001I hereby call to order this regular meeting of the board of education for Wilmet Public Schools District 39 this Monday, March 23rd, 2026. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Annne Hart >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Aaron Stone >> here. >> Kristen Dcastro >> here. >> Allison Pilis here. >> Amy Paling >> here. >> Katie Hilton >> here. >> Thank you. And now I'd like to introduce Principal Anthony Haddock who is here to introduce the Highest Middle School students to lead us in the pledge of allegiance this evening. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us here tonight to celebrate our um artists here at Highest in honor of youth, National Youth Art Month. Um which the theme is the world needs art. Um we thought it would
002be a really nice time to be able to celebrate and showcase the art that um acts as the backdrop of our meetings. Um and if you take a look over at the panel right over here behind Dr. Koscoli. Um we have some of our artists here to be able to showcase and acknowledge their hard work um here tonight. So with that, I'll turn the microphone over to Sydney. >> My name is Sydney and I was really proud of how my art piece stands out. >> My name is Men and I think I've grown as an artist by adding detail and precision to my artwork. My name's Catherine Frell and I think my favorite part about this project was shading in everything. >> My name is Eden and my favorite part about making this piece of
003artwork was getting to use different watercolor techniques. Uh my name is William and my favorite part about this artwork was probably the way that the background was black and the container was more white. So, you look at the Blick container first. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you guys for being here tonight. Um, this is a beautiful backdrop for our meeting. So, thank you very much. And it was just really interesting to hear um what your favorite parts of working on this were and we really appreciate you being here tonight and sharing with us. So, thank you. And we have a
004small um token of appreciation for you. So, I'll meet you at the doorway and um give you a blanket and a magnet and a water bottle and then you can meet your parents in the lobby. Thanks again. >> Thank you all for being here. Okay. Well, turning our attention back to the artwork. Um, it again, the artwork on display in the boardroom is a wonderful sampling of kindergarten through sixth grade student work. Every March, the district observes youth art month by showcasing the talented student artwork. Youth Art Month emphasizes the value of art education for all children and encourages quality school art programs. At this time, I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the February 23rd, 2026 board of education regular and executive session meetings. >> Move to approve the board of education
005minutes for February 23rd, 2026 regular and executive session. >> May I have a second? Second. The motion has been made and seconded. Board members, are there any comments, errors, or omissions to the minutes? Okay, seeing none, all of those in favor of approving the minutes as submitted, please indicate by saying yay. >> Yay. >> The motion carries. This is an opportunity now for the public to address the board on any topic. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? All right. Um then we will continue on with our agenda and we will begin with board reports committee. Um I don't believe we have anything for facility development this evening. No. Okay. So we will move um right into school finance. Mrs. Bingley, >> I'm just pulling that up quickly. Take
006your time. You want to jump to the next strategy? >> Sure. Sure. >> Strategy is ready. >> Strategy. Yes. The strategy committee met on March 16th as part of the committee of the whole. Dr. Kremcoli provided a brief update on the district's strategic planning efforts. They have met with over 600 people across stakeholder groups. A survey will be launched in midappril to the community and the district is on target to present the new strategic plan to the board in June. Yeah, it was just taking a minute to take your time load, but I do have it. So, uh, we did have school finance did meet at our committee of the whole, uh, Baker and Tilly provided a review of our D39 fiscal year 2025 audit reports. Their opinions and reports were issued on February 6
007with no issues. Baker and Tilly would like to move up the timeline for next year. And Mr. Boltier shared the operating funds fiscal year 25 budgeted deficit and shared that the district has finished the fiscal year in a strong position. The Wixie WCA uh fiscal year 25 audit report was also reviewed and they found no issues. We'll hear a brief review of that a little later on our agenda. >> Great. Thank you very much. All right, we will go on to liaison reports starting with community review committee. Back to Mrs. Paling. >> Yes. So, uh, CRC met on March 10th. They are coming along really well. They're, just as a reminder, they're studying staff well-being and they uh, worked in their small groups for the majority of the meeting and their plan is to have
008their draft ready for their next meeting, which is April 14th. Great. Thank you. Um Wixie, Mrs. Hilton, >> well MET community special education agreement met today um to review the annual financial report for fiscal year 2025. Additionally, the advisory board established the budget calendar projected expenditures for fiscal year 2026 and the fiscal year toate activity. The board also discussed the upcoming summer enrichment program. >> Great. Thank you very much. And we are going to stick with you for a couple more updates. It looks like um next insurance advisory committee. >> Yes. The annual meeting of the insurance advisory committee was held on Monday, March 16th. Amy Ael and Tyler Looney from the Aera Group reviewed recent discussions from the cooperative9s insurance cooperative of which D39 is a member. It is expected that premiums will increase
009between 15.8% for HMO plans and 17.84% for PO plans. The cooperative will be meeting to consider additional plan changes in or to mitigate the increasing premiums. The insurance cooperative will meet on April 9th, 2026, where final decisions will be made regarding insurance plan changes and premium costs for the plan year beginning on um September 1st, 2026. >> Thank you. Um and then lastly, Mrs. Hilton um D39 Educational Foundation. >> Yes. Um the education foundation met um March 16th where they awarded spring grip grants to four educators from Central Highrest and Ramona. They had really fun, lively discussion. It was a lot of um a good time to listen to all of the cool things that are happening in the district. Additionally, um, April 11th is the much anticipated trivia night. All of the tables are
010sold out. Um, and I'm excited to hear how it goes. >> Great. Yeah, everyone loves that night. Um, so fun. Um, okay. And then Illinois Association of School Boards, Mrs. Berlin, please. >> This will be quick. Um, registration uh, IASB wants us to know that or wants you guys to know that registration is open for the president's board academy which is for board presidents and vice presidents. Um, there are two dates as options. One is June 13th in Napville and the other is June 20th in Champ. I'm going to assume they're going to send me >> I have we have seen those. Thank you. The rest of ISB IASB's messages had to do with legislators legislator. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Well, we will stick with you and move on to legislative update. >> Okay.
011This week is expected to be active as March 27th is the deadline for moving bills out of committee. Um there are a few issues that are of special interest. One is that um there is a significant unfunded mandate that would allow educational support personnel to collect unemployment benefits during summer and other scheduled breaks. IASB is lobbying on our behalf. Um but that would be a very expensive mandate if it actually passed. Um there's an amendment that would require that would require districts to establish a policy that prohibits uh wireless devices uh uh for the entire school day with a few limited um exceptions. And there are a number of proposals for various tax property relief grants for school districts that ISB judges are on. And then we'll see. Thank you very much. Okay. Okay, next
012on the agenda this evening is information items and I will turn it over to Dr. Kremcoli. >> Thank you. Uh first up is uh written communication. The board received written communication from Thomas Franklin about prohibition of gasoline powered leaf blowers during instruction hours and from Laura Hamilton regarding the acceleration placement policy at district 39. And in terms of administrative announcements, um first of all, elementary parent teacher conferences and our 58 uh professional development day are coming up. Um elementary spring parent teacher conferences for our pre-K through fourth grade families are approaching. These conferences um are held Thursday, March 26th and Friday, March 27th, immediately preceding spring break. Parent teacher conferences offer a wonderful opportunity to nurture those supportive relationships that we enjoy so much between our parents and our teachers um in support of our
013students learning and growth. So we are very grateful for all of the extra time that our teachers put in to ensure that these conferences are really productive and very meaningful as well as uh the time our parents spend setting aside some some some good time some valuable time to meet. Oh, there's the microphone to meet with uh sorry about that everybody who's at home. Um to meet uh with our teachers. So, thank you for that. Meanwhile, our fifth through 8th grade teachers and staff will spend Friday engaged in professional development and collaboration and we're really grateful for and looking forward to that opportunity as well. I have an announcement regarding Science Olympiad. District 39 science Olympiad varsity and junior varsity teams competed on March 14th in the regional competition. The WJHS varsity team earned medals
014in 19 of the 23 events and ranked fourth overall. The junior varsity blue team earned medals in 16 out of those 23 events and ranked first overall. And the junior varsity yellow team earned medals in 12 out of 23 events and ranked third overall. The varsity team qualified to attend the state tournament April 18th at the University of Illinois. We are also able uh to take six junior varsity members to compete at the state tournament in three new events. Botany, Code Craze, and Pingpong Parachute. All sound incredibly fun and uh also pretty innovative. So that's great. Um, thank you to our coaches, Charara Tate and Kevin Swathart. And a great job to all participants. We look forward to hearing updates from you after the state tournaments. Spring break um after parent teacher conferences and our
015fifth through 8th grade uh professional development day this uh at the end of this week uh will enter into spring break and so that will happen next week. Um, we know that, uh, students are very excited for this. I've been out in the schools and and there is definitely a a buzz in the air as we anticipate spring break. Families and staff are also very excited for the opportunity to rest and rejuvenate and share special times with families and friends. Uh this time of year is always super busy within our schools. And so we're grateful everyone is doing the best they can to stay focused on uh this last little bit of learning and some of the recent assessments to uh make sure that we are finishing off this quarter as strongly as we can.
016And then we wish everyone a safe and happy healthy spring break. Um as a reminder, we come back to school on Tuesday, April 7th. Uh the board will remember that we had reserved April 6th as a possible e-learning day to make up for any um snow days and at this point we've made the decision not to proceed with that um that use of an emergency day and so um there will be as planned on the calendar a no school day on April 6th and then Tuesday April 7th uh school will resume. I have an update on single subject acceleration and our process and implementation thereof. Uh we've continued to review and implement our revised single subject acceleration process. Families may submit applications through the end of this week to indicate interest in having their child
017proceed with the additional assessments. Thus far, 18 families have indicated interest in having their child participate in the additional assessment procedures. In addition, we have continued to carefully review the feedback and written communication from a few families with special interests in the accelerated placement process. Um, we've also had our process and criteria reviewed by the board's attorney, by the North Cook Intermediate Service Center and by the Illinois State Board of Education. And so, we really appreciate the community's interest and engagement and we look forward to continued collaboration. With all of this feedback, we are uh working to ensure maximum transparency and clarity. And so we will be updating some of the infographics that are displayed on our website that provide an overview of the process and procedures and communication hopefully to address some of the
018feedback that we have uh received. So we're grateful for everyone's interest and feedback as well as for the multiple reviews of our um procedures at this point. Um and we have a freedom of a few actually freedom of information act uh requests to report. Uh the district has received voyas from the following uh sunlight access requesting copies of the most recent contracts, agreements, amendments, and renewals by the Wilmet School District 39 from January 1st, 2020 through January 29th, 2026 in connection with certain specific vendors. Smart Procure for all current employees and staff contact information from Jocelyn Shook requesting copies of any and all records, contracts, agreements, and/or financial agreements between district 39 and who the district employs to provide lunches to students. And finally, Civic IQ, Inc. requesting purchasing records from January 1st, 2022 to
019the current date which was March 10th, 2026 for schools in our jurisdictions to answer any questions if anyone has them. Otherwise, um we can move on to annual business. >> Thank you. And thank you. I I know those foyers are a significant amount of time and resources and and work on from the team. So, thank you. Um, all right. Yes, let's move on to annual business. >> Okay. Uh, the first item is the are I should say are the audit reports. And so, I'll invite Corey Boltzer to give a a quick review of those reminding the board and our community as well that our auditors presented the the full report at the recent committee. The whole Corey. >> Correct. Yeah. So at the committee we had both D39 and Wixie audits uh you know discussed
020by Baker Tilly. Their presentation along with um PDFs of all the documents are available online for any anyone to see. For D39 just a couple of key takeaways. We ended the year with the highest a uh ISB rec uh financial profile score which is recognition. Um we're now well into the 20s as far as number of years in a row that we've received that highest level. Um so and that's a a measure that looks at a handful of different criteria. So it's always good to stay at that highest level. Um we had a positive budget variance this year which enabled the operating funds to end with a 51.9% fund balance. Um which is you know gives us a good cushion above 40%. uh in the D39 report to the board, they noted, you know, no
021issues with internal controls or um any any major issues that, you know, might cause a misstatement or or cause some problems for us. So, that's always a major goal when we go through this process. Then on the Wixie front, um you know, Wixie is a very small uh financial financial set of financial statements. the revenue and expenditures equal each other at roughly 227,000. There's no fund balance. Every every year the revenue and expenditures equal each other. And similarly, there was no control issues or um misstatements noted in that as well. So, um once again, you know, I felt another another good clean audit which is which is always the goal. Happy to answer any questions that anyone might have. Any questions? I know we discussed it um at the committee of the whole. So, thank
022you again. And I think I mentioned then and I'll just mention again that an audit like this reflects much more than one year of work but consistent um planning and a strong process for many years. So, thank you very much. Um if there are no other questions on the audit, I think we will move to the special education child count. Excellent. Uh Dr. Swanson will provide the overview of the child count. >> So every year the Illinois State Board of Education collects information from all public school districts in Illinois on the number of students that they are serving with disabilities. This is a snapshot. It's taken on December 1st and then the school district has a number of months to sort of make sure that all of the data is accurate and correct. Um, and
023that that data is used to both make some funding decisions from uh the Illinois State Board of Education as well as to identify trends and determine where additional training from ISBY might be needed for school districts. Um, this year, district 39 was serving 497 students with IEPs on December 1st. Of those, 16 of those are students that were enrolled in private and parochial schools, but were receiving a portion of their special education services from district 39. This number is slightly lower than last year um but it's roughly consistent with our historical trends and with the number of students that we have in the district. Uh the current percent of students with IEPs is 14.9%. Over the last eight years we've ranged right around 15% of our students are students with IEPs. So it's been very
024stable and consistent over time. Uh we also then and that's also very consistent with the state of Illinois which is usually right around 16%. Um the information is also reported in terms of gender as well as disability categories. Those have remained relatively stable. Um boys do outnumber girls in terms of having IEPs that is also uh very consistent with past both here and nationwide. Um, and then district 39 in general provides a full continuum of services for students with disabilities. Our teachers have worked very hard to ensure that we can meet the needs of our students. And I think that we've been doing our teachers have worked very hard to meet the needs of all of our students. Any questions? Board members, any questions? Okay. No, thank you very much. I think we could have
025seen this coming based on the the budget um versus actuals that we looked at last week and saw some of those expenses down. So um thank you for this report. >> Um do you want to continue on with annual business Dr. Kool? >> Absolutely. Thank you. Um we also have an update to provide um regarding reduction in force and I will let Dr. Glowaki provide an overview of this. >> Great. um annually. This is the time of year where we begin planning for the next school year. So later on tonight and as an action item, the board will be asked to um vote on a resolution authorizing the dismissal the of the honorable dismissal of our teachers, some of which are part-time teachers or substitute teachers that have worked for us this year, as well
026as a resolution authorizing the notice and dismissal um and non-renewal of pro of a probationary teacher. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, that does it for annual business. We will move to public comment. Another opportunity for the audience to address the board. Seeing no audience members, we will move to action items in our consent agenda. Um, are there any items that the board would like pulled from tonight's consent agenda? >> All right, Mrs. Papless, please proceed with the motions. I move to approve the personnel report dated March 23rd, 2026. I move to accept the fiscal year 2025 annual financial audit and comprehensive annual financial report for Wilmet Public Schools as presented by Baker Tilly US LLP of Oakbrook, Illinois. I move to accept the fiscal year 2025 annual financial audit for the Wilm community special
027education agreement as presented by Baker Tilly US LLP of Oakbrook Illinois. I move to approve the accounts payable for bills listed between February 24th 2026 and March 23rd 2026 in the following amounts. Educational fund $944,747.111 O and M fund $35,35144 transportation $216,6961 total all funds 1,196,7816 I move to approve the manual checks listed uh issued between February 24th 4 2026 and March 23rd 2026 in the following amounts educational fund 1,265,37345 on& and M fund $160,460.19 debt services $1,750 transportation $12640 capital projects $758.12 12 tors $30,5560 total all funds 1,459,2416. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. All right, Mrs. Bless, please approve with the um further motions. Oh, we have to vote on that. Okay, I'm sorry. Um All right. The motion has been moved and seconded. Would the clerk please call the role?
028>> Kristen Niccastro, >> yes. >> Ellison Papless, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Aaron Stone, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> And Hart, >> yes. >> Thank you. Um, the motion carries. The consent agenda is approved. Can we now continue with the additional um motions under the action items? I move to approve the resolution authorizing the honoral dismissal of Ellen Lee Marisol Barnett, Jill Gershon, Haley Hunken, Melissa Johnson, and Hillary Rosenthal. I move to and then >> may I have those? >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Will the clerk please call the role? >> Kristen Dcastro, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Alison Pafas, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >>
029Erin Stone, >> yes. Motion carries. I move to approve the resolution authorizing notice of dismissal and non-renewal to probationary teacher William Thompson. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Will the clerk please call the role? >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Christine Dcastro, >> yes. >> Alison Pless, >> yes. >> Erin Stone, >> yes. >> Thank you. Motion carries. At this time, we will move on to conference items. Um, beginning with old business. Is there any old business? Okay. New business. Any new business this evening? All right. Moving to good and welfare. Okay. Um then may I have a motion to adjurnn to spec um adjourn to executive session to discuss specific personnel, special education, individual student matters and
030collective negotiations and discussion of minutes of meetings lo law lawfully closed under the open meetings act. I move to adjourn to the executive session to discuss individual students and special education and other individual students specific personnel collective negotiations and minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Motion having been made and seconded, will the clerk please call the role? >> Erin Stone, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. Yes. Kristen Dcastro, >> yes. >> Alison Pavlo, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Motion carried. We are now adjourned to executive session. And the time is 7:30