001We're going to move back into open session. Please stand for the pledge. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Does anybody have anything to add to the agenda? >> Ngot. >> There you go. Okay, we're going to start with our student of the month recognition. So, if I could have Mrs. Man come on up. I'm sorry, Miss Mullins, come on up. She's >> Miss That is crazy. I have a good friend of last Rachel. >> Yeah. Yes. All right, for our primary students of the month for preK, we have Chlory Doran. >> Chlori, you can come on up. Here you are. And for kindergarten, Quinn Ray, come on up. You're going to come
002right over here by us. Right over here. You're gonna stand by Chloe. And then for first grade, Parker Nance, come on up. Thank you. Good evening. Um, our theme this month was on empathy and our uh, three students of the month are first is in second grade, Kennedy Robinson. So, Kennedy, come on up. Okay. And Sebastian Dilocker, please come on up for third grade. Okay. And for fourth grade, Duke Ferguson. >> All right, for the middle school, our fifth grader was not able to be here tonight, but our winner for fifth grade is Maline Croken. Our sixth grade winner is Aiden Julian. Our seventh grade winner is Failen Pem. And our eighth grade winner, Danny Hernandez. Go ahead. So, I I say this each month, parents, but it's it's the it's the truth. We select
003one student per grade level every month, and there's 175 kids per grade. So, when your child gets selected, it's quite an honor. You should be very uh thankful and very proud of them. So, it's it's it doesn't uh it's not an easy thing. So, next we want to uh I'm going to call Coach Walters up here and we have three wrestlers that made it to the ISA state finals and we were very proud of them. I'm going to let Mr. Walters talk about their accomplishments and call the three boys up. >> Right. So, our three boys this year qualified this year. Start with our smallest to biggest. So, first we have Grayson Temple joined us from coming over from Fox Lake Wrestling Club and joined us with ISA this year. Finished the season with a
00422-1 record and was a state finalist. end up in the finals. Hey, next one going way up. Next is Becca Garing. Ended with a 31 and5 record. Guys, as far as the blown us, he was one match away from placing this year. So, we're just that close. And a third one was Robert Hubka. Ended with a 30 and3 overall record. Ended up as a state finalist as well. So, we had two people in the state finals. Uh, state So, we're losing two eighth graders. We got one fifth grader still join us. >> Uh, so Robert and Grayson were both second and Becca was one match away from placing. So, it's the first time we've had two players here in a while. >> That's it. >> All right. You're more than welcome to spend the rest
005of the evening with us at this wonderful board meeting, but feel free to leave if you choose. >> It's okay. >> The board member code of conduct review. >> Okay. I will encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and will participate in board discussions in an open, honest, and respectful manner, honoring differences of opinion or perspective. Motion >> second. >> Enters. Yes. Johnson. >> Yes. >> Sesca. >> Yes. >> Peter. >> Yes. >> Lions. >> Yes. >> Patterson. >> Yes. >> Bennett. >> Yes. >> All right. Item A is the county school facility tax and uh I'm going to do a little bit of uh so we're great. Thank you. You have the exhibit in your uh exhibit 11 in your packet. If you if you want um you
006can look at the screen up here or so I'm going to scroll through it and kind of and explain a few things. All right. I have ver I've verbally given you this information a few months ago. I just kind of talked through it, but I I want to put it uh this is a presentation that we uh the Lake County Superintendent Group had a few months ago and I thought it was very well put together. This ties it in for you. So the the county facil school facility tax um is something that has been in place since 2007 across the state of Illinois. Right now over half the counties have passed this tax. Lake County has never put it on the ballot. Um what it allows is uh the sales tax can be imposed from
0070.25% increments up to 1%. Usually you'll see it as 1% sales tax. Uh this this graph right here shows you the state the counties in Illinois. All the all the counties in light blue have passed the county the sales tax. The dark blue I believe have put it on the ballot but it has not passed. Um it what it covers the uh the sales tax includes everything except that list you're seeing right there. Cars, trucks, ATVs, boats, RVs, mobile homes, unprepared food. So, uh, groceries, it does not cover does not count towards groceries, drugs, farm equipment inputs, and services are not taxed in Illinois. So, none of those items would count would have the 1% sales tax. Um, the way I've heard it explained to me, I guess it's in the next bullet. It basically
008applies to all items sold at department stores except items only taxed at 1%. Then, and gasoline is also Gasoline is a big one. So, gasoline does have the 1% tax. Um, the next page says, "What if my district is in more than one county? That doesn't apply to us." But this is only for students in Lake County. Um, the next page shows sales tax rates in Lake County. Fox Lake is currently at uh 7%, but you'll see a little hyphenated thing there. There are there's a business district in Fox Lake that is at eight. Uh there's uh the next page has evident or estimated revenues based on uh information from November 24th through October 25. U if this tax would have been applied, Big Hollow would would have received 1.7 million. So in that one
009that year there um that's based on the figures that um from the Illinois Department of Revenue. Um, let's see. This this page here, what I have on the screen is a pretty important item. Uh, as of 2025 estimates, at least 52% of retail transactions in Lake County are from people outside of Lake County. Uh, that what that means is that uh the revenue that we're generating from this tax is not all it's it's less than half of it is coming from Lake County residents. Um, That's something to to consider here. Uh what can it be paid? What can it be used to what can you use the funds for? This is a very good uh screen here. Um that's pretty clear. New school buildings, additions, technology, infrastructure, security, safety, uh disabled access, um architectural planning,
010durable equipment that's not movable, parking lots, demolition, fire prevention, life safety, land acquisition, energy efficiency projects, roof improvements and repairs. So, this money can be used to pay for those things. it cannot be used as pay for salaries. Uh with the exception of there if it's written into the the resolution uh by the county, which I'm I I think they're going to write it in. Uh you can pay for mental health support personnel, so school psychologist, social workers, and you can pay for school resource officers through these funds. um that would help us uh because we could take the money we're currently spending on those services that we're paying out of fund 10 and we could pay it out of these funds here. Uh and so that frees up money in fund 10 for us
011to maybe uh fill some holes. I know Matt and I have talked about this maybe with, you know, we're we we feel like we've closed the gap in our fund 10 fund balances, but transportation's been really hard to find out where we could find more savings, but this would help us move some uh tax levy over to fund to that fund. So, we have definitely some strategic ways this would really help our budget. Um rate of grow. I'm gonna This next uh page doesn't uh it just tells you the rate of growth of Lake County sales tax. Um it just kind of goes, you know, it's this is economy related. So if the economy is moving well, you're going to see more sales tax. If the economy drags, you're going to see less. Um so
012what are we what's your role in this tonight? you're going to be proposed with voting yay or nay on just putting this on the ballot in November. And uh board school boards across Lake County are doing this in April and May. Uh they're considering whether or not to to throw their support behind it. If uh school boards representing more than 50% of the students in Lake County approve this resolution, then it goes on the ballot for the whole county. So what that means is uh like like walk I think has 15% of the students in Lake County. So if walk's board passes it then that's we're at 15%. So we need a school board's representing 50% of the kids. Um, from what from my conversations with Lake County Superintendent, it's a it's a wide support
013across the county for this. It's not going to be 100% support from the boards, but it's a very wide support. I think we've got enough that will uh pass it. The regional office uh will certify it. We were going through a procedure tonight to pass this. if you if you to vote on it, if you choose to pass it, uh we will let the ROE know and then they will uh begin the process of certifying it, making sure it gets on the ballot. And the this will go on the ballot for November. Uh this is just some procedural items. Uh this this screen it does say after after a successful referendum if it were to pass in November within four months we would start seeing revenue coming into the school district. The revenue goes to
014the state first to the department of revenue. They determine how much comes back to Lake County. the ROE then it goes to the ROE and they determine then uh they determine how much goes to each school district and they get the money transferred into our funds all in that process. There is a and this has come up I'm I'm want to make sure I'm transparent about this because this does come up as a negative from people that don't like the taxes that the re department of revenue will get a we'll get a piece the ROE gets a piece for managing the transactions that 1.7 million you see on the figure that was after those pieces were taken out so but they do get they do get a piece of it just as they do for
015all taxes that go to the department revenue they get a piece to manage it before it goes back. Um, this next page just talks about the distribution process. Uh, this I will say this has been in place long enough that uh it's a pretty seamless process. Uh, I I was presented with this years ago when I was superintendent downstate and uh there was a lot of questions that time like lack of trust that the money would go to the state and actually get back to the school. those things like that would come up and uh this I have not heard anything negative about the the uh the process of the fund the funds getting distributed uh to super to school districts. Um this next slide says how can sales tax be used to pay for
016capital? Just to just to kind of give you a general summary, we have a bond right now that our taxpayers are paying a million dollars a year for uh for the health life safety bond that you that we did all the roofs and the HVAC equipment. So, it would be up to this board's discretion to to use those funds how you see fit. Um you could abate I'm not saying we should do this right now, but uh because I think we've got other issues, but this board could decide some point Hey, we don't need the funds right now. So, we're going to abate the taxes and pay for that loan, that bond out of these funds. And so, the taxpayers would see that gone off their tax bill until, you know, you could do that
017year to year. You can make that decision year to year. Um, you could uh put the funds away into this into the separate fund and wait till you have a project that you can use the funds. There's only certain things you can use it on. basically anything infrastructure-wise here at the campus. We need a new parking lot in a few years. We've talked about that. We would have we're going to have to do a health life safety bond probably to get that done. It's a small increase to taxes to our local tax base. If this is in place, we don't have to do that. Our taxpayers won't have to pay for the new parking lots. We'll get the money from this and we'll pay for the parking lots. You can if you know we're getting
0181.7 million estimated this year, you could feasibly probably safely uh do a project that bonds out at maybe a million dollars so that that you know there's going to be a million dollar a year bond payment. You could be pretty confident I think that we're going to get a million dollars out of this if 1.7's coming in this year. Uh but you got to remember it does fluctuate with the economy. So you wouldn't want to do a bond for one and a half million thinking you're going to get 1.7 every year. You might not. But you could do something and be safe about a million dollar bond that would our taxpayers wouldn't have to pay. It would come strictly from these funds. So if you ever had to do an addition or anything like that,
019uh this you could use these funds to do that without going to taxpayers and raising their taxes, their property taxes. Okay, I think I have there's a lot of slides here. I'm just trying to make sure I got all the information. When you see this slide here, this is this again shows big hollow 1.7 million. You'll see the distribution amongst all the school districts in Lake County. Um the first page is elementary districts. Then you'll see some uh unit districts. Walken is the is uh would largest district in Lake County and you can see they would get 14 million a year. So that's based on their student population. So the the this is this page just talking about the risks for debt. If you're going to pay for debts, you just got the risk is
020you can't you can't uh obligate funds that would be uh you wouldn't want to obligate more towards the debt than you could get in a year because then you got to come up with those debt difference. That's what I was just talking about a little bit ago. Okay. Yeah, that's about all I wanted to share with you. The election date is November 3rd. Um that's that's where we're we're targeting to get this on the ballot first time. Um there's a pretty heavy movement right now in Lake County on this uh with from some uh uh uh community groups. You'll start seeing that come up specifically. I know Wakanda's got a group of parents. They're kind of leading the charge on this. Um so we'll see some of that. I have shared this with our CAC
021a little bit uh just to give them get them informed. My my role in this and Matt will be involved in some of this too. Our role is maybe just is just to educate people on what it is. So the information I gave you right here. So and our role tonight is you determine as a board uh if we're going to give the board if the board wants to support putting it on the ballot. That's really all you're deciding. So any questions from me? Try to rant through that kind of fast, but I know you're somewhat familiar with it. Yeah. >> Does the board decide what fund that money goes into? >> You decide how it's used. Yes. Yep. Yep. You It's a It goes into a separate fund and then from there the board
022decid >> it'll be its whole separate fund. >> Yep. And then you'll decide how it's used. Like I said, the only salaries it can cover are mental health and then school resource officer. So, but yeah, you'll have full discretion over how the funds are used if they get. Any other questions on that? >> All right. Uh item B is just uh my official I guess uh official letter. Uh the uh I guess I want to say two things. I what I have to say is in the letter. So, but 11 years ago when you guys hired me, like I didn't I will tell you like it's been this has been a highlight of my career. Been so much fun. So, I look forward to another year of really uh doing some good work here. And
023uh I've tried to put this off as long as I could, but because I don't want people I'm checked out because I'm really not. But uh um I also think that after because it'll be 12 years. I think after 12 years it you know a district like this could use a new set of eyes too. I think it's you don't want to get stagnant and I think it'll be good to have somebody new uh looking at things. So but I will be forever grateful to you guys. I know three of you were on the board when I got hired and uh grateful that you stuck it out and I could write a book about all the things we've in 12 years. >> Learn something new every day. >> I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >>
024Appreciate it. >> We are considering a motion to approve resolution directing the superintendent of schools for Lake County, Illinois to certify to the clerk uh county clerk of set county the question of imposing a retail occupation tax and a service occupation tax to be used exclusively for school facility purposes, school resource officers and mental health professionals for submission to the electors of set county at the general election to be held on the 3rd day of November 2026. Motion >> Sesco. >> Yes. >> Patterson. >> Yes. >> Enters. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. >> Peter. >> Yes. >> Lions. >> Yes. >> Bennett. >> Yes. Anybody have a motion to approve? >> Motion. >> Second. Sesca, >> yes. >> Enters, >> yes. >> Bennett, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Peter, >> yes. >>
025Lions, >> yes. >> Patterson, >> yes. >> Motion. Second. >> Patterson. >> Yes. >> Susco. >> Yes. >> Johnson. Peter. >> Yes. >> Lions. >> Yes. >> Bennett. >> Yes. >> Hunters. Yes. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Yes. >> Peter. >> Yes. >> Lions. >> Yes. >> Bennett. >> Yes. >> Johnson. Enters. >> Yes. accepted a resistant effective 146 restor. We do not >> question. >> Yes. schedules negotiation. >> Motion >> second.