001Fade Into board member seat at a table good evening we'll call the uh board meeting District 1 128 for February 24 um to order start with a roll call I mean I mean a pledge of allegiance and then we'll have a roll call sorry everyone stands for the pledge of allegiance aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all everyone returns to their seat thank you Carol roll call please Jim Batson here Cara Benjamin here Don carmichel here Cara drumkey here Lisa hessle here Mish catwall here soal karney here okay note that everybody's here um I'm going to run through the agenda real quick uh for Action we have some very exciting news that we're going
002to start with uh we'll get back to that shortly uh and then uh for communication we have the um um LHS youth uh connect Council presentation we'll have an invitation for public comment we'll have teacher Union report uh ESP Union report uh student School Board rep uh reports we got a couple foiler requests uh superintendent report and then we'll move into the consent vote agenda those all things that have been previously discussed Andor our regular routine things that uh that we vote on in one action and then for Action we have an employment of employees we have some educational tour requests uh we're going through uh 10 and 12 month administrative contract renewals uh uh the FY 24 audited Financial reports uh Dan will give us an update on that uh some bid approvals for
003Paving and um netting and a yearbook contract and then we'll have an update uh in information section on campus safety a mid-year financial review uh five-year Financial projection so uh Dan's going to be busy tonight uh board comments and events IB report I just have a couple quick things uh seedall report anything Cara okay nothing for seed all and then we'll review some uh future agenda items there will be no closed session or anything tonight so let's get to it so first of all uh it's my privilege do we have uh Our Guest on the on the horn it's my privilege to present Dr Mark schaer there he is as as our recommendation to become the next superintendent for Community High School District 128 uh so let's first of all let's just get the formality
004out of the way so we know he's officially here so can I have a motion uh to approve the contract as presented for Dr Mark schaer as d128 superintendent beginning July 1st 2025 hle so moved Carmichael second okay can we have a roll call Benjamin hi carmichel hi drum key hi hessle hi catwall hi K Carney hi Batson hi and as you notice that was unanimous um so I just have a couple things I wanted to read here um we're very excited to welcome Dr schaer back to Illinois as the new superintendent of District 128 Dr schaer's credentials and experience speaks for itself but his leadership and respect for input from others and collaboration was so apparent on her visits his extensive experience as an educator administrator and superintendent makes him well equipped to lead
005our district he shares our unwavering commitment to continue to provide outstanding educational opportunities for all our students I first want to take an opportunity to thank the literally hundreds of people who contributed to this uh selection process whether it was input from focus groups and surveys used to develop our leadership profile the great work that Dr uh Joe Porto and Dr uh do Phil is here Dr Phil aart is back here uh joining us uh and the entire bwp team who assisted us with this process um um I'd like to thank the other candidates that steep forward very impressive group of candidates uh The District staff who helped navigate this process the stakeholder committees that uh the committee that was formed so that we could receive confidential but important feedback from a group of very
006significant stakeholders and I especially want to uh express my gratitude to my colleagues on the board here for the many hours of deliberating interviewing and eventually coming to consensus on this terrific leader who will take the district to even higher levels momentary pause I've been involved in a number of these sorts of hiring processes and I will say that this is probably the most effective one I've ever witnessed and uh I think the result uh demonstrates the success of this project this process let me just share a few comments from some of the notes that I saw from people that had the opportunity to meet with Dr schaer um he is student focused he wants what's best for kids his Integrity is his highest value he's passionate and humble he owns and learns from his
007own mistake did I say he's student focused Dr schaer is a servant leader who respects all opinions seeks lots of input he is real he is authentic those are just some of the comments that I that from the notes that I saw so without further delay Dr Schaefer has joined us remotely uh so I'd like to introduce Dr Mark schaer so good evening uh Board of Education members as well as all who are uh gathered here this evening I'm incredibly proud honored and humbled to be joining Community High School District 128 this district is a shining example of a worldclass education system driven by its exceptional students dedicated staff and a supportive engaged Community I am excited and energized to continue building on the strong traditions of excellence in student achievement outcomes and experiences while
008also inspiring every student to be daring in their Pursuits there's so much to look forward to can't wait to be part of it all I look forward to joining you in person at your next meeting on March 10th thank you again for your uh trust and confidence in me I'm so excited and honored to be your next superintendent thank you so very much any the other board members have any comments or Don carmichel glad to have you aboard yeah we're thrilled welcome yeah yes welcome Jim Batson uh we look forward to your uh upcoming visit and we'll let you get back to your what you're taken care of there at the conference so have a good one thank you again thank you Mark schaer waves goodbye so that's very exciting news for our district and
009I'm we're super pleased to bring um mark on and and um looking forward to his leadership in the coming years all right next on the agenda uh under communication the Libertyville High School youth connect Council presentation camera turns to Podium Brenda Nelson hey there I am Brenda Nelson and I am the prevention and wellness program coordinator at LHS and um I am the proud sponsor of the youth connect Council which we call ycc it's been in existence since 2019 um and keywords are hb2951 um and they're going to tell you more about that and what's behind it so we're gonna have them each come and introduce themselves first um so you just kind of know who they are and then they're each going to come they they'll each get up and say their part so
010I just want to line up and quickly introduce yourselves I'm cesley I'm a junior I'm Maggie I'm a sophomore I'm Victoria I'm also a sophomore I'm Caitlyn I'm a sophomore Benjamin I'm a senior I'm Tyler and I'm a sophomore Don carmichel when it's your turn to speak feel free to pull the microphone down to a comfortable level okay so um ycc or youth connect council is a committee of Libertyville youth connect or Libertyville connect Coalition Libertyville connect Coalition advocates for positive youth mental health and a substance-free Lifestyle by educating empowering and engaging within our community we work or youth connect Council Works to engage with local and state representatives and government regarding issues impacting youth well-being particularly relating to youth mental health and substance prevention the next presenter approaches the podium District 128 start time
011is 8:45 and this is right in line with the best practice as according to Leading sleep researchers and Adolescent Neuroscience However unfortunately the average school start time for um schools all across America is 7:30 a.m. which is an outdated practice the next presenter approaches the podium adolescent circadian rhythm fall two hours later than children and adults it was determined by Mary cark sodin the Pioneer researcher on adolescent sleep that puberty bumps sleep patterns to approximately 11:00 p.m. to 8: a.m. the next presenter approaches the podium with start times of 7:30 a.m. it's nearly impossible for high school students to get adequate amounts of sleep leaving them depleted and likely to underperform both mentally and and physically and also impacting their stress levels the next presenter approaches the podium on average teenagers get around 7 hours
012of sleep each night meaning they fall far short of recommended 8 to 10 hours as high school students enter a phase of Rapid mental and physical development getting adequate sleep is key to improving Focus academic performance athletic performance and overall health having a school start time of 8:45 a.m. or later would allow students to get the rest they need and ultimately help students thrive in and out of school the next presenter approaches the podium a similar bill has already been passed in the state of California in Florida where High School start times are mandated to be no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and a study by the American academic or American Academy of Pediatrics found that compared to schools whose students or compared for St schools that started from between 8 AM and 8:30 AM students
013whose school started between 8:30 a and 9:00 am had better attendance less tardiness fewer car crashes and overall better academic performance clearly later star times are act are better for the students which is what it's all about the next presenter approaches the podium in March five ycc members will be traveling down to Springfield to meet with the education Committee in the House of Representatives as well as other legislators to advocate for House Bill 2951 Lura favor dasas our state representative created this bill on our behalf and it's a bill that propos poses a high school start time no earlier than 8:45 for schools in Illinois we'd love to have your full support on this bill pause for slide and lastly we just like to say thank you to the d128 Board of Education in 2018
014d128 changed its start time from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. allowing all d128 students the benefit of better sleep with better sleep we can perform better academically physically and have improved Mental Health so we just want to say thank you pause for Applause thank you so much for that presentation I know it's going to be an exciting trip to be able to to meet with the legislators I'd like to get some more information from you at some point in time over the next couple months if you can send it over to the district office or something the uh Illinois Association of school boards actually has a process where we advocate for certain legislation and we're coming up on the time frame when we would submit those recommendations to the Illinois Association of school boards and
015all the the the school districts around the the state vote on those to be uh um you know advocated for on our behalf so I'd love to be able to put that through as something that we would advocate for on your behalf and try to get the association of school boards to do so as well so we'll hit them you know from multiple angles will drum up the business so thank you again thank you any comments or questions from the bo Cara Benjamin I'm always so impressed when our students come to present thank you for that so I just have a um administrative question so if this were to pass and we were to have this bill this law would that affect dismissal times as well and sports is that a part of the the
016bill for answer so high schools would be given a time frame like by 2027 like this bill uh in California is by 2026 is when schools have to make this change so they're given this time frame to be able to figure out a plan and Implement what's best for them so yes likely this would affect the the times of of sports and dismissal times but this they're given time to make these changes and figure out what's best for for each district and each school thank you so much for presenting I I was the parent of a sophomore in 2018 so got to see the difference between 2017 and 18 and 19 and it it was a a really good decision to give them the extra time so thank you for taking the lead on this
017I know it improved the performance of the Libertyville principal at the time as well so um but the other thing is if in terms of the end time it would I I would see it as an advantage to our district because as our athletes well know because we start late we also get out a little later at 3:25 and a lot of other high schools get out a little earlier 2:45 or 3:00 and sometimes that makes it a challenge for our athletic events and we have to leave schools sometimes a little bit early in eth Period so if all high schools in Illinois move to a later time probably bring more consistency to when um extracurriculars after school would start that's what I was thinking level the plane field and also just on behalf of
018our district um state representative was going to come tonight to be with the students um but there's an illness in her family tonight so she could not attend but um I just wanted to say thank you to her for her advocacy across the the state for our teens and their mental health Jim Batson okay thank you and thank you for coming out and presenting it's very important stuff good luck okay uh next on the agenda uh invitation for public comment we have um Socrates if step up camera turns to Podium Socrates V approaches the podium so also as a parent of multiple aged children that time shift helped my household as well so d73 starts about an hour earlier and that was that was very helpful um one thing I heard about this new superintendent
019sounds like what we had in Dr Herman one thing I did not hear the gentleman that helped hiring him is does he have humor is he so I don't know hopefully he has some humor uh because all the credentials are very similar from what I heard today and obviously what Dr Herman had um so thank you for my three minutes I think I've asked you in the past to try to move away from that um it kind of chills speech you know the three minutes not everybody's comfortable getting up here and especially when you shut the mic on people it's uh very unattractive what if what if I had a speech impediment you know um there's people out there that probably have speech impediment are scared to come up here and actually engage with you
020all so Dr Batson I ask you again to rethink that I know today's meeting is very long so and I understand where the three minute comes from but just keep that in mind the reason I'm here is for four well three things the bathroom Dei and I would like to maybe one of you um would have the courage and dare to apologize at this year's graduation for how children were treated during the pandemic for them to be able to play sports as they had to test and be treated as if they had some kind of disease so please keep that in mind maybe one of you will have the gall and the courage as you get up there with your robes and address each other as doctors I've asked for this two years ago maybe
021this will be the Year this is the last graduating class that endured that discrimination the the the bathroom uh situation here there's a I know I was came to light that there's an all female bathroom and an all-gender bathroom inside that is not very transparent Title 9 does not address gender identity Title 9 was here to protect you you you you and all the women in this room not for people people that for whatever reason feel that they should also have the same Privileges and I'm not going to take anything away from that population I understand they're having a difficult time already as it is but don't do it off the backs of our women and girls in this building I would like I I emailed all of you and I think Dr gilam addressed
022that it's not about human uh human rights Illinois human rights trumping Trump's Title Nine what about the women's human rights do these women girls want to walk into a female bathroom and then see someone that you know is a male how about those rights so please I'm the single spaces all gender I'm not talking about those I'm talking about the one where there's an all-gender bathroom inside the female bathroom I would love to see that sign removed and I think that spaces were probably for people with physical disabilities it's it's not fair to them either right those that building was those bathrooms probably put in place to sat satisfy some kind of uh Ada requirement so now they have to share that with the all gender people so it just to be clear I think
023Dr gam you understand what I'm talking about which bathroom it is right it's within the female bathroom to me a female bathroom starts at the door not at the stall momentary pause um I know there's a couple of contracts that are and we're at your 3 minutes so if you can wrap up thank you there's a couple contracts that will be renewed today I highly recommend you do not do that they were created under Dr Herman and I don't want to take any food from anyone's table but maybe Dr Varn could be used somewhere else to do something better because these positions were created here to help some kids and the metrics are just not reflecting that the only people making out are the people that got hired in salary positions Dr Batson thank you
024for giving me some time and I really appreciate all of your time thank you thank you Jim Batson anybody else wish to address the board okay John hatel approaches Podium sometimes I come here with a prepared statement sometimes I don't come here to speak at all but it seems like every time I come here there's something new that I want to talk about tonight I would do want to say something that I find really good about this district and it has to do with as I've mentioned before the teachers I think have been the glue that held a lot of things together here the last four years secondly I want to talk about how I think the Deans do an exceptional job here I think the principls have done a good job I'm happy that
025Andrew Young is coming into the role to help uh backfill Dr G's position I've had personal experiences of working with all of them high school is teenagers anybody in here that's parent knows the teenagers are not easy and all I can say is when you have 3600 teenagers in a building 15500 18002 buildings it's not easy for the teachers it's not easy for the Deans and there's a lot of things that go along with it so I think it's really important we as parents understand that it's hard enough for us with two kids just think how hard it is for the teachers the administrators the Deans the counselors counselors I forgot to mention the counselors had some great experience is with all of them so I want to say thank you again to all of
026those people because I think done an exceptional job here in this school and they're the ones that have helped the kids the most so with that said I want to move on to one other thing Socrates touched on a little bit um I think the employment of employees the consent agenda on some of the employment contracts I think can be pulled off the consent agenda and be reevaluated there are some shifting Sands in the federal government right now that are taking place potentially resulting in this District losing its Federal funding and it can be up to 8% if you have a $100 million budget we could be $8 million in the whole without that Federal funding so I think the consent agenda has for those employment of employees needs to be pulled off the agenda
027tonight and has to be re-evaluated as some of these things get evaluated further by the legal side of it because right now there are some challenges with that and if we don't adhere to that we can lose Federal funding other than that I just want to say thank you everybody uh teachers administrators counselors done a good job these kids aren't easy our kids aren't easy we have teenagers you guys got 3600 of them thank you thank you anybody else pause for the public okay we'll move on um teacher Union report Monica for Jason Rush approaches the podium [Music] good evening I am Jason Rush ver Hills High School applied technology teacher Libertyville resident and the d128 union building representative for ver Hills High School my union message tonight is about the edex professional development day
028that took place Friday February 14th at Libertyville High School I'm certain I won't be the only person who speaks about etex tonight when you assemble the collective expertise of our d128 teachers union our educational support personnel and building and District administration to offer four 40 minute sessions you get a smorgus board of practical intellectual and entertaining professional development worth mentioning more than once as you'll probably hear tonight a few example titles of the presentations are as follows how to leverage differentiation to encourage belonging by Vernon Hills Alysa gong engage explore Excel the power of a classroom of classroom technology in student learning by lhs's John Taylor and Lisa Davis dispatches from a screen-free classroom by Vernon Hills Ellen msas and finally engaging the home front by lhs's Danilo sutic this is only four examples of
029the 55 presentations by over 80 presenters curated by the LHS and vhhs instructional coaches beyond the impressive number of sessions what really makes edex remarkable is the collaborative spirit that filled the day around the district 128 theme of belief and belonging teachers support staff and administrators share the expertise share their expertise and engage in meaningful discussions about improving our practice supporting our students and learning for the sake of broing our personal Horizons shout out to our ESP brothers and sisters who by my anecdotal assessment presented and shared their knowledge at a greater rate than I can remember at this edex event since 2017 there seem to be more opportunities than ever for ESP to broaden their Professional Knowledge in my opinion as I mentioned last year these sessions provide not only professional development but an
030opportunity to stretch our intellectual muscles I an applied Tech Teacher made sure to visit LHS social studies teachers Regina Adu and Paul laros session about the origins of the Armenian Genocide did you know the blueprint for the second world war Holocaust was written by the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide I do now to conclude the d128 2025 atex was excellent thank you thank you thank you for sharing that I've heard many many good things about that I I always wish I could have attended but I was out of town taking care of some family business but I heard it was very excellent so thank you if I may um that's some of the best professional development available our teachers teaching our teachers um and I would strongly encourage the district to continue that practice and
031beyond that let's have our teachers going to national conferences bringing those things to everyone else I would support that as well uh next up the educational support professionals Union report we have somebody here momentary pause no okay I'm sure they probably would have said something about edex as well because their participation very important as well so okay we'll move on student School Board representatives and you're all here so take it away Prem aaria hello uh the LHS senior student council organized an amazing dodgeball tournament fundraiser on Sunday February 9th the friendly and competitive competition consisted of 75 seniors and seven teams of eight to 10 players each team had a creative name and a captain to represent them the event was open to exclusively seniors allowing seniors to have fun while fighting for a cause
032many students at Libertyville took this tournament very very seriously Lucas kinsky a senior at LHS passionately stated that that dodgeball tournament tournament wasn't just a game it was a moment I'll never forget taking second place wasn't a loss it was proof of everything my team and I poured into it every throw every Dodge every second on that Court was electric the energy the competition the pure joy of playing it all reminded me of why I love pushing myself winning would have been great but the real victory was the experience itself beyond the simple fun of the competition the tournament had a significant charitable component each player who participated in the tournament was required to donate a coat or contribute five dollar this allowed students to not only enjoy the spirit of the game as well
033as contribute to a meaningful cause reinforcing the senior class's commitment to service this event was the culmination of a successful campaign that resulted in nearly 200 coats being collected for the CH the Chicago Bears 36 annual coat drive in partnership with ju Osco the Salvation Army and shway movers overall the senior class dodgeball tournament was a major success it combines school spirit and service allowing it to be a fun and charitable event Victoria dios Martins D Costa good evening everyone I'm sorry I couldn't be here at last month's meeting due to being sick as the Winter's Sports slowly come to an end students and coaches are excited for the upcoming spring sports that are starting soon LHS has a long list of spring Sports all of which include girls Batman baseball boys and girls lacrosse
034girls soccer softball Boys Tennis girls and boys track and field boys volleyball and girls and boys water polo majority of the spring Sports run from the end of February until miday with some exceptions girls track and field has been having offseason lifts since returning to school from winter break and they had their first meet at Lakes on February 22nd and will have their second meet this Saturday at whe Wheeling High School Claire Erdman a senior captain on girls track and field is excited that track has started by feeling sentimental towards it being her last year competing L stated that the practice usually consist of track workouts field event practices Mobility cycling stairs Sprint work out in backs and then specialized event practices rose water is also getting ready for their season start soon the first
035official day for them is March 3rd with games as soon as March 10th against Hershey as predicted many of the spring sports are excited for the war weather to come with many of the sports like baseball softball and soccer only having practices in games outside the warmer weather makes it more enjoyable for both the coach and athlete to have a more productive practice let's all wish these athletes and coaches good luck on their upcoming season and many victories for all of them thank you CRA Abraham good evening today I will be discussing the Winter Dance which took which took place this past weekend on Saturday at the dance a large variety of activities were available to the students who attended apart from the dancing students could play board games watch a student voted movie participate
036in the silent disco play video games and more of the activities outside of the main gym the Sal disco seem to be the most popular giving students headphones that play different music on different channels one freshman says it was cool that the color of the headphones corresponded with the channel you were listening to because it made it really easy to listen to the same music as your friends students also enjoyed the smaller details that enhanced Mosh Pit such as the confetti cannons and the inflatable spheres that were passed around during songs overall the dance seemed to get many positive opinions but compared to homecoming the Winter Dance tends to normally have a lower number of students to attend this year the trend stuck and many of those who did come left about an left after
037about an hour one senior says that the reason that students May leaving early is due to the fact that the DJ doesn't always deliver the music to the students in ways that are attractive to them since since many students make the choice to leave or stay depending on how many people are still there students predict that if a DJ were to focus more on choosing parts of the songs that students most want to hear and then transitioning into a new song after that part is over more students would be inclined to stay for longer in general LHS does a wonderful job of providing students with a memorable Winter Dance and if we continue to focus on ways to encourage students to attend and stay the Winter Dance will definitely grow in its popularity Ean D
038good evening everyone this month Vernon Hills has been celebrating success after success first last Friday cougars got to celebrate another round of the cougar Class Act Awards sitting in on this event I heard so many inspiring students stories about how students are impacting their Community between students being awarded for creating successful n proces and speaking to large groups of prospective students to helping light classroom atmospheres our students are certainly making a very positive impact speaking of making an impact Vernon Hills recently hosted a blood drive allowing students and staff to donate blood in total we raised 65 units of blood which will in turn help many patients next in honor of Black History Month Vernon Hills has been celebrating the work of black figures by sharing their stories each morning then each Friday a raffle
039trivia event is hosted to give classrooms the chance to show what they've learned a random classroom is called and if they get the question correct they earn mini cakes so far Miss blast and Mr prise have each one this serves as a great way to build a bit of friendly competition among classes and teach about the amazing contributions of these figures finally the winter P was held earlier this month the play took o place over three days and regarding the experience seniors Sophia Kenn and Lucas Shon said that it was good people thought it was really funny which was their point and their intent as they wanted to make people laugh additionally they said that the rehearsal process was fun entertaining and allowed them to get to know each other more that's all for me
040tonight and let's turn it over to Danny Daniela Gomez ANZ hello everyone I'm excited to start by sharing things that have been occurring in the Fine Arts at VH thus far in February beginning with the band concert that was canceled on Wednesday February 12th because of the heavy snow Mr Sandell the band director who is retiring this year was solved the problem by making the Winter concert virtual the following day for families and live for students it has not been virtual since Co since the co pandemic additionally in the music department we had the ilm EA take place this weekend for choir students sang in either group or Solo or both and then were given Corrections by the judges and they were given the opportunity to incorporate the corrections and improve during the competition sophomore
041Mandy Miller and honors choir said that my experience was really good and I like getting cour from the judges as it really helped me improve on the piece I performed furthermore some cougars explored careers in Health Sciences through a halfday experience that students signed up for through School links senior Katherine Den found it fascinating to touch a real cadaver and explore different career options within Health Sciences finally this weekend Vernon Hills hosted its Candyland themed Winter Dance Spirit Week featured fun spirit days like PJ day and rainbow Rush the assembly on Friday was a hit there was a mass singer competition between teachers Mr Smith Mrs reck and Mrs Sancho and also a student staff basketball game where the teachers won 16 to 14 against the student team ice spice about one third of the
042school attended the dance itself with seniors enjoying a tribute video made by student council exec member liby Tron the music was better than in past years though it was a noticeable lack of sophomores at the dance still everyone had a great time and now seniors are looking forward to prom passing it on to Griffin Griffin Nichols hello everybody I'm pleased to announce that Vernon Hills has had quite the month for sports related Feats to start we have a wrestler Ilia who placed fourth in their weight class in addition to wrestling gymnastics head State sophomore Maya plays third all round and Senior liby plays third in Vault and second all round lastly our boys swim team was CSL North champions for now the second time in a row um we have a multitude of swimmers hanging
043down to stay including Cody will Blackmore Yuri pin will Randall and Dan Burke best of luck to our swimmers similarly to sports this month was packed in terms of clubs and events Animal Welfare Club had their first meeting and they have quite a few events planned and can't wait to get involved in the community likewise mock trial Club is planning their first trial and I must say it's looking to be an interesting experience fmpa had a sheep heart d section lab today which was an exciting experience dab after doing such in anad me one flag this month introduced their exec board BPA is prepping for state and law enforcement Club had a cyber crime specialist com and talk to stents this month has been packed I'm so glad that I've had the chance to attend
044a majority of these meetings Vern Hills is truly honored to have this many experiences to offer its students thank you you that's all for Vern Hills tonight wow jam-pack this month that's great thank you any questions or comments nice job I think the you know the silent disco thing I think there might be like some kind of Sociology kind of research that could be done as the lights change and people move and you know there's got to be some kind of anyway I digress all right moving on um a foyer request anything to note on those pretty pretty typical foia requests uh so we'll move on to the superintendant report I am happy to share the following good news from District 128 first congratulations to the following d128 seniors named National Merit finalists from Libertyville
045Maya Anderson Alexander Brown ahand day lenina doodi Hannah Korean Hayden mazino and Alan Wang from Vernon Hills Kaya Ginger Laura casova laki Nar Christina sanova and meline Wright congratulations next five district 128 students were recognized at last month's Illinois Council for exceptional children star awards celebration the star awards recognized students in North cook and Lake County who are nominated by their staff for demonstrating growth or excellence in the areas of Technology transition work academics self- advocacy artist skills school and community and social emotional learning congratulations to d128 award recipients Abigail nuke Charles helin Christopher Morrison Hannah kich and Kyle Ellen next District 128 Special Olympics athletes had amazing snowshoeing performances at this month State Winter Games in Galina the athletes won the following honors in their events Libby carsten gold and bronze rishia Aaron fifth
046place Ben broer bronze and sixth place Noah huitt two silers Abigail noaki gold and silver and finally last month representatives from the d128 foundation for learning joined us to share information about their annual 28 giving campaign I'm happy to share that generous supporters help the foundation reach 97% of its goal and raised $12,432 in this year's campaign thank you to everyone for your support that will go towards this year's daring Innovation grants supporting students in needs and Senior scholarships and that Mr President this the superintendent's good news report thank you uh moving on uh consent voted agenda again these are items that have been previously discussed in committee and or routine items every month anyone have anything to we want to pull out and consider separately think did we have another presentation in the superintendent's
047report or I'm sorry I should have done that I did not do that well okay I just hogged the microphone here we do have an mtss report my apologies Mr President problem I will turn this over to the mtss experts thank you Dr Tom kentes all right well thank you very much we just wanted to give a brief update uh tonight about our ongoing mtss work um this is just a brief summary of the information that was sent to you in your in your board packet um and so uh tonight we're just going to give you a quick overview um as you'll likely recall in October we provided the board with an update about our mtss work our student academic interventions student grades at that time and the number of students who had dropped down
048from AP and honors courses now that first semester has concluded we can better assess the performance of our students and the impact that our interventions and placement initiatives had upon student outcomes and we'll explain how this is influencing the thinking of a joint committee that is working on Intervention designs for next year so um we are very proud of the progress we've made with mtss during first semester and there are many staff members working in different ways to build out our mtss framework um as a reminder mtss is a framework for organizing schools for continuous Improvement that is meant to be systemic sustainable and data informed it is not a program it is an operating philosophy uh for a school and it includes our esps our student services staff our teaching staff and our administrative
049staff the mtss framework is designed um to help our schools create happier healthier and higher achieving students by addressing students academical and post-secondary planning needs so in developing our framework we in d128 are researching national and local models and then what we're doing is identifying best practices which we then work to adapt to our d128 system so this graphic here kind of shows how mtss the bottom left is what many people think of mtss and that is our tier uh our three- tiered intervention structure and so that's kind of the thing that a lot of people know about is do you think about tier one interventions and tier two those are certainly important but there's much more to a true mtss framework and our district work has been targeting all areas this semester um so
050you know we kind of showed some of the highlights of our work and attach them to the different areas of mtss domains um that that this work is sort of building out but just to highlight two um things tonight I want to um I want to commend the that the groups that have formed the three new system level teams so we have a district mtss team that looks at student outcomes across the district we have a building mtss team at both Vernon Hills and Libertyville which are looking at student outcomes at Libertyville and Vernon Hills and these include cross-disciplinary representation of teachers and staff members from uh the broadest aspects of the buildings in the district these teams meet regularly in order to look at data and to assess um areas in our system in
051need of attention during first semester student performance data protocols were established practiced and refined as well as Student Success criteria um that would help us understand which students were in need of intervention and which students were operating successfully um and also I just want to say that though it's difficult for us to capture in quantitative data we have made very strong efforts in growing our culture of datab based decision making throughout the district through our lunch and learns our LST meetings our Institute days uh like edex and our building meetings um and departmental conversations our staff is more frequently interacting with student performance data in a variety of ways and we are building our skills and our confidence and our protocols for how to use student data in all of our inquiry processes pause for
052slide when we uh look at student grades um last winter and spring d128 schools implemented new heterogeneous College Prep courses at the nth grade level and there were concerns raised about how successful students would be in these classes and though we had designed the ninth grade lab as a means of supporting students in these courses it was unclear if our student would be successful in this new model and as a reminder the nth grade heterogeneous classes these were created as an alternative to team taught classes at the Freshman level in biology algebra and English lit and comp we were concerned about team taught that is a model that um didn't consistently provide students with the same level of rigor that students encountered in our non-team taught classes and therefore as a district who wanted to
053raise student outcomes we developed a heter genus model to ensure all students in college prep courses receive the same rigorous on grade level instruction as their peers in at that time additional concerns were voiced about the impact of the district's implementation of APA specifically concerns were voiced that many incoming nth grade students did not fully understand the APA guidelines and we would potentially see a large number of students struggle and fail ninth grade honors and AP courses because they might not have been ready for the rigor that um was going to be presented to them so we looked at this at the progress period but as the dust settles on first semester we can now see how our ninth graders did academically a review of all students grades when you take all the heterogeneous classes
054in the AP honors courses at the ninth grade level shows that despite these substantive changes to nth grade curriculum our 9th grade students academic performance um closely mirrored the performance of the class the year before so while those of us who work with data know that it's difficult to draw conclusions with only one year of data we can at least be satisfied as a board and as a district knowing the worst case scenarios that were presented last year did not manifest themselves at our freshman level the vast majority of our ninth grade students were successful first semester they remained in the courses they originally signed up for uh this is certainly a testament to the talents of our staff in adapting to these changes to the grit and the determination of our students to be
055successful as well as to the supports provided by our academic interventions uh moving forward we will continue the heterogeneous courses at the ninth grade level and we will continue to fine-tune the academic supports available to students across the curriculum including the AP and honors classes um we also heard concerns last year about um our upper classmen so with the APA we had a lot of students diagonally moving into their first honors or AP class and concern was voiced that we may not be um that these students may not be successful so again when we review all student course grades from last year to this year we see the grade distribution is nearly identical in our um upper classman to what it was the previous year though the APA policies were in place these new placement
056guidelines did not imp to impact the overall grade distribution of our students again this is a testament to our teachers and our students and I really do want to stop here for a moment to to highlight two things one is is that through the feedback we got last year from our staff our community and our students we did make changes to our APA process this year that helped create more teacher voice in that process as well as include multiple points of data for students so we think we're only going to have a better kind of placement process moving forward next year but secondly I do think it's worth us talking about the fact that this data is a true celebration for district 1128 because as a school district we are meeting one of our goals
057of helping more students challenge themselves academically by enrolling in more rigorous courses for themselves and though we have more students than ever doing that our overall grade distributions remains nearly the same as the year before and so again this doesn't happen without an extraordinary teaching staff an extraordinary amount of work by our students and a commitment of our larger school system to support our students as they make these diagonal moves and they challenge themselves so our data is showing that we are on the right track and with continued fine-tuning of our academic interventions and staff professional learning and support We believe We will grow more successful in the future pause for slide I want to next uh highlight um an exciting committee that has been working this semester uh when we celebrate the work of
058our students and staff we wanted to verify and ensure that our academic intervention systems we were creating were having a positive impact on student outcomes and so this past fall we agreed to a joint committee with the ESP Union the teacher Union and building and District administration together to review the district 128 academic intervention model assess student learning outcomes and develop ideas and recommendations for how this model could be structured moving forward uh so the committee was composed of representatives from all of those groups we met weekly during January and February and I have to say the vibe of this committee was extremely positive and Cooperative with everyone one working together um to identify what was best for student learning and what would support staff efforts the Comm the committee concluded its work by bringing
059forward a number of ideas of how academic interventions might be improved and supported moving forward and at this time there have been no final decisions yet about what designs will be implemented because we still need to conduct our district Staffing process and we need to continue the collaborative discussions we're having with the leadership of our teacher and our ESP unions about the various nuances and design variations and the impact that those nuances would have upon their membership um but even though the committee generated several different ideas I want to highlight just kind of some of the broader themes that the committee is sort of recommending as Direction forward so at the tier one level the committee recognized uh really strong work in the and Arc and vhhs peer tutoring but saw data that indicated the
060number one need our students have for dropping support is in math and so the committee has recommended and kind of thought of ways that ESP support could be expanded to increase math support for students um at the tier one level at the tier two level the committee determined that there's a need for differentiated instruction and reteaching to students um who are struggling to demonstrate course level proficiency and as the committee reviewed different models it's suggested that the resources allocated um for the extension lab might be better utilized during the school day because all students then would be available to receive them rather than in the morning before school when some students have transportation issues or as we heard from our student panel tonight uh those early before school meetings are tough for the teenage uh
061circadian rhythms to always make um on a regular basis um therefore while the committee was exploring options one model that was designed was English and math and science departments implementing interventionist positions which would be utilized to support students and teachers in classes with the most need of support so though this is still in discussion the job of the interventionist would likely be designed to have a case load of students and to work to design differentiated lessons and to rete activities to help students reach efficiency on important course level skills and content knowledge um in addition to these interventionist positions we are also looking at how Tas can be utilized in classrooms to support student learning and the delivery of important teacher activities and we are also um the committee is also recommending the continuation of
062the executive functioning coaching positions which is an ESP position that has um demonstrated success at both buildings then finally at the tier three level the committee found that our schools pause literacy and numeracy programs were working quite well to support our students uh but there was a recommendation that if possible these interventions be designed to share space so that teachers who work in these interventions and students who need multiple interventions would not have to lose time moving back and forth across the building to get to these different interventions but it would sort of be kind of like One-Stop shopping the interventions would all be in a very similar location geographically which would make uh the efficiency of the delivery much better so at this time I want to reiterate that there is um an active
063and ongoing process where Administration is looking at all of our student and building needs and then we're working collaboratively with our teacher Union and ESP Union to develop a final plan that incorporates some of these ideas as well as others um to meet our student staff and District needs all of the final recommendations from this work will be presented to our district and our school board as part of our staffing plan that will be presented to you as a board in March and just to wrap up um for second semester and into the summer uh we look ahead these are the following actions that are being taken across the district and I'm confident with the strong collaboration continuing between Administration teachers and ESP staff as well as our continued Focus we will enter next school
064year with an mtss system and procedures that are only more effective at meeting the diverse needs of our students so thank you and unless I forgot anything else that actually ends the superintendent report thank you Tom any comments or questions from the board okay moving on now we get to the consent vote agenda uh and we didn't have anything that anyone wanted to pull out so we'll uh need a motion in a second please Carmichael move to approve the consent vote agenda hle second any questions or comments okay roll call please Carmichael hi drum key I hustle hi hotall hi B Carney hi Batson hi Benjamin hi okay motion passes we have a few other action items here we have employment of employees these are uh a few um employees hired after the committee meeting
065so we didn't get a chance to discuss them in detail but we've had this information uh for a bit of time here so U Can I have a motion to accept the employment of employees as presented Carmichael moved to approve the employee employment items is listed car dry dry second okay um any questions or comments okay roll call please drum key hi hessle hi cotwall hi K Carney hi Batson hi I Benjamin Carmichael hi okay motion passes we have a couple additional uh education tour requests interrupt you just for one second I just want to congratulate Justin Cooper who's the new uh we just uh made the new um thank you ver Hills High School athletic director so welcome um and a congratulations to Megan silverberg who is uh assuming the assistant uh principal role
066vacated by our retiring [Music] um thank you his name slipped my yeah both Megan and Justin are very excited to join the administration team and are looking forward to it and um they will be a great addition at both schools yes very excited thank you thank you for pointing that out and welcome to those okay uh a couple educational tour requests that came in after the committee meeting um uh BHS vhhs dance team and the wrestling team yeah those came in um we felt that we could sorry uh those came in we felt we could move those forward those are standard um you know uh trips that are attached to athletic teams um and so nothing um out of the ordinary there which is why it was put on the agenda okay thank you we
067have a motion please Carmichael moved to approve two educational tour requests that were received after the PMP committee meeting Benjamin second any discussion okay roll call please hustle cot wall hi Co Carney I Batson I Benjamin I carmichel I drum key I okay motion passes uh we're up to the uh 10mon and 12month administrator um contract uh anyone I have to ask a question forgive me um in just reviewing this it um the the trip to Sagal That was discussed at P&P I thought was on this agenda for approval tonight it was in the consent it was in the consent my bad yeah that's what happens So reading is a skill and that so my apologies we've got a great system it's an easy when we do it in two different places it's easy to
068m okay um so we're at the uh um administrator contracts anyone have any comments or questions or want to move anything out of this I have the um so the memo is uh posted um and that I've shared with you and we are presenting our um 10-month administrative contracts um two years ago we reviewed the structure of these 10-month administrative contracts again their contracts are annual yearly contract contct s they're based upon the teacher salary schedule and also includes a boosted um part for their administrative role uh again these 10-month contracts are one-year contracts our 12-month administrators uh last year we reviewed the structure of the salaries and the raises for our 12-month administrative um staff um due to a couple reasons number one looking at laws that were in place that we have to
069have starting salaries for a 12-month administrators but then also looking at um you know what the um their salaries are based off of comparable school districts and so um the raises for the 12-month and the new contracts um so again our 12-month administrators are on multi-year contracts so some are still under contract or might be in their second or their third year of a three-year contract um and so we're recommending their raises um for those and then we do have um contracts listed there in the memo for um some of our 12 month staff okay questions comments I'd like to separate if we can the director of equity inclusion from the from the batch okay from the B okay well we'll do that next then um anything else move to approve the 10mon and 12-month
070administrative contracts and salary increases as presented with the exception of the director of equity and inclusion carmichel sorry momentary pause want to Second Carney second okay thank you okay pause for note taking okay any other questions or comments we have a roll call please pause for roll call catwall hi Co Carney hi excuse me Batson hi Benjamin I carmichel I drum key I hessle I okay motion passes um can we have a motion to approve the U contract for the director of equity and inclusion Carmichael so moved Benjamin second okay pause for roll call Co Carney excuse me is there a discussion any comments questions discussion uh you know since I asked to have it separated I'll start my biggest concern is that um any vote will indicate some kind of a value placed on
071the work that the district is doing towards equity and inclusion and that is not my intent uh I have at the creation of this position and and I value the work that the district has done at the building level my question has always been is a district administrator the best way to implement the good work that's going on in the buildings and I have not been convinced that a that that is the best implementation so for that reason I wanted to have it separated this is in no way to say a lack of support of our policy or our goals in this area but um son Al carne I'd like to Echo what what Cara said um and that is I absolutely believe in diversity equity and inclusion every person that walks through these buildings
072has to be celebrated and we have to help them be their best self I'm not convinced that the position as designed has returned the return of investment that I was hoping in the that I was hoping and that's why I would also like to pull it out yeah and just to be clear for my perspective the reason it's still here is to give our incoming superintendent an opportunity to uh review uh the makeup of the the administrative team The District Administrative team and to allow him the opportunity to make the adjustments without us second guessing that ahead of that so there's there's plenty of activity and work to be done um and um how he chooses to potentially reorganize that is purely up to him and uh so I you know I I appreciate both
073of your comments and and how you know we we should and he should U take a look at the best what's best for the district what's best for us moving forward so well one of the oh I'm sorry no I mean I I would Echo the comments from uh Cara and sonel and this has nothing to do with the you know the values of Dei or what's going on in the political environment or anything around us I think District should always strive to make uh schools to be a safe and inclusive place for every single person so that value should this has nothing to do do with that statement I think this is just purely what's the best implementation of this position and that's the thing that we are seeing everywhere that it's not as
074much as the Dei is feeling is the implementation and how people are interpreting it so um my vote is more towards looking at this and seeing like what's the best place to do this and how we implement it Don carmichel well I agree with you that um it may not be the best implementation I don't think that it's prudent for us to pull the rug out from under our incoming superintendent while that work is going on in the building right now and it will have to continue next year and so I think that we are putting a strangle hold on the new superintendent that we are making it more difficult for the building level leadership to have to continue work that is important we have all agreed that that work is important um I think
075that it's much better to allow the super incoming superintendent the opportunity to restructure as that superintendent sees fit I also believe that this was the recommendation of our current Administration it was the recommendation of our current Administration so to not approve not the recommendation of the committee and that was one of the things that discussed together that one of the reasons that I was convinced to um implement this role is because the equity committee made up of teachers ESP and administrators came to us three years ago and asked us for this position and we did not hear that same call so that was kind of where I was I understand and the work is going to continue and the work is important and the work has been done before we had this position but to
076me that was the most most persuasive hypothetically though who would absorb this work who does it go to this role is being expanded to include uh enhanced District safety and I think our administrative team has enough going on right now and this role supports the work of so much uh supports the the so much of what we do in the district for our students so if we remove a district level administrator within this role and it goes back to the buildings who's absorbing that work how much is it going to cost who will we train to do the work these all have attached costs to them and if we don't invest another year to continue to work with this same individual that comes at a cost momentary pause anybody else Cara dry I disagree I
077hear what you're saying I disagree I feel like the work was been done had been been done at the building level we still have a equity committee and I would expect that much of that work and a more Vis uh more inclusive uh view of how the work is done so I'm I'm going to disagree that I think that we would be strapping the superintendent which is why I asked to have it separated but that's why we all have one vote so I I appreciate where you're coming from but um carara Benjamin I think our candidate or rather now our new approved superintendent has a track record that underscores his commitment to this type of work and I would like to Echo what Don is saying that by removing uh rather not approving this contract
078we are pulling the rug out of someone who we just hired who made the Assumption he was coming to our district with this team of professionals here and assembled and ready to work what that that would be a very odd thing to suddenly remove from Ben we making a decision for him yeah without he can make this decision in a year he will see what suits the district best at this time I'm I'm going to offer a slightly different perspective coming from Corporate America who where these things happen all the time where I may have a meeting on Monday that says come into the office and I may be out of a job or someone else is momentary pause when we bring in Leaders with adequate experience and we have a fantastic team of Administrators
079here I don't believe that having one position L is going to have a huge impact on anyone we've had our teams here operate fabulously with two missing administrators that were positions that were far more critical uh I think disagree with that statement we can disagree but I'm just bringing a different perspective that when we hire people with experience in leadership momentary pause roles can come and go they figure out how to make things work how how do you propose that happens how is it going to work that's not my job if I can I'm happy to elaborate but I don't think I'm a superintendent I think you should have before you suggest not approving this contract a comprehensive plan as to who's going to absorb that work in the district how are we going to
080deliver the same deliverables in I think prioritize what has Mr hell this is not a meeting where you get to talk this is a public meeting held in public it's our meeting so if you would please be quiet while we are deliberating son Al carne I think we should probably just go to vote there is we have enough agree to not disagree okay we have a vote uh roll call please Co Carney wait it's a move the motion was to approve we've already moved and seconded pause for roll call Co Carney no Batson I Benjamin I Carmichael I drum key no hi cotwall no okay thank you momentary pause moving on yeah motion passes thank you uh lost my place here we are up to uh the um Financial reports audited Financial reports Dan take
081it away yep so we have our fiscal 24 audited reports uh that's in their comprehensive uh report that has a lot of pages a lot of information um but that's there we had our Auditor in our committee meeting last meeting uh to kind of walk through a summary level um but I would say overall uh was a as a board member pointed out a pretty boring presentation and so that's what we're looking for in terms of uh no surprises uh and pretty straightforward so again noted with appreciation yeah very appreciative of our entire system that helps helps to create work like this from ordering to following all the different laws and rules and everything like that so it's extremely helpful very very high rating for the work that you and your team do and that's
082it's great we we very much appreciate that um moving on to the next item the we have to move to approve that oh we have to approve that I'm sorry hle I move to approve the fiscal year 24 annual comprehensive financial report as presented Co car second okay any further comments questions no roll call please Batson hi Benjamin hi car Michel hi drum key hi hessle hi catwall hi Co Carney hi motion passes uh we have a couple bid approvals here uh can we have a motion for the uh vhhs asphalt paving repaving I should say Carmichael moved to approve the Vernon Hills High School Asphalt repaving in the LHS concrete work by track mcneel Paving Company base bids plus Alternatives 2 3 4 and six for a total cost of 1,4 excuse me 44,000
083excuse me it's very tiny print uh 1, 44,1 second any discussion these were reviewed earlier so can we have a roll call please Benjamin hi carmichel hi drum key hi hi hustle hi cotwall hi Co Carney hi Batson hi motion passes bid approval for safety nitting at the LHS varsity baseball fields we don't any broken windows on the cars it's very timely I just drove by them today do we have a motion pleasey move to approve the replacement of the safety net netting at the LHS baseball varsity field by bear construction for a total cost of $2,785 Carmichael second any questions or comments discussion okay roll call please Carmichael I drum key I hustle i cotwall i k Carney I Batson I Benjamin I okay motion passes we have a three-year yearbook agreement um can
084we have a motion please H I move to approve a threee core and supplemental agreement with Varsity yearbooks at an annual price of $ 64,9 cents Carney second any comments any background we we did talk at the committee meeting this is the current product they just the vendor upgraded their name but it's the same vendor basically and uh ver Hills would like to continue with it so it's a three-year contract for that okay Cara dry is the supplement the new portion of this agreement or we always had that supplemental it the supplement it's always been part of it uh they just they kind of have their core which is the basics and then they have the supplemental was the extra so that's that's been part of it since I've been here pause for questions any
085other questions okay roll call please hessle hi catwall hi K Carney hi Batson hi Benjamin carmichel hi drum key hi motion passes uh next on the agenda the FY midyear financial review back to Dan uh yeah this is just um a report we do to just kind of check on how is the fiscal year progressing and so uh on the revenue side they're pretty close so I won't spend time there there's a written report you can read on the on the expenditure side there's kind of really two areas the most significant is um our outplaced students so when we estimate our budget we do it based on students that we know these are names and students of where they're going um we have had um due to a variety of reasons of students moving which
086happens uh students um uh graduating their their program or taking their diplomas and going um or students reintegrating back into our schools we've had about five or six students do that um but but the combination of those and so we um and the cost of outplaced is quite significant and so that is having an impact on our expenditures and so that's trending down by several hundred, um and then on the the other one is on the expenditure side of note I would say is our 12-month admin is trending a bit higher uh but that's full disclosure I only back in June when we approved the budget that was with one superintendent uh so we have a different number now and so that that'll that you know that's we understand what's going on there but that
087that's what we're seeing in terms of the trend data so that that's really what's happening in the mid riew otherwise everything else seems to be pretty much on track okay thank you any questions by the board appreciate that information and then similarly the fiveyear uh Financial projections Dan Stanley yeah so this normally we would have wanted to do at the committee meeting last time but we're happy to have it here um so this is a look at what what uh what is the district um uh what's the future for the district in terms of financial and so um you know really one one thing I want to kind of talk about in terms of what how this works is it really is building up each of the assumptions so we go through each of our
088Revenue sources and what is the projection for that over the next five years uh whether it's property taxes interest income other different things we look at each of those separately over the trajectory and then separately we look at our expenditures and I'll talk through that but um we look at each of those independently and then really at the end you kind of see what the product is um what you're going to see largely in my assumptions is taking our current what we currently know our current models and moving them forward so let's just be transparent we have a teacher contract being negotiated right now none of the stuff is about that information this is basically saying if the current contract was just pushed forward so all the assumptions and everything in there it just kind
089of pushes those forward so this is a what you might call on the expenditure side kind of a status quo in terms of our system of how that's working um so let me walk through um one of the one of the ways oh yeah so first of all I just want to real quick look at what what were the projections a year ago during this time and so the year ago uh the trends were showing that for FY 25 and 26 things were okay the Surplus a little bit lower than what I recommend I think we should be at more of a one million to 1.1 million in terms of an annual Surplus but then you can see kind of a quick decline there um we're going to we'll take a look at that layer
090that over what the projections show now to kind of get a sense of what's changing um but before we do that I think it's also helpful to kind of take a pause and look at the last few years and kind of see what's what's been happening so again the past we're looking at a five-year look back that's fisal years 20 to 24 uh a review of what's happening this year and then uh a projection for going forward that's fiscal year 26 through fiscal year 30 uh we're into a new decade on the top end um so when we look at just so we're on the same terms on the same page when we're call talking about the terms our Surplus is the difference between the revenues we're bringing in and the money going out uh
091when we're talking about fund balance that's that's the fund balance that's the the funds left over as a percentage of expenditures and our trends when we're talking about Revenue Trends how do revenues change over time how do expenditures change over time um so this is looking back at the last five years and then includes our budget year for this year uh so back in 20 and 21 the years that shall not be named those uh were our covid years uh and um those were those were very odd years that generated a significant Surplus really because our Revenue didn't stop but you know we when you don't transport students to school every day that's a big difference uh when you shut down for a quarter of the year uh that's a big difference ter in terms
092of your spending then in fiscal year 22 um that was our first return to normal Year and that was also the year that we decided to change how we account for our property taxes so that I would say is an artificial deficit so that that was really because of how we changed our fiscal year reporting fiscal year 23 is a 450,000 uh deficit that again I believe I would say is artificial because that was an intentional had a 2% Cola stien that we paid out to all staff to try to help offset the offset the burden of infl high inflation at that time uh and so that was approximately a million dollars that we had paid out so had you not done that it would have been higher uh and then last year 5.1 million
093that was a little surprising when we did our midyear review last year we were trending closer to 3.1 3.2 and then at the end of the fiscal year we were looking at 3.1 that's kind of what I was expecting to see so when I saw the 5.1 that surprised me when I looked at the details it's really I think two things were happening one is when I'm reporting to you on our revenues and everything like that that's actual cash receipts coming in so that's our interest income that we're actually receiving when we get to the full acrel so like the report that was approved tonight that in that that those numbers are all full of cruel and so one of the differences is our interest income is reported based on fair market value momentary pause
094we don't receive the funds based on fair market value and we hold them to mature so um so that was a difference so basically it's saying our our our investments were more valuable than the money that was coming in based on fair market value um that's also so that was a little bit different um the second part would be capital capital outlay um I always try to put a caveat when we're talking about our Capital spending because the timing of when those projects happen and when the payments happen can vary significantly this is an ex example of when they varied so when you take into account the full acrel of what was the work done by June 30th when they took those acrs that's what also drove that up um so it'll be interesting to
095see kind of what uh what the impact is then to fiscal year 25 after that um so that's 5.1 million for last year this year our budget was 800 870,000 as an operating Surplus uh but I just in the previous report I kind of told you where we're trending we're trending closer to 2.2 million uh is the trend right now for that so that's the past now also looking at our enrollment we have been in a period of declining enrollment for the last several years it does appear that we'll we'll be declining on average a little bit over the next couple years uh but then we'll look to recover a bit in the future too um so that's just some data points big picture data points again there's a written report with more information so
096when we're talking about Revenue assumptions let's talk about where do we get our revenues from uh the vast majority of our revenues from property taxes you're talking 89% of our revenues coming from property taxes 1% uh Federal 2% or call it 4% from the state uh and things like that so uh the biggest driver key driver in the project in the math is what is your CPI assumption so we know the CPI for 2024 and 2025 those have been released but what we don't know is what are the cpis going forward and so uh I make an educated guess based on the historical Trends but one thing that is important is whatever the CPI assumption is affects our salaries because a lot of them are tied to CPI and so whatever assumption you use so
097you could use 3% in the future or you could use 2% that would have a corresponding change to the salary assumptions uh there so that's what you see I have projected there um cbpr is uh it's a Lo it's technically a it's a local Revenue but we get it from the state which is weird to say um it has been very volatile so we used to get call it $900,000 a year and then it jumped to two and a half million and then it went to three million and that was extremely surprising and the question was is that going to continue what we saw last year is that it dropped to um two million and then this year it's projected to be closer to probably either 1.3 or 1.5 so it does seem like we're
098trending further down so my assumption there's 1.3 going forward but we really don't know um I highly doubt it's going to go back up the question is how much further down is it going to go interest income also has been very very volatile over the last uh several years largely due to we're really tied to whatever the FED rates are and the short-term interest rates that's where a lot of our um interest income is generated from um and so I'm we have seen rates start to come down uh if you're pay paying attention in the news you've seen some rates come down over the last couple months and so I'm the question is is that going to continue are rates going to keep going down are they going to stay the flat or are they
099going to go back up we don't really know and so I'm assuming we're going to have kind of a slow steady decline over the next couple years here uh so that's an important assumption on the revenue side on the expenditure side um we the most important driver is your staff um so when you to look at salaries and benefits 71% of our budget is on the people that are that are here and so what is really important to know is how many people are going to be here and what are you going to pay them really so for these projections I'm showing no FTE changes now that's not saying that's what's going to happen again this is meant to be a base scenario to show you kind of a status quo with our current structures
100going forward uh so I don't have any FTE changes in there other if there were ones that I knew for sure that were about or something like that I would them in there but right now that's showing that's flat so that you can know that that's what the final result includes this assumption and that's a very key assumption the next one is what are the raises these are these are the raises that are currently tied to our CPI numbers and so that that's really just the simple math this is not me uh telling what anything is happening in the future this is just what the corresponding raises mathematically happening with those CPI assumptions uh another thing is uh our probably third largest item next to um salaries is our medical insurance we have been in
101experiencing a a very difficult uh last few years in terms of our premium increases and so uh that's uh been very difficult for us to absorb as a system and so the question is what's going to continue uh the nice thing is that our preliminary rals for next year seem lower so I've got 4% in there right now uh but we'll get our finals in the next couple months here uh but after that our our long-term Trend really is at about 8% uh for insurance and so the question is you know what's going to happen there but you can see what my assumptions are for that pause for slide then in terms of other things uh we have other things that happen that are uh fairly material one is Lane changes so we have you
102know teachers that move over they get more education they move over in the lane that change uh has a cost and so I I look at a kind of a trend based on that so Lane change is at 180,000 retiree Replacements we have a lot of retirees over the next several years that we've accounted for uh those people leaving and an estimate for people being replaced um postretirement benefits uh what our assumption is for new hires based on our historical information and then 43b contributions I'm assuming that's flat again that's what our current model is projecting that forward the stuff that's non salary and benefits so for Education fund based on the trends that we're seeing 2 to 3% growth is what I'm anticipating operations and maintenance has been a little bit higher because our
103energy costs have been a little bit higher so operations of Maintenance um has like a lot of the buildings and electricity uh and natural gas things like that transportation is five to six because that is our renewal for the last for last year was 6% our Ral for next year which was already approved a year ago is 6% next year uh and so and then after that we've historically been around twice what CPI is uh for our renewals lately and so that's what I'm projecting going forward capital projects includes the the finishing of the LHS cafeteria and then our Tor fund which is our um property casualty workers comp insurance that has been increasing pretty rapidly uh the last few years have been 10% and so I've got projected 9% going forward it's the dollar
104amount is still relatively small uh but it is something that is growing um fairly fast so what are the results again we're going to look at Surplus what is the operating Surplus the difference between our revenues and expenditures what's going to happen to our fund balance and what's happening with the trends so here are the results the formatting is a little bit different than the prior year but um these are the these are the results and really if you look they're not actually that much different than what they were a year ago what I say would what I would say is changes that fiscal 29 had an an improvement significant Improvement and what that was is um we have 18 teachers retiring in 28 so they would be then be replaced in 29 when we
105did this a year ago I didn't know those teachers and and even now in fiscal 20 in fiscal 30 I know it won't be that because between now and May 1 we're going to have a group of teachers tell us that they intend to retire in 2029 so on once I know who those are then will be able to plug it in so I don't think 2030 and I've hopefully have always said this I'm not worried about 5 years from now what I'm worried about is the overall trend of where this is heading um and yeah but other than that the numbers are fairly similar to what we've seen and so we're just now a year closer to all of that happening so um what what happens in terms of our fund balance well if
106we take into account our our LHS cafeteria project our projected fund balance based on those assumptions we're going to start to below that 25% come fiscal year 27 and so the fund balance percentage is if you think about it how much cash do you have in the bank you know 25% is basically saying do I have three months uh three months of spending in the bank is really the idea and that's that's a measure of Financial Health and so if that's declining and our board policy is at 25% that's something that we'll have to watch as well pause for slide in terms of trends like why do those things happen on a year-to-year basis what it means is your your change in revenues is not keeping Pace with your change in expenditures so there's very
107very little the board has control of in terms of your your revenues you decide your tax levy you decide your student fees but pretty much everything else other than investment income you have some flexibility there but otherwise you're kind of given what you're given there's not much choice you have so uh the control you have is on your expenditure side so when you look at the trends if you look at revenues for the next 3 years 3.1 3% % 1.9 next year if it's at 3.2 that's slightly outpacing now it's at 3.4 that's even more outpacing and then 3.2 continues to outpace so the long-term outpacing of the growth of expenditures versus your growth and revenues that's what causes this and so um at that point you really have um a few options you either
108try to get more revenue or you try to slow down you try to increase the rate of Revenue increases that you're going to get or you try to slow down the rate of increase on the expenditure side so in terms of recommendations from my perspective um from the financial perspective these are the exact same as last year um we need to try to slow down the increases where it's controllable so that's talking about your Staffing that's talking about your department budgets um be cautious of adding annual operating costs so one-time costs are different when you're talking about something that you're going to spend every year you need to be cautious of that because you're running out of the ability to just add more things and not take something else away the math is just not
109going to work uh and the third one is to look at systemic changes so if there are things that you can have in terms of your structures so I've seen you the I've shown you the results of our structures I believe um are not sustainable in terms of keeping our Surplus at a certain level keeping our fund balance at a healthy level the trend is in the wrong direction I would love to show you that the trend is in the right direction but I'm trying to be as faithful I can to the process and the and the and the projections um so that's the information that I have on the projections I again I would say it's very very similar to what was last year so there's not a major change in terms of where
110our trajectory is um so with that I just want to say thank you and then there's a red Report with a lot more information in there as well yeah thank you Dan it's um it's very helpful to see that that 5year projection so that we can know what's what's potential in the future and start addressing it sooner than later otherwise we wait too long and of course things have a much more significant impact so uh we appreciate that it seems like we've had this track record of being able to figure it out to keep on a on a a even Keel for so many years but at some point in time there may be some additional changes that have to take place so we'll uh continue to consider those and appreciate your information I have
111kind of one question I mean I will not be here when you answer this but I hope that when you when you present your next year's budget and going forward really identify tangible changes that the new board can start making so your deficit in the future starts to come down at least try be a zero if not plus uh and as you said there is and I've I've used your phrase very generously at work it's the forever money versus the onetime money and the forever money really needs to start shrinking if you don't want to get in trouble later so I hope that I'll be watching online and hope you'll have those recommendations other comments Dan would you mind just going back to the budgeted Revenue Source pie chart and would you mind just briefly
112going over those categories starting with the federal uh Federal is 1% um so if you're doing the meth that's roughly 1.6 million uh evidence-based funding is about 2.1 million other state is about the same other local um well cprt is kind of a million and a half other local is probably closer to 3 million and then you're talking the rest of the bulk is property taxes um 90 million plus for sure the exact number I couldn't tell you off the top that's okay thank you other questions comments okay thank you again Dan moving on um just general board comments and events uh so I had just a super brief update um we are participating in a social media media litigation um along with a thousand other districts across the country it's a federal suit um
113and this webinar last week was an update led by William shinoff of the France law law group in California where the suit was filed in federal court um just as a very brief reminder in June 2023 the board adopted a resolution to participate at no cost to The District in a multi-district suit against social media companies for the harm they knowingly caused children the suit was filed in Federal and state courts seeking both monetary damages and more importantly changes to their practices um as I mentioned there are over a thousand districts participating in the suit nationally now including 75 here in Illinois we will only participate in paying legal fees if we accept a monetary settlement and it will be our decision whether or not to accept a monetary settlement um if we get to
114that point um the defendant's motion to dismiss has been rejected um the uh lawyers are wrapping up Discovery this month and towards the end of this summer the first trial dates will be set um pff's Council our Council has been deposing up the chain of command at meta snap Tik Tok and YouTube and will depose their CEOs beginning in May of this year during the 25 26 school year we'll continue to see the closing of Discovery and setting of trial dates so in terms of next steps our district may be contacted by franic who is the local Council to provide two additional pieces of data um we should be hearing from them this week if that's necessary and they sounded to be very general pieces of information that will not be a heavy lift for
115our administrators I'm looking at you Bryant um and then there's a possibility of a doc you sign to move our case from state to federal court I don't think we were one of the districts that was filed in state court but if we were they're just going to need a docus sign to move us to the federal action um and that is the update on our social media location okay thank you anyone else have any Jim Batson I'll just make a couple quick things I I did attend a webinar that I think will be um at least helpful to me it relates to onboarding of new school board members I was um put on by the Illinois Association of school boards so that was an interesting webinar and gave some uh some ideas for interacting
116with those new board members um I attended a a Tech conference last educational Tech conference idea con um uh just a this earlier this week or last week I guess Wednesday of last week always interesting to see what uh new and different things are are being done in the world of technology and education so um moving on iasb report I'll remind folks that if they want to attend and haven't signed up already the Lakes division meeting comes up on the 12th of March uh if you'd like to attend that and haven't done so yet let Carol know she can sign you up for that and I'll probably have some more information next month uh prior to my attending the national Schoolboard conference later in March so um and nothing from seedall uh we have some
117future agenda items listed there in the uh in the board docs um as always if you have additional things you'd like to address at one of these meetings uh let us know and if there's nothing else we have a motion to adjourn Tom Keo moved car Michael second roll call please I just say Voice vote oh Voice vote all in favor I any opposed I know you're going to us not yet thank you all for attending Fade to District 128 logo end of meeting