001Mike check one, two. Mike check. >> Mhm. >> It is 7:00 and I would like to call the March 16th, 2026 Board of Education regular meeting to order. Can I have a roll call, please? Burton? Here. Delgado? >> Here. Dockman? Garrett? Up here. Herring? Here. Mazza? Here. Morley? Here. Would you all please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Ready, begin. >> [laughter] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I have a a motion to adopt the agenda, please? I move that the board adopt the March 16th, 2026 meeting agenda as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I have a roll call, please? Delgado? Aye. Garrett? Aye.
002Herring? Aye. Mazza? Aye. Morley? Aye. Burton? Aye. Thank you. First we have our recognition of 25-year employees downstairs in multi-purpose room, so I invite all of you to join me downstairs. We'll be back up here shortly. Thank you. >> Okay. I'm moving. >> Mhm. >> everyone. We're back in the 7:37. And I know we're trying to get some seats in back, but there's more chairs, so we're working on that. Okay. Um Go ahead, Mr. May. Thank you. Uh Ms. Kathleen Kelly Colgan, do you have some good news that you'd like to share with the board? I do. Wait, I don't know. Okay, this is Good morning, everyone. Good evening, members of the board and this esteemed group here this evening. This evening, on a personal report, we are requesting approval for Lisa Butera to be
003the new assistant principal of Algonquin Middle School. Ms. Butera has been a dedicated District 62 staff member for 24 years. One year from now, you'll hear me downstairs talking about >> [laughter] >> Uh she began her career teaching ELA and math at Chippewa and Algonquin Middle Schools before moving to Terrace, where she served as a second grade teacher for many years before moving into a behavior specialist role. She returned to Terrace as an math interventionist and has spent this school year at Algonquin Middle School as student services interventionist. With several other applicants for the AP role, Mrs. Butera's wide range of experiences made her uniquely qualified among the pool of candidates who participated in a rigorous interview process. She is focused on meeting students exactly where they are and giving them the tools to succeed
004academically and emotionally. Mrs. Butera holds a bachelor's in education and a master's in educational leadership from Saint Xavier University. It is my pleasure to introduce Lisa Butera, the future assistant principal for Algonquin Middle School. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you. It is truly an honor to be here this evening to accept the position of assistant principal at Algonquin Middle School. This year not only marks my 24th year as an educator, but more importantly my 24th year of being a part of a place that feels like home. District 62 is a wonderful community filled with supportive, diverse, and invested students, staff, and families. As I begin the next chapter, I'm grateful to be able to continue to be a part of this amazing community that continues to grow and thrive here in this place. I look
005forward to working alongside Mrs. Gulish and our dedicated staff to build upon the strong foundation already in place at Algonquin. Lastly, I want to take a moment to thank my family who are here this evening for their support along my journey to leadership and the road ahead. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Welcome and thank you. Next we have public comments. I have one blue card with Jan Federico with support. And I do have a copy of of your sports. Um yes. Yep. I just want to remind everyone that we invite public public comments and that we have 5 minutes um >> [clears throat] >> maximum on the time and let us know if you would like a response either written or emailed or phone call and please state your name and address for
006the record, please. I am Janet Frederico. I am at 309 Oxford Road and I would like a written response tonight, please. Um I would like to address an issue that's coming up later on tonight's agenda. Uh next year admin is proposing a reduction of three full-time teachers at Terrace with the board reserving the right to hire additional staff as needed. A similar scenario happened about 3 years ago at Terrace where it was discovered that a reduction in force was not tenable and a new first grade teacher was hired by the end of September. We lucked out with our September hire, but that is not always the case. Um assuming that this could happen again next year, I would like to know how this is fair to the teachers that you've involuntarily transferred out of Terrace
007who've already formed relationships with both their co-workers and our children. And for that matter, how is it fair to our kids? They will be losing mentors that they know and love. This plan also results in three grade levels at Terrace where teachers will manage an entire grade level on their own. Um I'm wondering if you have considered what that looks like for the mental health and burnout of those teachers and if there are any other buildings in the district where a single teacher is managing a grade level on their own. Um as a sub, one of my favorite things in almost any building is having someone directly across the hall from me who can help. Literally just happened today. I was using emergency sub plans that weren't quite up-to-date and the teacher across the hall
008was very quick to run off copies, jump in, and make sure that I had what I needed for my morning. I would also like to know what data suggests that combining lower grades, K through 2, instead of upper grades, 3 through 5, will improve outcomes for our youngest learners. How will instructional quality be maintained with larger cohorts? Does this align with the district's overall goals and strategic plan? Per tonight's agenda documents, the average class size in title buildings is listed as 16.1 students. I would like to know how that number was calculated. I want to know if they took all teachers, including music, art, and P.E., and divided students by that number, or if the calculation only included grade level and homeroom teachers. If the actual number is larger, I would like that accurately reflected
009in the district's projections. If 16.1 kids is the true average class size, why are we planning to have 26 or more in K through 2 at Terrace? What's the limit at which you will hire another teacher and split the class into two cohorts again? That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And then I have a blue card from Chris, I'm sorry, I can't I can't remember this. Hergert. Thank you. Sorry. It's all right. Sorry. And if you would please state your name and address for the record. So, I'm Chris Hergert. I'm actually the vice president of the union. So, hello. Um so, I'm the vice president of the union and part of our role or my role is to attend school board meetings throughout the year. And probably most beginning of the year it
010was me and a few others and lately it's been me with a lot of others. Uh, so we decided to address why. So, we're present here today because our collective bargaining agreement has been referenced several in several school board meetings earlier this year as a possible way to address the district's financial deficit. We believe it is important to provide perspective from the staff who work with the students every day. First, costs associated with the state mandated state mandated kindergarten are not the result of staff decisions. These requirements are These requirements were known and anticipated. Likewise, the increase in staff over the past decade reflects a growing and changing need of our students. The district added positions because students required additional support to succeed. Reducing compensation for the dedicated professionals who serve our students every day
011is not sustainable or responsible solution to our deficit or district's financial challenges. We are also concerned that the auditor's document presented [clears throat] at the last board meeting suggested a potential staff reduction. This year alone, we've already seen the impact of unfilled positions across several programs. Those vacancies are affecting both students and teachers. In fact, the injury reports have increased for teachers, which is deeply concerning and should not be accepted as simply part of the job. When positions go unfilled, students receive less support, classrooms become strained, both staff and students have overcome Both staff and students have to overcome. For these reasons, reducing staff or compensation will not solve the district's financial issues issues and risks undermining the very programs that help students succeed. We encourage the board to work collaboratively with staff to find
012solutions to protect both the district's financial stability and the quality of education our students deserve. So, thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Next public comment I have is for Elizabeth Zamiska. Want to come on up, please? Hi. Hi. If you could please state your name and address for the record and home address. Yes, please. Uh Elizabeth Zamiska, 1277 Webster, Des Plaines. And you have to excuse me. I'm very nervous. Something I'm very passionate about. ICS is a community school serving children of Des Plaines within District 62. It is not a choice school. It is their home school. We and other families were given the option to attend at ICS through the district's lottery and bussing would be free for the duration of their time at ICS. Taking away that
013that bus service of students creates a financial hardship on families within our school community. Many families, such as ours, are now faced with the possibility of taking our students away from their home school, their friends, their teachers, their administrators, and places that they're familiar with. Moving them from there to their school could potentially cause emotional and emotional damage and sadness for others. My children are already crying over leaving their friends, missing joyful bus rides with their peers, and missing ICS in general. I am asking the board to reconsider this poor decision. It will change ICS from the community it is to just another neighborhood school. For reference, I have three children there. That would be $1,290 next year just for bussing alone. >> [snorts] >> If a family of three starts at ICS for the
014duration of time over 9 years from K through 8th grade, it would cost that family, if there is no increase, $11,610 for school bussing. I really hope you guys reconsider this because it is going to emotionally hurt the children that need to leave because of this financial burden. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay. Um those are all the blue cards I have. Did anyone else in the audience wish to speak? Okay. Thank you very much to our speakers. Next we have strategic goal monitoring South and Forest Elementary Schools. Dr. Ahmadi. Okay, thank you. Did we decide who's going first? I don't know where my South is. Okay, I it looks like Forest is going first. So, would you come join us, please, up front? Okay, Principal Soy Key and Assistant Principal O'Brien. Take
015it away. All right. Uh good evening, Board of Education and Dr. Amund I am April Soyke, the principal of Forest Elementary School. Hello, I'm Tracy Reiner, assistant principal at Forest Elementary School. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a few highlights from this school year of the work that we're doing at Forest and how it aligns to the strategic plan. We will briefly walk through each of the five goal areas and share a couple of examples of what is new at Forest this year. This year at Forest, we worked really hard to intentionally design our building schedule to ensure that grade level teams have common planning time each week. So, if you were to walk into a common planning time, you would see, depending on the day, uh classroom teachers collaborating with a
016combination of special education teachers, multilingual teachers, interventionists, and administrators to plan tier one instruction, analyze student data, and respond to student needs. These meetings also serve as a proactive MTSS structure, allowing teachers to bring students to their team for informal problem-solving and to determine next steps to support students. We've continued to strengthen how we leverage our WIN time each day, where teachers create flexible small groups based on student data. These groups are revisited regularly so that students can move in and out of groups as their skills develop, which is by design. We've also continued our shift toward structured literacy practices, where kindergarten through second grade are focused on explicit phonics instruction, and grades three through five are focused on building vocabulary and background knowledge. In the midst of this shift, even our students are getting
017involved and taking an active role in building vocabulary across the school. One way that this has come to life is through the word of the week, which students introduce and explain new vocabulary words in our daily video announcement. Our students and staff are working really, really hard, and it shows. Um one direct result of these systems and a huge celebration is that fewer students at Forest are qualifying for tier three support, which is telling us that our tier one and tier two structures are working. To support the learning environment, Forest continues to strengthen classroom community. In order to do this, all classrooms have time embedded into their daily schedules for morning meetings. In the top picture, you will see a first grade teacher facilitating a morning meeting. This year, our tier one practices were strengthened
018with an updated behavior matrix and new uh PBIS signage that's displayed throughout our building and that teachers refer to it on a daily basis. Another tier one support that we implemented this year for all students is Falcon Focus. During Falcon Focus, teachers uh create structured, meaningful opportunities for all students to reflect, repair relationships, and participate in restorative practices. This support helps students meet school-wide expectations while building positive relationships with peers and staff across the building. We have also strengthened tier two supports through our implementation of check-in check-out and social-emotional-behavioral skills groups. Um, finally, we are so excited to welcome new students next year to Forest as we expand the continuum of special education services. In preparation for this change, administrators and staff teams have begun professional learning focused on inclusive practices and supportive learning environments.
019We continue this work with all of our staff this spring and into next school year. Goal three in the work forest, I think it's really important to note that our schools exist to serve our students and the families in our community. That work would not be possible without the dedication and effort of our staff on a daily basis. As leaders, we're committed to supporting a positive workforce by listening to staff, providing relevant professional learning, and recognizing the impact they make. We are working to regularly create opportunities for staff to share feedback through team meetings and surveys, or even just to make time in the moment to have a conversation. By gathering feedback and input, we're able to celebrate successes and also identify areas for growth. We take that feedback to our leadership team and team
020leaders to work together on solutions, build consensus, and then adjust our practice. This year, we introduced bite-size professional learning during building meetings, where staff members or administrators share brief, practical strategies that can be implemented in classrooms the next day. Topics so far have included strategies to strengthen mathematical reasoning and ideas to support vocabulary development and oracy. This spring we'll continue this by incorporating tier one behavior strategies, co-teaching structures, and best practices for creating inclusive environments. Uh at Forest, the staff members are highly involved in our school. They serve as club facilitators, healthy focus guides, uh tutors, family event coordinators, and even leaders of staff-led committees and celebrations. All of this strengthens our school community while often creating new opportunities for our students as well. We also intentionally recognize staff each week through our weekly newsletter
021about the flyer with shout-outs and monthly awards at our building meetings. For family and community connections, we maintain regular communication through our weekly newsletter for our school news. This newsletter averages around 800 views each week. Uh this year, we also expanded our social media presence by launching a new Forest Instagram, which highlights school events, celebrations, and school news. Uh throughout the year, Forest hosts family events that help strengthen the connection between home and school. This year, we hosted our first family math night, where families learned new games that they could take home and continue to practice those math skills together. This Wednesday, we have a family literacy night, where our theme is literacy is our superpower, which aligns directly to our firm belief that all students are readers. We also to increase opportunities for family
022voice and family feedback. One example is that we sent home a survey to families whose students participate in our check-in check-out support. 100% of families who reported back said that they talked to their students daily about the check-in check-out charts. Uh lastly, we are so grateful for our parent-teacher council. They are incredible active partners in our school community, organizing events like Fall Fest, talent show, family movie night, multicultural night, while supporting classroom needs and school-wide initiatives. In the picture, you will see just some of our PTC members hosting a holiday shop, where students could shop for small affordable gifts for their families [clears throat] around the holidays. Um in the area of goal five, uh so far this year, over 84% of our students in grades one through five have participated in one or more
023activity. Most students are in several. Um some crept up into the double digits last year. So, throughout the year, students have access to a wide range of opportunities, where they can explore their interests, build connections with others, and ultimately develop a stronger sense of belonging in our school community. We're excited to expand these opportunities even further next year with the transition to full-day kindergarten. Uh funding has allowed us to provide additional school-wide learning experiences. This week, um in addition to having family literacy night, we're also inviting a local author to spend the entire day at Forest, where she'll get to interact with every single grade level doing read-alouds and even a lunch with students, um and spending time with each group intentionally. In April, we will welcome Educating Outside the Lines back to Forest for
024the third consecutive year to support disability awareness. And then later this year, students will also participate in assemblies focused on literacy and social emotional learning. Uh this year we've also focused on enriching the unstructured times of the day, like recess. Um we've introduced indoor recess carts that are filled with hands-on STEM materials and collaborative puzzles or games that students can work on together. Uh we love watching them to see how they use the materials. About a month ago, a group of third and fourth graders decided to take, like the straws and connectors that they're building with, they challenged themselves during one indoor recess to create an entire perimeter around the gym to see if they could do it. Um little did they know the real challenge was when they had to clean up hundreds of
025pieces in just a few minutes at the time. Um which they did do, so both challenges they completed. Um >> [clears throat] >> and in response to students' uh feedback and just them asking for different materials or equipment that they might want, we've also expanded what we offer during outdoor recess um by adding these super cute ribbons that kids run around with and choreograph dances with, um catch and release games and footballs and many other things that they've enjoyed playing with. Um in addition to that at recess, our students continue to enjoy our inclusive playground, which supports active play and connection for all of our learners. So, together, these opportunities help ensure that every student at Forest has access to experiences that spark their curiosity, build community, and make school a place where they feel
026excited to learn and connected. Thank you for the opportunity to share [clears throat] just a few of the many wonderful things happening at Forest. We're really proud of our students and our hardworking staff, and are grateful for the continued support of the board, our district leadership, and our families. Um at this time, we're happy to answer any questions you might have. I have one quick check question. I have two actually, but the first one is really the harder one. Check in check out, could you give me a just a brief summary of what that is? Yeah. Mhm. Check in check out is our tier two um supports, where students have the opportunity to build relationships with uh staff throughout the day. Each about half hour to 40 minutes, students can check in with a teacher
027based on our school wide goals, being respectful, responsible, and safe. Um and they get a rating based on how many reminders they got throughout that 40-minute, 30-minute time period, and it's just a way for students to make that connection with staff and reflect on their behavior in a meaningful way throughout the day. Very good. Thank you. And a positive is it really creates so many additional touch points between students and staff, where sometimes students might get attention for what we might call like an unexpected behavior or a negative behavior, but check in check out really allows staff to celebrate all of the moments through the day where students are making positive choices and are meeting behavior expectations, which isn't always highlighted. So, that's one feature that gets built in as well. It's nice to have
028the balance of that. Exactly. My second question is, what is the word of the week? Excellent. Um great question. Um last week it was contribute. >> going to say word of the week. >> [laughter] >> I don't know. I think last week or the week before it was contribute. This week, I'm not sure. All right, that's okay. >> [laughter] >> I can report back. I think you have four future slides. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> You can call a lifeline Who is the author and what's the book we're going to talk about? Yeah, great question. The author is Ruth Spiro. She is local to the Chicago suburbs. She's actually written over 30 children's books. I didn't know her prior to looking for local authors, but some of our teachers mentioned the other day and maybe
029this sounds familiar to those of you with children. She's like the board book She's like the board book lady that explains like scientific concepts to babies essentially. And that didn't mean anything to me at the time, but some staff members and their kids have read it. But she has authored many other like picture books for students AK-35. So she'll be coming and doing topics. Each kindergarten class will get their own read aloud in the morning and in the afternoon. So she added that on for us since we're half day currently. And then first and second graders will have some time with her where she'll where she'll read some of her stories. A lot of her books are focused on like STEM topics and how to become a writer. And then third fourth third and fourth
030grade will have another session with her where they get to focus on what they are an expert in and connect that to some of her stories. Some of our teachers have actually asked for I let them know I was having an additional planning meeting with her and they actually asked if I could ask her for follow-up activities that they could do with their students in the afternoon to build off of that. Which is actually spurred like a really great conversation around student-led clubs based on what they decide they're an expert in as we move into the spring. So I kind of threw like spaghetti at the wall, put that at one of our teachers and they also students were there and they were really excited. So I'm curious to see what they come up with
031and what they're experts in. Um and then our fifth graders get a chance to work with her as well, similarly about what it means to be an expert and what they're experts in, but then she is adding on like a writing workshop for our fifth graders. And then she'll have lunch with some students and other little stuff too. So, it's going to be a big day. We have student tour guides walking her around all day long. Not the same ones. I love the writing workshop idea. Yeah, you're welcome. She will be there all day to meet them. What day? Wednesday. From 9:00 to 3:00. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay. And now we have uh Principal Harris to give us an update on your
032goals with uh South. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. I am Eileen Gordon of Education, and this is Principal South Elementary School. Thank you so much for this opportunity to share a little bit about how South is working towards the district's five-year strategic plan. Um in the area of goal one, student achievement, our teachers have been working currently this year on learning strategies as we shift to structured literacy. Our K-2 teachers have primarily focused on word recognition, sight words, phonological awareness, and 3-5 teachers have been focused on vocabulary acquisition and background knowledge. And it's been really fun to see teachers go to these trainings and then come back with all the strategies that they learned and be able to use them next day or next week within their classrooms. Um something unique to South that we're
033working on this year is um knowing the correlation between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. We decided to look at the explicit teaching of the word protocol and um have our all of our content areas work on that protocol. So, whether you're in math or um health or music. Um, all of our teachers are using that protocol to teach, um, our students new vocabulary words. Um, in the area goal two, learning environment, we continue to improve our tier one PBIS systems, and really our focus here is re-invigorating our, um, reward and celebration systems. So, in the past, we have had, um, monthly rewards where we have recognized students for following our expectations. This year, we um, wanted to recognize more students on a more consistent basis. So, I've been able to recognize about 400 students this
034year with a positive referral that students can that teachers can fill out, um, weekly. We also have monthly assemblies where we are recognizing students' um, positive choices and achievement. And a change this year is also is our student council is leading these [clears throat] assemblies in order to incorporate their voice and leadership into our learning community. We also work on strengthening positive connections with our students and staff. Um, so we started, um, as Forest described, our tier two check-in check-out system this year, and have about 7% of our learning community, um, participating in this system. And something to note with this is our we have students that have come on the system and off the system, and a lot of our students that are ready to come off of the system, they're asking to keep
035their mentors and continue that mentor relationship with their adult. So, we have had them come off of their point sheets, but they continue that mentor relationship with their adults. Um, we also are working to support inclusive opportunities for students, and I'll go more into those in goal three in a minute. Um, so in goal three, workforce, our team leaders are really an integral part of, um, um, guiding our building level decisions. Whether it be data analysis protocols, our PBIS systems, our building level professional learning, or just school-wide systems, that group really meets and collaborates in order to lead those initiatives. Also, our PLC meetings, we work very hard to structure them to make sure we have instructional planning and data data analysis embedded weekly into our meetings, and to make sure that our special education
036staff and our multilingual staff are able to um be part of those in order to plan for both inclusive opportunities for our students. Um in the area of goal four, families and communities, we've always had a super strong partnership with our PTO, but we continue to work on strengthening that collaboration and partnership. Um another unique thing, like with goal two, is we have our student council also volunteering at some of these events. So, up there you see them um helping to pull out the bingo um boards with bingo night or handing out the candy at our trunk or treat. Um our staff also leads very engaging events, and we're excited for our variety show um coming up this week. Um a growth area for us was trying to figure out how to engage more of
037our families on a more consistent basis, so we've been gathering input with this year from all of our different stakeholders, our teacher community as well as our parent community, to figure out um time of the school year, time of day, days of the week that works best so we could try to engage as many um stakeholders as possible. Um in the area of goal five, use of resources, we are very fortunate to have the human resources that we have to support our students and want to make effective and efficient use of our resources to engage students in intervention and enrichment opportunities. Um also um the use of the technology tools in our classrooms um are valuable resources in order to support inclusive opportunities, and our teachers have the opportunity this year to have multiple sessions
038with our assistive technology specialist, Aaron Bowman, to help to help um equip our teachers with the tools to understand how to use them to support our students. Thank you for giving me the time to talk a little bit about how South is working to um meet the goals of the strategic plan, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> [snorts] >> I have a question. Oops. I don't have a I don't have a question. I have a comment though. What a win is it that the check-in and check-out system is leading to the organic growth of mentorship? That is That's an amazing point that just this one program leads to young students looking at an adult as somebody that they can talk to about anything. And And somebody who can mentor them through their
039school career, even if it's just at South, and then maybe somebody else going forward. It's amazing. And it's really been an all-in approach. So, our custodian mentors some kids. We have our LCC assistants. So, really everyone has been happy and willing to um mentor our students. So, it's been a nice Thank you guys for your help. That's incredible. Thank you. Tell me a little more about how the vocabulary works. Is there integration between math and music, the word vocabulary being worked on? Yeah. So, not integration between math and music, but um in doing some of my learning and learning about the strong correlation between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension, you know, and working with my team, we decided that we wanted to use this explicit teaching new word protocol across all of our content areas.
040So, just how we are teaching words and making sure we are teaching words um on a regular basis in a consistent way to students. So, they know what to expect. So, they um are given some direct instruction upon what the word means. They're given examples and non-examples, and then they are um engaging in different activities related to the that word. And doing it multiple times a week with different words to make sure we are giving kids um helping them acquire as many words as we can cuz we know that that leads to student achievement. It does. Good. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have approval of resolution affirming the district's commitment to ensuring a safe educational environment. Um I have a pre-approval
041statement from the board I'd just like to read before I ask for approval. This resolution serves to reaffirm the district's commitment to a safe educational environment and this recent events have affected our community, families, students, and staff. As a school district, it is an honor and our responsibility to serve and support all students and their families regardless of immigration status. Here at District 62, it is our priority to ensure all students have access to environment that is caring, safe, and conducive to learning. Recent events in our communities have left students and their families feeling vulnerable and unsafe. Our schools and staff have done their best to be responsive and we, as a board, want to offer our deepest gratitude to them as they continue to navigate these challenges. Our schools offer various resources and supports
042to our students and families, but access to food has been of particular and immediate importance. Fortunately, many of our families have been able to take advantage of our community partners to support both themselves and their families who may be afraid to leave their homes. While additional resources may be available to families, many are wary of sharing information that might put them and their families in harm's way. Thus, this resolution reaffirms for all of our families, regardless of immigration status, that District 62 remains committed to providing a safe environment for the children of our communities where both their minds and bodies are nourished. District 62 will continue to strengthen policies and administrative procedures with a commitment to maintain a safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environment for all our students and staff while obeying all relevant state
043and federal laws relating to students' rights. As outlined in this resolution, we as a district are guided by specific board policies per Illinois State Board of Education and Illinois School Code. From these policies and in accordance with the law, we affirm that District 62 will not enter into any agreement with law enforcement agencies to facilitate the enforcement of immigration law, nor will we share any protected student information. We also affirm that we will not enter into any agreements with law enforcement agencies granting access to or use of district property and buildings for any purpose without a judicial warrant. In addition, District District 62 will continue to promote supports and resources for all students, strengthen collaboration within and across our schools, and work with generous organizations and donors who support our students and their families to
044create greater capacity and access to these services. And so now, I move the board approve the resolution affirming the district's commitment to ensuring a safe educational environment as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. And can I roll call votes? Garrett? Aye. Harris? Aye. Massa? Aye. Morley? Aye. Burton? Aye. Delgado? Aye. Thank you. Next, we have first reading of revisions to board policies, Mrs. Garrett. It is so much. I don't even know where to start. So, um we're pretty much going through the entire policy um and going section from section. And so this one is about committees, and there's not many changes on that. If anybody has questions about those one specifically, um Could I share something with you? Yeah, you can. Go for it, cuz my mind is still organizing. Um so, particularly with
045committees, is that uh you'll see section number one was omitted or or redacted because we currently use the liaison model to uh pair board members with with cabinet members. And so, uh Mr. Garrett and I have been reading policy from one up to the top or one to the bottom, whatever you want to call it. And this has been a good a really good activity. I think the we've been learning quite a bit about what we perceive as a policy and then what's actual. And I think the one we have is >> interpretation. Like, these are words, and then you you ask people like, "What does this mean? What does this look like in real life?" And you're asking the people that write it, and they don't have the answers, and that's odd to me.
046Like, I feel like if you wrote it, if you're telling us to do it, you should be explaining to us exactly, you know, the the process. So, it's really understanding the policies, cuz the way I've kind of looked at life lately is thoughts and prayers are just policies and procedures, and we need to stop making it about people and start making it about policies, so we have to lead by example and make sure ours are cleaned up all the way through, so. So, part of that's been looking at the committees' work, and so we've realized that special board committees is obviously required. The only The only committee on here that is not is that number one being board policy, which seems to be managed that through liaison work. Um we're recommending that we redact that
047one, but parent teacher advisory committee, this is uh where we get some more knowledge coming to us as a group. And uh we meet currently with PTC leaders, and when we've met with them, we've brought Mr. Bear, and and I think Dr. Crystal Charles has come a couple times, and we talk about student behavior. We usually do that in the spring, so that's coming up for us on April something, April 4th. So, what we've been missing though is having some uh having a couple of teachers with us. We're going to invite uh from the schools to come to that meeting and hopefully not you know pull people out of class, but we're going to have some teacher voice in there and um discuss current behaviors and all the good stuff that's listed under that portion
048of the policy. Below is behavior interventions committee, which is what our PBIS committee has always been managing. Uh that group I've I've come to think is that what we've come to is we think in May we would like to two reports coming to the school board. Uh one coming from House of Representatives and Parent Teacher Advisory Committee, which is also being fed by the Behavior Interventions Committee. So, I think you can look forward to that in May. And a lot of what teachers have have shared with frustration is a lot will be part of that conversation. >> I I feel like we do I feel like the committees have a place and the more I just This is a hot take and this is just my opinion, but I feel like when parents there was
049a time when parents stopped being in the building, stopped participating so much, stopped participating so much and I feel like that has kind of taken away from community with our schools. So, I'm all for the committees and figuring out how we get more involvement in the ones we have. Yeah. Does this say first reading? I think yes. So, we'll have next we'll come back with some first thoughts between the board even from today or afterwards. And then there's a few other ones we'll shoot out emails before our next meeting. >> I'll follow up with those couple of those and superintendent. Okay, thank you. Are there particular people that are on the Parent Teacher Advisory Committee and a standing committee? Currently it's PTC leaders because they're like our Initially that was because that's what we've always
050felt with parent leaders and that's the group that comes. So, we've had I think every school's represented. It's been occasions in the past where someone doesn't show, but they're mainly because they're the people that are the doers in the buildings. You know, I mean doing the extra. Leading. Okay. Yeah, did you have a question or Can I be on it? Huh? Can I be on it? Well, it's PTC leaders is what we've been doing, so Yeah. And as a board member I was I was asked to leave the committee when I got on the board. Yeah. So I would say probably not. Sorry. It wasn't personal. When we talk about the advisory committee, we say parents and guardians. We're talking about parents and guardians of current District 62 students. You might want to clarify because
051we also include people who have active case experience. And that also sounds like we might get people who are not parents and guardians of current District 62. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, if we're including parents and guardians of former, future That's fine. I just think it should be clarified. Yeah, that's correct. If I can add one more thing, we do provide um our informal minutes to the board during the weekly updates. So, you do get those on a weekly basis. You can understand the content of the discussions. Maybe at the building levels, you guys could just have deeper conversations at your PTC meetings and then ask them to represent you at the committee one, you know what I'm saying? Thank you for that amazing idea. You're welcome. I try. So, if you have any questions, we'll
052bring that back next month for approval, but uh Mr. Harrington will look at that language there and whatever if we choose to change something on that, we'll send it to the whole board. Okay. Thanks. Um next we have approval of closed session minutes of February 17th, 2026. I move that the board approve the the session minutes of February 17th, 2026 as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I get a roll call, please? Kearney? Aye. Matos? Aye. Morley? Aye. Burton? Aye. Delgado? Aye. Garrett? Aye. Thank you. Next, I need approval of the consent agenda, please. I move that the board approve the consent agenda items, which include approval of the personnel report, approval of the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Des Plaines and School District 62 for the National Night Out event, approval
053of the staffing plan for 2026-2027 school year, authorization of contract approvals, approval of minutes business meeting of February 17th, 2026, District 62 net payroll for February 2026, District 62 warrant register and report of bills for February 13th, 17th, 24th, 27th, for which there are two, and March 3rd and 10th, 2026. Monthly financial summary for February 2026, North Cook net payroll for February 2026, North Cook warrant registers for February 2026. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I get a roll call, please? Matos? Aye. Morley? Aye. Burton? Aye. Delgado? I abstain. Garrett? Aye. Kearney? Aye. Next, we have communications from the Board of Education. If you don't mind, I'd like to go first. Please. Uh first of all, thank you to everyone who participated in the District 62 Foundation trivia event last Friday night. Uh a
054lot of fun was had by all. I would like to read one of my favorite questions. Uh-oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, my husband could have the answer, but you know, he didn't show up, so. Uh Who here knows how Lake Padden was formed? Oh. Oh, yeah. Not you guys. You You can't answer. Jean knows cuz he's historical center. I want to hear it. That one I got. Captain will answer. Someone put it up in the audience, though. Yeah. Captain Steinburg Anyone? Uh Yeah, you were there. >> [laughter] >> Oh, he wasn't there. Here's Here's the answer. It was excavated to serve as a borrow pit, providing soil and dirt for the construction of the nearby Interstate 90. The area was converted into a recreational lake and park in the early 1960s. My husband knows that cuz
055he's lived here then and played there. Um anyway, it was a lot of fun. Thank you. We made a lot of money for the foundation. We're still calculating. And I want to thank everybody who gave their time and expertise and a lot of laughter that was had that night, so thank you. Um and then the second piece is I want to announce something that um I say with um a lot of sadness in my heart that I will not be able to um continue on the board after May 15th of this year. Um I had planned on retiring at the end of next school year when my term ended. Um however, I've had a lot of extenuating circumstances recently which included a um high-level promotion at my work, um my elderly mother's health, and her
056living 1,600 miles away is not an easy feat to try and get there every other month, um and to care for her medically. Um So, I've had to figure out what pieces of my life that I need to adjust, and unfortunately, serving on the board is one of those pieces. I just can't go on. Um there's just too many plates in the air for me that I cannot keep straight. So, I will be here at next month's meeting and then I will be resigning from the board as of May 15th. So, I want to thank everybody who supported me in all my elections and who has given feedback and done everything to support myself and the rest of the board in my tenure here and I'm going to say thank you. >> [applause] >> I
057have been serving on a board since my daughter my daughter's turning 30. When she was three, I was the president of the daycares parent board. So, I've been serving for a long time. I know I will I will truly miss you. I know I'm not going >> [laughter] >> And so, um unfortunately with that announcement, we have to set a date for um interviews for April 20th. I'm thinking it's the next right before the next board meeting. I imagine we would have the deadline for applications be sorry, close my calendar everybody. Um right before that. The meeting is the 20th. If we have the deadline for applications be the 17th. Um does that Yeah, accept to sign by May's meeting. But then it's like 30 days, right? I have the I have a time limit.
058Yeah. It's it's like 60 60 days. We have we have it, but we should make sure >> like the resume look at everything and then interview on the 20th. I guess. Yeah, the goal is to do interviews on April 20th before the regular board meeting. We don't like to have a gap, so >> Right. You You can, it just takes time. We did have a lot of Okay. Um in other news, uh we went to most of us went to the North Cook division meeting and um the topic was school funding, what does education funding look like for Illinois this year? Um in a word, bleak, um which most of you in this room, if not all of you in the room, know already know that. Um but it was interesting to hear um what
059is potentially in the works legislatively, um what's possible, what's not possible. Um unfortunately, there's a lot of waiting going on until things can be figured out in the general assembly. Um but more exciting, um we had our very own Mrs. Garrett not being honored for being a delegate, and then we had um Mrs. Duckman and Mr. Burton um acknowledged as distinguished um members with of annual merits while we were at our presentation. So, congratulations to the three of them. Um finally, I went to Forest for their third and fourth grade singing, and it was adorable as always, so that was [laughter] fun. Uh the Youth Commission had fun fair over the weekend. District 62 did participate. Um all of you had fun. We expect to see that picture of you guys with that big snake
060posted soon. So, thank you all for participating. I So, I am going to Springfield next week. I do have another session on Friday. Um what they're doing is they're actually scheduling our appointments with the legislators and then giving us um topics. So, tier two pension is kind of something that I was told is going to probably get kicked down the can or the can's going to be kicked down the road a few more years. I don't personally agree with that, so I will have um some conversation about that. I don't quite understand how 15 years is an early too long of a time frame to not figure this out. So, I'm just looking for some clarity cuz when I ask who actually is responsible for it, I can't get any solid answers besides our actual
061governor, and I don't understand how there's not other people along the way to talk to. Uh the other one is the unemployment um insurance. One conversation they have me going into and I don't think it's actually where I should go, although I did have a good conversation with the group, is they want to start putting more rules and regulations on FOIA. I'm a huge fan of FOIA. I think that it keeps us honest. I wish more people would ask questions, deeper questions, especially if they have strong opinions. So, um I said I wouldn't be the one saying not to have it. I would be the one saying maybe go from 5 days to 10 days. I don't know if that's something you would appreciate. I do think there's middle ground we had, but not you
062uh Muriel. Sorry. [laughter] Not you, Muriel. Sorry. And so, um I I said you can put me in that room, but I'm probably going to be the outlier that actually really supports FOIA a lot. So, I will know Friday which rooms I'm going to be in, what conversations I'm going to have. I did not get in the cell phone um one. They already have a team of people working on that. So, Friday after my meeting, I'm just probably going to forward you guys my schedule, and then anything else you want me to try to hit, hit. But, they have it pretty well organized that day. So. Um I forgot to ask you before. Um is anyone going to be asking about making sure our schools are not polling places? I've not seen that at all.
063Like there I've not seen that in the discussions. I haven't seen that bill. Um it has not been one of the top I I was told last year that to basically sit down and be quiet. I feel like they did that. >> will not be quiet about it cuz I think it's dumb. I totally agree, and everybody's like, "Why are the kids off for St. Patrick's Day?" All week I get that question. I'm like, "It's not for St. Patrick's Day. It's because we don't want kids You know, also everybody probably should watch the documentary that's coming out. We're all talking about money and the funniest It's not even funny. It's really sick and disgusting. Um, is that the school security safety industry has become a trillion-dollar industry. So, instead of having more social workers at
064the building levels, we have to pay for cameras and doors that, you know, you guys have to run behind and protect all of our children. So, um, that is like something that we should be talking about as secure school safety. It's It's an industry. It's costing us trillions of dollars, and it's not showing to protect our kids or help I mean, it does protect our kids. That's wrong of me to say. It definitely protects our kids. Raptor protects our kids, coming in and signing stuff, but I'm just saying like, you know, that's something else we should all be aware of. Why don't we spend so much money on that? Yeah. Yes. So, okay. Thank you, Liz. If you send us after your meeting, that'd be great. Yeah, I'll send it all It's all going to
065be right to your cell phones. Okay, cool. Um, anything else from the board? Isn't that enough? >> [laughter] >> I just really love FOIA, I guess. I do, too. Okay, great. Let's move right along to our superintendent's report. Thank you. Uh, four suspensions and behavior. Since our last board meeting, we did have a middle schooler with bringing contraband to school, which should not be in the school. And elementary-age students with racist comments, fighting, and inappropriate touch. All of which have been managed with uh, our team and principals. Uh, I would also echo the sentiments of the Youth Commission. Fun Fair was awesome. I would like to thank Dr. Cupero, Ms. Jessica Woods, Ms. Mazoni, and Ms. Aller for being present and tolerating me, cuz I didn't help as much as they did, but it was
066a wonderful event, and I appreciate all of your support. Foundation Night was great. Let's just go ahead and get it out of the way. Uh, congratulations Thank [clears throat] you so much for that. for the award. I noticed you didn't bring the trophy. Did not rub it in. I wanted to, but She was good. She should have. I was going to because compared to this family, it's like this big [laughter] and I thought it would really make a good laugh but alas, I was busy and needed to come talk about what we were going to talk about so I forgot. There you go. I mean, it's right there. Congratulations nonetheless. Very proud of our team. Uh, we came in second which never happens. We usually aren't even contenders so I don't know how that happened.
067So Proximity Certainly not my fault. Uh, but thanks to everyone that came. Who knows to Erica's? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's it. Questions. Yeah. Uh I I would like to say please restart with DAC next year. What? Moderate amount of death. It was uh, I don't know how they put it all together but it was a good time and and thank you to everyone who could attend and for those who can't, you should think about it next year. It's a lot of fun. And uh, thank you to the Jed Center for hosting. Um I'm not going to say goodbye to Northbrook because you got me. We're going to need to apply for school board governance starting now. The applications due August 1st. It's uh, every 2 years we can apply so we're going to be working
068on that and thank you Mr. Herring. I know you gave some good editing to that last year before 2 years ago. Uh, so we're going to start that process. Um We're going to be transitioning from BoardDocs to Diligent which is a company that acquired BoardDocs which is where most of you actually jump on BoardDocs and spend a lot of time on there. We're not thrilled about it because we like the simplicity of BoardDocs which is uh, where we house all of our agendas and our minutes of meetings. Everything, policy. So Ms. Latour, board secretary and assistant to me, uh, has spent a great deal of time on making sure that this is going to go smooth but for the April board meeting and weeks prior to that, we're going to make a transition at some
069moment in time. This is probably not in our control. And we will have to communicate with the staff, the community, and obviously the board. There's some training videos that we put out. We're going to get like a one-off training for each of you if you want it, or we can even have you come in and we can just sit with each of you and log in and make you feel familiar with it. So, we're going to try to mirror I don't know. I I I trust you, but it's it's different. We're all used to just logging in and getting through the system here. Also, our great things, we don't want to see any loss of any um documents or anything like that. So, we think we're in good shape. We're like probably the last people
070to transition. Um but it's coming. So, you're warned. Duly warned. Um okay. Uh thank you also that I would want to know the board that the Des Plaines Park District and District 62 IGA that we have in place for sharing our facilities with Park District is going to expire on the 30th of this month. I was made aware of that uh just about a week ago from the director in the Park District. So, Mr. Berlowitz and Mr. Bluder and I will sit down with their team cuz there are some of them that we would like to suggest, and we'll then provide that I that IGA to board for review, and hopefully have that passed probably May. So, we're getting it to you for an April reading. I'm almost there. Okay, 2020 Oh, no. Tomorrow, uh
071speaking of social my thunder, Mr. Eric uh elections and polling places, we still have the four schools, which is Central, Chippewa, OP, Orchard Place, and South. Um on the record, I I can't stand that this still happens. It doesn't make sense to me. We have a lot of facilities in this community that that don't have compulsory attendance, and I think that it's something that we need to continue to work towards getting out our buildings. Uh that would be ideal. Tomorrow's another big day for construction. We're going to have an update on construction at all sites and what's coming. Um not quite yet, but it should be along. Um Is it easier to go? Uh and then also there's a lot of more professional learning that occurs tomorrow. So, just for the community and all parents
072alike, why don't we make up that snow day on this day? And that would logically make sense in most cases, but there's been a lot with our um uh construction and with getting permits and everything else for us, it's a day where we we really capitalized on knowing it was going to not be used and it's kind of out of our control at this moment. 2026 retirement is coming up the for our retirees on uh is it the 30th of March? That seems earlier. April. >> April. I knew I was wrong. April 30th and for any any teams that have uh staff members that are retiring, where are we at? The Fontainebleau again? Thank you, sir. I had most of them on my notes. And we have 20 retirees we're not honoring at that celebration.
073Hopefully uh we'll get everyone there. And now, Mr. Bernardi, would you give us some updates uh to the board, please? All right. There we go. So, uh thank you, Dr. Amodeo. Uh one of the things we wanted to update the board on was the schedule of construction. Uh Iroquois is continuing to roll along and it's nearly finishing up. Uh we're going to get furniture delivery uh the Monday after spring break. And we're hoping to get the uh occupancy permit from the ROE later that week. So, um plan is to sort of set the rooms uh and uh have people sort of look at them. You know, administratively we want to look at them. We want to get the kindergarten teachers looking at them. We want to see how the space looks. Cuz we have ordered
074furniture or for the other schools. Want to make sure we have exactly what we need or we don't have enough of something or we have too many of something. So you want to make sure we can adjust so we are being as efficient as possible. So that is coming along. Central School if you've been by, it's up and up and up every day there's there's more bricks there. So it's it's moving along and it's it's moving up and that is on it's on schedule. And then there is North School. And we are still waiting on final approval from the water reclamation district. So it's a process that is lengthy and it's out of our control and we've been working on this for I think over a year now since we started this whole process of
075putting in the paperwork and designing things and what not. It's a multi stage process but we are very close. Alan Armbrust and I did go meet with the city last week just to sort of gauge how we're doing and hey once we get approval can you guys give it your blessing shortly thereafter and what not. And the city even concurred. They said you guys are are real close to getting final approval. So we're hoping we're really I'm really hoping for this week. I'm actually praying for this week because it'd be great for the the crews to be able to have added extra week with everyone off. >> [snorts] >> That would be really helpful. And although the weather today may not have been terribly conducive to construction the weather later this week and I'm sure
076we'll have some nice days next week would be really advantageous to us. So we at this point we feel it's perhaps a bit doubtful. But we may be done by the time the school opens and we have been really kicking around some ideas of what we could do coming up with a a plan B if you will as Dr. Rucker likes to say. So we're not sure what that looks like. We're waiting to see when we can actually start working at North and also see kind of where we're at and how things turn roll out. So I'm confident we can make up some time given the current calendar it's unlikely we'll will to make it to the the first day of school. Good elementary elementary. So, um for North, it has been It's It'd be
077nice to say like it's one thing that's that's a problem, but it's really not. And because of its location and being in a flood like the most flood plain of all the spring, um it's FEMA's involved, the water reclamation district's involved. There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen there. So, we've gotten to as far as we can get without getting our hands wet. The high net school being ready. Uh so, any day now we're just waiting for that last permit to come in and that nod, and then it's going to be gangbusters. So, I can tell you that Pepper has at each of the sites exceeded our expectations. But, even with being with them for several months now, I'm just trying to like gauge that fall from a point of can we get to
078this place where we can open the school with the whole project done? You know, we would be kidding ourselves to say that we believe that is 100% going to happen. Met with um the signal and this hour, and I met with the career teachers at North this morning, and then we volunteer and staff just to kind of express it. One plan was to try to house five classrooms outside of North in another place, and that would be extremely disruptive and very difficult, especially for a full day year. But, it's also the other idea is to see if we can do it still in house, but extremely uncomfortable. And, you know, we're going to have to work to highly support. So, even though we pitched that today, it doesn't mean that's necessarily what's happening. But, thinking
079of bussing children for their first experience for full day in another environment, trying to feed them in a school that's already probably flooded. We've never fed kindergarteners. And we haven't part of our specials routine. All of this stuff that we're weighing together, and we would sure love to not have to be in this position, but it's just a fact of life. Um for perspective, because of soil and everything at North, it's like a 3-ft foundation. So, like the school basically is 3 ft higher than the rest of the school. And it's just part of it. So, that's just an enormous undertaking. And I think what kind of sums it up for me is things that are out of our control, which is weather, resources, and permits. Resources are in place. This morning, you couldn't have
080told me they'd been out there working, but they did find a way after they wiped the snow off of everything. We get rocking and rolling on everything. So, uh permits is, you know, we're just kind of messed up. We need Hopefully, tomorrow morning we'll get the call and and then we'll see if they work. So, but it's we want to make sure to say that again to the board that it's just something that we've been, you know, tracking for months trying to get out. So, we have several plans, but I think this one uh it's going to come down to seeing if it has to be done. Get past permit. So, that's all I should be. Yep. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Yeah. You might tell me. Oh. There you go. Oh. Oh, no, it's
081it's on. Sorry. Uh and real quick, the I dot project is occurring here? Yeah. That's for the company needs, but we also don't mind the distraction that it's giving to everybody that drives by north that they don't see the what we're up to there. It's a major project that's up there. And it's multi-year, so they will not finish this autumn. They will be doing it basically starting now. Um and they will work on it till the weather gets cold. Uh and then they will work on it next year, too. So, it's uh it's supposed to be an improvement, uh but we're wait we're waiting to see what the end result is. They They talked about this a couple years ago. They're widening And they Well, they raised it up and whatnot, and it wasn't really
082conducive to that entrance and exit. So, we want to see what we end up with when they're really done cuz I know they changed the original plans. Uh and at that point we can consult with them whenever we need, and [snorts] and that's nice to have with Catholic property, and it does afford us uh options if we need to change something or or have an entrance that's at a different location. We were really dead in the water without it. >> [snorts] >> All right. Next up? Yeah, I'm going to go out of order. >> I want to give a quick update on the Cook County Treasurer. Um if you'll recall when I stood up here last month, I said, "Well, at the end of January, the city will get all of our money by >>
083[snorts] >> February 4th, which was a Thursday." Uh well, we did receive this morning uh well over $264,000 for last year, um and they currently owe us just a little under $3 million for last year. So, they have not given us all of our money. We're about 97% received. And we haven't received any money for this year. So, property tax bills arrived in my mailbox I know the last day of February, uh and it's now March 16th, and I know some people have been paying their bills, and they usually they usually batch it, so every week or 10 days or something money's sent out. So, we haven't gotten any money for this year, and we're still not really getting a register what the money's for. It just sort of hits our account. So, we've been
084told by we've been told by the Treasurer that what we've received so far is from last year. But I I am still deeply concerned about the money commingling, and we need to know what belongs in what year. Otherwise, it's going to be a big mess with our accountant this summer trying to figure it out. So, uh it's uh something we're monitoring, uh but we haven't received anything from from this year, and uh I I I hope I hope when I stand up here next month, I can say, "Hey, we got it all." So. Have you heard about any delays? Cuz I paid my tax bill online, and it was actually rejected, and I'm still waiting for it to repopulate to repay it. And I don't know if it's just something I did. I feel like
085I looked it over, or if it's something within their system. >> I I I uh I I I can't answer that for you, Mrs. Garrett. I'm old school. I go to the bank to pay my property tax bill, so I I don't I don't know. But like have you heard of any of this? I have not heard of that, no. But that that's not to say it's not happening, so if it's happened to you, I assume it'd happen to other people. I called, they said yeah, I'll do it again. But you know, if it happens again, I'm just going to say yeah. So, one other item, uh if you've been following the um world events, or if you've driven by a gas station, you've noticed gas for your car has gotten a lot more expensive.
086Uh energy uh as a whole is getting more expensive. And our current contract for natural gas expires um the end of May of this year. So, uh but I I've been very forward-thinking, and I've been working with the department, remember uh Becky Thompson, who was here a few years ago when we signed up with Nania. Uh and I've been working with her for over a month. Um what can we do? Uh let's get ahead of this. Um and last week she sent me some bids, uh some quotes, uh and they were fresh off the uh the report, um and I was able to lock in for 5 years um a reduction of 17.8% of our natural gas bill. So, we're going to drop from 56 a little over 56 6 cents a therm down to
08746 cents a therm, um and that's going to save us $31,000 a year, um or $155,000 over 5 years, so it is part of the conversation that we want to reduce our expenses. Uh and if we can do that in ways that don't affect our kids, that's even better. Um and this in essence was I'd say low-hanging fruit, um because I think we got in at the right moment, because I don't think we're going to get these prices a week from now. Um and uh it's something that's deeply concerning, so locking it in gives us budget certainty, and having done this for a long time, I can say the amount we'll be paying um starting May 1st, uh or June 1st actually, excuse me, is about what I was paying when I started this business
08820 years ago. So, uh I'm quite certain that the it's much more likely to go up in the future than go down. Uh as I told Mrs. Massa, we could have God forbid a depression and things really drop, uh but that's not as likely to happen as things kind of go through the roof. So, we were able to do that uh and it's something that we continue to look at. So, I wanted to share that with the board. Other Our last bit of business wanted [snorts] to talk about was um last month I mentioned our garbage bin wanting to go out to bid. Well, I you know, I I I'm I'm sure they weren't watching, but I said this in the meeting and 2 days later Waste Management reached out to me. They said, "You
089know, your contract's up." I said, "It is. We're going to be up." And they said, "Would you do an extension?" I said, "Well, we're really looking to contain our costs and I'm pretty sure we're going to want to go out to bid." And they said, "Well, if I put something together, would you at least take a look at it?" I said, "I'd be happy to take a look at it." So, uh they proposed a 3-year extension with us. Um the first year with absolutely no cost increase. And then 6% years 2 and 3. So, it works out to just a hair under 4% annualized. Uh and I think, given the fact that we're paying $44,000 and some change this year for our waste uh garbage service basically, um if we go and bid it out,
090if somebody were to undercut them, anyone who's responsible would be of an amount less by single-digit thousands. Um I mean, given the fact that we have to go through the process of bidding and put the ad in the paper and pay money for that and whatnot. And we've had really good service from Waste Management. They're pretty mindful of when they send their garbage trucks to our property. We haven't had a whole lot of issues with garbage trucks showing up at pick up or drop off. Um and their billing is also very accurate, which is a big problem we had uh with our last company. Every month we had to spend hours uh sorting out what we really owe them. Uh and Waste Management hasn't had hasn't give us any trouble at all. So, unless the
091board really advises me against doing so, I would really like to go and extend the contract. So, I'm just looking for some feedback. Just a quick note when Mark and I talked about this the other day, I had mentioned that while the service is phenomenal now and has been it's that which is a great thing, we should still see if we can get a clause in the contract that says if they start failing on some of the the oversight things that they're doing now and start causing us more angst that we would like to have that clause added in the contract that we can that we can um cancel the contract if we feel that they're not meeting our standards. On that thank you for mentioning that because I forgot to to say something. That
092we I did talk with Mrs. Marlene, Mrs. Massaro, and Mr. Burton about this. I also did talk with their attorneys as well. So, if we go and commit and some other company a year from now says we really wanted to bid on your business, we're also going to have a clause in there that we can get out of the contract in 30 days for bidding purposes. So, I really flushed this out with their attorneys over at Franczek to make sure legally we were okay. I knew we we would be one way or the other but I just want to make sure we had the bases covered. With those two clauses in mind, I find them acceptable. I'm good. Okay. Thank you. Is that everything? I have a quick question. Sure. In past meetings we've talked
093about the fact that Cook County never gave us an accurate 100% number. They've said you you've got 92, you've got 97, now you've got 92, 97. Have they ever given you 100% of what what we're owed yet? I I I In our case, I do know because we we we asked for a certain amount and I know what that amount is and I can tell what we're we're down by, but we aren't getting we aren't knowing what bucket the dollars fall into, which is a real problem. And there have been Well, there's another small school district. Most of our neighbors, if you look at, you know, Park Ridge or East Maine or someone like that or or Arlington Heights or or Mount Prospect, they're about where we are. They're 97, 98%. Uh there's a small
094district in the area that's gotten over 100%. So, someone clearly didn't know how much they were supposed to get. Um and And one of the things that through the Cook County Tax Coalition, um we had the libraries uh jump on. The libraries are nowhere close to 98%. We're getting our money because we made a lot of noise about it. The librarians have been very polite and we all love librarians because of that way, uh but most of the libraries are you know, last time I saw 30, 40% we see. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Okay, I just one last update for the board. Um we have uh also planned for uh you tonight you approved the IGA for the National Night Out, uh but we also reminded the folks at the city who are wanting
095us to do the National Night Out, but the same folks that want to widen the road over here next to the school. So, we're really trying to work with them so that all these things don't clash cuz we're also putting the full day kindergarten here, too. So, it could be a you know, an interesting uh National Night Out. So, we're going to try they understand that that could be problematic. Um so, just throwing that out there. We just wanted to let you know that when that day comes, August 4th, and if they're not done widening the street over here, um with this is uh if if they're also going to be doing some resurfacing on Fourth Avenue between Fourth and Lincoln, but they're going to avoid all that when this tournament. Could be some impact
096parking for our big their big night out our big night out. So, this year that's all I have. And they just did something 2 years ago. No. Okay, thank you so much. Next is main Township Treasurer summary report of February 26th. Uh thank you Mrs. Mrs. Mass. In February there were two new investments totaling $2.3 million. And both investments were 3.72% and they were locked in for nearly 5 years. So, that's a I think a pretty good number. We did receive more than $2.3 million last month from the county, but again as as in last month a good chunk of that money went to our our liquid account as we got they got so depleted with the delays as I mentioned. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Next up is the FOIA reports. Yes. So,
097for our FOIA tracker we are busy with FOIAs all the We love FOIAs, too. Oh, jeez. Everybody. All right. I mean not all FOIAs, but the ones that hold people accountable we like. Um I don't know if this is my favorite review here. Sorry. Got it. All right. Yes, so these were all three commercial and they're same groups that did leave asking us for the same information. Just about 2 months apart. So, other than that I think we're fulfilled on all three, correct? That were listed today. Are there any questions about any of them? No. Yeah. They're all commercial. Yep. Yeah. I like to inform them, though. Thank you. Can I ask a question? Is it Do the teachers have spam filters then so that cuz like why are they asking for teachers' emails? Cuz
098they'd like to email them opportunities to purchase stuff. >> this like I'm like, what are you Why do you need this with all their emails? One last thank you, too, I think it's just Mr. Dennenberg and all the IARs clicking along. I want to thank the team and all that our connectivity has been much improved over the last year, so a lot of effort with you and your team to get our business handled for um many many hundreds of devices using the network all at one time, so thank you. Thank you. Okay, next we have dialogue and selected topics, promotion ceremonies. Um I will be doing Algonquin on June 3rd because I'm an eighth grader, so who wants to join me in Algonquin? I. That was a powerful That was a powerful move. I like
099it. June 3rd, Wednesday, 6:00. I can join you for Algonquin. Ooh, I got I got I got two bids. Ooh. I can I can say, what do you got? Uh I got nothing. >> [laughter] >> I have this cookie pile. I can show you how to foil. I got nothing. You can do You want to take [clears throat] it? Me? No, with Do you want to take it? You can take it. You're Let's stop fighting me over stuff. I'm sorry. I can do Chippewa. I haven't done them for a I want to do Chippewa. Okay. Are you speaking? Would you like me to? I spoke last year. I can I two years in a row would be a a lot for me. Yeah. >> I'll do it. Will you speak? Oh, yeah. Okay, I'll go
100with you. We'll do that. You guys should sell tickets. Yes, that's a awesome. Okay, so just for clarification, we'll have myself and Mr. Herring for Algonquin on Wednesday. We'll have Ms. Guerra and Ms. Salgado for Tuesday, the 2nd, at Chippewa. And then we'll figure out your point. Um but I can do your Iroquois, as well. Um and I'll speak at Algonquin. So that'll be fun. I think you'll be thinking about you. You guys can will have some veiled comments about my daughter Deborah, so I'll write those out. I mean, we'll see. I can add it in myself. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Burton, do you want to sign up for it? I'll do it real quick. I don't know if he had as much choice. Not this year. Okay. Senior already. Sorry, Brian. And then, Miss
101Duckman, so much for assuming. Well, I was just going to say. Well, the president's gone. So, Mr. Burton for your co-ed June the 2nd. What's Duckman like? I don't know. We're going to have to wait. Yeah, I'll talk to him. It's nice. [snorts] Okay. We're feeling good about emotions everyone? Everyone okay? Yes. Over the moon. Over the moon, she says. Miss McSwain, would you have all that? >> I do. Okay. Okay. Fabulous. All right. Um, can I have a motion to go into closed, please? I move that the board go to closed session to consider 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
102which case the basis for the finding shall be reported and entered into the minutes of the board meeting. Meetings between internal and external auditors, financial finance committees, and their equivalents when a discussion involves internal control weaknesses, identification of potential fraud risk areas, known or suspected frauds, and fraud interviews in school building safety and security. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I roll call, please? Morley? Aye. Burton? Aye. Delgado? Aye. Gareth? This is to go in closed session. I have to abstain cuz I can't do closed session. I got to get my kids to Abstain. Abstain. I abstain. Sorry. Aye. Martha? Aye. Thank you everyone. We will now have any action after close. So, thank you all for coming. We really appreciate it and enjoy your evening. Thank you for having us.