Wilmette Public Schools District 39 Committee of the Whole Meeting February 9, 2026

001I hereby call to order this committee of the whole meeting for Monday, February 9th, 2026. The time is 8:01 a.m. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Ian Hart >> here. >> Kristen Dcastro >> here. >> Allison Papless >> here. Amy Paling >> here. >> Katie Hilton. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Aaron Stone >> here. I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the January 12th, 2026 Committee of the Whole and Executive Session meetings. >> I move to approve the minutes of the January 12th, 2026 Committee of the Whole and Executive Session meetings. >> 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? Um, all right. May I please have a roll call vote? >>

002Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Kristen Niccastro, >> yes. >> Allison Papless, >> yes. >> Aaron Stone, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Motion carries. All right. Starting our agenda this morning. We do not have any facility development committee items. So, we will move right into school finance. Mrs. Bailing. >> Great. And we have two items for school finance today. student fees and supplemental debt service levy. And I will turn it over to Corey for those presentations. All right, I'm going to just kind of walk us through some of the documents that I I've included for the board. Um, as I jump into the slides, there are kind of three reference documents for the board. One is for food service has quite a few years of historical information that

003I that I may reference to once once or twice. Um, and then I have the similar type of information for the transport regular transportation program. And then the last three pages is uh it's got about 10 years of all of our various types of student fees. Um so if anyone was curious, you can see where changes have occurred and gone back. And then this is the document that we typically include when we're asking for board approval. All right. So, as we jump into this, um, with this being the February committee of the whole, um, there's nothing on here like the the plan would be if if we come to a consensus, try and have the board approve stuff, uh, later this month. However, if our conversations today, take us um down a path where we

004need to gather some more information. Um, we always have the option to take to, you know, put a pause on that and then come back at the March committee of the whole review some of the new uh information that maybe someone had questions about and then we could uh, you know, take action in the month of March. There's nothing of the items in here. There's really nothing pressing for me. I think if if we can get all the remaining fees, you know, approved by March, that way when we come back in in April, um, and have those set, uh, that that would be really helpful. So, let's jump into to lunch. All right. So, we have multiple years of actual data. we see that the now that we know what the actual amounts for 2425

005were um made some good progress once again uh finished at covering just over 91%. When I went back and looked in that that reference document I had for food service, if you pull out three years that three school years that were pretty clearly impacted by um COVID in some form, 11 of the 12 other years on that document where we have known information, we finished um within the 88 to 93% range of covering costs for this program. Um, so it seems like, you know, that's that's a solid bit of data. Um, that, you know, we're we're we just finished a year in in the 91% range. When I look at this slide, if you go to the kind of the middle row for 25 26, that's strictly budget numbers. Um, we'd be kind of at

006the low end of that. I think there is a pretty solid chance that we could end up with um you know some of the expenditures coming in a little under budget which would bump that up. So then that gets us to options of what we're looking to consider for um the upcoming school year in 2627. I've laid out three options um with the prices you see by the by the type of uh lunch fee how much that increases each meal and then kind of projecting what the percent covered might look like. Um the 2.9 represents the applicable inflation factor or CPI for next year. And then the option two is just like that times one and a half and then the option three is just doubling that. Um so gives you an idea and then

007there's an the amount that the board would be covering is in that second to right column. Are there any questions about this one? >> Questions Amy? I will add I received a question over the weekend um just clarifying that we do offer free or reduced lunch for those who qualify. So there's a couple of different ways someone might qualify for that. Um first of all there's some direct certification if a family is eligible for SNAP benefits um SSI or some other um avenues like that. They they qualify federally for a free lunch. Um and then they can also apply based on their financial needs um to if they meet the criteria. We also will take um applications for those who maybe have some special or unique circumstances, a family has lost their job, there's some

008medical needs happening for the family, those kinds of things, and we'll take those into consideration. Families apply for angel fund um and that helps to offset some of the optional fees and then the district, the board really absorbs the cost. um for families who are um eligible for free or reduced lunch whether through that federal standard which is a pretty strict um threshold and and a pretty high bar quite frankly um or through some special circumstances that the family is is dealing with. So uh we do have a number of families who access um lunch services that way. >> M >> yes I was going to ask that question too. I thought I knew the answer but I was also trying to prove a point. So, um I just making sure I read this right.

009In all these scenarios, we're operating this as a deficit, right? Thank you. >> Yeah. And like that reference sheet I had going back to I think it's like 2010 or 11, I mean clearly we've had a deficit and the highest year, the highest any year that I could find was 93 point about 93.9% of covered cost. I should add too that we don't participate in the federal lunch program. So we don't see any dollars coming back to offset the costs of our lunch program or offering free lunch to those who federally qualify for that is has been a long-standing practice for us. Um, sorry. I we can either uh the board can either offer feedback on what they might want to see now or if you want to wait until I've presented all. It's up

010to the board however we go about this. >> Hey, my opinion is it might make sense to weigh in. Okay. Now, >> um >> Sure. >> Just while it's clear in our mind. Can I ask a question? I don't know if this really makes sense, but um so if we were to considering option one, for example, >> is there how likely will we come up something around 86.9? I'm just wondering if there's some >> conservatism based that. So I I I think you know as you'll see when we one of the differences is of like the 25 26 like the current year for lunch um there's a just like even though we're a little over halfway through the year there are still many um variables left to play out that makes it hard to pinpoint

011for me to offer up like a level of confidence of like hey we're going to end up at 88 we're going to end up at 92 like when we flip this a couple more slides on the on the transportation side. I feel quite confident where we're at versus just like, hey, this is where we're budgeted. So, even though right now this is strict strictly budget at 87, I think there's a pretty good chance that that's going to creep into the low 90s. Like I the expenditure side, like the revenue side is not not super clear. Obviously, there's a lot of variables of what the participation might look like winding down the school year, but like on the expenditure side for this program, um we do have a little bit of conservative in there just because

012um I want to have the budgetary authority as we're ordering food throughout the year. That is one of the bigger components to this and that's not fixed. So, what we pay for the things we commonly buy in September might not be the same as what they are in February and March. Um, so I think then when I carry that over to the options below, I do think there is an opportunity where maybe that total surplus or or sorry that total deficit um you know moves down to like 200,000 or maybe slightly below just depending upon how things were to shake out. >> Thank you. Y >> So board members, do people have an opinion on where you lie within the three options? For me philosophically, I would go with option three. Um because I think

013that especially considering there are options or um safeguards if somebody is struggling there's free and reduced lunch or if somebody's having a particular issue what you just talked about with the angel fund. I think philosophically that somebody's a child's lunch should be more borne the cost of a child's lunch should be more borne by the families and not the taxpayers especially since we're operating this as at operating this as a deficit. Um, I agree with Erin and I I think option three is probably the best, but I'm willing to listen. I mean, I don't have a very super strong feeling about it, but guess I would wonder if you all have a recommendation or an opinion financially for the district. really this is a probably more of a philosophical or a board um decision than

014it is for us. Any of these three options we could live with and we'll be able to manage. But anytime the board is subsidizing an optional service such as this, those are dollars that otherwise could go to um educational services which which should be the focus of the board's investment. So um that really comes down to where you want to spend your dollars. Um, of course, families always have the option to pack a lunch and send that with their children. Um, and I I do feel good that we offer the available free or reduced lunch costs for those who may be financially. So, um, but it really is a philosophical um, decision of where the board wants to invest their dollars. >> I tend to agree. I think it's helpful for people to that are

015listening and may not know that it it really has been our intent to have optional fees paid by the user. Um so with that in mind, I'd probably lean towards option three as well. I'm comfortable with that as well. Um, I was leaning that way and listening to Corey and some of the the potential for conservatism built in there, I thought, well, maybe, you know, we could go with option two, but I'm I'm comfortable with option three and I agree with um our approach in terms of this truly being optional um versus a need. I guess I feel like if we if we go that direction and learn next year that there's, you know, more uh flexibility in there, then that will be informative. But knowing that we've run a deficit every year, it feels

016prudent to me. Does that give you the guidance you need for now? Yeah. Okay. What we will do is bring back option three as the um recommendation for the board to approve at February. >> Thanks. >> All right. Transportation. All right. So this slide, one of the reasons we like to show this is going back to the 2122. Um we had had the roundtrip and oneway fee uh the same for a few years. Then as we were you know looking into that 22 23 we started to make some jumps in the fee. I the first few years it really didn't impact wrership. Um the last couple of years I think you know we had all wondered for those that have been on the board or pay attention the last several years we had always kind

017of wondered when when does the price start to impact people's decision- making. we started to see that. Um so that's justformational um items for everybody. Here's comparison information to to some other districts and you know unfortunately we only know what new triers is going out for next year. Um, so the others they said they wouldn't have theirs for a couple more months. And here is similar to the food service some options to consider. I do feel good about the 2526 estimate where we were going to land on the cost. And um so similarly um for the options given we've made some large jumps in the past the contract we know is going to go up 3% on the cost side for next year. Um you know I have CPI one and a half times CPI

018and then double CPI. And then as we've had in the past, um, we've always wanted to have information of what does it look like if writership held the same and we increased fees quite a bit. What does it look like at 80% of cover costs? What does it look at 90? What does it look at 100? Those are the bottom three rows. Those are, you know, kind of beenformational points for the boards in the past. And of course we have that column second to the right where it shows the total uh kind of subsidy that the board is offering to um you provide this this optional program. So I'm happy to answer any questions. One of the things I will say the last couple of years going back to 2324 we had this does impact

019the total financial equation. 2324 had 14 total buses like used morning and afternoon. Then 2425 had 12 and a half. And then this current year we have 11 and a half. So that like not having to pay for a bus morning and afternoon. I think that number is up around $80,000 a year to have a bus. Um so that helps like you know make the percent covered look better in in the last couple of years. Um, I don't know that there's really much room for like the cost side, like the number of buses used to go down. I know last year we had a a brief conversation about that and um, so that's that I feel like that's probably pretty firm going forward. Um, so I'm happy to happy to answer any anyone's questions. I

020think I know the answer to this, but um is our district required to provide bus service? >> Thank you. >> Not regular transportation. >> Okay. >> No, we we have an exemption because of public transportation available in the community >> in the distance students. Yeah. Walk. Uh Corey, could I just get a clarification? I think that on slide number four, I'm noticing there might be a typo under the roundtrip fee for Wka. Could you clarify that? I looked back to last year's >> I think that's a uh I think their roundtrip fee is 1,000. >> So, >> unless they changed their approach. >> So, when when I had staff reach out about this, um it sounded like they had made a change that they were just going to offer one flat fee regardless. So, but

021I know they have also had some fairly, you know, finances have been at the forefront there like the last couple of years with their referendum and different things that they have done. So, I don't know where that played into it. >> Thank you, >> Miss Berlin. >> I seem to remember some controversy over buses in the fall or in the summer when these first came out several like letters from parents and things like that. And so I'm curious to know if we've ever considered something that might relieve some of the pressure on parents who have more than one child. Like if you have two kids getting on the same bus to the same school at the same corner versus if they were, you know, let's say to different schools, have we ever considered a discount

022and how many families would that affect? Seems like a reasonable thing to at least consider. the I I'll say that the board has considered that in the past and has chosen not to pursue that, but it certainly is an option that could be considered. Other options the board has considered in the past is looking at distance from the school. Um right now it's the same fee regardless, but um it might be that the board considers those who live more than a mile or more than a mile and a half away from school um should get a reduction because it becomes more of a need than a nice to have. Um, so those I think are the two that have been considered. Another option might be if you have a family where students are going to

023different schools. That also might be a more of a need than a nice to have. But any of those options could be um >> going to the same school. Like if you have two children that are both going to the same school, it doesn't probably increase our cost very much to have them on. I mean, it decreases our income, but at the same time, I don't even know how many families that would affect, but it seems like it would be a reasonable consideration. >> Yeah. Along those um lines of providing some relief because, you know, our costs have gotten significantly higher. So obviously the cost to the end user is significantly higher and when you um so um you know I was thinking about that as well Judy I I was looking at it from

024a different angle being what is really nice to have versus essential and knowing that some parents who have kids at different schools do not have, you know, two parents to get a child to central school and high crest at the same time, especially considering some of the drop off lines and just how much. So, so it almost becomes essential for a lot of parents e even parents who um live far away from High Crest or Wilmet Junior High and are have train schedules in the morning. So I was looking at it not, you know, the two kids at the same stop, but if you don't have two kids going to the same school, are you really able to, you know, work that into your family schedule? And at that point, does it become essential? And

025do we provide a little bit of relief for, you know, those p families with kids at different schools um or families that just live, you know, far away, far enough away that it just isn't an option for the kids to to walk, especially in the um you know, poor weather. Um yeah, Erin, I see >> I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense. Um a couple questions. one is, is this also something that the angel fund can cover or does cover if somebody's having >> Great question. Thank you. Um, this is actually one of the primary uh fees that the angel fund does cover. So, this is an optional service. Um, if a family is financially eligible and in need, um, they can apply for the angel fund to cover the costs. there

026are some limitations and we've really been careful about making sure that it is um financially in need but also transportation wise in need. Um so a family who is financially in need also must live a certain distance away and also must demonstrate that they are unable to themselves transport the the child. Um, so we wouldn't use angel funds even if financially they're in need. If the family can walk the student to school or transport the student to school in some other way, then um we wouldn't necessarily use an angel fund to support that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. But but it is a it's a pretty significant um investment from the angel fund to cover the costs of those in need. >> And the other question I had is the cost of this has

027to do with how many buses we're getting, right? So that has to do with how many people can fit on a bus. So if you have two kids getting on the bus, you're increasing the likelihood that there's more buses, >> right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. when you think about like what covers the cost and what makes it efficient um when I look at what we pay. So if we send out a bus and this primarily happens at the elementary, if we send out a bus, one like one regular bus or a just one route covers an elementary same at morning and afternoon, but then you have a same bus or a different bus that can do like three routes, like when you add a tier to it, >> um the way that

028price is structured, it's like an extra$10 or $20 a day. Got it. So like the efficiency becomes in like where you can stack tiers. Um the other part of it is that factors in and I'm not going to like call out specific routes but like some routes are very popular. Certainly the ones where the older kids that are coming from the east and west side of town, those buses tend to be fuller. Some of our other routes have very few kids. And so if you were just were if you were to break down the finances of each run, you know, like we're aggregating all of that, not all are the same. Um, and I know when we talked about it last year, honestly, the only way to like kind of hit at the efficiency would

029be to institute some sort of mileage threshold, which then um to do that at to do that at scale, you would eliminate I think what we talked about last year was you essentially eliminate a lot of busing for elementary. essentially what happens if you were to if you were to go down that route. >> Can you explain that further, Corey? What what does that mean? >> If we were to if we were to if we were to look at it and say, you know what, we some of these buses that don't have a lot of kids students on them, we want to institute a mileage threshold to, you know, bring up this percent of covered uh cost to something that, you know, maybe we're more comfortable with. we would we would have to eliminate a

030quite a few routes primarily at the elementary levels. So like they wouldn't even so at some schools they wouldn't even have an an option. So it's a fairly big discussion. >> Yeah. And in our district we have historically offered transportation available to all. I will say many of us have worked in districts where that's that isn't typically the case. Um um in some districts you must live a mile and a half away in order to access busing transportation services at all. Anything under a mile and a half um is is a family's responsibility. Um that it's actually pretty common in in many districts. Um but in our district and across the Northshore, I'll say um it's pretty common that busing is available to everyone. But to Corey's point, there are some of our elementary routes

031that are very um there there's really only a few students on the bus and so the cost of the bus route is the same whether there's a couple of students or it's a full bus like our WJHS buses tend to be very full buses. So um so that could be another way to look at it uh for the district if you want to offer some discounts for certain things but also look at reducing costs by eliminating some buses altogether that would be you I I suspect you'd get some community feedback on that. Um I was going to ask about the Northshore like if if other districts do have the distance calculation in there, but it sounds like you said >> um our our near neighbors do not as far as I'm aware. I could I

032could double check, but as far as I'm aware, our our nearest neighbors, meaning our new TRA partners, don't have that threshold. Um but many others do. Um if you even if you go up to just north Lake County districts a little bit west um they'll put that >> I guess the way I think about it is if we were offering a discount I I I think I remember in our previous conversations that that's a complicated thing to figure out the district if you're whatever the parameters are that we're setting. Okay. students in two different schools or more or two students at the same bus stop. Like it's it's doable but complicated from an internal perspective, but also in my mind then then we're going to be running at a bigger deficit. So maybe we need

033to consider a higher increase, which just feels uh not too beneficial in my opinion. So, I guess that leans me towards option one, which is keeping costs consistent for families, but at a lower increase for next year. At least that's the way I'm thinking of it right now for myself. I don't know how other board members feel. I I had one other clarifying question and I think we've talked about this before, but the more that you increase the price obviously the fewer riders there are. Um I think you can see that in this year's numbers. Um do you have a sense of where that line is or not really? I mean, in terms of the options, none. >> You know, I've been thinking about this for a little a little bit knowing that we, you

034know, as we got into the winter, we have this presentation and I've known what the the writership numbers were, you know, since right beginning of the school year. Um, so on one hand, I knew at some point with with larger than say CPI increases, we would see a drop in in writership. But then there's also a part of me that knows just from like what I experienced with my own kids like how do you get you know before afterare busing all that kind of stuff that at some point like the people that are writing they're going to be riding because they absolutely need it. They may not like it. Um but so but I don't know where that line's at. Like I don't know do we if we try to tackle a larger increase um

035you know does that drop us down into the 700 like and you know and where does I don't know like I feel like at some point there's certainly a population student percentage of our families that this is very important and it's probably not likely that a number would would um cause them to drop off but I just don't know where that's at. I do know that part of me had been thinking that now that we've seen this um writership drop come to fruition that you know depending upon what the board felt philosophically um you know smaller increases probably made more sense. I think I don't know if Nutriers has a publicly stated policy, but it does seem when I've talked with them in the past, it seems like what it that a rough approximation of

036their approach is that hey, when it comes to transportation, whatever our cost is going to be, that's what we're going to pass along in the fe like they've been pretty consistent since I've done the comparison. They've always seemed to have increases but they've been smaller like just a few percent whereas I think some of the other fear districts have been more in the position with us where half dozen years ago our fees were much lower but now we're all facing drastically rising costs and we're trying to figure out do we raise it up to get somewhat close to what the high school is you know charging. Um, so >> one other question too and I know you talked about the the contract. How how many more years do we have left? >> This is the

037this current school year is the first year of a fiveyear contract. >> Okay. So that means that we'll know the cost for the next four years. Right. >> It's roughly like 3%. I think there's a couple years at the end they're like two and a half. >> Okay. So, >> do you have a recommendation? >> Um, >> it's okay if you don't. >> No, I mean >> kind of based on what you just said, I kind of had a sense of maybe where we were thinking, but >> yeah, I I mean, I think it's clear from the I when I was coming up with the options and talking with Dr. Crim Skully, I was trying to remember our conversations with the board last year and then blending that with the data that I'm seeing and

038feeling like, you know, something that's in that CPI or if we wanted to go a little bit above it because philosophically, you know, we've tried to make up ground, you know, I don't know, like I'd probably lean towards one or option one or two, but any of the three are are fine. I don't know that a 5 point like when I look at the fees you know this year we're at 1,021 if we go to,080 I don't know that that maybe changes someone's mind versus,065 or,50 you know like our our pre let me find my sheet we had done um here let me go back yeah so this so in 2022 0% increase um and The slide I've got shows the writership. Then we had in 2223 a 20 point I think I calculated as

03920.86% I don't. Then the following year in 232 24 was 14% increase in fee 2425 was 20% and then this past year was 7 and a half%. So >> Cy remind uh the board please what is the increase in contract cost for this year moving to next year? >> 3%. Yeah. >> Can I make an observation? I I'm not trying to be testy because I don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but and I wasn't part of the earlier conversations, but I'm looking at the chart that goes wrership uh for 2023 to 2025 where there was obviously a drop of 140 riders. You said it's $80,000 for a bus. 140 riders is $140,000. So that does raise the question of lost income for people that aren't paying for the bus. So there is

040a different way to look at this which is do we actually I mean I realized that the intent was to cover more but a higher percentage but if we also lost writers to offset that maybe we don't need to maybe we should look at that as well. >> Yeah. No, that's definitely that's a fair question. Corey, do you know off the top of your head, and you may not, um, between 2023 and 2025 26 school year, how many bus crowds were reduced, if any? >> From 25 to 26. Yeah. So, the far right column, um, the current school year, we have 11 and a half, we're using 11 and a half buses. Last school year, we were using 12 and a half. So $80,000 less in expenditures but also $100,000 less in money taken in

041because we have fewer writers. >> Well, that that number was there any >> some of those? No, you're right. No, >> some of the decrease in writers are one way. So that's only like 600 bucks of >> And was there a reduction in routes from 23 to 24 or >> 24 >> FY24 to FY25? We were in 2324 um from like the start of COVID to uh 20 23 24 we had been using 14 buses and then when we saw the decrease for the 2425 school year um we realized we only needed 12 and a half. >> Okay. That is Judy that that is absolutely though the the math we need to think about because we might be at a point now where we're not anticipating further route reductions, further bus reductions. Do we have

042any >> idea of where if we have fewer riders, are we going to run fewer buses right now? >> I mean, it's possible, >> but it doesn't seem likely. um the routes we've cut >> um were just like additional routes at the specific schools. >> So um I don't know that that would that would help. >> Good point. >> Yeah. And the and the flip side to that is the way we've structured signup is, you know, it's open to everybody. And I know that that numbers don't support it, but if it went up and we needed 13 buses, as we get into that data in July, you know, between my staff and I would be calling Northshore like, hey, we actually need more. Like, so it does go both ways. Um that's other board members

043have thoughts about the options. Um I'll just say I I lean toward option one. I know that 2.9 is um in line with the the fee increase that we're going to be seeing even just a you know a little bit lower. Um and um I don't want to go any higher than that in terms of what we're asking from the rider because it is so high right now and it just feels different to me and I haven't you know really figured that out and maybe I need to spend some more time thinking about it but again as we talk about lunch everyone has you know the same option to provide that lunch for their child and you know it's it's we will offer that service if you're not going to pack lunch. Um, and we,

044you know, offer options outside of that for extenduating circumstances with the transportation. Um it the need varies across the district um based on where where you live and the fees are just so high that I just you know because you happen to live you know a few miles away from school. I don't want that cost you to have to bear you know increase even a higher cost than we are right now. I I'm not sure um if that makes sense, but it just feels different to me than the lunch fee does for for that for that reason. Um so that said, I lean toward option one and um increasing it enough to basically cover our fee increase for next year. Any other I would I agree with you there. I mean aligning with the contractual

045fee increase makes sense and I also agree with you in terms there is a difference between lunch and transportation won't need to be punished the parents work it's a so it does that mean you'd prefer it to be a 3% increase so it aligns and there's like a logical direct or is 2.9 sufficient as the increase? >> I think it's sufficient. Um, I wouldn't argue with three though. >> Yeah. CPI. >> 2.9 is CPI and 3% is contract. Yep. I kind of think contract, but I don't know. It doesn't matter. Maybe 3% gives us a weird number, too. >> Oh, good point. >> Yeah. >> Just need some direction so we can bring it back. It seems the majority is >> okay. >> That's what I hear. Um okay, seeing nods. Hey everyone. >> All

046right. So then the last fee up for discussion today is our um are the the variety of athletics fees. So this slide shows the history of the of the deficit compared to these other programs. Um the total cost and revenue are much much smaller. Um so we we you know we had done an increase for 2425 brought the um deficit down a little bit still expecting a little bit of a deficit in the current year. Um so that brings us to like what to do leaning into next year. Um I do have an option for increasing it by the applicable CPI factor. um when we have modified the athletic fees, that's typically where we've I think we've landed in the past. One of the things to consider besides it being in the grand scheme, a

047much smaller overall program is, you know, once we set a fee in any given year for any of these for all these sports, immediately the risk comes to us, we know going in what it's going to cost to pay the coaches. um we have a pretty good idea. You know, sometimes referee fees are a little fluid. Maybe some of the supplies are fluid, but those are small. Really, where it comes in is like what's the participation look like for each of the teams, you know, and if you look at any one of those sports, you have x number of spots. We don't always get every um roster slot filled. And so that can have a pretty like when I look at it that can impact things pretty quickly. Um so I'm always a little hesitant

048to like do uh a little bit larger fees for for this area. But um open to any questions or or feedback from the board. >> Cy transportation plays a role in some of these as well, right? um let's say for you know basketball does this this fee factors in the busing to the away? >> Yeah, we do have Yeah, there are um busing costs incurred by athletics for away events. Yes. >> Why is basketball so high? you know, >> um, it's that's always like if I were to go back, it's always been way way more, but it's relative to like the costs that are that are incurred for it and um, referees, number of games, the coach coaching stipen, number of players on the team. We just look at what it costs to have have

049basketball. >> Yeah. top coach, >> fewer players, fewer players on the roster um to help cover the costs of the coaches. If you're looking at say cross country or track and field, even wrestling, you have a lot of athletes who are participating to help cover the cost. Um basketball pretty much has that roster at 12 students. >> Yeah, we I think >> 12 athletes. So >> yeah, we've tried for like I think the teams when they form or when they are filling them out they're 12 but you know sometimes a team might only have eight or nine. So you know >> maybe more games. >> Yeah. I mean that would add up to more cost. >> Yeah, >> I think CPI makes sense to me. I don't know how other board members feel like you

050have >> agreement for that. >> Very good. Thank you. >> I think we're continuing right with supplemental debt service levy. >> Yes. All right. This is a this is a brief topic. So in the board the documents I have for the board uh pretty much the whole thing is just resolutions um prepared by our bond council. But I do want to highlight um feel like exhibit A is kind of where it goes. And so when we when we uh as I put in for the notes to the board, when we issued the 2023 bonds, um you know, the vehicle by which we can repay those make those principal and interest payments without having gone to a referendum is the sub is the uh debt service extension base. That amount grows by inflation every year because

051of the way the laws are written. Even though a school district may intend to capture that increase every year for to repay the bonds, um we're not allowed to just state that. And so as time passes, if we want to be able to levy more to pay off those slightly increasing principal and interest payments, the board needs to take action to pass a supplemental debt service levy, which is the documents that I that I've included. Um, and so what we would be asking the board uh in two weeks would be to approve a supplemental debt service levy for the 2025 and 26 levy years. Um, and we're able to do two at the same time because we um waited until now because then we could capture the we knew what the CPI was for uh

052for the 2025 calendar year which impacts the 2026 levy year. Um, so column C is really where the impact is. Is if we were to not proceed with this over the next three years, it would um eat up reserves in the debt service fund to about 255,000. So um it's a fairly I wouldn't say it's like super common, but it is a a fairly common practice that happens when when districts are issuing um long-term debt. And we've done this multiple times in our past. Does anybody have any questions about this? >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Mrs. Paling. All right. We will move on to strategy. Miss Stone. >> Yes. Um and I believe I'm turning this over to Kelly Jack Kelly Jackson and Joshua Swanner for an English

053language arts committee update and curriculum recommendations. and then we will be talking about single subject acceleration process update. >> Yes. So, um exciting news today with our ELA curriculum committee update. Um I'm coming to you with a recommendation for our um K5 and 6 through 8 uh curriculum for implementation next year. Um it's been a a um kind of long road I would say with ELA curriculum beginning quite a few years ago with our foundational literacy adoption. Um if you recall um kindergarten through 2 grade went through this process and adopted the UFly materials for foundational literacy and we've been seeing some great improvements with that which I'll show you at the board meeting. Um but um this is really a K8 committee that um focused on our tier one materials for everybody. So what

054is that everyday day-to-day um comprehensive literacy approach? And so you can see the members of our KA ELA curriculum review committee here on the screen. I want to thank them all for their time. Um there's a lot of work that has been done. um a lot of work to come, but these um all of these members have truly been leaders in piloting the curriculum, in sharing with their colleagues and and really um taking a really good look at all of the individual things, all of the individ individual components with ELA and analyzing them um and how they affected children in their learning. So, it was really exciting. Um, I also want to give a big shout out to Sue Langan, our K uh 4 curriculum coordinator, and to Sam Pakoro, our um fifth through 8th

055grade curriculum coordinator. They have just um really um worked with the administrative team. I know Joshua, his heart has been in this as well, um to uh have really productive meetings and discussions around ELA. So, it's been a really um positive process the whole way. Um a little bit about uh curriculum review. Um different things will initiate a curriculum review in this situation. Um we had several years since our last um curriculum review. So that was one of the components but I would say we also um were provided uh the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan which helped to guide some of our work. So, um, not new standards per se, but new guidance for us, um, along the way. Um, so you can see here a little bit of a broad overview of what we do

056when we go through a curriculum review cycle. Um, you can see we have the Illinois comprehensive comprehensive literacy plan. There's been some new literacy research over the years. um that really triggered the the adoption of UFly at the outset, but that was something we considered as we went along this route as well. Um and then um some of our priorities over the past few years. Um and then um you'll see this year we're preparing for implementation. And so with that, there's a little bit of a broken down process here for you. So you can see where we've been along the way. Um, we just completed triing lessons and using materials in committee member classrooms, otherwise known as a pilot. Um, and now we're here today to select and recommend materials for district use. Um, this

057is just a map of the various uh stages of materials review that we went through. So, um, you can see for both uh both groups. So we separated our ELA curriculum committee into kindergarten through fifth grade and fifth really serves as that end cap for literacy instruction and then we have sixth through 8th grade. Um while fifth and sixth grade are at the same school there are unique elements for both of those grades. So we wanted to take that under um consideration. So you see there are about 15 14 or 15 um initial curricula that we looked at. Then we narrowed it and brought vendors in to share with us more detailed presentations about all of those curriculum. And then um stage three was the further narrowing. So this happened at the end of last

058school year where we said, "Okay, what are we going to pilot?" Um and so at kindergarten through fifth grade, we piloted collaborative literacy um and schoolwide fundament fundamentals. sixth grade because they're kind of in the middle, they decided to pilot schoolwide fundamentals, um, Common Lit 360 and Study Sync. And then seventh and eighth grade decided to pilot Common Lit 360 and Study Sync. Um, however, uh, with seventh and eighth grade, um, after the pilot of Common Lit 360, it was so successful that they chose to just move forward with Common Lit 360. Um, sixth grade did the full pilots of all three. Um, and after looking at all of those different curriculum, we're excited that kindergarten through fifth grade is moving forward with collaborative literacy and sixth through 8th grade chose common lit 360. So,

059um, both curriculums are really great um, products. Collaborative literacy is researchbased. It's comprehensive. um it has a foundational literacy component, but we will be using UFly and then supporting that with collaborative literacy, but kindergarten through second grade will still continue to use the Youth Fly materials. Um it also focuses on word study, grammar, comprehension, um all of the main components of reading and writing that we want to see. teachers in the pilot classrooms have said they've seen more writing from their teachers or from their students than they have seen over the past few years. So, it's really exciting that they're engaged and excited to write, which is is something that we we take pride in at the elementary level. Um, sixth through 8th grade teachers with the come and let come and lit um curriculum

060have seen kids be really engaged in the materials. It offers opportunities for flexibility. Um so there's six main units in common lit at each grade level. Um for our sixth grade teachers who teach a block, they'll do all six units. Um at the junior high where we have reading and writing teachers, there will be three and three units. So there are three uh more reading focused units and three more writing focused units. So, we will be splitting that up as we do our curriculum um map writing and teachers will also have flexibility within that to do some of the things that they love so much like novel studies and um book clubs and things like that that um really engage their kids at a different level and give them a broader experience to different literature

061sources. Um so uh we think that both of these curriculum are really just fantastic and there's a lot of excitement as you go to grade level and um collaborative meetings among the teachers as well. Uh you can see here uh fall and winter we are right there at our explore materials further making recommendations and then um at 6th through 8th grade we've s seen some um gaps I think in and it may be due to just the change over um many years with the the foundational literacy approach but um some gaps in their grammar and and things like that. So, we're looking at some supplemental materials just to help close those gaps for sixth through eighth graders. Um, and then we will be recommending that uh later this spring. Um, we're also d diving into

062curriculum mapping which um will be taking place over the next few months and then um looking at professional learning and training sessions. So um we have a an institute day next week and there will be some broad overviews offered to teachers um just to learn more about the both of the curriculums that we have adopted. Here's a little bit deeper dive into that timeline. Um you can see we're right there at the February March area. So recommendation that's today. Um and then overviews at this fee February 17th day. um investigating supplemental materials and then uh curriculum map development again is right where we're at. Um we are looking at some initial trainings to start this spring for all of our K8 ELA teachers and then even into the summer some opportunities for curriculum writing and

063curriculum mapping and then possibly some training as well. Um next fall we are excited to begin that implementation process. So with that I will uh ask for any questions. >> Uh board members um Miss Paffless. >> Um thank you for all this information. Um so I am not a teacher. Um can you just explain to me sort of when when you're choosing these like what materials are actually provided like what is the curriculum? Is it like this is what you will teach this is how you will teach it like what do teachers get? >> Yes. Um so uh so at K5 um they've gotten uh like kits almost. So there's teacher manuals, there's student workbooks, there's um the the collaborative literacy actually has two components called being a reader being a writer. Um so they've

064had those books. There's also classroom libraries that go with that with um we call them mentor text. So um books that you might base a lesson off of or several lessons off of. Um there's read aloud opportunities. Um there's also an online platform that teachers get to access with um kind of week at a glances and um different things to look at um within the curriculum opportunities for differentiation are in there. Um so uh they've they've been provided those materials and then they come together as um as collaborative teams to plan and look at like across a grade level what they might be doing. um at the junior high or sixth through eighth grade level. Um most of the collaborative lip platform is online um for the teachers to dig into, but it's similar in

065that it has um lesson plans, it has assessments, it has um the the readings are online, but they can be printed out too for teacher or for students to read. Um, one thing that came up several times throughout our discussion at sixth through 8th grade was having some hard copy materials for students. And so we will be they have recently adopted um almost like student workbooks at sixth through 8th grade. So we will be adopting those also. So they have the the offline time as well. Um and I would say there too we will be supporting um classroom libraries with lots of different texts for for students to explore. So if there are certain things that teacher can they choose to do some parts of it and not other parts or is it really a

066toz and that's what they have to do? >> Um I think at the at the elementary level um there is some variation with how they approach the lesson certainly you want to be responsive to the students in your classroom and so you may if everybody knows a certain concept you may you know kind of overview it but then move on to the next concept. Um and so there's that flexibility within um certainly we want to have um at the ele or at the junior high level at the six through eight level. Um collaborative literacy is actually built with that flexibility. So they offer you a lot of different options for readings and short stories and teachers can kind of pick and choose and also supplement within their curriculum with multimedia sort of things that they

067could build in. Um so there are there is that flexibility there. the main crux of the unit is what we are expecting as well as the assessments. So we want some uniformity, some consistency around um at all grade levels around assessments and just the basic unit um focus. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. I have one other question if people don't care. Um do you look at how the two interact with each other? So sort of how collaborative literacy then prepares a child to start using common lit or whatever or is that not really part of the equation? >> Um I think it it it is in that we look at the the uh standards for ELA across the board. So from kindergarten through 8th grade and each of these curriculum are um centered around those

068standards. So collaborative literacy is actually only through fifth grade. Um so it is built to or is designed to build those foundational kindergarten through fifth grade um standards or design instruction around those standards. And so it should feed naturally into the sixth grade through 8th grade um curriculum which is actually only built for sixth through 12th grade. So um that is is meant to pick up where an elementary curriculum is left off and they're all um standards aligned. So, um, in essence, if you're following the standards, you should be building on each other and it should be fairly aligned, but there will be some work that we'll look at, um, between fifth and sixth grade to make sure that there's some, um, alignment between those those two curriculum. Thank you, >> Miss Hart. Um, Kelly,

069can you speak to um are any kind of significant or big differences between where collaborative literacy and common lit versus where we had been? like is there anything that really stands out as being different or >> um yeah I think I think the the real advantage to having these curriculum is is really the structure that it brings and and the alignment that it can bring across a grade level. And so um with what we had before certainly it was curricula or it was standards aligned but um there was a lot more flexibility in the experience that kids were having in the classroom because this is a tier one curriculum that we are adopting across the district with the assessment built in. Also, we um we are very confident that people will be using the a

070common assessment across all four elementary schools at each grade level. Um and then on into sixth through 8th grade, I think there was even more flexibility in what was happening in the various classrooms. And I think we are excited that there are these six units at each grade level that each student will have that similar experience. And then um again with the assessments it really ties it all together. So we know that each student is having >> other board members. >> You sort of spoke to the question that I had in mind but I was thinking you know we're all learning about the great importance of having things offline right things to read and pen and paper and writing. And so I was thrilled to hear what you were saying about um all the grades

071but supplementing with the junior high sixth through eighth grade to make sure they have that. So that's wonderful and I know it's harder to find with current curriculum. >> It's very difficult but um it was definitely a priority of our teachers and I think that is really exciting for us from our standpoint because they are really considering >> um the student experience and having that balance is really important to our teachers. And then I had a question about something you said about the supplemental materials for grammar and and meeting our needs. And I love that because I know no curriculum is perfect, right? It's just impossible for whatever a district is looking for. Is that something that you're thinking about to bridge where we are now? Uh or is it something that you feel like

072looking at these two curriculums that's something in addition that will be helpful? I think it's it's in addition right now that will be helpful. Um certainly um especially common does have grammar lessons built in that are targeted toward the grade level standards. However, what we've found in our experience is that may not be quite enough. And so um as we have students who are metriculating from the elementary school and have had that foundational literacy experience and also the the common experience with collaborative literacy which has grammar lessons really substantial grammar and word study built into the curriculum. Um we may be able to fade some of that in the future but I think right now it is it's something that we'll continue to do on top of for the foreseeable future. I really appreciate I

073know this is an enormous amount of work and attention to all those details. So, thank you. >> Any other board members? >> Okay, I'll just say thank you so much for this process and for all the work that you and everyone on your team has done. It's really important and it's really, I think, been thoughtful and thorough and um you know, I'll just say that for years, I've said this before, but I one of the things I love about this district is that it doesn't just rest on its laurels. um it's, you know, looking for ways to improve student outcomes and the student experience. And I just know when my own kids went through um D39, I'd think like, "Oh, the social studies curriculum is fantastic." And then it would change. I'd be like, "Oh,

074it's even better now." So, I I'm just appreciative of the process that everybody went through to help um improve student outcomes and the student experience. And I think we're moving on to um Oh, wait. I just had one question. Do you need a thumbs up from us? Because I know it says recommendations or you just kind of bringing us along. >> We're just bringing >> That's kind of what I thought. Okay. All right. Um, so we're moving on to single subject acceleration process update. All right. Um, so, uh, to ensure a clear understanding of our acceleration process in district 39 for both ELA and mass and to provide some increased transparency for our families, we're looking forward to sharing an update today with all of you about the single subject acceleration process. Um Joshua is

075going to co-present with me. And so um we we have been doing a lot of work since the beginning of the year and uh it's brought us to a point where um we are looking forward to sharing this update with you. Um a little bit of background. The acceleration placement act defines acceleration as instruction focused on standards and skills typically taught at a higher grade level. In district 39, we have accelerated pathways for students consistently meeting grade level expectations and whose learning needs cannot be fully met through traditional classroom enrichment and differentiation. Specifically, the acceleration placement accelerated placement act requires that acceleration not be limited to students identified as gifted or talented. It employs a fair and equitable decision-making process involving multiple people. It includes an assessment process that has multiple vi valid reliable indicators

076and procedures for notification of the decision of a child's placement in the accelerated placement. Um options for acceleration include single subject acceleration, so ELA or math. Uh grade level acceleration, so that's if a student who's currently in second grade moves to fourth grade for the following school year, kind of skips a grade. um and uh early entrance to kindergarten or first grade. Uh for this presentation, we're going to focus on single subject acceleration um as well as how that impacts our grade level acceleration pro process. Um it's important to note and you'll see that on the screen uh that single subject acceleration is different from the math placement in sixth through 8th grade. Um those are actually leveled math classes. And so we have a class right now called accelerated sixth grade math if you

077will. Um we'll talk a little bit about that. Um but this should not be confused with those math classes. Um this is really moving up a grade or skipping a grade. Um, in essence, uh, since the Accelerated Placement Act was put into policy in 2018, um, we've had a process in place which included families who would email the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction. Then we'd meet and discuss their request. Um, and then we'd compile a learner profile. And this would all happen um, usually around February, March of the year before the request was being made. Um, and so, uh, in that learner profile, we included information about MAP, I AR, some SEAL assessments. Um, sometimes we'd have staff input or work samples. Um, if if needed, um, then in our department, we would review those

078profiles and make the decision and communicate that decision to families and they may appeal that decision um through uh, Dr. Crimisfully if needed. uh information information about this process was included in our uh parent handbook for families and so uh they they did have access to that. Turn it over to you. >> All right. Good morning. So, I'm very thankful for Kelly because I don't even think she officially started in her role yet. And we met to talk about what what are some things we just want to tackle as um a team and as a department. And this one uh rose to the top and we agreed that we wanted to take a look at our process and see how we can improve it in that spirit of continuous improvement. So to do that, uh,

079we created a task group of key stakeholders from all of our, um, elementary schools and Hidrest. We'll talk in a second why WJHS wasn't really part of that. I think it'll be shown in the data why. Um, and we wanted to just look at our recent data, past trends for acceleration and acceleration requests. um discuss what does the accelerated placement act require us to do but more than what we're required to do what's our philosophy behind student learning and what's available to our high readiness learn learners so um through that process we gathered feedback from this representative group we reviewed it as an administrative team with our coordinators um curriculum and instruction department and then we developed a process based on that feedback from group discuss question. So, it'd be helpful just to look at

080some of our data. Um, and we'll start with our acceleration request by grade. And you'll notice that the bulk of our well, all of our requests are really spread across three different grades. Um, I think we'll make more sense of why this is the case in just a moment when we look at some other data. Here's our acceleration request by year. So, this became a law in uh 20 well 2018 was implementation year for all school districts, but we didn't really receive formal requests from parents until more recently and then last year um a large increase in numbers. I think that increase also shows us the need to reflect on our process and and just have a honest conversation about that as a district. So the next graph shows us the areas where acceleration is

081requested. Um long story short, 100% involves math and a very few requests um are around ELA instruction. those that did involve ELA instruction were also requests in the area of math. So, it's starting to come into focus um what the requests are really about and when. Okay. Um this chart demonstrates the number of students at each grade level at a specific national achievement percentile and above. It's a three-year average of RIT scores. Um, so just looking at this, we'll pick an example. 54 second graders, if we follow that row of second grade, 54 second graders per year on average are in the 95th percentile nationally or above in math. So right now we're just looking at math. And about 50 are in the 96th percentile or above. So on and so forth. So that's the

082pink section that we're looking at. The yellow portion shows how D39 students in grades two through seven perform compared to the 95th percentile or above at the next grade level. So, for example, on average, 11 of our second graders per year are in the 95th percentile or above compared to third graders nationally. So, what does this all mean? Well, it means we have a large number of students that fall into the top fifth percentile or above, far exceeding national averages. And we use this information um to help inform some initial criteria for the acceleration process that we're um sharing with you today. And in addition to this data also um we'll talk about in a in a brief moment um looking at other township schools um that feed into newer. So this is the very

083same table but for ELA. I think we can clearly see why the overwhelming majority of acceleration requests are focused in the area of math. Um, our numbers in the top fifth percentile for reading specifically are far above the national average. It's really that top 1% that is more in line with the national average. Now we get into my favorite part because there's a lot of context here and I think it's important to kind of ground ourselves in what we're looking at and and what it means. So this chart shows the percentage of students in our local top fifth percentile in achievement and will met and which of like uh of those students who have met their growth projections by grade and year. So if you look horizontally, you are seeing different cohorts of students, right?

084So if we follow second grade, each color is a different year. If we go diagonally, it's the same cohort of students over time. But before we draw conclusions just from looking at this, we have to ground ourselves in a few important things. It's important to note that MAP generates a growth projection for students. This is not a growth goal. So what map does is it compares students to their like peers across the country. By like peers we mean the exact same achievement level or RIT score and grade level. And then map calculates the median growth for all of those students. That median growth is the growth projection. So by design 50% of students in a district should meet their growth projections. Of course, we can shoot higher than that. But when we talk about aiming

085for a target of of meeting growth projections, it's really from a district lens rather than an individual student lens using a growth projection measure. So, for example, a percent range of 50 to 55% means a district is meeting or slightly exceeding the national norm. When you talk to NWA um who uh is the uh publisher of MAP, they'll say that 60% or above is considered exemplary. However, uh for high achieving districts like Wilmet, there are even more nuance pieces just to share to make sure we're all on the same page. Because MAP is an adaptive assessment, students will receive questions that go far beyond their current grade level. That's by design. Um, and in addition to that, we also have to ground ourselves going back to the philosophy of student learning and what we're trying

086to do in our district. We also have to just remind ourselves that MAP is a snapshot. It is a facet of student learning and it is not by any means the sole indicator of a student's readiness. Um so for example if we talk about math where most of the acceleration requests have occurred uh map doesn't measure some of the things that we value deeply as a district such as mathematical discourse the ability to verbally explain conceptual understanding to take uh knowledge uh gained um and apply it to new and novel situations in real life uh real world um experiences. So what we see from this really is our data largely shows that students in our top f uh five percentile are growing at um or well above the national norm. Although there are some areas

087that we will look into uh for specific grades. And this additional data was really helpful in forming our process as it shows our ability to adequately meet the needs of our high readiness learners through enrichment and differentiation in their current educational classroom and setting. Okay, so now that I went over all that, the next one's really easy. This is uh the same chart but for reading. Uh we observe more variance of course uh with room for improvement for our high readiness learners. This is one of the reasons why we're really excited about our new ELA curriculum. Um, I appreciate some of the questions that board members asked about like flexibility. We always want flexibility for our teachers. Um, but we also want to ensure some equitable outcomes and in standard aligned instruction. I'll kick it

088over to Kelly and >> All right. So, now to our process. So after reflecting as a a representative group on the data that Joshua just shared um and gathering feedback from our representatives in that in that group we develop the following process um and this is what we are looking forward to implementing this spring. So starting soon um be first beginning in midFebruary the process includes a proactive identification of students which means that in our department we'll use the scores of students on MAP across the district to determine if they meet initial criteria which we'll show share in a second for candidacy for the acceleration in math or ELA. We'll share that um like I said on the next slides. uh after meeting the initial criteria, parents will then be notified by the end of

089the month of February um of their child's candidacy and will have the opportunity to continue that candidacy through the next steps of the review process or to say I'm good, thank you, and choose to remain with their child's current placement. Um, we realize that, um, when making decisions for their children, parents may want to just keep their child at their current grade level in their current classroom um, for the remaining um, experience in the district because uh, you know, accelerating does have some impacts uh, social emotionally for kids especially if there is more than one subject area that that that acceleration takes place Um so we're giving that option to families. Um the other part of that is through the proactive notification we are able to say hey you may not be aware of this

090process but this is an opportunity for your child. Um we found that through uh the many requests this year there were many people who said I didn't even know this existed. And so we want to make sure that we are proactive in that. So we're not missing anybody and so um it affords us more equity um in this process. Um so once a family decides that they want to continue with that process um we will then uh collect additional data and we'll triangulate that data to determine eligibility. Um so what we'll do is we'll collect certain um things map some more map data I A data um the KOGAT which we give tech typically in fifth grade um we can give a KAT to a younger child that the score is actually good for three

091years um and then some other curriculum based measures to help us dig into some of those areas that Joshua just talked about that are not apparent on MAP. Um, so we'll we'll look at all of that data and discuss it with our acceleration review team, which is made up of those representatives that helped us with this process. Um, so this will happen throughout April and May. Um, and then families will be notified of their child's eligibility for accelerated placement prior to June 1st. Um, this process then closes for the current school year and will reopen again in February um, of the following school year. um we want to give families notification before they're out of school so then they can say yes that sounds great plan for that or um we decided that maybe this

092isn't what we want right now. Um and then we can also offer that to our administrators in their planning processes for placement and uh scheduling. Um, one note on there, um, we are expecting that placement would be with a class at the next grade level in the subject for which they're accelerated. So, for example, a second grader accelerated to third grade math would then take math with a third grade class. We've had some different setups over the years with what that looks like and much of it is like onetoone maybe two to one instruction which we found does not foster the the discourse and the problem solving um with peers that we think is so valuable within the math class. And so um or ELA class for that matter. And so we would be placing

093the student with a class of um kids for that accelerated placement. In some situations um similar to the new Trier Township math program um we'd have to consider con uh transportation. So if there's a fourth grader taking fifth grade math, they would go to Highest for their math class. So we'd have to look at the schedule and transportation for that. Um here you see the initial criteria spelled out uh for you and then this is um this is the what we would use for that initial initial candidacy. So uh the MAP expectation would be two of the last three NWA MAP tests would place the students in the 99th percentile nationally of the grade they would skip. so of the next grade to be considered for further assessment. Um and so families would be receive

094notification from the district in February um if their student meets those criteria and then they'd have that option to apply. So if a student again is in currently in second grade, we would look to the 99th percentile of third grade on MAP for that initial candidacy in ELA or in math. Um, we'll share some cut score tables on the next screen so you can see what that looks like. Um, families would be contacted and have the choice to apply for further consideration and review. And then there's that additional criteria that the team would use to consider a final placement. Um, so you see there's the Kogat there. That's that um, cognitive abilities test and that would be um, students in the 98th percentile nationally on that um, curriculum based measure. So that would be uh

095like a comprehensive assessment from the curriculum um for the student of the grade level that they would skip. So um if you're a second grader, we would give you the third grade comprehensive assessment because we would be advancing you. Um so that would we were expecting a 90% on that. Um I uh we would look at students who have a score of 790 on the most recent AR. students only take I AR in third through 8th grade and so we would only have IR results available for students who are applying in fourth grade and up. Um and so that would be the most recent AR. We don't get those results until the fall of the following year. Um and then map expectations. So through this process we would be able to consider then the next

096most recent map as well as a part of that process. I'll turn it over to you to talk about that initial criteria. >> Sure. Um, so on first glance, I think that us, you know, discussing the 99th percentile of the next grade is a very high standard and I would say uh indeed it is. Uh, it goes back to that idea of how are we meeting our learners needs in their current educational setting. And I think our data demonstrates that that by and large we are able to do that. But we also know that some students just need more. Um so that 99th percentile certainly is in line with um some neighboring districts. Um it could be a little more lax in some cases than some other township uh feeders, but not by much. And

097then other township feeder districts, it's hard to compare because their processes just look so different. Um, one thing we did explore as an example was like looking at the 98th percentile instead the 99th. And the difference there is a third of a standard deviation. So that would be like a student uh the difference between a student in the 50th percentile and the 62nd percentile. So the the the standard deviation between each percentile is not the same. So when we look at criteria, that idea of talking about transparency with families, which is a lot of uh feedback we received and and to be fair, I I think it was something we could improve. Um talking about percentile rankings, it it's it's very conceptual and it doesn't really tell families much. So we wanted to be as

098transparent as possible by offering them like the exact RIT scores that we're looking at. Uh so that's what uh these two tables show. Um again important to note that starting in uh when a child is in sixth grade that's when we start talking about our township math program for nutrient math and that acceleration piece would be governed by that process which we are currently reviewing as a township as well right now and making some um adjustments and recommendations shortly so we're all on the same page with that. So, I'm going to turn our attention to grade level acceleration. Um, for obvious reasons, it's related to single subject acceleration. Um, we may have a student who falls as based on the initial criteria as a candidate for both math and ELA. Um, we would mirror the

099similar process and parents of course would have um again that same option. Um, but if a student meets all of the the criteria throughout the process in both subject areas that it comprises a large chunk of their school day. So, we would then move that to grade level uh acceleration and recommend that that student um be placed in the next grade level up for all of their instruction. Um, at that time, if a student meets all of the secondary criteria in both areas, we would give parents again the option to select either single subject acceleration, grade level acceleration, or no acceleration at all. And so, again, this take talks back to that um social emotional component. moving a child up from, you know, fourth grade even to fifth grade for instruction is a large leap

100and a big transition for kids no matter which grade. And so to be with grade level peers who are a year older than them or sometimes more um is is something to take under consideration. And so we would want to make sure that parents have that last word and um could make that ultimate decision. um we didn't pay as much attention to the grade level acceleration process as we did to the single subject acceleration process this year. Um so we'll continue to review that and see um where we land and if any changes need to be made, we'll we'll make those through the next year. Did want to bring to your attention a little bit of a note about sixth through 8th grade math. As I mentioned at the beginning, we do currently have classes

101that are called accelerated math at sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Um, accelerated, calling the class accelerated really confuses it um with this accelerated placement process. Accelerated math as a class as it is right now is grade level uh content and curriculum maps, but it's taught at a faster pace. And so it allows the kids to go in more depth into different concept areas to do a lot more problem solving and discourse in the class and um just move along a lot more quickly. Um and so in discussion we thought you know let's let's change the title not the class itself but the title to advanced math and that really conotes that that it is an advanced uh pace. It's just um it uses the same curriculum and then it can't be confused with the accelerated

102math um single subject placement process. Um additionally, New Trier Township Math Joshua just talked a little bit about how we are reviewing that process along with all of our math classes as a township um and discussing that placement process um for the future. Um, typically it's students in sixth grade sit for the ex or for the new Trier Township math placement test. Um, we have typically kept that open for all of our uh sixth graders. We have maybe about 40% of our students would take that um assessment. So um not not placing but 40% would take the initial assessment. So, we really keep it open for our students. Um, this year because we have accelerated several students um into the fifth graders into sixth grade math. Um, we had some discussions with Nutrier. Um, other

103township schools were also in the same boat. And, uh, New Trier said yes, all students who are currently enrolled in a sixth grade math class. So even if they are fifth grade by age could take the nutri placement test. So all of our fifth graders who were accelerated did take that nutrier placement test. We don't know how they did but um they did take it. So um if a student then in sixth grade or in fifth grade passes that nutrier placement test as a se sixth grader they would then go to nutrier um and in essence be double accelerated. If they don't make that um cutoff for the new trier placement test, then we'd continue them on the accelerated placement track and they would be a sixth grader taking seventh grade math um at the

104junior high. This just is a graphical representation of the many math pathways that we have in our district. Um for the green boxes, those are about nutrier math. um that's governed by Nutrier. Uh as we mentioned earlier, um there is a program of studies on Nutrier's website that um shares all of the content for that. However, um all of our math uh curriculum maps are available online for parents to review and and to see what is exactly studied at those levels. Um, one final note, uh, we have updated our curriculum and instruction website on the main Wilmat page. Um, Joshua talked about transparency. I think I mentioned transparency a couple of times and we've had a lot of feedback about not understanding this process, not understanding the placement process for any of our classes and

105and what does that look like? And so what we've done is we have um uh expanded our curriculum and instruction website to include um information about acceleration both uh single subject and grade level along with early entry to kindergarten and first grade. There is an FAQ on there that is amazing um really built by Joshua and um our team um of lots of questions that have come up. And then um we have some notes about middle school and junior high math. Um basically what I had just shared with you. Um there are some other elements talking about differentiation and enrichment and intervention. Some of those things that we get a lot of questions about. And so I encourage everybody to go and explore the new and updated website as well in your free time. So

106with that uh any questions that we can answer for you? >> Thank you so much for that. Board members, any questions, comments? >> I have a couple, but I'll wait. Miss Pathless, >> um, do the kids reapply each year or once they're in, they're in or >> once you have met the criteria to be accelerated, then you would be accelerated for your for the continuation of your path. Um, so no, you don't have to reapply every year, >> but you could choose to drop back down if it turns out to be too hard for a number of reasons. Yeah. Okay. >> Anyone else? Yes, Mrs. Berlin. >> A couple things. Uh, first of all, I do think that one of the strengths of our district has been the uh decision, which has to have been

107a conscious decision by the board and the administration to keep classes small enough to allow for differentiation by classroom teachers. I think that is a real strength for our district. It does tie into this though because acceleration shouldn't really be the only systemic method of addressing the needs of high functioning students and it troubles me. So this this I thank you for doing this. I think that the the staff who put the time into it did a an excellent job of both addressing the question that the new state laws have apply have have created and also the question of increased numbers of people applying. But I do think it also leads to questions about a much bigger issue of how we address the needs of high functioning students in a systemic way beyond classroom instruction.

108It troubles me that the only alternative for parents who feel that their students are not being needs are not being adequately addressed, that their only real option is some kind of acceleration to a different grade level. that if you feel that your math student in third grade is not getting adequate differentiation or can't in the classroom or third grade than fourth grade is that then you would need to apply for a and and give permission for your child to be taught at a different grade level because that actually has a lot of consequences uh social emotional consequences for kids obviously and it isn't even surprising that the numbers increase at fourth grade because going into fifth grade, if I understand the math program correctly, right, there is no advanced math at fifth grade. So, the

109only real alternative for parents is to request the single subject acceleration to a sixth grade class. I don't think it was your job to answer that. Um, I don't even know that it's the team that did this's job to answer that. I do think since we are on the cusp of strategic planning for our five-year plan, one thing that we might want to look at is how are we meeting the needs of that 95th to 99th percentile of kids and is it reasonable for classroom teachers to be expected to complete a 100% of that differentiation and for that I in the world according to Judy. Okay. There would be some sort of a task force that includes parents and community members, all of the stakeholders, teachers, administrators, maybe even an interested board member or two.

110Or maybe we could take advantage of our CRC talent and that could be a subject that they study. But I do think we need to look at best practices for meeting the needs of high functioning students. who maybe are in the 98th percentile instead of the 99th percentile and if there are places that we can better meet those needs. >> Thank you. Okay. I think there's a couple of things there that I heard. One is that um we are uh Judy what you're articulating is that we want to continue to ensure that our students who are in the 90th percentile or higher and maybe it's 85th percentile and higher whatever you know pick your number but our advanced students are continuing to grow and learn within their current structure and I think one of the

111things that you pointed out is we intentionally keep our class sizes low so that our students can our teachers can effectively differentiate to meet those needs and and I think that's very true. I think what the data show us is that many of our advanced learners first of all there are a lot of them. So if we are looking at the 80th, the 85th, the 90th percentile um nationally we have cohorts many a large cohort of students who are falling in that um in that grouping. And so when our teachers are teaching and differentiating, they are able to um address those needs within the classroom um in in many regards, not all, but in many regards. And I think our data show that. It is something to continue to evaluate because I think what I

112also hear you saying is that some parents feel like their students needs are not being met with within that general education classroom even if their child is one of say eight out of 21 who fall within that advanced learner profile. And and typically that is that's what we're seeing is that it's not it isn't one or two who fall above the 85th percentile. There are there are many within most classrooms. And so for our teachers to do those groupings um there there is a cohort in each of our classrooms. But for us to continue to evaluate is that effective? Are those students growing? Are there other ways to address the needs of our advanced learners just like we continue to evaluate? Are our our typical students continuing to grow? Are our students who maybe need

113remediation and intervention continuing to grow? So, um I think those are really good questions to ask. Um and I think we have some data that helps us to better understand that. But it is also a time as we look to our strategic plan that that might become an area of focus for ours. I've said a lot and Kelly Joshua, I can see that you're ready to share some insights of your own. >> Um, specifically in math, we have we are in the second year of implementation for our bridges curriculum and all of our teacher training this year has really been focused on differentiating at the higher levels in our classrooms. So we have really focused on there there's a component called concept quests which are really um multi-step um real life kinds of problems that

114students will work in small groups um to dig into and there's a feedback component that um between the teacher and those groups of students to help probe them further and and get them d deeper thinking on the different um concept areas. Um and so that's one element that we have really been working on. Upcoming at our February institute day, we have another session with our math consultants from um the math learning center to really focus on questioning techniques. Um we have another component called workplaces and developing workplace um which is like small groupings uh and some games and and things like that map games um that uh we can vary at a higher level and and tap into some of those higher level concepts. So we've been having a lot of conversation with that. To

115that end I have been meeting with our math support teachers who really work with not only students needing intervention but also students at that higher level in the classroom. um to and also helping teachers support those higher level students in the classroom. Um we've been meeting um on a regular basis to talk about with our new math curriculum, what are those needs beyond just the differentiation that takes place in the classroom and how can we continue to support those needs. And so that has been a conscious effort um as we continue to study the needs of those higher um higher level learners um because we you're right we we don't think that acceleration should be the only pathway. We really want to have those students needs met throughout their experience in their in their classroom

116with their peers. Um, in the ELA realm, we of course have adopted a new curriculum and, um, I would say that in ELA, however, we uh, there's a lot more variability within the classroom to introduce um, books that are um, maybe at a different concept or to that the standards are written in such a way that they're very much more nuanced as to what that next level is. So tapping into um more than just identifying the theme, but where does the theme show up in different um texts or how does that uh portray itself throughout a whole novel that you're reading? Things like that. Higher level skills that may be a you know an a higher grade level standard are easier to access through a lot of the the reading materials and discussions that happen

117in an ELA class. It's not as sequential as math. So, it's a little bit different approach, but um we work really hard to differentiate within that and our new curriculum also provides some materials for that differentiation. >> I I really appreciate that um idea of that we're in a unique position to look at this. I think what interests me the most is when we talk about, you know, some of those things things that might be a change. We you had the question about, you know, well, what's flexible and what's not. Well, we what we want are consistent data practices and what data are we using to inform us of our students progress and growth so that we can rely on more things than just MAP. I mean, full disclosure, when I retire, if I I

118would love to work for MAP. That's how that's how valuable I find it. But we know it's not the end- all beall. And we're really excited with these new curricula about this actionable data at our fingertips that we can grow and improve on like how we speak with parents about that and and just looking at student learning and growth with multiple measures to make sure that we are appropriate appropriately challenging our students. I I I think that input's wellreceived. >> Follow up. This is, if the board will indulge me, this um clearly is intended for a very narrow band of students, right? 99%. Um, one of the things, I'm not sure I've said it at the board table, but I I got my master's degree in gifted education, and there was a professor that I

119very very much respect, and she had said to this group of teachers who were from all across districts uh that were in this master's program. And she had said, "If you want to increase outcomes for students and increase test scores for your district, you should target high functioning students not identified as gifted." That that tier of students has the most room for growth when they actually receive targeted instruction. and they rarely receive targeted I mean we differentiate but they're not getting 100% of a teacher's attention in the process and I have found that to be very true which is why yes this is fine for today but again I think we probably need an opportunity to look at we have so many high functioning students they're the ones that will be the captains of industry

120and leaders in our society and um we I just want to make sure that we look at whether we're doing the best we can for them. >> Mrs. Paling, >> I I mean that's what I heard is actually happening like in a tangible concrete way with in the classroom curriculum and I in my opinion that's where you want it with support from math coaches and um so it's it sounds to me like that is that's happening. Um, and I will say having been in education, this is a perennial question. It's hard to do. It is a struggle in every school uh at every grade level and we're getting better at it because we're learning how kids learn and how to differentiate. And we're so fortunate to have the class sizes we have, the resources we

121have, uh to be looking at how do we support students across their achievement levels in the classroom. Um, and I also love and I'm so appreciative that the administration and the board for the past I'm not sure how many years has really focused on growth, not just achievement in our standardized testing. Um, and I think that lets us really be transparent and um, accountable and curious about all the students including the high achieving maybe not gifted students. how are they growing? Um, and so I love that we're looking at it, not sweeping things under the table and continuing to grow ourselves. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Hart. >> Um, yeah, I was just going to comment on on this present as it relates to the acceleration process. Um, I just thought this was so clear

122and I appreciated it. And I also think that you've identified so many ways for the process to be much more efficient than it has been in the past. So just reading through that um appreciate that. And then I also just appreciate the um holistic approach that you're taking where yes there is the criteria that has been identified for um the students but there are so many other considerations in making these decisions. So I think that's really important as well. So thank you for this work. >> Thank you Mrs. Paling. I did that reminded me of something. I I know you have this covered but I would just imagine as a parent maybe getting that initial letter saying we've identified you you might qualify for acceleration that um it will be very important to be very

123clear that there are more that this is a potential not a given and that we might have identified you but that when we do the further investigation your child might not qualify. I know you will do that, but I can just imagine as a parent not wanting to be confused about that. >> Anyone else? >> I would just echo what um Mrs. Hart said. I just think that it's um laudable that you've set out a process that's now much more clear and transparent um for families and that that's helpful. I have one logistical question and I will confess I did not look at the FAQs so it might be addressed on there. So like let's say you have and as Mrs. Pathless asked and you answered that once you're accelerated, you stay accelerated. So let's

124say you have a third grader who gets accelerated and then in sixth grade that person does not qualify for nutri math. What do they do in eighth grade? See what I'm saying? Like do they run out of math because they're not going to neuter for geometry? >> Right? That is a good question. And and that's something that I think as a township we are currently discussing what what to do with those eighth graders and and um how do we accommodate that? And um so it remains to be seen, but um we would have to figure out how to accelerate them. I know some of our neighboring districts have offered for students that are not in the township program that next level. So there has been some instruction in um geometry, but if it's just one

125student, then that might revert back to kind of a one-on-one situation. >> Okay. If we're doing our job well and our our our selection process is accurate, there really shouldn't be too many students who fall into that criteria. >> Um, so so it it would be unusual that that circumstance would come to be, but you are right that those students once they're accelerated would need access to geometry as eighth graders if they didn't enter the neutri math program. Um, and those are some things again that we're looking at townshipwide. the superintendents have spent a lot of time talking about math acceleration and the newer math program, the criteria, um all of that. There's um a lot being studied at this point across the township in those regards um largely um because we recognize ongoing review

126and improvement of those processes could be helpful for all and also this accelerated um process that is legally required is also prompting some of the same questions. So there's there's kind of a number of different situations that are leading us to reflect on the neutral math program. What courses can and should be taught at the junior highs across the township. Um who is eligible to take those courses and is there consistency across the township. So all really really good questions that we're grappling with right now. >> Thank you. That's good to hear. Anyone else? >> Great. Thank you again and um I think we're turning this back over to Mrs. Hart because we're done with the strategy committee. >> Miss Stone. All right. Um we will now move to public comment. It's an opportunity for

127the public to address the board on any topic. Um I do not see any audience members at this time. Um so we will continue with our agenda. Old business. Any old business? Okay. Any new business? >> All right, then sure. Um just briefly that um as the board knows and hopefully our community knows as well, we've launched our strategic planning focus group invitations. So everyone, all stakeholder groups are invited to participate in a focus group. Um those invitations have gone out via email, in principal newsletters, in the villages newsletter. Um we're really trying to capture as many voices and um perspectives in this process as we possibly can. Those focus groups primarily will be happening February 17th through the 19th um with some uh trailing a little bit behind our elementary student leaders. We want

128to make sure to capture their their voices, but those will be a little bit later. And some teacher groups will also uh follow that. Um, however, after our focus groups, we'll also have an additional opportunity for people to weigh in via an online survey. So, we're hopeful many people will participate in these focus groups. So far, I think we have uh I don't want to overstate, but 350 400 people signed up for a focus group, which is incredible, and we're so grateful. It's going to be a very, very busy week, but a really fruitful week as well. So, we hope that people will sign up to participate in a focus group and if not um there will be an opportunity the online survey will help us to refine some of what we're hearing from our

129stakeholders during the focus group. So, um more to come on that but we're really excited for this um for this to happen. And for board members, um, I will be sharing some information with you over this next week so that you can select a time that works best for you to, uh, meet with our consultant and have a one-on-one or a twoon-one discussion with her as well. Thank you. Excellent to hear about the community participation. So, that's great news. Um, all right. Um we are going to adjourn to exe or may have a motion to adjurnn to executive um session to discuss collective negotiations specific personnel and special education student matters. Um I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss collective negotiations specific uh personnel individual students. >> May I have a second? >>

130Second. >> Motion having been made and seconded. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Ellison Pas. >> Yes. Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Annart, >> yes. >> Kristen Dcastro, >> yes. >> Erin Stump, >> yes. >> Motion carries. We are now adjourned to executive session. The time is 9:56