001I hereby call to order this regular meeting of the board of education for WT public schools district 39 this Monday September 1525. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Annne Hart >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Erin Stone >> here. >> Kristen Dcastro >> here. >> Annie Paling >> here. >> Allison Pilis >> here. Katie Hilton >> here. >> Principal Dana Nasiakos is here to introduce McKenzie students to lead the pledge of allegiance. Good evening. You guys are in for a treat tonight. I have with me nine amazing fourth graders that are here to help us kick off se the 75th birthday of McKenzie. And with every great birthday comes a few really special gifts. So tonight we are here to share with you two of our gifts to help us celebrate
002our 75th. The first being our new guidelines for success, perseverance, compassion, and responsibility. And then finally, our students will be singing our new school song. And many of these fourth graders had um a part in creating the school song alongside our wonderful music teacher, Mrs. Havlla. So we are going to get started. Hi, my name is Evelyn and I have a definition for perseverance. Perseverance means never give up even when something is hard. It's about trying again, learning from mistakes, and keep a positive attitude until you reach your goal. >> Hi, my name is Liam and an example is when you're learning to ride your bike, you keep practicing even if you fall off a few times. >> Hi, my name is Grace and a kid friendly phrase is keep trying, keep growing. Hi, my
003name is Topper and the definition for compassion for students is compassion means caring about others and showing kindness. It's noticing when somebody someone's needs help and choosing to do something to make their day better. >> Hi, my Hi, my name is Tate. An example of compassion is if a friend is sad, you sit with them or share something kind to make them smile. >> Hi, my name is Saraphina. Um, a kid friendly phrase is kind hearts make a kind school. Hi, my name is Meadow and a definition for responsibility is responsibility means taking care of yourself, your choices in your school. It's about doing what you say you'll do, following directions, making choices that will keep you and others safe. Hi, my name is Addison. For example, turning in your homework on time and cleaning
004up after yourself. My name is Hannah and a kid-friendly phrase is I do the right thing even when no one is watching. We are now going to sing our school song. [Music] [Applause] Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you all very much for being here and thank you for sharing those important words and definitions with us. and we know um that those are really important aspects of being a successful cheetah. So, thank you very much for sharing and we're excited for the McKenzie birthday party later this week. Some of us might attend as well as we love a good birthday party. So, um and
005in appreciation for you guys being here this evening, we have a small gift that you can take on the way out and then you can meet your parents in the lobby. So, thank you so much Thank you parents. >> Well done. >> Thank you. Thanks for adop. Thank you. All right. I now seek a motion to approve the minutes of the August 25th, 2025 board of education budget hearing and regular and executive session meetings. I move to approve the board of education minutes for the August 25th, 2025 budget hearing and regular and executive session meetings. May I have a second? Second. The motion been made and seconded. Board members, are there any comments, errors, or omissions to the minutes? Okay, seeing none, all of those in favor of approving the minutes as submitted, please indicate
006by saying yay. Yay. The motion carries. This is now an opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? All right. If so, please stand to address the board. I must remind guests to state your name in community of residence. And by board directive, you are allowed three minutes to address the board or one minute if you have previously spoken. Hi, my name is Miriam Oington. I'm a resident of Glen View. Um I have a daughter at a at High Crest Middle School and an incoming kindergartener at Ramona. I'm here um to address the board about my concerns over iPad usage. Um, I had something written out, but after having access to my daughter's iPad today, I decided to scratch
007all of that and just speak from the heart, I um, literally broke down in tears after reviewing the amount of information that our children are being provided on an iPad device. Um, I reviewed the mobile learning program handbook as well. yesterday night with my daughter and I underlined a lot of things that I felt were very concerning and questionable. I um would like to read a few things that I did I did underline. I understand that utilizing the iPad daily I mean I'm sorry I understand that part of this learning program the goals of the mobile learning program are as follows to transform students from consumers of information to creators of content to provide access to anytime anywhere learning to increase student engagement or and ownership of in learning and to support the information literacy
008requirements of the CCSS and ENTNET standards. to promote district 39 learning goals for the 21st century. I did have a few questions um about these goals. I'm wondering why our children are being turned or transformed as you so nicely put it from consumers of information to creators of content. I understand that we're in the 21st century and technology appears to be um very popular at the moment and I'm just just can't help but ask myself if district 39 is falling also under pressure of that being the route to go when it comes to teaching our kids. Um I'm wondering if student engagement was an issue before. And also I did underline a part at the very bottom where it says with accessibility to devices anywhere at any time you district 39 can ensure that the
009devices are used safely, responsibly and respectfully through the through some helpful hints and advice to use and care the device. I don't understand how that could be something that you can so confidently ensure when you are asking for our children to follow a list of things to keep them safe. Um therefore the children are really the ones responsible for ensuring whether this device is safe or not. >> Thank you. Would any other audience members like to address the board this evening? >> Hi, my name is Penelopey Oington and I am a resident of Glen View. I go to HMS and in some of my classes most of the our 40 minutes is devoted to iPad time. For example, my math teacher, Miss Mazo, will have us on big ideas math or both for class and
010for homework. And meanwhile in reading and writing teacher with my home room teacher or in reading and writing with my home room teacher Miss Batser, we do almost nothing on the iPads. In Spanish we do game kit and flashcards and in digital media we are almost always on them. What I think is that we should be on them for only 15 to 20% of the day. Because when you do this every single school day, it wears out our eyes like the treads on my old bike. In case you haven't realized, I'm addressing the board about my concerns for being on the iPad for too long. One of my friends has a phone, an iPad, and an Apple Watch. And whenever I go to her house, she mostly wants to play Roblox or watch Tik Tok.
011Personally, I think those devices are robbing her from her childhood. Recently, my parents sent an email to all of my teachers asking to limit my time on iPads at school. So, when the rest of my class was typing with devices, I was typing with nothing but my pencil and paper. Going back to my math class, quoting my teacher, 95% of our homework would be on the iPads. Think about that number. 95%. That's a crazy amount for just math class only. I think I've made my point. So, thank you in advance. >> Thank you. Hello. Uh, my name is Alina Resnik. I am a WMAT resident and I have a third grader at Ramona and incoming kindergarteners next year. We moved here from Chicago for Wat's great schools. And indeed, schools have bright new air conditioned
012classrooms, relatively small class sizes, and highly educated teachers, which we love. However, it concerns me that with all the resources and all the big budget and instructional material fees that increase annually, uh we face everinccreasing push to buy and use technology, especially iPads, but also now TV like Smartboard at the expense of paying teachers for extra hours that are asked to work uh or dismissing math teachers in junior high despite uh despite pleas from the students and other teachers. I would much rather the schools kept their old tech projectors and had computers for technology class only one or two times a week to learn to type and paid teachers. The difference tech use also comes with opportunity costs for kids on missing out on real life skills from building focus to academics, handwriting, reading, concrete
013math, applied science to soft skills, loving learning for the sake of learning and not for rewards which you know I excel as building real life relationships with teachers and peers. I have to ask the board since you're the ones who are to create the curriculum and approve all the um curriculum aids in terms of technology. Is this really necessary to have technology at their fingertips in middle school? As someone said here, is it necessary to bring iPads to library class and fill out missing alphabet letters using fingers and not pencils? Are 164 apps not including Google Maps, not including YouTube, and not including Safari. Are they really necessary for learning? And has anyone really read through all the privacy agreements for each single one of them? All of 164 apps and Google Maps and everything
014else. And can anyone here setting or someone who can point me to who can vouch for the safety of our kids whenever each new update comes out? I hear the mantra that they need to be fluent with technology because they are here to be ready for new career and the technological world we live in. But it's not true. Kids success in technological world won't depend on them having unrestricted access sorry unrestricted access to iPads in kindergarten or even fourth grade or frankly even sixth grade. Technology evolves so quickly and it's already extremely intuitive to learn. Thank you for attention. >> Thank you. Are there any other audience members who would like to speak this evening? >> Good evening everyone. My name is Lily Young. I'm a mother of eighth grader and a third grader. First,
015I want to thank all the teachers and the school board for doing your best to help us raise our kids, right? I also want to be clear, I'm not anti anti- technology. In fact, I promoted CH GDP long before most people had even heard about it. But tonight, I'm here to ask for cut down cutting down kids screen time. I'm deeply concerned that the screen has taken over our kids' lives. Big screens in classroom replacing blackboards, iPad replacing pen and paper and smartphones replacing real social interaction. I try to manage my kids screen time at home. But it's a constant battle, one that often ends in frustration and tears. I realized I I was asking too much of my kids, asking them to fight against not just temptation but an entire environment designed to keep
016them glued to screens. That's why I'm here tonight to ask for your help in cutting down screen time. The evidence is very clear. Excess excessive screen time is harming our kids. Kids on screen seven plus hours a week are three times more likely to develop ma myopia for eighth graders in WJHS with 80% of classroom time on big screen 80% work time on iPad then constant cell phone usage after school medicates easily exceed seven plus hours a day on screen national scores in reading and math are fallings directly linked to more screen time. Teachers say students struggling to concentrate, write by hand and connect with peers. Pediatricians room of rising sleep and mental health problems or titled screens. In the end, more screen time does not mean take literacy. Homework on iPad after homework on
017iPads of often turns into endless scrolling on YouTube or Tik Tok or millions of other websites competing for our kids attention. We cannot ignore those warning signs. We cannot let the technology no matter how convenient replace the fundamental skills and human connections our kids need to thrive. So what can we do? I urge the school board to take those actions. First cut down school based taking teaching time. Let's bring back blackboard whiteboard and hands-on lessons back. Two, push for more pen and a paper. Require that a significant portion of classwork, note takingaking, and assignment be done by hand. >> Thank you. >> Three, ban cell phone use and >> as a reminder, you may have another minute uh later on the agenda when we um have public comment again. >> Thank you. Is there anyone
018else who would like to speak this evening? Please go ahead. State your as a reminder your name and community of residents please. >> Hello. Yes, my name is Andre Muraviv. Uh thank you so much and first of all I would like to thank you teachers and it's great school. Uh my kids are very happy. Uh I just have uh some concerns and my biggest concern is about the screen time and apps that are installed on school iPads. Um, I used to give music lessons to many middle and high school students in public schools in Texas for four years. And I can tell that students who spent a lot of their time playing video games or living in virtual reality were not as successful in school subjects compared to other kids. Also, that kids had difficulties
019in building connections with other kids to or finding uh real friends. Um and uh of course too much screen time can lead to eye eye strain and headaches. Uh sleep disruptions due to blue light exposure, reduced attention, less physical activity and social interactions. Uh and um I just read yesterday some articles in American academia of ped pediatrists suggest no more than one to hours per day of screen time. uh children age from six to 12 and uh just question is if we follow those recommendations or no uh and uh do we include smart boards when we calculate those one to hours or no and uh uh I've heard so we still uh we have YouTube is available on iPads and and app store and also Safari And my biggest concern is here. So, um I
020think that should be blocked and excluded from iPads at all times due to exposure to illegal uh content. Um and uh I think kids can accidentally go to some websites and this is my the biggest concern and it's uh I I just read yesterday I also work in IT uh field and Safaris could be disabled on from screen settings. I'm sure you know how to do this, right? If no, I mean it's maybe I just asked chat GBT by myself how to disable it. Just protect by password. If no, uh there are some I I don't know if are we using any like maybe it's already used like MGM tools. Uh it's like uh special management school tools, right? that uh if you purchase subscriptions, I did research yesterday, it's like $5 per device per
021year. I mean, they can allow you to disable uh Safaris from iPads maybe and do more variety what you want to do in iPads like blocking some apps or restrict students. Um and uh I agree a little bit uh with previous statements about like uh do like writing especially I would >> thank you >> uh time >> three minutes thanks so much. Yeah. Are there any other audience members this evening? >> Hi my name is Sarah Hill. Um, I am the mother of a third grader and a kindergartener, uh, who are a little bit disgruntled that I'm here speaking against iPads. Um, uh, we also moved into the district right before Norah started kindergarten and, um, we've been really pleased with her education so far and we're really grateful for your service here on the
022board. We're grateful for the service of her teachers. Um, we're really happy to live in this community. Um, but I would again like to echo um what these advocates are advocating for um against um iPads iPad usage in classrooms. Um I know that uh it's a it's a popular toy, but I don't see a need for it in the classroom outside of a technology class and um occasional testing. Um, I know that it provides a big distraction for our kids and that uh can lead to to disruption disruptive behavior and and disruptive apps. Um, I would like to um propose a suggestion. Um, there was a there was a a complaint from teachers that um a a ban on YouTube and a ban on like a really comprehensive ban would be uh disruptive to their
023teaching style. I'd like to suggest that we um implement two Wi-Fi systems in every school. One for the students that is severely limited. I think we can all attest to being in a public Wi-Fi that's really limited and how much less engaging that Wi-Fi network is. Um but that one specifically for the teachers that can be a little bit uh less restrictive so they can access all of the tools with their fully formed brains uh that they that they need to. Um again, I would just like to thank you all. I I really strongly um I really strongly believe that kids should be interacting with each other in their free time in their classrooms that they should be using pens and paples paper to develop their motor skills and their and their friendship skills and
024their social skills. I think that we as adults all really fight the urge to pick up our iPads and our tablets and our phones. Um and I can't even imagine what a temptation it is for these kids. Um thank you again and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Would anyone else like to speak at this time? >> Okay. Thank you for being here and for your advocacy. And just as a reminder, the board uses this time to listen to community questions and concerns, but we do not respond immediately to individual requests and cannot take formal action um on non-aggenda items. But we appreciate you taking the time out to be here and to provide your perspective this evening. So, thank you. And again, there will be one additional time on the agenda for public
025comment. We will now move on to board reports starting with committee reports. Facility development. Mrs. Diccastro. Thank you. On Monday, September 8th, 2025, the facilities development committee met as part of the board's committee of the whole meeting. Mr. Mr. Bolttomy reviewed the process for the summer 2026 project. The current plan includes a project bidding period in October and potential board action in November. Mr. Boltomire, Mr. Damonte, and Dr. Karmcoli met with the village of Gmet to review the project to get the vill's perspective and will present options in the future. >> Thank you. School finance, Mrs. Bailey. >> We did not have any school finance recent meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. Then we will move on to strategy committee. Miss Stone. >> Yes. On Monday, September 8th, the strategy committee met as part of the
026board's committee of the whole meeting. That time was focused on an in-depth review and discussion of the strategic plan action steps for this school year. Following the district's district strategic advisory team or DESAT's review of these plans, the board reviewed and provided feedback as well. A final presentation and approval of these proposed action steps will be provided later on this evening's agenda. >> Great. Look forward to that. Thank you. And then liaison reports. We'll start with community review committee Mrs. Bless. Thank you. Um I attended the community resource committee meeting on Tuesday, September 10th. Uh the CRC kicked off the new year by nominating and approving their executive board um including voting Amy Peters to serve as president of CRC. Uh note also that members at large are being recommended for approval later in tonight's
027agenda. Um at the meeting, the committee discussed a number of possible topics uh that they may choose to study this year. Uh they intend to finalize that choice I I think at their next meeting scheduled for October 14th. Great. Thank you. Um, we will then move on to educational foundation. Also, Mrs. Paplas, your evenings have been busy. Thank you. Back to back. Okay. So, on uh Dr. Crumbs and I attended the Ed Foundation meeting last Monday, September 9th. Um the foundation discussed goals for the upcoming school year, um including creating an innovative teacher award, which is a a new idea. Um as in years past, the Ed Foundation plans to host three fundraisers this year. Bingo night, just to get these um out on your calendars early, bingo night on um November 14th, paddle night
028on February 7th, and trivia night on April 18th. Um the Ed Foundation's next meeting is Monday, October 13th. Great. Thank you. And now we will go on to district strategic advisory team or the DESAT, Mrs. Paling, and Mrs. Paplas. I will uh share that report. Uh as Miss Stone mentioned, DESAT met to review the proposed action steps for the school year for our strategic plan and provide feedback. After our meeting, uh we as a board reviewed the action steps at our committee of the whole meeting on September 8th. And later tonight, we'll review that presentation and vote to approve those action steps. and the DESAT will meet again on February 12th for a midyear update. >> Great. Thank you. Illinois Association of School Boards, Mrs. Berlin. >> Um, there really hasn't been any change since
029my last report, so that makes us quickly. >> Thank you. And we'll stick with you for legislative updates, >> which might make you think that I don't want to talk, but the truth is there's been no change since my last report. >> All good. Thank you very much. Okay. Um and I will turn it over to Dr. Kremcoli for information items. >> Thank you. And I will just um acknowledge that also at the committee the whole meeting the board under new business conducted a policy review regarding residency and enrollment and also engaged in a really productive conversation regarding technology. So I want to acknowledge and thank Ford for your discussion regarding both of those. In terms offormational items, um, first of all, written communication. The board received written communication from Maria Aiki and Evston Skoi
030uh, district 65 school board member regarding Clear Gov. And for administrative announcements, we're really excited to be kicking off our uh, parent education events. Here in district 39, we believe in the importance of connecting with our families to offer informative and relevant parent education events. And so our first parent education event of the year is titled Navigating School Safety Scenarios: How would you respond? And it's set for this Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and will be held virtually over Zoom. So we encourage everyone to consider joining us. Uh we've sent out registration information via each of the principal newsletters. Um that's also on our district website as well. Um and we'll be joined at this uh particular parent ed event uh by representatives from family service center key coalition the Wilmet Police Department and B Smart.
031So we encourage everyone to consider registering for that event. And if you're not able to join us live uh that will be available afterwards as a recording. In terms of Freedom of Information Act requests, the district did not process any FOYAS this month. Uh but there are a few pending and we'll report on those for next month. Thank you. Okay. At this point, um we will go on to the strategic plan updates. I believe Kelly Jackson is going to present for us this evening. >> Right. Um so yes, tonight we have our uh 21 through 26 strategic plan action steps. Um just a little context, a little background before we get started. Uh in January 2021, the district 39 strategic planning team uh which was comprised of staff, parents, students, and community members and leaders
032of other community organizations. We met throughout the year. We engaged in developing this multi-year strategic plan with the help of consultants from uh the consortium for educational change. Uh we collected feedback. Uh we uh we reported out at the board meetings and um we celebrated a successfully um approved strategic plan with action steps that first year. Now we are in our final year of the strategic plan and we are excited to present and then submit for approval the last year of our plans action steps for all of you this evening. In doing that, we'd like to acknowledge both um the participation and input received from the board and from our district district strategic advisory team in this process. I will handle goal one. Um so goal one is our student achievement and growth goal and
033it is about ensuring a differentiated education that provides a strong foundation of rigorous academic learning. You can see the strategies there on the screen that we um aim to address through all of our action steps and work on school. On the next screen you can see um that these are our action steps for this year. And so the first one is one that's a holdover. It's something that we do every year, but it's really about analyzing student data in collaborative teams um after each benchmark period. So, we look at map data, as web plus data, classroom performance, and more. Um and we use that to inform adjustments to tier one or um the instruction that all students get or to identify students who may need um a tier 2 uh support. So some intervention or
034maybe even more support or intervention or it could be enrichment. Um so that these um how we evaluate um all of our data determines whether we intervene or enrich the learning for all of our students. Um the second action step is to introduce the foundational principles of universal design for learning to support planning and use of differentiation in the classroom. consultants lining up to help us with um sharing that information with staff. Um the third is continued from last year and this is uh to support the implementation in professional learning for our recently adopted curricula. So you can see that we're in year two of both Bridges Math Math and UFly foundational skills. Um we're in year three of number corner which is a component of that bridges math curriculum. And then we are in
035our first year for sixth through 8th social studies but our second year for fifth grade social studies. We have a lot of exciting things going on in our classrooms. Um the fourth is related to that. We uh have teams right now piloting and working to evaluate multiple curricula in grades K through eight English language arts in order to make a recommendation for implementation for next school year. Uh the next goal or the next action step is to expand the reach of instructional coaching through an increase of in in individual and team coaching cycles. If you'll recall, last year was our first year of instructional coaching. So this is just expanding on that and growing um the instructional coaching across all of our schools. Next, provide the teachers with goal setting template and specific examples to
036use for year- round academic goal setting and reflection. And and this again is an expansion upon um the past few years of work with goal setting and um really now we're going to our teachers. We're asking them what else do they need. So this becomes just the fabric of what we do. Um and if there's uh templates or specific examples or anything else that they're looking for um we will collect that information and and support them that. Um, next is uh the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of a new grades five through eight academic schedule for the school year. We will gather feedback throughout the year and make any recommendations for next steps. Part of that schedule has included a home room uh period where we have curated and implemented tier one executive functioning
037lessons. So again, tier one is is that instruction for everybody. So all students across the 58 um campus are receiving instruction in executive functioning um as a part of that home room period. And finally reflect on and refine current building MTSS systems and responses to improve student learning, enhance efficiency and improve our uh response times and address resource allocation. And again this is something that builds on previous action steps um just to take a look at our practices and make sure The next goal is goal two, supportive community. And while goal one really focuses on that rigorous academics, um goal two really focuses on the rest of the student. So it's really about um the social, emotional, and behavioral needs and helping our students feel a sense of belonging and really um helping them feel
038like they are a part of our school community. So the strategies on there are really to implement um consistent and proactive curriculums addressing these and strengthen that sense of belonging and engagement. When we look at the action steps, um the first one is to implement an expanded scope and sequence for the wayfinder curriculum in grades five through eight using our new home room structure. So, Kelly already talked a little bit about that new structure and we've got new lessons to really implement across the board for our students to really work on that social emotional learning as well as their emotional regulation. And you'll notice that at the end of some of these there are couple of double asterisks. Those are related to the community review committee's recommendations from last year. So, we incorporated some of
039their recommendations into this the goal too of sense of belonging. Uh the second action step is to pilot a reporting tool for social emotional learning skill development. So we're really looking at we've been implementing uh social emotional learning curriculum at the K4 level and we're really working on how do we report this? How do we let students know how they're doing in this area and how do parents receive that communication. So that's something that's going to be worked on at the K4 level this year. Uh the third one is to integrate monthly themes of inclusion and belonging into our district-wide communications as well as our activities for staff, students, and families. And our focus again here is on that sense of belonging. We want every student, family member to feel like they are a member
040of this community. We want our staff to feel like this is a home for them. This is we want our everybody here to feel that sense of belonging. And so we're continuing to focus on that. Uh the next one is to optimize our current building MTSS team and systems um systems and responses in developing and aligning our tier one. So that's the curriculum for everybody. Tier two, which is kind of those interventions that we provide for some students and tier three, which is more intensive instruction. And when we Kelly talked about doing this for academics, this is for looking at that SEAL practices for that social emotional learning for our students and making sure that we address them at all levels of need and that we have an intensity of support that can help all
041of our students thrive. Um the next one is to provide training in champs at the kindergarten through fourth grade level and restorative practices at the fifth through eighth grade level. These are classroombased systems to help support student behavior um as well as help them understand what the expectations are in different classes. Um we've been doing a lot of work with the foundations at the tier one. So that overall school behavior and this is really moving that into the classroom. So we're identifying groups of teachers at both the K4 and 58 level to help get some more training and bring that back um building wide in these areas. Uh number six is to research and evaluate existing and available mental health and screeners to identify both needs and propose a selection for the for the next
042school year. Um this state of Illinois um in the Illinois State Board of Education has required that we have a mental health screener for all students effective in the 2027 2028 school year. And so we want to make sure that we take the time to really evaluate what's out there and find something that's going to be really effective for meeting that mandate as well as providing the information that we need in order to help support our students. And the last one is to task a student advisory group at each school to engage in problem solving that focuses really on increasing the sense of belonging, idea generation, and using supportive staff leadership. So again, we want to work on that sense of belonging, but in this one, we really want to bring our students into the
043problem solving around this so that we're getting that student voice. All right, goal three is u has a focus on the staff and faculty within our schools supporting students. The strategies have remained fairly consistent through the course of the five-year strategic plan and we have specific action steps for this coming school year. The first five action steps continue to be a part of our work this year. They have been in years past as well. Um but we're continuing to to implement those and fully and further develop them. Action step six is new for us this year and we're making a purposeful effort during our professional learning days or institute days where we engage with staff and um opportunities to learn about the cultural celebrations and observations of our students and making sure our staff are
044as informed as possible about what our families and students um experience outside of the school. Number seven, the action step related to onboarding new staff. We recognize that at the beginning of the school year, we have dedicated three days to onboarding our staff new to district 39 and then our building principles take it from there and at each school work with our new staff to make sure they're fully informed about the practices that are coming forward each month. then we want to make sure our schools are aligned with those um topics and those areas of information that we're providing to new staff. So, it's a way to make sure that while each of our schools are are unique and different that that there's an underlying foundation that's very similar across all six of our schools.
045Number eight focuses on staff attendance. So, if you've listened to these reports over the course of the last couple years, you've heard us talk about the attendance of our faculty and staff and hoping that so many of the other areas that we're targeting will positively impact the staff attendance that um is reported on the school report card as well as our strategic plan. And we just haven't seen the growth that we had expected over the course of that time. And so this year we're making a purposeful action step of implementing at least two strategies to focus in on this area with all of the staff members in district 39. Likely we'll start with some um specific awareness of staff attendance for for each one of us and how um often we're not able to be
046at work. So, more to come on that as we uh fully develop that through the course of this school year, but our intention is to focus on awareness and then um working to to address that hope hopefully see a positive change at the end of this school year with regard to that data. The last action step number nine is a direct outcome of a DEIB task force that we had implemented about three years ago. now comprised staff, parents, board members, administrators, and we're looking for ways to um enhance the hiring practices and retention of our employees of color. And these were specific action steps that were an outcome of that task force. So this year, we plan to finish out those tasks that were um directed from that task force. Mr. Damonte has goal four
047>> goal four family partnerships we're strengthening partnerships by connecting collaborating and communicating with families and communities to advance teaching and learning. So our action steps for this year the first one is expand outreach to intergenerational caring adults of current students. So, we recognize it's uh there are different generations of um caregivers uh that are assisting our kids with school and making sure that we uh extend an invitation to get them either into the schools. We have a couple of schools doing great things with grandparents days um looking across the district and seeing if we can replicate that success across our our six schools. Uh community members without current students. So, we do have um community members who don't have uh kids in schools of all generations uh ages. Um Matther's place in town getting finding
048a way to connect uh our community members that don't have students with us uh in here. Uh many of those people uh are here because of the great schools. They had kids come through them or they just want something to do and we're going to look for ways to to get them engaged and involved. Alumni. So, nutrier high schools in general do a great job with this. Elementary schools typically do not, but we can u maybe uh have the same success by keeping uh in contact with our uh kids that leave our system. There are alumni events that happen at New Trier. Could we extend those events and and kind of have them around the same time we have people that come back to the community? Maybe that day after New Trier does their event,
049we can have something here. We've had a couple of groups come through our schools. They had a great this year already, I think, too. Um, two different schools who had just had a great time reliving their memories and reconnecting and oh, is this teacher still here? You know, that that kind of thing that uh takes place. And then local organizations to strengthen connections, partnerships, and supports. So taking a look at the different organizations that are in Wmet and seeing how we can complement one another um or make sure that they're getting our information or getting them into our schools. The second action step is engaging and informing families through multiple diverse channels to provide resources and information supporting our partnership for the advancement of teaching and learning. So not everybody consumes information the same way.
050Um we have mentioned this before, but we're going to put some um additional work to it this year of just making sure that the information we get out is not just an email. It's not just through our social media channels. So, um, how else could that look to make sure it's in the way that people consume what what they're looking at? Number three, create guidance documents for the use of artificial intelligence by teachers, students, parents to uh support uh student learning. So, there's some mandates that are out there that we start this work. Um, and we in the summer, uh, August 15th, I believe, uh, had a workshop with a cross-section of different positions across the district, uh, who work with kids of different ages. We had a handful of parents that joined us and
051we had a handful of students that joined us. And we created some one-page documents. I am waiting any day for those to return from the consulting company. uh the facilitator that we used that day. She did an amazing job. Um so amazing that we invited her back uh for our two institute days uh for her to work with our teachers and she will also be delivering the October uh parent education event virtually. Um but it's a great opportunity for parents to learn a little bit about how AI uh is operating out there uh in the realm of our kids. So those documents, they'll be published um to the various constituent groups any any day. Number four, define, educate, and communicate a clear philosophy for the use of technology at school to support teaching learning. So
052some of this work began at the beginning of the school year because we needed to have a common vocabulary. Um so that way our teachers are uh using the same language that our parents can easily digest and understand that's representative of the work that is being done when technology is used. So you've heard of the active learning and use or the passive learning and use and we're going to continue to use that language as well as reflect um upon how we're using technology here in district. Um those conversations still continue to this day. one is happening uh on Wednesday through our department and grade level meetings. So um there's a commitment there to continue to look at that and then refine and implement programming to welcome new uh district 39 students and families throughout the
053year. So our PTAs and O's have taken on that function um to various degrees depending on the school. So, it's onboarding families, if you will, into our system, connecting them with other families that may be new or to how it operates or who to go to for various things. We have uh this happening uh in some of our schools to a great degree. Uh just this is just a reflection upon what some of our schools are doing and again try to replicate that success across the district. So, this might be kind of a low lift, but um more of just a look at what we're doing and and then continuing that work. And the last action step is design and prepare to launch for the 2026 2027 school year transition supports for incoming seventh grade
054students at WT Junior High School. In previous um in previous years, we had worked on the transition between elementary school and highest and it had gone very well. adding new events, adding webinars, um just doing a variety of different activities to get kids and families into the school. We want to see that success uh uh kind of work at the junior high, making sure as our families, kids and families uh transition from High Crest to the junior high that we can get activities and get our kids in the building and and try to get them maybe in the spring instead of the fall to cross that threshold so that any kind of anxiety that happens to be there from going from one school to another or um new friendships that get established, we can take
055some of that way. So, uh working on that next transition uh for our kids and families. All right. Goal five is the stewardship of resources. All right. So, five act action steps for the current year and goal five items one through three. We've had each of these years and they're things that we um many times talk about regularly at at the committee of the whole. We do have two new ones that I'd like to highlight. Uh number four, um we're going to take a look at our use of non-traditional classroom spaces within the buildings. Uh one of the things that um I think as the admin team, we know that within our buildings, we're using, you know, every bit of space that we have and many times people are creative. And so I think most
056people have a good idea of what a traditional classroom space um might might look like and what kind of services or meetings might be occurring. But let's take a look at some of these smaller spaces where there might be one staff member and between one and four students or maybe it's multiple uh staff members collaborating. So um we'd love to share that with the board and the community. And then number five is uh reviewing the sustainability audit and what work has been accomplished. Um, I believe that audit was done roughly six years ago and as we work through it, I know some of the items on there will be uh will show as having been completed and others will have been considered and either are, you know, still things to work towards or some of
057them just might be cost prohibitive. But it'd be um something useful from a facility stand facility and operation standpoint to um look back on and re and review. meeting. >> Um, and as a reminder, all the updates for our key performance indicators are available on our district 39 strategic plan dashboard and we will be updating that throughout the year as we update all of you on the progress we make. Um, we have time now for questions. >> If I might, I'd just like to take a minute. This is the fifth year of our strategic plan and there has been a lot learned throughout the process. This is the first time in as long as anyone can remember that the district undertook a multi-year strategic plan. And so we did so with a little bit of
058trepidation and not quite certain how this would all unfold. But I'd like to express my gratitude to the board for your support of this multi-year plan so that we could really focus in and accomplish important work within our schools. And then also for our gold champions who jumped into leading this in some new ways and I really have appreciated their partnership and leadership for each goals and the strategies and our annual action steps along with all of our administrative team many of whom are sitting in the back here today and our teachers and staff who support this work throughout our school. So we're just really really grateful for everyone's support of this work. our families and our students will have the opportunity again to engage in this planning work. Um as near the end of
059this year, second semester starting probably in February, um we will go out to our community again and ask for input and feedback on what our next strategic plan might include. So a key element of this year's action steps is to look ahead into the next five years and gather some input and feedback that look like. So, we'll be um holding some focus groups and doing some surveys and asking parents, asking students, asking staff, teachers, community members to weigh in on what will come next. But, um in the near future, we're really excited about the work that lays ahead for us and and um grateful for the support of >> Thank you board members. Are there any other questions or comments? Mrs. Papless. >> Um I know that we have seen this multiple times, but I
060would just like to say thank you and echo um what Dr. Premisoli said that I know that it takes a ton of work, you know, to make the presentation, but also to do all of the step. So, um and I appreciate how clearly it's laid out and KPIs and how we can um take account of where we are in the goals and I just appreciate all the work. So, thank you. So, I look forward to the next strategic plan. That would be kind of fun. So, thank you. >> Any other board members? Okay. U Kelly, I just had one quick question. I know you mentioned that um a lot of the action steps and plans are kind of coming out of the work and the learning over the course of the last four years of
061this plan. But specifically, when we look at the action steps presented tonight, could you just remind us? I think that work started at the end of last school year. Is there were that is that correct in defining those action steps? >> So we um we report out progress over the course of the year. We had a report in June and then after that then the administrative team starts the process and we get together and talk about um where we can go um in the next year. We look at different sources of information. So the progress made is one thing that informs us. Um definitely feedback from parents and students and families. We also take a look at the CRC report and as you as Kristen mentioned, we um noted that in here where we took
062several of their recommendations and embedded them into our action steps. Um and so those are some of the sources from which we start to develop um these action steps and then we meet over the summer um and um formulate these. we get them to a point where we can meet with DESAT and have DESAT um look over them and give us input input and feedback on those action steps and then we bring them to you um at the committee of the whole as kind of our final step before approval. So that's great. I think that's just helpful for the committee members to understand. Um, and as Carrie mentioned and Kelly mentioned, we did review these at the committee of the whole meeting last week and I do encourage people to listen to that meeting because
063there is a lot of there's a lot more conversation around many of the topics and the action items including a conversation around technology. Um, so again that's from the committee of the whole meeting last week. If there are no further questions or comments on the strategic plan, we will continue on our agenda with annual business. Dr. Kremcol, thank you. All right, we have a summer school and summer enrichment program review. Um I think Dr. Johnson will lead us in this uh review and there's a report attached as well. >> Yes. So the summer enrichment program is held every summer. Um it's composed of three different parts. We have uh our extended school year program for students with IEPs who are eligible for that programming. Um and that's determined by the IEP team based on a
064set of criteria. We also have hobbies and um hobies in academics which is a program for students. It's a it's the fun classes that kids are really excited to take. So things like cooking and rocketry, they have academics associated with them, but it might be book club, it might be a running club. So a variety of different classes that are kind of your fun summary classes. And then we also have review and reinforcement, which is a program that we um is for students who are eligible based on their achievement in the during the winter math testing as well as by teacher recommendations. And so these are kids who who would benefit from additional time sort of reviewing and reinforcing the concepts that they learned during that grade year. So we have three different options. It's
065a half-day program and usually it's three different periods. So while we had I think 203 students that attended, but many of them attended things in a variety of programs. So they might have attended one or two review and reinforcement classes and one hobbyist and academic. So the numbers that are in here are certainly higher than the actual number of students who attend it. Um the program is is usually well attended. I will say that we are we have been on a a slight um downward trend in terms of enrollment since we since COVID. Um prior to COVID there were more students that attended and since then it's just been on a steady downward trend. Um we do have the mandate from the board to try and make the uh review and reinforcement and hobbies and
066academics portions costneutral so that it's it's provided for the for our families but we are trying to to really make sure that it is a cost neutral program. Um as you can see from the overall budget and revenues and expenditures. We did not end this year with it being costneutral. There was some subsidization from the board. Uh part of that reason is because we do keep the review and reinforcement courses uh at a lower tuition rate and the classes a little bit smaller because those are students that need that additional review and reinforcement in order to really solidify their academic skills. Uh it's something we can certainly look at as we move forward and look at our fees for next year. Uh the other area that we definitely lost some money in was transportation. Um
067we explored this year perhaps combining our busing with a VOCA and it didn't seem to it did not make sense the way we run it now. Um we ran one bus which covered all of the entire district and in order to to also work with AOCA on that that would have added just that many more stops. So we're going to continue to explore that. Um we have moved from it used to be that transportation was provided between every class. now it's provided only at the beginning and the end of the day. And so I think that that's something we can continue to talk about. There certainly were not a lot of families that took advantage of that transportation. So that may be something that we even discuss if that's an option that we want to
068continue to offer. Those are some things that we'll continue to evaluate and and look at as we start our planning for next summer. Other than that, does anyone have any questions? Board members, any questions? Miss Stone. >> Yes. So, if I'm understanding correctly, so kids who kids who qualify for ESY or extended school year are in some of these classes, right? >> Yes. So, >> so is the Sorry, go ahead. >> No. >> Is the downward trend in enrollment impacting those kids more, less, or about the same as the kids who are in the program who are not? It's probably not impacting those students much at all because those students, it's a it's a yearly decision on whether a student makes qualifications based on their progress during the school year, whether they regress over holiday
069periods. Um, and we will open as many classes as we need for extended school year because that is a requirement. >> Okay. I guess I was thinking the amount of kids who actually enroll maybe I'm not being clear. No, we the students that enroll for ESY is typically very close to the number of students that that qualify. Not all do, but most of them. >> Okay, good. Thank you. >> Any other board members? Mrs. Mailing, >> you may not know nothing comes to mind for me, but I just wonder if other community programs have come about that are meeting the needs of our kids that used to participate. >> That would be my guess is that I think that the park district has a lot of robust programs that a lot of students are participating
070in and our program is a half-day program. And so I think for families who are looking for more robust programming than perk district programs would be probably more of a draw. Any other board members comments, questions? Okay, thank you for that report. And up next we have the CRC review committee um at large members. So the community review committee also known the CRC services in an advisory capacity to district 39's board of education to research specific topics that lead to improvements in teaching learning or managing the district's operations. We've mentioned this group several times this evening as we have presented the strategic plan action steps. their work annually helps to inform our work and so we're really grateful for um their service to our community. Um this year the CRC is requesting the board approve
071two at large members at large for the school year. Um and that would be approving Aparna Blusharin and Miriam Oington to serve as members at large for the 2526 school. We'll see that later on this evening. >> Thank you. We'll continue with board policy review. >> Dr. Kaki, board policy. This is second reading and final reading for several many board policies. Just to note the suggestions that were given at first reading have been incorporated in tonight. And um for policy 8 colon 30 number 16 we added in including um e scooters and ebicles. That was the topic of during first read. So, we've incorporated that into that policy. And then 71 190 190 student behavior. Um, under prohibited student conduct number six, we added language that states to create or disseminate false information. So just
072a clarification more to the lens of potential AI chat GPT not exactly calling it that but that s same sense of incorrect or false information we wanted to highlight that and so those were two substantive changes since first reading. Thank you board members any comments? Great. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. All right. This is another opportunity for the audience to address the board. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? Again, I must remind you to state your name and community of residents. And by board directive, you are allowed three minutes to address the board or one minute if you have previously spoken this evening. >> Uh my name is Lilian. I'm a woman resident and I just want to thank you guys for allowing me to finish my suggestions
073action steps. Uh first cut down screenbased teaching time, bring back blackboard, whiteboard and hands-on lessons. to uh push for uh push for more pen and paper requires that a significant portion of classwork, load taking and assignment to be done by hand. Save screen time for coding, researching, AI learning and AI learning session. Tony just talked about it. Uh three ban cell phone use during school time. Enforce strict rules. So phone should be out of sight and out of mind. force pro promote a real social interaction create a screenfree zone and time especially during non recess so kids can talk can play and build a real relationships there are many things in life we cannot control but this should not be one of them let's work together before it is too late thank you >> thank
074you would any other audience members like to Hi, I'm Jocelyn Schul speaking again, mom of four in the district. Um, two are at New Trier. Um, as many of you know, I've been very active in this community. I've been on the executive board at Highcross um at Lum Junior High School. I've been on the CRC committee and I've been the president of past 39 for eight years. So, I've been with all of you in the trenches and reviewing things, understanding things, and helping make this community better. So I'm here today again asking if we can relook at the technology pieces going forward for the next five years. Um we did foyer a request from ISBY and also District 39 asking for a quantitative number of how many hours these children are logging daily um on
075their devices and what apps they're using. And we didn't get any answer. They have no quantitative information at all um regarding um how much they're using their iPads for. And so I really would love to see if we can start tracking that. How many times kids are boopping in and out of apps, what apps they're in. Um I also would love to be able to have parents be able to view what their kids are accessing during the school day. Um I have a child this past week who asked me to pick him up for 8th period because apparently his writing teacher says when you finish your homework you can play Wordle. I was like what? Um I have another kid that told me how much fun GimKit's been and he's been on it all day
076long. So, I'm asking if we can just really double check what these kids are doing during the day because that to me is not learning for my kid. My kid needs to be really sitting there understanding, writing it, and hearing it several times, not boopping between screens. Um, I asked my oldest child to come and speak tonight about her iPad usage, and she was like, "I would never give my iPad up." And I'm like, "Why?" She's just great. She's got great grades and she's like, "I absolutely love that I can go between um listening to the teacher and going shopping and checking my Snapchat and it's just unbelievable what they can do at their fingertips." Um, and I just really worry that this is just not the path that we want to take. And I
077just would love to be able to have you guys just really start tracking this and give parents the ability to view what they're actually accessing during the day. Um, I just don't think the iPad as a learning device uh is solely what we want to be focusing on. So really putting limits on the amount of time they have the iPad during the day would be ideal as well. Um and um our petition has again reached a thousand people and so we really would like to have everyone in this committee to really consider looking at the petition which we can read or send over again and really considering some of these changes before the next year is set in stone. Um and thank you all very much for your time. >> Thank you. Would anyone else
078like to address the board this evening? >> Thank you. As a reminder, one minute if you have previously spoken this evening. >> Yes. Thank you. I'm going to try to rush through this. Um so I know that you are currently implementing um in home room classes with a high focus on a sense of belonging especially in grades fifth through 8th. I would like to make a suggestion. Removing the iPads. I see in my child's iPad that teachers and students are able to communicate with one another through a device. Let's encourage face-to-face interaction and put an end to this addictive form of commun communication. Um, a question. Are the schools currently doing anything to monitor the health and productivity of students with the excessive screen time they are being exposed to? As Joselyn mentioned, we put
079in a foyer request back in June. The response was as follows. After a careful review of your request, WET public school district 39 has the following response for item number one. The district has no response responsive documents that is was in response to us requesting aggregated data showing the total number of hours the students will met district 39 spend on schoolisssued iPads during school hours etc. >> Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak? >> I'll make this brief. I just wanted to really echo um everything that that else uh that's been said this evening. There's just far too much uh iPad use. Again, this whole idea that you can be in school and yet be kind of distracted by other things. you get done with a project and then you can play
080games or shop or do any of these other things. I mean, you can talk a lot about the effect it has, you know, on your learning, your attention span, and even your vision quite frankly. But there's another whole part of it, too, and that is that if you do have free time, you could be studying something else or you could just be interacting with your friends. So I mean again I've said it before and don't mean to sound so reactionary but you know most of us are a product of a different time when we had pencil, pen, paper, blackboard didn't hurt us any and it did us a lot of good. Uh you know rather than just dealing with a glowing screen all of the time. So please yeah let's rethink our reliance on this
081technology and let's just ask ourselves if it's really necessary to be doing this again. We all knew a different and older and in my opinion a much better way. So I just ask you to really think about that the use of devices at school. We as parents, we don't have any control over it. We've just got to ask you, you know, to really help us out with this. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. Hi, Alina Resnik. Uh Wilm uh as I said um you know this is from your website. This is 164 apps that the kids have access to and uh yes it has um agreement status and apparently it they were vetted and correct me if I'm wrong but have really has the board and has the IT director really read
082through every single privacy agreement there honestly are we selling our kids data somewhere and and last year if you remember powers school was hacked and so whatever data was leaked. We were never really told which students were affected. How much of that data was leaked? So, Power School, I imagine, is pretty protected uh app. How about all these 164 apps, not including Google Maps, not including YouTube access from Safari, not including however many more apps there are. So, are we protecting our kids at school? Yes, we are protecting them with locked doors and uh wonderful teachers and wonderful >> Thank you. Time is up. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak again? Thank you all for taking the time to be here and to share your perspective. At this time, the next order of
083business is the consent agenda under the action items. Are there any items that the board would like pulled from the consent agenda? Okay, Mrs. Papless, please proceed with the motions. Um, I move to approve the personnel report dated September 15, 2025. I move to approve the district 39 strategic plan, engage, empower, inspire action steps for 2025 2026. I move to approve Aparna Baksharon and Miriam Oington to s serve as members at large on the community review committee. I move to approve as second and final reading of board of education policies 1 col10 1 col 2 col 1 2 col 8 0 2 col130 [Music] 2 col 260 265 4 col5 5 450 4 55 480 4 col 180 5 col 1 0 5 col 2 0 5 col 6 0 5 col 0 0 6
084col 150 6 col 235 0 7 col13 0 7 col140 7 col180 7 col185 7 col 1 9 0 720 0 7 col210 7 col25 725 55 0 73 1 0 7 325 7 3 4 0 8 1 0 830 and 8 col 8 0. I move to approve the accounts payable for bills listed between August 26, 2025 and September 15, 2025 in the following amounts. Educational fund $332,74759 and M fund $331,21426 transportation $1,454.88 88 capital projects $368,530 total all funds 1 million33,919.73 I move to approve manual checks issued between August 26 2025 and September 15 2025 in the following amounts educational fund $954382 O M fund $26,760.114 transportation $3,19845 and capital projects $81,33328 total all funds $1,245,83069. >> May I have a second? >> Second. The motion has been made made and seconded. Would
085the clerk please call the role? >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Ann or Judy Berlin? >> Yes. >> Christine Dcastro? >> Yes. >> Allison Pafas, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Erin Stone, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> The consent agenda is approved. We will move on to conference items. Is there any old business? Any new business? All right. And lastly, good and welfare. Does any board me do any board members have any good and welfare to share? >> I might, but I'm not 100% sure what counts as good and welfare. >> Okay. So, you can tell me if I'm off track because I've heard a couple people report or mention it at meetings, so I think I got the gist of it. Um, this actually came to me as we
086um and as we were hearing about the uh one of the action steps in the strategic plan and it had to do with outreach to alumni and I wanted to share with the board. Um, and many of you know this. I have three daughters. Um, all three of them went through Wilmet public schools. All three of them graduated from Wilmet Junior High. And all three of them graduated from Newer High School. and all three of them live in the vicinity, one of whom lives here in Wilmet. And I think it is a real testament to the adult alumni of our school system that so many of my children's colleagues or not colleagues but friends and people that they graduated with have actually returned to Wilmet and to Wilmet schools. They all three of them never
087fail to bump into people whether it's in the schools or in the park district. And so when we talk about alumni, we should probably expand our definition because I'll bet they have positive things that they many of them might be willing to share with our district as well. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Then may I have a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss collective negotiation, specific personnel, special education, individual student matters, and semianual review of executive session minutes. I move to adjourn to the executive session to discuss collective negotiations, specific uh personnel, individual students, and a semianual discussion of the minutes. >> Thank you. >> Meetings. >> Thank you, Mrs. Pavless. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Motion having been made and seconded, will the clerk please call the
088role? >> Kristen Dcastro. >> Anne Hart, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Alison Pavil, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Aaron Stone, >> yes. >> Motion carries. We are now adjourned to executive session. And the time is 8:21