001I hereby call to order this regular meeting of the board of education for Wilmet Public Schools District 39 this Monday, October 27th, 2025. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Katie Hilton >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Annne Hart >> here. >> Kristen Dcastro >> here. >> Allison Papless >> here. >> Aaron Stone >> here. >> Amy Paling >> here. >> Thank you. We will now welcome Principal Cindy Anderson who is here to introduce Ramona students for the pledge of allegiance. Good evening everybody. Thank you so much for having us tonight. Going to have my fourth graders come on up for us. Perfect. And Mr. Damonte is getting up some pictures for us too because tonight these fourth graders want to tell you a little bit about one of our favorite fourth
002grade traditions and in this district which is outdoor ed. Um outdoor ed is something all of our fourth graders across the district do every year. It's a time for team building, connecting and community, some responsible risktaking and some fun outdoors. And although this experience has changed over the last 10 or so years, it is still really fun. So, I've asked these fourth graders to tell you a little bit about why we love outdoor ed. Hi, my name is JP and I like outdoor ed because it makes me really want to go back into nature. Nature is a very important part of life and being in nature for so long during that period of period period of time make made me feel better about my thought of nature. I'll pass the mic to King Chang. >>
003Hi, my name is Kang Chang and what I like about outdoor ed is the fun with friends. >> Hi, my name is Zara and my favorite part of outdoor ed was the rope course and ziplining. I also liked having s'mores with my friends. Hi, my name is Nathan and my favorite part of outdoor ed was learning about the safety. >> Hi, my name is Bennett. My favorite thing about outdoor ed was making fire with flint and steel because a lot of people say to their kids, "Do not mess with fire." [laughter] And it was a time when you can finally mess with fire for once. [laughter] And it was really fun hanging out with my friends blowing out cotton balls. I'm your best microphone for Hello, I'm Vardon and I like outdoor ed because everyone
004could participate. Hi, my name is Lucy and my favorite part was when we had the zip lines and the rope courses. Hi, my name is Sophie and my favorite part about outdoor ed is being able to play with your friends that are in different classes. You may now all rise for the pledge. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you all very much for being here. I love hearing about outdoor ed and I love that it's been a tradition that's been in our district for so long and is still going strong and I um in particular think those ropes courses looked really hard and scary. So I'm really impressed
005and I'm glad it was you guys doing that work and not me. Um but thank you so much for being here and we have a small um gift for you if you want to meet me over here and then you can go and meet your parents in the lobby. So thanks again. >> Thank you very much students. Didn't know that we were teaching them how to start fire with flint. That's pretty good [laughter] to know. Something I've always wanted to do. So I think next year I'm gonna have to join the fourth graders on the trip to outdoor ed. >> Find my survivors. Pretty great adventures. All sorts of fun. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to turn your attention to the artwork behind me. Mr. EMTT Bagot, seventh grade artist, designed, carved,
006and stamped ink lenolium squares to form repeat pattern designs over a colored pencil background. They studied principles of contrast, composition, and complimentary color use to create their detailed designs. Eighth grade artists created Lenolium prints, which illustrate the people, places, and things in life which give them strength. Artists develop drawings which articulate what strength looks like to them, then transferred those drawings to lenolium blocks, which they then carved and printed. Very cool. Impressive. >> All right. And at this time, we would like to recognize two outstanding athletes from Wilmouth Junior High School. I will introduce our athletes for us tonight. We are excited to be joined by Duncan and Gregory, two of our outstanding eighth grade cross country runners who closed out their season last weekend at the Illinois State cross country meet in Normal and
007their coaches Colin Meyer and Alicia Writzinger. We're pleased to have both of them with us this evening as well. This marked the second consecutive season that Duncan qualified for the state meet. And he was able to improve his overall finish this year, taking 35th in a field of 222 runners with a time of 11 minutes and 23 seconds. His teammate Gregory also finished his season on a high note, completing the two-mile course in a time of 11 minutes and 46 seconds to finish 82nd overall. We are extremely proud of Duncan and Gregory and of all of our fall athletes and want to share a special thank you to Colin and Alicia and to all of our coaches who share their time and passion to mentor our young student athletes. Congratulations. Would any of you like
008to say anything? You're welcome to if you would like to. Excellent. >> It was a great season. Uh the coaches were great. We got a lot of cool opportunities, especially for state, and I would highly recommend it. So, >> excellent. Thank you. Will will you both be running next year, do you think? Is this a >> Yes, absolutely. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. [laughter] We'll be pleased to cheer you on at your future adventures. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. >> Thank you. What a tremendous accomplishment. Um congratulations. And we also have something for you over here at the door that you can grab on your way out. Thank you for being here tonight and congratulations. All right. This time I would like to turn it over to Mrs. Paling for recognition of
009a former board member, Lisa Schneider Faves. Uh, I had the honor along with many in this room of working with Lisa for six years on the board. I wouldn't actually be on the board if it weren't for Lisa. Just like our most talented teachers, Lisa had a gift of seeing in people what they didn't see in themselves. I wasn't sure I was qualified to run to be on the board, but Lisa believed I could do it. When she finished her term as president, navigating us through the most complicated years most of us can remember, she believed I could follow suit. People all over Chicago land will tell you the same thing. Lisa brought out the best in people and she inspired action. And you could trust her because Lisa was direct. You always knew how
010she felt or what she thought. She didn't have time to throw flowers or sugarcoat, but she sure could listen. She was gifted at hearing many perspectives in pretty heated situations and charting a path forward to get stuff done. Lisa was dedicated to her community from the smallest circle of her local neighborhood to the most broad international concerns. In Wilmet, she worked in our schools on the PTA. She was on CRC leading to the work that brought us learning commons in every building. And of course, she was on the board supporting the search that led us to hire Dr. Premiscoli, helping facilitate the strategic planning process, bringing about full day kindergarten, and so much more. At the broader state level, she led political campaigns for leaders like Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the current campaign of congressional
011candidate Phil Andrew. Lisa told amazing stories about the summer she and her family opened their home to have visitors stay who were here to build positive relationships between countries in conflict in the Middle East. They may not always have had a language in common, but they became a part of their family while they stayed sharing food routines and a unified mission of tackling life's thorniest problems. No issue was too small or large for her to take on if she thought it could make a difference. You can see this up until the very end of her life when she was bringing together the African-American and Jewish communities of Chicago to find common purpose in the unity fund. Sorry. Lisa worked tires tirelessly toward peace and equity and social justice wherever she could. With [snorts] this deep
012sense of purpose, you might think she was really serious, and she was. She meant business, but she was also hilarious and joyful and relished silly moments, good food, time on the beach, and real relationships with people. She treasured her family and she got such a kick out of seeing who her beautiful children were growing up to be. Her loss is profound. She was a force so bright, it's a struggle to believe she is gone, [snorts] but she has inspired so many to continue to push for a brighter future. On behalf of the board, we express our deepest consult condolences to her family and remain grateful for her relentless dedication. Thank you, Amy. Beautifully said. Thank you. >> At this time, um I request a motion to adjourn to the public hearing on the e-learning plan
013for 2025 2028. I move to adjourn to the public hearing for the e-learning plan for 2025. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Motion having been made and seconded. All those in favor, please uh indicate by saying yay. >> Yay. [snorts] >> Motion carried by general consent and we are now adjourned to the public hearing. [snorts] I hereby [snorts] call to order the public hearing on the e-learning plan for the board of education for Wilmet Public Schools District 39 this Monday, October 27th, 2025. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Amy Paling >> here. >> Erin Stone >> here. >> Allison Papless >> here. >> Christina Castro >> here. >> Annne Hart >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Kitty Hilton >> here. [clears throat] >> Thank you. I believe we'll
014now turn it over to Kelly Jackson for the e-learning plan presentation. Thank you. According to section 1020.56 of the school code, school districts may by adopted resolution utilize e-learning days in lie of emergency days. Emergency days are snow days or inclement weather days. Um they can be um several different things. Uh, the number of e-learning days may not ex exceed the number of emergency days in the approved school calendar. The district's e-learning program must be verified by the regional office of education or intermediate service center for the school district prior to implementation. Just a little background. During the 2018-19 school year, the township schools piloted remote learning to address um inclement weather or emergency days as a proactive response to the potential interruption to learning. Then in March 2020, we were faced with the CO
01519 uh pandemic which closed schools to in-person learning for the remainder of the year. At that time, district 39 along with the other New Trier Township schools uh proposed an official e-learning plan to be approved. so we could provide remote learning to our students. The e-learning plan was presented on March 16th, 2020, approved by the board, and then submitted to the regional office of education. This plan was effective for three years. In Mar in 2022, the plan expired and was subsequently resubmitted and renewed for another three-year period, which brings us to tonight. We are once again submitting our e-learning plan for approval and adoption, which allows district 39 to implement e-learning on emergency days as needed and only if needed. The two emergency days that are set aside for this year in our calendar should
016they been needed are February 16, 2026 and April 6, 2026. Please note that having an e-learning plan allows the district the flexibility to use emergency days whether it is due to uh inclement weather or other circumstances as remote learning days. As of today, there's no need or reason to do so. This is only a proactive measure. So if we so we have it in our back pocket if and only if it is needed. Therefore, district 39 seeks to complete the requirements and file all required doc documents with the regional office of education and administrative administration respectfully recommends the attached will district 39 proposal for e-learning plan to the board for approval. We ask that the board approve this resolution to adopt e-learning uh in lie of the district's scheduled emergency days by vote. Thank you.
017Thank you. Does the board have any questions or comments on the e-learning plan? Okay, seeing none, this is an opportunity for the audience to address the board regarding the e-learning plan. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? Okay. Um, seeing none, we will adjourn to the regular meeting. I request a motion to adjourn to the public hearing. I'm sorry to adjourn the public hearing to the regular meeting of the board of education. >> I move to adjourn the public hearing and to the regular meeting of the board of education. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Motion having [snorts] been made and seconded. All those in favor, please indicate by saying yay. >> Motion carried by general consent. And we are now adjourned to the
018regular meeting. I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the September 15, 2025 regular and executive session meetings. >> I move to approve the minutes of the September 15, 2025 board of education regular 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? Right. All of those in favor of approving the minutes as submitted, please indicate by saying yay. >> Yay. >> The minutes are approved. This is another opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? Please stand to address the board. And I must remind guests to state your name and community of residents. And by
019board directive, you are allowed three minutes to address the board. at this time and then later in the agenda we will have another opportunity for public comment at which time you would have one additional minute. >> Thank you and good evening. My name is Rob Drury and I live at 2928 Central Avenue here in Wulnut. My daughter is a seventh grader at WJHS. 30 years ago I was a seventh grader there as well. I think highly enough of D39 that I wanted to ensure my daughter could enjoy the same strong education that I did in this district. I'm here tonight to offer some criticism of the artificial intelligence guidelines for students that recently appeared in my inbox. There's a number of reasons to avoid in general to avoid using generative AI. A quick review of
020news reports and empirical research on the topic reveals a few troubling issues that can't be sidestepped through usage guidelines no matter how well intentioned. Here's a few of those issues. Environmental concerns. Data centers that power AI use immense amounts of amounts of water and electricity. The International Energy Agency reports that a request made with chat GPT will use 10 times as much water as a typical Google search due to the demands of the data centers that help to power the searches. Intellectual property. The data these products are trained on are stolen. Specifically, Meta used a data set known as LIBGen to obtain 81.7 terabytes of data for its training. That's a more than 600 128 gigabyte cell phones for comparison. In previous cases, a usage of 0.008% 008% of that much data resulted in criminal
021investigations. Labor impacts. Content moderators that work as contractors for major tech companies are subjected to 10-hour days of reviewing text and videos of horrific scenes of child abuse, human medilation, racist attacks, animal abuse, and sexual exploitation and making sure this kind of content does not make it into the product. The workers who do this are subject to trauma day in and day out so that these programs can work. Electricity costs. Data centers caused increases in electric bills across the East Coast and Midwest this summer, usually to the tune of 10 to$25 per customer per month as a result of running the data centers. Mental health. Governor Pritsker on August 1st signed a bill into law regarding the use of AI as a therapist. Mental health providers cannot use these products to interact with clients, create
022treatment plans, or make therapeutic decisions. This is the case because there have been at least two known cases where teenagers have ended their lives after consulting with generative AI chatbots for extended periods of time. Specific to the D39 guidance, the section using AI ethically and responsibly is confusing. It explains that quote AI generated content may not always be neutral or objective end quote and quote AI can sometimes generate incorrect information or misleading information end quote and that it can quote make mistakes or misinterpret information end quote. There are libraries full of information that has been vetted for accuracy, bias, and correctness. There is no reason that students should use a product that is biased, misinformed, or incorrect. Quick final note on the suggestion to always proofread AI generated responses. As a former textbook editor, I'm
023obliged to tell the board that artificial is misspelled in the heading of the student and parent documents. >> Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak this evening? Okay. Thank you. And again, please state your name and community of residents. >> Hello. Good evening. My name is Sarah Backer. I live in McKenzie and I have two little girls. During CO, we turn to technology to aid in educating our children out of necessity. We did not have a choice. But now, 5 years later, it's time to reassess. Why are we handing a 5-year-old an iPad when they walk into a classroom for the first time? There are very few scientific studies that show the technology in the classroom helps students learn. And even those studies are generally limited to specially implemented math programs. It's nearly impossible
024to study how much time kids are spending on screens in classrooms because there's so much variation from room to room and school to school. Many of us parents try really hard outside of school to keep our kids away from screens as much as possible. And we don't do that so they can be handed a screen when they walk into the classroom. So what do we want? We want no screens in kindergarten, period. These little ones are just learning how to behave in a classroom setting, how to listen to their teachers and interact with their peers, and that should not be complicated by the behavioral challenges that come with handing a 5-year-old an iPad. For the older kids, I understand screens are here to stay, but we must be thoughtful about how we use them. We
025still want our kids writing with pencil and paper. We still want our kids reading books in hard copy, distraction-free and eagerly flipping through those pages. We still want our kids using their senses to learn about the world around them, digging in the dirt, smelling and seeing reactions and science experiments that they're performing with their own hands. We want our kids making eye contact with their classmates and their teachers, talking to each other, engaging in the material and learning to read and react to the social and emotional cues by engaging with the people around them. As a parent, I ask you to please limit screen time use in the classroom. Take screens out of kindergarten classrooms completely. And for the rest of the students, block access to YouTube. Limit access just to educational apps. Monitor how
026much time students are using screens and impose limits so that it's not divergent from classroom to classroom and school to school. Stick to the educational techniques that have been studied and proven effective. Let kids be kids as long as possible. Thank you for listening and for your service. Thank you. Is there anyone else who here who would like to speak this evening? Okay. And just as a reminder, we do use this time to listen to community questions and concerns, but do not respond immediately to individual requests and cannot take formal action on non-aggenda items. Seeing no further public comment, we will move on to board reports, starting with committee and strategy committee. Miss Stone. Yes, the strategy committee met a week ago as part of the committee of the whole. A representative from stutter education,
027Dr. Pat Greco, presented the stutter education strategic planning process for community engagement and plan development. Tom Hunter, MTSS coordinator, provided an update on standardized assessments, including reorming updates for NWEA, MAP, Ames, web plus, and AR proficiency ratings. Kelly Jackson and Dr. Swanson provided information regarding the fall benchmarking using as web plus and NWA map. This information is used to help inform instruction and ensure that student needs are met through the year. Grade level and cohort trends were reviewed. Dr. Glowaki provided an update on the district's progress KPI goal three which is professional community which includes employee retention, staff faculty attendance and pair of professionals pulled to sub. An update on goal four, family partnerships, was shared by Kelly Jackson, which highlighted the overall positive experiences from sixth to seventh grade transition surveys given to parents
028and students. The board noted the improvements on the positive results on the transition to Highest. >> Thank you. All right. Um, facility development, Mrs. Diccastro. >> Thank you. Representatives from Nicholas and Associates shared that the district is out to bid for the WJHS window replacement project, which will be completed in summer 2026. The bid opening date is scheduled for October 30th. Potential board approval would occur in November. They also shared the renderings of the exterior drop off and pickup proposed renovations. The board asked for specific measurements on the increased space and more specifics on renderings, reviewed the options for alternatives within the bid scope. The board also discussed the impacts on traffic flow. Illinois State Board of Education recently opened the application project, the 2026 state maintenance grant. This grant provides a district with $50,000
029for use on a project if approved. The application needs to be submitted prior to the board approving the bids for this project. Based on recent history, the expectation is that D39 will be approved for this grant. >> Great. Thank you very much. And finance committee, Mrs. We also met last Monday and Mr. Voltomier's presentation provided the first look at the 2025 tax levy with the applicable CPI factor for this levy being 2.9% over the prior year. The 2025 tax levy was estimated to be 72.3 million which is collected during the calendar year of 2026. So, the total 2025 tax levy request is at 73.5 million, which includes uh 2.9% increase for CPI and 2.4% for potential new growth. While the 2025 tax levy is estimated is to be is to be estimated and reviewed in
030the month of October, the current plan is for the board to formally approve the request at the November board meeting. Thank you. All right, we will go on to liaison reports and start with [clears throat] community review committee. Um, I'll give that report. I attended the CRC meeting here at the mech on October 14th. The committee reviewed the topics and came to a unanimous approval or decision to pursue teacher and staff engagement for this year. The next step is to assign members to subgroups and to begin the research and work. Next will be educational foundation. I believe Mrs. Diccastro attended on behalf of the board. >> Yes. Uh Dr. Kiscoli and I attended the D39 Ed Foundation meeting on Monday, October 6th. The foundation discussed the final planning details for bingo night, which will be
031held on November 14th. Next month, they will open up the nomination process for the Innovative Educator Award. This is a new award for educators finding innovative ways of teaching beyond just purchasing innovative teaching tools. The award will be given out after the new year. And finally, they will be voting on grip grants on November 10th. >> All right. Um IASB, Mrs. Berlin. >> Yeah, I have um two items to report on from the Illinois Association of School Boards. The first one might sound a little familiar. IA IASB is beginning a strategic planning process um leading to the adoption of a strategic plan in June of 2026. In order to accomplish that, they have sent emails to all of us and you might have also received a snail mail letter with um uh surveys. Um, I
032would urge particularly veteran board members to complete those surveys because you would have input on, you know, the direction for IASB even more than, you know, someone who's new to the board. But of course, I would encourage all of us to complete those. Um, the second one, oh, and if you didn't get them, I have copies and can forward you information. Uh, the second thing I need to report on is the ISB conference which is in the end of November. All of us received this last month. It is the list of resolutions that are being brought before that uh comm that group. Technically, we should be discussing those resolutions and you should be giving me input on your thoughts for those resolutions, but I will share with you that 10 of the resolutions are constitutional
033amendments to the IASB constitution and the um all 11 um uh proposals received uh are going to go on a consent agenda because none of them had any like conflicts. So there were no resolutions that's that were recommended as do not proceed. There were no resolutions that were uh you can appeal and have it pulled off the consent agenda. None of that happened. So I think we could probably save time at our meeting by saying that if any of you have input that you want to share, we have another meeting in November before this meeting when you can before that you could just bring that to me and I can bring it up at the next meeting. Otherwise, um I think we could probably assume that we support these these concepts. Um the one resolution
034that didn't actually involve amending the constitution was actually presented by the Sycamore School District 427 and it relates to the unmade unfunded mandate of requiring three point uh seat belts on school buses. It would extend the deadline for that and provide some flexibility just so you know what the nonstitution and if you have any questions let me know. >> Thank you. All right. Um next will be a legislative update also from Mrs. Berlet. Okay. Uh this week is the final week of the veto session which it's like through Wednesday the 28th, 29th and 30th. Um earlier the house approved this is before the veto session. House approved a bill that I thought was kind of interesting. It uh has to do with foyer requests. For security reasons, electronic foyer requests must now appear in the
035body of a text, not as an attachment or hyperlink. And public bodies can require verification that a foyer request is from a person and not from AI. I'm sure you probably all know that, but I thought it was really interesting. There are three educational bills that relate to education and schools for us to watch this week. One is um uh House uh Senate Bill 1937 which uh deals with the uh reforms to the tier 2 teacher pension reform that has actually been assigned to committee. So I don't actually think there'll be any like votes on it, but the IASB thought that assigning it to committee was a positive step. Uh the second one is a K2 is a an initiative that relates to K2 student discipline, kindergarten through second grade discipline. Um it limits suspensions
036and expulsions for children in kindergarten through second grade. It was actually an initiative of ISP. So just so you know that. And the third one is a property tax relief grant program report. And it's actually the report that is is the thing that they're going to be voting on because the program the property tax relief program was underfunded and therefore disappeared. So they a resolution was put forth a bill a bill was put forth um basically to create a report in 2026 on the effects of eliminating this program in case it should be brought back for 2025. Uh otherwise there are um there is a a finance bill that is not specific to education but certainly could affect all of our budgets and it is and it probably will be voting on this week. It
037is um the Illinois tax code generally follows the federal tax code and in this case the legislature is looking at changes to the Illinois tax code to decouple us from the federal tax code so that uh several federal initiatives like tax breaks and changes to uh the SNAP program would not be kind of grandfathered into Illinois tax as well. That's all I have. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Um, we are moving on to information items. Dr. Kremcoli. >> Yes, thank you. Um, first of all, under written communication, the board received written communication from learning unplugged asking the board to review their petition from Lindley Trainer regarding AI and from Dena Tolseian regarding iPad use at school. And under administrative announcements, we start off with principal appreciation month. Governor Pritsker of the state of Illinois
038proclaimed the week of October 20th to the 24th as principal week and Friday, October 24th specifically was principal day here in Illinois. This is a special day to recognize principles and building leaders throughout Illinois for all that they do to help our children learn and succeed. throughout our district. We have uh many many well six outstanding principles here with us today who really do a great job of supporting our students. Um and um throughout our district we've been celebrating the many ways in which our teachers and staff help to create magical moments and each of our principles help to create magical moments every day for our students, our staff and our families and we are so very grateful. So on behalf of our teachers, staff, parents, students, and community, we would like to take a
039moment to thank our outstanding principles for all that they do. Our principles are here with us today. And principles, we just want you to know that you make a tremendous difference in our schools and in the lives of our students, staff, and families. Thank you for your leadership, for your vision, for your care and compassion, your hard work, and your dedication every day. You have a small gift at your table in recognition of all of your efforts and contribution and we ask that you please stand to be recognized. We have with us principal Jackie Brennan from Harper Elementary School. Principal Dana Nasiakos from McKenzie Elementary School. Principal Cindy Anderson from Ramona Elementary School. Principal Becky Litman from Central Elementary School. Principal Anthony Haddock from Highest Middle School and Principal John Baffico from Wilmet Junior High
040School. Thank you all for everything that you do for our schools. We really appreciate you. All right, parent teacher conferences are coming up. Uh parent teacher conferences for this fall are quickly approaching. We will host these conferences using meet the teacher video appointments at all schools with the option for in-person meetings as requested by parents. Parents can anticipate an email this Thursday, October 30th with login credentials for appointment for the appointment scheduling system which will open on Monday, November 3rd. Um I've been asked by the board to give some technology updates um and uh summarize some of the review that we've been talking about now for the last oh at least nine months or so. And we've heard um many updates from our community as well. So at the board's request I can provide a
041brief and high level review of some of the adjustments and updates made in our district to the instructional technology programming as well as students access and use of technology within the classroom and beyond. and we're so grateful so many have taken the time to uh weigh in on and provide input and insight in this matter. Um there's so much um that has been reviewed and several adjustments have been implemented over the last nine months um of this intentional review work. So district 39 has take taken significant steps to review and revi refine our practices for student technology use within our schools and by our students for educational purposes. Um, since about January, this work has included a close review of our teaching and learning practices with an emphasis on active learning while reducive reducing passive
042learning um, and technology use just in general. Additional parent, teacher, and student communication paired with ongoing training supports this work. Our emphasis on active learning across all modalities instead of passive has been defined and uh reviewed as an important component of this ongoing work. iPad use is limited within our classrooms and teachers and administrators continue to review and refine this work toward this end goal of limited use that is intentional in purpose. We've also reviewed the use of technology for free time, free choice, or any rewards that occur during the school day. iPads, as as many know, our students and staff certainly do. iPads are not available as an option um at any time during indoor recess or outdoor recess and are not to be used during free choice time or as a reward except
043in rare instances that are explicitly named in a student's individualized educational plan. Student cell phone use is often referenced and for our district uh cell phone use has been banned within our schools during the school day. Cell phones are required to be powered off or silenced and in lockers and smart watches must be kept out of sight during the school day. Our away for the day campaign has been ongoing and has expanded this year and serves to re-emphasize these important rules. new this year um for many of our students at least our students iPads are remaining at school for all of our elementary school students. iPads uh for students in grades kindergarten through fourth grade do remain at school. We've reviewed and continue to strengthen our safety and security measures. A variety of filtering features
044and blocking tools are in place both within the school's network and uh for those devices that do go home um for home when students are beyond the district's network. A tool has been purchased and deployed specifically to support students in monitoring, controlling, and filtering student iPad use while students are away from school or off district campus. Um, these include full control features for parents to deploy as they see fit. We continue to invest in ongoing teacher professional development and this work supports active and engaging learning across all domains as well as use of our new curricular resources that provide hybrid learning as well as access for our students. In addition, we are taking the time to intentionally research and learn about generative AI work within the school setting. We had a committee of teachers, administrators,
045students, and parents join in this work over the summer and explore the use and function of generative generative AI within education and to establish and communicate guidelines as well as ongoing parent teacher and student educational best practices and expectations. This work will continue regarding YouTube. Teacher and student use of YouTube within our school setting and related to our curricular resources is under review with the likely outcome of blocking um in some or in all environments within our students devices. And there's an ongoing emphasis within our instructional approaches of a focus on teaching the whole child in developmentally appropriate ways with an emphasis on social emotional well-being and health. And finally, parent education. We have a a really strong and robust parent education series and ongoing parent education um is offered to our parents uh with
046additional guidance and support for how best to support appropriate technology use not only for school but beyond because we know that so many parents are really grappling with that um with their children. So, we're very grateful for the ongoing work of our teachers, administrators, and staff in these many regards, and for the support and engagement of our families. We look forward to ongoing review and improvement within our instructional programming to best support our students. Um, moving on, unless there's comments there. Strategic planning um consultant. As District 39 prepares to launch a new community engagement effort to help inform the district's next five-year strategic plan, the district will engage with a consultant to help support this work. A representative from student education, Dr. Pat Greco, presented the student education strategic planning process for community engagement and
047plan development at the committee the whole meeting last week. A contract with Stutter Education for support of this work is recommended for approval later on this evening's agenda. We have a a couple of business items. One being Freedom of Information Act requests. The district received one FOYA request from Learning Unplugged requesting all records, contracts, agreements, and/or any financial arrangements between District 39 and Apple, Inc. related to the provision, use or deployment of iPads within district 39, financial documents, and totals spent on iPad purchases, repairs, and iPad apps, and data collected from student iPad. So, that FOYA has been responded to. And under PTAB, uh the district received one PTAB in the last month. An estimate of the financial impact has been prepared for the board and should the should the appellets appellants excuse me be
048successful in their appeal. That concludes our reports. We move on to strategic plan updates. First up under our strategic plan update is the spring 2025 AR assessment report. Kelly Jackson is here to review the spring I assessment report and results. This report summarizes our students performance on the Illinois State Board of Education's mandated academic assessment um which is the AR. These results are used for school level review, curriculum and instructional evaluation and student level information. Uh this year the district again performed quite well overall on the assessment. Miss Jackson will provide a review of the highlights and accomplishments as well as opportunities for continued growth. Thank you, Kelly, for being with us today. Thank you. As Dr. Kiscully mentioned, this evening we are sharing a preliminary data from the spring 2025 Illinois Assessment of Readiness
049or I AR that was taken in grades 3 through 8 last March and April in district 39. The information shared this evening is used by staff and administrators so we can reflect on ways to better support teaching and learning in the classroom. On September 26, 2025, district 39 uploaded AR student reports to the PLS vault so parents and families could access reports via P school. Reports for English language arts and mathematics are available for students who completed all sections of the assessment. Each report provides an overall performance level performance level, a score graph, and a performance level breakdown of specific skills. Although the overall performance level provides a measure of progress, the skills breakdown provides more description to aid in the interpretation of scores. In addition, school district, state, and cross-state averages are provided for
050comparisons within each context. While districts are able to share their results prior to the end of the month as we are doing, um it is important to note on October 31st, the state will release all AR results publicly. One note on this screen is that there are usually two test uh forms in ELA. However, due to timing of the assessment release in 2024, there was only one test form. Now, back in 220 2025, we are back to two test forms. So, no more irregularities there. Uh last week at the October committee of the whole meeting uh Tom Hunter shared with you the changes with the uh performance expectations or the performance levels for the AR uh that are new for this year. It is important to note from 2019 to 2024 there were five levels
051of performance and now we have uh new for this year below proficient approaching proficient proficient and above proficient so four levels. This was an effort made by the state of Illinois to align performance levels with other assessments such as the ISA or the Illinois uh science assessment and the ACT test taken at high school as well as to more accurately report proficiency and readiness um overall. A little summary of the changes um with respect to the cut scores. Uh this slide shows the changes that were made by grade level in ELA. First, the old that you can see across the board was 750. And so those have changed for each grade level. Um as much of as 15 points in grade three um and as few as five points of a difference in um grade
0528. So it changes depending on the age of the child. Um similarly in math um they adjusted the cut scores there as well by grade level. And then in science um which we are not reporting on tonight but is important to mention uh the science scores actually were raised. So you can see the old um science cut scores uh for proficiency were at 799 and now they've been raised to 812. Um science the Illinois science assessment is taken in grades 5 and 8. This slide shows the ELA proficiency levels by grade. As we look at this, we are interested in knowing what percentage of District 39 students are proficient and above proficient at each grade level. So, you can see the total in the final column on this slide. In all grades, over 80% of
053students in district 39 demonstrated proficiency in ELA. In fact, some as close to 90%. celebration. This is the same slide only for math. This slide shows math proficiency levels by grade. And again, we are interested in knowing what percentage of district 39 students are proficient and above proficient at each grade level. In math, we have over 75% of students showing proficiency in math at all grade levels except for one grade level, which we'll talk about a little bit more in a minute. But it's also a big celebration and all grade levels have grown since last year. So it's exciting. It's important to note that once our scores are public, there will be a slight difference reported on the state report card. When we receive the preliminary score information that we're reporting out tonight, it's available
054on a platform called Launchpad. Uh the scores reported there are in the blue columns where we say we we combine the proficient and above. Those are the same scores you saw on the previous two slides. When reported on the school report card um at again at the end of the month, student scores are suppressed for EL students. So English language learners who have been in the United States for less than a year. So they still take the AR assessment but then their scores are suppressed. So our our state report card will show slightly different numbers in that proficient and above proficient column. That is just to show that there may be a slight difference if people are viewing it publicly uh after tonight's report. [snorts] This is um the percent of third grade students at
055proficient and above. So for the next few slides, you'll see the percent of students at proficient and above proficient at a grid given grade level in ELA on the left hand side of the screen and math on the right hand side of the screen beginning from the 2020 2021 school year. The black line on the graph represents the state proficiency level for that grade level. As you look at this graph, you'll see two graphs for the 2024 2025 school year. One is lighter blue and one is darker blue. The lighter blue graph shows um the cut scores as compared to the the last year's five levels. So for uh proficient and above according to last year's um scores and then the darker blue shows with the new four levels. Um we wanted to do this
056just so we could see an accurate representation of apples to apples um when looking at growth from the two years. And you can see we still grew, but you can see how the the new four levels influence that last graph on the on the screen. So this is third grade again. This is fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. Now, we're going to take a closer look at the subclaim performance. So, as mentioned earlier, um that's our overall score, but then we dig in a little bit more deeply into both ELA and to math and look at subclaims. Um as subclaims are reported, they are reported in three levels, higher, middle, and lower. The H for higher indicates students who reflect a level consistent with proficient or above proficient. The M
057is for students who are approaching proficiency and the L for lower indicates performance that is below proficiency level. These subclaim performance labels have been impacted by the change in levels but we are not we don't have a report by how much those are AC are affected. So we weren't able to do a similar graph as we had in the previous slides um just because we didn't have that information to share. So we are sharing just the graph in comparison with years past. So first we'll look at English language arts. In ELA we have uh five subclaims literary text,formational text, vocabulary, written expression and knowledge and use of language conventions. As you may recall, if you've been around for a while, we had a focus area from 2021 to 2023 in the area of writing. Um,
058and really that focused on the pros constructed response tasks, which are written responses in all grades in three through eight. Um, written re expression and knowledge and use of mechanics is where those show up on these graphs. um in spring 2025, grade three did not reach the 70% proficient in one writing category, which is knowledge and use of mechanics. However, um grades four through eight and then the other category of writing for uh grade three were all above that 70% line. Um 70% is what district 39 has named as kind of our threshold for what we would like to see for uh the percent of students that are falling in that um proficient or above proficient category. So now we'll take a look at um this example from third grade. On the left hand side
059you'll see 2024's breakdown and on the right side you see um 2025's breakdown. Over time, we're looking for the blue to grow and the yellow and the orange to decrease. So, the blue is that higher category. Here you see the writing area of knowledge and use of language mechanics for third grade at se 67% in the higher category um for 2025. Again, while not quite at that 70% threshold that we want to see, it is an improvement upon last year. So, that's really exciting. And then when we take a look at the written expression for third grade, wow, 91% is amazing in that higher category. And this graph breaks down third grade subclaim proficiency over time. So you can see all five subclaims on the bottom there. And then the dark blue is 2021 all
060the way to the orange which is for uh present scores. Now I'll go through at each grade level. So this is fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. You can see there are a lot of celebrations in that information and um a lot of growth over time which is exciting. Now let's look at math. The math subclaim categories are major content which is really um everything addressing the level the learning standards for that grade level. Um and then two other subcategories are expressing mathematical reasoning and modeling and application. And then finally, additional and supporting content. So that's kind of um learning standards that are supporting the main standards. Um so you'll see reports for those subclaims on the following slides. um we had started a focus in math in um and
061really continued that focus area until um last year. So we took a look at the two subclaim areas of expressing mathematical reasoning and modeling and application as um areas that we could take a deeper dive into with our teachers and our um our coaches. And so we held several sessions, we analyzed results, we reviewed past test items, and we um created some plans for how to implement some of those ideas into instruction. And just this last summer, we had additional work done um at Highest and Wet Junior High for finding ways to incorporate expressing both mathematical reasoning and modeling and application into the curriculum. And a lot of that has been done across all of our grade levels um using the building thinking classrooms work that we've done. Um, if you uh recall last year,
062we talked a lot about um uh staff in math classes or kids in math classes writing on whiteboards and using vertical learning and um as a to facilitate discussion and reasoning and um it's really helped to draw out a lot of that um the expression that is needed kind of the why behind math and not just wrote computation. So that's really um fun to see in the classroom and it's also reflected in a lot of our subclaim work. So here similar to the previous graphs you'll see the subclaims on the bottom uh major content mathematical reasoning modeling and application and additional and supporting content. Again the blue represents the higher category the yellow is the middle and orange indicates lower. So this is just for spring. And then we take a look at this subclaim
063over time. And so you can see how the blue has increased over time, which is exciting to see. This is modeling an application. And now we're in fourth grade. So this the the three slides will follow for the same pattern. Mathematical reasoning and modeling an application. Grade five math. Again, reasoning and modeling and application. Grade six, math, mathematical reasoning, modeling and application. Grade seven math, mathematical reasoning, modeling and application. And finally, grade eight math, reasoning and application. Um, as I mentioned before, we have set the threshold of 70% of students uh reaching proficiency or above proficiency um in both areas. And it's exciting to see um that all grades have met the target of 70% in ELA. Um and that tells us that a lot of the work that we've done in our focus areas
064seems to be continued um and that we are continuing to see success and positive outcomes through that. Similarly, we've seen some positive incomes or outcomes with math as well. Um, all grades met the target except for eighth grade, but it's important to note that um, we still saw growth in eighth grade. Um, under the old cut score, it was 54% and that raised to 59% using the old cut score um, for this year. Um, under the new cut score, it's 64%. But we wanted to be sure to point that out because there was growth seen and that's exciting. um the we will continue to work on those two subcategories of mathematical reasoning and modeling and application. We have several more teachers undergoing um training and learning with building thinking classrooms. We have a lot of
065um work being done at the elementary level with our bridges implementation which is only in its second year. So a lot of great things are going on across the district in math and we look forward to seeing this continue. And now if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them. >> Thank you Kelly. Were there any questions? All right. Um and I just wanted to mention I appreciated the presentations of the committee of the whole meeting also and the discussion that took part um along with the presentations and in particular um looking at um you know the the detailed information that was provided around the new norms um was very helpful as well. So if there's anyone listening and who wants more information, then I would encourage you to listen to the committee of
066the whole meeting last week where we went into a lot more detail on this information and on the new um levels and norms. So thank you again. All right, we are now let's see moving on to annual business. >> Yes, up first is our 2025 estimated tax levy review. Each year the district is required to estimate the tax levy at a public board meeting. So uh Mr. Boltire is here with a presentation on key details along with an estimate of the 2025 tax levy. >> Okay. So this is going to be uh very similar to what we talked about if not the same as uh last Monday. So on each slide, I'm going to kind of gravitate to one or two items um since the second time for us going through this material. So we're
067in step two. Uh the big things that we the board needs to do procedurally this evening is to adopt the estimated levy, which is really just an acknowledgement that we've completed that step and then approve that public hearing for for our board meeting in November. Um, from a levy background standpoint, uh, for D39, uh, my takeaway is, you know, over 80% of our revenue comes from from property taxes. And then the other thing that really drives what we are and are not able to do is the the PTEL law um which is really just letting us um giving the board opportunity to increase the the operating funds levy by CPI an annual CPI amount plus any new growth that's occurred in within our boundaries. those the two big considerations that really drive like changes from
068year to year in the in the operating fund tax levy is that CPI um so the year that we're talking about uh passing this this tax levy it's 2.9% is the applicable amount interestingly enough through nine months of the current calendar year which would then be our 2026 tackle levy we are sitting at 2.9% % with still another three months to go. Um so inflation if nothing else has been fairly consistent for almost two years now. Um and then the other part is the new property growth which is really just um new construction could be uh residential or commercial within the community. This slide shows uh 10 years of historical CPI percentages. Um, you know, my takeaway from looking at something like this is just the relationship across time. Um, from when we know what
069a what the CPI factor will be for a given tax year, um, and how that plays out over the course of multiple years to what when it ultimately impacts uh, a D39 uh, board approved budget. When we look at uh since I've already mentioned the historical new growth in EAV amounts uh over on the right hand column if you see bold percentages those are trienal reassessment years and 2025 the uh you know levy that we're talking about right now that's a reassessment year built into this formula and equation I I've assumed a 25% uh increase in EAV um you know in that assumption Um, just based upon some information that I've heard, like you would expect that some property owners will probably see assessments higher than that and some will will see assessments a little
070bit lower than that. Uh, we see our 10-year average of new growth is just over 16 million. So, that's what we plug into our formula when we calculate the estimate for 2025. So, one of the specific requirements is for for us to estimate a limiting rate as I plug in the applicable CPI, what we know as a draft extension amount for and then estimating that the EAV will go up about 25% we come to a new uh limiting rate of 2.4228%. Um, one thing to to keep in mind whether the rate was at 2.4 or more recently it's been up near three. Um, we would expect for next for this the the tax levy year that we're talking about right now, we would expect the typical taxpayers bill that is D39's portion to go up
071by 2.9%. when we take a look at the value of new growth and how that impacts and and um provides a bit of a lifeline to to school districts and other local entities. I go to the bottom bottom kind of bottom right corner of of this page. We have the the column that shows CPI plus our 10-year average of new growth. And we see that the value of 2.9% increase is about 1.9 million for for next year's levy. But that estimated new growth is is almost at 400,000. Um that's just, you know, it's above and beyond that CPI factor and has always been very beneficial. uh the far right column because the levy process that we're all subject to requires us to ask for more than what they'll actually give to us. Um we balloon
072the levy and so we've set the levy uh at 2.9% increase for CPI and 2.4% for new growth. Here is a summary of the draft extension. So, as I mentioned, 2024, I've received a draft. Uh, you know, the county is still working through their myriad of issues and um still at this point don't have any idea when those tax bills might be um sent out to the taxpayers. Uh with a due date um hopefully soon, but haven't even really honestly heard any rumors on that. So that first column is just a draft based upon something that had been shared. We then go through our process. We create that estimated column. Uh we're looking at 69.9 million for the operating funds. And then the total levy request for the operating funds is uh the 71.1 which
073is 2.9 for inflation, 2.4 for new growth. And then the last thing that we're required to include in our tax levy presentations is identifying a month and then reporting the total cash and investment balances of the school district by fund. So we have all nine funds uh for for D39 and for the month of May we were at just over 52 million in cash and investment at that time. That is the end of the estimated tax levy presentation. Happy to answer any questions of board members. >> Thank you, Corey. Anyone questions? >> All right. Great. No, I know we've we've um seen this a couple two three times. Thank you. Um All right. Now, moving to the state ma maintenance grant application. >> Yeah. So, in just a little bit, uh we'll be asking the
074board to approve that that application. Um so, we can submit that. Uh one just from a timing perspective. Uh the reason we're asking the board to do it right now is uh to apply, we need that board approved prior to when the board would approve any bids related to that project, which is something that we're uh aiming to get done in the in the month of November. So, uh, the recommendation is for the, uh, board to approve that later this evening. >> Moving on to the fall enrollment report. >> Annually, Mr. Deonte presents the the uh, fall enrollment report, and this gives us the opportunity to look at our current enrollment and and some additional information. So annually, District 39 provides a fall enrollment report that captures the number of students housed in district 39
075schools as of enrollment on October 1st. This year, there were 3,227 students educated inside D39 schools. In addition, we also capture the number of students we have a responsibility to educate. That number's higher as it includes early childhood students receiving receiving itinerant speech students outplaced at therapeutic settings and students receiving special education services at the local parochial and private schools. Our fall enrollment total is 3,266 students. Next month will be our longterm enrollment projections report and that's when we add a little color to what we believe will happen within the next year, five years, 10 years. But uh today's report is just what the numbers are. Uh we had uh eight years of dropping. Last year we increased albeit small. It was like 11 students and then we're back to dropping again this year. So
076um we don't have wild swings as we'll talk about next month. We generally stay around the same spot. Um but you can look at the data yourself and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer those. Great. Thank you very much. All right. This is another opportunity for the audience to the to address the board. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? Okay, we will move on to action items in our consent agenda. Um, are there any items that the board would like pulled from the consent agenda? Okay. Then Miss Plet, Mrs. Pathless, please proceed with the motions. Okay. Um, I move to approve the personnel report dated October 27th, 2025. Uh, I move to approve the tax year 2025 estimate of levy as per exhibit A
077attached. I move to approve a public hearing on the proposed levy scheduled to immediately precede the regular November 17th, 2025 meeting of the board of education. I move to approve a contract with Stutter Education for Strategic Planning Services in an amount not to exceed $20,000. I move to approve the fiscal year 2026 school maintenance project grant application. I move to uh maintain as confidential the executive session minutes for the following dates. February 24th, 2025, March 10th, 2025, March 17, 2025, April 14, 2025, May 12th, 2025. May 19th, 2025, June 2nd, 2025, and June 9th, 2025. I move to uh dispose of executive session audio recordings pursuant to district policy 2 col220 for May 153 May 22nd 2023 June 5th 2023 June 12th 2023 August 14th 2023 August 28th 2023 September 18th 2023 23 October 16,
0782023 and October 23rd, 2023. I move to approve the manual checks issued between September 16th, 2025 and October 27th, 2025 in the following amounts. Educational fund 1,381,42763. Owen M fund $253,146 transportation $97,172.78 capital projects $633,348 tors $5,500 total all funds $2,370,46287 I move to approve the accounts payable for bills listed between September 16th, 2025 and October 27th, 2025 in the following amounts. Educational Fund 731,63968 O and M fund 56,32360 transportation $250,7764 total all funds 1,38,670.92. >> Thank you, Mrs. Pathless. May I have a second? >> Second. The motion has been moved and seconded. Would the clerk please call the role? >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Christine Dcastro, >> yes. >> Alison Papless, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Aaron Stone, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes.
079>> Thank you. The consent agenda is approved. At this time, I need under action items, I need a motion to approve the resolution to adopt the e-learning plan in lie of the district's scheduled emergency days. >> I move to approve the attached resolution to adopt e-learning program in lie of the district's scheduled emergency days. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> The motion has been moved and seconded. Would the clerk please call the role? >> Alison Pafis, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Erin Stone, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. Yes. >> Judy Berlin. >> Yes. >> Ann, >> yes. >> Christina Castro, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> All right. We will move on to conference items. Old business. Is there any old business? Is there any new business?
080>> Good. And welfare. >> I would just say that Dr. Lawaki and I went to the IASB uh local conference North Cook and it was exceptional. >> Uh we heard Doug Bolton talk about about connecting and it was powerful and really impressive. And so I just encourage anyone to attend the SB events if it works for you. I think they do a really good job. Thank you. Thank you for being there, both of you. All right. Having no further business, we need a motion to adjourn the regular board of education meeting. >> I move to adjourn the regular board of education meeting. >> Okay. I have a second. >> Second. >> Motion having been made and seconded. All those in favor of adjournment, please indicate by saying yay. >> Yay. Motion carries by general consent
081and the time is 8:17