so that we meet students
054needs as they're coming to us and um if you scroll down just to the very bottom Holly there's a blue bar graph right right here or line graph these are the uh the live births in K County over the last 10 years so you can see how much smaller when I say we're not manufacturing as many as we used to we're not you know birth rates were over 9,000 in K County uh 10 years ago and now they're just over 6,300 so things are changing this is the first one though I can remember that there was actually actually a discussion or statement about stabilization yeah right because the talk over years even during the referend and others people were talking about if it's declining declining declining like it's almost like at some point they thought
055it was going to hit zero right you know so knowing that it's interesting that the language is starting to morph into stabilization is good to know what the future holds is anybody's guessed but you know we're just looking at the trends right all right we can move on to the financial forecast which is the next item on the agenda we also Thunder sorry about that unless there's other questions about the enrollment report it feeds in of course into the financial forecast obviously student enrollment is a key component of our um the resources needed and required to educate students and so that's obviously an important thing in terms of highlights been saying for for several years now um we are in a much better fiscal position than we were uh even 5 years ago uh the
056the district has a higher credit rating with a standard and poor and we have to maintain credit ratings for our for our bonds so so that individuals or organizations that wish to invest and buy our bonds they have to understand what our credit creditor worthiness is and our ability to repay and so that has improved in recent years and we've also significantly improved our fund balances our fund balances that in the spring we had to issue tax anticipation warrants because we run out of cash we weren't able to make payroll or pay our bills we had to borrow money to make that before the taxes came in looking at all the based on all the assumptions what's happening in the economy and looking at a revenue sources we do believe that budgets will remain balanced
057until 2028 however in 2029 we anticipate a a deficit and the key drivers of that are increased costs for Staffing it would also um increase costs for purchase Services we rally very heavily in this District on Outsourcing um transportation food service and um custodial and those contracts with the inflationary pressures that we Face elsewhere in the economy are driving those contracts up as well and we also faced uh increased costs and and needs for maintaining our facilities and so we're Bing some of those contributions for maintaining those schools into these into these ections we're in fact increasing them by 15% annually so if all continues on this current Trend you know unless we're very careful uh we are likely to see a a deficit in 2029 um this assumes that we're not hiring any more
058staff in fact it's assuming that we make some reductions in staff proportional to student enrollments um but it also knows to it does consider uh that the next one of the next big costs that are coming for us is negotiations with besta and uh and increase in terms of uh wages and salaries for individuals in that particular EMB bargaining unit so uh if you scroll down just a little bit Holly we'll see a graphical representation of that please thank you going down you can see this is what's projected you can see the that yellow bar that kind of stretches across that yellow line it stretches across the bars is our fund balance and while it is increasing it the rate of increase slowly tapers off to the point where it actually starts turning downward in
059the other direction in 29 the blue bars represent revenues the green bars represent expenditures and the blue stands proud over the green until 29 if we scroll down just a little bit more Holly will see the history over the last five years which includes this year and you can see that the with the green bars are much taller than the excuse me the blue bars are much taller than the green bars and the pandemic has been good to us in that sense we avoided a lot of costs during the pandemic we didn't spend as much money on Transportation uh during lockdown a lot of the activities ceased and so there was a lot of things that didn't happen then we also had received a lot of money from the feds to support us and particularly
060for food service and um responding to the pandemic and the like and now those funds are are going away and those costs are coming back with the the full force of inflation and so you can see that it's changing pretty quickly our essentially our expenditures are growing much faster than our revenues and so we'll need to be careful um and the other thing is is that we cannot expect more money from anybody else other than from local taxpayers unfortunately we're in tier four of the evidence-based funding formula which means that we exceed 100% of funding adequacy for our students needs and so from the stakes the state of Illinois purview we don't need additional money here in Pavia uh and from the feds we will get more money each year from the feds but not
061anything appreciable basically the bottom line is every new dollar that we have here in bavia is going to come from local property taxpayers that's not a situation that's unique in bavia but it it we definitely feel the pressure here in bavia and we'll talk more about that in a little bit when we talk about the tax levy but that said um you have this slide in here that we were looking at with the breakdown of the 82% is that that's coming that comes up in the um we'll talk about that in the tax levy but yes 81% of all of our Revenue comes from local property tax payers yes I'd happy to answer any questions that you have about the financial forecast then at this time it would appear thanks toy I I'll just say
062it looks good I mean when you start getting out five or six years I'm guessing five years ago when you did this forecast you didn't anticipate what have a pandemic and so things are going to happen that we can't foresee exactly so it's good to go out that far but it's just sort of like it's important to see where the Contour it's where the trends are going but you're good but you're not that good so yeah he's close he's close I'm just saying like obviously it's concerning to say we might have a deficit 2029 but there's things are going to change between now and then will impact those yeah we could have more money we could have less is it's difficult to tell of all the assumptions hold which they certainly will not there'll be
063there'll be some variance right so I'm just starting to say like yes it's something to keep an eye on but I wouldn't be overly concerned about that at this point is that accurate I would say that's accurate yes thank you okay thank you very much next is the several action items we have first one on the table is adoption of the warm safe and dry facilities maintenance plan Tony Tony are you kicking us off on this and yeah this going be for it a tag team or remarkable as Podium and I can tell he's dying to get up there he's excited yeah um we talked about this uh uh a in um in October um and um we took your feed back and kept talking about it and we're trying to present information to you
064in such a fashion that it is um helps you see how all the elements fit together um Mark and his team are in the midst of What's called the 10-year Life Safety survey and that is a required survey that we have to do every 10 years and that that survey will be complete but there are some things that we already know that will have uh pretty considerable costs that we're aware of right now that we've added here those that would make up category one which are the mandatory safety items and Mark can give you some more details on those if you're interested um the majority actually all of those are fire fire alarm related you say that again fire alarm related so between devices boards stuff that's l absolute having difficulty getting replacement parts for
065them all that other good stuff yep okay the second category of items are what we call warm and dry and they were identified as Priority One and essential items that need to be addressed in our Master facilities plan when we were doing that those items were identified and some cases as early as 2018 2019 school year and they have been on our list for some time and they're getting to the the point where um we we can't ignore them any longer is that a fair statement the third item is safe entries that's the one component of the things on this list which we would consider to be optional in terms of how we want to approach them um there are the safe entries the only two schools remaining that do not have safe entries or
066vestibules is our HC Storm school and Louise White School um the way that those schools are configured and given their age um the work and the costs associated with putting safe entries on those schools is significant estimated to be some 12 a half plus million dollars uh because it requires considerable work inside the building we looked at um other options where we could add on to the school and those costs were more than twice um of what you see here and it's just Out Of Reach for us um with our with our finances uh the challenge with those safe entries however is that if we were to decide to move forward with them you wouldn't of course turn around and tear those school down schools down and rebuild them as was recommended in our Master
067facilities plan so if we were to move forward with these safe entries it would not be prudent to do so if you plan to rebuild those schools the challenge here however for the board is that the amount of work as you can see with 125 million is substantial and requires a significant degree of planning and engineering and architecture there's lead time involved in doing so so if we were to start today the earliest that work would be finished would be not the coming school year but the school year following and we cannot delay long any longer if we want that work to happen on that timeline so that's why we're here with this decision now now this uh and then then there's general maintenance items which are priority to maintenance items it's a significant amount
068of money but other things that is need to be done for the well uh for good upkeep of our schools and then fifth being functional improvements there is no dollar amount there because we just wanted to make sure it was clear that none of the work here in this plan to keep our schools warm safe and dry would actually functionally impove improve the learning environment for students or for staff this is just so to speak keeping the lights on and keeping the school warm and safe um the in terms of funding this you see a dollar amount there total some $48 million this really should be thought of as a framework uh because when we dig into these projects and work with our Architects and Engineers to make them happen we might need to repackage
069them in different ways based off of the the the conditions that exist in the schools or the timing of things um and we expect that these costs will escalate over time so these are this is $48 million in today's dollars and this is a plan that would take five years for us to fully Implement so those costs of course would escalate with inflation as we would otherwise expect in terms of being able to fund it there'd be two pots essentially that would fund this work one would be existing fund balance it be about roughly speaking in round numbers $25 million from our fund balances we just talked about earlier and we've been adding to that pot but half of the the fund balance would go toward this work the other would be from our operating
070budget we talked earlier about increasing those annual allocations by 15% so over those five years we' increase our operating budget and allocations in that operating budget for capital projects by 15% each year and that would get us very near the total of some $52 Million worth of work that we're considering this doesn't preclude us from considering a referendum in the future so that's certainly a possibility and that's available to the board we don't have to make that decision tonight but the decision we are asking you to make is we've got a lot of projects that are very expensive that really just can't wait anymore and in particular if we want to put safe entries on these schools at storm and Louis in a the next two years uh the time we need to start now
071Mark I kind of stole your thunder there I'm sorry that's okay get picture you've seen a lot of the pictures I know so the other thing the safe entries does include um because to do that work um in those buildings you'll be shifting things around to make that work we also include the kindergarten in there too kind of anticipating that for when full day kindergarten comes on so that is included in this as well for people that are going to watch this online could you just share an overview like when you walk into those two schools what that looks like because I've been in both and it is sort of not what you'd expect walking into a modern school it is not what you'd expect when you walk into a moderate School Mark no so
072when you walk into those schools you don't walk directly into the office area you basically walk into well depending on which school you're at um the cafeteria is either on the left or your right or you can go into you know a hallway into other classrooms if you go to the right or your left if you walk straight a distance then you have to then enter the office so really it's more of an open concept when you walk in now there are things in place you don't just walk in the door you have to buzz in um things like that but when Tony talked about a secure vestibule at all the other schools when when you you have to buzz in and you walk into either a vestibule and then get buzzed into another door
073then you enter into the office um that is not the case at storm or Louise we wouldn't call them unsafe right but they're not ideal they require different procedures and um um it's just not how things work in today's times or how they should work so it's something that we do need to address any comments or questions this is a big one I have a lot of comments and a lot of questions but I'm willing to let other people go first Stu they want I think that let me sorry let me talk a little bit about timeline we talked about oh yeah go for it good idea um we did guson and JB Nelson that timeline was very very tight that project's about a third of the size square footage as these projects would be
074um if we were to say we're going to do this plan on January 9th I would be contacting our Architects and engineers and the planning would be done um that's how quick and it will take basically that timeline is to plan and then we would want to get this out to bid in October time frame and bring it to you in November probably the latest on be comfortable with lead time items and things like that because we're not building a new building we're going into a building that's about 46 years old so you don't know exactly what you're getting into so you want to have some time and some contingencies built in place for those unforeseen conditions so that's why the timeline's important because basically less from well 10 months from right now as we
075would be going out to bid for the summer of is um I've got just one question to lead ask as many questions as you want I understand the timing on it as far as if we want it done by a certain date what's driving the statement that you made Tony that we can't wait any longer if well that's the Assumption well there's two parts of that we can't wait any longer we we can wait on the safe entries that's just a function of whether or not we're comfortable with that we heard from the community and the master planning process which we started in 2017 that this was an important and very highly urgent item and we've been building a plan trying to float a referendum it didn't come to fruition and now we're at a
076crosswords we have to make a decision is so what we're going to do there items one two and four those can't wait anymore we need to start working on taking care of our school facilities so that they remain warm safe and dry and Mark can give you more details but we Face daily issues with our HVAC systems um or and Plumbing Systems um you know we talked in October we showed you pictures of the the domestic piping at JB Nelson it's galvanized pipe and it's at far beyond the end of its life and we're just one leak away from catastrophe when when it comes to uh flooding for in that in that building we literally have to bust open concrete walls whenever something starts to leak and it's it's not a good situation to be
077in we we just can't bury our head in the sand anymore and pretend like these things are going away it's time to take care of them in that part I recognize the one three the one two and four I'm still not understanding the crossroads that we're at is it we're tired of waiting and we just want to do something no this is us simply saying if the expectation is is that to put safe vestibules on those two schools in particular and it's to do it in a timely fashion if we wanted to do it not for next school year but the one following we have to make a decision very soon okay I get and if we don't make a decision understand what you're saying it's going to be another school year Beyond okay I
078give thank you it was hard for me to grasp for some reason so um go ahead with your questions Aon I've got more but I'll see if you cover them okay well you took my first one so when I was reviewing this I came up with four questions with sub questions but the first why is it necess necessary to do this at this time which we've just answered and if we're looking at what we're proposing to doing fire alarms warm and dry so when our kids are school they're comfortable safe entries I I don't think anyone could argue that that's we'd be negligent if we weren't addressing those primary needs in our buildings these are not extravagances by anyone's definition so and we went through the referendum process twice because if you would have got
079different results these would have been addressed so we gave the community a chance to weigh in a larger context on those Vates and they spoke and I respect the community decision but now these these remain and we have to address them so that's why I feel it's urgent to do it now and because of what Mark said it's not like you snap your fingers and they start construction it's a very long process to do it right so that was my first question my second question is and Tony answered this is how do we fund it and are we living within our means because $48 million is a lot of money that's for the most part the community's dollars that we're spending we take that very seriously we don't spend $1 without giving it careful consideration
080and so Tony answered it by saying that it would basically a split of fund balance and operating budget I would like to ask we are retiring bonds we're paying 9.1 this year we'll pay n but when they PID off every time I say it's 9. actually 8.99 we'll talk about that account but anyways I'm saying we are going to have fun that debt service from no longer rep part so will that free up no no okay sorry no that was important unfortunately when you issue Bonds in the way that we that taxing Authority goes away once the bonds are paid um all right that answers that question but we are living within our means to do this this won't stress us to the point where if something else happened within a reasonable scale we would
081be incapable of responding correct okay uh I wanted to ask this question what are the consequences if we don't vote move forward on this the very first consequence is is that we could not reasonably um Begin work on those safe Estes for storm and Louise for the the school the 25 school year it would be 26 at the earliest that we could do that work I mean by law I mean I required to do the fire alarms or is that uh yeah we will be yeah so we don't have a choice on that you don't no that's happening no matter what okay well I'm just saying it's not like that's about space function Firearms you you have two choices of fire alarms you either wait till it breaks and then you're in trouble and you
082can't have a building or you get ahead of it as manely aware you know as close as you can get to it and that's where we're at what I'm hearing right you know and then my fourth question is if we didn't has this what would be alternative Solutions and would that be another referendum or just hoping nothing breaks alternative Solutions here other than item three is crossing your fingers and praying as we've been kind of punting on these waiting to see the resolution of these referendums for since 1819 he said right so it's not like this is just came out of nowhere like we've known it but we said well we're going to put this together and see what the community says those are my questions I have comments but if other people have questions
083how' you do how do you do RJ or Rob I just you didn't ask any of the questions I had okay Rob I just I just have a comment on this um first uh I commend Tony for uh this plan and uh having a plan to execute these items and I know it's although he said it in a couple sentences I know a lot of work went into um developing how we would uh pay for this so um I think it's right now we got to do this he's got a plan um to get us there to to pay for this and I don't see any reason to wait on any of these items to follow on with that I I appreciate the the accolades thank you um but Mark Des them more than I
084do he's the one who Combs through all these fine details I just made it look pretty here um but this is this has been um marks I'm sorry it doesn't really look all that pretty does you like those numbers yeah that's why not those numbers but just you enjoy numbers that's why it looks pretty to you but Mark Mark and his team did all did all the real work here so get you a birthday card with numbers all over it I would appreciate that be you have more questions I have comments do you have comments I don't have questions I want just a comment you know regarding number five the functional improvements I know that's a concern for for a lot of our community um but you know we do have amazing staff um and
085I I as much as it hurts to say that we can't do anything for number five and I don't want to put everything on our staff but I feel personally confident that we have enough within their abilities you know to to support the curriculum and the majority of our staff meets or exceeds you know in in their areas and so I'm confident our kids will receive wonderful education even without their being anything under number five it it hurts still though it's really concerning but I I I kind of fall back on that so that's just a comment so it's a bummer but um yeah I've got I don't know how many questions I have but I do have some comments as well so thank you so I visited JB Nelson and I saw the work
086that was done there before I make any comments on that I just want to make sure that I'm correct according to the chart to the plan 1.1 million was what was spent on the work that was done at JB Nelson correct the new vestibules that's incorrect isn't it yeah the the total for the new vestibules at storm and Louise I total right about 4.5 million no AGS that JB Nelson was 2 million AGS the we packaged them together so it's tough to pull apart on on the sheet it says 1.1 I don't know what you're refering yeah that's the capital projects Master list yeah that's this year so it's it's it just shows this fiscal year it doesn't show last fiscals year so there was another amount for it was 800,000 for last year so
087then when you combine those basically it was 2 million giv is about 4 million total between the two schools okay across the fiscal years that's why it's split up funny on that chart okay so I've got a lot of thoughts on this and my I the the thing that I would love to really see and the thing that I think is missing from this picture is hearing from the public on other proposals and I'll what led me to this was at a at uh at JB Nelson when we first had the referendum we had $5 million slated for that school and we had six areas of concern out of those six areas of concern as far as I can tell we addressed one control of main entrance we had space utilization and functional adequacy classroom
088for Science and Hands-On learning suitable spaces to serve students with special needs age playground equipment age mechanical systems and lighting was control of main entrance the only thing that was addressed so my thought process here is I would love to have the public see what our opportunity lost is I heard you for year say let's not throw good money after bad and as much as I love the idea of securing the schools right away if we're gonna if we're going to put aside let's say 20 million if we're going to put 10 million per school with items one two and three for HCS and at one point we're asking for 35 million per school if that is funding is available would it not make sense to ask to see if a referendum for 25 million
089for one school would pass am I am I logic am I making sense here or does that not track uh so I want to see how I understand what you're saying you're saying what if we float a referendum to pay 25 million per school for for those two schools or yeah so 50 million in total if that's where we decide to go or one school at a time per referendum um I remember very clearly the the representative for the vote no campaign said if we had a smaller itemized referendum they would support it detailing what we're looking to do we've now got those details out this is much more detailed information than we had when we were first doing uh the referendum the six light items and the the opportunity that we lost at AG
090at JB Nelson I think is very important to know that those five things are not anywhere near getting addressed in this in this plan they're not even on in scope so I'm just wondering if the public saw what is wanting to be done at each school if we had the money versus what we are going to settle for because that's what we're doing we're settling here if they saw that would they then vote for taking money out of their own Pockets to fund the opportunity for these students that's I'm just wondering that's that's where my mind's at with this so do you just as a part of a dialogue so do you see that those that you couldn't do this while still highlighting those inadequacies or the things that didn't happen so that if there
091is a question later about why these things aren't occurring that that presents a a discussion point for a potential I think the logical way to do that would be to delay the timing if we're at a point where we need to have HC Storm and and we need to start making those calls for those two schools in January that we move something from 2027 into 20 2025 I'm not sure exactly what it would be but um some of the things that are later that are smaller items I mean the HVAC that needs to be done unless I'm wrong is is like $300,000 some of the some of the or the fire I'm sorry the fire alarms $332,000 it's it's not anywhere near the the almost 10 million per school I'll add a little bit more
092I'm sorry to keep I don't mean to be on a so box here the locked entrance the vestival with the the sight line at jbn was great the new office was great the storage looked amazing they had more storage but then I looked over the side and they still had had an old filing cabinet there I'm like why is it there they said well because this storage unit filing cabinet was actually up against a a pole like this so it was it was false it was a false front because of aesthetically that's what they they said it was an aesthetic decision to have in a fake front instead of just pull the drawer out to give more storage space I'm not sure where that came from but it was there's just a lot of Miss
093steps there there are there's doors that were taken off in the hallway for some reason there were old fire doors that would close if there was a fire you would push a button the doors would close if the fire alarm went off those are gone so the front area where the security was done it's so secure you could push a button the door is lock in the front if you're in the back of the school if you're in the cafeteria you don't have those measures you don't have that security like you like you would have had um they the teachers are currently using the closet the janers closet closet for their Lounge because of the amount of sections of kindergarteners and first graders they had they voted together they talked together about not wanting to
094have a Mobile Music believe it was so they gave their Lounge up so that the students had a music classroom I just I feel like we're we could do better than what we're doing and if we go with this plan that we're just going to see more and more examples of this at other schools I mean we already know that it's like this at other schools and it's not going to go away and a learning environment that is a Teachers Lounge versus teachers now working out of a closet where they have a microwave and a small little fridge I mean I just I I would love to as much as I hate it because I've been part of this for years I would love to just take a break think about what we could actually
095do with the public and ask them what their opinion is that's where I'm at okay now I have my opinion I'll share it's a different opinion and I respect RJ's thoughts first of all if we vote Yes for this this doesn't preclude us from future referendums I think the only thing it limits us to is tearing down HC Storm and Luis white because we wouldn't want to invest all this money but based off the conversations I've had for the last two years even though I believe that is The Prudent thing to do and I wish you know I advocated I mean personally I advocated for that that was the financially responsible thing to do that is a concept that is just mentally people might understand it but in their heart and their guts they just
096can't get behind it what I would keep hearing is my house house is 50 years old and I don't tear it down to build a new one I remodel so I think the community spoke in two referendums we had one that was basically a coin flip the second one that failed by a larger margin so I feel that we've been waiting on these things for four or five years we're talking about fire alarms keeping our students warm and comfortable and someone made a comment to me that maybe the only place that some of our kids feel warm and dry is at school and we're not even really fulfilling that right now to the best of our ability and then safe entry so my kids go to JB Nelson RJ and I thought about that a
097lot and as we know a referendum is a very slow methodical process that has no guarante and um unfortunately in the world we live in right now uh violence is a part of our daily lives and so well the I can't say that these entries would make it uh immune to any tragedy that could happen uh I would have a very hard time sleeping if we've gone through this process because when did the 2018 is when we started this process for the referendum right when we started the master plan process we started looking at this initially in 2017 and that had a wide swath of input from the community you were part of that other I think rob you were part of that so I'm not saying we don't continue to listen to our voices
098but I feel like we've done our due diligence engaging the public these were priorities I feel like the community to me says warm safe and dry safe and secure yes we behind that we want to spend money on that now learning spaces or the evolution of Education that's a diff difficult more difficult question to ask there's a lot of different opinions on that I feel like my second question do we have the ability to fund this uh is it in our budget and can we do it without hamstring us so that if anything unforeseen happens we're unable to react I feel it's our physical Duty now to do this so that we can get these projects started immediately and then when we have the Strategic plan that Tom is working on so hard at that
099point if we decide to address these other needs so this is not precluding us from doing other things at JB Nelson HD storm at uh at Lis white what we're doing is make it safe and warm and dry and more sec with money that we have that we can spend that we can do it and we're living within our means so I think the time to act is now because uh we're not done listening to the community I have a hunch people we might have a referendum down the road and it will address other needs but these are primary core needs that I think the community has spoken on that we value that we want to make sure that we are at a minimum providing for our students and families and teachers and staff and
100so I I I feel personally that it's my obligation to vote for this so that we can move forward to satisfy those needs any other comments I was just wondering 20 what am I wrong that you had mentioned that the numbers here are good if we don't hire any new faculty am I just dreaming that that that you said that that on the financial forecast yeah yeah those numbers assume that we're not hiring additional we're not adding FTE to our current numbers with one exception ft stands for fulltime equivalence so thank you for pointing that out meaning you know full-time people who work for us full-time uh the one exception is kindergarten we did bake into that assumption that we would have to hire six kindergarten teachers to implement the full day kindergarten requirement in
1012027 okay did you make a comment that it did kind of put into place um the thought process of the best by contract yes I okay I heard that okay all right so um from my perspective um and most everybody knows I kind of do this stuff living um I personally live in fear of something catastrophic happening that is we're in here next week talking about how we're trying to figure out how to free up $3 million to do a roof or shut down a school that just happened at a school district recently that they had to go borrow another school that was not being used from another school district to get kids in it and we're the ones that are supposed to be able to try to help figure that out and and provide
102guidelines to the staff and to the to the um Administration and to the teachers and to the kids and everybody else that we have to do that um I I think like I I want to look at these in my head as like a as like a like you guys have framed it as a priority and and we were in rack talking about some of this and I wanted to know because my primary question and I'm glad everybody discussed it a bit is you know we recognize the fact that if we go down this road the likelihood of rebuilding those two schools and demoing them is sailed so now we're taxed with not F literally but we are taxed with how to figure out how to do that so one of my questions on the
103safe entries one is this construction is are you anticipating it's going to go beyond a summer or because it's twice the square footage that you're trying to get done in about the same amount of time yeah it would be highly doubtful that it would be done in the summer right and it's mainly because of really there's no second shift labor force right if you you want to get this done it's one shift so you can kind of piece it together a couple different ways but in early talks looking at this we'd piece it together get the safe entry done get the office configuration done that would shift around those two classrooms at those buildings but you would leave out um some of the kindergarten pieces um because it all ties in with plumbing um Plumbing
104takes a little bit longer um because you're connecting things so that would get pushed down and the reason that would work is how where the full day kindergarten is at um so that's how you would look at re you know kind of putting that over two summers you can't do this work during the school year okay right um I think Mark there was also the discussion at HC Storm the site improvements would be going through the start of the school year correct right is that still if there was s in you know the the whole site improvements being done um you could do that at a different piece that could be a a project on its own um you know the trade packages are completely different than what's inside the school so you could do
105that separate I mean now probably wouldn't be the most convenient for students and staff there but you could do that during the year you would have to get a temporary entrance and you'd have to move things around but from the timing standpoint in our in the discussions we've all been part of there's no way to do that simultaneously through the summer to be completed no okay I just want to make sure that was clear we noted that work here yeah my point is there's going to be some operational challenges at the buildings to do that um I'll add to that that I also work in the construction industry I'm in schools quite a bit and I've been in a lot of schools where work is ongoing and it's not ideal but it's manageable kids are
106resilient they figure it out the the workers are consider it they get a schedule in high school when the ones I've been in the bell's going to ring in 5 minutes everyone gets off there ladders they clear out they go have a smoke or whatever they're doing they let the kids off campus I'm sorry whatever they're doing but any I'm saying is they're not really in the hallways they know they make it passable and they work around it and the kids it's not ideal but they adjust yeah yeah I think in those cases there's something to be said about when people see the construction and something being built in in the name of educating them there's that we can deal with this well we know what's we know the end game and I think that's
107a difference from when kids know coming in during the winter some of the UN events might not be working so they might have to be wearing their coats because the classroom might get a little cold right extra cold that's not towards the end game of anything other than they're hoping someone's going to come and fix that so it's working it's a nice sentiment but it's not in the name of Education though right that's my point and there's a different I think uh student efficacy in terms of getting through a construction site site work when they know something's being built right they know that the end goal is to to facilitate or help them in some way as opposed to what's we don't know if it's going to get fixed tomorrow sort of thing so to
108to kind of finish like mandatory safety items we'd be borderline negligent not to do right borderline it's not a legal terminology here I'm just saying we really got to take a hard look at that warm and dry would if we don't decide to do it someone will make us do it be highly likely um and dry I'm kind of in that same boat I kind of really have a not a hard time because I know we need to do it but it's a harder decision to make about the safe entries just because that's really where we're putting the stamp on it that any work we're going to do at those two buildings is going to be more of this kind of operational impacts future Renovations even if we do package that as a referendum question
109later that's the hard part of this decision for me it's a fork in the road for us I feel like yep in a way in that regard on those on that decision yeah and then the general maintenance you know that has to occur to a certain extent but I understand they're lower priorities and and these are things that I know as Tony said earlier as fund balances adjust and firm up that components are going to slide up and down the scale of getting done or not done so we could you know that number four right there could turn into number five with two dashes in it if we have to based on market economies and whatever else you know so number two too right so I mean it's it's it's a tough it's a tough
110challenge um I said a while ago when the referendum didn't pass in particularly the second side is well the easy route just evaporated this is the hard route and we're in the middle of it and I I I wholeheartedly agree with you RJ I think I think we did the best we could and the staff and everybody else did the best they could at educating people but I don't think they know what they I don't think they fully comprehended like what the impact is going to be financially even about having to renovate as opposed to build new and everything else because you like you said like they just couldn't I had a conver long conversation with somebody at one of the meetings and they just couldn't quite wrap their head around why these buildings weren't
111good enough to just renovate so um so I mean from my end I'll just let my vote kind of speak for itself but I'm just acknowledging that this is just probably one of the harder decisions I've had to make right while being on the board and I don't want um and I again I don't want to demean or you know I have a different opinion perhaps than you but um I mean of course my decision is formed off of uh since I've been on the board a lot of Engagement so uh and we don't spend like I said dollar one cavalierly it's a hard decision to spend any dollars on any of this stuff but um I feel at a certain point part of our responsibility is to act uh after getting input I feel
112like we have gotten inut at this point so yeah I appreciate your opinion I I feel like yes or no you're winning and you're losing Agreed 100% And and your comments for me at least were well takeen I think it should be kind of like made aware of what some of these challenges are and things so that if there's a referendum question coming up later that the job of that will be to put some money in line item number five to make the process a bit less complicated or arduous for our students and staff so okay any other questions or any other information to add okay I will entertain a motion to award the 2024 bavia high schools wait wait did go too far did damn it I will entertain a motion to adopt the
113warm safe drive facility maintenance plan as presented so moved second motion by RJ second by Rob I'm Aon D on it I'm not I'm off today Aaron thanks Aaron um Cindy we please lead us in a roll call vote sorry guys I'm having a hard time here um yes hbert yes no Meadows yes thank you very much motion passes good discussion thank you everybody appreciate all right Mark let's get to the thing I tried to vote on earlier so try to move forward on that one yeah yeah um this is really kind of the third month of this discussion out the action um last month I talked about that this was part of the bid process um this is mainly the exterior maintenance of the Fine Art Center and the Fieldhouse the one piece that's
114interior is the lighting in the Fieldhouse um so you will have trade packages for this um you'll see them in appendix a but uh the trade packages are masonary painting Roofing that's your Exterior Roofing is a small piece it's B mainly um Gutter and downspout work and then the electrical is your interior work for lighting so this is really maintaining those buildings um it's outside maintenance yeah the price tag is high but when you're that far up in the air it quadruples the price very quickly for um you know lifts um protection of everything around the building from when you're painting um also the piece in here is there's allowances built into those bid prices of $55,000 um those allowances are really for unforeseen things that come up is that overall or is that individual
115sorry that's overall so it's 20 for masonary and 20 for painting but it it totals 55 ,000 um so let's say nothing comes up which normally doesn't happen but if nothing comes up that $55,000 would not be spent um so I mean this is the Mason area is the highest one but that's all the cocking all the filling of the joints or the crack and the pre-cast walls so that's that piece I don't know if you have any other questions so lamp reviews and meets with the contractors to do scoping right yep lamp you know reviews all these with the four trade packages okay y anybody have any specific questions yes just to clarify again we we have a plan in in the budget to pay for this yep okay yep this is part of
116the um capital projects plan and this is all summer work right yes this will be this summer any lead time issues on anything that we there is not any leite ement issues which is amazing that I can actually I'm on that right now don't I heard him knock on the table so jinxing ourselves is what he's thinking right now you know protecting I got my rabbit's foot in my pocket here I'm rubbing it so yeah okay all right anybody have any questions for them appreciate the diligent kind of process of bringing us along and kind of talking about each one I think that's a bit of a shift from what has kind of happened in the past and I appreciate the deeper knowledge about it so and Mark I do want to compliment you I
117mean you're a softspoken guy but it's pretty rare for me to be at any event and you're there I mean first day of school you're there you're at event I mean you're present nobody knows our grounds better than you do in the district so I appreciate all the work you and thought you put into this appreciate you saying that I second second that great call out it's not it's not a formal action here that what we're voting on MAR is a nice guy yes motion passes 5 Z okay I'll just make sure I'm reading the right one this time I will entertain a motion to award the 2024 Tavia High School summer Improvement project bids as listed in appendex a as presented so Move Motion by Aaron second by RJ Cindy please lead us in
118a roll call Vote Yes pass yes AR yesil yes sler yes motion passes thank you next item is uh 2023 tax levy presumably Tony will lead us again presumably Brad did volunteer willing Brad's got this so uh we will start this off with we call a public hearing or members of the public can I present the the details about the levy public will have an opportunity to ask questions although I'm not sure anybody looks like wants to do that this evening after we conclude the public hearing then the board will have an opportunity to deliberate upon the levy and then take action upon it um what's not usual about this Levy process for us this year and last year is that we have to hold this public hearing it's a it's a we have to
119we have to comply with the truth and Taxation law and the reason being is because we're our our Levy or ask exceeds 5% more than what we collected last year so we're um if the excess is more than 5% uh then we have to publish notice in the paper we have to hold a public hearing and the board has to have an opportunity to formally listen to the public before they adopt the levy uh and the reason why our Levy is as high as it is is because of inflation uh when it comes to how the levy Works we're in K County King County has what's called the property tax extension liability law or limitation law not liability law limitation law which is commonly referred to as the tax cap and so we're limited to
120our extension by 5% or CPI whichever is less we all know that inflation been pretty high in the last couple years and so we're Limited at that 5% with new construction that are added is added on to our tax roles our ask is 5.9% so on this public hearing I'm just going to give you some kind of high level mechanics of what's happening when we're adopting a tax levy and where we've been in terms of history from tax rates and property taxes and where we're likely to be in the future because as we've been talking about with the referendum tax rates are going down we're paying off our bond and interest and what impact does that have on my property taxes so hly if you would mind pulling up that slide deck I'd appreciate it
121one question while you're doing that since it's one of the questions on there the $90 increase is that post like is there a net or like from a the bonds falling off is that $90 above that or is that $90 without consideration of the bond $90 all in including the bonds so as uh Aon asked earlier the 9.1 when we're were talking about the referend the reason why you remember that 9.1 is we talked about 9.1 is the regular bill that we have and it has been for a long time this is the first year where we actually see it decline just a little bit bit went from 9.1 to 8.9 so it's actually the amount of we're going to pay off for those that Bond and interest payment is going to go down by
1223.6% now it only represents 99.6% of school taxes but it's going down just slightly so your taxes are still going to go up this year they're just not going to go up as much as they would have with that $300,000 that we're not otherwise paying but they're going to go down next year that payment is going to be haved next year and then the year after that it's gone we'll have paid off all those bonds our ability to tax for them goes away and then tax rates go down and I'll show you a graphic of that in just a little bit thanks but I do want this to be informational so if you do have questions please please do ask the total ask in this Levy for this current fiscal year is $ 82.6 million
123what we expect to actually receive is just about 82.3 million we never quite know how things are going to shake out because the tax process is rather U complicated and assessments shift and shake until tax bills go out and even after tax bills go out things kind of shift and Shake but we ask for a little bit more than we would otherwise expect because there's a lot of things that we just don't know at this point in the process and because long short of is some things fall shorter than expected right you need a little bit of the overage to offset the things that might drive you under otherwise you could end up short of your 5% and the reason why that's important is because since we're capped we're limited to that 5% or the
124CPI of what we actually extended in the prior so if you don't extend enough you're kind of capping yourself and that cap has a compounding effect over time and so um that's you know there of course people disagree with that you know when you're when you on tax but when you're from a from a standpoint of the school board where your only lever almost quite literally that you can use to raise revenues to pay all the bills that you have to pay is this one Source you have to be very careful in how you make these decisions bottom line is the median value home in bavia as of right now is $399,000 and if your property is worth $399,000 today and it went up by about 7% in the last year the difference between last
125year's tax bill in this TI's tax bill is about $90 if your house is worth more let's say it's $1,000 more you'd add another $225 to that amount if it was $100,000 less you'd subtract about 22.5 dollar from that amount that's what we expect it's difficult to estimate what's happening in town because there are so many overlapping taxing districts in vavia that it's hard to we just talk about the school taxes because there's a lot going on as the board knows 10% of our enrollment comes from Aurora it's a different municipality different taxes you could live in the Fox Valley Park Park District down there or if you're here in in downtown you're you know you're in the heart of bavia but if you live up in the north west corner you live actually in
126the Geneva Park district and the Geneva Library District those are different tax rates and so it gets very confusing for everybody as to how all these things overlap and what ends up happening on tax bills and it can be different from one side of the town to the next next side please Holly this is our revenues by source so did you say earlier that the the evidence-based funding is going to be Zippy well it's not quite Zippy it's $5,000 that's it fair noted it's not even worth talking about frankly in100 million statistically Zippy statistically Zippy what's not statistically Zippy is tax bills and is that actually in the document statistically Zippy yeah and 81% of our revenues come from local property taxes and for the foreseeable future all of our new growth in terms of
127Revenue to pay our our bills and pay the very things we about I apologize there's other local Revenue there that's a little red sliver and the number I had reconfigured this slide so that you'd see it but it's 3% and then I reconfigured it again and that number disappeared but that little red bar is 3% State funding the evidence-based funding that you know what the state provides us which will not increase as long as our enrollment is going down or and where we exceed 100% in terms of adequacy is 5.6% and viously as time passes and our revenues increase elsewhere that number is going to decline other state funding are categoricals for special education and transportation those are reimbursements for money that we spent in the prior year those will go up slightly because every
128year we spend a little bit more on those uh costs um but the state ever never really keeps up with inflation on that so that will erode over time and then U 6.6% of our money right now is federal net amount is going to go down pretty significantly next year because all the pandemic relief dollars will have been spent and so that number will decrease but that's where our money comes from but the purpose of this SL is to say what you're doing tonight when you adopt the levy 81% you're you're basically giving your authority to say these taxes have to be are coming in for this amount of money we don't file the levy with the county clerk by the fourth Tuesday in December you don't get anything and uh that would be a
129real problem obviously 81% of our Revenue would disappear next slide please H time is down to 7eleven you'll see this in the board report but this is a visual representation of in the green bar market value of the home so this year market value median value of a home $399,000 of for our school district last year that home would have been worth $375 9,000 in the prior year 360 and on down the line but you can see what the taxes were for those amounts in Prior years and again going up from 90 by $90 from one year and I'll note that uh a strong school system is a primary driver to home prices increasing which is really a really good point as a matter of fact and it very much is and um we're very
130fortunate in the sense from our EA when you look at our eav and you look at the Great Recession when our when everybody's eav was declining ours was one of the very first to recover and recuperate I was just talking to some business managers in the northern part of state where they have literally just recovered from the Great Recession in terms of their eav exceeding what it was when the Great Recession started and we recovered within a few years and we're very fortunate that that's the case but again a large part is that's due to the school district and the local market economy and those sorts of factors but you know I think the school district pays a pretty heavy role in that in that Association is there simple explanation for and and that gap
131between the red and the like the inversion that happens on it is that the is that the bonds falling off that's doing that or what is that I'm not sure I understand so the red line of 6,000 but of taxes but a house is worth 346 and then by the time it gets to 2023 your house value is shown above the red line M yeah that's just the scale on both sides and so one is the dollar amount and then the other is the scale for for the taxes okay um and we're assuming that the property the the value of the home is increasing or decreasing with the um the in the rate of increase so it's because it's the the just to make sure I'm correct in my assumption so house values are going
132up 7% but the taxes are only going up five so at some point they go boink and F the other way exactly okay so you're getting more value out of your 7% rise than you're spending in your 5 I think there are some people that might debate that with you but I understand yeah you know yeah next slide please now this is to the question that we had earlier about what's happening with the bond and interest Levy and and what's the annual tax levy this graph illustrates that so the action that we'll take tonight is the annual tax levy that's the part of the taxes that the school board has control over up to 5% or CPI whichever is less and the blue bars are the amount of money that the school district must raise
133to pay off the bond and interest debt it was issued and so as we're nearing the end of paying that off they're generally about 20e issuances we'll have that we have one more year 2023 is where we stand now we got one more year where the blue bar just gets a little slightly less than the year prior and then next year it cuts itself in half and in 2025 it goes away so that's about 10% of the tax bill that will disappear in the next couple of years next year even with inflation being relatively High um tax bills I expect will go down next year um we'll talk about that in a little bit um but from from us yes we don't can't control what the other taxing bodies do there's 9,000 taxing bodies in
134Illinois more than any other state in the Union um and so it's difficult to tell what's happening on anybody's tax bill and school districts however though we're the big pigs at the trough as I always say and we're 65% plus of the tax bill so more than likely tax bills will go down but we can only talk about what will happen from our perspective because it's very difficult to talk about what it means for every last mavian with how everything overlaps next slide please this is the a longer view of the property taxes paid for a median value home we saw in that last graph where you you talk about those green bars increasing at various percentages Craig this is what it would look like if we did a look back to 2013 you can
135see how in 2014 that amount went down uh in terms of property taxes and that was because eav went down now people had different experiences depending on what the value of your house was at the time but the reason why we had such an issue with tax bills and the school board and its tax rate pledge at the time is because eav was declining and when we issued those bonds and made that pledge it was inconceivable that eav would ever go down but of course it did here we are we see that it's going to go down in 25 start going up again in 26 and Contin and it's turned in 28 next slide so just couple take-home points 81% of our revenue is from property taxes the tax rate is declining every year but
136tax rates of course or excuse me taxes of course go up even though the tax rate is declining all of our debt will be paid off in 25 we're going to see an increase here in 23 but a decrease from a school district perspective in 24 and all right so that would conclude the presentation for the public hearing and we have an opportunity now to hear from the public if anybody's so inclined Todd you get a chance to speak come on one more time take advantage of it three minutes though I just want to say to Tony that I find this very confusing when you get people's tax bills I mean don't think it's by accident um but it is really our opportunity to fund our schools so um it's one of the primary that
137we have um so but I thank you for giving context and then to be able to get it down to I always give tony a hard time because he likes to give all the context I'll say it's 90% he'll say it's actually 90.1 he always has to and I'm like you're right but so to I'm sure it's painful you to have to distill it down to something this succinct but I appreciate you doing it because it it enables people like me to be able to understand it and uh share it with others if they ask questions about it do you have any more graphs unfortunately no numbers um I'm wondering the adoption of the warm safe and dry facilities plan was approval of this part of the funding yes that's a good question that I
138forgot to mention so when we adopted the budget in the in September um we assumed that we were going to Levy at percentage that we're levying today and um 50% of that money shows up in this current fiscal year so the levy that you'll adopt tonight 50% of that money will show up in May and we'll balance our books as we end of the fiscal year and the other 50% of this tax levy would start um paying salaries and bills for the beginning of the next school year so if you change your mind on this Levy you change your mind on the budget that we adopted in September so essentially that budget adoption sets the course for the whole school year and this is a a component of that it's dependent on on the budget
139so if you made a different decision as to what you were doing with the levy you have to reconsider your budget it basically be invalid we'd have to start all over again w we depends you don't necessarily have to start at Ground Zero but you have to talk consider you know the difference between what you were expecting to collect and what you actually would collect but more specifically to your question RJ yes warm safe dry is highly contingent upon the levy which is also increasing capital projects allocations to by 15% each year we're sliding past about $3 million worth of contributions this year and by the end of 2025 that number will be in the high five million to fully fund warm safe try all right so seeing none in terms of public participation Mr
140President we can move on to the actual contemplation of the adoption of the yes so does anybody have any further questions my only note that I was going to say before I call for a motion is you know the thing that I hear from people all the time is well why are you asking more than the 5% that's allow able so you explained that earlier is because the the maths as my wife and I joke at the house are sometimes push it below that and then that would cap you at that for this year which means that 3% five you know three and a half percent or whatever you can't get is gone forever as it again debatable but it that's money that is no longer accumulating and compounding as you get more money from
141it you know from that growth later it's lost so um that's the primary question I kind of hear from people about that I don't have any other comments I agree that it seems a little backwards that you're doing a levy decision and a budget before it you know but it's unfortunately like you say many times about many other things in our budgetary and financial process and districts and it's the way we roll yeah any other questions for Tony before I call for a motion okay I will T entertain a motion to adopt the 2023 tax levy as presented so moved go ahead I heard Danielle Danielle all right second second by Aaron Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes Meadows yes AR yes kber yes sler yes thank you motion passes Tom
142is there now that we're done with all the fun stuff Tom is there anything you and the administration would like to comment on this evening yeah uh just a few things to share this evening um so it is been been a year since I sat in front of the board this evening as Todd had alluded to uh earlier tonight and um I I you know I've I've said this a few times and I just wanted to say it again you know I just want to thank all the various stakeholder groups both inside of BPS 101 and also within our communities that we serve um for such a tremendous welcoming and uh willingness to partner willingness to sit at the table and talk and and partner together on different things um you know I've so Rob
143and Danielle and Raquel you were not um you know in the process when I was that I was going through but I just kind of want to highlight that my hope is as we continue to work together with the administration the board um our Bea and Besa uh colleagues as well that some of the things I talked about in that process are what we're going to continue to be really Relentless about in pursuing and one of several of those commitments we're talking about creating a a sense of belonging in this District that our students our staff and that people have an ability to feel like BPS 101 is a place for them um I think it's a great School District great communities that are a part of our school district but I think with any
144great organization we also know then we should always keep working towards greater and better and and I think there's room for that and and so far with our strategic plan survey that we launched we're getting that feedback you know I think there's a lot of positive things there's also a lot of things that people are sharing that are areas for us to consider in terms of our growth um the other thing we had talked about was um you know making sure that we're elevating students and the focal point about all the work we do here is about our students and you know hopefully that is another aspect that we're going to continue to engage in um as we keep moving forward uh that's part of why we did decide as a team here to move
145forward a little bit more on AG of an aggressive timeline with that strategic plan process right and I just wanted to share with the board that you know up to this date we have over a thousand responses uh we're hoping for more I want to thank uh Todd and Mara for encouraging their members and reminding them to also complete the Sur uh we've had a lot of parent feedback as well um and so with that yesterday we completed our student uh Bulldog Ambassador training these uh just to remind everybody as I shared earlier this semester are students will be facilitating and leading the conversations and leading this process for the district um last night's training uh was just a tremendous opportunity and reminder as to why we should entrust these kinds of things to our
146students um if you were there last night you would have saw fourth graders through seniors working together in an environment where not only were they collaborating but you could see some of our older students leading some of our younger students creating a mentoring opportunity while they were also all focused on how they're going to lead at on January 8th in the afternoon uh when we meet for our Institute day super exciting um the steering committee for this process we will be meeting tomorrow evening for our first steering committee meeting um Aon kilberg and Rob arandu you both are board reps but we'll have key stakeholder reps as well as part of the steering committee and um the first meeting will be to review the uh on on our agenda will be to review the process
147talk about where our survey status is before we close it um and you know go over any Q&A kind of things that the steering committee may have just as a reminder the steering committee will be the kind of the accountability um portion to this entire process so that when we are done those that are on that steering committee can vouch for the fact that they got to see the raw data they saw how we synthesized everything throughout the process and that each step that we took so when we come back to the board for final approval near the end of the school year you will know that the steering committee was able to see everything along the way and during those checkpoint meetings giving feedback to me confirming or affirming things look like they're matching
148all the feedback we've been getting and that the the goals Vision strategic ideas all lying to what the feedback was throughout the process so very excited about that that um also want to make sure we congratulate two people who have been one of our stakeholder partners for the district for a long time um recent announcement was the uh announcement of the citizens of the year for bavia in Marge and Dave Brown so I just want to give them a little shout out for all the work they've done uh Marge especially being one of the very first people who welcomed me in with some of the work and the community engagement here so wanted to say thanks to that um and then before saying happy holidays and to and a great winter break to everyone I
149do want to thank uh Todd and Mara for trusting the process right off the bat with this strategic plan and being really supportive to the administration team that supports the work they they help clear the path and then Cindy I really appreciate all your support I'm nothing can be done without Cindy so I really appreciate that and um and again the best part of us is our students so you know thank our students for everything and what's to come so with that I hope everyone has a great winter break see you next year board member colleagues is there anything anyone would like to add or as if the answer was no but go ahead are you starting down yeah if you sure sure um just to support I please definitely fill out those surveys you
150know the main ability for us to really hear everyone's voices and to understand everything through is through those surveys um it there's been a lot of work behind it and the work going forward is going to depend on it so please please please share the word make sure that they're getting filled out um for me this is like a really heavy meeting so I just want to say to the public and to you guys I mean in full transparency these are like really hard decisions and they're not taken lightly and I know this is only some of the conversations and thought processes that come out um you know know I definitely think about the people who are not in this room you know we listen to members of best bu speak and you know how
151everyone is affected and it's it doesn't go it doesn't fall from here I we take everything seriously I take everything seriously and um just really hard decisions this meeting um so thank you for walking us through everything thank you for the board for asking some questions and just kind of trying to make sense of what we can and do the best that we can um with what we have um so I just I feel like you can't make everyone happy but just do know that we listened and um I hope we can continue forward to to making choices that will really make differences for the kids and and hopefully they're the right choices in the end um on a better note I just want to go back full circle to the beginning of the meeting
152to Chris even though he's not here um he has been such a mentor an accomplice with some amazing things and a really great friend um his trickle Dawn effect is really really amazing to get to to witness um from Amber to running for school board to students and other members of the community it's not just it doesn't just stop at the school district um This falls into tying our youth into our um elderly generations and really how to tie in our community um to learn from each other to accept each other and to really Bridge a lot of the gaps and I've already watched some of that happen and I know that trick Aon effect is just going to keep happening so it's really really cool to see him acknowledged also we've heard about Amber
153being acknowledged and that is a true trickle down from that without that support and those safe spaces where you can hear each other speak and really just kind of be supportive and no you're not alone in this it's huge so I hope that everyone in the community can feel that and really understand understand that I I know that the equity work can be seen as kind of a debatable topic you know or just kind of like a Hot Topic button but it really does touch everyone's lives it's not just the marginalized Community this is for everybody and it really does lift the entire community so I'm just super proud of him and just wanted to tag that along and with that happy holidays to everyone see you next year yeah my turn uh so uh
154thank you for your comments seel I want to start by saying uh like I always do thank you to everyone who came and gave voice to their concerns or critiques of what we're doing or their thoughts on just general subjects or reached out to us via email or on the street or on M at Limestone stop me and uh ask me questions it's really essential to the work we do as R.J mentioned you know we don't do anything without really feedback from the community so it's essential to what we do so I thank them for that want to congratulate my colleague and friend Chris low you know I think back to when my process started he was one of my first mentors one of the first people I sat down with so yeah his impact
155is wide ranging I also want to thank uh the board secretary Cindy Rodriguez uh every time we have a meeting she prints out she kills a couple trees for me uh every time I have a request she say laptop out of the way yeah what is this thing throw that away give me a piece of paper um but uh she gets things done she keeps us organized she keeps us informed she makes sure that we can have the information available to us that we need to make decisions so I want to thank Cindy for our hard hard work um and then I just want to thank our partners for all their work I want to thank the the team here that puts these reports together it's a lot of work uh to generate them and
156make them understandable and then to be able to answer questions so thank you for that um on a heavy your note I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of Geneva freshman I'm not sure why I'm getting so emotional James Oliver I don't know the family um you know he's not he was not a student of BPS 101 but I feel in the Fox Valley and the Duane we are all a family um and I I have a freshman son so when you hear something like that it's it's hard so uh you know I just want to let them know for supporting them uh I want to congratulate our Illinois State Scholars Dr Smith announced 76 of them my daughter Emma kilberg was one of them we're very proud of all of
157them for their academic Excellence it speaks to how hard they work and also hard work our teachers and mentors work with them so we should all be very proud of them um I also want to share a couple things I saw firsthand uh last night I was at the fifth grade band and Orchestra concert at the BAC uh led by our instructors Lisa Hatfield Mr and Mrs oath and Mr Buckley if you wanted to be an environment of uh exuberant joy that was the place to be I'm not sure how Mrs Hetfield is able to contain all of that it was an hourlong concert getting them on and off the stage several times uh listening to the performances but um they are open to the public so if you ever have a chance to one
158of those uh and what is remarkable is uh you know most of that performance is uh enjoying their enthusiasm but then as you see them progress and you see like where Craig's kids were the Improvement is just unimaginable actually even if you just go from year to here so it's exciting to be a part of and uh again I would encourage people to uh take advantage of those opportunities and then uh another thing I was able to witness was um I just like to point things out we have a tendency I feel like as a board and as a community as a district to recognize you know there's certain people are groups of students that get a lot of Praise uh athletes uh I'm not denigrating them but um you know if you walk into
159the gym there's life-size posters of the seniors in there which is great we should congratulate them but I always feel like we should really be doing more to recognize those people who are good citizens who are kind and so my neighbor uh Riley Cheeseman he got called to the principal's office when I was a kid that was a bad thing but in this case it was a good thing he gotta sit down and he got to make a phone call with with the principal and call his parents and say he was recognized as the student of the month and how you attain that is through academic Excellence participation in class uh and in your activities but really one of the biggest drivers is leadership and being a positive influence for your fellow students and so
160I think it's wonderful that we do that these kids should really be held forth as this is what we're trying to do because my mentor from an earlier stage was Virgil Murray he was a principal for over 30 years in the town I grew up and he I would say you know Mr Murray what are we trying to do and he said we're trying to produce good people good citizens good neighbors who are productive that's our mission in my opinion and Riley cheeseman's an example of that so congratulations to him um and then at the end I just want to again say uh happy holidays Merry Christmas be safe recharge and we'll get back to work in 20124 thank you Rob I'm GNA keep it very short here so I just uh wish everyone happy
161Holidays happy New Year look forward to a very productive collaborative 2024 um James Oliver family condolences really that's such a tragic thing and um I'm thinking about them and and the the school and all the students uh really tough way to end the year of course but I mean obviously it's never a good time for such a strategy strategy I'm sorry I'm losing my words CU yeah it's it's really really rough um so I hope the family is doing their best they can to to you know take comfort in each other um congratulations again to Chris um really miss having him on the board always love hear what he has say and um he did not disappoint tonight so Chris thank you very much and congratulations um also to this team that the admin um
162everyone here you all are really great um I know I pepper you with questions sometimes and you always have thoughtful answers so I appreciate it and it does take me sometimes two three times to say what say it again say it again you figure out the right way to say it to me and I finally get it so I appreciate it really do um and with the board here really appreciate tonight it was really good conversation um it was nice to end the year with some action and not just well it's a it's winter break let's just take it easy so for pushing us towards that and for us having some good conversation I really appreciate that everyone I'm really happy that there's seven of us that do this because I definitely don't feel like
163I always understand the the right way to go with things so I appreciate that um on a happy note last week my daughter had a Str performance at the bavia public library so that was very exciting um she is one of only two sixth graders in the strings group that's composed in seventh and eighth graders so that was really fun to see um and then uh just wishing all the students faculty and everyone a safe break all right um mine will be fairly brief because I'm just going to point out that uh everybody else talked about music almost but me so I'm in a join in I know I'm in a weird position now that I am I am you know my kids are out um and back visiting from college and one's doing a
164music minor so I get to kind of experience from AAR like his grandparents did here but you know um you guys can take up the mantle that's fine I'll start inviting you yeah that's okay but um you know it it's kind of a weird position to be in when i'ms are not like focus on something that you know my kids aren't super invested in anymore right and so now it's more it's like more kind of real to me in a lot of ways so um my wife has managed the fact that we don't have concerts to go to because I just finished up renovating our bathroom so um one thing I forgot to mention their student ambassadors were not here today they are off studying for finals so uh we wish them luck on that
165I'm sure they do not need it um and then the last couple of things one is uh we just came back uh about a week or two a couple weeks ago from triple ey which is a kind of of a a state conference for various levels of kind of Illinois school boards and and others organizations and some of the things that I had offhandedly mentioned to you as we were talking are showing up today like if you guys had not noticed we're not calling names in a very specific Order anymore of alphabetical it's getting randomized every time just so that everybody doesn't feel like they got to be first or last or following a vote so that the intent is to make people feel that they're making decisions for themselves not reacting to what everybody
166else is saying right so um and then U see other changes that I've seen over the past year of this board being far more dialogue oriented than we ever have been in the past so I definitely appreciate that um and then I do also appreciate everybody's um willingness to kind of work with me as my close my first portion of the year as a board president and have people to help me remind me when I jump an entire action item so I appreciate that um and then all of the discussions that are happening behind the scenes I I don't know whether it's because I see them now more than I did before um but they are definitely happening and I think by and large they are good things and everybody's learning stuff and getting to
167the right information so with that what I will end with is um to our staff Administration and teachers um my wife and I often debate about what do you call this respit because a break never seems quite to have the gravitas that it needs to have um as she works in a school District but a rest fit just seems weird too so um whatever you want to call it enjoy it you deserve it um we look forward to having you all back but please enjoy your time with friends and family um time is limited time is short and we want to make sure everybody um gets the moment to be able to spend it with those that they love and care about so thank you everybody have a great holiday and I will entertain a
168motion to adjourn so much you with a two for today yeah second Rob stepping in all in favor I you say no again RJ I I I it is now 9:17 and the meeting is adjourned thank