001Mhm. >> Would you mind calling the roll, please? >> Of course. Cara Caston? >> Here. >> Katie Courtney? >> Here. >> Ken Dawson? >> Here. >> [clears throat] >> Here. >> April Finan? >> Here. >> Dan Runner? >> Here. >> And Romina Papavero Gonzalez? >> Here. >> Thank you very much. >> I have a quorum. Let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, first item on the agenda [clears throat] is the approval of minutes. Can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the minutes of the February 23rd, 2026 monthly business meeting, the February 23rd, 2026 closed meeting, the
002March 2nd, 2026 workshop meeting, and the March 2nd, 2026 closed meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I move April 2nd. >> Thank you. Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> April Finan. >> Aye. >> Kira Caston. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> Aye. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Item number four, reception of visitors. Julia, do we have any slips? >> No. >> Okay. Item [clears throat] number five, I'll turn it over to Hank Lewis. >> All right. Uh first one is Travis. This is an action item this evening. [clears throat] Re-visiting 10-year safety survey report. >> Good evening. I just wanted uh just remind you we've just been through this with several uh different amendments that we did. So, when we did the the two amendments for our paving
003and for our energy conservation, it's a very similar process, right? Where we're submitting uh an amendment through I was to the uh ROE that then they look at it. They'll either approve it or not uh after working through the the different information that has been submitted uh from White. So, um this is in line with our 10-year life safety survey. So, if you remember, we talked about this uh couple meetings ago, I believe. Um so, the snow load has changed, so we need some extra work that wasn't initially identified in our 10-year survey. So, we are filing this amendment because we have enough funds in fund 90. So, if you remember, when we did the energy conservation and the paving, we had submitted in our um two projects, one here for solar and one at
004T 99 for solar uh that was not approved. So those funds, if you will, are still in fund 90 that are available. So if you can go to the next slide, please. So things that we need to do um tonight asking the board to approve the the report that is in there and I know it can be a little bit confusing cuz it says 10-year right? That is every time you do an amendment, that's the name of the report. So then what we'll do once we get that submitted, if it's approved, we'll just have to make sure and file paperwork to show that we got the work done with White's approval and we can check that that off. Go to the next slide, please. So our next steps again, as I talked about, approve that
005application tonight and then White [snorts] and Company will submit our survey, the report in IWS and then we'll receive a final determination as to whether we can do that use those funds or not. Again, just want to reiterate new from the inspections that we did with our 10-year survey and it is something that we have in fund 90. We've already looked over all of that and made sure that that would be the that would be the case. So part of that the other information that's not in here that is related to this work is also the bids that came in. So that is another action item tonight. That total bid package, again, that was for structural steel and demolition, which if you remember, that was not bid on out of all of our bid packages,
006those [clears throat] two were not. So White and Company solicited bids from 55 qualified contractors and what came back as a result of that is just under $569,000 to get the work needed work done for that and part of that is the work that is related to this. >> Any questions on any of those? All right. So, when we get to actions tonight, you'll have the approval of the amendments of the life safety report and the bids that Travis outlined that are the contracts for that life safety one. All right. Moving on to the next part. This is always at this time of the year, the staffing curriculum overview. >> [cough and clears throat] >> I'll turn this over to Jeff, who's going to lead the parade for you this evening. >> Here you go.
007Parade extravaganza, however you want to refer to it, but yes, so we have our 26-27 staffing curriculum overview. >> [clears throat] >> Uh we have a few sections here. First, just to chat a little bit about the overall picture for next year. So, after many, many hours of sectioning, a lot of work by the two gentlemen to my right here I'll I will be introducing in a little bit. We have seen our overall sectioning FTE for next year is at 307.1, which for our sectioning FTE is a slight decrease from previous years. Although when you look at our non-sectioning FTE or what we sometimes refer to as below the line, that has gone up for this coming school year. So, overall in terms of our total FTE we're at an increase of into next year
008of 1.6 staff in terms of total positions and people that we would need to bring in. In terms of a cost though, it is offset a little bit cuz some of those numbers are coming up because of students that we are bringing back from out placements and from other districts sending us students for transition 99, which we will be um gaining some tuition payments for that. So, we actually will be seeing a reduction in our staffing cost relative even though this number is going up slightly for next year. Um so, to give you some of the um details, you all had a copy of the spreadsheet with all of the numbers and how those are broken down. The yellow areas highlight uh that there was some type of change in that particular cell from last
009year. So, whether it was an increase or a decrease, uh that's how all those things come together. And so, for the next part here to get you some more details and in the weeds a little bit information on how some of these decisions were made. So, again, uh section FTE is based on student request, enrollment, all those things. Sub-section FTE is not tied to the student request. Those are more of our support type of positions, social work, psychologist, etc., etc. Um one of the highlights as well is uh we did add a multilingual coordinator. Uh we're proposing that for next year, I should say, for your approval, which will help us coordinate some of our EL efforts and bilingual support throughout the district. So, uh without further ado, to get into some more of those
010details, I will turn it over to you, Keith Palles, Jake Giblin, and Gina Secardy to uh give you a little more detail on our how all those pieces came together for our FTE. >> Okay. Thanks. So, as uh Jeff stated, this is literally hundreds of hours collectively put in looking at student requests, our staffing needs, and coming together to provide students with as many opportunities as possible for courses next year. And um the documents that I shared um are really just a snapshot. At this point, it's a snapshot because things will evolve over time. Um and they'll evolve in a variety of different ways. So, for example, in the memo that I provided, I stated that there were eight courses that we uh are planning to cancel. That actually has already been reduced to seven
011through creative uh what we call stacking, when we take like different courses or levels of courses and put them together, same period, same teacher. And so, even though we're bringing this information to you now, even beyond today, Jake and Keith are fantastic at looking at new and creative ways to meet the needs of all of our students. This is one of the years, at least in that I've been involved in Well, I've been involved in this for a while. Um that we have fewer classes that we're moving for cancellation. On the other hand, we have more classes with under 20 that um we would like to run next year. And whenever we have a standard course And when I say standard, I mean there are some courses that we don't list on the under 20
012list because enrollment in the course is expected to be less than 20. For example, a special education course or an EL course or an intervention course. Those we do not list. There would be a lot of courses listed if we were to do that because the expectation, and sometimes by law, is for under 20 students in in a course. The ones that we list are what I would call our standard general education courses, and you'll notice we have more listed than in previous years. Um there's a variety of different reasons for that. Um part of it is that we we have a lot of really exciting courses, elective courses, for our students. And while that's fantastic, it sometimes can lead students to going in a variety of different directions. So, while, as you know from
013the memo, we have 43 courses, many of them are capstone courses, what we would consider capstone courses. Many of them are AP. So, for example, whether it's an AP course stacked with other courses or a standalone, uh 10 of those courses are AP, six of them are dual credit, three are Project Lead the Way, and 19 are capstone courses. And so, when we look at what courses we'd like to run with under 20, we oftentimes look >> [clears throat] >> not just at the numbers, but also the courses in terms of the pathway of courses, where they fit within the pathway, and how those courses impact students in their learning. For example, especially in world languages, where there might be a sequence of courses. So again, there may be some changes that occur. And not
014just because of creative scheduling, but if some courses are canceled or students can't get into a particular course, they might pick a different different elective. So that also can increase and make changes along the way. Any questions on my part? >> Um if AP Art History had a zero enrollment in 2025-26, why is that a cancellation? >> So AP Art History has one request for this year. So we're canceling it. >> I'm sorry, I'm talking about it at North right now. >> At North. So we put zero in whether it ran with a number or not. >> [clears throat] >> So if the course did not run, then it's automatically zero there. Usually those >> you offered it last year is what you're saying? >> We offered students to enroll in it. But if it
015was under 20 and we opted to cancel it, that number would be a zero. And AP Art History is one of the courses and and even with music theory, although not always at North with music theory, I know that. Um is one of those courses where we have talked about doing even alternate years, where we would plan to run, for example, in even years or odd years, so that students could plan when they make their four-year plans, they would know when to plan to take those courses. >> those courses this upcoming year in 2027-28, you're likely going to offer them is what you're saying? >> We Typically we have opened those courses every year for students to sign up or register to take. Um but we have had conversations not just with our fine arts
016department chairs, but in some other areas as well, about offering things every other year, so so students could plan better. Um because we hate to cancel courses when there students who want to take those courses. Particularly when those students are rising seniors. Any questions? Okay. I don't know which one I'm turning it over to first. Keith or Jake, who would like to >> Oh, I guess I'm first. >> [laughter] >> Hi everyone. Uh >> [clears throat] >> I'm Jake I'm one of the associate principal of curriculum at South High. Um I'm just going to kind of give you some highlights from what we saw in our scheduling. One of the things that came up on the South side is we we have a projected loss of about 150 students going into next year um relative
017to what we've had previously. Um and so that definitely had some impact in particular on uh things like global connections, [clears throat] English one, uh your first year courses in your core departments in particular um had some effects there. But what we also saw is where uh regardless of the drop in students, where students are being drawn. Um we're very excited. Keith's going to speak about this too. We've got our first AP course that's offered for freshman uh starting in our CT department, AP business and personal finance. We have three sections of that running next year. We're very excited about that kind of start for that class. Um our fine arts department keeps growing. Um we despite having drops in numbers, we're we're adding uh eight more sections to our our fine arts department. Five
018in music um two in theater, one in visual arts. Um AP music theory is running for the first time in a few years on our side of town. So we're very excited about that. Um in PE in particular, we we've got our first year of EL health, which was uh a need that we saw um because we were running a health 200 program, which was servicing two groups, but not as well as we think we could have. It was servicing students with IEPs and EL students. And what we've done is separated it so that the students with IEPs will go into co-taught health 300 classes. And now our EL students will be serviced more directly within an EL health class. We're going to run two sections of that next year, and we think we're going
019to do a great job with it. Um our science department continues to see the PLTW courses, the Project Lead the Way courses are still drawing students in. We we did not see a reduction in those at all, even with the drop in the number of students. Kids are loving them, and the teachers are doing a great job bringing kids in. Our AP psychology, which this year went to a full-year psychology course, went up from four to six sections next year. Um and we're incredibly excited about that. You're taking a semester to a full year, and we're still growing it. The kids are really enjoying that. Um and you know, one of the biggest switches we had was kind of in our world language and our EL population. [clears throat and cough] Some of that is
020from the fact that our teachers are doing a great job. We've got a lot more level three and level four EL students, which is opening the doors for them to take TCD, which is great because it allows them to take advantage of courses that that previously might not have had an an opportunity to do. But that also means that they're leaving the building for some of the time, so that reduces some of the need for them in the building. Um and and last, I would just really like to highlight and brag about the strength of our staff. Our staff has a lot of flexibility and diversity in what they can do. We've got teachers who are certified to teach in multiple areas. We've got teachers who are certified in English and music, in math and
021science, in math and art. We've got social studies and EL. We've got it across the board. And what that does, our ability to bring in those high-quality staff members who are able to teach in multiple departments gives us the ability to not only uh teach great things within their core content area, but it allows us to keep really good people in the building when we need flexibility within our schedule. And this is one of those years where we had it. And I we're just really proud to be able to have those types of people working for us in this district and with our children and and teaching them on a regular basis. And uh that That's uh That's my highlights for right now. Any questions for me? Good job, Jake. >> Thank you. Uh my
022name's Keith Pells. I'm the um associate principal for curriculum instruction at North High. Uh so Jake is my counterpart at South. Um I I would uh I'll just very similar highlights. So our AP business and personal finance also going to be uh kicking off with three sections just as it as it will at South. That's That's awesome. Another highlight in the business realm would be uh we're going to be able to offer managerial accounting honors for the first time as a stand-alone course. We've been We've been stacking it or running it um with other courses in the past to to serve those students, but we're able to uh with the popularity of that move forward um with one section of that. Uh I also want to highlight, and it is on the under 20 list,
023the accelerator um uh course as well. So that's the the year after the incubator um course. The There is a uh lower number of students taking that class, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that it the students in there represent nine different businesses that they're moving forward with. So and um that's just really really cool to to hear um that that's happening within our building. Um uh in English, um one of the things that we've uh, been really working towards actually post COVID is our radio and TV program and our our enrollment in those is up as well. So, our radio uh, program this year saw an increase of 40% in requests and our TV saw an increase of 50% in requests. So, that's really cool to see that that's coming back.
024Our fine arts numbers at um, North are [clears throat] also up uh, particularly in the in the vocal classes. So, we're going from 96 requests last year to 167 going into next year. Um, our vocal team has been going out in the community and trying to bring um, younger kids in to see what it's like. Um, they've been singing they sing at one of the football games with the other kids. Like really trying to get them involved and uh, to I'll tell you that they're having some success. So, they should really be celebrated in in all that they're doing there. Um, let's see. In math, uh, I'd love to highlight that our we're for the first time next year we're going to be able to offer four different levels of math with an EL and
025math certified teacher in in the the room. Um, and that is the one teacher is certified in both mathematics and and EL. So, that is fantastic. So, um, four levels of that. Um, we've been working I know I I think every year I've been with you I've been kind of highlighting how our growth has been in our EL um, support for students and this is a real highlight uh, that we're proud of and to be able to offer that going into next year. Um, let's see. In science, we've just seen some shifts um, moving around. I think the big highlight there is going to be AP chemistry. Requests are way up in AP chemistry as well um, moving into next year. Um, in social studies, I know last year we went to AP psych being
026a full year class and we were wondering how that was going to work out. So, I'm happy to report that we're going to continue with four sections going into next year. So, that um, moving to a full year course uh, didn't have any negative impact. In fact, I would say it had a positive impact on on the kids and and how they're able to take that class. Um in French, uh we're continuing to see some slight movement around, especially in in German. Um I think I said French, I meant world languages. In world languages, uh we're seeing some moving around in in French and in and in German. I would like to highlight um specifically the French teachers this year have done some fantastic things with the French club and getting those students together to
027really try and um keep kids in the program and moving forward. So, they've done some some really awesome work there and have some good uh stories to tell about the extracurriculars and the co-curriculars they've been doing there. So, that's >> So, when can I just ask when you say you see movement, you mean decline in French and German? >> we we So, our German seems to be a little bit steady coming from last year this year, but our French has declined about 3%. Okay. Yeah. And that's we've been seeing that trend the last couple of years. >> Do you see kids moving into other languages or do you see kids moving out of language? >> See them moving into other languages. No, yeah. >> [clears throat] >> On the north side of town, are your
028teachers also multi-disciplined and able to teach in a variety of areas? >> Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I I think I would go back to my highlight about the EL certification there as well. That was big for our [cough] >> [clears throat] >> pushes over the last couple of years is when we're looking to fill a position that we're also looking for that EL certification to come in as well. We have some We have teachers that are in between between special education and mathematics um I'm trying to think of some specifics now that I'm on the spot. Um math and science um as well. So, yes. Yeah. >> Oh, great. Great. On both sides of town, it looks like there's a been a drop in avid participation. Can you guys speak to that? >>
029Yeah, the the biggest drop we had was coming from last year's freshman or our current year's freshman class, which was one of the bigger ones we had in a while. Um we had 31 last year. This year, I think we're at Let me Let me pull it up real quick. Um Um we're 16. So, we're when we did the interviews, and it's one of the things we'll be talking with our our avid coordinators and teachers about are ways to bring more kids in, but when they did that initial interviewing, they just the that process to bring students in did not have as many students as it had in the past. Um one of the things we need to look at is what what are the kind of uh cutoffs that we are establishing, and do
030we need to rethink how we're recruiting for that program? Um what typically has happened I'll speak to our side is that there is some attrition from that first year to senior year in general. Um and there's not often a lot of replacement in the middle of the year. It doesn't mean some students as sophomores couldn't potentially go in, but it doesn't happen that often. And then when we had that precipitous drop from that freshman year overall, um it it had a a big impact on the total numbers. Um but it is something we are talking about and we'll be talking about just trying to to see if we need to rethink what it means to to be in that program and and how we can keep it strong. >> Yeah, it's such a successful program.
031>> [clears throat] >> Really impacts those kids. Hate to see the numbers dropping. >> No, 100% we're in agreement with you. >> It is a topic we had a discussion and focus when we were doing sectioning, and we're definitely keeping a close eye on it for future years. But I'm glad that on both the north and the south side of town, even though the requests are below that 20 cutoff, we're moving forward with offering that program. I just it's something important. >> Oh, yes. And you know, we're we're excited. I just I just had the student come and find me in the middle of a meeting cuz they they have to hand deliver the invitation for the senior banquet, which is just one of the the best events of the year. And I'm looking forward
032to that coming up. And it is, they put so much effort and go through so much to get to that point and it really builds really strong strong character kids and students who are going to be successful when they leave here. We do want to keep it strong. >> You said you're down 150 students next year? >> About. >> Overall? >> Yeah. >> Does that Does that have any like measurable reduction in overall class size on an average basis? Is that number going to make a significant difference >> Well, I can tell you that if you look at our class size numbers right now that are projected, they are pretty low relative to some of the ones we had last year, but it it depends on the class, right? >> So, like it some of
033that is when you when you sit and you've got your let's say it's 57 kids who sign up for the class and you've got a divisor for 28, so now you get 2.1 sections. Okay, well, if you run three sections, you're going to have really low numbers. It some of that comes out with the divisors and how that plays out. >> Okay. >> Some of it though from the freshman level, we have set lower seat counts on some of our incoming freshman classes to try to help some of those out for the students first coming in. So. >> Okay. >> What do our transfer numbers look like? They do Is that taken into consideration as we're looking at this decline of the 150? Just in what do we see for kids coming in >> I
034have to get you to >> year to year at the different high schools. >> Um if you give me a second, I can >> While he looks for that, we do we do factor that in from year to year keep [clears throat] seats available for classes that students typically transfer into as they come in at each grade level, especially in the ninth grade level, but it's still it is it is a lot of chance. I think this year at at North High you had a a bunch of move-ins into what was it AP biology? >> Yeah, so I can I can give you a We've been doing that at North as we'll take a look at we'll take a look at a department overall and I'll sit with the department chair and we'll go through
035projecting the number of sections for a particular class and if the numbers aren't like a simple like oh it go this way or that way, what we've done as we'll we'll take a look at what we sectioned at last year. So I'll go into last year's document and then I'll pull up the actual roster for the class right now and we'll look in real time as to where we sectioned and where we are to help inform us on what direction that we should advocate for the building on. So we might have a class that that has had six or seven requests or transfers in for that for a level change going one way or the other. So we just try to use that to inform how we're trying to advocate for the building. And then
036really for for me at least it's on a section by section basis to see and to inform it. >> Okay. >> Yeah, the the biggest change we had in all honesty this year was in the number of EL students transferring into South. Um, we used to count on that if we started a class with three or four in particular in our newcomer and level one sections, we could be eight to 10 easily by the the middle of the year and sometimes higher. We stayed flat. There was no movement at all. Overall in terms of transfers the last five years, it nets out that we're we lose eight students a year over the last 5 years. Yeah, but ours, right? We get a certain number that transfer in and then we get a certain number that
037transfers out and it's been netting at about eight less per just from the transfer numbers, right? So, we'll get a decent influx um in August and we'll get a good outflow in May. And so, those numbers tend to even out and so, when when I'm when we're looking at from the time we sit at the table, so from March to August, so we've set our numbers and then who knows what happens from there. We pretty much are a wash at South in terms of the number of kids that leave and come in from the time we section. So, we don't have a lot of a lot of movement that tells us if we section it here, we better make sure that we have a certain amount of space um because we're kind of evening out
038throughout the process. >> We actually had one class that was exactly that, that the chair had been obscene what the the level levels down were, but hadn't seen what was going in the class and it actually turned into a plus one over the course of the of the year, but they'd only seen seen half of the Yeah. >> Thank you. >> But in sections where we typically see move-ins, [clears throat] we make sure that there's enough space >> Yeah. >> for for that. Or enough elective options or those kinds of things, so so that we have seats for students that show up. So. >> Okay, and before I move on, I just want to again recognize, you know, the work that Jake and Keith are doing and I forgot to mention earlier like our department
039chairs who have a a big input a lot of input in how these things break down. They mentioned the flexibility that our staff have. I've been really impressed over the last couple of years seeing how many staff of our staff have gone or are seeking to get their EL endorsements, which has been uh know, over the last several years an area of growing need for us for us, so that's really great to see. Um and just the work of everybody around the table who come together for this process and like I said, the people who do the work outside of it cuz um you know, it's a lot of very difficult conversations at the table in terms of make sure that we're providing our students with the opportunities that we have that we can for
040them that we can provide for them that we are being fiscally responsible to the district and taking into account the human factor of all of those things. So, thankfully we're having a much more typical conversation around this than other communities are right now, so I feel very grateful [clears throat] for that and for all the people involved in that process who make, you know, do this with a lot of intentionality and care. So, I just want to make sure I emphasize that. Um and speaking of intentionality and care, I'm going to pass it on to you, Scott Wolkaiser, to tell us a little bit more about C111S and special student services. >> All right, thank you. Um so, for um instructional FTE at North High, we're seeing a decrease in 0.1, which is just coming
041from a co-taught class shifting this year. Um at South instructional, we have a 0.2 increase. Um we're bringing back a block section of the Read 180, so we're excited about that to provide that intervention and programming. Um and then South also has an increase in speech therapy needs. Um so, we're increasing our FTE there. Um T99 is obviously our biggest one where we're seeing the increase of students um from this year to next year. Um if you recall a few years back, we've increased our multi-needs programming at both of the buildings. Um and so, that's obviously um moving students to T99. Um we also are taking students from like, I think Jeff mentioned and Hanks mentioned before, um out-placed students that weren't in the high school 9th through 12th grade, but um coming back to
042us from out-placements. And then we're also supporting other school districts um and having students attend T99. So, we have a a big increase next year. Um so, the breakdown of that 4.4 is the 3.6 FTE for instructional, uh 0.4 for vocational coordinator, and then the 0.4 psychologist. And then with C triple S, we have no changes for this coming school year. I don't know if you have any questions about that. >> What other districts [clears throat] are we getting students from? >> Yeah, just from the surrounding area actually. We >> [clears throat] >> Carolina going back has had some connections. So they're just the local districts near us. So that are numbers just keep increasing. We started out years ago having maybe one or two districts. And now we're having I think we're at four
043districts. >> All right, any other questions for Scott? >> All right, I'm back. So just to kind of round out the rest of the paperwork from your packet around staffing for this year. And those are all those things listed up there. So first of all, we do have our release of non-tenured teachers. And those typically So we have the honorable dismissals. Those are if you looked at the packet, those are all part-time staff. And what happens there is that's usually all those situations there's a shift in the FTE. So because the FTE has changed, we then need to honorably dismiss them because the FTE they currently have is not necessarily available or in the same amount. So many of those staff are going to be offered different part-time FTE going next year. They'll return to
044us. Some of them are applying for full-time positions that have developed as all these things have shaken out sectioning. So that's what those folks are on that list for. Then we do have the other ones that are the non-renewals. There's two of those. One is a leave of absence. That is a different situation. They're just here to cover somebody. And sometimes as in the case this year, sometimes we have one that isn't exactly the best fit. And you know, we move forward and and as we do. Then the terms of the other things you have there, obviously from the consent agenda and our personal report are all the renewals for next year. And so, what I want to point out there is you have everything from second year to fifth year renewals. And so, obviously
045those are all people moving into their second or fifth year with the district. Um, this is the last year you'll see a fifth year renewal cuz this is the last year for the people on the old tenure track before the law changed. So, some people are just wrapping up their fourth year as a non-tenure teacher and are being recommended for renewal for next year, so they'll start next year as tenure teachers in District 99. Uh, there are some people who are being recommended for fourth year. They may have been on the three-year track, um, and they're being recommended for renewal. Um, some of those people who are being recommended for their fourth year might be on the old Now, I guess they wouldn't be on the old track cuz they might have had a three
046excellents which would have made them the, uh, uh, portable not portable but accelerated tenure. But, so this is the last year we got to kind of walk in both camps there, which I'm looking forward to and is and Wendy is too. She's keeping track of who's on which system. So, starting next year everyone who's being recommended for tenure will be from the new three-year model which allows them to attain it after their third year, um, or as early as two years if they have, uh, two excellents with what's I mentioned earlier as accelerated tenure. So, those are all of the things that are before you for your approval this evening. Um, are there any other general questions about staffing, uh, whatsoever? All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Jeff. Uh, before we move
047on, I just want to point out a a couple of things. First of all, thank you to the whole team that pulls this together. As we opened with, it is hundreds and hundreds of hours. It's days and days of meetings. It starts with our teachers working with our students on recommendations and requests and builds all the way up to today. So, it is the entire school community that leads this. This is the parents involved talking to their their kids about what classes to take. This is a huge effort, uh, at our schools. Secondly, I just want to point out that But work that the board has done throughout the year and previous years to have a strong fiscal position in the district has led us to a point where we have this opportunity to run
048just a whole list of courses of under 20 students and giving kids opportunities to experience things that could change their futures because they had the opportunity to engage in that content with a staff member that might just ignite a passion that changes their pathway leading forward. Other districts are fiscally not in positions. If you look across the state of Illinois right now, across the country, they are cutting. And the fiscal responsibility of the board here and this community support leads us to having these opportunities and this is where you get to see that pay off at the core of what we do, right? Um, so we're very proud of not just the work that goes into this, but all of the work and all that we do that creates these opportunities for our kids here
049in District 99. And then just some of the mechanics, as Jeff mentioned, down below in uh the agenda tonight, between now and when you take action in the consent agenda for the things that Jeff talked about is a public hearing that allows the public to address us about any of those uh reductions that we're making. As Jeff mentioned, the variety of reasons for there, but by state law, if we're making those kinds of changes with more than five people, we need to provide the opportunity for the public to comment on those changes. So, we'll go into that public hearing in a little bit that uh will allow anybody to comment on our riffs and changes. The big takeaway is the bottom line there for you. We are able to do all of this, offer all
050of these opportunities, be up 1.6 FTE in people, but still be down in cost, primarily as the work that Scott mentioned that's happening over at T99 to return our own students to us at a lower cost and to to bring in some other students and service those and have a an alternative form of revenue that we predicted when we expanded T99 years ago. So, uh thank you to the entire team for pulling all together [clears throat] and for the board and community support to get to this point. Any last-minute questions on it? >> Jeff, there's only two teachers were entirely let go. >> [cough] >> Was that how you heard [clears throat] you say correctly? >> So, technically all of them are being riffed or reduced in force. Some of them are the honorable dismissal,
051so they are being fully reduced, but they may be offered uh part-time positions again cuz the FTE has gone up or down. So, some of them may be a point four, but they're being offered a point six for next year if they wish to take that. Uh some people want part-time, some people might be looking for a full-time job. Um some of those were people that we're very happy with and the position that was a lower FTE now because of shifting is turning to 1.0. So, I know that's true in at least one case uh where I know that that person is applying for our now 1.0 position. Uh the way our hiring practices work is then that person gets to immediately advance to the second round cuz we've already essentially vetted them for the
052past year um and obviously has a strong inside track, but we whenever we have a full 1.0 position, we always post it wide to the public at large cuz you're going to attract a different group of people than you would for the previous year's part-time position. So, um the other ones I guess I mean one is a a leave of absence that it's not a change in FTE, it's just they were covering that for us, so we do need to uh to release them and then the other one is a staff member who um you know, just like I said, didn't do bad, but just not the right fit. Um so, we're moving forward. >> Okay. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Uh and then moving on to the next topic, this
053is a topic the board has been well informed about over the last year. We've spent a lot of time discussing [clears throat] it and sharing >> [cough] >> those with the board on this topic. We are at the point of bringing you the intergovernmental agreement between us and the village of Woodridge. We've worked with the board's attorneys and in cooperation with the other elementary districts that are impacted by this TIF. So this TIF agreement is for your first review this month. So it gives you a month to kind of take a look at it, ask any questions you have in that agreement and we can discuss through it. The board's attorneys and the administration believe that this agreement is very strong and protects us in more ways than what a school district typically would get
054in a TIF coming into their community. So we recommend that when we come back next month at this point that the board approves it. We just want to give the public and the board time to review that final document before approval. This document contains information the board has already received at this point of what protections are inside of that. At this point I'll take any questions that are emanating out of the final agreement. If not it'll come back. Of course you can ask questions between now and next month but otherwise it'll be on the agenda next month for approval. So with that all being said any questions on any of these topics that I could address? >> Do you have any projections on the number of kids who that might we might be servicing from
055this development? >> That has been the great challenge in this TIF is that there really isn't a long range plan associated with it. There's a lot of potential potential ideas and plans inside of it. So even areas where they're talking about it could be housing. We don't know if it'll be senior targeted, senior restricted, if it'll just be general housing, what type of housing options they'll offer there. So that's why this is really built that way to offer like we get a certain cut off the top if it becomes residential that impacts us we get a higher cut of that and there's even openers to go to the table and discuss impact if there's a greater number of students than we can absorb as a result of any new residential areas. >> And this development
056would impact South enrollment? Is that right? >> Yes. >> Okay, it's all on South enrollment. >> Okay. >> And the incentives from this plan when they come back to the district is just the district as a whole. It's not as though we're allocating those funds directly to South. >> Correct. These would come through their it's its own independent funding mechanism. >> Okay. >> Uh of the TIF would would pay us directly as a result of these changes should increment new money be generated as a result of the development. If there's no new money generated as a result of it none of it there's nothing to pay us with, right? So uh it's just a lot of a lot of mechanics should development occur, should new revenue be generated uh in that TIF district and should
057that be generated from residential property we get a larger portion of the revenue that's generated. >> Which makes sense because >> Right, there's a larger impact on >> Yes. >> And the village was very understanding of that from the jump. It was just how we do this mechanically within uh this intergovernmental agreement. >> Okay. So if it's commercial development within that district we're not going to see the the increment. >> You'd still see uh off the top so 8% of any increment gets distributed amongst the taxing bodies. So we don't get a full 8% of that we get a relative proportional uh cut of that increment. So um any new funds even if it's just because of rising property values in the area, we won't be frozen for that for 23 years. That's how long
058this TIF lasts. Um we'd still see some of that uh just natural revenue generation, but if there's massive improvements along uh the 75th uh street corridor that brings in a lot of new revenue uh in the form of property taxes to our community, we could see a significant uh amount. Of course, development in industrial and commercial is always better for us as schools because there's new money without more overhead, right? Which is why this is built this way that if it does also come with residential, where there could be new property taxes resulting in it, we'll still get some. A TIF by its nature would give us zero, right? So, this gives us some of that new revenue. Um and if we can demonstrate that that revenue isn't keeping up with our facilities or our
059needs, we can go back and ask for a uh a demonstrated cost. We'd be able to go back and make the case. There isn't a guarantee that we would get additional if our needs outgrew this agreement, but there's at least um you know, a a pathway to that discussion. If it's reasonable that there are great costs as a result of a residential development. Any other questions? >> And so, in the next meeting, what we're voting on is [snorts] how >> agreement. >> how you're voting on >> No, this would be you authorizing me to sign this agreement. >> sign it. Oh, okay. Okay. >> Uh >> [clears throat] >> So, All right. Any other questions? >> Yeah. >> All right, this has been a lot of work this year. And just [clears throat] to give
060the Village of Woodridge credit, they have their administrative team has put in the work with us to understand our concerns and and to try to come to an agreement that with the uncertainty gives us some certainty. >> All right, thank you. >> Actually, one last question. So, are we the are we the school district that's the most heavily impacted by this TIF in terms of >> I most heavily is a relative term. I would say um most impacted proportionally would be District 66, uh Cass. Um most impacted with size of the parcel, we are the only school district that's impacted by the entire >> Okay. Okay. >> All right, FOIA requests, we receive them, we fill them and put them up on the website. Uh they can be reached at that link. >> Okay, item
061number six, public hearing. Uh the next agenda item is a public hearing on the proposed reduction in force of teachers. This hearing is held in line with section 24-12 of the Illinois School Code, >> [cough] >> which provides [clears throat] for the hearing or for the hearing when the number of teachers to be reduced due to economic necessity is greater than five or 150% of the average number of teachers honorably dismissed in the preceding three years, whichever is more. While the reductions contemplated later in this evening's agenda are not based on economic necessity, we are holding the hearing with the intent of giving both the teaching staff and the public notice of layoffs and the opportunity to express their views. To be clear, the reductions in force contemplated later in this evening's agenda will not
062impact educational programming and and are not based on economic necessity. Rather, these reductions are based on course selections for the upcoming school year. Do Do have any members of the audience who would like to approach and provide some comments? Okay, hearing none. Can I get a motion to close the public hearing? >> So moved. >> Second it. >> Ken moves, April seconds. >> Thank you. Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> April Finan. >> Aye. >> Kira Caston. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> Aye. Motion carries, public [clears throat] hearing is closed. >> Thank you. >> Next item is the consent agenda. Before the board votes on the consent agenda, is there any agenda item a board member would like to pull out of the consent agenda for further discussion? Hearing
063none, can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented, which includes item A, personnel report 2026-27 fifth-year full-time renewals, 2026-27 fourth-year full-time renewals, 26-27 third-year full-time renewals, 2026-27 non-tenure full-time renewals, 2026-27 non-tenure part-time renewals, appointment administration appointment classified and transfer position classified. Item B, personnel report resignation certified, resignation classified. Item C, February treasurer's report and financial pages. Item D, student trips. Item E, Illinois High School Association membership from July 1st of 2026 through June 30th of 2027. Item F, proposed revised 2026-27 calendar and item G, proposed 2027-28 calendar. >> So moved. >> April moves. >> Second. >> Ken seconds. >> Thank you. April Finan. >> Aye. >> Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> Kira Caston. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> Aye.
064Motion carries. Moving on to item eight, recommendations for action. Can I get a motion from the Board of Education to adopt the resolution authorizing notice of honorable dismissal of non-tenured teachers other than final year probationary teachers and that the president and secretary be authorized to sign the same. >> So moved. >> Cara moves. >> Second. >> Ken seconds. >> Thank you. Cara Caston. >> Aye. >> Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> April Finan. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> I motion carries. I think Cara's right next to me and probably heard it. So. Um item B, can I get a motion from the Board of Education to adopt the resolution authorizing notice of non-renewal to non-tenured teachers other than final year probationary teachers and that the president and secretary be
065authorized sign the same. >> So moved. Second. >> April moves, Katie seconds. >> Thank you. April Finan. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> Cara Caston. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> I motion carries. Item C, can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the 10-year safety survey report. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Ken moves, Katie seconds. >> Thank you. Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> April Finan. >> Aye. >> Cara Caston. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> I motion carries. Item D, can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve contracts for life safety work at North High and South High in the aggregate amount of $568,956. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Ken
066moves, Katie seconds. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> Katie Courtney. >> Aye. >> April Finan. >> Aye. >> Cara Caston. >> Aye. >> And Don Renner. >> I motion carries. Uh yeah, Hank, did you want to make an introduction? >> Yeah, just a couple of comments. First, congratulations to all of our teachers that are returning for next year and for all their hard work getting there. Also, as part of tonight's action items, uh the board approved Travis's replacement for next year uh with Dr. Amanda Brodericko, who is here this evening with us. I'll have her stand up and be recognized. [applause] >> I said to Hank that being from Elmwood Park, I was hoping they'd bring some Johnny's Beef with you. >> [laughter] >> You have an assignment now. All
067right. >> [clears throat] >> Moving on. Uh we also have for you this evening new business on first reading of policies. The policy committee met last week and reviewed all of these policies. Many of them in here are clerical clean-up in nature. Um Let's see. One of them is one that was brought to us from board member Caston in result of conversations at land and that's 2.140. Communications to and from the board that outlines some social media and advertising requirements related to board members and board member candidates. That was reviewed by the administration and the board's attorneys in there. So that checks one's one off the list that's been there for a couple of months. Otherwise, most of it is clean-up related to either clerical changes or changes in state or and or federal law.
068These will return next month for approval. If you have any questions between now and then, you can reach out to me. Don's on the policy committee and Chris is on the policy committee and happy to to address any of your questions between now and then. Unless you have something pressing right now that you would like for us to to talk about. >> Hearing none. Item 11, reception of visitors. Julie, do we have any slips? >> No, sir. >> Item 12, communications. Can I get a report on LEND in here? >> Oh. Just had them We had meeting We've meeting coming up. So, basically, we're a lot of legislation is out there that we're discussing. I would say the big ones are um the governor is likely going to have pushed forward a cell phone policy,
069um but the good news about that is whatever does pass, we are grandfathered in in any school district that has a policy till 2030, I think it is. And then you have to modify your policy to go along with the statewide policy. >> Is there a draft of that policy that's >> Well, there's a draft of the policy, but uh there isn't anything finalized yet. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And the drafts that you're seeing, is there anything that's like markedly different than what we're already providing? >> Some pieces, depending also on how the rules interpret those things. >> Okay. >> If like secure Like one of the things they're talking about is like secure storage. Well, are cubbies secure storage, or does it need to be locked? Right? That depends on what you interpret
070secure storage. All right? So, >> And access to the phone during the day, how like >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So. >> Okay. Yeah. Is it instructional time determined by the teacher, or is instructional time from the bell to the bell? All right? So, we're just waiting to see kind of how some of these pieces shake out, depending on the interpretation the language that's finalized, and then rule making around the interpretation of that language. It may align completely with our current policy, or lead to us at some point down the road needing to re-evaluate our policy. >> Nevertheless, we'll have a couple of years of runway >> Yeah. >> if we need it. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah, and then I'd say we're focused obviously on the mandated categorals categoricals getting funding
071for that. And I also lead the federal committee within LEND, and while you know, schools are not, you know, majority of their funding is at the state level, given a lot of the cuts that are coming at the state level, it's really critical that we um keep the federal funding that is in place there. So, we're really focused on that. And the federal committee within LAND has a meeting at the end of the month with some of the members of Congress in the DuPage area to um talk about our priorities for federal legislation and hopefully get them to sort of, you know, support them back in DC. So, those were some of the >> Yeah, I'll just There's 1,009 bills proposed that impact education right now. So, it is a lot that the various uh
072educational advocates that we work with are combing through. Uh myself and my peer superintendents are spending a lot of time uh looking at legislation and trying to understand its impact on our individual school districts right now. So, it is a busy time of the year uh when it comes to LAND and IHSDO and IASA and all of the different groups that support us with this legislation. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Uh I'm going to skip SASED cuz Chris is not here unless you want to provide any updates. >> Uh we have a board meeting this week. It's really the same kinds of things we're having here. Staffing, facilities, those kinds of things [clears throat] are the main topics of discussion right now. >> April or Katie, do you have anything to report on the foundation? >>
073Uh no, we haven't met since our last update. We have a meeting this Wednesday. >> Ken, anything to report on IASB? >> Uh IASB advocacy day is in Springfield on March 20th. It should be a great opportunity for people to see different um speakers, seminars, um network with the legislator members. Uh so, that's a great opportunity. Also, we're talking about the different bills. There's a bill being proposed um to create a new pathway for paraprofessionals who are on temporary licenses to get permanent licenses once their temporary one um expires. So, that is an initiative that ISBE strongly supporting because there is a um severe shortage of paraprofessionals throughout the state of Illinois. >> I think that was heard in committee today and made it out of committee. So. >> Great. Great. Yeah. >> I have
074nothing to report on my uh position as liaison to the Village of Downers Grove. >> Okay. Uh upcoming board meetings. Um next board meeting [clears throat] will be April 6th, 2026. Uh actually, that's been That one's canceled. >> Canceled. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Um so, our next board meeting will be April 20th, 2026, our monthly business meeting here at the ASC at 6:30 p.m. Item number 14, closed session. Um can I get a motion from the Board of Education to go into closed session for Open Meetings Act exception number one for personnel and Open Meetings Act exception number two for collective negotiating matters. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Ken Mosley Car seconds. >> Thank you. Ken Dawson. >> Aye. >> Car Casten. >> Aye. >> Edie Courtney. >> Aye. >> April Fiene. >>
075Aye. >> And Dan Renner. >> Aye. Motion carries and for the members of the public, the board will be taking action on the item noted in the agenda when it comes out of closed session. Let's take a short break and we'll reconvene