2025-12-15 CUSD 99 School Board Meeting

001do some student work for the week. >> All right, welcome everyone. We're going to get started. You want to call the role? >> Cara Castton >> here. >> Haty Courtourtney >> here. >> April Fina here. >> And Michael Riskey >> here. >> Ryan Enright >> here. >> And Ro Rina Papa Gonzalez >> here. >> Thank you. >> Okay, now we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, before we get started with tonight's meeting, I just want to convey a message on behalf of the district 99 school board. I would like to recognize uh Downers Grove North custodian Rachel Sutton for her brave and

002effective handling of the break-in at North High School overnight last Wednesday. When faced by the intruder, Rachel was able to call 911 and guide the intruder to a public area of the school where she was assisted by her teammates in leading the person out of the building. Rachel and her teammates exemplify how District 99 staff go above and beyond for our students. The board would also like to thank head of CMG staff Michelle Cannon, DJM principal Courtney Dement, and the Downers Grove Police Department for their efforts throughout the night on Wednesday to ensure the school was safe to welcome students and staff back the following day. We are so grateful to Rachel Sutton, Eric Blackwell, Michelle Cannon, Courtney Dement, and the entire CMG staff for everything that you do for our students and staff at

003District 99. All right, thank you. Uh, we're going to start it tonight with student recognitions and we're going to kick off here with boys cross country. And I think South is up first. >> You can come right up here. Good evening. Um, since we're first. All right. Hold on. This is >> not gonna work. >> All right. Okay. Good evening. Um, is it on? >> Yep, you're good. >> Okay. Um, since South High um is going first tonight, I'll just take a moment on behalf of both me and Courtney Dement just to thank the board in advance um for helping us organize these student recognitions for our teams. It is so important. As you know, our teams, our students, and our coaches work so hard, and the amount of hours to put in if you're

004not in it seems unfathomable, unfathomable, and sometimes impossible. So, this is just an unbelievable way to celebrate and recognize what they do. Um, so we're going to get started with boys cross country and we are celebrating Conrad Stainer who's fifth in state and I'm going to introduce Brian Caldwell to talk a little bit about Conrad and the season. All right. Thank you. I don't think I need this. Um, >> yeah, they need it for the recording. >> All right. All right. Um, so, uh, thank you for having us here tonight. Uh, I'm here to, you know, uh, give some recognition to Conrad. Um, you know, first and foremost, uh, he was a fantastic teammate. Uh, cared about his team. uh and even though he was fifth in state and is being recognized as an individual

005this evening, um was instrumental in our team making it to state, which is uh no easy feat. Uh distance running in Illinois is is really really competitive. Um had a fantastic season. Uh broke our school three-mile record early in the season. Um was a regional champion, but saved his best race for the state finals. uh where he, you know, as principal lip said, placed fifth overall. Uh that's the highest finish in DGS history by a decent amount, right? And um broke his own school record that day, running even faster. Uh so, uh simply, you know, at this point, you know, with with still three semesters of running to go with the program, has pretty much already etched himself as the the most accomplished distance runner we've ever had. and uh we're excited for for three

006more seasons. So, uh Conrad Snder here. >> Uh I'd just like to thank my teammates, coaches, and parents uh for the support this season. >> It's gonna go. Okay, great. Perfect. Uh, well, again, I'll echo what Arwin said. We are, it is really, um, it is my favorite part of this role that I am privileged to have as principal of North High School that I get to see all of these amazing things that kids do. Um, so it is really and and that our coaches do to get these kids to where they go. It's it's it's truly amazing. So, um, I'm going to introduce Dave Rose, our associate principal for athletics, and he's going to introduce a couple of people tonight, um, throughout the evening as we recognize those. Um, so I'll introduce Dave and

007turn it over to you. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, I am going to, uh, just, uh, introduce our athletes here and invite you guys to step up. Um, and then I'll invite coach Sipple up here, uh, to say a few words about the team and a few individuals as well. Um, so our boys cross country team had another amazing year. Uh, they followed up their state championship last year with a second place and finish as a team. Um, a few of our notable finishes, uh, Phil Supiel, uh, took home the state championship. Um, and then followed that up with a Nike cross regional championship a few weekends later. So, a truly phenomenal year for Phil. Um, and Will Serat also finished 18th at state um, to help secure the second place finish for

008the team. Um, so please uh, step up. Phil Supiel, Steven Pox, Josh Ferrero, Tyler Lynchoff, Matt Nova, Jack, Isaac Stein, Will Serat, and Dylan Wood, and Coach Sipple. Yes, sir. >> Thanks. All right. Yeah, these guys uh have done, you know, run countless miles around Downer's Grove and Westmont and uh and Woodridge and whatnot. These guys have been putting in so much hard work. I just want to thank them for all their efforts. Uh you know, a lot of things that happen throughout the season. Uh you know, we see the results and stuff, but there's so much hard work and effort. you know, guys running 50, 60 miles a week and things like that. Uh, but in doing that, kind of forging the different friendships that they have with one another and why they care

009so much about each other and what they're doing uh on a daily basis uh really makes it that much more rewarding. And those are the things that uh they're going to take with them uh when they leave here. The state championships and the the medals and everything uh are really awesome. But uh the friendships and the camaraderie that they make throughout this time is really stuff that's uh super valuable and uh can't say enough about these efforts and these guys. Uh and really incredible. Phil with the state championship first ever won the state title in eighth grade and here again finishing high school. Uh so we expect another uh national title in four years. Um so just joking. All right. Good stuff. Um, you give me the mic and I'll just keep going. Uh, coach,

010I think I'm good. All right. Thank you so much, fellas. Uh, >> don't go anywhere. >> Uh, so Phil is a state champion. We have a couple proclamations from the village of Downer's Grove and the village of Woodridge for you. So, the uh Robert Barnett, mayor of Downer's Grove, uh recognizes all of your hard work and the work of your team and has declared December 15th as Philip Supupial Day in the village of Downer's Grove. And uh Mayor Cunningham recognizes the same uh and has named this day also Philip Supupial Day in Woodri. Thanks. Congrats, guys. All right. Next, I'm going to introduce a member of our girls cross country team. Um, and I'm not sure if I saw Macy. Um, do we have Macy in the back by chance? If not, I'll introduce her

011anyways. All right. Um, so member of our girls cross country team, Macy, uh, finished third place at the state meet, uh, to finish up an amazing year for her. um she's got another couple of years here in the uh cross country program. So, uh we are looking forward to what Macy can accomplish uh and build off of her success already. Um so, since I'm not seeing her, um let's get a round of applause anyways for Macy. All right. And uh we'll move on to our girls volleyball uh team. So, if you want to step up, I see Nicole and Nora if you guys want to step up. And Kelly, I'm not sure if Kelly's hiding in the back there. Okay. >> All right. Um, so our girls volleyball team had an amazing year as well.

012Um they finished off their postseason run in the sectional championship game uh where they um lost a a hard-fought match, one of the best that I've ever seen uh to Oak Park River Forest. Um just kind of a testament to our conference and how tough it is. Um and how these girls just compete day in and day out against some of the hardest competition in the state of Illinois. Um so up here we have uh Nicole and Nora. Uh both of of these girls were a huge part of of the success they had this year. uh and both were named to the all state uh honorable mention uh team this year. So, congratulations Nicole and Nora. >> Uh for South, we had a phenomenal uh girls volleyball season, too. The team's just unbelievably fun to

013watch. Um and I know we had just one memory I wanted to share. Um the athletes invited one of their favorite teachers to one game and so we had all teachers and staff and everyone got to lean pinkies um and share in the singing of the national anthem at the beginning and it was just an amazing feel-good experience. So I'm going to introduce uh coach Madison Babage and she's going to be celebrating Keegan, Lauren, and Jada tonight. I probably do not need this either as the microphone. I'm loud enough. But um I did just want to take a second to recognize these three. You have Keegan on the far right, Jada in the middle, and Lauren. They have been a part of varsity all four years that they have been here. Keegan three years. Um

014and they genuinely did not come off the court for us in the time that they have been on varsity. So, if you do not know volleyball, they're basically all six rotation volleyball players that are definitely in need on the court to succeed. They all held um captain roles in some way, shape, or form. They were genuine leaders this year. Um we kind of fell short this year, and that's a little bit um sour still of a taste, but we left it all on the floor. Um, and they genuinely knew that and they felt it and the teammates, the memories, they put the team on their back genuinely for all 35 matches. Um, one little highlight would be that we did go undefeated on our home court this entire season. Uh, definitely a rare thing to

015do and they definitely did not lose a match on their home court. So, that was a positive. And all in all, they know that DJsVB always has a home for them. um and they definitely have set the standard for our success and winning mindset and the hard work and effort for the future Mustangs to come through the program. So you will and you know this already will genuinely be missed. So thank you. Uh, next up, I'd like to call um Josh Force, our head girls tennis coach. Um, he's going to be celebrating both Gabby and Lily David. Um, Gabby and Lily are not only phenomenal athletes, but they're phenomenal um, student leaders and so strong academically, too. So, they have been fun to watch in our building. I'll hand it over to Josh. >> All

016right. Um, hi everyone. So again, I'm Josh Force. This is Gabby and Lily David. Um it it's a really cool thing to get to talk about them. Um I feel like every time I get excited to to get in front of people and talk about them because they've contributed so much to our program. Um I think if I learn something from them as athletes, it's to always dream big. Um from I think sometimes as a coach, it's easy to kind of set baseline goals where it's like trying to win conference or we're trying to make it to state. Um things that we kind of do year over year. Um, and truly we accomplished things this year that I didn't even know were goals. Um, like things that were above and beyond what expectations could have

017been. Um, for example, Gabby reached 100 wins during her senior year very early in the season. Um, in our first duel of the year, um, a really cool accomplishment. She finished with 132 wins in her varsity career. Um, Lily is just a sophomore has already had 60 wins in her varsity career. Um, one of the cool things we accomplished that didn't wasn't even a a goal necessarily was we didn't lose a single match this year. Um, we we we beat every single team on our schedule the entire year. Um, sectionals, one of the coolest memories was they finished first and second, they got to play each other in the in the finals. Um, so just a really cool experience to get to see them uh compete against each other. And then um going into the

018state meet um Lily as a sophomore already accomplished all state honors um finishing tied for 17th um winning three matches making it to to the the second day of state. A huge accomplishment. Um and Gabby accomplished that for a third time in her high school career. Um she was all state for a third year and she added state medalist this year where she was one of only three players to end their career on a win. Um she finished fifth overall. So um as a team we finished 10th overall in the top 10. So, it was just it was a phenomenal season. So, super proud of you guys. And and now Gabby's off to Lehi. She committed um and she's she's playing division one tennis next year. So, just super proud of them. >> Can we

019ask our YouTube? >> All right. Like I said at the beginning, um it's so fun getting able to celebrate this tonight. Um so, next up, I'd like to invite Lindy Lindsay Dublio to join me. We're celebrating girls golf and Mia's second place in state. Um it's just been wonderful watching Mia um all four years. She's been a star on the golf team since she was a freshman. So I'll let um coach Julio talk more, but Mia, it's been so fun to watch you. >> Thank you. >> This off. Hi everyone. Uh Lindsay de Julio. Uh this is Mia over here. Uh and I'm very excited to stand up here and kind of talk about Mia. um because we've never had a golfer like her and it's been really exciting four years. Um so I kind

020of have a another chance to kind of talk about your accomplishments. Um and I can say that she is definitely the most decorated golfer, female golfer in DGS or in DG actually. So um I'm going to talk a little bit about her history. So coming into Downer South, she qualified for state all four years. She was also all conference all four years. She's always been a leader both by her drive, um, her talent, her motivation to get the team to kind of rally around her, um, which really has made a huge impact on our program. This year, her senior year, she really has stepped up. She really had an excellent year. Um, some highlights from this year were she finished six out of seven first place um, medalists uh, at our tournaments on our weekly

021invites. Uh, she also was the regional champion. She was the West Suburban Conference champion and then she finished second in state. Um, which is a huge accomplishment. We've never had anyone finish top 10. Um, which qualifies her as all state. Um, and like I said, she has really been a decorated golfer and um, really fun to watch. Uh, she was also Suburban Conference Player of the Week. um and she's had many other people reach out um with other um accomplishments and medals throughout the last four years and now she takes it on to UTSA um in Texas and she's going to play D1 golf um for them. So congratulations. We're all very proud of you. Um, I wasn't aware that I have to talk. So, um, I just want to thank my friends and family,

022mostly my family, for all the support that they've given me through the years, even when I didn't play golf. So, um, really heartfelt, you know, give me nugs. That's it. Thank you. All right. Um, our last two athletes we wanted to recognize from North um, our two football players. Unfortunately, they had conflicts tonight, but we wanted to get their names out in front of you as both of them um, will be finishing up their studies early uh, to go for spring training at the respective colleges. Um, our first athlete is Aiden Selei. Um, was named to the all state uh, first team uh, for football. He'll be attending Purdue University next year competing in football. Our next athlete is Will Vala, also named to the first team. All State will be attending University of Illinois

023also uh playing football. So, um not sure if we're going to get a chance to get him in front of everybody um as they will will obviously be moving on to their ne next adventure, but wish them the best of luck um continuing their athletic and academic careers. Um I just wanted to say congratulations to Aiden and Will. Um, I think uh Joe wanted to coordinate a a picture with >> You're good. >> Everyone. All right. >> Okay. Never mind. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Next up is student perspectives from South High. >> So, choosing um you know, Dr. Dr. Dement and I get to choose a student perspectives and we you know alternate each month and it's very hard sometimes to make a decision because there's so many phenomenal programs in

024our building. But deciding this time um to highlight AVID was very easy. Um because the things that AVID does and I know we could say this about a lot of things we do but from my heart what I see with AVID is it truly is a program that absolutely changes lives. So the program is embedded with like the topnotch state-of-the-art researchbased strategies that help students learn and our students internalize these strategies by practicing them on a daily basis. And then the students in AVID and their teachers and each other truly do become a family over four years. So I'm so excited um to introduce Miss Jenny Wolf. She's our program coordinator. um she's going to highlight what the program does and mostly um invite our students up to talk about it, too. So, I'm gonna

025turn it over to Jenny. This Thank you. My name is Jennifer Wolf. I have had the honor of um overseeing the AVID program for the duration of its time at Downer's Grove South, which I believe is 14 years at this point. Um, and AVID stands for, and they will all tell you much better than I, um, advancement via individual determination. It is one of the programs that is nearest and dearest to our hearts. Um, and the kids really go above and beyond to do a wonderful job showing us what it means to be a dedicated student, even in the face of a lot of adversity and a lot of challenges that they may not have even known that they had to overcome until it comes right in their face. So, I could talk about the

026program for hours, but I have some very um honored students and their teacher, Kathleen Skinner, who works with them for four years, who have put together this fantastic presentation that we have worked very hard to slim down to five minutes because we could all talk about it for hours. So, I'm going to turn this over to them. I believe I >> I will click when you tell me to click. >> Okay. >> Ready? >> I'm ready. >> All right. >> Hi everyone. My name is Aubrey Drawn. I'm a senior in AVID. Um to start off, I'm going to explain why I chose AVID to begin with and uh why I've continued to stay in the program. So, AVIDS really pushed me to become a better high achieving student rather than, you know, just average. So,

027in middle school, I was always getting A's and B's, but um I was in these normal level classes. Fast forward to freshman year, um being in the AVID program, um my teacher, Miss Skinner, really pushed me to take honors English, honors chemistry. Um also a requirement in AVID is to take at least one AP course. So, not only did I take one AP course, I've taken a bunch. Um, which is really like something that I'm very proud about myself cuz I never thought I was going to be able to reach those limits. And not only did I just take the courses, like I was able to really excel in them. Uh, which makes me like feel really good about myself and it's all from AVID with that extra support and push. Um, another thing is

028you have to maintain a certain GPA to stay in the AVID program. So that was also another push to keeping my grades up um and just being an exceptional student. Uh the biggest help with AVID was definitely the importance of connections and building relationships between my teachers and my classmates. So at the beginning of each semester, we send personalized emails to each of our teachers just saying who we are, how we act as students, what they should expect from us, and just like any additional information. Like I tell my teachers I have a dog. like I just like talking about like things with my teacher. So that already builds like a connection and a relationship right off the bat because a big thing at Avid Stresses is like having these like connections. So that was

029really important. And then also at the beginning of each semester you go up to your teachers, you introduce yourself, whether that's a handshake saying like, "Hi, I'm Aubrey. I'm in the AVID program." And at the same time, you asked to sit at the front of the class so the teachers know that you're always coming to class being engaged. Um, you're ready there, ready to learn there. It's not social hour. So, yeah. And then we have uh classmate presentations in AVID, too. So, we put together presentations at the beginning of each semester just saying what classes we are, who our teachers are, what period, um, between our AVID classmates, and then we can always text each other. like if I see Zach's in the same math as me, I'll be like, I don't know how to

030do this. Can you help me? So, that's also a great relationship that we build. And then last but not least are the tutors we have in AVID. So, we have tutors in our tutorials um who are adults in the school that have worked with us for all four years we've been in the program and they know us personally, not just academically, which is really nice. So, that brings me my next point. What is a tutorial? You go to the last slide. Thank you. Oh >> yeah, it changed. Okay, >> so this is on me. Just keep clicking. >> I'll get there. >> There we go. Okay, so uh ultimately a tutorial is a ratio of seven students to one tutor. As avid seniors, we act as tutors in the freshman uh classes. So students present

031on a topic or a question that they're confused on in any class. Like I've done math. I've had classmates that's done like arts, like literally anything. And it's all question based. That's where the class's levels of questioning come in where you just use questions to help the presenter get to their solution. So rather than just telling them the answer, you're asking questions so they can recall things from class, recall their notes, uh things that their teachers told them. um this is really helpful. So again, we work with our um our tutors on this too. And then my last and final thought is my favorite AVID memory. Um just like a little reminisce, but my favorite avid memories are ISU field trip. I remember I was being pushed around in a wheelchair because I underwent uh

032foot surgery and like I just remember laughing the entire time and like having um like lunch with all my classmates and it was just super fun like bonding experience. Uh I know Zach's going to talk about field trips like go more in depth about it. But yeah, so thank you. >> Hello. Um my name is Zach Pepa. I'm a senior at Dinos South High School and I'm a part of the AVID program. I'll mainly be touching more on how AVID's been a big help for me and that's been through collaborative work through tutorials. And so Aubry's already talked briefly about tutorials and tutorials have been a very big help for me because as she said there's it's a way for us to present problems we're confused on and work ask questions to help us understand

033it. And for me this has been really important through my rigorous schedule I've taken. I've had the honor to take honors and AP classes such as calc physics, AP Lang, and other honors classes that have been really challenging. So, having this wonderful resource to just assist me in my struggles in my AP classes has just been really helpful. And without AVID, I don't know where I would be grade-wise because I've I've struggled a lot. And so, it's been good to have that with me. And I'm glad to say I've gotten A's and B's in these classes with the help of Avid and whatnot. And then I'd say going into field trips which connects to my favorite AVID memory. I'd say the UIU field trip. So UIU is Urbana Champagne in Illinois. And why I chose

034this as my favorite AVID memory. I remember we got stuck behind a train for 30 minutes when we were 20 minutes away from the school. So inconvenience, but I really valued that moment because this was a time where we just got to talk on the bus and just really bond with each other. It just sticks in my head because we were laughing and even though this was an inconvenience, I just really enjoyed it. And I also really enjoyed just the campus of UI and just I hope I'm able to attend the school next fall and whatnot. And the field trips are a big part of AVID. Um we've gone on a few at least one field trip every single year besides this year. And it's helped us to really see different college campuses and to

035know what we want in a college. And that's why I'm really grateful for the EV program. Thank you. I'll find you. >> Keep going. Keep going. There we go. Hello. My name is Elizabeth Garcia. I have been I'm an AVID 12. So, I'm a senior this year at South. Um, and then I'm just going to be talking a little bit more about the college and career aspect of it because I specifically chose AVID because it helps students achieve their goals to the highest of their possible potential. meaning our freshman year. We start right right away with what colleges meaning like what is um a four-year college, what is a two-year college, like what are the different like um degrees you could get like associates, doctorates, all that stuff. Like we go right away into that

036lingo freshman year. And then we also do a lot of personal career research. Next slide. And that's um pretty much I think it might be next to Aubre's. >> We can go find it. >> There we go. Perfect. >> So, it's pretty much just um where our teachers and we individually do a lot of um in-depth research about what type of careers we want. For me personally, it helped me a lot find that I want to be an educator specifically specifically an English educator. and it helped me really narrow down like what I want to do in college, what I want from college specifically as an educa as a future educator. So, I learned a lot about like what different degrees I could take, what different minors I could take. And I mean, I was

037very fortunate enough to know right away what I wanted to do. But I know for a lot of my classmates, having that research freshman year and sophomore year also helped them so much because they were able to find more niche careers that they knew that they could achieve higher expectations that they even expected. And then not only that, every week, specifically senior year, we meet with our college and career um counselor, Mr. Mustari, where he pretty much talks to us about like and we updated him about like how our college apps going, like what do we need from him? What scholarships are good for us? Like um what have we like how are our committing process going? Like what does he need from us so that we can help like achieve the highest potential possible

038like going into college? I'll keep going till I find you. >> Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Diesel. I'm a senior and I'm an AVID 12. So the reason that I'm in Avid is because it's a consistent system for me. Um, I really struggle with like organization and keeping all of my tasks in line. And Avid taught me how to be more organized and how to keep those things together. Um, and the biggest way they helped me put those things together was through the binders that we use uh through our four years of high school. So, the binder is one big binder for all of our classes. And throughout the semester, our teacher meets with us to um make sure that we're doing all the things that we're supposed to be doing with our

039binders. And it's just a really great way that uh to keep us in line with our academics. Can you go back to the other side? >> Uh so the biggest help for me in AVID was the notetaking. Uh, prior to high school, I had no knowledge of note takingaking and I did not find it important. And um, halfway through freshman year, I had realized that it's probably my note takingaking that's hindering me from the grades that I want. And once I started to really pay attention to the things that I'm writing down on my paper, which were taught to me through AVID, um, my grades definitely reflected that effort that I was putting into my notes. >> Can you go to the other side, please? So the biggest surprise for me uh in Avid was

040uh like I said prior to high school I had no note-taking knowledge and I also had no motivation for school and AVID definitely changed that. I see school as a very important thing for me and something I care deeply about and I can't exactly put into words how Avid did that for me but I know that it came from Avid. Uh the thing that I'll miss the most are the class celebrations. Um it's really nice to just be recognized for those things that uh we work so hard on in class. And uh my best avid memory is uh I've given the speech all four years at our Thanksgiving parties and the first speech was not very good and that was kind of like a wakeup call on me having to work on my speaking skills.

041Thank you. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Well, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to share with us your presentation. And I love how you rolled with the punches, which we have all probably have had experience with presentations where they just don't always go, but you guys just nailed it and just kept flowing with it. I love that you talked about executive functioning, and it seems like all four of you found that executive functioning piece of this program to be something that is going to help you find success going forward. So, thank you for your your presentation and sharing. >> Thank you. I'll work on my clicker skills. >> All right, student board members, who wants to be up first this month? >> Ryan, you're up. >> So, I

042don't have any slides today, but that's not a disappointment. But, um, so, good evening everyone. Happy to see this big group here that's filing out slowly. Um, that's okay. Hi, everyone. Um, as we enter the final stretch of the semester, students are very aware of this of of this transition point academically, socially, and in in terms of what comes next. Um, tonight I want to share um how it feels working hard um throughout the building where support is making the biggest difference right now and what matters most to students as we head off to second semester. So, a little bit of updates. So we have one week left of the semester, 5 months left of school um in the next 30 to 60 days um is a decision heavy especially for upper classmen. So in

043these next I guess well we got a decisions today right Roina um and um for the next in the next 30 to 60 days um I think most colleges early action or regular decision are you will start hearing back from um those colleges that you're super super interested in and you applied to in the fall. Um, students are actively receiving college college decisions, comparing financial aid packages, and tracking scholarship deadlines. Um, as for activities around the building, um, boys and girls basketball, swim and dive, gymnastics, and bowling has started. Um, and this week we have a spirit week. Today was pajama day. Dr. They, where are your pajamas? >> Is that what you sleep in? >> Yeah. Anyway, so let's move on. >> My favorite day, though. We just don't celebrate at the district office.

044>> Oh, yeah. Dr. M was in hers this morning. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk more about um attendance and accountability which is a common goal among the board. Um scanning has improved attendance accuracy and I have seen fewer mistakes between teachers, attendance office and administrators. Um and I think the clear expectations across the building across administration, teachers and support staff um is equaling or equals to um higher student compliance. And I think students are kind of walking into the class now and just kind of automatically doing it. It's becoming something to that's a part of our day-to-day life. And I think that was a goal from everyone um on this board, everyone in the community and I feel like we've kind of reached that. Um so I think it's essential for our leadership and I

045can confidently say that that goal has been reflected. After interviewing some of my fellow peers and students um perspectives on the system has been and these are like these are four words I or three words I would say that kind of came up. It was consistent, legitimate and fair. And everyone was kind of saying if I scanned in late okay well I was late. Well and the next day they were correcting that behavior by themselves. And I feel like a lot of this with the scanning is is it self-led and people are working on those executive functioning skills and doing those things by themselves. I think that's super important that we're recognizing that. Um moving on to our phone policy. Um I will say there has not been a lot of um pouch usage in

046the classrooms, but that doesn't mean that the phone staying out. The phone's actually um staying away. Um and these expectations have been have been solidified among students um and they're keeping them away without teacher intervention or in or instruction. Um I and I feel like that's super important because that self-regulation piece um is a super important goal for us as a board of education because you know after high school when you're going into college or whatever post-secary career or um plan that you have um it's important that you have that self-regulation and that was our goal is self-regulation. So um talking a little bit more about school culture um I feel like academically everyone's kind of tired but super motivated still. Um high pressure paired with anticipation for break. Um our student we had a

047student advisory board about two weeks ago right with Dr. Dement. We talked about winter break and that reset second semester schedules activities starting up and involvement in clubs such as DECA um and um AVID. So strong engagement um despite end of semester stress is what I would like to say there. Um college and career um so this support matters a lot right now. So right now it's a critical window window for seniors. Um hearing back from colleges, early action, rolling admissions and regular decision in the next 30 to 60 days. Uh making enrollment and fin families are making enrollment and financial decision plans and actively searching for scholarships. Um I just want to take this moment to kind of thank the college and career center. They've been doing a great job um and giving excellent

048resources to students and families seeking support in this crazy time and crazy process. Um, so if anyone's watching and kind of has questions about that, don't hesitate to go to the college and career center. Um, looking in ahead to the second semester, um, I feel like there's been clear expectations set among the phone policy and attendance policy. Um, and these consistent um, system or systems are leading to a lot of stability and structure in the building. Um, continued access and academic support and especially post-secondary support and access. So what I've seen is most students are choosing their access. I feel like at the beginning of the year kind of people were kind of forgetting to do it. Now it's becoming a thing that everyone's doing every Monday and Tuesday and teachers are getting really good

049at reminding students, hey, choose your access or even teachers are um assigning students to their own access um if they ever needed that. I mean my English teacher did that to me. So um so was a great session. >> It was great. Yeah. Yeah. We got we got a lot done. Um so other than that um if anyone has any questions, please let me know. Um, but I think this semester has been a great success and I'm looking forward to second semester. >> So, thank you. >> All right. Um, I'll go ahead and start. Um, I just want to say first of all that I'm really excited that we were able to recognize so many of our amazing students. I think it's always great to see um and recognize their success and overall again programs

050like AVID um and overall our student athletes. I think that's very important that they understand that as a board that those accomplishments and that dedication matters to us. Um, so that's always great. Um, I was really excited to see so many people here. Um, again, the semester is wrapping up. Everyone's focused on finals and of your projects. Um, and I again I think everyone's ready for that uh break that's coming up. Um, but everyone's motivated and staying positive. Um, there has been a lot of improvement in attendance. I think the scanning again has been pretty much a habit at this point. Um, again, like Ronnie was saying, everyone thinks it's fair and um overall just a a great um tool that we're using to stay consistent. Um, expectations have been very clear throughout the whole

051semester. Um, with students accountability, with phone usage, um, I have not noticed that has been a problem in classrooms. The phones continue to stay away. And I think that's mainly due to again expectations throughout the whole building staying consistent and just teachers having the resources and support they need to be able to enforce those rules. Um with activities uh basketball season has started for both our boys and girls and I know there's a lot of excitement around that. So it's good to see that again everyone's having fun. I'm gymnastics has started boys bowling um boys swim and dive. We have also had a lot of different um drives. I know there was like a clothing drive. There's been um toys uh donations. So again, it's great to see how the school has been kind of

052coming together to spread the holiday cheer and overall support the community, which is always really great to see. Um we have also been doing um hot chocolate in the comments uh this last two Fridays which is I know everyone's very excited about it and it's just a great way to motivate students especially again in the month of December it can be a little tough with finals and everything. Uh, we also had a Christmas concert which I heard was amazing. And we also had our play which I was able to go to and I can say I had never gone to one before and I was really impressed with the amount of dedication and truly just how good it was, how everyone seemed to love it. It was very very exciting to see um that as

053a student and for support um counselors have been meeting with students to talk about schedules for next year. Um so again, everyone's looking forward to um achieving more and kind of moving on. Um the college and career center again has been a great great support for seniors. I know that I've relied a lot on it and as decisions are coming out um they've been really helpful with that whole process and like financial aid um and again just have been a really strong uh resource that we've had available to us. And then like Ryan mentioned, I've noticed that a lot of um students are also relying a lot on access, which is great. Um, everyone seems to be willing to help each other out. I've gone to a lot of access sessions for with my math

054teacher and they've truly been really, really helpful. Um, just seeing other students there kind of like encourages you to um, keep reaching out and I think that's really important. Overall, it has been truly great to see students kind of stepping up and, you know, seeking out help when they need it. But yeah, I think everyone's excited to um wrap up the semester and then continue on with the year. Thank you. >> Any questions from board members? All right, moving on to the other. Thank you both. >> To the work of the evening. We'll start with approval of minutes. >> Yeah, >> the motion's there. >> Just asking for a motion of approval minutes. >> Okay. So, can I get a motion to approve the November 17th month monthly business meeting minutes? >> So, moved. >>

055Second. and close session. >> Oh, together in close. Sorry. And the November 17th close session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh Mike moved. Press second. Thank you. >> Michael Riskey. >> I >> Chris Espinosa. >> Hi. >> April Fein. >> Hi. >> Um Katie Courtourtney. >> I. >> And Cara Castton. >> I thank you. >> All right. Do we have any slips, Julie? >> No, sir. No slips. >> Moving on. Uh getting there. All right. Uh we have a few reports for the board this evening. Uh we have several staff here to present on the path program. So I'll invite them on up. >> Good evening Dr. The members of the board. My name is Nicole Wallace. I am the path coordinator at Downer's Grove South High School. >> And I'm Andy Goldberg. I'm

056the path coordinator at Downers Grove North. Would you like the clicker? Are you going to tell me the click? >> May we have the click? >> The power of the click. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Was that the next submit? Okay. All right. So, PATH is part of our district strategic plan. So, um carrying out those directions and expectations under an equitable and supportive environment. So just making sure that our students are safe and have opportunities to grow within our buildings. >> So PATH stands for uh pause, act, think, and heal. Uh the pause is for that reflection piece from our students to really take a step back um and think about what they uh the infraction that happened. And and then the next one is the asking and thinking about the harm that they

057could have caused whether it's to self uh to a family members, friends, um teacher, teammate, coach. Um, and then they think about ways that they can help repair some of that harm that may have been caused. Uh, and then the heal, the final step is to take some of that action to repair that harm. Um, and we use restorative practices throughout this whole process with these students. So, the definition of path um, it's an alternate uh, intervention to out of school suspension um, for gross misconduct behaviors. Um, we also call these B-code violations. Um, some of the most common ones that we see are fighting, um, whether there is physical injury or not, um, a verbal or physical provoking of a fight, um, possession of an illegal substance or under the influence of an illegal

058substance, and then possession of a weapon um, of a smaller scale. So, our overall goal is once a student has completed the path program is we do not want repeat um offenses from them. So, we work with them in hopes to basically not have them come through the program again. Um we want to keep them in school so that they're still engaged in the school setting. Um and then be able to contact staff and their support system those three days that they are with Nicole or myself going through the path. uh procedures. Um we want them to understand and recognize different strategies and different supports that they have in the building. Um and one of the things that we do towards the end is we make a plan for their return to learn um and

059hopefully avoid having any more gross uh misconduct behaviors. Um after about four to six weeks, sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the uh situation, uh we always like to check in with students. Um, a lot of what we do is check in looking at their return tolearn plan um because they've set goals for themselves um or we've come up with ideas for them. We want to check in to see how those things are going um grade checks to see if they have any additional support that they need um making sure that they're utilizing their social workers and counselors um as they go through. And then we follow up also um probably a month after that. Um so a few times of during the year when we ever have a path uh student exit. >> So

060this is just a visual of our process. So our deans are the ones that identify students that come to us and really the idea behind path is we say it's restorative practices and what that is the big part of it is relationship building. So, um, my favorite part of this program, and I say it year after year, is that we have three days, a total of 24 hours to develop a relationship with a student, talk about the offense and what happened, come up with goals for ways to move forward in a positive way, try and restore any type of relationships, whether it's student to student, student to teacher. um if a student feels that they have harmed their parent even a lot of them will make a statement um speaking about that in their meeting.

061So PATH is three days of talking about the offense also working on academics. So that's a big part of the program is making sure we're keeping students in the building so that they don't fall behind in their classes. Um in that time we're also able to identify a lot of different things that come up. Um sometimes we need to contact social worker or counselor, other people um in the building because maybe that student has shared something with us that they have not previously shared. And so we attend alpha team meetings as well. We're able to discuss our students with their team and then assist in getting them any help uh while they're with us as well. And a lot of times that extends to when they are done with the program. Um, and then at

062the end of that three-day process, students are asked to make a statement, um, talking about what happened, identifying goals, talking about how they're going to move forward in a more positive way in the future, identifying support people. A lot of students come into the program, not having a support person, whether that's at home, at school, or at both. Um, and so a goal for us a lot of times is to try and have that student identify someone that they can go to if something is going on and report what's happening so that we can get them assistance. Um, and then Andy talked about that monitoring for another four to six weeks where we're meeting with them and touching base, talking about grades, asking them about social situations, and then just in general providing any type

063of assistance. We both tell our students once you come through this program, we're always a member of your team. Our door is always open. So, this is not we see them for three days, we meet with them for another four to six weeks, and then we never see them again. Um, you know, some of our students are like, "Oh my gosh, I don't want to be back in the space." It's it was a hard part for me. And I'm like, "Okay, that's okay, but my door is always open." Sometimes they'll find me in the commons or walking around the hall. So that is part of that restorative relationship building that it even extends past that monitoring phase. So once there are students sometimes they are always our students. So success rate and changing behaviors many

064studies show that changing behaviors depending on what it is right lots of different variables but they typically range from 20% to 40% in being able to actually make a difference and change those behaviors. So um these are last year's uh success rates from 2024 2025 school year. So Downers Grove North 81% path success rate where we did not have students repeating or having any other other additional B-code violations. DGS we had an 83% path success rate. So what we are doing works. We both see that in our students in our buildings. Um, and it's really awesome to see because a lot of students really do make a change and turn around and move on to to better better things. These are just some student reflections that we shared from uh last year um in our

065parent teacher advisory meeting um which hopefully you will all attend at the end of April, early May to see updates of student reflections. Um, but you're able to see here that a lot of students leave PATH having felt supported, felt like they were given time to reflect. Um, actually learning about their mistake. I think that's really important. We're not just saying to students, you did something wrong. Now go sit at home for three days and good luck with all of your schoolwork. And we're not going to actually talk about what happened. >> Right? So it gives us the opportunity to process with that student, talk about what happened and give them strategies so that some of those things don't happen again. And again, North reflections all very similar. Students feel supported. Some students say they

066feel more supported after they leave PATH than before they got to us. >> So new thing for Nicole and I this year is also uh dealing with the academic integrity. Um, and we are doing this from the district policy that you can see on the board. Um, they set a clear expectation and consequences for cheating, plagiarism, and I think one of the bigger things nowadays is the AI use that's been unauthorized AI use. Um, so how the academic integrity works is there is a uh integrity module one for a first offense. This is a two-part um module where the first one is an edp puzzle online that they need to complete um and there's some questions that are along that ed uh to go along with that ed puzzle and then they also have a

067written reflection um handwritten reflection that they need to fill out um and that is turned into us. Um this is uh after all the process of the teacher meeting with the student and calling home and then dean referrals. If there is a second offense from the student um there is now a second module um that they need to do online as well. And then the reflection piece that they write is a basically a um letter to the teacher that they've offended. Um, and there's an outline that we work them through uh with them through um to format that letter to the teacher. It's basically an apology. Um, but that's also a time for Nicole and I to use some of those restorative uh practices that we use in the PATH program with those students um

068to develop that that uh letter to the teacher. Um, this is new to us, so we are working out some of the kinks still. Um, but so far it's been it's been good. Um we've had a lot of back and forth conversation um and we've already adjusted a few things. So um so far so good and hopefully continue to improve uh the system as we go. What's nice about um the second offense um letter that they have to write is it actually asks the student to address why they felt like they needed to cheat, what they were struggling on, and ask the teacher when they can come in for assistance. So, it's taking more of that path restorative approach. Um and then those letters are given to the teacher so that they can see okay

069this is what this student is struggling on. So it also allows that mode of communication too if a student is not being a self- advocate and sharing what they need assistance with. And then lastly our annual parent teacher advisory meeting. As I mentioned previously, this is held annually in uh April, usually at the end of April or early May. Um where we are able to present and we will share data on things like the path program attendance and the cons consolidated district plan. We've got board members there, teachers, administrators, parents. Um so we're able to brainstorm as a group and come up with some different ideas, hear some community feedback. Um and at one point this advisory group was uh instrumental in supporting the launch of the path program. So hope you will all come

070out at the end of April or early May to join that conversation and we're happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Yeah, real quick. This is um one Thanks. Thanks for the update. This is great. some of the the words that that I that are my reflection as I sit here and is the relationship the connection the reflection and right just um keeping them in that space right as opposed to right like like outside of school um I mean that's that's a win right there I think automatically right but you guys obviously go way above and beyond that so that's um continued success on this this is this is great and I can you remind me how long we've been doing the the path program as uh >> I believe this is Year

071>> Six. Okay. >> But year one was the pandemic. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. >> That is not what I was going to say. Thank you, Dr. >> No. Okay. No, no, but no. Great. Yeah. Continued successes. Yeah. Appreciate. Thanks. Thank you very much for the insight. >> Can I jump in real quick? I want to thank Andy and Nicole because like the you could see the passion and dedication and you know that success rate of changing student behavior that's hard to do and I give them a lot of credit. And then in the back we have um Patrick Fleming who was the path coordinator. um at North. Um so I appreciate all his dedication. He's now one of our associate uh principles at North and then obviously uh Dr. Taylor is one of the

072uh with Dr. Zerner that actually brought the path program to our parent teacher advisory and like to me in the district and um so we do appreciate the board support and um it shows in what they do and what they're doing. So thank you for you guys in the back there. We want to acknowledge you guys. Thank you. >> I'm giving it up. >> Give back the clicker. >> Giving it back. Thank you. >> All right. Course proposals. I'll hand you the clicker. >> Okay. All right. Well, this is a very exciting time of year because we bring our new proposed courses to the board for review and hopefully approval. Very excited this year that we have three courses coming forward. three brand new courses to the district and one course that is in the

073process of being revised and we're requesting a title change for that course. And so for the three new courses, I have the department chairs here as the curricular leaders that will share with you information about these new courses. So we will begin and I guess I will be um >> you're in charge. >> I guess I'll hold the clicker since we'll be handing it off. So we'll start um with our Spanish for heritage speakers three honors course. And with that we have south department chair Tara Bas and Bethley from >> All right. Um good evening. Um I'm Tara Baser uh the world languages chair at South and this is Beth, my counterpart at North. Um, so we're so excited to share this information about our Spanish for Heritage 3 um, honors course proposal. Um, we

074have had heritage one and two for quite a few years now and um, we're excited to say that we have developed that program. It's grown and um, and hence we're ready to move on to the next level. So, the Heritage 3 Honors is going to be open to it's an upper level course, so it'll be open to mostly um 11 and 12th graders. Um that is to say that if we do have other students coming in that belong in that class, we want to obviously place them correctly there. Um but it'll be mostly 11th and 12th graders. Um it will be a rated course and um they will have come out of our heritage program levels one and two. um and successfully completed that and gotten the teacher recommendation to go on to three honors.

075Um we kind of have a a dual audience here. We have two different pathways, two different groups of students that could be coming into the heritage three honors. Uh we have the students who have completed successfully heritage one and two. um they've exposed been exposed to the Spanish language at home uh on a daily basis and may have had some formal education in Spanish as well from a little to a lot. Um and then we also have our EL and bilingual students. So the heritage 3 honors course does align with the ISBY guidance to support the English language learners and meet the requirements of our TBE program. Um and then particularly at the secondary level where the EL students must continue to have um to to reach English proficiency, this is going to help them

076reach that goal. Okay. Uh okay. So some of the benefits of this program are going to be obviously continuing the enhancement of their language prof proficiency and their literacy in the all the four modes of communication. Um, also providing students who have been historically underrepresented in weighted courses the opportunity to increase their GPA and boost their academic confidence and then also see themselves as collegebound students. This course would lead them to the opportunity to go on to either AP or um a Spanish 5 which is also a weighted. And then other benefits are it will better prepare them for the seal of biliteracy course or um proficiency test and or the AP course as I mentioned before. Okay. So just to explain a little bit about the difference between the heritage pathway and the Spanish

077as a foreign language pathway. Um heritage 3 honors really fits the need of those students who have already um a spoken proficiency level within um the language and it's taught immersively into Spanish in Spanish. Um also the culture it's it's more of an experiential um way perspective of teaching the language versus uh the Spanish 4 pathway comes from Spanish 1 2 3 4 where they are non-native speakers. They don't have it's more of an academic language instruction. Um so that's the exposure to that is different because obviously it's not necessarily from their heritage or something that they have learned through their um experience and growing up. I kind of equate it to um Spanish 1 2 3 and four is more like starting from kindergarten and learning a language whereas heritage is more like a

078an English class that a high school student would take if they were speaking in learning English. So hopefully that makes sense. Um so our current track is at the top here. Right now we just have heritage one and two and then those students out of heritage 2 will be recommended either for Spanish 4 or AP Spanish. And we see right now that there is a real a large gap between the heritage 2 students and then jumping into AP Spanish. And then Spanish 4 again because it's taught from a non from a non-native lens. It's an academic language. those students don't necessarily their needs are not really getting met in Spanish 4 either. Um but right now that's their only option. So from Spanish 4 AP then they would go into Spanish 5 with the heritage

079course track and the three honors addition to that pathway. There's two options for those students. Option one would be after taking heritage one and two, they could go into three honors, which is an extra year of preparation before they could go into AP Spanish or level five. Um, so they have that option. They might go to a a Heritage 3 honors and then go to AP Spanish or they would take heritage three honors and then go to Spanish 5. So, it's really up to them and where their goals are if they want to take the rigor of an AP course versus taking a Spanish 5, which is also weighted, but it just gives them more of a cultural um literature lens if they're not necessarily interested in the AP. Um, or we do have some

080Heritage Stu two students that could go right into AP Spanish. Um, but most likely that heritage three honors is going to be the the most popular track for them to go into to bridge that gap. So there's a lot of flexibility for those students. >> Can I just ask the question on the previous slide? >> Yeah. >> So the bottom level, so is is if you were a Heritage, you went to heritage 2, then you went AP Spanish >> is Spanish 5 like if you want to take four years of language school, that's like your only other option. Is that what that means? >> Yeah. And Spanish 5 is so different than the other um levels of span. By then the um it is an immersive class. Um it is very much literature, culture, history

081based. It's not focused on academic language as it is as much as it is on really using the language to learn um different aspects of culture. So they fit very well into that course, too. Other questions? Did you want to add anything? >> No, you did great. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Excellent. >> Thank you. So the next course is uh not a brand new course to north or south but it is a course that has been being revised uh along the way and one where we want to complete that revision and also uh do a title change a name change for the course. It is a fine arts course and our fine arts department chairs could not be here today. So I just wanted to talk through it

082uh a little bit with you. Um the course uh has been used in recent years for our percussionists. It's run the last couple of years at South and this year at North. We believe that this revision as well as the title change will really be truth and packaging. It will really explain to our students and our families when they are selecting courses what is actually uh being taught and what students are learning and practicing and rehearsing in the course itself. And so it's really not a complete new course, more of a revision and a title change. And the options there you see under where it says year long with the pass fail option so forth. That's in the existing course as well. So it hasn't changed there. But over the years we've started to focus

083more on our percussions. This is the actual description which is significantly different uh that is in our academic planning guide. It does say pending board approval because as I said these courses uh will be up for a vote tonight. Um but we are now describing the course in a way that students really understand what is being taught in the course and can make an educated decision on whether or not they wish to enroll. >> Any questions? >> I have a question. A former grandparent. So you say like truth in packaging. Is that because people go into symphonic band and they're a percussion player and they don't get as much instruction in percussion? >> It's really been the avenue in recent years where we've seen a need >> and so what they've done and like all

084good teachers, right? You adjust what you're teaching for the students in your class. they've the course has started to morph over the years. Okay. And so it was brought to our attention that go for a title change and questions were raised about what is the content of the course then and that's when we learned that that revision actually has kind of started already because we're meeting the needs of the students in front of us. >> Okay. >> But that we want to bring it to the next step so that students know where the needs can be met by. >> So what's happening to symphonic band? >> Symphonic band will change into percussion. and and the content is the content that's being currently taught, but they will continue to revise it, isn't it? >> Okay. >>

085But we want to change the title so that it's clear to everyone. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> So, are we changing it for both schools? That changed. They did it at South for a couple years. It's new at North. >> The title has not changed. >> It's always been the same. It's been the same for years. >> The course didn't run at North several years. For several years, it hasn't run in part because it wasn't meeting the needs of the students. >> Okay. >> South had a larger number of students enrolled. >> Okay. >> North was able to run a section this year and kind of use that South model, if you will. >> Um, and I know one of the questions that that we raised as a CNI team to make sure

086that we understand, do we have a pipeline here for this course? Are we moving forward with the course, revising the course, changing the title, and do we know if this is a continued need? And and both uh departments have confirmed that to be the case. >> So, a lot of popularity in percussion. Yes. Okay. >> Well, it's not just popularity. Uh as a former band teacher, um a lot of times the percussion section is just killing time. like they're waiting for the because there's so many other sections of wind that overlap and the percussion get much less attention during a general instructional band period. This allows them to work on their stuff separate, focus in, and then when they're ready to blend the two, they can blend the two. >> So, I guess that's my

087question is the other students who are not part of percussion, what's happening to them? >> They're in other courses. >> Yeah, they're in the other courses. >> Ensemble. We have a a significant number of other courses for students. >> Okay. >> To meet the needs of different >> Sure. >> Sorry for all the the percussions can perform with a band. >> Absolutely. Okay. >> Yeah. If you go back to the description, it says uh attendance at all events is expected. >> Okay. >> So like during the I was shadowing Jess Smith, one of our band directors on Friday. So they were working primarily with winds. Percussion were not in there. They were working in percussion band, so they're working with like a metronome and those kinds of things with the winds, something to just keep

088time in the background. And then eventually they feather in the percussion part with the wind part. >> What's the uh target grade for this course? Because it says like 9th through 12th. Is there like a >> Okay. >> Sorry. time. >> The next person better be able to answer my questions at the same time. >> Great. >> Moving on to our CTE department. We have our department chairs here to present on a very exciting new course uh that they brought forward. We have Patrick Fardy who is our CTE department chair at South High School and Brian Vite who is our North High CTE department chair. And so I will let them explain the course to you. Okay. Uh well, good evening everyone. Thanks for letting us come in and talk about our new uh idea

089for a class we'd like to bring on. Um I did want to mention earlier, I thought it was so amazing we had all of our students uh here and all the great things athletes they've done and usually I'm winded by the time I get to the third floor in our stairs and great things they've done. And and I will say this quickly about AVID is that normally I go into classes and I talk about all the different classes we have to offer and students like yeah yeah how quickly you know move on but I went into AVID this year to talk about you know our new pending class and literally like 10 hands shut up and they're like please tell us more and I was like oh wow okay I will. So um they are

090they are a wonderful group but uh so our AP business class that we are looking to uh for next year uh it is open to all grades that is one of the significant uh positives of the class. Um it is from the college board. It is being targeted uh towards mostly freshman and sophomores though we don't want to take away the experience from any of our students. So that's why we're making it um open to 9th through 12th graders. Um so like any AP class, the course grades will be weighted. Um there is no prerequisite for the course. Uh hence why even freshmen could take take it as well. Um there is you know they do hope that students are at least at grade for level math. Uh there is some accounting involved. Um, so

091they just some of those basic uh algebra skills, but um again it's it's supposed to be at you're not uh expecting students to be, you know, above grade level. Um it really was brought on. There's a series of three courses that AP brought on. It's their AP Kickstarter series. Um AP business, personal finance, AP networking, and AP cyber security. Uh we chose to bring this course on um for this year. Uh so maybe you'll see us in future years again uh with some of those other options. But um we thought, you know, the idea was that this class would be a way for those students get a firsttime experience into the AP world. Um there's a lot of students out there that could be students who take AP classes but may be scared off. Uh

092they're told it's too hard. Um or at least that's the thought process they get. So this class was created with the idea of that it's an introduction to business course be like a business 101 course at a college level. Um you know for any students who may be going on a two or fouryear institution um so that they can potentially earn those credits by taking the AP test in the spring. Um but it's a class that's really focused on projectbased learning. Um and Brian's going to talk about some of those projects specifically here in a minute. Um, but it's not your typical AP course. It's really meant to say, here's a case study or scenario in the business world. Let's break down, you know, what needs to be done through a management lens or a

093finance lens. Um, and the students work a lot in groups um to solve problems. We had the very uh fortunate experience. Uh we were at a conference this last week and there were multiple speakers on these AP courses and one of the uh schools piloting is up at Hoffman Estates High School and the woman who speaking talked glowingly about how this is become her favorite class already because she gets to see these students work on these projects uh within their group. So it's pretty exciting course in that uh respect. Uh as you can see course description you're going to see because it's kind of a that introduction to business course you're going to see a lot of these different uh areas that students can explore entrepreneurship marketing finance accounting uh management and as I kind

094of stated already it's a lot of uh the real world application through case studies uh the project based learning and the added benefit um is that this does meet national standards for a personal financial education. So, it's a year-long course. Students are getting the opportunity to begin that pathway um in hopefully if they're interested in business to pursue other courses that we have. Um they're also get that opportunity for AP. um and they're also getting that opportunity to get their consumer education or personal financial uh credit that they need to graduate out of the course too. So there are a lot of benefits that the kids are able to get through taking the course. Um and then I'm so I'm going to let Brian speak on it. >> Great. >> Good evening everyone. Uh so

095as you'll see the title of the course is AP business with personal finance. It's not AP business and personal finance. Uh and that's really because the personal finance component is embedded within the six units throughout the school year. So as students learn about uh you know the I just have the quick units business competition and new ideas they're going to then learn from the consumer lens income earning uh as they go into business finance and accounting. They'll learn from the business side the the business finance and accounting but then also from the consumer side uh earning income uh spending investing with that money managing credit assessing risk. Uh so that's a really cool unique aspect to the course and you know when talk about projectbased learning on day one students are going to be delivering

096an elevator pitch to the group. Uh so they're going to get right away uh there it's not going to be a sit and get type class. It's not going to be a lecture stays on the stage. It's going to be very student driven, student led. Very excited to uh move forward with this. If you want to uh go to the next slide. Um so one of the unique aspects of this throughout the year that a student will will see is that it's driven by two uh larger projects and that's why we do uh look at this as a ninth and tth grade uh really like benefiting those students because the first project is a AP business canvas project using a canvas model uh to create a business plan and their idea is to create a

097product uh uh and essentially market it and try to to a viable point in a simulation f uh uh factor. Uh as we get a couple years down the road, students can take the incubator for edu and accelerator for edu and they'll have this experience using that canvas business model concept uh then to apply it to a real world uh really trying to get that MVP product uh to launch by the end of their school year. And from the personal finance side of things, uh, students instead of learning about credit and learning about investing as a consumer, they're going to be flipping the script here and learning it through the lens of a financial adviser. And that financial advisor project, then they'll be given a family information. They're going to have to assess the family's

098needs, their current budget structure, what their goals are long term, and then be able to recommend based off risk tolerance what a family should do moving forward. And the cool thing about those two projects and like the whole classes I'm really excited for, but the whole class then culminates with the AP exam in May. uh typical 60 question multiple choice question uh test, but the free response then connects to a student's business canvas project and their financial planning uh project uh within the school year. So, it's really all well tied together and uh piece hopefully for a really great transition then for a student to take our marketing, our financial accounting, managerial accounting uh and our incubator for edu. So, I'll leave that up for any questions you may all have. No, this is pretty

099cool. As the as the resident accounting geek, it's like I would like I would take this class like in like if I have elig eligibility left, I still will. So, yeah. So, look for me in the back or something. Yeah. Um, no, this is exciting. Yeah. Um, I like the idea that it touches on different like finance, accounting, manage, you know, so it helps students that's going in maybe help them fine-tune that career path too, right? If they want to concentrate more on the finance or the marketing or the accounting, you know, that's yeah, that's that's intriguing. So yeah, I'm I'm just as excited as you about it. So So very cool. Thanks. >> We were at a conference this past week and uh we were having a conversation with someone who uh wasn't a

100CT teacher and talked about how uh they believe that consumer and personal finance should be a required thing in the state of Illinois. And I we had to explain to her that this has been for quite some time and now we're leveling that up to uh a project based class. >> I just want to add to that I've gotten the opportunity to know Mr. Wright very well. Um I'm involved in DECA which is our um business club at Down North but also I've taken financial accounting. Um I've taken incubator intro to business sports and entertainment marketing. I'm a very business um focused student. I'm actually the vice president of DECA and this class they introduced in front of um our whole DECA membership and there was a lot of excitement and if I was a

101freshman I would definitely take this class. So, I just want to I just want to add to that that that this is like one of the coolest classes I've ever seen. And people I've talked to students, freshman, sophomore, and juniors, and they've said like, "I want to take this class. This is super cool." So, and business is one of those popular majors that people are pursuing after high school. So, I'm super glad that you guys are filling this need. >> There's a buzz already. I love it. Yeah. I'm I'm actually glad you mentioned DECA because we learned at the conference that college board has been working with the CTSOs, the uh student organizations like DECA, BPA, FBLA, and they are working to integrate uh the potential to take units of study within the course and

102turn them into roleplay scenarios for DECA or Business Professionals America or Future Business Leaders of America. So, there's going to be a nice tie-in between what a student does inside the classroom and then the extracurricular level with the clubs. >> We already have crossover episodes. >> Yeah. >> Cool. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And our last course for tonight is math 3C. We have our math department chairs, John Heldman from Downers Grove North High School and Phil Co case Casey from South High School who will share information about this proposed course. >> Hi everyone, I'm Phil Cesy. I'm the math chair at South. Uh we are proposing a course called Math 3C. Math 3C is a course that is going to replace math 3S at both high schools. Uh the C

103in the title refers to college algebra which is the aspirational goal of the course. We want students from math 3C to enter into college algebra. And the reason for that is one one of the larger goals of of of both high schools for all our graduates is to enter a creditbearing math course in college. And so college algebra does exactly that. It prepares students for math in college. A significant number of students nationwide enter college having to take nonredit bearing math courses. And we very very much want to avoid that because you're paying college tuition for a math course that does not count towards graduation. So what does college algebra do for kids? College algebra provides kids with the resources, the background, and the experience of an Alex placement program. So, the Alex placement test

104is is part of the college algebra experience. And Alex is used by about 200 colleges nationwide for math placement at the college level, including colleges here in Illinois like Cood and all the state schools. Uh, a quick Google search before the meeting today said that over a thousand universities worldwide use Alex for placement. That's unverified, but we know that it's 200 and we know that it's Cood and the schools uh in Illinois. So, Alex is is a test that kids use um for their math placement. And in college algebra at both high schools, Alex is a significant portion of that course. And so, our goal with math 3C is to get as many students into college algebra as possible so that they have that Alex credit to their name to use when they are entering

105college. Um, so just to expand a little bit on math 3C and kind of what Phil gave you like the maybe a little bit longer term goal of this um the the problem quote unquote that we're trying to uh solve or adjust is that our math 3S course as it in its current existence um is not maximizing student preparation for college algebra or another course that we have um abbreviated PQL prep for quant lit. That is our state transitional math course um that students can earn um credit for in terms of getting into um entry level courses at community colleges in the state as well too. So just to give you a little bit of a larger uh frame of reference here on the screen are four different pathways um in terms of our exit

106points uh that students can have. the first three of which are predominantly focused on u preparation for college or university coursework. Um when we first created our integrated course sequence um all of our S support level classes mirrored the curriculum of the single period non-S courses. Um so we have math 1, math 2 and math 3 and we have S or support level classes which spans a period and a half currently. Um when we created those courses and we looked at math 3 and 3s those identical curriculums were focused on a preparation for pre-calculus and pre-calculus is focused truth and advertising on preparation for calculus. We have a lot of students uh in math 3s particularly over the past five years as we've looked at the data that are not enrolling in pre-calculus. A vast

107majority of them in both buildings over the past 5 years are enrolling in college algebra or PQL. Yet, they're going through a curriculum in math 3s that is designed and focused on the expectation that they will be selecting and enrolling in pre-calculus and calculus. So the the premise behind 3C is to step back and say how can we keep the core of the curriculum we currently do in math 3s as part of math 3C but maybe peel back a little bit some of those things that are very focused on a pre-calculus calculus lens um allow for the opportunity to dive a little bit deeper in some other things or maybe even provide some learning experiences for students that we know are going to be better tracked towards college algebra or PQL. Um, so that's that's

108the overview of of why we're coming to you today with this proposal. And again, as Phil said there, our goal is to prepare all students for every pathway and we still have flexibility built into our curricular sequence that we can move kids uh between pathways um as their needs um progress over the the course sequencing that they take. As for the the content of the course itself, you know, you can see which which we don't necessarily need to go through nor does anybody really necessarily want to talk about polomials or trig or log functions >> or stats and geometry. Of course, um everything that you see up on the screen is either in preparation for or as a result of uh topics that are covered on the ACT and topics that are covered in firstear

109math courses in college. So trigonometry in particular is what we're going to be introducing into this class along with all the sorts of functions that you see up there so that kids are ready for college algebra so that kids are ready to work on the Alex placement test so that kids can enter college into a credit bearing math course. That's the goal. Uh so in terms of wrapping up here with benefits, uh there are several that we believe and have processed um you know with our staff um and counselors and various students that have gone through um the courses that we currently offer. Um a couple highlights for students. This is going to be a single period course uh as opposed to a period and a half course. What that does for students is that

110it force it doesn't force them to choose losing a full lunch. Uh a byproduct of that is that students will have more time to get still get help in math but also get help in other disciplines that a student sitting in 3S right now currently doesn't have the opportunity to do without completely giving up their lunch uh which neither Phil or I are proponents of. Um and then Phil already talked at length about the Alex component. We do see trickling down the Alex component into 3C so that students that go to college algebra or PQL if they're taking 3C as a junior will actually have multiple opportunities. And one thing to point out about the Alex program is that this is a differentiated program where students take a placement test the first week of school

111and the program itself delineates what topics and in what order students can be working on. that really individualizes the program in addition to the instruction that everyone's getting from the classroom teacher as well. From a building standpoint, um, from a department chair standpoint, from an assistant principal standpoint, those of us who are working on the master schedule, there's significant benefits to math 3C being a single period course. At South in particular, it would eliminate early bird, math 3s, and students take math 3S at South Early Bird. so that they can be in TCD, have an internship, go to intro to teaching, get help in other ma in other disciplines, and have a full period lunch. All of that goes away when we have a single period math 3C course. Second, from a department chair standpoint,

112master schedule standpoint, we have to schedule math 3s as blocks during the day because they have to overlap lunch periods. So, they have to be periods 3, four, five or periods 5, six, 7. Teachers have to have those classes backtoback. Some of those classes are co-taught which puts an additional burden on the master schedule for the special services department for the math department. A lot of that is eliminated with this being a single period course. Now we can offer this course first period or eighth period, second period or seventh period. They don't have to be backtoback, excuse me, and they don't have to be consecutive. Um so it gives us a lot of scheduling flexibility that that students might not see but it will benefit students um by having this class be just one single

113period. >> Say one more thing >> just to reiterate about the the student lenses. We have since co we have seen a slight decrease at both buildings in terms of the number of seniors that are enrolling in a fourth year of math. Uh there are a variety of reasons for that. Um, but as Phil uh talked about, we're kind of hopeful that the ability to just take math over a single period as opposed to having to be locked into a period and a half might entice some more students to continue their mathematical journey again in preparation for a two-year or four-year um course of study postgraduation. >> And would the um would the 3S teachers be taking over the 3C courses? U in general, yes. You know, we we sort of approach the master schedule

114on a year year-to-year basis, and it depends on how things line up in the schedule, but the 3S teachers have already been talking about what 3C would look like next year. >> And how do they feel about this change? >> Uh they're in favor of it. >> Okay. >> Change is uncertain every time you uh implement it, but we do have teachers at both buildings that are interested in in being part of this initial transition. And would 3S just go away? >> That's correct. >> All right. >> Any other questions, please? >> All right. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh all of those are a single action item tonight of approval of the course requests. All right. Uh Dre has swooped in. uh to talk about the tax levy

115request. This returns from last month. So, I'll turn it over to you, Jereie. >> All right. As I noted um in the memo tonight, there's been no additional information we've received um from the assessors. So, there's been no changes made to the tenative levy that we presented last month. So, it stays exactly the same. And then in March, we'll receive the actual figures from the county. And then in April, we'll bring back to the board the actual tax rates and the actual levy. Are there any questions about the levy? >> All right. So, back again tonight, but for action. So, this will be up for >> for approval later on in the meeting as well. All right. Um, next one. an update on Infinite Campus. Bill, you want the clicker? You want to just tell

116me to >> There's only three slides, so I'll just have you go right on through it. >> Sounds good. >> Load right into the first one there. >> All right. Well, I am really There we go. Got the mic working. I'm really excited to offer you a very brief update of our Infinite Campus project. Um, as you know, um, we previously used a program called ESchool Plus as our student information system. um that was acquired by Powers School and when they acquired it um they made a decision not to extend the platform further and instead to try to migrate customers onto their P school platform. Um we took the opportunity um to look at the whole marketplace and see what other options are there and in particular what other high school districts were doing and

117um we selected infinite campus as our student information system. Um it has a a very large user base in Illinois and a lot of strong support in areas that we were looking for it. Um when you think about a student information system um think about a wagon wheel. Um you have a hub at the middle. Um and that is the core data for our system and everything else comes out of that hub. Um so it acts as our system of records. So if we need an official record of what the attendance is or what a grade is, it is in our student information system. It has a lot of spokes that come out of it. Things like our parent portal, things like our student portal, and it's going to have connections to a lot of

118other tools. Um, things like parent square gets its data from the student information system. So, when we started on this project about a year ago, it's a really big project. In fact, it's a little bit like trying to um rehab your kitchen while you're cooking. So, we were building a um a new student information system side by side while we used the current student information system. We would slowly bring workloads over. We would test them, make sure that they were working and then put them into place. And then at over summer school, um we actually ran summer school out of the new student information system. We ran enrollment for the 2526 school year out of the new student information system. And that led us go into August with a lot of confidence that the system

119that we had ready was built and ready to fly. Um, one of my goals for the day for day one was we need to be able to take attendance and we need to be able to feed kids. Like that was it. We did both of those things great. So we're really happy the way the system came together. Go ahead and advance to the next slide. Um, one of the big things that we were tasked with this year was supporting the attendance initiative with the new system and Infinite Campus gave a lot gave us a lot of new tools uh with the scanning system. We piloted um building entrance scanning at the end of the prior the 2425 school year. Last two weeks after seniors were done, we had um all of the the remainder of

120the students come in and scan as they entered the building. and we worked out a really good pattern with that with from there we were able to launch to full scanning in um this at directly at the start of the school year. Launching a student information system um and then adding on a major function like scanning was a really big lift and we have a phenomenal team that was able to do that and our buildings really took this on as well and and made this work. So we were scanning in classrooms for attendance. We were scanning in offices uh in order to track office usage and then also account for attendance where appropriate and we scanned as students entered the building. This enabled us to do some really cool things. One of them was we

121wrote a report called the unaccounted for students report. Um, we were able to know if a student came into the building but then was marked absent at a class and every period and a report is run and um, the security and deans teams can go through and look for students who may be missing a class missing from a class but are in the building somewhere, find them, make sure that they make their way to class. Um, we were also able to begin using some of the reporting features of Infinite Campus to put together reports for our teachers. We call them our our Monday Thursday teacher reports. And every Monday and Thursday, teachers get a report of students who have a single period skip of theirs um um in the prior half week. Then they're able

122to reach out to those parents and those students and say, "Hey, being at school is important. Here's what you may have missed. We really encourage your student to make sure that they are in class." And so those those um student reports then are able to go out twice a week. We were able to do a lot of in-depth attendance reporting um and provide our department chairs and our building leadership with actionable information in order to make sure that we were supporting those attendance initiatives. So a lot of cool things. Um we've got a picture of our our attendance scanner um that our students use as they enter into the building right there for you if you haven't seen that yet. Um, we also did some reports with our alpha teams. We were able to replicate

123some of the functionality that Five Labs had previously provided and we were able to do it in a system that had direct access to the actual information as it is versus waiting for information to be replicated out and then rendered. It it's it's pulling those alpha team reports with up to the minute up to the second data. So, uh, and next, so we're looking at over the next course of the next semester as we grow into this system a little bit more, some additional reports and dashboards. We're looking at some um, athletics and activities attendance information. We want to be able to highlight teams um, and activities that are doing a great job with attendance. Um, and then we're looking at our summer school 2026 right now. We're building out the registration system in it

124and we're beginning to do our enrollment starting with our incoming freshmen and then that will eventually scaffold up to our summer enrollment push where we bring everyone else in as well and uh have everyone ready for next fall. >> So any questions for Phil? Thank you. >> So do we no longer use five labs that do we still use? >> Yeah, we migrated over to IC and We're excited with >> Yeah. >> It has better features and we have more control over it. >> Okay. Cool. >> Yeah. So, we're excited. >> Cool. >> And I would say it's less data transfer, too, right? So, we don't have to send that. It's we don't have to worry about it. >> Stays in the same box. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Phil. >> All right, Travis, >>

125you can you can drive. We just have we just have eight slides. Uh so just as a reminder some of the things um I believe it was about two years ago um and it might have been in the same board meeting or it might have been the November board meeting where we were talking about the financial impact of our energy um and if you remember if you were on the board at that point in time um we had a locked in rate for our our energy use but there's a variable that's unknown with energy that come fluctuate um the delivery charges right so we had experienced that so one of the key ways that we can influence that is by minimizing our energy andor getting some of our feed behind behind the wall if you

126will. Right? So excited to talk with you about some things that we've continued to investigate to look for different ways to conserve energy and to bring about different ways that we can not only save energy but then do other projects uh with some of those savings. So we're excited to talk about that uh with you tonight. if you can go ahead to the next slide. Um, so again, a little bit more background uh with this. Um, we've I had an opportunity to to work with John who is here tonight um and and Honeywell and talk with them about like what does this look like as a as a potential partnership and and what does Honeywell provide with that. Um, so we provided them with some information and they did a deep dive into our operations,

127into our facilities, into our energy use, our building infrastructure, all of those different components. And if I can paraphrase what John said is we are pretty well, we have a lot of uh good energy efficiencies in our operations. We're busy all the time, right? So even when they look at our energy use, our energy use is higher than the vast majority of other buildings because they are used so frequently. So considering that we need to figure out what are ways again that we can um maximize our efficiency as well as if we can provide our own electricity uh through solar that's a huge uh benefit for us. So, they've been able to identify significant savings and that's what we're uh bringing just as a discussion point tonight. Um that can provide us over the next

12820 years uh with some guaranteed energy savings. Um again, that allows us to do some different things. So, this is called an energy savings performance contract, ESPC, because we have to have acronyms for everything in education, right? So, it's a low risk and and it also provides us with uh something that uh Hank and I went to a conference again about two years ago in the fall and learned about taxexempt leases and so we've been looking for are there ways that we can utilize that funding source and this is one way that does that. So in essence there is uh little to no money upfront but the taxexempt lease allows us to make payments over these 20 years but with the savings that we have we have a surplus if you will. we have less

129going out so we're able to have realized savings depending upon the scope of the project probably what we've been talking about$100 to $200,000 a year upwards to 500 depending upon the scale and and what we decide to do but it's probably going to be more around that$100 to $200,000 area um this this project can utilize you can see we have the source well contract uh we've been uh talking about that and and that does meet the needs of the local government energy conservation ation act uh which has specific guidelines that you need to make sure if you're entering into an energy savings performance contract that you need to make sure and check certain boxes and this definitely would would do that. So next slide please. So you may be asking why now? There's several different

130things. Uh one of the driving factors is uh the solar timeline. So there uh the federal clean energy um has an incentive that the the direct payments change on uh this upcoming July 4th. So if we want to claim uh that tax credit, there are certain uh points that we need to hit in order to make that happen. So if we have if we begin begin construction before July 5th 2026. So if you look at that second bullet um we don't place an inservice deadline. So that gives us greater flexibility is to to get the projects done in relation to that. We just have to start construction before July 5th. Um and typically that that extends that out for us to 2032. Whereas if we um start after July 4th um I know that's like

131there's a day there. Okay. But after that um we have to have the service in place by December 31st, 2027. So it it changes that timeline and the ability for us to potentially have realized the full tax incentive or tax credit that we would be able to get. Um there are two things that we have to do again with that timeline. One is to get an interconnection application completed through KMED. Um, which there is a cost a low cost associated with that but there are steps like that we need to take and then it typically takes Kameed like >> 30 to 60 days to get that approved. So, that's again another um you have to have that done in order to uh get that federal clean energy um tax credit. And then we also have

132to have a 5% spend, which we don't think that there's going to be any problem with meeting that uh in that July 5th uh deadline. Um we know that project costs aren't going down, right? That's a that's a given. And we also know that uh energy demand continues to increase with all of the data centers that are coming online. So, I don't play the futures, but if I was thinking about that energy cost, the direct the the uh direct cost from Kameed isn't going to go down. Um, if I was a betting man, I would say it's going to go up, right? And so, this is an opportunity for us to realize and and really grab a hold of that and take care of things um on our own. You can go to the next

133slide. What's unique about this and what Honeywell presented is we also have a potential to do some uh capital improvement projects and we have up to $2.5 million included in that. There are certain requirements that have to be met in order to uh utilize the funds for this. So we're investigating these. So I I'm saying these are potential. This is not something where I can say for sure, hey, we are going to be able to do all of these things, but we're looking at potential. Um one of them is the our security camera upgrade. That's the hardware. Um, in January, I'll be talking about the software side of it, uh, the cloud-based, uh, that we're looking at for our own funds, not through this project, but this would allow us to upgrade our our camera

134system on the actual hardware, the the cameras themselves. Um, potentially, uh, additional safety film installation in different areas that we've identified, uh, that that we need to do. So, um, and then again, these are all district-wide things. uh controls work for our HVAC. Uh we can look at the optimization of of our functionality there. Um as well as just look at our overall um HVAC system and and how we're uh managing that through through the controls. Specifically at at North and South, we'd also be able to uh look at a public address system upgrade. Uh we have a hodge podge at both schools uh with our PA systems. And so this would allow us to update that uh to allow for uh better communication and more reliable things. Um as well as at North um

135we we need to do a remediation in our auditorium. We have some uh moisture and ventilation issues that we've identified and we believe that this would be able to allow us to to do that and address that through this uh through this avenue. Next slide, please. So I'm going to turn it over to to John who is here. um as well as Josh is here uh from Honeywell to go over the the next slide um and to uh they they are the experts in this um right so if we have questions they're standing ready to to answer some of those things so I'll turn it over to you guys okay so we had one of our solution engine is this on >> y my ears don't work so great all the time um so we

136had one of our solution engineers who's not with us Jason Serbin and what he did is he came out He worked with Michelle over at North and he worked um Mike over at South and they walked the buildings, right? And so the information in the report we delivered to the team so far is based on our internal engineers um estimates. Okay. What we're moving towards and looking at each of these projects. So the solar on the rooftops of each building. Um as Travis said, there's going to be some structural requirements with some engineering to verify that the roofs can hold what we think they can hold, right? there's electrical engineering that needs to be done of how are we getting to meters so that the power you're generating can be used in your building but

137not dragging you know more cost um building envelope. So that's just taking a look at things around the building and all of these things that we're looking at in this list here is really like the energy conservation measures. So these are things that in doing them there are significant comeded rebates. Solar has a significant comeded and federal rebate along with some Illinois state of Illinois incentives. So everything on this list can drive the savings that allows for those other pro capital projects to get done. Things like a public addresses system if that's something you guys need to get take care of within the law. It also says capital cost avoidance. So, when you're thinking about these buckets, here's where we can find the savings and make the buildings more efficient. Um, but some of those

138other projects that we discussed, we'll go through um and we'll do the work that you need to kind of project manage, identify possible vendors, um, things like that. So, we help you all with the process. So, in taking on a large upgrade of your buildings, right, it is not overt taxing your business folks, your operation folks, right? You kind of bring us in to do that service for you. we walk you through and we help you to maximize all the financial avenues that you have available to you. >> So along with that um Honeywell does have again it's a guaranteed energy savings. Um so they through that um investment grade audit that that would kind of be the the next steps that they would need to go. Again, as as Sean was talking about, we

139we have some reports on our roofs and where we believe that we can put solar. And again, if you remember what we what we did last fall, not this fall, but the fall before where we tried to use our fund 90 uh for our health life safety to put solar here at the district office and at T99. that was denied, but we have the $500,000 in the DCEO grant that we've been made aware we have that I actually um attended a webinar last Tuesday where we're we're waiting to get connected with someone that's going to manage the grant. So, we believe that we'll be able to use those funds for this project, which then would allow us to have greater savings because everything that we've looked at is nothing out of our pockets from the

140beginning. Um, if we were to go through with the entirety of the project. So, that would actually realize additional savings over that time where we already have that grant money. Um, but we want to make sure again, hey, we have this grant, we have this opportunity. How does that work? Does it mess with any of the rebates? All of those different pieces. So, we're still investigating some of those some of those things. But with that investment grade audit, um Honeywell has already put in a good amount of time and resources into this at zero cost to us. Um if they move forward and do this investment grade audit, um in essence, they're going to do a really deep dive into um our facilities, all of those different places. So, if you remember with our health

141life safety, we did a an A&E architecture and engineering, right? costs. Um what this looks like is it would be about 2 and a half% of the total project cost is about where we're at right now, what we believe that to be. Um so what that means is if we continue on and we we go through and they do the investment grade audit and we move on with Honeywell, this is not a a cost to us. It's built into the project. But if we decide, you know what, thank you for doing the investment grade audit. We don't want to move forward. We are responsible for two and a half percent of the final estimated cost project cost. Right? So there is some risk uh associated with that but that is what you that that is

142less than a percentage of what we typically pay for an architecture engineering type of a uh service and we get to keep all of those all of those reports all of the different things that they find that then those are the districts. The two ends of the guarantee is the investment grade audit. We do put in a lot of time with our project managers and our solution engineers to make sure that the things we're recommending, right, do pan out to deliver those savings, right? If we find something that we don't think is going to deliver the savings, we just we tell you we don't recommend it. So, we do put a lot of time and effort into that. And what that two and a half% basically just represents is our just cost. the cost of

143the time it takes for us to walk folks around, third party costs, all of those things that come involved with it. So, we do that investment grade audit to guarantee the savings >> and also guarantee the cost of construction and completion of the project. So, we're going to guarantee two pieces and if we move forward with that investment grade audit when we eventually complete it, we come to agreement on what we think the savings numbers can be and what we think the construction, you know, in negotiation with you all can be and we all agree on those numbers. There will be no change orders from us. If we make a mistake in our investment grade audit and it costs us money, it costs us money. So the construction gets done for what we agree and

144every year those savings if we say they're $200,000 and for one, you know, it's it's not sunny all year and we have a bad sun year, then if it only saved you $147,000, Honeywell writes you a check for $53,000. Our team is pretty conservative with the numbers that we put out there kind of in this opening stage. We don't often put checks out. We have Josh could speak to the the balance and the number of checks we write. We're pretty good at it. But if we do make an error and we don't hit the construction number or we don't hit the savings number, we're on the hook for it. We don't come back. >> And for context, um we have about a billion dollars on our balance sheet um and in risk and savings for

145our customers across, you know, um across the country, across across the world. Um and we write checks less than 1% of the time. right now out of the 1.1 billion we have in our balance sheet uh we write less than $300,000 um you know back to customers. So we've been doing this since 1986 we've done about 7,000 projects. So we've got uh you know our our ducks in a row so to speak when when it comes to uh delivering um you know projects like this and since 1986 uh we've done 1734 K12s in North America just for context. >> Good. Thank you. So, kind of our our next steps, Honeywell is going to continue preparing and and will bring that investment grade audit to the board for consideration at the January 26th meeting. Um, if

146the board uh approves that and they continue on with this, then that would lead to the next uh three bullets of analyzing those final numbers. Um, with the investment grade audit, we'd bring those back uh and that's anticipated for March. uh then in April that would be the final board decision, right? So we would present in March here's here's what the the savings are with the decision at that April meeting. So again, if we have that decision where we say we're good to go, we're going to continue on with the project. There is no cost associated with that that audit, but if so, then we would need to be prepared to pay 2 and a half% of that. >> And you would have all the financials, right? We would work with the finance team, our

147finance team, all of those things. So, everything would be laid out. Um, and just like that we laid out this highle timeline for you all. We would be normally connecting with your team here at the district and the buildings every week with updates. So, you would have a lot more information throughout this whole process. But, you know, to use your time efficiently and wisely, we'd probably schedule a couple of times when we had significant progress to go over and kind of update y'all. >> There there would be a lot of things behind that. It's kind of like the presentation on Infinite Campus, >> three slides. There's a lot of work that went on behind the scenes, you know, to make that >> short to make that happen. >> So, and if we were to move

148forward, right, the the project would start this summer. Um, and we would have a timeline again associated with that final of, hey, here's what this looks like. Here's when we would be able to get things done um, and to realize those those savings and to hit those timelines that we need to we need to hit. >> So, any questions about um any of the things that we presented? >> I just to confirm. So, the investment grade audit that will be the list of the projects and the estimated project cost, right? That's a detailed item I was listing of all the Okay, >> that's the end goal. >> Yeah, that's that's that's the end goal. >> Okay. And that's Yeah, which will be the uh so essentially then there's no capital outlay. That's the cost of

149the project that is then repaid with the s the guaranteed savings that are >> based off the preliminary that we did and we're pretty confident when we walk out the subcontractors and get those prices. Um there is an option to work at less operational dollars than you currently are. you know, based on those savings, um, you know, there is a zero dollar, we can build in some of those other capital cost avoidances and pretty much keep you budget neutral >> throughout the project. >> So, yeah, what that what that does with that tax exempt lease, right, there's it's structured in such a way that our savings when we look at our payment for the year, right, and the savings that we get are greater than the payment. >> Yeah. >> Right. So when you think

150about all the different rebates that that's high in the first year, first two years, right? But then as that as that uh continues, that annual savings in essence pays for the tax exempt lease. So there's there's not additional money that's coming out of our budget to make those payments. There are on the sheet, right? But when you look at the the savings that are there, we have greater savings than what we're paying. So that's where we have those other things. And we've been talking about and trying to find ways how do we how do we uh put that money directly back into classrooms and this is a this is a a great option that we think that would allow that to do. >> So instead of budgeting for energy in a budget line item, the

151budget line item would be the lease payment. Right. >> So we reduce here but increase over here. So it it balances out. >> And that list you showed the PA, the HVAC, those are >> projects that meet the requirements of how to use the savings. So there are limitations on how you can >> use. Am I understanding that correct? >> No, that's that's for to be included in the project. There are limitations. What we do with those savings, that's completely up to us as >> addition. So those are the things that are kind of on the list, right? We will then figure out what is the exact cost and what is the value, right? Okay. Your PA system, you know, sorry to tell you, isn't going to save you energy, right? >> But if you

152need a new PA system, it can be included in the project. Okay? So, we're going to bring that list to you with the cost associated and it becomes really a menu for you all to decide, yeah, this does bring value and this aligns with our goals, right? Or maybe this does not. Maybe we recommend not doing something because there isn't enough value right now. Got it? So it'll be a list kind of working towards and then we'll all work through it together. >> Our list of capital improvements is very long. >> Yeah. >> So what so we could move some in and out. Yeah. What this allows us to do because I'll be coming in January and talking about capital projects for next year. Um that allows us to do this in addition to those

153things. >> Y just like your own budget. If you can make savings in bills somewhere, you can redirect it to somewhere else that you you want to use it. It's the same idea, just bigger scale here. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you both for being here. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> All right. Board members, your turn. Um, anything from the fall joint annual conference that you would like to report out on to the whole group? Uh I I found I took advantage of the Friday sessions um uh just for the benefit of which are longer sessions. I think about two and two and a half two two and a half hour sessions. Uh um I found it useful, insightful. Um uh uh it's it's still uh getting information from

154a fire hose, I'm going to admit, but but it was still um there were still takeaways made and and also just uh yeah, connecting with other other board members um um feeling uh even more so part of that community. It was uh uh very much very much enjoyed it. So I thought it was very useful. Yeah. So I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think one of the biggest benefits to the conference itself is is the ability to uh talk with other board members from different parts of the state specifically and have a better respect for how well we operate as a board despite some complications over the years. Uh we are in a pretty good spot and I think we work pretty well and um especially comparing how some of the

155other borers operate and the way that they have had challenges over the years. I think we're in a pretty good spot. I think it's uh we're well known around the state in a way that I didn't realize we were. And that's pretty cool. Uh thanks to Hank and others. So, uh yeah, it was it was a great time. >> Yeah, I agree. I love it. I've this is my third year going. I feel like there's always topics. I went to social media, which continues to evolve, which is really interesting. And then I'm co-leading for lend the federal advocacy committee. So they had a group focused on that as well. And I got to same networking, reconnect with some people through that. And um and I just always love you and I went together to the

156big like presenter, the sort of mainstage speakers. I think they're always >> like amazing and that was Yeah. So great. Appreciate the opportunity. It's a great development opportunity for all of us. >> So thank you. It was it was great. >> Thanks for signing us up, Julie. You did all the leg work. >> Yes. Thank you, Julie. >> Anytime. >> All right. Uh getting close to the end here. Freedom of information requests. Uh we receive them, we fill them, and we post them on our website. You can find them there. All right. On to action items. >> Okay. So before the board votes on the consent agenda, is there any agenda item a board member would like to pull out of the consent agenda for further discussion? >> Seeing none, I now read. Yep. >>

157Okay. So the mo I need a motion for the board of education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes a personnel report appointment certified appointment classified b personnel report resignation classified c Personnel report termination classified. D November treasures report and financial pages. E award of bid north high band uniforms from demulan brothers and company in the total amount of 130,58.90 and also the acceptance of a donation from Fitzen Jean Wildermouth acceptance of the donation from Ann Marice Forsome and acceptance of the donation from the downers group Junior Women's Club. So moved. >> Second. >> Moved. Chris second. >> Okay. >> Michael Riskey. >> I >> Chris Dress Pinosa. >> I. >> April Fein. >> Hi. >> Haty Courtourtney. >> Hi. >> And Cara Castton. >> Hi. >> And thank you for those generous

158donations. >> Moving on to action items. >> I need a motion for the board of education to approve the 2627 course proposals as presented. So moved. >> Second. >> Uh Chris moved. Katie second. >> Thank you. >> Chris Espininoza. >> Hi. >> Katie Courtourtney. >> I. >> April Fein. >> Hi. >> Michael Riskey. >> I. >> And Cara Casten. >> I passes. >> Yes. >> Very good. >> Sorry. >> You got it. Um, now I need a motion for the board of education to approve the 2025 tax levy in the amount of 119,22,971, the certificate of tax levy, the certification of certificate of tax levy, and the certificate of compliance with the truth and taxation law as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> April moves Katie second. >> Thank you. >> April Fein, >>

159I. >> Katie Courtourtney, >> I >> Chris Espinosa. I >> Michael Riskey. >> I >> and Car Casten. >> I You carried. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. >> No, we have no we have no slips. >> All right. Updates. Uh L. >> Yeah. So lend update. We obviously all just most went to the breakfast during the conference which was great. And the next meeting is at the end of January. So have a more of an update then uh yes sid do you have any updates? >> Uh we have our next meeting I think mid January. Um so I'll have more after that. >> I don't have I have a meeting this week that's not a ton of stuff and then we have a capital improvement meeting at the beginning of January. >> Kier April

160on the foundation. >> Yeah we had our meeting a few weeks ago. Uh, one of the things we've been discussing is the the little um commemorative bricks on the on the um patio areas at the entrance of North and South. Um, the bricks are starting to some of them are falling into disrepair. Um, and some of the uh the cost of the bricks has skyrocketed. Um, it's becoming a bit untenable to continue um the uh the upkeep. So, we're kind of trying to figure out how to phase that out. We talked a little bit with um who do we somebody told us how many bricks are left and uh so so we're trying to figure out um what to do with the remaining bricks and um kind of whether or not we're going to continue

161maintaining the bricks as time goes on. >> All right, an ISB we just did. >> So all right, uh upcoming meetings on the board. So, we're back January 12th and then January 26th. >> Okay. Um, the appointment. >> We're going into close session. Uh, for the for a the appointment for >> Oh, sorry. I need a motion from the board. >> Thank you. >> To go into close session for the following. Yes, please. Now you can read. A the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal counsel for the district, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park,

162recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of the district, or against legal counsel. for the district to determine its validity. And B, collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. and C litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of a particular body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or im imminent in which case the basis for finding shall be recorded and entered entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. The only action the board will be taking when it comes out of close session is to adjourn. So can I get a motion to go into close session? So moved. >>

163Second. >> Chris moves Katie. Second. >> Thank you. >> Cost Espressonosa. >> I. >> Katie Courtourtney. >> Hi. >> April Fein. >> Hi. >> Michael Riskey. >> Hi. >> And Cara Casten. Hi. Motion carries. All right. >> We'll be in close sec session in this room after a short break. Our students I'm sure want to get out of here.