001I hereby call to order this committee of the whole meeting for Monday, May 12th, 2025. The time is 8:04 a.m. Will the clerk please call the role? Aaron Stone, Kristen Dcastro, Alison Paffles here. Amy Paling here. Katie Hilton, Judy Berlin, Annne Hart here. I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the April 14th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session meetings. I move to approve the minutes of the April 14th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session meetings. May I have a second? Second. The motion being made and seconded. Board members, are there any comments, errors, omissions to the minutes? If so, let's see. Everyone is not here. So, uh, may I please have a roll call vote? Annne Hart, yes. Kristen Dcastro, yes. Allison Pas, yes. Amy Paling, yes. Judy Berlin,
002yes. Thank you. Motion passes. All right. At this point, we will start with facility development committee and Mrs. Dcastro will be our uh committee representative for the board. So, I will turn it over to Mrs. Diccastro. Thank you. Um, the first item on the agenda is playground donations, and I'll turn it over to Mr. Boltzer for an update. Okay. All right. So, playground donations. Um, so from time to time, uh, district 39's been fortunate that the various PTAs have raised enough funds to, uh, cover the cost of imple or installing new playgrounds. One of the uh things that we do in those situations is that district 39's board enters into a formal donation agreement with the specific PTA that has uh raised the funds and is paying for that project. Um, reason I mentioned this
003is we're looking at potentially two different um, donation agreements that may come either next Monday or more likely in the month of month of June. Uh, the first is at Ramona. They're looking, this one I'm quite confident will occur later this summer. Uh, the PTA's raised money to replace the kindergarten playground there. Um the they I think they have a tenative order in right now. Um procedurally uh I'll be attending next Wednesday. I believe it's 21st. Um one of the the shade umbrella that goes on top is higher than the village code by a few feet. So we're requesting a variance for that. And then um we're requesting a a sideyard set back. If you if you've been to Ramona, the uh the kindergarten and the EC playgrounds north of the actual building um are
004right against the property line with Regina. Typically the village code it is 20T away from there. Um so we're requesting that we're able to keep our playground in place. So um we've gone before the village before to get variances um and been able to get them each time. So, uh, for that one, uh, I I would anticipate most likely having a donation agreement for the board in the month of June. And then the other one is a little bit different in that um, I know the Harper PTA is looking at what touching one of their playgrounds and in some recent conversations um, they're looking at potentially doing it in phases. So, we may have a donation agreement um for one or two pieces that they may look to add to the existing footprint. Um but
005I'm still waiting to hear a little more definitive. So, that may come in June or if we don't have anything definitive, we may um wait until the August meeting. But anyway, I wanted to share share that info with the board. Board members, are there any questions or comments? Thanks, Corey. Um, so I just to um look back at some of the playground work in the past I think like five t years. I think central was replaced maybe about five years ago. Yeah. So I think so I came here summer of 20. The kindergarten playground on the northern part of that central property that I believe was already done. Then I think it was two falls ago, Central did the um one that's on Central Avenue, the main playground. Uh McKenzie, I think it was now
006been three two or three years. Their PTA replaced the playground that's right next to the black top surface in the basketball hoops. um a couple of summers either two or three Ramona's PTA did the main playground, right? Um just to the east of the building and I think that's it from the last say five or six years. Okay. That that I'm aware of. Right. Right. And they have all been these donation agreements where the PTAs or PTO's donate them and um but then going forward if there are any repairs or work that needs to be done that is upon the district. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, the donation agreement's meant to from our attorney's perspective meant to kind of firm up just a recognition for by the PTAs that yes, you raised all this money,
007you paid for the project, but once it's installed, you you don't own it. It becomes like District 39's property. Okay, great. Thank you. Oh, Allison. Um to that end, so are we in charge of actually doing like the installation and finding the people or they they do it under that contract? They do that under their contract. The um so for each of these, you know, there's a few different manufacturers of playground equipment and our I've been asked many times, not only here, but other places, could we have our maintenance team install it? And legally our insurance carriers wouldn't cover the playgrounds unless it's installed by a certified like installer of like playgrounds. So essentially, you know, crews that that's what they do and that's that's not what our our teams do. So but throughout the
008process they are working with contacts within the district to Yeah. to manage that. Yeah. Thank you. Sounds exciting. Yeah. Great. Okay. Uh the next item is the uh summer 26 uh window replacement uh project. Um I shared a document with the board and since we have some new board members, I want to share something from a couple of months ago. Um you know, we're in the middle of working through the design process, uh which takes architects, engineers several months. Um, but I think maybe compared to especially the what we're the work we're doing this summer, which is really just first floor air conditioning. I don't even think there were any alternates. It was just the base project. This particular summer piece of work has the base bit of replacing all the windows, almost all of
009them, which are original to the building, which goes back to, I believe, the early 60s. Um, but there are also several alternates. uh all what I believe are worthwhile pieces of work, but we've set it up in that way um just so that when the board is asked to vote, which I believe will occur in November, um based upon the project timeline I was given, um it just gives the board a lot of flexibility. Um we've seen in the last, you know, handful of years, we've seen some really great results on on bid day, really competitive. Um and so these alternates set it up if if we were to see some of those great results once again um it allows us to pursue some really worthwhile things. But on the flip side if you know
010whether it's um just general inflation within the construction industry you know things that could be potentially related to you know tariffs or just higher than normal inflation if if costs are higher than we would like to see them. it we still have that we still maintain that flexibility um you know to just pursue that that base bid which is the project which is replacing the windows um so I just wanted to share that with the board as far as timeline we throughout the process um there's different like doc like phases of of design where the team will issue documents usually at 60 80 or 85% and then 100% our construction management firm will do like budgetary checks throughout that process. Um and then usually after those that piece of information's come back like Nicholas will
011be here to share that information with the board and just review of you know what might have changed from our initial estimate which this is more just conceptually without like firm detailed plans. Um, and so looking at that project timeline, it I don't believe we will get any like updated any budgetary estimated until probably in the middle of the summer or late summer. So, it probably would be um not until August or September where we would be reporting back to the board of where where things are looking as it relates to the base bid plus the alternates. Um, and then right now they tenatively have the uh bid opening to occur in the month of October. I don't know if it will occur prior to the October board meeting. Um, if it did, I think
012we would, you know, seek board approval at that meeting, but if not, I think the more likely is um discussion and and asking for potential board approval in the month of November. So happy to answer um any questions anyone has. I will go ahead. Um how come we're not replacing the windows in the science wing? Did we already do that or So the science So if you look at Yeah. Yeah. The science wing was roughly I think 2012 or 13. Okay. So, you know, those are much like um if you were to go if someone were to go look at like the places where the windows are in really bad shape, they're single pane. They're super like you can tell just by walking up that they are incredibly thin. Um so the in the science
013wings that's that's not the case. Um, and so after listening to everything that you said, do you so do you kind of guess that this estimate will go down or you don't really know? I understand. We don't know. But, you know, I know that. So, just from my personal experience of working with the design team, I know initially before we get into like firm details, [Music] um, you know, as Joe's putting this together for Nicholas, he he he is usually really conservative just because there's so many potential unknowns and as we refine the design, um, there's usually opportunity for for those to come down. The one thing that um I'm I'm not sure what how to we haven't been able to quantify the cost yet is compared to the window the existing window structure system
014that's in place at the junior high is um just going to be more costly than it was at Ramona. And in particular, if you were to walk around the building, but particularly in the courtyard areas, and there's a few other places I noticed, um you have the windows and then below it there's like this black, um a slate, and when they were doing investigative work over spring break, all that needs to come off and then get replaced with something um because it's it's being held on there part by glue, but also by the um existing window system. So once they take it off, those pieces are quite heavy. Um and so we don't know that. And then the other part is um some of the they're doing some testing of the uh exterior cauling and
015um in some places it had asbestous in it. So, um the removal of that from what I've heard is um easier than if we had say asbestous in like the middle of the classroom or on the floor in the classroom because it's outside the building. But because we now know that there is asbestous in that, it would trigger different disposal requirements. We we just can't they they can't throw anything with asbestous in it into the same dumpsters as they would the windows or the metal frames or whatever. So, um I don't know what that looks like yet. We only found that out in the last couple of weeks. Um so, I don't know what, you know, how does that impact the initial estimate? Is that is this the kind of stuff that when Nicholas is
016putting together estimates, what they're thinking? I suspect, yeah, that this is probably puts it more um towards, you know, the higher end of their estimate. Um but we probably won't know that until late summer, August. Any other questions, comments? Okay. And Corey, I'll just say so, um thank you again. And I know we've talked about this before, but um for getting all this information together so early in the process so that we can get out to bid early and all of the alternates. Um and when I look at this and think about you know certainly during COVID and postcoid we saw a lot of fluctuation in pricing on a number of um construction materials like um you know lumber or cement but I don't think windows are in the same category meaning I don't think
017we're going to see windows go down or or fluctuate going forward since they're manufacturing manufactured products. Do you agree? Um I mean from what you've seen and from you know what I've seen windows just keep going up and up. Um whereas we've seen you know um some shifts in some of uh the commodity products. Yeah I I would I would be surprised if we saw a large drop. I would expect to stay stable or or to you know be impacted by existing market conditions. Sure. I just think that's important to consider uh keep in mind when we consider some of the alternates and potentially some of the efficiencies in combining those alternates along with the base project. Yep. And I'll just add one other thing as it relates to like the timeline. So last when
018we were doing the summer 25, I think the board approved like design work in March and this year it was either January or February. Um and prior to that, the board had typically, I think, waited till May or June. Um I will say that having gone to um the school business official conference last week and talked with multiple people in the construction industry, but was once I remember the first one of the first bids that I did when I got here was for um like Ramona McKenzie like keep expansion. I think we did those in January and then we did like another bid. I think that might have been the junior high second fork um AC project like in February. Like that used to be pretty typical like across all school districts like hey let's
019let's go out to bid in January, February, sometimes December. And from the feedback I heard was the new like the new kind of standard of going out and like having good pricing is like being out to bid in September or October. And if you to the point where like November can still be good, but if it's December or later, like most of the most of these companies that are reputable and and do a lot of different kinds of school construction, they've already won a lot of bids. And so now you're left with companies that if you decide to pursue like you could have a good project or you could have a a challenging one. And and the ones that are larger once they've booked some business, they're less motivated to to be aggressive in bidding.
020And so they're like, "Sure, I'll I'll bid, but it's going to be at my price." And so, um, I think as we think about, you know, obviously the focus is 2026, but anything we do in like 2027 and beyond, um, I think our goal needs to be, you know, try to identify in the winter what we want to do. So, the architect and engineering team has plenty of time to to work on those do design documents and then we can and get out to bid in September or October. So, Thank you, Corey. Yep. All right. Um, we will move on to school finance. Mrs. Paling. Yes. And I'm going to turn it right back over to Cy for two items uh for finance. Okay. All right. So, our our annual budget process is is fairly
021lengthy. Um, you know, for a variety of reasons. It's it covers all of our spending for an entire fiscal year. Um, so, you know, in in January each year, we have the board review like a a budget timeline or calendar. So today is the first look at a draft or tenative budget, whatever, whatever someone would like to call it. It's our first look at it. So we'll look at it probably the most detailed that we're going to look at and maybe talk about um the budget, you know, from now until we ask for the board's approval at the end of August. Um then so after today then we'll come back at our uh evening board meeting in in June and this is where we start some of the procedural steps. The board um approves a
022tenative budget that's um something that's required to happen and then from that point the the the budget the tenative budget you know is on display to the general public uh until our August meeting. Um we are able to make changes from the tenative to final of which I will along with some several people that help me will make a lot of um small change many times small changes but um being on display means that someone could come to the MEC view it or we'll also have it posted online. Um so that's a requirement as well. Um then we will need to have the board approve a public hearing which we do at the beginning of our August um board meeting and then when we when we come back in August uh shortly before school starts
023at our committee the whole uh I'll go through the final budget and um we will look at it in total but the generally the focus at that point is really trying to highlight for the board what changes have we made since this May June um presentation and and I try to summarize that on a one-page document and and highlight some of the larger areas that we may have. Um then we get ready for board approval and then um once it's approved um per ISB rules we have to have everything filed by the um by the end of September and so the administration will will take care of that. All right. So, when we talk about bud either our budget or our financial statements, um you're going to probably almost exclusively hear me talk about or
024others are operating funds. And so on this slide, I've listed out the nine different funds that were allowed to have and it's it's it's written in um co written in the school like the accounting code. So, we don't really have like a choice in the matter. The operating funds are our focus. Um, educational is by far the biggest. Um, you know, has administrative, all the school operations, all the all those expenses are paid out of there. Operations and maintenance, transportation are um, as you might expect. The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund um, it's a smaller fund and so it pays three types of expenses. It pays the employer's expense for members for employees within that retirement um system. It social security uh employer social security and an employer Medicare working cash is just a fund for
025um school districts to maintain um some working some additional cash reserves. Um no no expenditures come out of that fund. And then the tort immunity fund is where we pay our liability uh primarily pay our liability um insurance expense or our workers comp expense. The non the three non-operating funds debt service um when the district issues long-term debt or bonds uh we we submit some documents to Cook County, they add it to our tax levy and then we pay those those principal and interest payments out of the debt service. That's really the only thing that occurs in that fund. Capital projects, we are directed to charge all of our large capital construction projects to that fund. Um, which is interesting because that particular fund has no um recurring dedicated funding source. um other than you
026could potentially issue bonds to fund those projects or you could transfer money from another fund to capital projects which is what we do. Um and then fire prevention and life safety. Um we currently don't have any activity um in that fund. um you can only spend money out of there if you have um ISB approved uh life safety bonds and life safety expenditures of which that's um not something that we have right now. All right, so starting off on the revenue side um this shows that by type of of revenue. Uh my takeaway from this slide is that we're always in that low somewhere in that 90 to 95% range. All of our revenue comes from local sources. So, it's either property taxes which comes from this D39 community or the other local revenue um
027which can be interest revenue or it could be fees charged to students for various programs. All right. Local revenue, property taxes. Um, so since we just saw that that was our biggest uh revenue for this budget year, the applicable CPI and the applicable levy is 2024 and 3.4%. Um, we're estimating almost 16 million in new growth. You see the value there. Um, the reason that new growth is a focus is that the 487 roughly 487,000 um comes outside of our uh CPI increase. So, um, you know, it's on top of that, it's very valuable to to all, um, school districts. And then the Senate Bill 508 amount for this particular levy year is 464,000. That is when Cook County processes various types of refunds. um those refunds are able to be tracked by Cook County
028and then for a period I believe it's um November to the end of October they publish that amount and then they add it to our next levy. So um that's something that's only maybe four years old um and is an extremely been extremely helpful to uh school districts. And then one of the things as it relates to the budget is what do we set our collection rate at in the budget. So we've typically been setting it at roughly 98%. Um and just for reference, you know, if we were to go up or down 0.25, that's about 170,000. Um the reason that the net collection rate is important is that because um either business owners or uh residential owners are allowed to appeal their taxes. Sometimes those appeals are settled before the final tax levy goes
029out. And if that's if that's um achieved, then there is no um essentially harm to the school district or other uh governmental entities. But if the gets tied up in the courts and in some cases it can take many many years after the date that it's paid um and then like a refund is approved by the courts or at a lower assessment which means leads to a refund. Usually happens with with business properties. um then they just will take that refund out of our ex our current collections. So if we're collecting like later this fall, if we're collecting 2024 levy year and someone gets approved for a 2018 um refund, it just comes out of what we're getting right now even though it was from six years ago. So you can see some some variance
030yeartoear in our our collections. All right, interest revenue. So, this has been something that's been really really helpful uh to the operating funds. You The reason I listed out a few of these years is I wanted people to see if you go back and for much of the 201s um you know any governmental entity that had healthy reserves like D39 did to prepare to prepare prepare for any like um unexpected expenditures. you really weren't getting much return on having those those fund balances. Um, you know, typically interest revenue was under 100,000 for the school district. And then when interest rates shot up, you see that we're now in the neighborhood of 2 million and I expect us to be over 2 million this year. So that's that's a that's a big difference. Um, I do,
031you know, based upon information from the Fed, I expect us to drop into the next year below the existing 4.25. 25 to four and a half percent. Um, and at the bottom I, you know, I mentioned, you know, we'll reassess this in the summer. Uh, one of the reasons we do that is allows us to know exactly what long-term investments we have in place. Um, because as money comes in, we work with one of our our banks to seek out uh fixed rate investments. So, we'll know what those are in place. But also, there has been some conversation um at least amongst business officials about whether Cook County will be a little late in issuing these second installment bills. Um for most of the winter and spring, the rumors were that they could potentially be
032a month or two late. Um although in the last week or two, um it seems like there's still a chance that bills could go out on time. Um statutoily, the bills are supposed to go out July 1st with a August 1 due date. Um, in the time that I've been here, we've had a few years where those weren't issued until Thanksgiving or winter break. Um, that's important because if you go back to like the years 23 and 24 on here, if we were delayed that length of time at the existing rates, that would cost D39 probably about $500,000 in interest revenue. Um, so it's it's a significant thing to keep an eye on. All right. So, another thing that we've seen a little bit of a roller coaster is our replacement taxes. Um, each year
033the Illinois Department of Revenue uh releases an estimate to all uh local governments. Sometimes it comes out before we finalize our budget. Sometimes it doesn't. um their estimates are that they're just estimates, but they have more information than certainly we would and they're very helpful at least identifying trends. Um and so you see we we had a bit of a meteoric rise from 21 up to 22 and 23 where we more than doubled and now we've started to like slide back down. And so, um, as of like the end of very end of last week, um, we received distribution that was a little bit higher than I would have thought. So maybe 590 for the current year is a little low, but um, certainly from 5 959,000 last fiscal year, we're probably looking at 590
034to maybe 660,000 for fiscal year 25. Um, so that's that's been a little disappointing, lower than even anticipated. Um, and just listening to people that are um a little more plugged in as far as what's happening in Springfield and what budgets might look like for next year. Um, I'm starting with a budget around 600,000. Um, it wouldn't surprise me if whatever number we end with fiscal year 25, if it ends up going down a little bit more in fiscal year 26. Um, so on the local revenue side, we have all the previously board approved fees for 2526. I've listed here. Two of the larger ones are our lunch fees and our transportation fees where we've um you know made some made some B increases a little bit higher than than inflation with the with the
035hopes of reducing uh those optional programs um operating deficit. state and federal aid um on the state level relatively flat. Uh maybe some slight decreases. Uh one area that um seems to be challenging from the state level is whatever cost we incur uh transporting um special ed students. So say like in fiscal year 25 then we at the end of the year we submit what our total costs are. we get reimbursed at a specific percentage the following school year. If you were to go back a handful of years, that reimbursement rate was around 80%. Sometimes a little over. Now we're into like the mid to upper 50s. And part of that is at the state level when they when they give their um budget amounts to ISBY they say all right you have this many
036hundreds of millions or for or even potentially I guess a billion what however much it is um to cover special ed co transportation cost for school districts. Well, if all school districts are seeing rapid rises in the cost of transportation, which we have as well, like everybody else in the last five years, the only thing that ISBY can do, they can't get they're not going to get more money from the legislature once the budget's set. They they can only prorrate at a lower percentage. So each year um when I finally see usually we're what a few several months into the school year once I finally see what we're going to be prrated at it's always ends up being a few percent lower than it was the prior year. So um we'll keep an eye on
037that and um you know I think if we're in that 55 to 60% range for this current year um it wouldn't surprise me if it drops a few more percent for next year. All right, switching to the operating expenditure side. Um, we're like most districts, we're right at about 80% for salary and benefits are basically our personnel cost. So, when we're putting together the budget, um, you know, the vast majority of our employees fall under collective baring agreements. So, we're able to identify exactly what those raises will be for those groups and we've included those. We made some estimates in other areas. um the initial like draft kind of budget when we put that together while we have a general idea of like where we were going with staffing it's not definitive things can change
038always budget much more conservative in this iteration than I would at the final one just to give us uh some wiggle room as far as like what FTEES we might need in certain areas as we work our way through the spring and summer months. On the medical and dental insurance side, um we know that the renewals are at 6.6 and 9% for next year. Our annual projections include fi 5%. So when we do that uh projections in December, we we have 5% for each year. Um so this was this was a higher renewal than than what we've averaged for reference. Last year, uh, HMO was five and PO was 2%. So, if you were to look at like the two years combined, we're pretty close to the 5%. Um, and then dental and vision have
039no changes for next year. IMRF rate. So, I mentioned this briefly before. IMRF their financials, they operate on a calendar year. We operate on a July to June year. So in the second bullet area I have what the calendar rates are. So 25 24 and 23 those are firm numbers. We just I think last Thursday or Friday found out what the preliminary rate for 2026 is going to be. So it's pretty level with the current rate. Um so we'll we'll put a blended rate in our final budget of 6.18%. And just for like scope and the give someone a a reference point for how big of an expenditure it is, if we were to go up or down 1%, that changes our total expenditures by about 80,000. Um, and if anyone's curious, the 5.19 is
040is about as low as you're going to get. Um, and all the time I've been working with schools and municipalities, um, you know, having rates that are in the fives and low sixes are are really good. Um, it's not uncommon for some some organizations to have double digit rates. I know earlier in my career that was much more common. Um, so and each rate under IMRF is specific to that organization. So, purchase service and supplies. Um, you know, still a significant part of our budget, not as obviously not as large as our our staffing cost. For many of our groups, um, the approach is to give that principal or budget manager a CPI increase. Um, that is that is our typical approach. However, we also know that there are certain areas within our budget where
041that just we would be ignoring the facts if if we only increase that budget by CPI. And so I've attempted to list some some areas. Um insurance, workers comp, uh you can see some ups and downs in the total cost from year to year. Um, we're expecting to to uh actually see a 30 or $40,000 decrease in that cost uh for next fiscal year compared to the existing one. Um, liability, that one has been pushing like double digits almost every year. Um, the skip co-op's been pretty reactive, but the the carriers um have taken some big hits and um so the market is it's been challenging on an annual basis. And then when you look at like areas like technology and curriculum, you know, just the replacement cycles of project, whether it's um curriculum materials
042as they go through the Katie's team goes through the cycle or even as Tony's team goes through like different projects, at least on the technology, this budget that this draft budget and the the current school year, they're probably a little higher than we typically are, but then we should see those um drop off for for a few years after that. Um and then utilities in the uh electric, natural gas, water realm. Um you know, we seek out some advice as far as what we might expect rates to be in natural gas and electricity. We have uh we're a part of cooperatives, so we have multi-year agreements in place almost always covering uh covering those contracts. All right, special education budget. One thing I wanted to point out, so we have some students that are uh
043placed outside of D39. I like to highlight this budget item uh for a couple reasons. One uh you know, whatever like those those students are D39's responsibility. So whatever the costs are, we're going to um you know, be paying for those placements. Um the current year is about a million nine. I think we've seen this line item at times go just above two million, but we've also seen it in the low $1 million range. Um so it really just is a matter of what is the composition of students? What are their needs? Where are they placed? Um all right, capital projects. So something that's outside of our operating funds. Uh this upcoming summer, we're locked in with the first floor AC, the junior high, then all of our classrooms will be done. The all that
044equipment's been in storage and uh received at the vendor for several months now. Um so unlike some of our prior summers, I I'm very hopeful that um when school starts up, the the project's fully done and we're and we're ready to go. Uh and then we have the summer 26 stuff that we're planning. So from a budget standpoint, the capital projects we're looking at about 3.4 million. The way but pro but these construction projects happen over the summer and our fiscal year end is in the middle of the summer and so all these projects end up splitting multiple fiscal years. Um, hence the reason I'm listing a couple of different summers as far as impacting the budget, debt service and transfers. All right, so debt service fund, we have two uh existing bond issuances plus
045we have under the debt certificates, we have two outstanding bond debt certificate issuances. Those are paid from operating funds um about a million dollars a year. And then we have two transfers scheduled for next year. Um ON&M to debt service covers those uh debt certificates and then the transfer to cover our cover our construction projects. All right. So here's our operating fund summary after we put it all together. Uh just over 80 million in revenues and just over 78 in expenditures. So that starts us with 1.77 as a as a surplus. However, the operating funds need to transfer out 4.4 million um for two different reasons. And then that puts us at um a def a a plan deficit of of 2.6. And even with that, that puts us at 41.86 fund percent fund balance,
046which is above our 40% target for for fiscal year 26. still with the opportunity to see that um improve um once we firm up and and finalize our fiscal year 25 amounts. This graph shows um revenue and expenditures. You have three years of actual data budget year and then another um draft budget. So, you know, the target is having that the blue side be higher than than the green every every time. And then this takes a look at just our fund balance over time. So, you see that we um hit, you know, up around 70% for a few years. the district had a plan um that had exceeded the the upper target of 65%. And so spent some of the fund balance on things like uh you know keep expansion projects at four different um
047elementary schools and then more recently working through the air conditioning uh projects. And so fiscal year 24 we know we we ended at 52.4 four. Um the fiscal year 25 amount at 47.9 that's estimated. Um we're tracking to do better than the budget. Um so that's an estimate right now. I think there's even as things firm up over the next couple of months, even an opportunity for that number to go higher. Um and if it does, that would then pull up that fiscal year 26 number as well. So um that's all I have to share. I know also beyond the presentation in the board packet there's I think about 18 or 20 pages that has like very um detailed um financial documents by fund the operating fund. Um it's meant to beformational for the board.
048Um, but I'm happy to answer any questions um on any aspect of the budget for for next year. Um, thanks Corey. I know this is a ton of work. Um, so I the the thing that just jumps out to me is the the I don't know what slide this is, but the one with the blue bars where it's just going down and going down and going down. Um it what is that is that due to capital projects pretty much exclusively or is there something else going on? Yeah. Okay. it's intentional um spending of that fund balance towards some of those capital improvements that Corey just mentioned um to stay within that 40 to 60 staying above 40, but we don't want to be holding more funds than are needed. Um, and again, kudos to the
049board for really thoughtful and careful planning to be able to accomplish some of those projects without having to go back out to ask our community for for money to do the um the kindergarten expansions prior to that. The learning commons was another really significant one. And then the air conditioning and throughout some security improvements that we've been able to make as well, which we know many of our neighbors have needed to plan for differently. So really thoughtful planning on behalf of the board especially thoughtful with the the keep 39 and kindergarten rooms where we're really getting a benefit from them right now. Um so my my second and I guess sort of final question is um so based on all of this I know that it's a lot uh for me especially but um are
050there any red flags for you looking at the budget? It doesn't sound like there are, but are there any concerns that you have sort of based on your expertise that um No, no. I mean, I think if if someone were to look back like that, like it was three or four slides from from the end where I summarized it and we kind of start with our our revenue minus expenditure surplus, which for many many many years has been a surplus. Um, you know, at least starting out in this draft iteration, that number is a little bit lower, but we're also taking the big step of no longer having the keep fee. I mean, that was a that was a big number. We're doing it. We we were ahead of the game on the construction side.
051So, the board was able to even like pursue that. We didn't I mean, there was a plan in place. So, um, so you know, like I think we're still in a really good spot. Like the like I said, the the draft is, um, I think intentionally conservative. We just there's many things that could still occur. Um and yeah like some cost or I mean if anything I don't know if it's a red flag but because we can control when we do the projects but like the construction inflation for not not not unlike like the medical insurance that inflation has for such a long time exceeded our our standard inflation. And yet we know we need both of those areas. Um so but the flip side is right where like our insurance like we we have
052a cooperative they make adjust the group makes adjustments as as things come along. And on the construction side, um, you know, we only do projects that are that we feel are are needed and worthwhile. And, um, we're not going to, you know, overspend or put ourselves in a position where we're not comfortable, you know, what what's going to happen after that. So, the board members, the budget I'll just add just like what you said. It was not that long ago that we as a board looked at that decision of proceeding with full day kindergarten as opposed to still collecting fees and we knew we'd have to make careful decisions as a result to keep ourselves in that. So, you know, here we are. So much appreciation for your planning and forward thinking. to make the
053decisions. Okay, then we can move on to the second item. This is Yeah, this is more just anformational and and kind of process update. I don't have anything firm. So, was it I think in April we we uh locked in the multi-year agreement for um Northshore for the regular education side. We have a separate contract that with Northshore that covers our special ed and um working on a contract extension with them. Um I don't have any definitive amounts, but the long where we're at right now in relation to how long we're able to go before we're legally obligated to bid it out, um we can go up to three years. So we're looking at anywhere from um one to three years. And um while I can't sit here at almost 9:00 and tell you that
054I'll have some kind of extension next Monday night, this is not when I talk with them, it's not not too much different than when we're negotiating with like WA or SSU. You're going along and then you're done, right? like so, you know, I I'd love to say that I'll have something for next Monday, but um if not, then hopefully by uh the June meetings. So, I just wanted to let the board know that this is this is in the works. Um so, and just if you're curious, I mean, the uh that particular contract, you know, that's it's uh transporting kids that, you know, in our community to our buildings. It's also transporting kids from the the D39 boundaries to the outplaced facilities. Sometimes it's your traditional um special ed school bus. Sometimes it's smaller vehicles
055such as a van. Um which when you only have maybe one or two or three kids going to a particular place uh can be a much cheaper alternative than than a bus. Um so yeah, I'm hopeful that we can um come to a a mutual agreement uh here soon. So, I'm happy to answer any questions on that topic. Thanks. So, and just so I make sure I'm tying this back correctly. So, the special ed transportation is that where you said when we were walking through the budget that we're seeing lower reimbursement amounts. Yes, that is the one. Okay. Yeah. So, in some ways, you know, I think the historical perspective from school districts as it related to special ed transportation was Okay. Yes, it can be expensive and we don't necessarily control it, but we're
056protected pretty well because of this 80 to 82 or 3% reimbursement. But what's happened the last five years is everyone's realizing, okay, now we're not as, you know, protected. Um, and I don't think it's a stretch to think at at some point, possibly not too soon, that that reimbursement is is lower than 50%. So, um I think it will be something that, you know, we focus on even though we can't ultimately control the cost side as much as we may want to. Um it will have to just you know be something that we're aware of. Is this something we are obligated to provide students? Yeah. Yes. So there are two situations in which we would be required to provide special education transportation. One is if a child is placed at a school other than their
057home school in order to receive special education services and the other is if they are unsafe on a regular ed transportation. So that could be because of their behavior. It could be because of their cognitive level. Um could be a variety. We do uh carefully consider this. It when at an IEP meeting, we don't just provide it for all students who have IEPs. Board members. Thank you. Great. Thank you. At this point, we will move on to strategy, which would typically be Miss Stone, but she could not be with us today. So, I'll turn it over to Dr. Kremcoli. Thank you so much. We have two updates um for the board today under our strategy committee and the first will be provided by Katie Lee on behalf of several curriculum committees that have been working
058throughout this year. Katie, hi. Good morning everyone. Um happy to do so. Our our committees have been hard at work. So I have updates in three different areas on social studies, English language arts, and kindergarten. I'm going to provide a little bit of um additional context for our new board members. Um typically our review cycles are approximately six years. In the past um six years, we've had a couple that we've needed to pause um our work in 1920 and 2021 and therefore we are re um aligning what our cycles are. But there are other uh reasons why a curriculum review might be initiated. There might have been new standards that are updated and released to us. Um mandates um that are instructional mandates that are shared through the Illinois State Board of Education andor there's
059some guidance that has been happening. So the most recent one being the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan. Um there might be some new instructional approaches, some best practices that a lot of research and then also we carefully monitor our student data to see if there's any needs and updates and materials required um to help us serve our students. Um what you see on the screen are the components of a curriculum review process. Uh so there are um some learning that our committee members engage in. There are some criteria that we create because not only are we reviewing thoughtfully, we are also thinking of our population of students in mind. Um there's some trial lessons, there's some observations, all of those great components that make our review process very robust. So for 58 social studies um we
060identified the needs based on new social science standards that were released and some new instructional mandates. Our committee priorities were inquiry vetted learning, historical chronology and some balance of some human stories and who we highlight within our learning. Um this was also an opportunity for us to do a materials review based on our teachers needs and our student needs. Um, one of the things that I think um is key to our curriculum review process is the participation of our staff. Uh, when we say we value the voices of our teachers, they're the ones working with our students, we really try to find the representation that we need. Um, and so here are the 58 social studies curriculum review committee representatives. And I just wanted to pause and just thank them for all their hard work.
061I will not repeat that but every time you see a screen full of names just know that that is constantly my sentiment and appreciation for them. Um this was shared before it is our timeline from 23 24 academic year and at the end of that year we shared with you who the current finalists were and so you'll see on this screen um from 23 24 the current finalists were for fifth grade TCI social studies alive and sixth through 8th grade Imagine Learning um had a has a product called Traverse. We did some summer work as well engaging our um staff in helping with the implementation year. And this year we really wanted to focus on implementation, reflecting and any adjustments that needed to be made. And so what you see on your right side is
062year two of our um curriculum review process. Typically it's two years. And so with T uh with fifth grade, our reflections for TCI socials alive was that the implementation experience was really successful. Um our teachers found it um helpful. Our students were very engaged in it. The lessons were inquiry based. Um there's some hands-on activities and there was a balance of print and digital options. It wasn't digital dependent is what the the phrase that I would use. Um which is something that we prioritize here. um even though um we have online resources, we don't want it to be only online experiences. We really want that balance. Um so that was that was great. Uh fifth grade teachers really reflected the committee members said this is the way to go. Um our experience with traverse through
063sixth through 8th was not as successful. Um the teacher materials platform had extensive issues. the vendor was not as responsive um or timely and what um happened because the there was this unbalance of print and digital um experiences it was so digital dependent at that time um we just it just caused a lot of struggles and in the implementation of use of those materials. Uh so the other piece that the teachers really the representatives reflected on is how the information text lacked the right level of rigor for our students. It was a bit more higher level an overview not what they promised not what they shared. Um but through our experience we really determined that that was not a good fit. And so as a group um we gathered together did some reflections took a
064look at TCI history alive for the middle schools um and we made an adjustment and shift to that. Um so that continues our work for fifth grade. We will continue implementation for sixth through 8th grade. will provide a little bit more support over the summer. Um looking at the scope and sequence and u making some adjustments for the first year of implementation being fall of 20 uh five. Okay. So those are um of course we don't only um share with you what the tier one curriculum resources or the classroom resources are. We also provide our teachers some supplemental materials. So you'll see three examples on your screen. The next um committee was the English language arts curriculum committee and as you know this is a big umbrella and a very significant one um for us
065to do well. Uh there are multiple categories and subsections of what English language arts captures and the first one that you see listed here early literacy and foundational skills. We started that work about three years ago. Um, so our teachers uh realized we needed more materials. We needed some better uh decodable text, but we also needed um to re align what our phonics instruction was about. And so we engaged in a lot of learning research, looked through some uh decodable skills, but then also um trained our teachers in learning about what phonics instruction phological awareness, awareness, all what all of those are considered and did a really good self-reflection on that. Um, so what you are going to hear about is the other piece. So when we talk about uh early literacy skills, we're really
066targeting kindergarten through second grade. It's our early grades, but in addition to that, our kindergarten through 8th grade, right, has responsibilities with reading and writing instruction as well. So, our this is our typical review cycle and um as I shared uh we took a pause in two of the years. Our guidance resources were the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan, uh, new literacy research, and then we also used a, uh, nonprofit pro, uh, group called the reading league to really learn more about and use their guidance, materials, and criteria selection. So, committee priorities um, this year was our core curriculum materials and resources review. Um, the 2526 will be preparing for implementation and in 26 27 will be considered the first year of of implementation. This is our wonderful group of teachers as well. Um it really
067truly takes a village. So thank you to everybody. Um and so um we started in October with a kickoff meeting. We basically engage all of our committee members in learning um in order for them to use their voices. We want them to be fully informed and everyone on the same page. Um, and then we've now in May and June continued our guided exploration of the core curriculum materials. There's a lot out there when it comes to English language arts. Our publishing companies, our vendors have a plethora of of options to provide us. Um just to give you a little indication, there's about 14 to 15 uh different products that we reviewed um for English language arts as opposed to about eight or so in social studies. Um just the companies and what they choose to
068um focus on. So uh for this update for 2425, we are on track um to what I have shared with you as far as the timeline. Um there's about four different phases in our mind um of a materials review and so we've completed uh stage one and stage two if you will. Uh meaning the initial review is fast and then we narrow our selections down based on those that meet our criteria and those that don't. So the year two goals and tasks that um will be set forth would be in the first semester what we call fall to winter. Um we will either have a recommendation at the end of this year at the very start of next year. Um and um then once the uh supplemental curriculum materials are also uh selected then um
069will be also selected. We want to observe and visit other school districts that have used these products for a couple of years or at least a year. um some of these are new uh just so that we can see it in action and then we'll trial lessons in the classroom with our students as well. And then winter spring once that final decision is made um professional learning and training sessions and potential implementation of supplemental materials. One of the um big factors with such a a large umbrella of um of topics or categories within English language arts is that when we look at comprehensive curriculum resources, some do a great job with adding in spelling or handwriting or word study and others say that they do and they touch upon it so it's woven it in
070pretty lightly. Those are the types of supplemental materials that I'm speaking of. Um, we want to make sure that we provide our teachers and our students those resources that would be uh better met um through some additional materials versus just one um one package. So, our fall 2026 plan is implementation of our tier one English language arts curriculum and I know that it's going to go very well. Okay. Um, kindergarten is a unique topic for me um to share with you under a curriculum, you know, committee group um because this was something that uh was more of a pro program adjustment that initiated let's take a look at our curriculum. Let's um one of the biggest factors is the time that our kindergarteners would be uh with us um for a full academic day. So
071this community has been asking for a really long time and I think we've done a great job um providing a full day experience. So a half-day academic with a tuitionbased keep 39 or enrichment and enhancement program. Um, we also learned recently that by fall of 2027, every school district will be offering full day kindergarten. And about a year and a half ago, um, our board had approved, uh, starting in fall of 2025. We needed that a year and a half advanced notice to do the work, um, that I'm about to share with you today, um, uh, to get ready. So we had in um March committee of the whole I shared the academic portions with our kindergarten representatives um and we mentioned here what our principles were in making some of these adjustments and decisions
072regarding um uh you know content allocation time allocations all the way to the type of experiences we wanted um to have our kindergarteners experience. It was really important to us to start with that. And so you've seen the names of our four amazing kindergarten teachers um the administrators um that also were representing the elementary schools. Uh the work then shifted to the library technology, arts, Spanish, music, and physical education team. Um so I just want to thank them as well for engaging in the in the work that we have. um begun. This was the committee project list that we shared with you a year and a half ago and I'm happy to report that this portion that you see listed here has been completed. Um so we're well on the way to wrapping up the
073finishing touches. So with the uh next steps need to finalize the related arts curriculum updates and projects. Physical education is fully complete. um most of since I created this slide, some of these um have been completed, but I just wanted you to know that the arts and crafts, the library team, the technology and steam team, um music and Spanish, we will be done by the end of this May, if not by the end of June. So, all the teachers are feeling very comfortable and confident. Um, I checked in with our kindergarten team and we went over the remaining questions that they had, asked them for more and they felt very comfortable and that was my goal in making sure that they feel comfortable walking into fall with a full day program. And then um again
074uh one of the other next steps is to finalize the kindergarten report card. On your left, what you see is what is currently shared with our families. Um it is a developmental progression of descriptions. It aligns with a um an assessment that we report to Illinois State Board of Education so that it we can maximize the time of our of our teachers. Um but now that we are in a full day academic program that I have endearingly uh deemed the prequil to first grade um we have shifted to our standardsbased reporting. uh making sure that it aligns with first and fourth grade as well. And so we're in the process of just fine-tuning um that standards language and also determining um those standards in which we want to report out on for our families in
075the related arts. With that, I am happy to answer any questions that you have um and any of those This is one. The uh ELA curriculum, the vendors that you're looking at for the ELA curriculum. Yes. Are they all K8 or is it possible that some are K4 and then others might be better at 58 or 68? Absolutely. Yes. That it's a mixture. Um there are some that are kindergarten through 8th grade actually. And then there are some that are six through 8th grade. sixth through 12th grade. Um there's a variety out there. Um kindergarten through fifth grade is also another category. Um in our district, we have a middle school that houses fifth through six fifth and sixth grade. Um it's a little uh in in the curriculum world, you may be very familiar
076with um kindergarten through fifth grade as far as standards and learning targets. That's really the cap. Um but we also acknowledge in our district we have fifth through sixth grade and seventh through eighth grade. So we wanted to make sure that we explore all the options um in order to make an informed decision. Thank you Miss Atlas. Um I just want to say that I'm so excited about kindergarten. I think it's super exciting. And I mean, also just that slide that says completed, that's that's an amazing slide. Um, no, but I know that we've been working and talking about this for a long time. So, I I just am really excited for the new school year and thank you for all your hard work on it. It's great else. Okay. No, I will I'll just
077reiterate what um Allison said. um what a significant move and how exciting this is to be off to be able to offer it to the district 39 community to see it coming together like this. So incredibly exciting and thank you. Thank you. And just also a thank you to all of those teams. Um this is goes without saying it's really important work and it's great to see the depth of people involved in each of the curriculum teams. Um, one thing that I just wanted to mention is, um, I was glad to see the not digital dependent component. Um, I think it's, you know, we have so many digital resources at our fingertips, especially in this district, and I think they are wonderful to use when they complement the curriculum and the learning, but not to
078be so reliant upon them. So, I'm always glad to see um the not digital dependent and all of the other resources and tools that we're pulling in for the students. Anyone else? Okay. Um then at this point, this is an opportunity for the Sorry. Oh, sorry. Before we move on, we just have a quick update about the 58 scheduling work that we've been doing. Another important update. Um, so, uh, we would like to provide just a brief update on our 58 scheduling work for the upcoming school year. Uh, as the board knows, this work has been ongoing for the past several years with teachers and administrators working to research, develop, design options to address the highest priority needs that were identified. We're at the point where a decision needs to be made and communicated for
079the upcoming school year. So, um, we'd like to just provide a quick update. The changes herein are are relatively minimal but will help us to address the highest priority needs and desires of our teams that were identified as we launch the work. Um those include daily dedicated time for home room community building for SEAL instruction and for executive functioning teaching and support. Uh in the long term we do hope to explore additional opportunities for flexible intervention and enrichment within the school day as well. Um, but at this point we're we're getting started so that we can do some evaluation and ongoing work. So the current schedule adjustments allow us to get started with some smaller changes to try to address some of those highest needs identified for our students while continuing to evaluate and consider
080future needs and adjustments. Um, so I want to display the school schedules for the 2526 school year for Highest Middle School and Wilmet Junior High School. Um you'll see that 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 with all other courses remaining the same length of time which was 40 minutes. That's the same this year and in in prior years as well. And then passing periods are three minutes. And the student day starts seven minutes earlier. So let me see if I can share my screen here. Here we go. So, this is the Highest Middle School bell schedule. You'll see uh the student day is starting 7 minutes earlier. Um but all the other periods are actually
081essentially remaining the same. Um, so 25 minute home room, 40-minute class periods for all other classes, three minute passing period between all classes, and the school day starts, uh, 7 minutes earlier at 8:43. And then for WJHS, the bell schedule, so this year, um, the bell schedule included Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday a 10-minute home room class, and then on Thursdays, um, there was a little bit of an extended home room. And so for next year, um, what we are doing is making it a 25 minute home room every day with the exception of the occasional special need or or assembly, those kinds of things. there is an option where we could run a special day like a Thursday um where just a a minute is shaved off of each period but otherwise um you'll
082see in the yellow here 40 minute per class periods um with the 25m minute home room three minute passing periods between all of the classes this year there were some um differences in in a couple of places so we made it three minutes across the board and then the school day starts at 8:18 you'll You'll notice the time between the zero period and the first period is minimized there. We're really trying not to have our early bird or zero period classes start earlier um simply uh because it's it those are early mornings already for our students. Um and we also know that with the seven minute adjustment the transportation routes will remain approximately the same. Some of our buses are arriving a little bit earlier, so students will have a a bit of a shorter
083amount of time once they arrive at school. Um, and we'll get straight to work. Um, per we'll start the day with period one and then move into home room from there at WJHS. Okay, so that's what um the schedule is looking like. We know we still have some adjustments and conversations to have with with our teachers, but as we're planning and we know that we have um some new administrators who will be leading our work next year at both of these schools, um we knew that we needed to get some decisions made and communicate those out so that everyone could plan accordingly. So, that is where we're at. I'm going to stop sharing. I'm happy to answer any questions, but also recognizing that there's still um some work to do there. Yes, Amy. Well, I
084um I just love the idea of a similar home room period at the junior high. I think that I could see as a teacher that that would be really helpful for planning purposes and utilizing that time on a consistent basis. I think that's great. I think you answered my second question. I was just wondering if it's complicated. transportation to change our start time. But are you saying buses will typically be the same? Typically the same. There may be some minor adjustments that need to be made. Every year there's some minor adjustments that are made to the routes. Um but because the the school day ends at the same time and because the difference between the two schools remains approximately the same um there shouldn't be too many changes. I know we had some students who
085were reaching out with some concerns about having to get up far earlier. Um, and I think as hopefully this allays some of those fears um because it's it really amounts to a smaller change than than maybe was initially contemplated. So, thanks for asking this question. Judy, is this just a question? Probably I should know the answer, but I don't. With this um extended home room and kind of time. Is there a specific curriculum or are there plans for the use of that time or is it still in process or is it flexible and up to the decisions of individual teachers? All of those are are in the works. Yes. Um there has been anal curriculum that has been um utilized, chosen, and we've been exploring its use. Um and so we're hoping to continue those
086conversations. Wayfinder is what we're using at this point. I'm looking toward both Katie and Kelly um to see if there's any other updates you'd like to provide um related to the curriculum use. I know that some teachers we we hope to have some teachers kind of map out what those topics are, but the curriculum resource itself has been chosen. Yeah, we um we use wayfinder uh for 58 and this year we had a short scope and sequence so all the teachers could get used to it and now for next year we have already shared with teachers um a scope and sequence so there's um a special topic for each week um and it also integrates some of our um diversity, equity, inclusion um themes that we have monthly for our teachers as well or for
087our students, excuse me, as well as um executive functioning topics. So, there's some leeway in there and how they address them, but we have generalized topic areas and some core lessons that they'll be doing. Thank you. Thanks. Great question. And we know that that um sense of belonging and connection is something that's been really important to the board. Also, through our data and our surveys, that has been something that we've really tried to tackle at the middle and junior high school level. And so we're hoping that that little bit more time in home room will help to support that. And at the junior high to have that time every day um seems like it will be a little bit easier to have some consistent um instruction, support, dialogue, relationship building happening um in that home
088room. So more work to be done for sure, but I wanted to give everyone an update at this. Yeah. Um, just to confirm for anybody watching at home, this uh there are no schedule changes or start time changes for K through 4. Correct? You Yes. Nope. That that is correct. Our K4 schedule stays the same. Thank you. I know it's been years of work and there were some um pretty significant changes discussed and I at least personally look at this as um one step in a multi-step process here and hopefully gives us a chance to make some small changes, start to learn a little bit more and accomplish some more of our goals going forward. Okay. Um, now we are moving on to public comments. This is an opportunity for the public to address the
089board. Seeing none, we will continue on with the agenda. Old business. Any old business? Okay. New business. Is there any new business today? All right. At this point, we'll adjourn to executive session to discuss special education, individual student matters, school building safety and security, collective negotiations, and specific personnel. May I have a motion to adjourn to executive session? Yes. I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss special education, security procedures, specific personnel, collective negotiations, and individual student matters. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Motion having been made and seconded. Will the clerk please call the role? Alison Pilis, yes. Jimmy Paling, yes. Judy Berlin, yes. Annne Hart, yes. Kristen Dcastro, yes. Motion carried. We are now adjourned to executive session and the time is 9:27