4-20-26 - District 62 Board of Education

001like check one two check one All right. Wonderful. Hi everyone. Um we are What are we doing? We are going to go downstairs to do our presentation of Gallery 62 student art. Um we will reconvene here um 7:30 or so because then we have the rest of our meeting to get to and so would please join us downstairs for our Gallery 62 presentation. All right. Hello. Welcome back to our regular board meeting. Um, thanks for coming back after the presentation. It's one of my favorite times of year in Gallery 62. So, thank you again to all the students and teachers who helped prepare them for this and for our excellent art program. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next what we have is we're going to invite Miss Kathleen Kelly to make a staffing announcement. I

002don't know what microphone you're supposed to use. Good evening members of the board of education on the personnel report this evening. Not that one. On the p wait this one, sorry to hear myself. That doesn't usually happen. Sorry. On the personal report this evening, we are asking for approval of Donna Benhart as the assistant principal for North Elementary School. Miss Benhart has been an educator for 19 years, starting her career as a parah, then becoming a language arts teacher, uh chairman of language arts department, an instructional coach, and an assistant principal for the past several years in district 54. She has focused on fostering positive learning environments, and helping students reach their full potential throughout her career, which she will continue here in district 62. She holds a bachelor's degree from Illinois State University, a

003master's degree in reading from Roosevelt University, and a master's degree in educational leadership from the American College of Education. Miss Benhart was chosen from a robust candidate pool, and met with more than two dozen D62 staff members throughout her very extensive interview process. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Donna Benhart. >> Thank you. That was so nice. Um, I really appreciate that. And I just want to thank the board, Dr. Amade, and then all cabinet members as well. Um, I'm so excited to begin my career here in district 62. I am really excited after meeting some of the north staff at my interview, and also just really grateful to begin working with the community, the students, and the families, and getting to know all of them and starting relationships with all of them

004as well. Um, I also just want to take a quick moment to thank my family, um, who's here tonight. My mom who traveled here all the way from Florida. Uh, yes. Um, don't be confused though, she does come up here often to help me with my children. Um, but still very grateful for her to be here. And then also I want to take a moment to thank Julie Terassic, who's my current principal at Einstein Elementary, who I've learned so much from, and I'm really excited to bring what I've learned from her to District 62. So, thank you guys again for this opportunity and I look forward to getting started. I'm so excited. >> Congratulations and thank you so much. >> Did somebody let them know they didn't have to stay for the whole unlike me

005when I walked in? We are not going to be able to. >> We would like to leave you. We respect that. >> You got to stay. All right. Next, we have public comment. Um, I did not get any blue cards, but did anyone from the audience wish to speak? >> Okay. Thank you very much. Next, we have strategic goal monitoring with Cumberland and North Elementary School. Dr. And thank you. And as we get close to May where we do our year end strategic plan goal report, we do have two schools left. So, we have North School tonight and Carmelan and I do believe that Mr. Infante and Miss Mazone have the pleasure of going first. Is that correct or am I wrong? >> I saw your slide deck flash. >> So, yes. >> Well, we're

006going to hear from each of the schools about the five goal areas and their work towards achieving those strategic goals. Thank you. Are you flipping a coin? >> We have whole singing routine. So, we just want to make sure we're number one. Um, thank you. Word of education, Dr. Amade, um, cabinet, all all the participants here. It's a little bit more nervous over here now. Um, thank you very much for giving us the time. My name is Mark Infonte. became the principal of Cameron Elementary School. >> And my name is Tina Mazonei, the assistant principal. >> All right. So, I'm going to start uh to be able to share about our progress on the uh strategic plan goal one, student achievement. Um so, at Cumberland and at all D62 schools, professional learning communities focus on

007um are identifying student progress with reference to um grade level standards. our teams get together. They get together weekly um and whether the conversations are in the classroom, um in the hallways at at conference rooms. So getting together all the time and really with a focus of reeing intervention, um enrichment, meanwhile fostering that collaborative spirit with amongst our staff. Um our professional learning um has really focused on emphasizing literacy this year and I'm sure you're going to hear that later on today as well. But um really just focusing on our primary grades uh the foundational skills of literacy as well as our grades four and five really focusing on explicit teaching of vocabulary. And um I want to thank also our third grade team that's pictured here on the slide um who piloted our literacy

008um uh pilots for this year and the work that they did um planning getting new curriculum um having feedback having those constructive conversations and we focused that um throughout the time and you can see the four questions there. We focused on those questions throughout our PLC's to really drive our our meetings. In the middle there, you'll see that not only do we focus on academics, but also our SEAL. And so you'll see in the in the center one of our dashboards there and decision ed where we can see a lot of that data to have those rich conversations. Looking at goal two, the learning environment. So we work hard to cultivate a safe, inclusive, and engaging culture for all of our students. Um this year we did start a new award for our students. Uh

009you'll see pictured in the middle the clean and tidy tiny clean and tidy cougar award. So this is actually an award that's given by our custodial staff two times a month in which a time where they look at classrooms at the end of each day who has helped clean up, who's picked up pencils, who's thrown out paper, and they award the classroom for that. So it's just a way to empower our students to um really continue to be mindful of their learning space. We also did start or continuing to support what makes Cumberland unique and we did start a new morning a new segment in our morning announcements called more words Monday which is uh where we can highlight we have a lot of students as we know that use communication boards and alternative and

010augmentative augmentative communication devices or AAC devices. So um every week we're able to highlight a new core word. We know that core words make up about 80% of what we say. So, we've been able to highlight that word of the week and give students, staff, peers different opportunities for them to showcase and use that word. Along with celebrating just what makes Cumberland unique, we've also instilled a new um thing this year called our silent cheer. So, you'll see you'll see students there pictured um holding a pom pom. So now at all assemblies we do have what we call a silent chair and ask students to um wave their pom pom to really just make it a more sensory friendly experience. And then um lastly we continue to support our students with positive behavior interventions and

011supports or PBIS um including teaching and reinforcing those positive behaviors through student videos. We've had students are working on having students create all new videos to help support expectations, of course, educational lessons, and then supporting the check-in and checkout system. That brings us to goal three, our workforce. Um, we just like all of our schools, but Cumberland um want to celebrate our staff, our professional accomplishments. Um this year we've had uh the privilege um we've been able to celebrate uh staff celebrating 25 years of service. There's some here as well. Um as well as staff that are retiring after a very um uh wonderful uh career in in education and got some of those people over there too. Um and so thank you so much um for them. um our staff and students implement also

012a weekly snack cart for our staff and for our students to have some great experiences in terms of authentic learning and just having those day-to-day interactions with our staff. Um and then also we want to make sure we always celebrate our par educators any chance that we get for the tireless work that they do on a day-to-day basis. Um we also you know have a lot of fun at Cumberland and one of those things is um practicing you know or engaging in different staff outings and social events. You can see in the bottom middle picture there is was actually a first time we did this this year and that was um during March Madness. Um our staff had a March Madness and we had a shootout and it was organized by some teachers and it

013was great. kids participate or I'm sorry the kids were able to cheer on their uh teachers and you can see we took advantage of a nice spring day there and we all went outside and we got to give a a shout out to uh Laura uh Gershowitz our kindergarten teacher who took it home and she is a crowning March Madness champion over looking at go for uh families and community we have a very active school staff and PTO that really brings a lot of wonderful events to Cumberland um incling including a literacy night, a math night. Uh we partnered this year with CPAC to bring our sensory and slime night back for the second year in a row, a culture night, which was the first time we did it last year at the end of

014the year. It was a hit. It was like standing room only. Um so we're bringing that back this year again. Um little plug for that. May 20th in the evening for our culture night. Um and those are two pictures on there highlighting just some things that we had at that evening. Um and then we also have a lot of um really active events too including our hot chocolate walk run stroll and our walk-athon which always brings um really great participants in um to our school. Uh we did this year get to invite local Miss Illinois Nico Nicolina Vousich who she was crowned in May 2025 as Miss Illinois. Um she actually did attend Cumberland as a student here many years ago and she was able to share a positive message on dreaming big and setting

015goals which was really great for our students to hear. Um as a district and school we know that we did add another sport to our special Special Olympics crew. So basketball skills which they participated on that really snowy day back a few months ago. So that was some of our athletes that did participate in that. And then um we're looking forward to actually this upcoming Saturday for the Special Olympics track and field meet that will happen on the 25th. Um and last picture there is pictured some students here in our older grades that are helping support just our community in um bagging and filling backpacks that we've partnered with the um community backpack project to provide food for families in need. >> And lastly is goal five, the use of resources. Um so throughout um

016the school year, our staff are able to really uh foster um excitement with students and they have student outside groups during lunch, recess, uh before school, after school to get them really excited and engaged. Um some of those uh activities are um we have Cougar Creator Club, which is very exciting. Um you can see the two pictures there towards the bottom. um students participating and creating um after school also you have cougar running club which is always a popular one during the recess time kids competing for laps um also being having some good exercise and then we have our uh student talent show which this will be the second year running you can see somebody um I know Dr. will appreciate this doing a drum solo there and uh having at it. So um that

017our talent show is on June 3rd this year. So anybody's welcome to come on by and then also at the root of our resources really finding ways to provide additional assistance through tutoring. Um you can see Miss Herrera there meeting with students uh just being able to provide that additional support to students um whenever uh they need it. So this is before school and we also uh sometimes have some after school uh opportunities for students to participate in tutoring. >> And that brings us to the end. Are there any questions? >> Um I don't have a question just a comment. I love the clean and tidy cougar award custodians. That is genius. Love it. >> We can't take full credit. We we actually took it from >> Jenna Rufo um in the beginning of the

018school year. uh she shared a video with us and we borrowed that idea. >> Wonderful. >> Especially involving the custodial staff because that just puts them in a spotlight they don't normally get to be in. So that's amazing. >> Yeah, including that is is super important for the community, the school, and I think that's a great way to do it. >> On your first slide, um when you guys show us the breakdown of uh of infractions by the month and everything, is that pretty much what you expected? Anything different we're seeing or >> um it does follow some pretty typical trends. We're uh continue to work on like, you know, leading up to breaks can sometimes always spikes um and things like that. And so we're always looking for different trends. Um you know, our

019our we often see classrooms usually have the most and that's typical because that's where they spend about 80% of their day. So, um but still always taking those to our tier 2 teams and our tier one teams to see are there things that we can put in place. So they're happening at recess. How do we put some more structures in recess to get the kids engaged or do we have to go over some more expectations? So really be responsive to the data as well. >> So like seeing February higher, March lower, you probably did something noticing a trend and then intervened. >> Yes. And some of it is is that and some of it also is sometimes like a natural break or something like that that they you know and and kids will come back

020and so a little refreshed, rejuvenated. >> Yeah, I get that. Okay. Thank you. Caroline Aller will help give us five goal areas for North Elementary School. This is a busy school right now with a lot of construction. So I want to start you off with a great team. >> All the patient teachers cuz I drove over there today and I am very tuned up how difficult it is to come and go. So, let's all be safe and thank you to the North staff for >> being good. >> Well, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you guys tonight about uh North's work towards the strategic plan. There's lots of great things to share. Um and we've got a mighty crew of North staff behind me because this is really about them and highlighting all

021the things that they're doing. So, I wanted to make sure that they were in attendance tonight as I spoke about the things they're doing. Um, with goal one about student achievement, we have really worked hard um, with our PLC's and our collaborative teams this year to really refine our work on what we're talking about during our collaborative um, plan time. So, we really shifted our focus to what we're teaching to how we're teaching it. So, we're able to really talk about strategies and it allows for deeper conversations about the standards and then also sharing that instructional knowledge um, between team members. And we know that this has really built our collective teacher efficacy um across the building, which we know is the number one factor in influencing student achievement. Um also want to highlight in

022the bottom right, it's probably one of my favorite pictures. Got two girls just huddled around a book. Um I want to highlight that we had 14 of our North staff members participate in the literacy pilot this year across second and fourth grade. Um and staff feedback was just overwhelmingly positive with the process. not only with the resources but the support that they received throughout the pilot from instructional services as well. Staff are super excited that they were able to really build on language comprehension with rich texts and lots of writing activities. So, we're very excited about those um those resources. Uh for uh goal two learning environment, um North Families is something that we have is continuing to be a focus at North School. So, as a reminder, North Families is an opportunity once a

023month where we stop all instruction, divide all 600 students into 55 North families um and across grade level. So, kindergarten through fifth grade might be in your North family. That is every single certified staff has North family. And we really wanted to do that to just increase that sense of belonging for our students across the building. So this year um you know we've really kind of looked at our families and say how can we continue to um beef this up a little bit make it a little bit more rich time together. So this year we've really shifted the topics to really focus on the four C's. So creativity collaboration critical thinking and communication. So really trying to build those skills for our students. So we've done some STEM activities. You'll see up in the upper

024leftand corner. uh last month we gave them a big piece of con cardboard tape and said go. So that was all that they got. So it was really cool to see the students collaborating and working together to see what creations that they came up with. Um also this month our staff participated in educating outside the lines. Um it was the first time this year so each grade level participated in age appropriate activities about disability awareness. So, we kicked off the week with a keynote speaker. He's down on the right. Um, and he plays for the United States MPT soccer team and he'll be competing in the uh World Cup this year. And he was a hit. The kids after his per or after his um speech, they asked him to come outside and play soccer

025with them. So, he was out there with our fifth graders playing soccer on the black top. Um and it was just a really great experience for students to see um how we can embrace um all all people for goal area three for workforce. Um you know obviously I've got amazing staff here like they're they're just fabulous and we've really wanted to invest in them as professionals. So how can we continue to support their learning? So we have provided opportunities for staff to identify areas that they want to grow in as an educator and we've provided differentiated professional development during our PLC building meetings where they can select a session that they want to attend. Um we also have opportunities before and after school for some additional professional learning as well. Um we also have continued

026to really invest our time in collaborative practices. So, we've provided staff, each team with three half-day planning sessions where they can really dive into the curriculum, dive into the data, and build relationships. It's a really important for staff to work well together. So, we wanted to make sure that they had carved out time to specifically work together, that they're not under the clock of I got to go pick up my kids from PE. Um, so we really wanted to provide that for them um this school year. for bowl four families and communities. Um we continue to work with our display and self-help pantry. We did a food drive in February and we had four of those big blue bins if you if you know what those are um filled up to the brim and we

027were able to donate to the food pantry. Um which was really great because a lot of our families um received the support from the display self-help pantry. So it was really nice to kind of see that that cycle. Um, I'm very very proud to share that our this bless you was our first full year of our reignited PTC. So, it's been a couple years really trying to get them up and running and I just came from our PTC meeting um before this and they are up and doing activities to support the the community. So you'll see in the pictures here, um they were at our trunk or treat in the bottom right and then they hosted a family movie night in the bottom left. It was just a really great way to get our families

028back into the building and really supporting um the school. And then our last area, use of resources. Our extended day clubs are the biggest hit at North School. We have about over 400 students participating in our extended day activities. Um they go from Cartoon Club, Earth Explorers Club, Flip the Trip, which is my one of my favorite ones where instead of students going on a field trip, we bring the field trip to the school. So you'll see up in the upper leftand corner, excuse me, we had our Flip the Trip, um the one all the way on the right where the students were doing CrossFit during their lunchtime. So um we had somebody coming in to do some CrossFit with our students. You'll see in the upper left we had Pepper Construction come in and

029the students actually went out to the construction site. They learned about what's happening in our um in our community. So just some really great opportunities for our students. Um we also have in the bottom right we have a new program at North this year. It's called the alternate learning opportunities program which is sponsored through North Cook. So, we've begun that program which really focuses on student engagement, school engagement um with absenteeism as a big focus and then also mentoring as well. But we used our um school improvement grant money to pay for um that program at North. And then I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the amazing construction project that we have going on at North. I mean, I I was just talking to our custodian today, which is how I am

030a little school kid, like so excited about, you know, what are the new things that are happening. Um, and there is progress every single day. There's something new going on out there. Um, and we're really, really looking forward to the new learning spaces for our youngest students and bringing music classes back into the building and having a really nice cafeteria to support our students um during their downtime. We're really grateful and thankful for those resources that you've provided to us in our school. And at this time, take any questions. >> I I just want to say thank you. You guys go through so many changes there. You brought on a lot of newcomers. You guys, you just roll with it. You make it seem easy. And I know it's probably a ton of work. You

031guys make it seem easy, all of you guys. And I know it's a ton of work. That's a lot of changes physically to have to work through. And the fact that you're able to embrace it and make the best of it is a testament to all of you, everyone, and not only you guys, but the families as well, because there's a lot of upkeep. We understand that. So, thank you for your patience and >> thank you again to both of our schools. Really appreciate hearing all the things that are going on in our buildings. >> Okie dokie. Next, we have annual monitoring of district technology report. Mr. And it's my pleasure to introduce our chief technology officer for the district, Mr. Adam Denver. >> Thank you. Good evening. I'm Adam Denver, chief technology officer in

032the district. I want to thank the school board and Dr. Amade for this opportunity to present tonight. This year's memo focused on more technical items than in years past. This is a reflection of today's landscape and the challenges of protecting data as well as the district's commitment to safety and security procedures. Tonight, I'll provide some safety and security updates. Then I will talk a little bit about artificial intelligence where we saw an increase in staff usage and the roll out of some AI literacy lessons. Finally, as in years past, I will conclude tonight's presentation with an update of our device replacement cycle. And yes, I did use Google's AI tool, beautify this slide, to change the topics tonight on this page from words to buttons or images. And I'm now giving credit to using this

033AI tool. So, in collaboration with the district safety committee, the tech team has been rolling out new safety and security communication tools. Part of the standard response protocol is lockdown. If any staff member were to determine there is a serious active threat or a danger inside a building, they can initiate a lockdown. This system was tested during our required lockdown drills at all schools this year. It alerts and directs students and staff while calling the dispatch center with details of details of where the lockdown was initiated. Text messages and notifications are also sent to key district staff including SRO Moresco. This year, the E911 notification system was also updated to improve the information district staff receives when a 911 call was placed. Finally, the technology team continues to attend training and make improvements to our

034video surveillance system. So cyber attacks and data breaches continue to be a threat to school districts all around the country with over 11,000 devices connected to our network at any time from phones, intercom speakers, cameras, laptops, iPads, and more. Protecting our systems behind an enterprise firewall while using network monitoring tools is essential. Our firewall and network equipment are updated on a regular basis. We often do those on weekends or evenings and the district runs penetration tests to identify any potential threats. This year we also made some important changes to our wireless network um to help prioritize and isolate our network traffic. Two-factor authentication is a critical step to protecting district data. Also, the Google Education admin tools continue to update settings to prevent fishing emails, sometimes even before they're delivered. Our staff is doing a

035good job of questioning suspicious emails and reporting them as spam. But we do have to remain diligent and make sure we are never clicking on a link and then providing any passwords. And if you do, it's okay. Just let us know as soon as you can. Over the last few years, we've also seen smishing attacks. I think I'm saying that right. When staff members receive text messages made to look like it is coming from a staff member such as Dr. Amade and then looking to grab personal and financial data. >> I'm not texting the staff and uh the union president would ask us to not use our personal devices as well. And that's the tricky part about those text messages. They were going in many people's personal phones. The technology department is preparing for our

036new full day kindergarten spaces. This includes all the safety and security systems that I just talked about as well as student devices and LCD projectors. We are also excited to equip some new spaces with audiovisisual equipment for meetings and presentations including the new cafeteria at North and the library and cafeteria at Central School. Next, I will give an update on artificial intelligence. It is worth noting while we have a plan and we put in a lot of work, we are still in the early implementation stages. Teachers and students are not required to use AI tools at this time. Two summers ago, our AI task force kicked things off by creating the AI and District 62 guidelines. And last summer, additional work was done, which I will now review. This past summer, the task force created

037the district AI student expectations document. While students may not be using AI in school, we know many of them, even if they're not 13 years old, are using it on their own, and it is important for them to learn about how to use it responsibly. This document can be found on all school websites or by using our district AI jampot and they are reviewed with students as part of our AI digital literacy lessons written for students. These expectations provide a definition and common use examples of artificial intelligence and it reviews three important expectations when using AI to be safe, respectful, and responsible. By the end of this school year, all K through 8th grade students will have completed at least three AI literacy lessons. These lessons are structured around three main strands that progress developmentally

038across grade levels. In the early elementary K2 focus, we have recognition and safety, identifying AI helpers in daily life, basic concepts, understanding patterns and simple input output, and foundational ethics, kind, safe, responsible use. In the upper elementary third through fifth grade, our focus is on comparison and analysis, different AI types and their functions, historical context, AI evolution and timeline of understanding and privacy awareness, data protection and safe behaviors. And our middle school sixth through eighth grade focus is on critical evaluation, bias, accuracy and reliability assessment, future thinking, predictions about AI, societal impact, and advanced ethics, environmental impact, data ownership, and media literacy. This past summer, we also created our parent FAQ document, which can be found on our AI page on every school site. Important to note, students only have access to district approved AI

039tools on their iPad. This includes Magis School AI, which is built for education and allows teachers to monitor student usage. Magischool AI has SAPA and SIP copa agreements, which safeguards the collection and usage of student data and does not use district data to train its AI model. This is also true for staff usage of Gemini, Google's AI tool as well as Canva. The majority of student usage in Magic School are for custom chat bots and image generation like I demonstrated in last year's technology presentation where you were students in my Magic School class. Staff are using custom assessment tools in Magic School AI as well as tools for instructional and student support materials such as text rewriter, text translator, and social stories. They are also using the integrated AI tools found in the Google Workplace

040Suite. This summer, the AI task force will reconvene to make revisions to our guiding documents, including updating and expanding our AI literacy lessons. We will also continue to brainstorm more ways to integrate AI training and usage usage examples into existing professional development and meeting structures. Some upcoming bigger ticket technology items include the following. Our office staff desktop computers are due for a replacement this coming year with an approximate cost of $80,000. We are now in year two of our student iPads, which means we have one more year with them. As a reminder, we sell all our used iPads after and after three years of usage, they are still in great demand with our resellers. Last year, we received $420,000 for our used iPads. And we are now in the first year of our new teacher

041laptops, which we replace every four years. The next replacement cycle would be the 2930 school year. Um, and we sold our previous laptops this fall for $150,000. And that concludes the updates for tonight. Any questions? Uh, I'm going to support Mr. Dennberg on his security initiatives. Um, it's something that we all have to be cognitive of. These devices are amazing and incredible and opened up the world to all of us in a beautiful way. But it also opened up a little bit of the dark side of the world. So, um, if you have a fishing attack in your email, do report it. Don't think about it. Just report it. Because, uh, my son just spent a week with his company in five locations went down. One person clicked something in an email and it took

042their entire company down for a week. >> So, it happens. We get the attacks at my company all the time. Um, yes. Good night. >> Um, so just just just be wary. Report anything and everything. It's better to be safe than sorry. Mr. Denberg and his staff can't manage what they don't know. So if you don't tell them, they cannot respond and protect you. So please be cautious and careful. I thank you. Um, and then also thank you for all this information, especially with the AI initiatives and what what is going on. Um, I don't have any questions except to Thank you and your staff for everything that they do to protect everyone here. >> Thank you so much. I This is all such a nuance topic because there's so much concern behind it that's

043valid, right? And how to do this, right? So, um I don't know if all the board members here know or the audience knows or the guests. I'm not sure how I'm sorry about that, but uh we did request to see some of the contracts because what a couple of us are really worried about is our students data being sold. So, um, if you you did a really great job with one of the contracts we had talked about, we just have to be mindful of our contracts. We just it's scary being our kids are using this, this could be sold, um, and it's not appropriate. So, we have to be mindful of that. >> Well, especially parents at home as well because if you're allowing your kids to use chat chat GPT or any of the

044other tools that are outside of the district walls of what we're doing to protect you, you typically don't have that in your homes too to protect your family. So be cautious, be careful, and and know that if you're allowing them to use the AI at home or if you are, you're giving your data to help their models learn. So just be careful. >> Thank you. >> And it's part of that that I'm pleased that we're doing so much um AI literacy even even for the really younger kids. I think it's important to get out there and let them know about it is as soon as they start using computer really >> and check it check the AI results. It's not always accurate. I'd say probably 50% of the time it is not accurate. >> Thank

045you. Thank you very much. Next, we have K8 English language arts resource recommendation and pilot over overview. Mr. Hering, >> I am pleased to turn this over to Mrs. Samuel, our assistant superintendent for instructional services, and to Dr. Fogerty, our director of curriculum. All right. Oops. Can we hear me? Okay. All right. Good evening, Board of Education. Dr. Amade. I am joined tonight by our director of curriculum, Dr. Julie Pogerty, and some of our fabulous teachers. I think they all came here tonight just to support our new literacy resources. Um, we want to give you an update on our literacy journey. Um, and exciting news, share some information about new resources we've selected for implementation next year. All right. So, as you know, our goal is to improve literacy outcomes for every single one of

046our students here in district 62. And we are doing that by building our teachers knowledge and understanding of reading development. You see our reading rope, which really talks about um we've been referencing throughout the year to think about what is all required to create skilled readers. um and also making some key instructional shifts in the classroom to support our students. And it's been quite a journey. Uh as you know, um we've been on this journey for about a year and a half now. Um started with forming a a new variation of our literacy leadership committee where we um really went in and examined our current practices, learned about current research. Um we've also our team, our teachers, our administrators, our principles have been doing intensive extensive learning um about structured literacy. Um, and then finally,

047because we know that literacy development starts at a very, very young age, we've been working hard with our administrators and staff at the um at the early learning center to not only improve their learning and understanding, but also make sure that we are increasing that alignment. so um that we can improve the experience for our rising kindergarteners as they transition um especially next year for a full day. So we've learned a lot all of us and one of the things that was um pretty evident very early on for us in in this journey is that while we have a great resource to support early reading development that's phonics foundational skills all of that we we realized pretty quickly that we needed something else uh that was better aligned to support language comprehension which is a

048critical component of of reading development. And so with that, I want to turn it over to Dr. Julie Fogerty, who can talk you through our process and how we started to look at some of our resources. Dr. >> Good evening, board of education, and Dr. Amade, thank you for the time tonight. So our process of um selecting resources involved uh instructional services starting by looking and identifying what are the components of a program that are aligned to best practice and evidence-based research that we want to find in a resource. and then reviewing resources and looking to see how well they um kind of elevate and implement and integrate those components into their resource. And so then what we did is we narrowed down um all of the resources out there and selected a couple to

049bring back um to our teachers. So for kindergarten and fifth grade um we decided to pilot amplify um CKLA um and then also which stands for content knowledge and language arts. I forget about our acronyms all over the place. And then we also um were um piloting arts and letters. And then in middle school we looked at um HMH's into literature. Um and HMH is the name of the company. It's not a um education acronym and then amplify English language arts. >> So then we invited our teachers to pilot these resources and we were very lucky that we got quite a few people who were willing to support us in this process and um we had representation from every grade level first through 8th. We did not pilot in kindergarten because our instructional day wasn't

050long enough to do the program yet. Um and so and then we also had representation from general education, special education and our multilingual teachers so that we have a good representation and all voices are being heard throughout the process. So once we had our pilot teachers we started the pilot process. So we taught each resource for about 40 to 45 days so that we could have a good feeling of how it worked. Um throughout that process, we gathered feedback from teachers weekly or bi-weekly. And then at the end of each pilot, we um also um got feedback from our students in third through fifth grade. We met regularly with publishers for support and problem solving throughout that process. So our um pilot teachers would either meet before school, after school, um or sometimes during the

051school day. We conducted walkthroughs to look for trends. We identified what's going well so that we can celebrate. It is very hard to learn something new in front of students while you are all doing it together. So we wanted to make sure that we are celebrating the um the great things that were happening but also to address challenges and things that weren't feeling or that were feeling a little clunky for teachers. And then finally at the end of that process we convened to make some re uh recommendations. And we did have um our our middle school it was unanimous that they would like to recommend um amplify um ELA. Um and then there was a majority of teachers um in the elementary who wanted to or who recommended arts and letters. And so we have

052a couple of those here. um some teachers, pilot teachers with us tonight and I'm going to turn it over to them so that they can share some of the highlights with you in terms of what they found especially meaningful and exciting about the new resource. So we are going to start with um Mrs. Yoast and Mrs. Sho um from our elementary to talk about arts and letters. >> Hi u my name's Rhonda Yast. I'm fifth grade teacher at South School. Um, and as we embarked on the pilot, the kids were really excited. Um, they were excited to see some new materials and to see something different than what they've been seeing for the past several years. In fifth grade with arts and letters, we taught a module about Native Americans. And it connected not only

053the current um landscape, so our the tribes we were talking about are the tribes from the Midwest. It also talked about westward expansion and the growing of America. And so it connected to a lot of things that they already have learned about, but also gave them some more information to broaden their knowledge in that area. It also brought with us some really rich vocabulary. One of the words that I'd like to highlight because it was one that gave them um lots of different viewpoints. The word was perspective. And if you think of the word perspective, it has a lot of different meanings. and we were able to tie it into most of those different meetings during the unit. So, we talked about artwork, we talked about the perspective in artwork and how perspective allows us

054to see a 3D image even though it's a two-dimensional thing and also the horizon line and all those things that allow us to create perspective in artwork. But we also talked about it in literature how perspective is character perspective in a story but also perspective of an author. So the novel that we read was written from the perspective of a Native American tribe um person who was writing about her native tribe and her family even though it was a fiction story. So it was her perspective we were getting but also talked about the perspective of historical events and how when you look at two different sides of a historical event you sometimes get a different story. So when we talked about Westport expansion from the side of what the Native Americans felt of it, we

055got a very different perspective than what we had heard before. Um the kids ended the unit up by doing a written essay. They wrote a five paragraph essay about the Native American tribe from the novel The Birch Park House, which was the novel that we read. and showing why we want to remember their culture and bring their culture forward so that their culture and their beliefs get sustained over time. So, it was a really good um set of lessons and the kids were really engaged and really excited for it. Um so, I'm Jennifer Sharp. I teach third grade over at Terrace and um the unit I piloted was the C. And so, we read a variety of engaging texts that students truly enjoyed. were fiction, non-fiction, biographies, fables, um, and poetry within this unit. And,

056um, and then in addition, we examine several works of art to deepen the understanding of the theme as well. But what I found especially exciting is that writing will now be embedded within the curriculum. This provides the district with a consistent writing framework that all teachers can follow, allowing skills to build progressively from one grade level to the next. During this unit, um, students wrote several informative essays using a structured approach called the painted essay. And this painted essay is a writing strategy that uses color coding to help students organize their ideas. So think of an introduction would be red and then um you had your thesis that was green. Two proof paragraphs, you had um yellow and blue and then the conclusion was green. So when you paint this essay, each section is a

057different co color. Um the students gain a clear understanding of how an essay is structured and how to support their ideas with details and evidence. And so we just finished this um unit last week and for our final essay, they had to write about Doc Kustoau and um and how he explored the sea. All my students, most of them did a fabulous job. They were able to follow this painted essay and um pretty much write independently a nice four paragraph essay. So, it turned out really well and they were all excited to see what could come by the building and see >> and while the middle school um teachers come up here, I also want to point out that one of the artwork pieces downstairs was uh is highlighted in the third grade arts and

058letters. So, the big wave is one of the pieces of art our hearing writers will be exploring in the future, although some of them already did it. So, anyway, it'll be okay. All right. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Erin Shanahan and Sarah Cray who are going to talk to you about Amplify ELA. >> Hi, my name is Erin Shanahan. I am an eighth grade ELA teacher at Chipua. Um, we piloted a Frankenstein unit um from Amplify. Um and initially when we um found out that the unit we were piloting was Frankenstein, we were kind of scared. Um we were like, "Oh, this is very advanced for our students." Um but it was a graphic novel version and Amplify made it really accessible um and engaging for all students. Um so all students

059were able to gain something out of the unit and um they had a lot of great entry points for student discourse throughout the unit. like kids having conversations with each other um talking about the texts that they were reading and also writing about the texts that they were reading. Um and that's all really highly supported our district PD this year um around the science of reading. Um one of the biggest highlights of the unit was um the embedded student debates surrounding the text. Um these got the students really engaged um and having meaningful conversations about they were what they were reading. um students ended up having very strong feelings about some of the moral choices that Victor Frankenstein was making um as well as strong feelings about the creature's desire for a companion. So, what

060started off as kind of being a scary idea um ended up being something that we got really excited about and the students also got really excited about it. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Hi, I'm Sarah Crayons. I'm an instructional coach at Chipoa and Aangquin. I piloted eighth or I worked alongside um Chipoa's eighth grade team. Um Amplify allows us to maintain high expectation for all middle school students by keeping instruction grounded at the grade level content while providing all students with the right supports. One of the most impactful features of how easily teachers can differentiate just at the click of a button, they can adjust the level of support for individual students in the moment, the night before, whenever it happens. It's it's good to go. These supports give every student an appropriate entry point

061to the same rigorous task. This means all students are engaging with grade level questions and content, but with the scaffolds they need to be successful. were supporting up instead of scaffolding down. As an instructional coach, I partnered with a teacher in an instructional special ed classroom. Um, we r we read Frankenstein. I'm not going to lie, I was really afraid when we read it um over winter break. I was texting Shanahan like, "What are we about to do?" Um, and I think partnering inside the instructional classroom, I wasn't entirely sure what was about to happen, but I was able to see firsthand um, how much the students loved the story and how they got into it. And the idea that um, we were able to give them grade level content was just amazing. It was

062rewarding to see students engaging in lively discussions. They really got into it like is he a human, is he not? Um and then the anticipation of what was about to come. >> Thank you. >> I really want to thank our teachers who it is not easy. It is a heavy lift to be a pilot teacher and learn two new resources in the middle of the year and I I am just blown away by the enthusiasm, the dedication of this group and you know Dr. Fogerty and I brought forth resources that we felt really comfortable either one of them and and we said we're not teaching this and and we're you know we're not in the classroom and so their voice was absolutely critical in this process and um I think there's a lot of enthusiasm.

063So you'll be seeing on the the agenda tonight that uh we're asking you to approve the the contracts for both of these new resources and uh we're excited for our next steps. With that any questions? I value add before we get the questions. We I would ask the board members who sat with you and I uh over 18 months. It's been a minute >> and we really had to spend some time talking about the transition from balance literacy, which wasn't a bad thing to structure literacy, but more importantly about providing our teachers best resource we can put out there. um to see the literacy committee uh we we we thought it would take two or more years and then I'm proud of the team because it was their decision and their guidance that said hey

064you know this is too important to waste another year and I thank the teachers that that pushed that agenda whether it was for middle school or elementary because I did not believe uh we have a lot to do next year and the strategic plan has put a lot of stress on our system but the right thing for these children is to give them the best possible curriculum and also the right resources for you to teach. Uh, and now we're working on the how to do that and the the PD piece which is coming. But I would also thank your team. I know Christiey's probably not I didn't see this phone in here, but I know that there's beyond that it's a small team making great change. So, thank you to everybody. And then I I

065just want to make sure to mention that because the board members each of you sat >> and we learned through a very long process of explaining structure literacy and why it was important that we would be leaders in the community uh for this transition. So I'll be quiet. >> Thank you. >> Questions. >> I just also have a huge thank you. It was Kelly Morrisy that really opened my eyes up to the situation happening and not that it's anybody's fault. It's just capitalism seeped into the school districts and I really appreciate what you guys are doing and then happy for what your team is doing and thank you very much. It's really thoughtful and kind of >> So just for clarity, Amplify ELA was the unanimous choice for >> 100% of our teachers who who

066piloted chose amplify. It was very very high. >> Okay. >> Very, you know, I was worried. I'm like, "Oh gosh, I don't want to be the one to make the final decision if we're close for ELA." But it ended up um pretty overwhelming in in the direction of Arts and Letters as well. >> Okay. Because that was then my second question was where did Arts and Letters fall in because >> it wasn't close. Okay. >> No, it was not close. >> That that's actually a really good sign. So, >> I said we brought two, you know, like it even that there's that much of a debate means we brought some good resources and um each one had some really great uh points to them. I appreciate you bringing in the perspective of keep using that

067word. Um, >> great. Good job. Um, we're uh into that because to be able to have the support know that we have the support of the staff is valuable to us is what we're taking when we're taking these votes. So, thank you. We appreciate you guys came and did that and that you piloted as well because we know that that's not easy. >> Agreed. That was mostly what I had as well is that I really appreciate all the teacher and student feedback about this process because it is it is a big change. Um I think all for the better and I really appreciate the highlighting all the evidence-based data you were using to make these decisions moving forward and really appreciate everybody's hard work on this. It is a big lift and we know we're

068asking a lot of our teachers and our kiddos. Um so thank you very much everybody and this team >> and I do want to give a special shout out to Dr. Fogerty who really has taken a huge lift of of organizing and she's got a scheduling brain we're always leaning into and to be able to to put all of these pieces together um was an incredible amount of work. So >> thank you Dr. So, >> you were asking for board approval of these two contracts. They are included in our consent agenda. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you for clearing that up. Next, we have approval of organic life contract renewal. Um, >> um, I will turn it over to Mr. Bernaloi if he approaches the mic. All right. Good evening. So, uh, we're hearing a

069lot of, uh, celebrations tonight, a lot of good information, and that can mean one thing. >> The, uh, the year is winding down. So, uh, to that end, we have our organic life contract, which is, uh, we have to renew every year. Um, and, uh, as explained in the board packet, this is the second of four renewals, so it's potentially a 5-year contract total. uh the uh CPI for food away from home last year was 4.1%. And that's the agreed upon increase um that is customary that most school districts agree to. So um on the uh the sheet on the contract itself showed the increase in the price uh which did work out the 4.1%. Uh or the the contract and as per guidance. Um also uh tonight we also look at the price of

070our meals. Um the recommendation is to increase the price of breakfast and lunch by 10 cents. Um that being um breakfast going from $160 to $1.70, lunch going from 315 to 325 and adult meals going from 365 to 375. Uh milk will stay the same. Um as will all the alle cart items um looking to just cover our costs. Um with that also um is bees also audits what we're charging. Um, so we're not using the free reducer program to subsidize the pay program. So, uh, small increases every year generally satisfy the need that we're trying to be in compliance. So, uh, if there are any questions, be happy to entertain them. Uh, but I will need an approval of the contract and also the, uh, meal price increase. >> Is the consensus still strong

071that organic life is a thumbs up, that everybody's still enjoying the food? Yeah, I'm seeing some thumbs up. Yeah, >> just making sure >> students are enjoying the food still. They're eating it, not throwing it away. >> As a lunchroom supervisor, I can say yes. Thank you, Rhonda. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Those are the important questions. That's true. That's true. >> Other questions? >> No. In that case, I move that the board approve the food service contract with the program life for 2027 and meal price increases for breakfast and lunch. >> Second, it's been moved and seconded. Can I roll please? >> Karen >> I hearing >> I >> Burton >> I >> thank you. Next is the approval of that dedication for city of displayplains. Mr. >> Well, as long as Mr.

072Berosi is still up there. >> Well, I feel all alone. There's no cheering. I don't have a >> Oh, you got cheered last year when you brought organic life because everybody was a great spending money. The others are building mines. >> I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. You keep spending money. The others are building mines. That's why you're >> I keep spending money. >> Well, I guess that's what happens when you sign all the checks, I guess, right? >> Good safety. >> All right, let's do a balancing act here. >> So, uh, the next item. Are we on the next item? >> Yeah. The fifth the clap. So, uh, >> just broken computer. >> There it is. >> There we go. >> So, I wanted to to project this one. So, it's been a little

073bit of a while. I know we we've mentioned this a little bit over the months. Uh, but it was back in September uh when we displayed this. Uh this is the fifth avenue fifth avenue widening project that the city's going to do between Bwood and Forest uh which is scheduled to be done this this summer. So one of the things that they asked for was to give them um basically a a plat of dedication to give them the the land uh to do the the addition. So, uh, the work will actually increase Forest Avenue, uh, with the width of Forest Avenue by a little over eight feet and will create 28 parking spaces, um, along the street, which, uh, I don't know, I'm not a traffic engineer, I don't know exactly what the end result

074of that would be. Uh, but I think we're pretty confident and optimistic it will make it at least somewhat better because I know there's a lot of congestion um, around there. So, uh, that was something that we talked about back in September. So, so I'm sorry. >> Can I ask? Yeah, go ahead. So, I'm assuming that that means they will then be in charge of all repairs. Plowing, >> anything that >> Yeah, I'm Oh, I'm getting into Absolutely. >> Stealing his thunder. >> Stealing my thunder. No. >> Well, I know this my stuff's very engaging. I understand. Um, so this also I believe was shared uh which showed really what the the city wanted to do which was to get dedicate some of the land that goes not only along Fifth Avenue but also forest

075in Long Parkway. Um, so this has the benefit of because we technically own the land up to the middle of the street. >> So by giving that to the city I think is probably a really good move having them own the land under the street and the Parkway. Um, obviously we get along really well with the city and the leadership they have over there is really topnotch. Um, but this is really a long-term decision. You don't know who's going to be sitting in your chairs or who's going to be working at the city, you know, years and decades from now. Um, so I think that's a good thing to protect us um in the future. And this is the actual u platinum um roadway dedication. Took a little while to get this. This was actually

076commissioned by us, Alan Arrust over at STR Architects. I had this put together by Allen out of Grace Lake, which is pretty reputable survey company. Um, and this was reviewed by the city engineers. It was reviewed by STR and it was also reviewed by Aris attorney to see that there weren't any any problems with it. So, looking for the board to approve that tonight. And I know the city's actually going to probably start work um going to get ran on this. >> So, Can I just >> So we have owned up to half of the road. Who owned the other half of the road? >> Uh well I that would be either the people who are the property owners or perhaps it could be the city. Okay. >> So I think uh being a school

077district uh the rules how they they segregate this out or divide it out or plotted out years ago might look a little different than it do for homeowners. So I I to be honest I can't really answer that question. >> And is that for all of our streets around our schools or is this different? >> Well, it probably varies if this has been done before. I don't know if 20 years ago they did some work and they did a plan of dedication >> depend on the age of the school. >> That's not uncommon. Uh this is so I'm sure I haven't looked to be honest but I am positive this isn't the only place where that would be the case in our district. >> I just it was a very good question. We own a

078road. >> Who knew? >> Can anyone say toll booth? >> That's a great idea. >> Especially in front of El >> will the work be completed. Will the work be completed before school starts? >> Uh well, that is the goal. I don't know. But we did talk to the city. They are going to work. They know our schedule. >> Yeah. Uh so they're going to be very careful that uh they can help accommodate what we have. Obviously some of this is weather dependent. Um so I they're going to really try to get that done. Uh but I can't >> I can't guarantee it. >> Strange things have happened weatherwise the last couple weeks. >> Thank you. >> We also talked about national >> what is it? Yeah, that is that's coming up too. So out.

079Uh it will be an interesting evening. So uh I know the city is >> the city's aware of it. We did mention it to them that there's one of their events is taking place on our property while we're having all this work on >> I can speak to that. Hi. >> Hi. Um, I did speak with Jill Gambino from the city about the project and they had assured us that by 2 p.m. they would stop work on August 4th in participation national. >> Perfect. >> We have that covered, Mr. Back to you. Well, we we might still be in a position where parking is impacted on the streets >> because of the fact that National Night Outdrew so many local families. We actually did not struggle with parking as much as we had anticipated last

080year, but it might be even bigger this year, Mr. Hering. I don't know. We'll see. All right. Were there other questions about this? >> No. >> Okay. Can I get a motion, please? >> In that case, I move that the board approve the plat of roadway dedication prepared by re Allen and associates of Grace Lake, Illinois to support the Fifth Avenue widening project. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Second, please. Hearing >> I mass I >> Burton. >> Hi, >> Beckman. I >> Garrett >> I >> thank you. Next we have the first reading of revisions to board policies. Mrs. Garrett. >> Hi guys. Um I think I'm actually turning this straight over to Dr. Amade. Did you want to take this one? We kind of going back and forth. So being a wait

081this first reading >> first reading. So for the knowledge of any u community members too we do board policy update in two meetings. First meeting would be a first reading where the leaison this year for policy review is Miss Garrett and Miss Garrett and I have been reading policy from one up and we're going through every one of them and I can't recommend that enough is a there's a lot that you learn and u we are also when we update our policy we take press policy recommendations then the board is reading them for the first time at one meeting and if everyone has their questions satisfied and edits that we're going to make policy. We will approve it at second meeting. Uh so we have two of those tonight. One is the first reading which

082focuses on board member expenses policies updated for continuous improvements. So that is one that we always come back to. And so two 125 policy and then we also have one up here for title one programs. And for each of these, the top one being board member expenses. We are uh we've met several times on this and one thing that we did is we've looked at not only the policy and how it reads um because if we want to send a board member abroad to go down to Springfield maybe to do advocacy day or a oneoff situation uh we're better prepared for that because we have an anticipatory or a planning form the board member to fill allow um in alignment with and not to exceed a board budget that Mr. Verloi is going to help

083me work with for we have one already for the board for all of triple I and all the you know professional development uh which covers rooms, lodging, food, um transportation but we needed to update first we had to add the form for planning secondary for reimbursement and not in the sense that we're asking um it's a rare occasion where a board member might have to pay something out of pocket and get reimbured but to qualify under the tight guidelines of what would becept acceptable. >> So one thing that we are recommending the board to consider is the per day meal. It used to have you know an amount for breakfast and amount for lunch and amount for dinner and knowing that people's uh choices or eating habits or maybe um if you are bal or

084kosher needs you would be at an event where you might not be able to have that met. You might have to make an alternate choice. We are saying and we've also looked at some of our neighboring districts that a per meal traditional meal doesn't make sense. We think a daily amount not to exceed 125 which is in many of our neighboring districts per board member um would be an acceptable recommendation >> and that's also changing for employees too, right? It's for everybody for >> Well, it's just our standard question. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's not for board members. This is just our policy in general. >> It would be effective on on this policy for for board members here, but it would be the same expectation for anybody that would travel for the district. >> And

085it's pretty it's pretty rigorous. So, works for the superintendent, it works for everybody else in the district. Receipt's missing. There's a process for accounting for that, which is a rare occurrence. >> So, Miss Garrett, did you have any other changes that were missing? Yeah. So we so we still have to update this a lot because even Beth, this is what I'm going to miss. One of the most things about Beth is she found a error below on 3B. So we kind of just ran through some different ideas and looked at the cost of triple I and um different things. So we have some ideas we want to throw around. We've been meeting like almost weekly, it seems like the last few weeks, kind of going through the policies. So this one's a first reading. I'll

086shoot you guys um just some of the different things that we kind of talked about and then we can talk before we actually vote on this one. So, this was just roughly after I did go to the hotel when I went to state or went down to Springfield and um I did end up having to pay. It was it was I went there and they're like, "Oh, it wasn't paid for so I paid for it." So, I will when I do it, I'll fill out this form and then we could use that as the sample to kind of run over it. >> Yeah. So, we'll have a real life example of it. And then that is this policy. Do you have any more on this policy you want to talk about? >> No. Um >>

087does anybody have questions? >> Yeah. No, there's one part two uh part one of the forms that's not policy but the attachment for reimbursement. Mr. Burlo's team up regularly updates in January the mileage reimbursement amount. That's really it. We didn't think that was something that needed for approval. Uh unless the board gives direction. It's just we're going to pull whatever the state is recommending for the mileage reimbursement. So >> So it'll update each year and then we delete it on there. Does it say that somewhere? Sorry. >> Yeah, >> it should just >> for Yeah, it says that. >> Yes. Yes. >> But on the old form that we had, it was indicating that the board would be approving this at a certain >> meeting in the year and I didn't know that um I

088didn't know that we had to have the board's approval to follow >> states. >> That's what I'm saying. It should say that we will follow the states. Oh, I got >> reimburse. >> Yeah. >> So that when we approve it, it'll all be >> just there. Yeah. >> So we'll I see Mary taking it. So we'll we'll make that addition change down for me. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Sorry, we're just making some changes over here. Okay. Um yeah, so that's that policy. And then our second draft for our next policy is Our second reading is >> Oh, sorry. >> What about the title one? >> That's what we're gonna We're going to bring up the title one, >> but that's a first reading. >> Sorry about title one. >> You want me

089to go? >> Yeah, you have to first read. >> Mal and I have she has a title, you know, responsibilities for title one funding and part of that was to to submit to the state our plan. And they liked our plan so much that they said, "You should just take this and plop it right into your policy." which is what we've basically done here. Then at the same time, uh, shocking everyone, the new press policy update came and there was additional things that we were going to need to add to this title one policy. So Marielle, what you can see in there, Mr. Toyer has already done some of that with line outs. Correct. >> Yes. >> And then the part below in the red red below on page six and seven and eight is

090all our plan. Correct. So, we would ask the board to if you see that, review it. If you see anything that stands out to you as something that wouldn't jive, we're happy to review that. And um yeah, and we're excited. And then on the next policy group, the one I'm about to go to with two, I just I want to talk about how this was caught and inspired and we we found a forum or this is M. SL and her team or just you uh did a presentation to the parent advisory committee on this information. So >> and then I think we're meeting on the 7th. So if you guys want to send me anything you any questions you have before the 7th that would be great because we're going to sit down again and

091we should not leave out Muriel. She's been phenomenal and she is part of the team. We call her in. So she's >> and she has to put all this into the policy. So >> and change it twice because we switched systems and she had made all these changes, spent all this time and then there was confusion if it had changed over. So thank you for all your work on this. >> Tina, your deadline is May 7th. >> May 7th. If you guys can tell me anything on the first readings that you have questions on, we'll get answers because what I'm finding on some of the policies is like we're reading it and I'm not like I'm asking clarification on the policy so we actually understand the interpretation of the policy. Yep. Do you want to

092lead us into the second? >> Yes, I have qu I have a question. Did you say that um meal expenses number 3B there was an error and is the error that there are no amounts listed? >> Exactly. Thank you. >> So we'll be leaning on Eugene now when that's gone because she pointed that out to me. So >> this one I can still prove I will be sending her. >> Oh yeah, we >> this next one's exciting. I'm Dr. talked about this. >> Okay. >> Um because we had that robust conversation a couple meetings back about committees and um the knowledge of the group is that our school board follows a liaison process. So each school board member is assigned a a cabinet member uh and or an area of you know expertise. So Miss

093Duckman works with Kathleen Kelly Golden on personnel matters. So we've done, you know, Mr. Herring works with the EST, the educational services team. So each person has an assigned role. Uh and Miss Garrett, sorry, uh has been doing policy with me and we're we're really working hard on that. And so the upside was we had this long conversation about committees and our committee recommendation for the second reading is that we eliminated the number one because our board does not operate currently. we can always put it back if the board changes style. We work under a liaison based process and not a committee's driven. Um so removing that one was specific and then also the numbering would change and adding civil offenses to was that coming out of press policy? I can't quite recall, but the

094word civil was a recommendation to add. But I would tell the board the upside to really close reading this and and some of the discourse was that it's changing our practice in real time. And I would tell you that um we've been meeting with the parent leaders group for some time u and have talked to them about student behavior. We talk about kind of all the stuff that falls underneath the parent teacher advisory, but we didn't have enough teachers in the room. And so we invited teachers this year and we made a change uh to our practice and we were reporting uh m just Dr. D. Christopharo and Miss Siguel came to the meeting along with Mr. Bear uh to give presentation to our current leaders group. of the PTC presidents and we also had

095uh teachers group our teachers representative uh in the meeting also presenting but also listening and I think it was probably the most informative meeting we've had with parents group to date I mean and they appreciated hearing some of it and then with the second group behavioral interventions committee Dr. Christoph Mr. Bear and I I believe Mr. may be joining on that, but we're going to be um working with the the board and doing presentations based off of, you know, I know that you have your group ready to present for the May meeting. So, we'll look forward to that. But I would just say to the board that the the fruit of actually doing policy review is that in real time we're making adjustments to our action and understanding, you know, what we can do better.

096I think that helps everybody. So, >> thank Tina for that because you did you pushed on. Well, thank you for spending so much time and going through them and really making it a priority. >> It's the number one thing the board can do is effectuate policy. >> And I just want to clarify, but that both of these committees are dictated by school code. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> So, they will stay there because of that. >> Yes. >> And how great to bring the PTC's into it and and let them actually be part of the process and everything. you were already doing it, but it's a formal way of doing it and let them know we really respect their time >> and our our staff members. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Appreciate the presentation.

097>> If there are no other questions, >> um I move that the board No more questions, right? >> All right. I move that the board approve the revisions to the board policy as presented in the second reading. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Can I roll call, please? >> Hassa. >> I. >> Marley. >> I. >> Burton. >> I. >> Defin. >> I >> Heron. >> Hi. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I need a motion to approve the closed session minutes of March 16th, 2026. >> I move that the board approve the closed session minutes of March 16, 2026 as presented. Second, >> it's been moved and seconded. Can I have a roll call, please? >> I duck. >> I will abstain as I was not there. Herit I >> Massa >> I thank

098you. Next we have the consent agenda. I move that the board approve the consent agenda items which include approval of the revised personnel report, authorization of contract approvals, approval of minutes, business meeting of March 16, 2026, district net payroll for March 2026, District 62 warrant register and reported bills for March 13th, 17th, 30th, 31st, April 7th, and 14th, 2026. 6 monthly financial summary for March 2026. North Cook net payroll for March 2026. North Cook warrant register for March 2026. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. I have a roll call, please. >> Burton. >> I. >> Duckman. >> I. >> Garrett. >> I. >> Hering. >> Hi. >> Massa. >> I. >> Mley. >> I. Next we have communications from the four. Um I can start. Um I attended Forest PTC's multicultural night last

099week. Um was paired with um EPAC and so they also used the rooms at the ELC meeting room and um it was a huge success. It was a wonderful wonderful time. They have tons of families that sponsored tables and they brought food and music and artifacts from their homes. Um and they a lot of them dressed in traditional dress. Um AMS's Alangquin's um march band came and played and they crushed it. It was so fun. It was so so fun. Um and I am so pleased that so many schools do a multicultural night and um principles let us know what those are. >> Please email us. We want to come to stuff. So let us know. Um I also um want to talk about ERAD real quick. Um I am the leazison for ERAD and

100the they didn't have a a huge shocking update this last meeting um but they just kept saying that the biggest pressing issue was funding um that uh EDF isn't enough um for all the things that we have to do during the school day um with unfunded mandates and lower pration rates. Um and so it's it's kind of um an interesting time to be in looking at funding for school districts um all over the place, but especially for us here in um Cook County. So um yes, but they they um we talked about, you know, how do you keep funding a top priority within the state budget? Um and every all the legislators that we've talked to so far are um are are fully committed that this that funding is the top priority, not a priority,

101but the priority. And so that's really nice to hear from our legislators, our representatives um in Springfield. So that is great. And that is why I have >> um I can go next. Yeah, please. >> So I went down to Springfield. There was about 75 school districts that attended. I'm going to run through some fills super quick, guys. Um there is HP 4379 for adult changing stations in the school districts done by I believe 2030. Um that one I should be going through and I think that one's pretty we acknowledge that's a good one. We need that. And then uh this did go through I believe 4137 should go through as well. That's expanding the um education for homeless act. So that is providing students with hotel rooms um sometimes in lie of transportation to

102and from school for many students. Um, if anybody wants more information, reach out. I have a lot on that. And then this one, I this one is hopefully not going to go through SB 3735. What it is is you as a parent could fully opt out of electronic devices for your student at school. The problem is is you could do that today and then expect it tomorrow, which I don't know how a teacher could possibly do that. they wouldn't be they wouldn't have the curriculum to have a a child go without um any digital like services. So that one hopefully doesn't go through. And then there is HB4416 which we've talked about a lot. The unemployment bill when I was down there um we met with House Speaker Welch and a lot of different people.

103I'm really bad I don't always learn names and but my main concern with them although personally just as an individual I don't dislike this bill. It's just that I don't think they thought about it, especially after looking at tier 2 pensions 15 years down the road, and they haven't fixed that yet. So, I don't have confidence that they'll do this properly. And I've asked that question, and I feel pretty confident that they don't have confidence either, because my big question to them is, if you're a 10-month employee, you get insurance over the summer, you now go on employment. If you lose your insurance, what's the cost of COBRA to these employees? because the cost of COBRA to ensure your family for that time might be more than the unemployment benefits you get. So there's there's

104just it should be talked more and actually looked at from a logistics point of view. Also, are you required to do the same thing? Look for two to three jobs a week. Some school districts there were concerned about their summer staff not being there. To me, the big issue was what does this cost our schools, especially after you didn't pay taxes on time and we lost $800,000. and then what happens with their health insurance. And I think anybody supporting this bill needs to get a clear answer on your health insurance benefits because that is not something you want to find out in the middle of summer. And then there's SP 2427, the cell phone usage in schools. Um that one I think actually may go through. Um and there is a lot of concern. I

105get it. Um school districts have policies. for us, we're K through eight, so we can kind of talk about that on the side of questions we should be talking about that aren't bills. Transportation, um, a private equity firm is purchasing several of the transportation companies, so we need to be mindful of that. I don't know if we need to do I I don't know what we do need to do, but we definitely need to start having that conversation now. And then we need to talk about tips. We need more education on tips. We need to better understand them. everybody is we don't know if the outcome on the other end is really what we think it should be for our community and before we keep having any new tiffs go in or renewing tips we

106really need to understand if they are beneficial. Um so those are those items coming up and then May 20th there is at the public library at 6:30 there is going to be an educational event um hosted by Sierra Club on data centers because we do have one in school next to the school. Um oh I went to a sustainability committee meeting down at city hall. Um I really appreciate everybody in that room. They were very um concerned that there was a data center next to the school and what we have to do as a community to keep everybody safe. So um they are also involved in the people from that meeting. So May 20 and 6:30 as a library every community member should be there. >> Yes. I will definitely >> Thank you. You're welcome.

107>> I have a couple questions for you. >> Yeah. that you've mentioned are they in committee have they passed out of committee what you know >> so every the ones that I mentioned should be in committee >> and can you keep us advised as to whether there are witness slips >> so what I think okay so I'm still learning all this you all have to bear with me that's like why I'm on this journey is to really understand this so I can really make change so I think witness slips are only when they're in uh a house I feel like I have to look at, you know, you over there. But I think I think there's only witness lips when it's I think when it's in committee, I'm not seeing witness lip options. So I

108got to see if there's a point where the witness slips stop happening. And I don't know if it when it goes from house to Senate. So what happens is and I'm so rough on this it goes to house then it goes to senate and then senate makes changes and house has to approve and then it can go up as a bill and then between how like in the house section that's when it's in committee under fixing these bills. So, I will update you. I will update you if I ever am incorrect about information. Just know that I'm still learning this and I'm not an expert standing because they happen when it's going to correct. >> Just keep us advised of who we should be contacting in support or to not support. >> Whoever the chair

109of the committee is, if we get that from you, one person that we don't have. >> Yes. And I did talk to ISB because they send out emails like like immediate action emails. The only problem is is like the other day it was like do it by three, >> right? >> And I was like I me >> I know. So Jen isception. >> Yeah. They are working on a text system. >> So when they get that down it'll be also easier to like then instantly send out to you guys like, "Hey guys, please do a witness. Reach out to this person." Um I'll get better. I'm I'm trying to figure out the process. You're You won't benefit from it. But I will I do want us all taking action. I want We all need to

110get more involved on that state level and I will work on getting that information the right way to you guys. >> Anyone can fill out a witness list. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> It takes two ends. >> Yes. And we should be and it should be we should have maybe an education piece on that because people don't know where to go. >> That's okay. Anyone else? >> The education foundation did not meet last month. I have no updates. >> I'll talk a little bit about the history center because I'm a trustee there. And one of the core missions we have at the history center is education. We're able to get back into our schools now, which makes me very happy personally. and we work with things like flip the trip so that we can

111get involved in those. We are fully staffed. We'll call it fully staffed. We expect at some point we will need more staff than we've ever had before. Uh our part-time curator for exhibits and education is now full-time as of today. Thank you very much. >> We have a brand new exhibit that open. We had a soft opening today that is flora fauna and us it is the ecology of displayplains we did that in partnership with the field museum the notabart museum and the Isaac le so our level of contact and the resources that we're bringing into our history center are extensive now that we have this director and these people on sale we have new hours which I'm very happy about as well. We're now open Sunday through Friday noon to 4 to the public.

112And we have evening hours until 8:00 on Tuesday, which will help for everybody who wants to come see the art exhibits and the other exhibits who can't come on before 4:00 in the afternoon. So, it's a it's a major undertaking for us and we do it so that we can get you and students in. We're working on a major field trip with Chima where we're going to have a couple hundred students come over on one day in in groups >> because if you've been to the history center you know we can't fit 200 some odd people in there. There is a meet and greet with two of your state representatives, Michelle Musman and Justin Cochran on April 28th, 5:30. We're not touting this as a political event. This is to meet them. And of course,

113Michelle Mustin is very important to us because she chairs the education committee. So, uh, I invite you to come have some refreshments and talk to two of the more important representatives we have down in the state. And the current photo exhibit runs through the end of the month. It's wildlife photographs that are just extraordinary. And there is a reception on April 30th from 5:30 to 8. Come drink some wine, have some cake, and see some extraordinary photographs. >> What time is it the 30th? on the 30 at 5:30. >> Thank you. >> We have enough warming cake to last. >> Are you sure? >> I bought it. I'm sure. >> Okay. >> It's nice to see you distressed about this. >> It's really anybody else. >> Okay, moving along. We've got superintendent report. >> Thank

114you. I'm I've got a little bit here, but I'm going to go quick. Uh on the outside, we've had uh seven out of school suspension since we um had our last meeting. Four of them were to fighting middle school students to do. Uh we had students bringing bait pens to school, which we're working on, you know, preventing and one student with racial slurs on one of our bosses. So, we are thankful to the staff, the people that are engaging these students and families hopefully y some better behavior. Um, next I have a slew of things to share with you. I'm excited and you know Kim Leaka and Diana Green, I want to thank them on the front end here. They left. I think they had to go. But they are our Olympic athletic directors and

115they are I know that you know that there's an event this Saturday. >> Uh it is our track and field event at Hoffman States High School to get a little more details on timing. Opening ceremony begins at 8 and the athletes compete between 9:15 and 1:30. So if you like schedule visit, you would like to pop by um it's wonderful. It's a great event. I'm so excited. Um, you know, we thank you. We thank our families and the athletes for enriching our our athletic experience in the district. We also like to thank Dr. Chris Fararo who submitted with me because I'm the one who has to push the button, but she submitted a grant for our Special Olympics program. What was the final number again? I'm trying to read. >> 34,000 from Rivers Casino. So,

116we'll take that and happily use it to support our students and program. So, rock and roll. >> Excited. um NJH cere NJ NJHS ceremonies are popping up and friends there's one on the 23rd this week six o'clock at AMS I'll shoot these out to you but I think um if you're you know if you're first if you are a liaison at that school you know and you haven't heard anything I would love to try to make sure that you you know that you're invited and going I saw some invitations coming out CMS is on the 7th of May at 6:30 and I on the 11th at 6 p.m. So, we'll we'll put that out to the board as a reminder if you want to go. Um, watch out. New thing, drone soccer exposition. I hope

117you got it. On 22nd at 5:30 p.m. at AMS, you will see our ICS drone pilots in action. I'm excited to see that. We had the one demonstration at >> Yeah. And that student flew through the basketball hoop rim like they I was like, I would have definitely broke that rule. So, lot of pressure. >> Great work, children. um working on soccer as a program. Uh I don't want to go too deep on it, but we have possibly four school districts and one that happens to own two brand new turf soccer fields. So, it might actually alleviate some problems. I'll be coming to you soon with a pitch on a pitch. Making sure that we have soccer for our middle school students. >> Any um time to have a meeting. Uh happy news. Uh, one

118of our former students, Angela Ugallic, has been selected ninth overall for Washington Mystics in 2016. So, I mean, there's all sorts of people take credit for that in the district. So, I don't know who was their coach, but Carlos. >> Yes, that's it. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. >> A great kid. >> It's not often we get to announce that. >> Yeah. um uh supporting North School the chief of police at this point has been super awesome because if you've driven by that crazy smashed up bridge over there I do know what I want to and they've decided it is now that they're going to go down two lanes and they've just it's just a mess and so the chief without much persuasion or ask back from the school district has placed some people over there

119at dismissal which seems to be the worst time but we can also revisit for a while or if it needs to be at the drop off But to have that support's essential. So I went over there today and I foolishly left too late and I was right in the thick of it and I appreciate the chief support. Um full day kindergarten web page is up and we're going to send you links if you didn't already. I think we're putting in a weekly and also our web page. Um I'm going to show a video at the end of my updates here. Just a real quick video on full day kindergarten. I think that you'll appreciate. Podcast coming up. Gen Center uh we had at the end of April. So, Mr. Steve Samuelson uh did a nice

120job. He's I think the best DJ voice we've had yet. And he just was a fish to water when it came to podcast. So, we're excited to share that with you. We also had Lori Papa said it right, our displays library director, and that will probably be at the end of May. So, we're excited to share their stories with you. Uh we have the 2026 retirement D62 celebration coming up at Fountain Blue on the 30th and I think our number is 22 retirees to thank and and wish well at that. So as it begins I think we have it opening at 3:30 comments at 4 and we have to leave it there by 5 but it's a nice and we want to enjoy our retirement. So we are starting the school board governance recognition application.

121It's been it's time we do it every two years. So we will uh be working with the board on that process and answering the questions to submit to ISP for recognition of being a board that really follows OMA and also you know works on our policy. >> Uh we have some pending IGAS coming right up school resource officer. Um I know that our team um uh M Dr. Drisar Mr. Bear and M. Kathleen Kelly Coven I think did a review of the IG. We've sent it. The police department likes it. We're just waiting to get it returned. And then the displays park district IGA which is uh their use of our buildings and reciprocal for parking over by CMS and mowing. Uh we would like to bring that to the board for May. Uh we're

122going to be meeting with the with the admin over at the park district to make sure we've got some things in there that that can help both organizations. And that is everything. >> Thank you for listening. A lot is a lot happening. >> Uh next we have the dashboard report for staff development activities. this. Okay. Um, so tonight we wanted Dr. Christopher and I wanted to present to you our PD dashboard which provides just a highlevel overview of all of the professional learning activities that we have um that our staff has engaged in throughout the year. As you've heard already this evening, a bulk of that work has been around uh literacy, but we've also engaged in learning around math, the developmentally appropriate practices in kindergarten and getting ready for full day kindergarten. And >>

123Dr. D Christopher, >> additionally, I'm sure you saw a number of learning opportunities supporting our goal of inclusive practices and supporting the diverse needs of all learners. So there have been sessions on inclusive lesson design, structured teaching, behavior support and strategies and then we have a variety of specialized positions in our district. So um some content specific training for roles like our assistive technology specialists and other related service providers. Um so with that we're happy to address any questions that you might have. >> Sorry guys, >> they've been busy questions. Hold on. I'm sorry. I jumped. I I jumped it. I was so excited to hear what you guys had said to say that I forgot about the video that Dr. >> I forgot to mention that we should hit play. >> That's me. >>

124I had one of those Bye-bye. >> Bye-bye. >> At this point, you may have seen construction in a few of our schools as we prepare for full day kindergarten this fall. We invite you to take a few minutes to listen in and learn more about full day kindergarten right here in District 62. This extended time in the school day will give children the space and opportunity to build stronger relationships with their teachers and peers while also developing skills to thrive in life. Extending the school day in district 62 is about enriching our students kindergarten experience and laying a powerful foundation for their future success. Change can definitely bring questions and we intend to be open and transparent throughout this process. So what does a day in the life of our youngest learners look like from

125a full day perspective? The full day kindergarten schedule will include time for literacy, math, science, social science, PE, music, and art. It will also include the use of developmentally appropriate practices including time for purposeful play each day. So why purposeful play? Play is used to support language development, executive functioning, and help our youngest learners in the development of essential social emotional skills like collaboration, problem solving, and emotional regulation. We have been preparing for full day kindergarten for well over a year now. To our families, we see you as partners in your child's educational journey and encourage your child to practice a few things in anticipation of their entry into District 62 this fall. A few examples include reading regularly with your child, encouraging conversation such as asking them to tell you about their day or

126tell you about a story they read. More tips and resources can be found on our District 62 website. We are in this together and are excited to provide our youngest learners with the expanded foundation they need to thrive both academically and socially. This is a historic step for our district and we are thrilled to welcome our first class of fullday kindergarten students in just a few months. On behalf of the entire district 62 community, we will be cheering on our youngest learners and look forward to seeing full day kindergarten come to life this fall. And through it all, we will be supporting them with curiosity, compassion, and courage. Thank you. Looking forward to seeing this in action next year. So, and we're going to be sharing that out there with the community, too, hopefully. So,

127appreciate that. And that was another one of Dann's creations. So, there you go. >> Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, I tried to. >> Next, we have main township treasurer summary report for March of 2026. Thank you, Mrs. Mass. There were five new investments for $4 million and I waited the average rate of 3.87%. >> I think you should do this with kindergarten or something. Sure. >> Any questions? Let's go. >> No. Next, we have the foyer report. >> Best for last. Uh, we had seven foyer requests. Um, three out of seven were commercial, four out of the seven are complete and there are three that are still pending and we will have those wrapped up as soon as we're done with this board meeting and go back and begin that work again. So, thank you

128to our officer the table. Any questions? >> No. >> Okay, >> last but certainly not least, it's time to celebrate Mrs. Becker. I'm going to do my best here. say who um I need to publicly recognize um Beth. She has served the district 62 community as a board member, board vice president, and various leaison since 2015. Um prior to joining, she was a very active part of the PTC at both elementary and alcohol middle schools. Her dedication to public service is quiet and powerful. She is reliable, composed, and always polished and professional. Beth is goal oriented with her strong focus on data of Azure student achievement. She's conscientious and I think I speak for all of us when I see we will miss your notes >> and your proof reading apparent >> always thinking of

129financial responsibility to the community. Beth truly understands the role of the school board member and performs it with grace. Personally, Beth has been an excellent mentor and I will truly miss working with her. Thank you for all of the immeasurable hours of time that you've given the community of district 62. Thank you for your dedication and care for our community and I wish you all very best on your next adventures. We have some items for you, but I I would also want to share with you um you're a tough boss. And not before, but I've had to be stand in your living room and be accountable for some tough questions, and I I appreciate that. >> 10 years, 11 months, and 16 days, 131 months, uh 4,04 days you've dedicated. Wow. >> Uh 96,000. I

130mean, it's the list goes up the time in between because you're not just a board member at the meeting. You're always a board member and I think also after this it's it's uh it's noted that your work is here and it's going to live on and I'm just so appreciative that you took a chance on me but also held and the team accountable. Uh you personify school board governments and and I think that I can say that on behalf of everybody. So, thank you from the school district and the employees, families for all the dedication, service, and to your husband who's back there who's given you this time. >> I would be remiss if we didn't. >> Thank you. >> Thank if you add up those hours and then you think how much Stephanie and

131Ron have put in because they've been here longer than me by the far. >> That's an incredible testament to all that we have done together. My mother was somebody John needed to tell my mother she was right. I should have been a kindergarten teacher. >> So, thank you you guys. It's been an honor to serve with all of you and all the people that I've served with in the past. Um, I'm not talking in my microphone. John's going to kill me later. Um, I it's been an honor and I love this district more than I could ever explain. you've given my children an in education that they still respect to this day. Um my husband was educated in this district. Um it's it's an incredible community. I'm so glad that I moved here with him.

132Um and that you guys have allowed me to be a part of your lives and what you do every day. I want to see those videos still if you can. I need to cry every month. Um so thank you. I appreciate it. And to those of you who have reached out, they've DM'd me, texted me, called me, knocked on my door, and reached out to others. I'm not sick. John is not sick. We're fine. This is this is a life choice because of uh a promotion I received at work and because of my elderly mother and the care that she requires from us now. So, thank you for all your concern, but I'm okay. Ross for a long time. >> Now you can ask for more meeting at your house, John. >> We'll be in

133your yard later. >> We're almost done, everybody. All right, we um have a closed session, our second one of the night. So, I move that the board go to close session to consider the selection of a person to fill a public office as defined in the open meetings act, including a vacancy and a public office when the public body is given power to appoint under law or ordinance. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the district, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in an educational setting. Litigation when an action against, affecting or on behalf of the public body has been filed and is pending before a court in which case the basis for the findings shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. Meetings between

134internal and external auditors, finance committees and their equivalents when the discussion involves internal control weaknesses. Identification of potential fraud risk areas. known or suspected frauds and fraud interviews, school building safety and security, and perform a semianual review of close session minutes. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Dan, >> I. >> Garrett, >> I >> NASA >> I, >> Mley, >> I. >> Burton, >> I. So, just to clarify, we're not actually doing all these things tonight, but we we like to we just say them because it covers us if we need to discuss any of these things. So, luckily, we don't have to read all of them. >> And we have before you all leave some some celebratory cake out in the hallway. So, if

135you'd like to join us >> to thank Beth for her service, please join us afterwards and have a little snack before we run off to close session. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you. >> Picture. Yeah. picture.