001I hereby call to order this regular meeting of the board of education for Wilmet Public Schools, District 39, this Monday, May 19th, 2025. The time is 7:01 p.m. Will the clerk please call the role? Annne Hart here. Judy Berlin here. Aaron Stone here. Kristen Dcastro. Allison Papless here. Amy Bailing here. Katie Hilton here. Thank you. Principal Kate Dominique is here with the Wilmet Junior High School students to lead us in the pledge of allegiance this evening. Good evening everyone. I'm Kate Dominique. I'm the principal at WT Junior High School. Thank you for having us tonight. This is one of maybe my most favorite board meeting of the school year because we get to honor all of the accomplishments of our students throughout the year. And so it's very special. And as you can see from
002this room, there are so many students that we are recognizing uh that I had the tough job of pairing it down to decide who I was going to bring with me to recite the pledge. And so, as many of you know, promotion from 8th grade is particularly special in D39 because our students leave the district uh when they move on to high school. And so to help with the pledge of allegiance tonight, I invited our eighth grade students who won states in Kurtinmen and meddled in the national Latin exam and science olympiad to share with us who they are and one of their favorite moments from D39 before leading us in their final D39 board of education pledge of allegiance. So, I'm gonna pass this mic off to Benji to start. Hi, my name is
003Benji B and my favorite memory from District 39 was the Italy trip I got to go on with McGistra and some of my Latin friends. Hi, I'm also Benji B and and my favorite memory from D39 is the amount of friends I was able to make since I moved here. Hi, my name is Frank. Uh, WJHS left me with many of the interests I still continue to enjoy and pursue. Hi, my name is Dalia. I think my favorite memory from D39 was Chinatown field trip. Hello, my name is Kabia Morley. Uh, my favorite memory was going to Super State with the school band. Hi, my name is Eness and my favorite memory from D39 was Science Olympiad and all the new people I met. Hi, my name is Ava Yao and my favorite thing about
004D39 is all the new friends I made. Hi, my name is Julia Sandler and my favorite memory about um D39 is the incredible community and the opportunities that living here gave me. I'm Eva Hanahan. My favorite thing about D39 is probably all of the support that I was able to find and all the friends who I was able to connect with. Hi, my name is Eric Chaw and my favorite memory of D39 was going to all the science Olympia competitions. Hello everyone, my name is Alicia Lee. I will always remember the amazing school band experience under the direction of Mr. Holden, Mr. Blowars, and Miss Dupek. They helped us grow exponentially in music, and we played at some amazing concerts and venues, even traveling to Ohio this year. Hi, my name is um Katie Lee
005and I've had a lot of great memories. But as for something that pertains to science olympiad, I'm very pleased and happy with all my fellow students and our parents that helped advocate for science olympiad and keeping it because it was almost removed by the district this year. My name is Diva and I really like the clubs at our school. Hi, my name is Julia Limbrock and my favorite thing about district 39 is the amazing teachers and staff who all helped us grow so much. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and all. Thank you. Thank you. And I will echo the students that uh the support that we get from
006our community and all of the programs that we are going to recognize for tonight I believe truly is what makes this such a special district. So um just echoing what the students shared. Uh so thank you so much. Um students who are in Science Olympiad, I'm going to have you move and line up right behind the podium here and our other students can move off a little bit and we will recognize you all momentarily. So students in science olipadiad go ahead and line up right behind the podium. And at this time Kelly Jackson is going to join me in honoring students from Wilmet Junior High and Highest for their accomplishments this year in science olympiad Latin math olympiads and the daughters of the American revolution writing contest. So we'll start with wmet junior high science
007olympiad students. If you are a WT Junior High student being recognized for Science Olympiad, please join the other students in lining up behind the podium. Students feels far away. Sorry. All right. So, students, uh, when we call your name, please come to the front and, uh, stay there because we're going to recognize all of our science olympiad students at once. We are excited first to honor the HMS and WJHS science olympiad team. District 39's science olympiad varsity and junior varsity teams have had an amazing year. Our varsity team earned medals in 18 out of 23 events making them the Oakton regional champions. And the team also qualified to participate in the state tournament held at the University of Illinois. They finished in seventh place out of 23 teams which is a wonderful accomplishment. Their goal
008as a team was top 10 and clearly they exceeded their goal. So congratulations to you [Applause] all. We are so proud of our students but we must also acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our coaches. Thank you, Coach Kevin Sworthout, who's standing right over [Applause] here and coach Caleb [Applause] Cha. Also, thank you to all the families for their support. When I call your name, please come to the front and stay here until we are finished recognizing Science Olympiad winners for WJHS and HMS. First place winners from WJHS were Alicia, Eric, and Ava. Third place winners from WJHS were Benji and Katie. Fourth place winners from WJHS were Inz, Frank, Alicia, Dalia, Cavia, Julia L, and Eric. Come on up. And our varsity team that plays seventh place overall included Ava, Benji, Connor. Some
009of them are already up here. Dalia, Daniel, Divia, Alicia, Emma, Eric, Frank, Inz, Julia L. Cavia, and Katie. Congratulations. and Ray Ray. Ray Ray, Ray, Ray, and Ray Ray not to be left behind. [Applause] Congratulations, Wat Junior High School students. I am going to pass this off to Mrs. Jackson to honor our highest students and uh WJHS students. Stay right where you are. All right. We also want to recognize our Highest and Wilmet Junior High students for their participation on the team. So, we have Emily, Luke, Amy, Daniel, Teddy, Andy, Dylan, Ariav, Mett, Pranov, Jonathan, Margot, Parker, Annayia and Mary. And we have Maddie also. Sorry. All right. A big round of applause for Oh, and our coaches. Yes. Come on up. Right. Huddle together. science Olympiad students who are also being recognized for Latin.
010If you could come back this way, that would be very helpful. Thank you. Everyone else, go ahead, Mr. Krauss. [Applause] One more thank you to our coaches because we can't run Science Olympiad without you. So, thank you. The next group we will be recognizing is our first place winners from Kurtmen. WJHS's Kurt Tommen team took first place in states this year. If you don't know what cretammen is, it is basically Latin quiz bowl wherein students answer questions about Roman history, culture, mythology, vocabulary, and derivatives. Our conquering team worked hard all year competing at three regional events, overcoming Whitney Young's academic center for the state championship. [Applause] Congratulations to the following students and their teacher, Kelly Shoemaker, Alicia, Ava, Julia S. and Julia L. Next, we have our National Latin Exam students. The National Latin Exam
011is a choice test offered in March, not just to students nationally, but the world with questions pertaining to all aspects of the Latin language and Roman history and mythology. WJHS had nine students receive gold medal medals this year, two silver medals, and numerous cumlad certificate winners. Our Latin winners are Ava, Julia S. [Music] Alicia, Benji, Julia, Lavia, Ellie, Katie, Benji, Bugney, Eli, Matthew, [Applause] Andrew and [Applause] Asher. Congratulations to our Curtammen and National Latin exam students. We're going to Mr. Krauss is going to get a picture of you. Next, please join me in celebrating the following Latin students from Highest and their incredible achievement on the National Mythology Exam. We had a total of 60 students from highest who with guidance from McGistra Carlson read about 85 pages of Greek mythology independently and then sat
012for an optional exam in March. This is the largest amount of medals and distinctions we have ever received along with the most perfect papers. Tonight we're going to recognize all of our perfect paper winners in person. Um, so I'll call your names up now. First we have Katie. I think this is Katie's second perfect paper. Is that correct? Yes. Uh, Rosie, Will, [Applause] Lucas, [Applause] James, Saurin, and Lily. All right, we have some winners who are here um being recognized for some other things, but we're going to put a picture on the screen of some of our students um who um hold on just a second as I get my screen organized here. um students who are not with us but we are recognizing virtually uh for their uh work on the mythology exam. So
013their picture is on the screen there. And for Maxima Cumlude or a silver medal, we have Dean, Jay, Emily, Ella, Max, Jane, Vion, Ford, Daniel, Olivia, and Charles for Magna Cumlude. And they received a ribbon. We have Ren, Eric, Catherine, Lillian, Magnus, Mia, Vika, Catherine, Sundar, Venica, Kai, Arav, Annie, Henry, Yanni, and Anthony. For laad and a certificate, we have Lola, PJ, Sophia, Carter, Sharon, Frank, Nathan, Drake, Alex, Rosie, Nara, Talia, Colin, Lark, Autumn, and Valentina. And finally, worthy participants who received a certificate were Lillian, Bo, Meline, Male, Nicholas, Megan, and Eliza. Congratulations to all of our national mythology exam winners. All right, I am going to have all of my students here who are here for math olympiads to stand up and uh line up back here and I'm going to invite their one
014of their teachers um Miss Jess Radcliffe up here to tell us a little bit about Math Olympiads. Hello everybody. I am so excited to be here. Um, since 1979, Math Olympiads for elementary and middle schools or MOAMS has been providing challenging and thought-provoking mathematical problems designed to strengthen students mathematical skills. Participants in Math Olympiads are located in all 50 states, three territories, and in 30 foreign countries. In all this year, there were 4,61 teams and approximately 90,000 participants. Highest students joined the MOAMS club and worked with Mrs. Proac and me over several months to prepare for the competition. We are proud to announce that the Highest Middle School team as a whole received a plaque and is included on the MOM's honor roll because we scored within the top 10% of all participating schools. Tonight
015we are recognizing our gold pin math olympiads who placed in the top 2% of all participating schools. They are Fernav, Isaac, Daniel, [Applause] Mark, and we have two others that are not here tonight, but that I still want to recognize. Audi and Charles. Congratulations. And then are we going to do the additional? Okay. An additional highest students pictured on the screen who won awards were in the top 3 to 10% of all participants. We had Anthony, Beyond, Jacobe, Richard, and Sarah. And those winning a patch scoring in the top 11 to 50% were MT, Ryan, Autumn, Arv, Jonathan, Lillian, Rivon, Sam, Henderson, TJ, Lucas, Leo, Valerie, Bennett, Sydney, Dowe, Caroline, Jack, Sharon, Billy, Owen, Ethan, Samantha, and Jules. And then finally, winning a certificate. Getting a certificate of participation. We had Mahair, Neva, Bella, Harry,
016Colin, Roman, Clara, and Sophie. [Applause] Our final honore tonight is a Wultt Junior High School student who placed in the Daughters of the American Revolution writing contest. His teacher, Mrs. Jodie McCauley, is here to tell us a bit more about the competition and the student. For the last 19 years, with help of the DSTs, students have been given the opportunity to write an historical fiction uh essay sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Every year, it is a new topic and usually something that most of the students have not been previously taught, and I've learned a lot, too, because they have some great questions. Uh, this year was no exception when given the theme of enjoying a new kind of tea party. students then researched protests against the British held by the women of
017North Carolina in 1774. This year, 18 of my students participated. Their essays were evaluated on historical accuracy, adherence to topic, organizational materials, interest, originality, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and neatness. After a lot of research, multiple drafts, and a dedication to excellence, Luke won first place at the chapter, the regional, and the state levels. Ultimately, oh there, but wait, there's more. Ultimately, he placed third nationally. His essay was a perfect blend of fiction and non-fiction as he told the story through the eyes of a colonist widow striving to have her voice heard during the founding of our nation. Congratulations, Luke. Thank you, Mrs. [Applause] Macaulay. Congratulations, Luke. Thank you, Mrs. Macaulay. Uh, let's have one final round of applause for all of our students this evening. Congratulations. Those impressive students will be a tough act for us
018to follow this evening, but um very impressed and I for one really enjoyed hearing the memories over the years that they will take with um to high school. So that was just great. Uh at this point, I wanted to focus our eyes on the artwork behind me. The McKenzie Art Showcase is on display in the boardroom this month. First graders were introduced to landscape perspective with their snowy mixed media collage, creating colorful pine trees and realistic drawings of local birds and their nests using colored pencil and yarn. Second graders drew realistic self-portraits with attention to proper feature placement and proportion and used mixed paints to add skin tone, eye color, and hair. Partnering with our library, students added illustrations of their favorite book covers as the final step. They also created imaginary cityscapes as part
019of the architecture unit. Third graders learned about African-American artist Alma Woodsy Thomas and were inspired by her unique painting style in showing movement through repetition to create their radial paintings by mixing anal analogous colors. They also focused on relief sculpture by learning the history of metal embossing and repus I don't know. Um their theme was nature. Fourth graders learned more advanced 3D perspective drawing and shading techniques to create their Wayne Tibo inspired cake drawings using oil pastels. They also combined art and seal and made personal identity grids drawing images that highlight all about what makes them unique. At this point in the meeting, I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the April 28th, 2025 board of education regular meeting. I move to approve board of education minutes for the April 28th, 2025 regular
020session and reorganization meeting minutes. 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? Will the clerk um please call the role? Stone. Yes. Alison Pless, yes. Amy Peeling, yes. Katie Hilton, yes. Judy Berlin, yes. Annne Hart, yes. The motion carries by roll call vote. Announce. Um, I am pleased to announce our selection for the Wilmeter High School principal position. After a rigorous screening and interview process that included an of a a very impressive pool of candidates, Mr. John Baffico is recommended for approval by the board later on this evening's personnel report. Although he was unable to join us this evening in person due to his own graduation at his own school, his current school, Mr. Baffico um is really
021excited to begin his new role on July 1st and looks forward to meeting more of the faculty, staff, students, and families throughout our community. As background, Mr. Baffo brings 29 years as an educator to this really important position at WJHS, including the last 12 years as a high school principal. He arrives to district 39 from St. Byer High School in nearby Arlington Heights, where he is concluding his third year as principal. During his time as principal, he successfully led the school to a national blue ribbon award, implemented the Danielson evaluation system, made improvements throughout the school to best support learning and growth, and instituted new programs for student and employee recognition. Prior to St. Bader, Mr. Baffo spent nine years as the principal at St. Patrick High School in the city. He was named the
022Lasalian Educator of the Year in 2021 and he led several initiatives aimed at improving the learning community the mentoring program for all firstear teachers, increasing the number of clubs and activities for students and developing and implementing the school's steam program. Mr. Baffo began his educational career as a mathematics teacher at Carmel High School, spending 13 years teaching before moving into administration as an assistant principal at Elgangquin Middle School. His experience, leadership skills, passion for learning, and commitment to both student growth and the mission of District 39 are exemplary, and we are excited for him to join our WJHS community. Although he's not here, let's give him a round of applause. Thank you, Carrie. We look forward to meeting him. Um, all right. At this time, this is the first opportunity for the public to address
023the board. Are there any community members that wish to speak at this time? Okay. Um, if so, please stand to address the board. I must remind guests to state your name and community of residents. And by board directive, you are allowed three minutes. Just as a reminder, this is an opportunity for you to address the board. We do not typically respond at this time in the meeting, but a member of the administration will follow up with you. Okay. Hi, I'm Cece Gabell. I live here in Wilmet. I'm speaking tonight as a Wilmet junior high parent and staff member. I was a full-time parapro last school year and have been a substitute this year. My seventh grader is my third child to go through D39. I wrote a letter to the board last week boing voicing
024my concerns about the schedule and math changes planned for Wilmet Met Junior High next year. I'm going to use my time tonight to focus on math. As I understand it, one of the goals of our new schedule was to find a way to increase math minutes in hopes to help our test scores. There wasn't a consensus on how to best achieve that just yet. So only the increased LCL time was agreed upon. Tonight I understand Dr. Gluei will be presenting the 2526 student staff planning memo. In the memo, she calculates that next year Wilmet Junior High will have 15 math sections requiring six math teachers. What is not mentioned in that memo is that we'll be going down from seven to six math teachers. On a spreadsheet, that sounds like a simple cost-saving measure that
025the district should take advantage of. This ignores that math is the only core content class with multiple levels. It's therefore unlikely that students will be equally divided across explorations, algebra 1, and accelerated math to get to this 23 seats per FTE. Even at 23, that's a high number compared to many of our current classes, classes which also have another certified teacher intervening. I would like to understand how we go from a stated the stated objective of needing more math minutes in our schedule to losing a whole math teacher. After speaking with teachers and parents and sitting through classes a whole year myself, I can tell you that none of the math classes had excess teaching resources. And I'll emphasize the fact that there needs to be certified math teachers because not many pair professionals, myself
026included, are able to help these kids with junior high math. Here are some things I'd like to ask the board and administration to consider. Please don't be misled by average seats per classroom calculations. Ask the administration um I'd ask that you hold the administration accountable to how teachers time and attention will be allocated across actual class lists and schedules. Not every level can handle 20. Not every teacher can handle 25 kids at each level. We've agreed upon these levels. I know those aren't going away. We've agreed in the goal of more math minutes. Um again, it's not a simple average. What matters is the amount and quality of teacher attention that each student will receive. Just looking at averages doesn't address the reality. And I don't see how student outcomes are improved by eliminating a
027teacher. Don't think of six FTEEs. Think of seven highly valuable math teachers, actual human beings who have dedicated their career to teaching our kids. talk to these teachers. They are on the front lines and they don't see how this is going to be successful. Are we really going to have one teacher with up to 25 or 26 students and no bandwidth for co-eing or intervention? Are we setting our kids and teachers up for success or asking them to do more with less all while knowing we have a math deficit to make up? The administration has stated over and over that class sizes won't increase, but I ask that you hold them to that as at at a class byclass level. Thank you. Again, please state your name and community of residents. Hi, my name is
028Don Taylor. I'm a seventh grade math teacher at Wilma Junior High School. Um, I've been lucky enough to be a part of this district for over 21 years. Um, I intend to retire in this district. Um, and have built wonderful relationships with my students, uh, and my colleagues over the years. Um, and I'm here tonight also to speak about the math position and the reduction in staff at Wilma Junior High School. I did submit a letter to the board uh last Friday. Um, and while I won't read directly from it, I do think it's important that some additional context uh be shared with you about the reduction in the staff. Um, again, going from 7 to 6 might not sound like much. Um, and I think on a piece of paper it looks somewhat insignificant.
029A couple of things that I want to just make note of. oftentimes in math classes, class size is mentioned because there are so many other course selections for our math students. But currently, my class numbers for a regular 7th grade pre-alggebra class are 24, 23, 23, and 26. I am not complaining. I am really grateful to have some of those numbers. I recognize that in many public schools, um, those numbers are low. Um but they are similar already to reading and writing and social studies and science although science and social studies tend to be on the higher end. Um and I mention that because we are also lucky enough to have a section of intervention. So those four math classes that I teach are like my regular pre-alggebra classes, right? And then I get to
030push in and support kids that need extra help for an intervention period. That is really valuable support that will be lost in this new structure and without it some of our students who are most in need will be losing a significant support. I will admit that it's a new role. We're only in our second year of doing that and so it took us a little while to kind of figure out how to do it best. And now that we have some of those systems in place, it's working really well. And I would hate to see that disappear just so that we can reduce our FTEES because we can talk about enrollment changes all day long and I know that sounds nice but the percent change math teacher here is less than 1%. And it doesn't
031matter from what year you compare 2023 to 2027 2021 to 2029. It's insignificant and I would hate to see major changes, major decisions made on data that isn't significant. I would urge you to maintain seven math teachers at the junior high so that we can maintain the integrity of the accelerated math program. We can keep the intervention program that we have in place um and we can continue to do the good work that we've been doing for decades at the junior high. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak at this time? Okay. Thank you again. At this time, we are going to move to board reports and um committee reports. We will start with facility development committee. Mrs. Dcastro could not be here tonight. Um so I will give
032a brief update. The facility development committee met on Monday, May 12th as part of the committee of the whole meeting. During this meeting, Mr. Boltier reviewed playground replacement procedures and discuss planning for the generous donation by Ramona's PTA to replace the kindergarten playground as well as future plans for the Harper PTA. More information about the donation agreement between the district and the Ramona PTA will be covered later in the agenda. Mr. Boltier also provided a brief review of the base bid and alternates for the Wilmet Junior High window replacement project. The design team has been researching and investigating um existing conditions. An update was shared on the impact of the project as well as a tenative design timeline. The district will not receive a budgetary estimate on design until August or September. The bid opening
033is scheduled for October. And we will now move on to school finance. Mrs. Paling. Yes. So we also met uh on May 12th at the committee of the whole. We discussed two items. Mr. Aboltier presented the draft budget which included a more in-depth look at the key revenue and expenditure items in the budget. He also discussed the budget approval timeline. The district is still in a strong position and remains above the goal of the 40% fund balance. Uh we also discussed the overall budget and the district's financial position. Our second topic was special education transportation. We are in a position to be able to extend current special education transportation between one and three years. Three years is the longest that the contract can be extended. Uh Mr. Bolter shared an update on the discussions with
034the current provider that are still ongoing. Thank you. And we will move on to strategy. Miss Stone. Thank you. The strategy committee also met on Monday, May 12th as part of the committee of the whole meeting. Two important updates were reviewed. The first was curriculum committee updates. Katie Lee shared updates on the work of the curriculum review committees in the areas of middle and junior high social studies, districtwide English language arts, and the transition to full day kindergarten. Using these updates, Miss Lee explained to the board the types of curricular reviews that take place under the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, highlighting how D39 values teacher voices and input as well as its process for collaborative decision-making. The board voiced its appreciation and excitement for full day kindergarten. The second update was the 5 through8
035scheduling committee update. Dr. Kremcoli provided an update of the 5 through8 scheduling work. The school schedules for the 2025 2026 school year for High Crest Middle School and Wilmet Junior High were reviewed. After extensive work on and consideration of myriad options for various adjustments, the schedules for next year at each school will include a 25minute home room. For reference, WJHS home rooms are currently 10 minutes a day except on Thursdays, which are 37 minute periods. Through the work that was done, it was understood that 10 minutes is not enough time to effectively and intentionally address many of the desired needs needs and opportunities. Moving to consistent 25m minute periods will allow better utilization of time for important community building, executive functioning and academic reinforcement work. All other courses will remain the same length, 40 minutes.
036Passing periods will be three minutes and the student school day will start seven minutes earlier. That's it for the strategy committee. All right. Thank you very much. We are now moving on to liaison reports and we will start with community review committee Mrs. Berlin. Yes. So I attended the community review committee meeting this month. Uh my report is very short because they're making a report later on in this meeting and in fact the the bulk of their meeting it earlier in May was to put the finishing touches on the report for tonight. So I think that we will wait and hear what they have to say. Perfect. Thanks. We very much look forward to that. Um we will move on to education foundation. Mrs. Pathless. Thank you. Um Dr. Krescoli and I attended the Ed
037Foundation um last Wednesday, May 14th. Um the at the meeting the um the foundation voted to affirm a new slate and welcomed a number of new members for the 2520 26 school year. Beth KS who is a longtime member of the Ed Foundation will be the new president. Um the treasurer gave a quick update and and the financials are in good shape. Uh there was also a brief uh year in review which highlighted um a strong fundraising year for the ED Foundation. Um through their you know bingo paddle trivia and other campaigns. Um, and this year the Ed Foundation made three grip grants, which um, my um, which also included um, school neural projects, which I haven't gotten to see yet, but I hear are pretty fantastic and they're at all the elementary schools. Great.
038Thank you, Mrs. Papas. Okay. Wilmat Village Intergovernmental Cooperation Working Group. Miss Stone, there has not been a meeting since our last update from the previous members of that group. There is a meeting this coming Thursday, May 22nd. Great. Thank you. And then back to Mrs. Pathless for IASB updates. Okay, just very quickly, just a reminder that there are a number of online learning opportunities for new board members uh on the IASB website. Also, registration for the annual conference opens on June 2nd. Uh the annual conference is in Chicago this year. again and will take place November 21st to 23rd. Great. Thank you. And we will turn it back over to you for legislative updates. Okay. Uh again, briefly, um although this week offered a bit of a respit for the legislation, legislators, um they're they're
039only two weeks out from expected of the general assembly. Um in the remaining weeks uh we'll be on the alert for more more bills and um and looking at the budget which they'll have to pass uh before that time. One item of note that actually Mr. Damonte and I had talked about briefly a little bit was um that the House Executive Committee held a hearing to discuss possible changes to the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act. Um, a wide range of issues were raised, especially around how new technology is affecting public records requests. The committee discussed a number of bills pertaining to the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act. Um, and there were two proposals which I thought were kind of interesting in the technology group of bills. Um,
040it would let public bodies verify that a FOYA request being made is by a real person and not by AI or robot. And the sponsor said the plan is to allow verification after a request is received rather than submit verification up front. Um and finally the committee also discussed uh um which would had a discussion around what would require a foyer request um to be submitted in the body of the email rather than as an attachment. Apparently certain public bodies have been subject to cyber attacks from opening such attach attachments. So I actually think that is really good. Thank you very much. Um all right, that concludes board reports. We will move on to information items. Dr. Kascali, thank you. Um in terms of umformational items for myself and our administrative team. First of all,
041written communication. The board received written communication from several individuals regarding WJHS 2025 2026 schedule changes and math staffing at WJHS. Those are available um in the board documents. Um, in terms of end of year preparations, there are, as there always are this time of year, many celebrations and performances scheduled for the end of the year. And we look forward to celebrating with all of our students and staff and families all of these special moments. Each of our schools enjoy special traditions at the end of the school year and we appreciate each of our PTOs and PTAs for their support of these events and traditions as well. In addition, each of our schools are hosting various concerts and performances. Um, thank you to our students and to our staff for all of your extra efforts to
042help make the end of the year so special and so memorable. It has been a really great year and we're excited to celebrate together. And we have WJHS graduation coming up that is June 5th. So the WJHS uh graduation will be held um on June 5th. It's a graduation ceremony at New Trier High School. Um our ceremony is scheduled to be held again in their gorgeous and large new gym. It was a great place to host last year and we're looking forward to returning again this year. We know it takes a lot of work by many volunteers and staff to make this um a wonderful event for our students and families. So, we'd like to thank our many parent volunteers, staff, teachers, and administrators who have all been working hard to plan for that very
043special and wonderful celebration of our eighth grade graduates. Um, in addition, our eighth graders are preparing for their end of year visit to Great America. I think it's scheduled for June 3rd. Um, and the PTO sponsored eighth grade graduation party which is hosted on May 30th. So, lots of exciting things coming up for them. Um, and speaking of end of year celebrations, we have our reflection celebration coming up. In addition to celebrating our students, uh we are also very excited to celebrate our teachers and staff with our annual endofear reflections celebration. Reflections is our annual district-wide celebration of retirees and employees who have reached important milestones in their careers within district 39. This year we have six retirees who will be honored along with 47 additional employees who will be celebrated for having reached important
044milestones within their career here in district 39. So we look forward to hosting everyone at Michigan Shores again this year. Uh we thank the board for your support of that event as well. And finally, under the Freedom of Information Act, um the district received a foyer request from Smart Procure for general purchasing records from November 13 of 2024 to the current request date of April 17, 2025. Thank you. We will move on to annual business. Thank you. The first item of annual business is our community review committee report which is belonging and connection in the digital age. We are very fortunate this evening to have representatives from the district 39 community review committee or CRC here with us this evening to present their report entitled belonging and connections in the digital age. This report is
045the culmination of many many hours of collaborative work research and study on this topic. Our CRC brings together parents, community members, teachers, administrators, and other support staff who contributed to this important work this year to study a chosen topic and provide the board a report of recommendations and suggestions based on their findings. In the past years, this group's work has led to significant, meaningful, and sustained changes to the work we do within District 39 schools, and we are so very appreciative for their continued efforts and support. this evening representing the CRC. I am pleased to introduce Amy Peters who is president of the CRC, Masha Abram Abramovitz, um, who is the vice president of CRC, and Colleen McHugh, who is the secretary. Thank you all for being here. We're eager to hear your report. Um,
046thank you for having us here tonight. We are excited to discuss the CRC's findings on belonging in schools. Um, it seems appropriate that the evening started off with some of our eighth grade students sharing their favorite memories from their time here in the district. Okay, a little technical difficulty. Um, so we would like to thank the administrators and local school districts who participated in our survey. Um, those board members who attended our meetings this past year. um and all of the parents and staff members on the committee for their dedication to this process. We would also like to extend a special thank you to Katie Lee for her knowledge, expertise, and many years of service to the CRC. Um so why belonging? Um, in 2023, the US Surgeon General actually issued an advisory calling attention
047to the significant and detrimental effects of loneliness on America's physical and mental health and the healing effects of social connection and community. This report states that countering loneliness in today's society and enhancing an individual's feelings of belonging are as crucial as attending to basic health needs. One of the pillars of District 39's mission statement is a commitment to foster a thriving learning community through strengthening relationships, creating an an accepting and supportive environment to support health and well-being, and cultivating a community that embraces and values all of the members unique identities. So while the word belonging is not specifically mentioned here, the heart of what is being discussed is belonging. A feeling of worth in a larger school community and strengthening our community through relationship building and learning about and appreciating our strengths and differences. Given
048the nationwide call to counter loneliness, the district's explicit desire to foster an inspired community, and parent interest in strengthening students sense of belonging in school throughout their time in district 39, the CRC decided to study belonging and connection in the digital age. We use several overarching questions outlined here to guide our research this year. First, how is belonging defined? There are many ways to define what can be a somewhat elusive concept that of belonging. Um, Cohen's definition presented here focuses on the behaviors a larger group exhibits toward us as well as feeling that we have something of worth to contribute back to that larger group. Through their research, the CRC synthesized multiple definitions to define school belonging as a feeling of acceptance and inclusion within a school community fostered through positive relationships with peers and
049teachers and a supportive school environment. This definition focuses both on individual relationships and a systemic process that can be implemented within schools. In terms of the benefits of student belonging, the CRC's research did find that measures of school belonging do positively correlate with academic performance, students internal motivation regarding their academic work, enhanced emotional well-being, and fewer behavior issues within schools. We found that locally schools are employing a wide variety of activities aimed at increasing belonging for their students. schools reported that socio social emotional learning curriculum, home room and advisory programs and interestbased clubs are the most impactful offerings for fostering a student's sense of belonging. Through the research and responses to our survey, we found several factors that can negatively impact a student's sense of belonging. Transitions between schools, particularly that transition from elementary to
050middle school, can be a time where students sense of belonging may falter. The rise in social media use among school-aged children was also cited as potentially negatively impacting their sense of belonging. From our survey, social hierarchy or perceived social status and student use of media, social media or messaging apps outside of school were overwhelmingly reported as having the largest negative impact on students sense of belonging at all grade levels. In terms of approaches being utilized throughout the country and world, student participation in extracurricular activities is widely seen as impactful for increasing a student a sense of belonging in schools. Culturally responsive and restorative practices can enhance belonging and academic performance for all students, but per particularly for culturally diverse, socioeconomically disadvantaged, or immigrant student populations. When designing programs to increase sense of belonging for specific
051groups of students, particularly neurode divergent learners, re research shows that it can be impactful to get student voice and input into how these supports are structured. Based off of our research, we are presenting tonight nine strategic recommendations. The first is to establish baseline metrics that are aligned across all the schools in the desk in the district to track progress. The second is to build a best practices resource hub for the school leaders, staff and faculty. Thirdly, we'd like to support schools in their continued efforts to offer a variety of extracurricular activities as well as bolster the student participation rates in those experiences. Uh for number four, we'd like to regularly review transition programming and practices to identify our successes, our needs, and potential improvements. Uh we'd like to particularly focus on the transitions um families
052coming in mid school year going from elementary to middle and then middle to the junior high. Um next, we'd like to grow school community partnerships to strengthen the connections with organizations and students and their families. Next, we wanted to focus on um a survey uh district communications for use of inclusive language to account for the diversity of students and families within the district and to make sure that communication and meeting policies are flexible and accessible to all our families. For number seven, we wanted to focus on providing opportunities for ongoing learning that focus on self Sorry, that's blocked off. um focusing on identity affirming, culturally responsive, and restorative practices for both staff and students. Okay, perfect. Sorry, I'm going between the two. Uh next, we wanted to work on informing and engaging families about ongoing
053practices within the district to support and cultivate student belonging. And finally, we wanted to focus on ensuring ongoing learning opportunities for students, caregiver caregivers, and staff regarding the evolving role technology and social media can play in a student's sense of belonging. Once again, we want to thank you so much for your time. We'd love to open the floor up if there are any questions off the bat. Amy, I just want to thank you. I know working on this committee is an enormous amount of work and uh it's a great report. such an important topic. Uh I loved the piece um about supporting families who come in new to the district. I know some of the elementary schools have different buddy programs, but having something that's a hard place. It's hard to come in new for
054kids and for families. So I think that's one little detail that really caught my eye. Thank you. Anyone else? Hi, thank you so much. This is amazing. I thought it was super well written and easy to read and lots of great ideas in here. I know it takes a ton of work, so thanks very much. I was um interested in um in the beginning you were talking about um a sense of belonging in terms of being connected to a larger group. And I'm wondering, I don't know if you found any of this, but sort of like how large does it it can a sense of belonging be created with just two or three kids or does it need to be bigger like a bigger group or part of the school or how do how do
055you think that works? I don't know. I may that may be just totally outside. Please jump in and masha if you have something. I you know that's a really good question. I don't know. I think you know our research really focused more on the more of the ecosystem of a school you know classroom size and beyond but you know thinking about your question I would imagine if you don't feel that belonging with at least you know one or two other people in a smaller group it's might be harder to get that in a in a larger sense can you create I guess maybe can you create a sense of belonging to school by being participating in in a small club I presume yes yes and think some of the research did talk about um you
056know some of those targeted programs particularly maybe students you know I think what we see most often would be students participating maybe in a small group with a social worker or psychologist or something like that where you're really talking about groups of maybe three maybe four students so much smaller than a typical classroom size and how that you know creates that anchor and does start to create that feeling of belonging. Yeah. I also just from earlier tonight seeing like the big groups of kids here together. Obviously they were feeling you know lots of strong sense of belonging and I I like the fact that there were adults in the group and kids in the group and kids from sort of all different parts of the school. I thought um I think that a number of
057the uh clubs that have been created um at WJHS and at HMS have been really great for helping create that sense of belonging. So I I don't know. I hope they keep continuing to do that. Yeah. No, I agree, Alison. Um and it's funny because our executive board, we all have elementary age children. So we were just sitting in the back as as they were walking out saying, "Oh, that's such a a great glimpse into what the middle school and the junior high has to offer." Like a lot of times you're not aware of some of those clubs. You know, from a distance you just hear about sports and things like that. So it was exciting to see the children with such a sense of pride and yeah hearing their memories and so many of
058them mentioned their friends and their teachers and like that right there right is the essence of the belonging that we were so happy to study. So thank you very much. Thanks Alison. Mrs. Berlin, I also thought it was very topical given the focus on social emotional needs and the intent to increase home room and opportunities for children to de develop stronger ties with the adults in the building and with one another. That it's kind of amazing that you spent a year putting together this wonderful report that culminates in what turned out to be the schedule that probably will allow the social emotional needs to be better. discuss that tonight. Thank you so much. And I will just say also um that reading the report and watching you present tonight just reminded of how fortunate we
059are in this district that it's such a talented group of parents, community members, staff come together and dedicate this much time on behalf of the district. So we greatly appreciate it. Um, one of the things that stood out to me, um, in the report was the fact that social belonging can be an underpinning for success in other areas, for academic success, for, you know, motivation. Sometimes I think I've thought of social belonging and really put that with um, you know, how you behave or respond socially and kind of keep it in that bucket. And so it was just interesting to read about the impact that it could have on on the whole student. Um, and just further reiterates the importance and I I did feel like through reading it and reading some of the strategies
060and examples that you provided that we've started a lot of this important work and it was great to see some of the examples and ideas on how we can continue that and how we can um, you know, monitor and assess it going forward. So thank you. Thank you. It's wonderful job. Thank you. Anyone else? Great. Thank you. The playground donation agreement with Ramona PTA is up next, I think. Um, as we discussed at the board's recent committee of the whole, the Ramona PTA has raised uh money to replace the kindergarten playground at Ramona Elementary School. As with past practice, when a PTA funds a new playground or some replacement equipment, the board enters into a donation agreement with the PTA. The agreement formalizes the transfer of ownership upon completion of the installation of the new
061playground equipment. Mr. Mr. Bolter, did I miss anything or anything additional you'd like to share regarding this agreement? Certainly. So, that is recommended later on the agenda. And continue with the annual business. Uh, yes. Up next, Dr. Gowaki will present the 2025 2026 student staff planning. This is an annual report that highlights the anticipated changes and staffing um plans for the upcoming school year. It provides a first look at our enrollment um and class sections. Um and I'll let Dr. Glowaki provide the overview. Thank you. Thank you very much. The annual student registration began in January and enrollment information shared in this report is accurate as of May 14th. So early last week. After a few years of slightly declining student enrollment, we're beginning to see stabilization. At our elementary schools, we've been planning for
062full day kindergarten. We are eager and ready to welcome some of our youngest learners to school all day. We are closely monitoring kindergarten enrollment at McKenzie in particular. Current student enrollment at McKenzie um looks like we should have about three kindergarten classes. However, we're watching that enrollment. on a weekly, if not multiple times a week basis to make sure that we're we're prepared and ready to move to four classes at McKenzie should we need it. So, that's the one um grade level that is giving us a bit of pause right now, but we're just watching it closely like we do um and have in years past. At Wilmouth Junior High, we've reviewed staffing for the math needs of our students. All math classes will continue to be offered at Wilma Junior High. The same courses
063being offered this year will be offered next year. The courses include pre-alggebra and accelerated pre-alggebra in seventh grade. Algebra as well as explorations of algebra and accelerated algebra in eighth grade. This is in addition or in addition approximately 70 Wilmet Junior High students participate in either new career math or special education instructional math courses. The average math class size will continue to be approximately 22 to 24 students on average. The average class sizes in math classes at the junior high are not increasing because there are a variety of math courses available to Wilmet Junior High students. Enrollment in team math classes at the junior high will be smaller than those in other subjects. For the past two years, we have had five math teachers who have been released one period of their teaching day to
064be able to push in to other math classes and to provide additional support. This is in addition to the special education teachers and classes who also provide targeted support andor co-eing within our math classes. This release period will no longer be provided. Instead, all math teachers will teach five math classes. Teachers and administrators have relayed that this release period from teaching for each teacher was not making a meaningful difference for students. In addition, our students with more significant math needs both at the advanced level and at the intervention level have additional differentiation and support available to them through our new tier math and accelerated math classes at the advanced end. and through co-taught in math classes in special education instructional math classes through special education at the intervention level. These important differentiation supports and courses
065will continue. At this time, we are not planning for a single accelerated math teacher to loop across both seventh and eighth grade and Wilmet Junior High will have six math teachers next year. There are no significant changes for staffing in the area of student services. The changes made over the recent years. Increasing mental health and behavioral supports for students has been quite impactful and there's no need to make further changes at this time. This report really is a status update as to where we are in planning for the new school year. Staff teaching assignments are made at the end of the school year, but we recognize we have three months before the new school year starts and a lot can change. We will continue to closely monitor student enrollment and needs and adjust our staffing
066plan if needed. Student schedules and teacher assignments are communicated out to families in August. And once our schedules are finalized and enrollment seems to be more solid. Those are the highlights from the report. There's more if you want to read the whole report. This time I can try and answer any questions you may have. Board members, any questions? Okay, thank you. Then we will proceed with the agenda. Um, next on the agenda will be board policy review. Um, in terms of board policy review, there is a first reading of board of education policies 2 col260 and 520. Uh there are two policies that need to be updated as our staffing in D39 changes. Katie Lee will be retiring and we need to identify a new complaint manager in her absence. And Kelly Jackson has been
067selected to fulfill this role and Tony Damonte will continue as an additional complaint manager. So policies 2260 and 520 are presented for first reading tonight to reflect these changes. Great. Thank you. All right. 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? Okay. Thank you. Yes. I think because you spoke previously for three minutes, we um you you do you get one more minute. No, no, no. You have three minutes the first time. The um second time is one minute. Okay. Thank you. Hi, Don Taylor again. Um I just wanted to provide a little context. Um thank you Heather for sharing the staffing report. Um Heather Glocky did mention that the intervention pushin is in addition to
068special education supports that exist like COT talk classes. I just want you to to be clear there is no intervention pushin simultaneously during like co-t talk classes. There is no special education support when there is intervention happening. So the only courses that have intervention support are those without special education teachers. And it's that intervention support that provides tier 2 and potentially tier three supports to our most um at risk kids who need that extra support but haven't qualified nor will ever necessarily qualify uh for special education support. Um and there is no plan to provide tier 2 and tier three support to those students for next year. without that intervention that support will not happen. Thank you. Thank you. Any other audience members that would like to speak at this time? Okay. I just have
069one quick thing. As a parent, I'm very surprised that not one board member had any questions. So, I don't know if you have a chance to like read through it. I think when I was a parent and hadn't been in the building, I didn't understand all these levels and layers. So, this is my last plea to the board to please outside of this dynamic because I know you can't do it here to sit down with the math teachers to understand what's actually happening behind the scenes because there are so many layers that you don't truly get unless you're in the building. And I just urge you to take the time to talk to the people on the front lines. They are the ones that understand what's happening. And I get that there's a budget and
070we're a public school and it's great to, you know, have less salaries to pay, but I really think if you understood what was happening behind the scenes, you might consider this in another light. Thank you. Thank you. Any other audience members that would like to speak? Okay. Thank you. At this time, um, please do state your name, your community of residents, and you have three minutes at this time. My name is Katie Lahan. I am a language arts teacher at the junior high. Um I've been there for 28 years and uh have loved the time that I've been in the building uh and working with the incredible teachers who are there. I wasn't planning to speak tonight. Um and so this is more just in the moment after hearing a little bit of information. Um,
071I feel like there is so much about the schedule changes at the junior high that really do require further questioning um and further examination. Um, I I I'd like to share one thought that that I had as um as I was hearing more information about next year. Um I have had over a large number of years many of the nutri math students in my home room. Um typically even three to four of them every year. Nutri math meets uh typically during the first period sometimes a little bit into second period time at the junior high. Uh and so those students arrive a little bit later on in the day. They do not attend the 10-minute home room session that we have four days a week. Um, and unfortunately because of the scheduling of Neutri Math,
072they really don't attend much of our Thursday longer extended home rooms either. They arrive usually with about 10 minutes of that time remaining. With the schedule change next year, and I I heard the number of 70, I believe 70 newer math students at the junior high next year. Not a single one of those newer math students will be in home room next year. And that's because of the timing of the schedule and the newer math schedule. So many of these eighth graders, seventh graders who are standing up here receiving awards tonight and indeed feeling such a sense of community from these clubs and groups that they've been a part of. None of those students who are also new to math, many of them are will be in home room. And I think that's again just
073one of the details uh a layer if you will of the new schedule change that I don't know has been addressed and shared completely with parents. Again, parents of newer mass students will not be part of the home room and dedicated SEAL programming at the junior high with the new schedule change. Um, again, one example of the many layers of this schedule change, um, that I think people would probably want to know about going into the change. Um, thank you. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Thank you. Are there any other audience members that would like to speak tonight? Okay. Thank you. Then we will continue on with our agenda with the consent agenda. Um, are there any items that the board would like pulled from the consent agenda? Okay, Mrs. Papless, please proceed
074with the motions. I think someone else wants to speak. Oh, sorry. One more. Okay, there was one more person who had their hands. All right, great. Sorry, I didn't see that. Come on up, please. Hi, I'm a student at Wilma Junior High and I wanted to say that I think you should like stop looking at the stats and stuff and like take a chance and talk to the people at the school like the the students and the teachers and see what they think about the situation cuz they definitely know about it and see not just what the numbers are but what kids are feeling in the school and cuz they're going to live it every day. So, I think that would help you guys. And not every kid is the same. So, I don't think
075you should pile them all together cuz maybe one student doesn't it's not right for them to be in this area. And I think it's I think it's nice that at our school we have tons of options. And if we delete one of those options, then there's there's no point at all of having any of them. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? I'm sorry I did not see your hand earlier. Okay. If not, we will continue on with our consent agenda. Mrs. Pathless, please proceed with the motions. Okay. Um I move to approve the donation agreement between Ramona Elementary School PTA and the Wilm Public Schools District 39 Board of Education. I move to approve the personnel report dated May 19th, 2025. Uh
076I move to approve as first reading of board of education policies 2 col260 uniform grievance procedure and 520 workplace harassment prohibited. I move to approve the accounts payable for bills listed between April 29th, 2025 and May 19th, 2025 in the following amounts. Educational Fund 93,000 uh $1.40 O andM fund $31,765 Transportation $1116,19951 capital projects $163,783 total all funds $44,6056. [Music] I move to approve the manual checks issued between April 29th, 2025 and May 19th, 2025 in the following amounts. Educational Fund 1,172,18.117 O andM fund 86, uh56355 debt services $475 transportation $1,145.76 capital projects $24,6840 tort $2449 $90 and total all funds 1,287,334.98. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. The motion has been moved and seconded. Will the clerk please call the role? Alison Pafas, yes. Amy Paling, yes. Aaron Stone, yes. Katie Hilton,
077yes. Judy Berlin, yes. Annne Hart, yes. The consent agenda is approved. We will move to conference items. Is there any old business, Amy or Mrs. Bailey? I just want to highlight I'm not sure if this qualifies under old business, but the board uh has heard what the community members have said and there wasn't anything that we voted on in this consent agenda on the topics. Just wanted to make that point. Thank you. I appreciate that. All right, new business. Um, I did have just one quick update. I just wanted to make sure that all board members received the invitation to attend a breakfast at the near nutrier food pantry. Um, I believe that is on June 4th and just a nice chance to learn more about their services among other elected officials in the new
078district. So, if you haven't yet, um, please put that on your calendar if you can make it. Is there any o other new business? good and welfare. I I have one small good and welfare. Great. Um I would just like to thank the community both for their comments about issues that I know everybody cares about deeply and also um to the community for um all of their work for the the CRC report. And uh you know last Wednesday when I went to the ed foundation meeting and I was surrounded by a group of parents who were there who were happy who were dedicated and working hard to trying to improve the school. Um it's been sort of three highlights over a very short period of time and I just want to thank um all of
079the parents and community for supporting D39. I think it's really important. So thank you. All right. At this time, we will adjourn to executive session to discuss specific personnel, special education, individual student matters, collective negotiations, and semianual review of executive session minutes. May I have a motion to adjourn to executive session? I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss specific personnel, individual student matters, collective negotiations. May I have a second? Second. Motion having been made and seconded, will the clerk please call the role? Austin Pathless. Yes. Amy Paling, yes. Katie Hilton, yes. Judy Berlin, yes. Annne Hart, yes. Aaron Stone, yes. Motion carried and we are now adjourned to executive session. The time is 8:21