001Fade into board members seat at a table. Jim Batson >> 128 board of education meeting for October 27th, 2025 to order. Uh we'll start with um pledge of allegiance. Everyone join. >> Everyone stands for the pledge of >> 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. >> Everyone returns to their seats. >> Jim Batson. >> Okay, we'll start with the roll call. >> Nina Austin >> here. >> Jim Batson >> here. >> Raul Deshmuk >> here. >> Doug Flegal >> here. >> Middle Cotwall >> here. >> Wes Poland here. >> Okay, I'm going to review the agenda real quick. We have some communication items. Uh uh we'll have uh actually a celebration of
002sorts here with some students in the in the house. Uh followed by public comment uh our student schoolboard rep uh reports discussing some requests and superintendent report. Um we'll have a consent vote agenda. Uh we'll have uh one action item that's uh employment of employees. Um and then for discussion, we're going to talk about the district 128 MTSS academic support update and a levy review. Um and followed by someformational items, board comments and events. Uh ISB report. I'll have something brief. Seedall. We have a seat all >> Nothing. Okay. Um we'll review future agenda items. We do have an executive session then we'll go into um but it looks like we will not. We have a uh an item on the agenda for action to be taken, but it looks like we will not have
003to uh use that uh this evening. So, we'll circle back to the top of the agenda uh and we'll start with our celebration. >> Camera turns to podium. >> Andrew Young approaches the podium. >> All right. Well, good evening everybody board. Thank you. Um, my name is Andrew Young, uh, the proud principal at Vernon Hills High School. And briefly, uh, I'm sure many of you saw we had an exciting weekend 48 hours ago in our women's tennis program. So, I know, uh, Coach Gerber's here. I just want to quickly say this. Coach Gerber has been with us all 26 years of this program, 51 seasons of tennis for Vernon Hills. And last year we celebrated over 500 wins uh with his leadership at the helm of our programs. And we've uh we've had lots of
004success in the program over the years. And finally, kind of a pinnacle moment uh with the state championship 48 hours ago in our doubles uh program. Not to be overshadowed by the women as a whole finishing fourth, a point off of third as well as a team. So we are beyond excited for them. Uh it goes without saying this is not this doesn't happen by chance. The I knew long about especially our state champions going uh going into summer and how much effort and work they were putting into all of this. It's a lot. Uh so we are appreciate we appreciate all of the time. You make us look really good as always students. Um so to coach Gerber, Coach Hovadai, Coach McCarti, and Coach Sorby, thank you and congratulations. I'm going to invite Coach
005Gerber up here who's going to talk a little bit about the program, the team, and the success. And uh we'll give them a round of applause. So, everybody, Coach Gerber, our head. UH [applause] [applause] thank you for that great introduction and uh thank you board for having us uh tonight. Uh first, I'd like to talk a little bit about the team before I get to our two players. Uh the team was 114 and one and of course the tie was with Libertyville, so we'll have to settle that one next year. Uh again, as Dr. Young said, Fourth in State is a team and as we had eight seniors on the team, we found out tonight that all eight will be scholar uh athletes for the CSL. Uh continuing with our tradition of having athletics and
006scholarship uh mean everything to this program. Um some of the other individuals on our uh fourth and state team, we had Bella Yuggleoff who went two and two. Uh she is all conference as of tonight. We had our seating or our end of season meeting tonight. Uh Emma Jazzbutus uh finished the year at 25 and five two and two at state. Uh she individually has won 74 uh t 74 matches during her career. Um she is also all conference and a CSL uh sportsmanship winner as well for our program tonight. So plenty of accolades still coming in here at the end of the season. Uh now we'll get to our two individuals uh Paulina and Camila. Uh Paulina and Camila both went 27 and0 this season. They were undefeated. Uh Paulina now has the most
007uh wins for uh the girls program with 88 career wins. Uh she has na been named allconerence as of tonight. Camila of course 27 and0. They played doubles together all year. Um and she too is at least into the 70 uh win category as a player. Um the really fact that blows my mind is that in these 27 matches they didn't drop a set. Uh they did not they did not have to go to a third set. And I think that tells you how strong this this team was. These are the two best uh female athletes we've had in the tennis program. And at the beginning of the season, we said, "Let's make the run." And they said, "We can do it." And we did. And well, they did. I just sit on the sideline.
008It's all it's all these two. Um, and this is our first uh state title in any uh for the 51 seasons that I have been the head coach of uh this this program. And there are a lot of people to thank. Uh as you stated, uh Dr. Dr. Young, coaches Hovai, Mccardi, and Sorby, uh, our AD, Justin Cooper. Uh, Dr. Young, it's nice to look out into the fans and see our admin. Um, I will say that other coaches, uh, when they see Dr. Young, he's been out more than once. Um, state, it's nice that the principal comes out and watches these matches. It's nice that the AD is at these matches. It's nice that our superintendent came out for the Libertyville and Vernon Hills match. So, we are getting support at all levels and
009we really appreciate that and thank you for letting these individuals in our in our school district make memories. I don't know if you ever think about it that way, but that's what you're doing. You are creating lasting memories for these kids. They're never going to forget this. I'm never going to forget this. And you guys do this every year. So, thank you very much from the girls tennis program in Vernon Hills High School and for myself, Paulina and Camila. Thank you. [applause] >> Coach Gerber and a student approached the podium. So, to my right is Camila Tamarcus. She is a junior, so she'll be back next year. And now to my left is Paulina Masheraba. She is a senior. She does want to play in college and I think we're going the PT route a
010little bit along those lines. Uh those are her plans and it's exciting to see what's going to happen uh as we get towards the spring. [applause] >> So we'd like to take a picture. >> Two of us. Okay. >> Students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next 30 seconds. It's students receive certificates and takes pictures with school board members for about the next 30 seconds. Jim Batson. >> Okay, such great news. Thank you and congratulations again. We'll move on. Uh, next item on the communication part of the agenda is invitation for public comment. We had no one sign in. Is there just in case is there anyone that would like to speak to the board that didn't sign in? >> Pause for the public. >> Okay, hearing none. Uh,
011we'll move on. Student school board representative reports. Looking forward to this. >> Ash Ramesh. >> Hello, my name is Ash and today I'll continue to report on student life in our district. Today I'll be sharing student perspectives on our school lunch program. Starting with the positives, student satisfaction with the school lunch is fairly strong overall. From the 330 responses that I've collected in my schoolwide survey, the average rating for school lunch was a 3.75 out of five, with about 2/3 of feedback being positive. Students praised the variety and taste of options, both averaging 3.55 out of five. And most found portion sizes acceptable. 61% said they were just about right. Participation is consistent too with 40% of surveyed students eating lunch daily. Finally, there is strong demand for more access with over 83% of students
012wanting Cafe 145 open after school for grab-and-go items and beverages, which was an idea proposed by the food testing committee a few weeks ago. Now, the areas for improvement. The biggest concern for our school lunch is value for price, which scored lowest at 2.67 out of five with 41% of responses being negative. Healthiness also lagged at 3.19 out of five with one in five students rating a poorly. Operational issues matter as well. Only 24% of students said that there were enough options left by their lunch periods end with sixth period and 7th period lunch periods especially noting a major lack of food options in the cafeteria and just 40% of students felt they had enough time to eat after waiting in line. I specifically interviewed three students during seventh period lunch. While one of them
013noted that convenience of the vending machines in the cafeteria is amazing, the other two noted having access to almost no food options during the lunch period. Students suggest a few clear steps to improve these weaknesses. Address value by adding more affordable options and clearer price labeling. Improve access by staggering production and lunch so later lunch periods including sixth period and sun period still have all the options available. save time by speeding up lines during peak minutes and adding more grab-and-go options and to boost healthiness daily with more nutritious lunch options, including vegetarian options with nutrition labels. They also requested to expand service with the pilot for Cafe 145 open after school. In short, students are positive about the variety and taste our school lunch program, but want more action on value, nutrition, and access. With
014these targeted changes, the program can better serve everyone. Thank you. Anukica Talleti. >> Hello, [snorts] my name is Anukica Tati and I'm really excited to share how VHS students have been seeking opportunities through school to incite change in the local community. Recently, the dual credit early childhood education class had a field trip at the CDW at play. Senior Paige Collier shared that she hung out with different age groups of kids. And it was important for her and her class because they were able to learn and observe kids in real time to see how young children learn and play. For the kids, it was also important because it allowed them to interact with new people and to have new experiences. Students are also involved in planning and executing community events outside of school. Back in September,
015junior Vdant Rami hosted and organized a garba which is a very fun and vibrant Indian cultural event with his family. Vdant said that seeing so many students enjoying the music, dance and food made it all worth it. The night was full of energy and it felt amazing knowing all the money went to the local mandr or temple. I received a lot of great feedback from fellow students who attended. Another great opportunity for students to learn and gain relevant experiences is the penis program at Advocate Condell. Senior Diar Rajan found out about it through VHS and it shared her interest in applying to the program. As a student who wants to pursue a career in the medical field, I chose to apply to the Penis program because it allows students to shadow healthcare professionals and get
016firsthand experience. [clears throat] I believe this program will help me discover what field of professions appeal to me and prepare me for a future career. Our students are always taking the initiative to go out into the community and expand their knowledge while positively impacting everyone they meet. Providing a database of local opportunities like volunteering and internships, specifically to career oriented clubs at school would foster even higher community engagement of the members. Thank you. >> Olivia Bush. >> Hello and good evening members of the board. My name is Olivia Bush and today my report will highlight two meaningful experiences that have recently taken place within our district. The right assembly for freshmen and the D128 daring college and culture tour. On October 9th, freshmen at Vernon Hills High School participated in a truly transformative experience. The
017day began in small groups where students discussed the daring mission and took part in icebreakers and conversations about mental health and empathy, all led by senior leaders. After the morning sess session, the freshman gathered in the auditorium to hear guest speakers Mike Danahoo, guest speaker Mike Danahoo, unsure of what to expect, Danahoo shared a powerful message about empathy, life's challenges, and walking in someone else's shoes. After his talk, several seniors shared personal stories tied to the right missions um pillars, respect, integrity, trust, and experience. Their reflections led into the open mic session where the freshman bravely shared their own stories of resilience, creating an atmosphere of connection. As a senior leader, watching the new class open up so vulnerably was inspiring. This event remains one of VH one of VHS's most meaningful traditions, uniting freshmen
018and instilling values that shape their high school journey. Additionally, over a 5-day weekend, students had the opportunity to take part in the D128's daring um college and culture tour. LHS and VHS students loaded up on buses to tour eight schools along the East Coast, including several H.B.CU. When asked what inspired her to sign up, Kira Thomas shared that she had never been out of state to visit um schools before. And when this cost-effective trip was offered, she knew she had to take it. The group visited Howard University, Bowie State, Morgan State, and John Hopkins, and Lyola, Maryland, among others. For me, Howard was my favorite because my interest lies in law. Kira said seeing the campuses in p person made a big difference for her. It allowed me to see the campus culture, the size
019in person is a huge deciding factor for me. Her favorite memory from the trip was the bus ride back when she was able to meet a lot of friends from LHS. Senior August Maize reflected on the experience as a meaningful opportunity to learn about the history and culture of H.B.CU firsthand. We learned more specific aspects of the social life and these colleges. August explained um they noted that the atmosphere of H.B.CU was more lively and filled with student life with different clubs and events happening all around while the nonHBUC campuses felt a bit more quiet for them. August shared that visiting these schools deepened their appreciation for the role HB H.B.CU play in higher education and left a lash lasting impression. She says that she is now considering applying to Howard and potentially Morgan State.
020It feels like home. The culture and community really stood out to me. August said both these experiences reflect the district's commitment to creating opportunities that challenge and inspire students. Whether through a moment of vulnerability and connection at the right assembly or the cultural and academic exploration during the East Coast College Tour, D128 continues to foster an environment where students grow, not only academically, but personally. Thank you. >> Ava Gratitor. >> Hello everyone. Tonight, I wanted to talk about something that I feel so honored to have been involved in. This past weekend, Libertyville performed Le Miseraba for our community. I am so honored to have been the stage manager for this wonderful production. With around 110 company members involved in this production, from cast to crew to pit orchestra, I have never felt closer to a
021company than this show. We bonded over late nights spent at school during tech week and the idea that this show was something not many other schools could pull off. As a stage manager, I got to see the show along with the people in it grow over the course of the last few months. Sitting in the booth calling cues for our final show yesterday, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of pride at how amazing this production was and how everyone involved always tried their absolute hardest to make the show the best it possibly could be. I wanted to finish off by saying how proud I am of the whole company of Lay and that I had the most wonderful time being the stage manager of this production. Thank you. >> Good evening. Two and a
022half weeks ago, Libertyville and Vernon Hills celebrated Daring Day at Libertyville. While sophomores learned about different career paths through a fair with local business partners and juniors spent the morning, excuse me, and juniors spent the morning taking standardized tests. The focus for freshman students was on community building and wellness. At LHS, freshman spent the day immersed in Green Dot, our school's action-based campaign focused on preventing bullying, sexual assault, and dating violence. I was proud to be one of the seniors who served as a Green Dot ambassador. We kicked off the day with an assembly where freshmen played games and were introduced to the Green Dot program. Afterwards, we joined them in the classrooms where our teachers led powerful lessons explaining the importance of the Green Dot program, how and how each of us can help
023to combat to combat bullying, sexual assault, and dating violence. I was truly impressed by the freshman's maturity, respect, and engagement. I'm proud of LHS's ongoing commitment to fostering a community where every student feels safe, supported, and valued. And I appreciate the district's continued support for programs like Green Dot that make this culture possible. Thank you, >> Ruhi Patil. Although this month has been full of excitement, it's also been bittersweet. My cross country season came to an end, marking my last as a senior. I joined the team sophomore year, and it was hands down one of the best decisions I've ever made. Athletics have taught me grit, perseverance, and teamwork. Lessons that have defined my high school years. Running my final race at Adler Park during senior night was surreal and is a sentiment all our
024senior athletes are experiencing now that our seasons have ended. Our conference championship was a whirlwind. I thought I had thought I felt prepared for my season to end until I crossed the finish line. When I reached that final chapter, surrounded by my teammates and coaches, I realized how much we've all grown through this journey. It's been inspiring watching my teammates improve both as athletes and friends throughout the season. I'm deeply appreciative of the opportunities LHS provides our athletes where we forge bonds that will last a lifetime. Thank you, >> Jim Vatson. [clears throat] >> Thank you so much. We always learn so much from all of you. So, we appreciate your feedback and uh and comments. Um moving on, we have a uh few foyer requests um listed here for the board to uh uh
025see. Uh then we have superintendent report. Good evening, board of education members of the community. [clears throat] 18 Libertyville High School students and 27 Vernon Hills High School students were selected to perform in the ILMEA District 7 festivals. District 7 includes Lake County, Northern Cook County, and Eastern Mckenry County with participation from over 100 high schools. Following October auditions, top students on each instrument and voice part were chosen to perform with the District 7 choir, band, and Orchestra in November. Outstanding performers from each of the nine LIMEA districts will advance to the ILMEA state festival in January. This is the highest individual honor for high school musicians. We're very proud of our talented D128 students and look forward to celebrating those who advanced to state. The Libertyville High School Library is one of only 26
026school libraries in Illinois to receive a $2,000 Feed Your Need grant from the Association of Illinois School Librarians and Library Book Selection Service Endowment Fund. This competitive statewide grant supports the purchase of new books or ebooks to update uh specific areas of a school's collection. [clears throat] LHS librarians Clear Green and Melissa Albin secured the grant to expand the LHS graphic novel collection, part of a broader effort to strengthen the school's culture of reading. Research shows that recreational reading enhances mental health, empathy, and critical thinking, which are key components of D128 during mission. Congratulations to the D128 graduates named recipients of the 12th annual Alumni Achievement Awards presented by the Foundation for Learning. uh Nicole uh Tatani Melendez uh graduate of uh Libertyville in 1995 and Nia Powell who graduated Vernon Hills High School in
0272014 will be honored at the foundation's big event on November 8th. Would also like to welcome representatives from the foundation to join us now to talk a little bit about this upcoming event. And so here we have Erica Rendle and Diane Phillips for the foundation for learning. >> Erica Rendle and Diane Phillips approached the podium. My name is Erica Rendle and I am a proud Vernon Hills High School parent and the chair of the D128 Foundation for Learning. Um, thank you for just a few minutes of your time. We wanted to come and one make sure everyone was aware of what the foundation does. Our mission is very simple. We want to support success for all students at Vernon Hills High School, Libertyville High School, and Transition Pathways. um so that everyone can have innovative
028learning experiences and that all of their needs are met uh through their high school career. We do that uh by focusing on three key programs um our daring innovation grants uh that go into classrooms uh to drive innovation above and beyond the school's annual budget. Uh we provide resources to students in need and we support seniors with scholarships. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to to talk about the foundation. My name is Diane Phillips and I am the executive director of the foundation. And the slide that you see behind me um highlights the foundation's financial commitment to district 128 since it was founded in 2007. Um looking at the pause, the blue pause summarize what um financial commitment we did last year. Um we had $46,000 um that we donated back to the schools.
029Um as Erica mentioned in the form of uh innovation grants, $20,000, 11 um grants that were funded. Um we have uh 10 scholarships that we give to our seniors. Um five at each campus and um $18,000 was given to our students in need. um at the OrangeP um makes me very proud. Um since 2007, we've given over $655,000 um back to the school. 450 486,000 um was given back in the form of grants and projects. Um 219 uh daring innovation grants. uh 36 scholarships and um something that is increasing every year the need but we've given $148,000 back for our students in need project. Pause for slide [clears throat] >> Eric Rendle. >> So all of this fundraising has to happen somewhere so that we can give this money back to our our schools and
030students. Um and that happens at our biggest fundraiser of the year uh the big event. So, we are coming up on our 12th annual big event uh Saturday, November 8th. It's from 7 to 11 at Austin's Fuel Room. We have a live band. It's actually a alumni parent band from LHS called Sideways. They're fantastic. They played last year. Um uh we have a paddle raise. We have a silent auction. And all of that money goes into those three programs that we talked about at the start. the funds that we raise next two Saturdays from now will be the money that we are able to give back in the most part. So, we invite everyone in the D120128 community to come join us. Uh if you can't be there in person, uh you can donate to
031the foundation online. Uh the QR code that's here uh will get you to a link to purchase tickets as well as donate. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> Jim Batson. Thank you so much. It's a great event. Um, attended it many times and the band is really good. As a musician, I really appreciate the band and who knows, they might have a a a guest artist set in for a couple numbers. Um, moving on. Um, consent vote agenda. Does any board member have any items that you would like to pull from the agenda? Okay, hearing none. Can I have a motion to approve the consent vote agenda as presented? >> Poland. So moved. >> Desmond. Second. >> Okay. Any questions, comments? Roll call, please. Carol >> Austin, >> I. >> Batson. >> I.
032>> Deshmuk. >> I. >> Flegal. >> I. >> Cotwell. >> Hi. >> Poland. >> I. >> Motion passes. Uh, next uh for action, we have an employment of employees report. Uh these were items that came in after our uh program and personnel committee earlier in the month. So listed here. Can I have a motion uh to approve the person uh the employment of employees? >> Poland so moved. >> Fleal second. >> Any questions or comments on this? No. Okay. Roll call, please. >> Pause for note takingaking. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Batson. >> Hi, >> Deshmuk. >> Hi, >> Flegal. >> Hi, >> Cotwell. >> Hi, >> Poland. >> I Austin, >> I >> thank you. Motion passes. We have a couple discussion items here. We'll start with the District 128 MTSS academic support update. Dr.
033Clint. >> Yes. Well, thank you very much. Um, we um are excited to speak to you tonight about [snorts] uh some of the work that we are doing in our Oh, thank you very much. some of the work we are doing in our schools to support um academic achievement of our students. Um and as you know our our goal is to provide um our community with daring graduates and a big part of that work is to make sure that our students are ready for college and careers and life after high school. Um and ensuring high academic outcomes for our each and every student is our primary mission. Um tonight we're going to talk about some of the uh academic achievement that or academic support efforts, excuse me, that we're making um under our MTSS framework
034to support our student academic success. So the first thing I want to say is we know that we are extremely fortunate in our district because the number one thing that impacts our students academic achievement is the quality of our teaching staff, our student services staff and all of the staff that we have in our buildings and our teachers and our staff come to work every single day uh invested in our students and working very hard to develop theiric skills, provide for them a great experience. I'm going in and out, aren't I? Okay. Um, so, um, tonight we're going to focus specifically though on the tier one and tier 2, um, programs and and efforts we're making under our MTSS umbrella. We're going to talk about what we've implemented. Um, we're going to talk about how
035it operates and then, uh, some of the early results that we're seeing at this point in the school year. Um, I can't and I won't overclaim causation, but you'll see the signals are strong, that we're trending in the right way. Um, you'll also see that we're investing considerable time and staffing um to try to continue to sustain these gains and build upon them. Um, and again, >> pause for technical difficulty. >> Just do a second. Sorry, I'm having a little get this set. There we go. There we go. Um, so just um want to explain that what MTSS is because it's something that is said a lot in different school settings but um often misunderstood. And when you think of a traditional high school, you're thinking about thousands of students. And traditionally, the students success
036academically was largely on the student and the teacher. And there might have been sometimes some different resources available in the school, but oftentimes it was a one-sizefits-all approach to supporting students. What MTSS is, it is not a program. MTSS multi-tered system of support is really an operating framework for the school. It's an operating philosophy. And what it does is it says how do we as a school system create a model a framework for operating where each and every student can get the support that he or she may need at the level that he or she may need it. So it tries to take a big school system with thousands of kids and it tries to make a more individualized approach to identifying students who may need support both in the academic or in the social
037emotional or attendance or behavior framework and tries to put varying levels of intervention and support for students when they need it. So tonight I'm going to talk about MTSS, but I'm really only going to focus in on the academic side of the work that we're doing. And I'm going to focus in on the what we call tier one and tier two. Tier one are the universal core instructional approaches that all of our staff make for all of our students. This is kind of our sort of routine operating the way that when you come to LHS or Vernon Hills High School, these are the main things that we do to support each and every student and help all students be successful. We're also going to talk a little bit about tier 2. And tier 2 are
038when students begin to struggle a little bit with the tier one supports and they need just a little extra scoop of support. We have some interventions that we've been developing to help students academically. Many of these interventions have been um something that we've been putting a lot of energy and attention on over the last couple of years and some of them are brand new this year. And so I just want the board to become aware of what these efforts are so you have an understanding of when a student begins to struggle academically how our school system may respond. >> Pause for slide. When we talk about tier one efforts, this I'll go quickly because you as a board have heard about this. This is our ready tolearn effort. So all students this year are entering
039classrooms and instructional spaces where each and every staff member is applying universal um practices to make sure that they are phone free. Right? We started our ready tolearn efforts back in August with making sure that cell phones were managed in all spaces in roughly the same way. And what that has done is to allow students to have much more ability to focus their attention on classroom learning, connections with their classmates and their teachers, and to be thinking about actively engaging in the content and the activities of the class. We are now moving into the second phase of this work. Our ready tolearn efforts are not just about taking and removing cell phones. It's about saying, okay, now that we have student attention, what are the instructional strategies we want to use to maximize the learning
040in the class? That is the work that in our October institute day, one portion of our October institute day was all of our certified staff members spending time thinking about and talking about the instructional strategies they use to capture student attention and engagement. We asked students on our health and well-being survey earlier this fall a question. during the past two weeks, how often did you pay attention in class? We have historical data on this question and it goes back a couple years. We see that um going back a few years that students would answer that favorably about 60%. Last year it was 72%. we see a 17% increase in the favorable responses to that question where 89% of students reported favorably of paying attention in class over the last two weeks. So um we can't
041necessarily say this is all directly related to our ready tolearn efforts but this data is certainly very positive and exciting for us to look at. Pause for slide. >> Also, when we talk about tier one, again, talking about things that are available to all students and that support all students learning, we have two major efforts that we're making to help raise student achievement across our system. One is trying to ensure that all students have access to rigorous courses. So that may be in our college prep curriculum, that may be in our honors or AP or dual credit curriculum, but it's helping students identify where they're at and helping them take um calculated challenges about where they're going to grow their skills because we know that we grow through challenge. And so we want to help
042raise the amount of students who are entering rigorous courses, but we know when students are taking challenging courses, they also may need support. And so we're finding ways to bring academic support into the classroom setting. The way that we're working on many of these efforts is through our co-eing and inclusion facilitation. Now co-eing is a instructional strategy where you have a general education teacher paired with a teacher who is certified in either special education or in English language learning. In a co-eing class, you have a college prep curriculum that is the same course at taught at the same level as all sections of that course, but you include the extra teacher in the class to help support the needs of students with IEPs or students who are still developing their English language proficiency. The inclusion
043facilitator is a certified teacher who has expertise in supporting the inclusion of students mostly with um specific learning needs with through their IEPs into GenEd courses. And like an instructional coach, the inclusion facilitator meets with teachers, helps them learn about their unique students, and helps them develop strategies for their teaching and their assessing of kids in their room so that students with diverse learning backgrounds and needs are able to have more success in those gened environments. right now. Um, I provided the the board and the community a list of our co-eing classes. On the left are classes that are being co-taught. Um, where a portion of the class are students with specific learning needs through their IEP. And we have a special education teacher providing spe uh speciallydesed instruction to support those students. while we
044have a gened teacher providing the high levels of content and um uh instruction. On the right are our e co-eing classes. We have uh co-eing happening both at Libertyville and Vernon Hills. And because we know that this is a different way to approach a classroom, we are also providing these teachers support. They have a common prep time where they are able to meet and plan their instruction. and we provide ongoing professional learning for these teachers uh throughout the school year. >> Pause for slide. >> Now we start to think about um some of the support we offer for students at the tier 2 level when students begin to struggle academically. And so last year we had a joint committee that was composed of members of our teacher union, our ESP union, and our administration. and
045we spent um a considerable amount of time looking at the MTSS model, looking at the practices we had in our district and talking about the things we could do to ex um enhance and strengthen our model. One of the things that we identified was that a primary way that we support student academics is through our what was used to be called the MASH and is now called the workshop at LHS and through our ARC at Vernon Hills. One of the things that we discovered was that the number one reason students go to the uh workshop or the ark is for math support. And so this year we have intensified the math support that is in the workshop and the ark by um having two full-time math tutors in there to supplement the support that our
046math teachers provide students when they are assigned there on their duties. So, the math teachers who are in there on their duties are able to meet the needs of kids coming in for drop-in support, but the math tutors, any math teacher in our buildings, no matter what level of math they teach, can assign a student to work with the math tutors in the ARC or the workshop. So, this is a way for students to get individualized or small groupoup support when their math questions go beyond the simple just I need to meet with my teacher to ask a quick question. This is a more sustained and um focused approach to math tutoring. Um we see some of the numbers that are in place for the students um who are seeking that support and being assigned
047by their teachers um to have that tutoring. >> Pause for slide. Another step that we took was to develop um three interventionist teachers at each high school. So there is one in English, one in math and one in science. And this is new this year. These are certified teachers in the content area. They have sophisticated knowledge of the content for the department. And what they're doing is they are working with the course teams largely at the freshman and the sophomore level to help support the learning of all students in the college prep curriculum. And so they are not tutors. What they're doing is they are working with the teachers. they are um connected to the curriculum and they are creating reteing experiences for students who are struggling with mastery of the material at that moment
048in time. So they are helping with reassessments. They're helping develop new lessons for students to have a reexposure to something that is critical for them to learn in class. And what's what's really fascinating about this model is that because they are working with the course teams, a lot of intervention models, students get into a hole and their grades start to struggle. And then the interventionist or the tutor is having to play catch-up with the students, but they're having to retach them things that were from a few weeks ago while the class is still moving forward. Because we have this model in place, what's happening is some of these interventionists, they're able to work with students and sustain a relationship with them where they're actually pre-eaching some of the material that students are going to see
049coming up so that students have a good grasp and have built some prior knowledge of these material of these concepts before they see them in the classroom. Um we are seeing um very positive results. Our teachers are very excited about this model. Um the connections with students have also been very strong and very productive. Um so what you see here are the number of students that are currently connected with these interventionists and this does not show when the interventionists are going into the classrooms to serve as co-teers and support um in the classroom for all students in a class. These are just the individual students they're pulling and working with on an individual basis or in a small group basis at this time. >> Pause for slide. A third component to the plan that we
050developed last spring was to intensify our pause program which focuses on student executive functioning skills and to build and refine our literacy program and our numeracy program. So these are tier 2 interventions because what these are is when a student is struggling with some of their executive functioning skills, things like organization, study habits, kind of planning, they could be assigned initially to an executive functioning coach. And the executive functioning coach would meet with the student um anywhere from one to three times a week and do some either small group or individualized meetings with the student to help build some basic executive functioning strategies and they would kind of practice those strategies with the student. If however a student demonstrates through the data they need more support then they could be assigned a more intensive tier
0512 which is our pause program. That is a daily academic period taught by a certified teacher where students are getting more intensive support for homework completion, study skills, and executive functioning development that's based in the Rush Neurobbehavioral um executive functioning framework. We also have intensified literacy and numeracy. So when we find students with skill gaps that are considerable in literacy or considerable in math, they can be assigned to literacy and numeracy, those are academic periods taught by a certified math teacher or a certified English teacher with a reading specialist background to help build and kind of fill some of the gaps that a student may have had in their background so that the student can be more successful in the gened curriculum. >> [snorts] >> You see the numbers there of students who are currently
052being served in our PAUSE program. Um and our executive functioning coach >> pause for slide. >> I talked about that. Um I want you to be aware that the district has placed um intensive support for these programs through allocation of resources. So, not only our ESP staff, but our certified staff FTE um and we see that we've got um an attempt to try to have these resources available from stu for students before school all the way during um periods 1 through 8 for students at both of our buildings. And we're really again trying to build out a full system because remember all of our students come to us with very different backgrounds and different experiences and different needs. Some students need just a small bit of support for a short amount of time and other
053students need more intensive support for a longer amount of time. In the past, we might have only had one program or one kind of intervention that was sort of designed as a one-sizefits-all. What's happening now in our buildings with our MTSS is we have teams of teachers and support staff and and administrators meeting frequently to review student data. They're looking at student grades, student attendance, student social emotional data and behavior and they are looking at each individual student and groups of students and saying how are our students performing? Which students are connected to our interventions? which students might need to be connected to interventions. And now we have developed a much more robust offering so that the students who need just a little have those options. Students who need more intensive supports, we have those
054options in place. >> Pause for slide. >> So we are excited by some of the data we see and data is deceptive, right? We know that somebody who's skilled in data can make data look kind of to fit a narrative. So I just want to just help the board and the community understand this data here. This is the percentage of grades that are D's and Fs historically at progress one and progress 2 over the last five years. And if you took the y ais, the vertical axis and went all the way up, right? We are only showing where it's about four to six%. What that tells you is that historically the amount of D's and Fs in our district have been hovering between four to six to 7%. So that means 93 to 95% of
055our grades are A's, B's, and C's, right? So the vast majority of our students in the vast majority of our classes are earning A's, B's, and C's. However, what we're excited about with this data is that his when we look at the historical trends and we look at Libertyville and Vernon Hills, at Libertyville right now in progress 1 and two, we see the lowest percentage of D's and Fs than we've seen in the past several years. And at Vernon Hills, we see a lower percentage of D's and Fs than we saw last year. And so again, we don't have we haven't done a study to say this is the exact causation for this, but this is certainly an exciting trend for us and something that we um want to commend our students for doing excellent
056work and for our staff and we believe our system as a whole in terms of connecting students to support that is supporting academic achievement. With that, I would take any questions. questions, comments from the board. >> Rahul Deshmok, >> I have a couple. Uh the first question is uh regarding this MTSS. So you did touch upon it, but uh how and when do you identify students who would be in need at what time in the semester do we pick up on that information to provide more intervention to the students? >> Yes. So um we have what are called our intervention teams and those teams meet frequently. Um is it weekly or is it bi-weekly? >> Seems week every other week. >> So >> you want >> Ray Albin? >> So at at LHS our tier
057one team and our tier two tier 2 teams meets twice a month. When those teams meet, they're reviewing um well, at the tier two level, since our focus is primarily freshman and sophomores, they're looking at every freshman and sophomore, every grade that they're earning, and if there's been any grade changes in the intervening time frame. Um as well as uh for our math tutors um as well as numeracy and literacy any student in pause or any student really attending a math class if they have a grade change a significant grade change uh certainly into a D or an F range they are getting noticed picked up upon and then connected to a resource. So at this point we're looking through all of of the kids. The reason I asked that question was uh for freshmen
058it's difficult but uh in the upper classmen uh upper classes there could be an opportunity where you could look at the freshman data and already pre-identify a cohort of students who may benefit from this type of an intervention early on and obviously monitor it. But that could be more effective way of trying to see okay we are providing intervention right from day one and this can avoid that catchup that you talked about that sometimes students fall behind and then you have to figure out a way to bring these students at uh the same level. So that could be one opportunity. The second uh question u I had was on that component one uh slide eight I believe um there is uh I I didn't really understand that slide and there's a huge difference between LHS
059and VHS the numbers so I just >> I got curious about it >> yeah we we caught that too all of a sudden I sound very loud we caught that as well um we were looking at that we think it's a way that the data is being coded at each building a a little differently. So, um we think at at Vernon Hills they're recording all of the students who have come into the MASH for the support um in math and at Vernon Hill and at Libertyville we think it was sent the data that was students that were just specifically assigned because the math tutors if they don't have a student that they're assigned to they just work in supporting uh students. So, we we noticed that discrepancy. We weren't able to kind of determine the
060exact cause of that discrepancy. Um, but this is what both buildings had reported for their data. So, we felt it was important for the board to see that while we continue to dig into that difference. >> Appreciate it. And one last one again just for my understanding. What was the xaxis in the data of the grades that you showed? I just couldn't read that. >> Yeah, those are the uh progress periods. Um, so progress one is like the midpoint of first quarter. Progress two is the end of first quarter. Progress three is the midpoint of second quarter. That's what we're coming up to now. Progress four would be the end of first semester. Progress five, midway of third quarter. Progress six, the end of third quarter. Progress seven, midway of fourth quarter. Progress eight, the
061end of second semester. >> So this shows uh it shows the high point historically, right? That's what we call FARCH. That's the that's February March the winter doldrums and that's when we see the highest percentage of of D's and Fs. So historically there that is our rough spot. And the lowest point historically that we see is the end of uh first semester and the end of second semester because that's where kids really get into gear to try to make the pre the push for finishing strong. >> And I think that that kind of even speaks about the the quality of the MTSS. And in fact this slide then it's been underplayed. I would say it needs to be highlighted because what it is showing is students are starting off not doing that well early on
062but as the intervention is helping the students at the end of the quarter or end of the semester we are seeing a significant drop uh in the number of days and it needs to be showed much better. Same thing is happening again in the winter semester. students come back from vacation, it's a slow start for students not paying attention and then as the semester progresses with proper intervention their grades are improving. So I think you've interpreted it absolutely correctly and what we're hoping is that we would see some changes to this pattern based on some of the new interventions and new data monitoring protocols that we're we're putting in place. >> Thank you. >> Other questions, comments? >> I do. Okay. What >> um first I have a comments. Um I want to thank Dr.
063Kentus and his team uh for all the work that you've done. Uh this is a vast improvement from what was originally presented in April of 2024. So I truly appreciate all the work that it's gone. I mean it looks completely different. Um so thank you. Um I really appreciate the full-time math tutors. While I think having peer tutors is great, peer tutors, I mean, you know, they can reinforce what's been taught, but if a student's really struggling, we, you know, having those math tutors is really important. So, again, thank you for making that happen. Um uh to touch on kind of what Raul was asking about um the breakdown by class um or grade I guess um I would be interested in seeing that um just to know as far as like our freshman especially
064when we're um doing articulation with our feeder districts and finding out um you know which students are coming in. you know, if there's schools that are preparing students more or less um because I think it's really important um that we share that information with our feeder schools because we want as many kids coming in ready to learn, ready to be successful on day one of their freshman year >> momentary pause. >> Um because you know, is it you know like with the executive functioning is that primarily freshmen are they just trying to you know figure it out because there's a huge learning curve in nth grade. Um, so, um, you know, how can, you know, what can we do to support them? You know, again, possibly looking at something maybe over the summer, helping them.
065Um, because, you know, the ultimate goal is to make sure that we have all of our students ready to learn day one, freshman year. >> Um, but again, thank you. I really appreciate the presentation. >> Rahul Deshmok. >> And can I just give a shout out to the students? I'm in the education field. I understand how important students are, student tutors in connecting with their fellow peers. So, you're doing a fantastic job. I encourage your classmates uh who are maybe strong in one subject to do their part to help the other students. Thank you. >> Yeah, Vernon Hills has 125 tutors this year, which is the most we've had since our first year back in 2017, I think. So, >> and they play a extraordinary role in helping with like dropin support and things. Um,
066and and to your point, um, Miss Poland, the idea is we wanted to support our peer tutors with bringing in some of our adult math tutors to help with students who need a more kind of steady and long-term presence for their math support. >> Yes. And I just have a quick question. Um, how uh, do students become peer tutors? Yeah, I can answer that. Uh, in the as part of the course selection process, um, teachers have an opportunity to recommend students uh, as many as they want as part of the during that same process in January and February. And so we kind of take that preliminary list of students and invite them to a meeting uh in March just to kind of let them know of what the program consists of um what our expectations
067are for them, how we're going to train them, onboard them, what the time commitment looks like that following year. Um so that happens. There's also an opportunity if uh you know sometimes teachers won't recommend a student because they think the teacher next door is going to recommend that student and so sometimes really strong students might even get missed. So there's an opportunity for students also to sort of opt in or reach out to us to apply. Uh so there's an so there's that the interview process in April and by May we [cough] publish the list of of tutors. Um in the last five years we've had a wait list of tutors based on that. This the applications are read blindly with several components to it. >> All right. >> The training starts in the fall.
068>> Other questions, comments? Okay, thank you again. It's really good information and and very pleased to see the the progress being made in this this area and and I know it's we've always tried to address the needs of the students, but sort of a continuous improvement kind of mindset is always trying to find more that we can do to help them. So, I appreciate that. Uh next we have a uh presentation by uh Mr. Stanley on the levy review. >> Hi. Uh not quite as much as a presentation other than uh we have slides in there from the committee meeting that we went over in the recording. um is there uh to review that presentation. But uh essentially in a if you zoom out, we have uh the levy, which is the district's um annual
069process for uh for requesting uh property tax revenue from the county uh to be assessed uh and extended. We are estimating uh the based on the the law calculation that it'll go up about 3.7% which is 2.9 which is based on CPI the rate of inflation plus additional new construction that has happened in the district notably um Canland sports in Libertyville now coming on the tax roles as a as a taxpaying body. Um and so in total we anticipate about 3.7 as a total increase or are requesting our levy of 3.9 which gives us a cushion of about 300,000 uh depending on uh EAV estimates that we won't know until later. So this is the same information that we shared at the committee uh committee meeting a few weeks ago and then we'll revisit this
070at the November committee meeting and then at the November board meeting for final adoption. >> Okay. So we'll see it more than once. Any questions, comments? I know we went through this in quite some detail at the FNF. So, look forward to uh continue continuing the process. So, uh next isformational items um board comments and events. Anyone have anything that um they've attended lately that was interesting or any additional comments? >> Um we bring up this for the IASB. I know. I got this letter in the mail about >> Yeah, I did probably >> because it says um >> yeah, >> West Poland. >> So, this is just a a board member um update from IASB. Um, I'm sure you all received this letter in the mail about um taking a survey regarding their um
071their strategic plan um because it it said in here, I also ask that you make sure other members of your board are aware of this process and take the time to respond to the survey. So, they want us to respond. >> Yeah. So, that um a couple things with ISB that Thank you for for that. Um, I've been out of town, so I haven't looked at my mailing. [laughter] Um, but, uh, I did know that, uh, IASB is, uh, embarking on a strategic plan process. So, they're interested in, um, uh, you know, any information that, uh, feedback that you can provide that we can provide as board members to the U. Illinois Association of School Boards. So, that's the, uh, the group that's helps support school boards across the state. Uh the other note there
072is we've been uh we had mentioned and passed out at uh prior meeting the resolutions uh committee report including some resolutions for this uh year. Um I am your representative. So we'll be voting on those at the joint conference later in November. Uh but we've put that on the agenda item. We'll see that on the future agenda items for the uh the PMP uh uh committee meeting uh coming up in a few weeks. So we'll be able to look at those in some detail uh to be able to [cough] view those and get [clears throat] your feedback on um you know agreement to what I should be supporting. So that's ISB. We had nothing for seedall the future agenda items here as you see um mostly for the upcoming committee meetings. Uh we do have
073uh an executive session. So we'll be uh moving into executive [snorts] session um uh for the purposes of uh to discuss selection of a person to fill vacancy school board. That's 5 ILCS120/2C3 as well as the placement in individual students and special education programs and other matters relating to those individual students. That's 5 ILCS 120/2C10. So, can we have a motion to go move into uh convene executive session? >> Poland. So, moved >> second. >> Okay. Uh, any questions, comments? Roll call, please. >> Deshmuk >> I. >> Flegal >> I. >> Cotwwell. >> Hi. >> Poland. >> Hi. >> Austin. >> Hi. >> Batson. >> Hi. Okay, we'll move into a close session. And as mentioned before, I don't anticipate any action after this. So, thank you for attending and good night. Text on the
074screen says the board is in closed session.