001I hereby call to order this committee of the whole meeting for Monday, November 10th, 2025. The time is 8:01 a.m. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Dan Hart >> here. >> Kristen Dcastro >> here. >> Allison Pless >> here. >> Amy Paling >> here. >> Katie Hilton >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Erin Stone. >> Thank you. I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the October 20th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session meetings. >> I move to approve the minutes of the October 20th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session meetings. >> May I have a second? Second. The motion has been made and seconded. Board members, are there any comments, errors, or omissions to the minutes? Okay, seeing none, um, may I have a roll
002call vote? >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Kristen Dcastro, >> yes. >> Allison Pless, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Amy Bailing, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Uh, we will start this morning's meeting with an update um from facility development committee, Mrs. Dcastro. >> Thank you. I'll turn it over to Mr. Boltier to give an update on the WJHS construction project. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Um so a couple couple things we're going to go over for this agenda item. One is the bid results and then the the second item um is just kind of looking at the financial impact that goes with it. Um let me share my screen. I'll dive into the results. Okay. All right. So, here are the results. Um, and since we
003have um several new board members, this is our first construction bid uh since several of the board members have have joined the board. Just wanted to walk through the process. So, you know, we went through a lengthy design um process where we have multiple um budgetary checks and Nicholas and Associates does that on our behalf. And then early October, we went out the bidding process started. We went out to bid. during the open bidding process um there's always a mandatory pre-bid meeting um where where those contractors can ask questions. It also from our perspective helps to know how many um contractors may be interested especially given that we have multiple bid packages or trade areas and um they can ask questions. There's addendums issued and then we open the bid where it's uh you know
004confidential. they submit it with a sealed sealed packaging and we open them you know during a uh documented and published meeting. Um so for this bid we had four um bid package areas um kind of site work general trades uh HVAC or mechanical and then electrical as well. We had the base bid, which is primarily the windows throughout the junior high, many of which or nearly all of which are original to the building um and in desperate need of being replaced. And then we had seven alternate bids. And the way the the way the bidding structure works is the board has the ability to accept or reject all alternates, but um to accept any alternates, you have to accept the base bit. So, let's dive into the results. Um, when I look at the base
005bid in the document that I've got displayed here, plus what I shared with the the board members have their own copy. Um, we have base bid plus alternates 1 A, 2 A, and then maybe 2B, 2C, and three. Um, near the bottom here, I have totals uh 4.6 6 million if we include 2B and then 4.5 if we do not. Um later on in the meeting we'll uh have some further discussion about the um alternates in 2 A 2B 2C. One thing to uh keep in mind uh our last budgetary check with Nicholas um was about 700,000 higher than what the results came in. So that's always good to see that we had some competitive bidding and that on bid day we saw um the number come in lower than what what we had been
006seeing earlier on. Uh the recommendation that we have is to approve um the base bid um alternates 1 A uh 2 A 2 C and then three. Um 2B is kind of pending further further discussion. Um for the two items I have on here in red at the bottom, uh we have the lobby renovation at 325,000 and we have the alternate for the drop off and pickup lane at almost $2 million. Those items are being recommended to reject um next Monday. And as far as the work related to those um you know th those actual since those are like actual amounts those are just a bit too high for what we were looking to achieve. I don't think it would be wise for us to to um pursue those pieces of work at those prices.
007I think as we talked internally um kind of our goal is to take a look at this, see if we can come up with some ideas that would reduce the overall cost for those two items that would allow us to achieve some of those object objectives. And then um the I think the most at this point the most likely scenario is we would try and target the summer of 2027 for those items. Um, meaning we would kind of pause for now, proceed with the other the base bid plus those other alternates and and go from there. Um, one thing to note on my sheet, I have that orange highlighted number from Helm. Uh, one of the things that Nicholas does immediately after our bid opening is whoever is the apparent low bidder, they reach out
008to them and and uh conduct a scope review with the apparent low bidder ju just to ensure that they understood the scope of work and and there were no mistakes made. After Helm completed their scope review, they requested uh to withdraw their bid. they realized they had made made some errors in and reading the plans. Um so with that said that means that FE Maran was the second lowest. They would be the the the recommended winner for um bid package three. So we have uh representatives from both STR and Nicholson Associates. Um, so besides them, I'm happy to answer any questions for the board um related to any of the the base bid, the alternates, what we're what we saw, what we're looking at. Um, and then pending any uh questions, I can jump in
009or if the board would prefer, I can just jump switch over to the financial impacts of this um of these bids. >> Any questions from the board? Judy. >> Um, forgive me for not knowing the answer to this, but bid package number three, the HVAC. Yes. >> What is it where air conditioning or overheating or what what is it? >> What is it doing? >> What does it cover? >> Okay. So, primarily, feel free Pat, anybody else. Um, going off my memory, um, within the base bid, we have some in the lobby or the entryway to the junior high, there's some mechanical equipment that is in need of replacement. Um, and and some controls work that that goes with it. So, that's primarily that's what that is. Hi, I'm Sandra Moon with STR Partners. In
010addition to the base bid um includes all the exterior windows and within the windows, there's also the ventilation that comes in through some of the louvers and stuff too. So, some of the mechanical also is included with the building envelope. >> I have a question too. um for under Monarch Construction where the lowest bid some of these are so drastically different. Was there a scope review done with there too? I mean is there any >> any thoughts on that? >> Yeah, scope review was done with with um each of the each of the contractors and the ones that I've highlighted in bold. They have confirmed that um they are comfortable and ready to proceed with the amounts that they bid. >> Great. Um just just to sort of take a step back. I know we're
011going to cover um 2 A, 2 B, and 2 C. Yep. >> But so the base bit is just the windows. That's talking like replacing all the windows, right? >> Yep. >> And then doors and storefronts. That's >> so >> just the front doors. >> So yeah. So within um that scope of work, um there's a lot of doors and storefronts which The storefront is really just referencing the the windows to the side of the doors in those cases. Um many of those um doors storefront areas throughout the building um are in in need of replacement like the the windows throughout the building. The only one that I can think of that's new that we just did a couple of years ago is on the science wing, which would be the southeast corner of the
012building. That one is not being touched because that was just done a couple of years ago. But all the rest also included in that total which is 526,000 is um would be the east side of the cafeteria wall where right now it's all windows and we were going to take that down and um redo that wall where it' be think some windows, some masonry. Um there's also I believe one of the classrooms um just past the office has um a ton of like storefront windows like you would see entering a business. We're going to take that out and make that more uh consistent with the other classrooms where it would just you wouldn't be able to see through and you would just have a door that primarily a wood door that just has like a
013small window. Um so that is that is the bulk of um or that is the work in in 1A. >> Okay. And does that include the back door like by the athletics back door that thing? >> Um the yes the doors by um I guess it would be the north entrance by the cafeteria. That one. And then there's also the other entrance by the by the gym that would be like facing the playfields. Um, that one's included as well. >> Okay. And then when you're talking about like the lobby renovation, does which may or may not be recommended, but would that include the front lobby only or does that include like the lobby by that back entrance? >> So the the lobby renovation that we're rejecting is would the work included in that is just
014ceiling and the wall like as you walk in it would be the wall that is the the entryway of the auditorium. So, like all the windows, all the windows, doors in that curved glass wall that we see as soon as we walk outside, plus the benching that's in on the inside, um, and the mechanical stuff in the in the lobby, all of that's being replaced as part of the base bed. >> Okay. And then just the last thing, just to have clarification, then the that sort of that $2 million number, what that is was that extension of the driveway. Yeah. >> And going all the way north? >> Yes. Yeah. >> So, does it does what we're doing um affect the drop off or the driveway situation at all? >> No. No. What we're what
015we would recommend for approval? like everything outside would um remain the same pending another review or plan to try and figure out a way to reduce cost which is obviously likely a reduced overall size and changing of the of the footprint. >> Okay. So, if we chose to do the windows now, then it wouldn't affect the ability to do the driveway later on, right? It would just maybe be a two-step process or >> correct. That that's kind of how we're thinking of it right now is trying to proceed with the windows, doors, and some of the interior stuff. Pause. Let's see how things go through this year. And then as we would get to the normal timeline to start design for like any summer of 2027 project, we would start to brainstorm like, okay, what
016could what do we want a reduced um redo in front to look like? >> Thank you. Any other questions? But the earliest we would start work on that redo in front would be the summer of 2027 if we did decide to proceed. >> Yeah, that's that's what uh that's kind of our what our thinking right now is. >> One more. >> And does that affect the price? I mean, I know it's impossible to know what the pricing is in 2027, but doing them both together, is it cheaper than doing them in a two-step process? I'm sure there's I mean the if you look just looking at the bid packages like the contractors that are doing it like most of that is falls under the site work. So it would have been eagle contractors um you
017know the vast majority of this work is is generally different than the windows and doors on the inside. So, while there could have been a little bit, I don't especially at the price point that we're looking at, I think it's worth trying to have a more refined um scope of project for for redoing that front, something that fits better with what we're at at least financially. Um, so maybe a little bit, but I don't think it's I don't think it's worth proceeding at a price tag of $2 million. Okay, thank you. >> Any other questions? >> No, I'll I'll just say thank you for walking us through all of that. I think looking at all these alternates is so important um in order to understand the tradeoffs and I also find it very helpful in
018informing you know future plans um and considerations. So thank you for this. >> All right, let's jump to Okay, so now I'm showing five-year projections. So, you know, normally in December, we go through, you know, a much length year with with lots of different pages and lots more information, but what I wanted to do was show the board what does the financial projections look like with the bids that we are recommending for approval. And so, essentially, here's the one-page summary of our operating funds. Um so the fiscal year 26 column that's our board approved budget for this fiscal year. Um when you scroll when you go towards the bottom you see the beginning fund balance number. It's 37.495 million. Um while our audit for fiscal year 25 is not you know complete at this point
019um I do feel pretty comfortable that that number isn't going to change in any large way. So that represents roughly a 52 like a 52.1% starting point and then you see based upon the budget we would end fiscal year 26 down to 43%. keeping in mind that historically we do see some level of um actual results being better than the budget. So I think while we still have you know seven and a half eight months left of fiscal year 26 I don't know that I could give anyone a number of like where we might finish with any high level of confidence. Um what I've seen thus far is I do feel comfortable thinking that we will finish better than budget. I just don't know at what level and in some years we've had some you
020know some pretty nice positive variances. So that keep I always keep that in the back of my mind. And then I went through all the other steps that I typically do for the December um on the revenue and expense side. Um you know adding what we would expect based upon historical uh what we've seen historically for salary and benefits. Similar things on the purchase service supplies capital outlay. Um, I've tried to adjust for things up or down where I knew we had smaller projects or bigger projects. Um, you know, within the district, um, on the revenue side, I've tried to capture what we've done with property taxes. And so, as you look at the five years that are projected here, you see each of those years is above our 40%. um which is which is
021you know our goal and similar to what we've seen in the last few years the projections show this in that in that low 40% range. Um one thing I keep in mind is there always is a level of conservative conservativism in doing these projections. Um, and typically what you see is the best information is within the first couple years of projections and the further you get out, like the last two or three years, we're going to make so many decisions one way or another that's going to impact those before we would actually get there that they're helpful as a guide to know if we're on the right path. But, um, you know, I wouldn't treat them as like this is written in stone. This does incorporate the amount that we have that I'm recommending for
022approval next Monday for the summer of 26. So it does show if we were to proceed with those recommended base bid plus alternates what it looks like. Um the one thing that is maybe a little different is as we start to look at the outy years. I currently don't have I know that we will likely want to do projects. I currently don't have projects. Couple reasons like included in this slide or this page. Couple reasons for that. We are this window project is the last of our existing um kind of larger plan of the multi-million dollar projects that we wanted to complete. Like the the last project that we know we really wanted to complete in this kind of five to six year window was the windows at the junior high. As we start to
023look ahead, we we will be working on that next fiveyear strategic plan. It's a natural point to go through and start to think strategically what are those next projects what what will we like to what would we like to do also to keep in mind is we're coming up on the district needing to do their 10-year life safety study. There's always some level of work that arises from that study. Um and while that process will will get begin in 2026 um the plan as I kind of think about how we formulate our plan of what are the next series of projects. This isn't something that over the course of like two or three months we're just going to say okay here's all the projects and this is what we're going to do for the next
024like seven years. This is probably a could be at least a year or maybe two year process of taking all the information in and starting to identify what do we want to do. Um, one other thing to keep in mind is the last time that we issued long-term debt was 2023. When we issued that, we left ourselves the option to be able to issue some more debt for for capital projects. um in tax year 2028, which probably would mean that we would we would do that in the in fiscal year 2029. Um that just kind of looking at it at a high level, probably 10 to 12 million in bonding capacity, possibly more. Um so there's there there is the the ability to do projects down the road. And then one of the recent changes
025at the state level was when districts go through school districts go through these tenure life safety studies, items that show up on that report, whether you're a school district that gets that back and it says 2 million or five or 25 or as I've seen in my career some places they have over 100 million. Um those are tend to be larger districts that haven't put any money towards projects. Um there's the ability to issue life safety bonds. um for things that are on that report. So, I say that um as I look at this, I feel good where we're at. Um I recommend that the board proceed with next Monday approving the 2026 um bids for for the junior high. Um all while knowing, I know where we're headed and we while I'm not able
026to articulate because I just don't know what projects will likely occur after 2026. um we do have the ability to do projects. Um it's not like we won't have that ability. Um so happy to answer any questions about where the finances are. And similar to this sheet in December, so a month from now, I'll come back and go through the full uh five-year financial projections at that point. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um, at this time we'll move on to school finance, Mrs. Paling. >> Okay, I'm going to turn it right back for looking at our cash flow. >> Okay. >> So, I I gave each of you a sheet and I think with the information that became very public at the end of last week, I believe on Friday. This topic is um
027maybe maybe a bit of a moot point, but I I do want to walk the board through the through. So, I went through and analyze our cash flow right now. We're we're in a good spot. As of as we get into January, um I'm looking at probably something like three and a half to$4 million is what we would have in cash on hand. maybe slightly higher. Like I said, si uh the cash flow analysis tends to be um a little conservative similar to some of the other things we do. Um so I've been talking with Liz Hennessy at Raymond James who we've used for our bond issuances. And um the process to to issue uh short-term borrowings kind of goes like this. We prepare the cash flow. We identify the need in total and by
028fund. Um then the board of education would be required to approve parameters covering the issuance of short-term debt. Um we're going to uh Dr. Kiscoli and I are going to talk about it this week and probably also with uh Liz at Raymond James. And um even though they're saying that the bills will be out this week and the um everything will be due by December 15th, this whole process has um had a lot of delays at every step. And so the thing I'm going to confirm with Liz is whether we need to have the board just approve the resolution for issuance of short-term debt just in case there's another hiccup that they they don't foresee. Um just because they in my mind just because they're able to issue the tax bills and they got all
029the in the software conversion doesn't necessarily mean that once the money starts coming in that they're going to be able to apply it to the pins correctly and then allocate it to you know think about the people in this room when you pay your bill it's going to user it's going to the village of the park district and several other places no guarantee that they're going to be able to you know do that part properly. I hope they will. So, the part we're going to confirm with Liz is is our November 17th date kind of we have to approve that resolution or if we don't, do we really run the risk of if there's further delays, we wouldn't be able to get money by early January. Um, so that will ultimately determine whether we bring
030a resolution for next Monday night's meeting for approval. Um, if once in in the case where you did need it, once the board approves the resolution, then it's really just the district working with Raymond James to distribute financial information to potential lenders, Raymond James could do one of two things. They could conduct a competitive bidding process, which they've done many times, or you could do a private placement. And typically what you see with private placement, our primary banking relationship is with Northshore Bank here in Wulmet, which is a part of the Winrust Group. Um, many times you just I've seen districts or organizations that need short-term borrowing just negotiate with um a short-term loan with their primary bank. That could be an option. And then if we were to need that, we would we would
031target um receiving those funds by early January. Um, but like I said, I'm hopeful based upon the information that came out on Friday that none of this will be needed and this was just, you know, an exercise that we went through. Um, hopefully no for no reason. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has anything, but really the decision point right now is just for us to follow up and find out whether we absolutely have to approve it at at November or if it's possible to wait till our December meeting for approval because certainly by our December meeting, which I believe is on the 15th, we would we would we would based upon the timeline shared with us, we should have already started to receive tax money at least a couple weeks before
032that meeting. So, happy to answer any questions on this one. >> Thank you so much for thinking ahead this for us. >> Great. >> Hopefully, we don't need it, but great to know that there are contingencies and options in case we do. So, thank you very much. >> Um, all right. We will then um switch gears to strategy. Miss Stone is not here this morning, but I will turn it over to Kelly Jackson for the fall seal assessment report. Good morning. Um, as we do every year, uh, we recap, um, our SEAL data from our assessments. And so today, I'll share with you just an overview of our fall 2025 SEAL data, um, just to set our stage for our work this year. Um we have two assessments that we use uh at the elementary
033level. Uh it's called insights. There's an early elementary which we use with kindergarten through third grade and late elementary is for fourth grade. Um that is a student uh taken assessment. It offers uh questions. It's narrated um in situations that kids have to solve for basically. Um there is an element of self-control as a part of that as well. And then um at fifth through 8th grade we use the panorama mesh. Uh it's like a survey. Uh students take it. It really assesses competency level as well as um some school environmental um school climate kinds of things. Um so first I'll go through insights. Again it's a narrated assessment taken online. Um the early elementary which is K3 measures social emotional competency development in four areas. So, emotion recognition, social perspective taking, social problem solving,
034and self-control. Um, the LE or the late elementary uh that I'll show you in a minute. It measures development in understanding others, social problem solving, self-control, and self-awareness. Um, when we get results, they're divided into four performance levels and um above they are above average, at or around average, uh below average, and well below average. So this next slide shows where we are for fall. Um these you can see um in the far left column is the overall area and then it breaks apart uh the four different categories of social perspective taking emotion recognition uh social problem solving and self-control on the right. Um we do generally do very well on this even at our fall administration. So you can see in the overall category um we have 95.9% of our students in above average
035or average strengths. Um as we move down you'll see the two yellow arrows there. Um we do target two areas with our lesson planning um in social perspective taking and emotion recognition. Um and so we would hope that over the course of the year we would grow in these areas. um especially you see that emotion recognition um we would want to grow that darker green color that 18.9% um and hopefully reduce that 9.7% in the below average. We do have the ability to break this down by classroom and by students so we can target lessons for small groups if we need to. Um and we do look at all four areas. Um but those are the two that as a district we decided we would target. And then this is the insights uh late elementary.
036So this is just fourth grade. Um and so you'll see the last two areas social problem solving and understanding others are the areas that we target. Um again we look at this in the same way. um we have a large amount of students in that overall category um that are doing well, but we do want to grow in some of those subcategories, especially that top green area and um reduce the little the orange areas on the bottom. So, um we will target lessons using our everyday speech seal curriculum and then other things around the school that we do to help um boost those areas up. Now turning to mesh. Um mindsets, essential skills, and habits is what that stands for. Um that's uh given uh every fall and spring to fifth through eighth graders. Um
037you'll see when I we get results that they're broken down, um because of the way that MESH reports, it's third through fifth grade. We only give it to fifth graders. So kind of like the last assessment that we saw, it's only one grade level and then sixth through eight is together. um areas targeted in um the first uh questionnaire which is like student competencies. It's really those SEAL areas include supportive relationships, self-management, social awareness, emotion recognition, and then in grades six through eight, social perspective taking. Um in the student supports and environment questionnaire, it uh targets sense of belonging, school climate, teacher student relationships, and valuing of school. So this is the report that we have um for the competencies area. So you'll see supportive relationships, self-management, social awareness, and emotion recognition again on the
038left hand side there. Um on the right hand side of the graphs, you'll see where we fall um nationally with everybody. Those are the green line, the green dots on the graph. Um and you'll see we're in the 80th to 99th percentile nationally across the board. um when compared with middle schoolers across we fall in the 99th percentile there. So um we if if we're comparing ourselves to everybody across the nation um that takes the mesh, we we look pretty good there. Um but we do want to take a look at some of those lower percentages um under social awareness and emotion recognition. So you'll see 75% of our students had favorable answers under social awareness and seven in 67% under percent favorable. So those would be areas that we would target. Um again this
039is fifth grade um with our wayfinder curriculum that we use. Um just to keep in mind this is our first year of wayfinder um fully implemented at uh fifth through 8th grade. So they are doing lessons one one lesson a week and our um our hope would be that we would increase in those areas. This is the same um survey for sixth through 8th grade. You can see there's an additional section there for social perspective taking. Um that's that's not offered at the third through fifth grade um survey that we give. Again you see the our percent favorable for our students and then how we compare nationally. Again, all those green dots are on the far right, meaning that we fall in the 80th to 99th percentile with everyone nationwide. And then those blue boxes
040on the right hand side are um where we fall as compared to middle schools nationwide. Um so you see um areas that we could target would be social perspective taking and social awareness um relatively as they stack up with others. If we're looking at those percentiles, we would also include emotion recognition in there or emotion regulation, excuse me, in there because we are kind of looking at under that 75% area for um our percent favorable. Now, as we move into the supports and environment, we have um this is more school climate areas. We have two areas that we have targeted over the past few years. um for our district and uh those are sense of belonging and valuing of school. Um you'll see school climate and teacher student relationships are also um some things we
041measure on the mesh. All four of these areas are also measured on our um CSCI survey that we take later on in the spring. And so we've had some as we've looked at those and kind of looked at um comparing the data that we get from both this assessment and the CSCI in the spring um it's a little bit discrepant in in how it's falling out in um especially those school climate areas and and teacher student relationships. It looks low compared with this percent favorable but it we score really well on the CSCI. So, um I'll talk a little bit about um assessments in in a few minutes, but just so you know, uh that's why we target the the sense of belonging and valuing of school. Overall, those are just areas that we want
042to continue to focus on with our middle schoolers. Um you can see fifth graders did they generally start out high um at the start of the year in both of these areas and and they are again um but um sense of belonging is at 75% favorable and uh 69% favorable for valuing of school and then again those right hand blue boxes are as we compare with middle schools again those two areas sense of belonging and valuing of school are highlighted here for do for sixth through 8th grade. Um, again, we if if we're comparing ourselves to middle schools nationwide, we do very well in comparison, but as compared to ourselves, we would like to see those percent favorable percentages rise over the course of the year in all four areas. Um just a little um
043view at historical data um where we start where we end. Um this is just with the mesh but if we take a look at sense of belonging for fifth grade and sense of belonging sixth through 8th grade you can see that we um generally in the fall for fifth grade are in that 70s mid70s range. um we do tend to fall off a little bit towards the spring and so um our hope would be to maintain or increase over the course of the year. Um our patterns do not show that but I think we have some other data that actually um helps to affirm the work that we're doing with sense of belonging. Um and then in sixth through 8th grade it's actually an interesting trend over the last couple of years we've started higher.
044Um and so we would hope to continue to end higher as well like we did last spring. Um this is valuing of school. We've only done that for the past three years and this is our fourth year with that part of the assessment. Again, we're in the high 60s. Last year we started in seven at 70% favorable for um fifth grade. So we'd hope to maintain that or increase it over the course of the year. And again um the same we started the same last year as we did this year um with valuing of school with sixth through 8th grade and we'd hope to maintain or increase over the course of the year. Um I think these are unique categories especially the valuing of school. You know fifth graders start the year and they're really
045excited. They're in a new building and it's it's it's an exciting place to be and new teachers and friends. Um and then over the course of the year um maybe it's not so exciting. So I think that stands to reason for our um sixth to 8th graders as well. Um on this slide I just summarized some of the work that we are planning for this year with our SEAL committee um not only based on these assessments but also based on some of the work that we have done over the course of the last few years. And so as I mentioned we are in our first full year of our expanded scope and sequence for fifth through 8th grade curriculum. We have our home room time. There's one lesson a week being implemented in home room
046and that includes not only the wayfinder curriculum but some of those upstander lessons that we've highlighted over the course of the uh the last couple of years as well as some of the inclusivity types of lessons that we have done to highlight those themes throughout the years um or throughout the year. Additionally, just I want to mention that at um kindergarten through fourth grade, we've had everyday speech seal curriculum for the last few years and um it has been implemented, but this year we have um shared a scope and sequence that really outlines one lesson a week for those teachers as well. And so, um, really trying to target and, um, target all of the competency areas, but also have some, uh, consistent experiences for our kids across the grade levels. Um, we some of
047our action steps, uh, are shown up here under goal 2. So, we're increasing student voice at all buildings through using student advisory groups and other student committees to help us understand really what does that sense of belonging mean to them. I think if you were here at the end of last year, you might remember we did just a quick survey and there was a lot of talk about the cafeteria and um some of those unstructured times at highest so and highest and the junior high and so using some of that information also to play into some of these uh student activities that we plan throughout the course of the year. Um evaluation of assessment tools. So, this is where I bring in um our discussion of the CSCI. Um but also there's assessment tools that
048are um within our um curricula that we want to take a deeper dive into. I think with doing um this broad SEAL assessment over the course of the year, it gives us some information. It's not exactly um as actionable as I think um some more regular formative information would be over the course of the year. Um, and so and and I think this is also very sensitive to the time of year that we give it. Whereas if we're gathering information throughout the course of the year that might give us better actionable data for our um for our teachers and and for the kids so that we can better target some of that. So our committee is going to be looking at that using big assessment tools versus some of the smaller assessment tools. They also
049have um within the curricula kind of a beginning of the year and end of the year assessment that we could use and that's really aligned with the curriculum which would be um nice to um see how that would work. Um and then another element of that is that there is a state mandate for mental health screeners. Um and so the assessments that we're currently using do not screen for our mental health. And so I'm working with um uh Kristen Swanson and her department on looking at um what might be an appropriate mental health screener that we could put in place and that might take the place of this larger SEAL assessment if we use something that's more built into our curriculum. Um we are continuing to work to support clubs and activities. Um it was
050fun. And I was at the junior high the other day and there's just posters everywhere for um fun clubs and activities and the kids are getting um excited about um finding their interests and finding new friends through those those venues. And and finally, our continued implementation of monthly themes of inclusion and belonging. As I mentioned, we have integrated those into our scope and sequences across the board for um our curriculum. So, um, teachers are doing some really amazing things and also some schoolwide things. Um, as as you roam the halls of the buildings, um, you'll see different boards talking about our names and our identities and our families. So, that's really exciting to see. And with that, that's all I have. >> Thank you, Kelly. Board members, questions, comments. So, I love um this update
051always and I really appreciate I think it's recently we started adding where we fall because some of those numbers look lower but then when you look at where we are middle schoolers or it it's very helpful. >> We're pretty typical. >> We're very typical and that you can lose sight of that. I mean we just would have no other way to know. So, thank you for including that. Um I would throw out there I know um as you're looking at these smaller assessments um and this may already be done but the my perspective is that what one thing that matters so much to kids is how they relate to their peers and the um social network mapping like seeing who which kids have connections and who doesn't can be pretty profound. Um, and to me
052that's the meat and bones of it. Um, and so if you could find out who are those kids who actually aren't thought of as having connections with other kids really helpful. >> Yeah. And that's some of the work that our some of our teams at the school building are doing. But I think if we had a more formalized process that would be great for sure. Thank you so much, >> Judy. >> Excuse me. The um survey that that you did in the spring was one of the first of any of the meetings I came to. So, I attended I paid a lot of attention to it. Not that I don't pay attention to everything, but um one of the topics that came up had to do with lunch at the particularly at Highest and Kids
053who were maybe not scheduled for lunch with friends and that made it very difficult. And it seemed at first like that would be a very easy thing to fix. Just have you know maybe even if halfway through the year they rotated the houses then different children would be they would just change the combinations up. So no one was maybe I don't want to say but they're unhappy but no one was in a particular situation for the entire year and if kids knew that we were we got their message and we were trying to actually act on it that would be a good thing. It turned out to be a lot harder than than people thought partly because um uh there are kids that are not supposed to be blocked together and it wasn't something that
054could be fixed in like July. >> Yeah. for September. But I'm wondering what kind of a timeline might be able to be put in place so that if you build a schedule based on that hope or that plan, it it could actually be incorporated as opposed to us thinking about it in May or something like that or you thinking about it in May and not being able to do it because again it's too far down the line. >> Yeah. And I think that's something that we continually talk about with our fifth through 8th grade um and especially our high crest building administrators and it's something that I can I can bring up with them again. I think they um you know there are elements of scheduling that go in with um with those uh with
055um students that might not be able to um mix together. Um, but we do we do try to um mix it up if we can across. I do know some of the clubs will span the entire lunch period. So, it gives some students um one time a week at least or maybe a couple times a week that they get to be with their friends for that whole entire period regardless of the the block that they're in. So, there are some opportunities that way and we'll continue to look for some ways to foster that. Um, so yeah. And and I know it can be tricky because um I'm aware of some instances where you know a child might a student might not have had a group to sit with at lunch in the beginning but over
056the course of time was able to figure that out and then to change it and take that comfort is all is a is a tradeoff too mid year because for some people you know they they got there it just took time and then it's oh boy we have to start over again mid year. So there just, you know, tradeoffs and considerations on on both sides of that. Any other questions, comments on strategy? Alison? Um, thank you. I know this a lot of work and I appreciate it. Um, and I know that it um based on I think it was CRC directly relates to academic performance too. So it's important in and of itself, but also as it relates to um academics. Um, and the one that really like kind of tugs on my heartstrings is
057that sense of belonging one and seeing those numbers. I just like I want to give them a hug. But um what Amy was talking about was um trying to sort of maybe identify those. I'm wondering if you kind of slice and dice that data like in terms of girls versus boys or I I I don't know. We don't have a breakdown um for gender. We just have grade level breakdowns, but I do have breakdowns by question. And so, um, digging in a little bit more on on the questions. >> Yeah. Yeah. I just wonder if there's any trends you can see or anything like that. I I know it's tricky and it I'm sure it changes throughout the year and every year, but >> every cohort. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, and
058I'll just say with the valuing of school, you know, I also hope that we see that number come in a little bit more consistent to the fall number because while I completely understand with, you know, middle school and junior high, by the spring, you're getting closer to summer and, you know, just um maybe not the same level of enthusiasm, but we are comparing to a national, right? So, you would think that you would see that nationally and that but we're not. Our numbers are dropping a little bit more than the national, which is um you know, so again, I just I know we're doing everything we can to to boost that up. So, hopefully that comes in a little stronger this spring. Um and um and then speaking of that, what can you remind me
059when we issue the assessment in the spring? >> In the spring, we do it in May. May. It's usually um early May, I want to say. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you very much. Um All right. Um this is an opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic. Are there any audience members that would like to speak? All right, seeing none, we will continue on with our agenda this morning um with old business. Is there any old business? New business. Any new business? >> Wait. >> Oh, old business. Sorry. >> I think it's listed the >> resolutions. >> Oh, correct. Sorry about that. Um, yes, old business was the ISB resolutions committee. >> I don't know exactly why that's on the agenda except that it did come up at the last board
060meeting. So perhaps it requires a second uh discussion. I'm not sure. Um my understanding for the IASB is that they have not revised their constitution in a very long time. So this is the year that they decided to do that and there are 10 maybe 12 resolutions all of which came through committee and are intended to update and bring accuracy to their constitution. So I don't really see anything that's particularly controversial there. There is one resolution to be voted on and I'm supposed to vote for the district. Um it was brought by the Sycamore School District. It relates to um uh seat belts on buses. It's actually asking I IASB to support a resolution in the state legislature. So it's not like we get to make that decision, but they're asking for two things. are
061asking for um some flexibility in the way these the seat belts are funded, which makes perfect sense. Like, you know, in a in a district that maybe is having difficulty funding the cost of putting in seat belts, that actually does make sense. I'm a little hesitant about the second piece of it, which then extends the deadline for putting seat belts on all buses till like the mid 2030s. Uh, personally, I think they should have been on buses yesterday. So, it's a little hard to support that, but it all it is all kind of one package. So, if this board were to direct me to vote against it, I would do that. Um, I it's kind of hard to vote against a district that's saying give us flexibility and funding. So, you know, that that is
062the only real um potentially controversial question coming before IB. I feel like a newbie at this. >> Well, you are. So, but but no, that's a great um great overview. Um so, thank you. And so, I think we is is the board comfortable supporting that resolution. The recommendation by IASB is to support the proposed resolution. Are we comfortable? >> I am too. And I will be hopeful that everyone that that you know the majority do not need until 2030 to um make those changes. So thank you for doing that, Judy. Thank you. All right. Any other old business? New business? Yeah, that's on the agenda because of me. Um the it feels a little odd to be talking about air conditioning on the first snowy really cold day of the year. And I know that
063at least the board that preceded the one I joined talked about air conditioning for five years straight and did a a really remarkable job of succeeding in getting all of the uh learning spaces air conditioned. I think that was not just succeeding in getting them air conditioned, but succeeded in getting them air conditioned without going to the taxpayers for them. I think that was an extraordinary feat that was definitely necessary and should be appreciated by the community. Um I think it might have been September when I asked the question again partially as a newbie and partly because I had a a reason for asking it um about what spaces were not yet air conditioned like was there work still to be done and one of the things that ca one piece of information that came
064out of that that was that I focused in on was that three of the four elementary schools have cafeterias that are air conditioned and one elementary school does not. And so that I think is I'm going to ask my colleagues to look at the question of air conditioning the cafeteria specifically at Ramona school. Now I over the last couple of months once this came up I started talking to people. I do understand that the previous board worked very hard to make sure that there was a large space I should be I guess not looking into that. um that there was a large space air conditioned in each building and um I can completely understand the rationale for trying to do that but the large space that's air conditioned at Ramona is the auditorium which is
065gets very comparatively little use compared to the cafeteria that has children every single child in it every single day. I also heard an argument that not an argument but a rationale that kids are only in the cafeteria for about 20 minutes. So, not so bad. But talking to parents, the the comment was, well, lunch and recess are always back to back. And so, either the kids go outside and being kids, they run around in the heat because we're only talking about hot days here, right? They run around in the heat, get hot, get sweaty, and then go into the cafeteria for another 20 minutes where it's beastly warm. or the other way around. They're in a hot cafeteria already getting hot and by the time they get outside they don't have, you know, they it
066it's not an improvement for them. Um the third rationale that I heard for for um air conditioning the cafeteria at Ramona is that the PTA and other groups use that cafeteria a lot. the Ramona PTA really tries very hard to celebrate the community and the even like in September that's actually why I asked the question in September there was an event by the sponsored by the PTA that was to honor the multicultural background of the families at Ramona and pretty much every all of the participants brought food related to their culture or their background. Um, and I know this because I was in my daughter's kitchen when she was bringing a putting together a tray that was going to go to Ramona. When and then the parents met and they had and I think children
067came too. Um, then a day or two later when I asked her how the event went, the only word she could use to describe it was boiling. it was so hot in the cafeteria that they couldn't really it it it it became the focus of what was supposed to be a very positive event. So, I'm here to ask my colleagues as we look at what's down the road, bearing in mind that we don't have capital improvements past the middle the middle school that our one of our focuses be looking at a at that cafeteria at Ramona, which as I said is the only cafeteria of all the elementary schools that isn't air conditioned. I will in in in the just to be fully transparent, I did look at that sheet and see that the Wilmet
068Junior High is also not air conditioned. I can't speak to that. I haven't been in there when it was hot. I've been at Ramona when it was hot. U but certainly if we're going to look at a package, we might also want to look at that. Um but I really am asking my colleagues to target this one very specific area. I can offer a little context um about how we got here and Corey feel free to jump in, but um I was principal at Ramona when the decisions were made by the board about large space air conditioning and each principal along with committee work needed to identify the large spaces within our schools. And this was to allow the most number of students to have spaces to cool off because the classrooms weren't airond conditioned
069at the time. And so we were all charged with that task of identifying the space. And so at Ramona, we identified the made sure we had the library at the time air conditioned. It has since gone through a renovation, but at the time it wasn't, and the gym. We were one of the first schools to get a gym that was air conditioned because we could put the most number of students in that space during indoor recess or if it was so hot outside during lunch recess, we were able to move them into the gym and it also provided cool space during PE classes. So, in particular, that was the the thinking behind the decisions made for Ramona. along with all the schools, we had to identify two large spaces until we were able to move
070the air conditioning project forward for all classrooms. So, that's just a little context. >> And I hope you didn't consider anything I was saying as a criticism of the decision-making process because it wasn't. this is just now kind of a a byproduct that has occurred that has come to at least my attention and that it seems like it is something for the district to look at in terms of both equity and is is there a next step we should be doing. >> It's the evolution of of any process, right? >> Um I guess I would just say we we as a board have to put it in context, right? And I the way I see this is part of the next we'll be doing a fiveyear plan of what capital projects are needed and the
071next step for air conditioning should imagine be a part of that and I do see I definitely see the value of having lunchrooms air conditioned it has a huge impact and I also think about the gyms uh and some of the other schools so I I don't know how to weigh those I think it's too early for us. But I think having that as part of the overall discussion of what will our upcoming big project be makes a lot of sense. >> Um I agree with Amy again. Um that I think it's one that we can kind of add to the list when we're thinking about the next uh phase of kind of capital projects that we want to do, which sounds like it will be um maybe part of the strategic plan and also
072part of the What's it called? Life safety. >> Yeah, it's on your life safety. >> Life safety plan. Um, but for me right now, looking at this uh the sheet with the the large space, I think that each of the schools has an area that's air conditioned and that can hold lots of kiddos. And I also think that it's a relatively um few set of weeks, you know, during the year um that really air conditioning comes into play in the cafeteria. But I'm totally open to talking about it as part of a, you know, a decision related to which projects we want to prioritize over the next five years. >> Um, no. Well, thank you for that, Judy. And yes, I know that I think the prior board um it was a decision to ensure
073that the learning spaces where the students and staff spend the majority of their day are healthy, comfortable and as productive as possible. um and that you know with the larger spaces that we did have some flexibility within each and every school to provide um an area where they they could cool off during lunch or recess. So um I think we have accomplished or at prior boards to um have accomplished a great deal here but I I agree it can be something that we consider as part of the five-year planning. Thank you for bringing it up. I think the other piece just to add on is that we can certainly work with um Cindy and Lisa at Ramona to make sure we use the air conditioned spaces as much as possible until future decisions are made.
074Um but to your point about it was the cultural fair, maybe there was an opportunity to move that into the gym or other spaces. I don't I don't know all the ins and outs of the planning, but we can certainly raise the question and and um see if we can improve upon that in the short term. Sure. Yeah. Looking at those events that take place, you know, in those first couple weeks of the school year or last couple weeks of the school year and seeing if we can do a better job with that. Um great. All right. Let's see here. We if being no further business, we will adjourn to executive session. Uh may I have a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss special education individual student matters specific personnel and collective negotiations
075and security and building safety. >> I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss collective negotiations specific employees individual students and security and safety procedures. >> Thank you. May I have a second? Second motion having been made and seconded. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Allison Paffis, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Christina Castro, >> yes. >> Motion carries. We are now adjourned to the executive session and the time is 9:05