001Certainly. Cara Castton >> here. >> Katie Courtourtney >> here. >> Ken Dawson >> here. >> Chris Espinosa >> here. >> April Fein >> here. >> Don Rener >> here. >> And Michael Riskey >> here. >> Ryan Enright >> here. >> And Romina Paper Vera Gonzalez >> here. >> Thank you. >> All right. Having quum, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, first ordering of business, you have the approval of minutes. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the minutes of the August 18th, 2025 monthly business meeting and the September 8th, 2025 workshop meeting? So moved. >> Second.
002>> Car moves in K 10 seconds. >> Thank you very much. Per casten. >> I. >> Ken Dawson. >> I. >> Chris Espininoza. >> I. >> April Fein. >> I. >> Michael Riskey. >> I. >> Katie Courtourtney. >> I. >> And Don Rener. >> I. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Item four, first reception of visitors. Julie, do we have any cards? >> No, sir. >> Okay. Then Hank, I'll turn it over to you for item number five. Getting there. All right, good evening everybody. Uh wanted to start out this evening with a strategic plan update now that we're kind of a month into the school year and up and rolling. Uh what we wanted to provide to you today, this Travis and I are going to tag team on this because Travis is heading
003up uh the team that's responsible for the priority measure this year in attendance. So just a reminder uh our strategic plan that we're working under now started in 2022 uh under the topic of future focused future ready and underneath there are the four strategic directions. The one that is a priority this year is growth of student ownership and agency. And under there are three core measures which are attendance which is our priority focus this year, grades which has been our primary focus for the last several years along with student interventions and supports which has been ongoing for the past several years as well. The board has dedicated a lot of resources to that over the last 10 years. Um, and it was also the board's top priority heading in to this school year. Just a
004reminder, we use uh pillars of feedback in district 99 to determine what those areas are that are most focused. We have three pillars uh three legs of the stool. One is a survey that is our we commonly call our spring survey that's focused on programmatic and those different strategic directions within the strategic plan. Uh so each spring we ask uh families, students and staff questions about that. Then we have a state required culture and climate survey that used to be the five essentials. We have pivoted to the CSCI survey because it's more aligned with what we're doing within the district. And then we also give at least an annual morale survey that looks at the six ca categories of morale. Ownership and input has been our big focus for the last few years. Together, we
005use that feedback uh to create a feedback loop to determine what it is that we're going to work on, to adjust it, to take actions, and then reme-measure and see if we need to uh keep working in that area or not. So, last spring, this is like an example of one of the data points that came to you. Uh really ownership and input. We had a goal of reaching a four on that level of metric. We only were at a three. So, we are hoping in the spring round of surveys that based on all of the changes we've made to start this school year, based on everybody's feedback, we see that move this fall when we reservey. One of the challenges we've realized over the last several years is we've used this feedback for the
006past four or five years to make changes as we go into each school year. But we have a lot of feedback loops in a lot of different areas that we focused on from year to year. With this year, we intend with this having a priority focus that we have a single feedback loop around accountability related to attendance and that everybody can see that intended measure moving where last year it was or the last several years we've been addressing the issues that we hear through that feedback. But because we're scattered to so many different areas, it's hard for everybody to see the movement in those areas. uh so we believe that this year's strategy will have a much stronger impact overall. So really this is the concern right we have in the past lots of priorities
007lots of options little satisfaction in the work that we're doing. So we're this is kind of our mantra as we go into this year really only one thing can be a priority the others are options right but one thing by its definition is the priority so this year the that priority is accountability related to attendance right and last year I know uh board members kind of came on as we were doing this work so we have a few new board members not uh probably familiar with this work over the years we used a a lot of feedback last year, especially from our leadership team, surveys, those kinds of things. As I showed you, to gather this, we used AI and a variety of different tools to crunch that data. You can see that weighted comment
008score last year. What rose to the top in the board's strategic plan is regular attendance. Um, you can see the morale work. We did see growth, but one of the areas we actually saw a decrease was opinions heard and valued by district leaders. We're hoping through this approach when we start surveying people this year, we see the results of those work in a more positive light. You can see through that climate survey items that were also identified to address rules and norms, uh, teacher student relationships and administrative and leadership effectiveness. All things that are being addressed this year through this work. In that spring survey, when you pulled out that data, you saw accountabil, student accountability rose to the top. That's kind of a what, right? This is what staff was asking for. And then
009the items in yellow are the next most popular responses in that question of what is one thing we could do to improve our school's environment for staff and students. And you can see the how listed down below. consistent consequences, cell phone policy, attendance and common management and oversight, and administrative support and staff morale. All right, so those are the how we're getting there. So with only one thing being the priority, our staff told us there what that thing should be, right? You know, 20% of responses identified that as the thing as well as all of that other data I shared with you. So as a result of that last year we came to the board and the board approved this board approved that statement of work. Improvement in the area of attendance is our priority
010and we're going to do that through increased accountability. That's what we're working on this year and we believe that by doing this work academic performance will increase as well as staff morale. So the way we're looking at it this year the priority you will make time. So every leader is making time for that priority. If they have one thing or another thing to choose for from that they need to spend their time on, the thing that drives accountability and attendance is the one that gets that time. We make time for that. Everything else we get done if we have time for it. So I'm going to turn it over to Travis. Travis is going to talk through the first kind of over the summer and then the first four weeks of the school year, what
011we've really been focused on with that attendance team that's really responsible for this work. >> Thank you. Um, one of the exciting things about this is we've been really working on this since the spring. So, even going into the summertime, we knew what our focus was. We knew what that looked like. Um we had some great training opportunities uh with EAB over the summer and then throughout this year where they're really helping us to frame um and one of those things is is our our KPIs. So when we look at we as you've seen our goal structure we we always have this is what we want to attain uh with our student population and then if they're not there how do we provide that support right how do we go through that so it's it's
012broken down into a a student metric percentage of students who regularly attend school that's what we want to um certainly increase and that's our our part of our goal and then we have the support metric percentage of students who supported to regularly attend school, right? We know that some of this is outside of our control. We're controlling the things that we can and we've implemented a lot of different things. This list here uh should none of this should be new to you, but this just a reminder of uh with our new infinite campus implementation. We have our students that are scanning into the building. Uh couple good things about that. We know who's in our building, which is a a key for safety. Um it's a key for uh our ability to hold our students
013accountable. We know you're in the building. Um so then we run uh and have every classroom and office is scanning throughout the day. So the combination of those two things, we know who's in the building and we know when students aren't where they're supposed to be. So that's what we have an an accounted for report uh which provides real time. When we run that report, we get information on who's in the building and who's not where they should be. and then our our uh deans and administrators and security have done a really good job of then going finding those students and making sure that they're going to where uh they need to be. That that is a change in practice. So I think in that in that how uh in there where you saw the
014management of the commons and and that that's a huge uh piece of this that honestly if we didn't have the scanning it would be really difficult to be able to uh to be able to do that. Um, we're also doing weekly and monthly data reviews. I'll I'm going to share some information uh surrounding that. And then today was our first day uh that we sent out a a Monday Thursday report that was emailed to the staff at uh at North. Uh next Monday we'll start that at South and I'm going to show you what that looks like for those Monday Thursday reports and talk a little bit more about that. So part of our work as well along this is this is an all hands- on deck type of a goal. When you have a
015one primary type goal, it it is everyone how do we help? So what we did uh was we created um a tier one and tier 2 strategies, five of each uh for each staff member that that we're saying, hey, this is we're expecting you to utilize these to improve attendance. So you can see across all of those different staffings, administrators, activity sponsors, custodial maintenance, and grounds. I'm not going to read all of those, but you can see throughout all of those, we created 10 strategies uh for our staff to utilize. Um the tier one is what we expect them to utilize with every student that they come into interaction with. Um and then when they know that students are struggling with attendance, there are strategies that are given at that next tier. uh hence the
016the tier 2. So that has proven uh to be beneficial and again it shows this is not just a uh something that we're working on in isolation. This is everyone it takes everyone uh to to move the needle with this. So as you know we also implemented uh the expectation of of storing personal electronic devices. Um, and we've heard from you guys, which has been great, of of uh letting us know what you're seeing in the classroom uh related to that. And we're seeing the same thing where there's more focus. Um, even in the hallway after class, uh, students are are more connected. And so that has been um a benefit of of that as well. Again, that was in the how as well, the management of of cell phones. So looking at this, I
017know it's a little bit uh uh small, but this gives uh an idea of the attendance. I talked about those primary KPIs with the student metric and the support metric and then how we'll get there. We have six different data points that we are looking and that we are tracking. So you can see the arrows um don't have the 2425 data for uh our percentage of students who regularly attend school. uh nor do we have it for our average daily attendance or our chronic absenteeism rate. Uh we'll get that in October. Uh so we'll update that information at that time. We are running weekly reports for number three, which is the number of times students arrive late to class each week of school. Uh number four, the number of times students have one or more
018single period unexcused absences each week of school. So what that means is the student went to every other class except for one class. Okay? It's a single cut. It's a single unexcused absence. So, we're tracking uh that information. And then when we look at six, I'll drop down to that. The number of contact logs that support regular attendance each week of school. So, we're tracking that data and we're sharing that um uh each week. Number five is a work in progress. That's the percentage of students involved in extracurricular activities who regularly attend school in season and out of season. We're going to run that three times on December 1st, uh March 23rd, and May 23rd. That's at the end pretty much of every season. Um the data in that is going to be a little
019bit tricky because we don't know who in essence maybe is in a winter sport when we run that December one. We should, but we don't know who's in that spring sports for the first two reports, right? So it it'll it'll be kind of evolving as we go through and and trying to figure out what that data uh says, but we we are firm believers that students that are engaged um both inside the classroom and outside of the classroom are uh more likely to uh see the priority of of being in regular regular attendance. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> You can. >> Can you just explain number four? So these are the KPIs that you worked with EAB on, correct? So just like number four just is that like you're you're skipping one
020class over and over, you're skipping any class once and that's like a warning that could you just explain that one a little more why that's on there? >> Yep. So um one of the things uh again that that when we look at that unaccounted for report um we have received feedback and we've seen where students um may choose not to go to a class. It could be over and over. It could be >> one >> just once. It could be I have an assignment coming up. I have a paper due, I have whatever that looks like. Um, and so one of the things that I'll I'm going to talk about here in a in a minute is the expectations that we have for our teachers in the in that Monday Thursday report. If a student
021has a single period unexcused absence, they're making contact with the student and with the family, >> right? So that is something that we're trying to um again build deeper relationships with and and go through but that is something that we see >> an early warning sign of >> and but some of it and sometimes it is a recurring where so then it's >> okay when you when you look at anything where there's a recurring thing with that instance what is that relationship look like right so that's why we want them uh to contact home talk with the student um that would move through kind of our tiered system of supports as well. >> We know from our research with the AB that that teacher relationship touch point for that is one of the most effective
022ways for a kid to come like they got noticed that it happened, right? That's one of the biggest things is >> like we we caught it, right? And we talked to the student and we help them understand the impact of what the impact of not being there has, right? and we help the parents understand like what was missed was important and you know that we're trying to support together as a team getting every student to class every day, right? So, uh that that early intervention is super important. >> And then if it becomes a repeated pattern, then it becomes a whole different conversation that occurs. But you have to have that first one to set up the future conversations for repeats. Yep. >> So, Travis, you said that regularly reports are being pulled to to
023make sure that that students are where they're supposed to be. >> How regularly is it like a couple times a day you guys are pulling those and what do you do with that information? Do you say like this kid is in the commons, let's go find him? >> Yes. Okay. >> Exactly. >> All right. >> Um, and I don't know of the frequency that we're we're running that. I I I believe it's every period that they're they're looking at those. I know for sure at the beginning of the day and during different times when they've identified, hey, this is but students are more likely to stay in the commons, you know, around lunchtimes are uh a common thing there. So, yeah, we're Exactly. That's what they're doing. They're going to find the student and then
024taking them. I love that that we're doing this per period because I as a former high school student, I I wonder um if you're going to find any correlation with absences at the last period of the day or the first period of the day. >> yeah, we know those patterns already exist. We also know as students move up in grades, their attendance drops. >> I noticed that. I think that's coming up, but yeah. So here is uh the attendance again progress as of uh 9:15. So our attendance rate uh for as of 9:15 was 94.47%. Um, and how that is being scheduled. And I believe we've talked a little bit about this, um, is we have our scheduled minutes and then the absent minutes. And so it's your scheduled minutes minus your absent minutes divided
025by your schedule minutes gets you your your attendance rate. So that is how we're calculating and that's how it's going to be submitted to the the state of Illinois. Um we have in in our previous with e school we didn't use minutes we used periods. So there there may be a change in what that looks like but we feel like the the minutes and again how IC calculates it it's a it's a good representative of what that looks like. It also encourages uh students um to be in class even if they're past that tardy time where they'll still be absent. they still get credit, if you will, for attending during that time. Um, which is also important for students that are involved in extracurricular activities because you have to be in attendance at least half
026of the day in order to participate in things, right? So, we're trying to I I remember being an assistant principal and and working with truency and well, I've already missed half the class. Why should I go to class? Right? Am I going to be absent anyways? Yes, you're still going to be absent, but you get counted. those minutes count towards your attendance and we can have those types of conversations. Now, you can see the number of times uh students arrive late to class. Uh that was that's in a week time frame. Uh we had 1368 tardies. To put that in context, that's.3 per student. Okay. So, when you see that number, it might be that's a lot of tardies. We have a lot of students and that that equates to it. It still is a
027lot of tardies, right? uh 2.3 uh per student. Uh and then the number of times students have one or more single period uh cuts, if you will, we had 645, which is.14 per student. Um what we did this week, and we're starting to track the data. Um and again, this is the good part about diving into it. We have other conversations. We're looking at what is the distinct student count for those uh tardies for that 645 cuts. How many students are we talking about uh that are involved uh with creating those numbers? Um because it it that tells a different story and allows us to understand um and to hone in a little bit more with that data. And then during that same time frame, that same week, we had 51 contact logs uh that
028supported regular attendance each week of school. Um again, last week, North went through their training and and talk through the expectations with the teachers and I'm going to go through here in a minute and South is going through that this week. So this is um and the communications we've had is the expectation is to start after the the training and and we you can see what the report looks like but we certainly have had staff that um understand hey I'm I'm making contact with home because I see something that's happening. So kudos to our staff uh for uh making the connections that they are. drive this real quick. Um for sorry for um three and four. >> Yes. >> That's is that 1300 individual students or is that like >> it's a total count? >>
029Total count of it. Okay. >> Yep. So that's what we're >> tardies. >> Total count of tardies. So that's what we're breaking down the data. It's still a total count of tardies, but then we're saying, okay, how many students had those 1368? Because certainly it wasn't our entire student population, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. So say if it, you know, was a thousand students, that tells a different story than if it was 500 students, right? So we're we're looking at that data point as well. >> Got one student could get like seven in a day, right? >> Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. >> Is that since the beginning of school or just >> That's for that week. >> Just that week. >> Yes. So this is weekly data that we're gathering and we're we're looking at. >> Could
030any of that be just the time and the scanning getting in? >> Nope. No, >> we've had zero. >> But it's a good thing to know that that's not the reason why would be a tardy. >> No, that is not the reason. >> Good question. >> What is What is the definition of tardy? Is it 5 minutes? Is there a certain >> Yes. So after um you're late from when the bell rings the bell rings >> to up to 10 minutes. At that 10-minute mark, you are absent. >> Oh, you're absent. >> Yes. >> Oh. >> So you have you have 10 minutes. Uh, and and you're still considering >> 0 to 9, you're tardy. >> 0 to 959. >> You're tardy, >> right? Really? >> Minutes on, you're absent. >> 10 minutes. >> Okay.
031>> Yep. >> Okay. We're good to move on. >> Yeah. All right. >> So, this is an example of a Monday, Thursday report. >> Um, and and just kudos. We This has been a whole team effort uh to get to this stage, right? even to have the scanners uh functioning and um I remember last spring we were having meetings and we were talking about having scanning into the building and then in in the commons and someone said what about classrooms and we're like I don't know if we can do that we'll try. um we were able to make that happen. But what that has allowed us to do um again with our new system as well, teachers that have a student uh that have uh a single period unexcused absence or a tardy get an
032e uh a report emailed to them. Uh it's sitting in their inbox. Uh and how this cadence works is they'll get a report on Monday and they'll get one on Thursday. The Monday is for the previous week's Thursday and Friday data, attendance data. The Thursday report that they get will be for the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of that week. Okay? So, you can see there, that's 91 through 93 data. Teacher's name usually is on there. I took that off, right? And that is over to the left. And then the classes that the teacher teaches with the period name has the student name, the student number, guardian name, guardian phone number, guardian email, and then it breaks down during that time frame whether a student had a single period unexcused absence. Again, that would be just for
033their class. If they have two single period unexcused absences, they don't show up on the report. That's dean's office, attendants office. they're already taking care of those things, but this is where we want those connections to be made uh between the teacher and the student and the family. So, if I can explain that top line, it means that that student whose name is blocked out, right, has one total tardy for that class. And it so happens that that tardy actually happened during this time frame because you can see that's the absence code of tardy. So this is the total number for the class. It it tallies. It accumulates. Okay. Obviously this is early on in the in the year. So some of our numbers are uh smaller and we hope that they they stay small.
034Um and then it shows the date of the whatever it was either the tardy or the unexcused absence, the description, and then this comments is something that the the teachers see in their attendance book. It's something that our attendance office sees. All of those things. So that's um also another piece that is uh communicated there. In that same period, period 2, there was another student that also has a total number of one tardy for that section. Didn't get have a tardy during this time frame, but they did have a single period unexcused absence on 93. And it shows the description is absent unexcused. You can see when it says created by IC scanning module that's it's created by the scanner. Okay. So that student did not uh either one of two things either did not
035come to class at all right or they came after that 10-minute mark of where where that would uh where that would look. And then if you look at the bottom line uh period one uh this is if you notice that this covers the a single box um that is one student that during this time frame had two single period unexcused absences that that occurred for that class both were unexcused one was created by the IC scanning module but here you see that's the difference where it is absence unexcused it says has passed 10 minutes late. And that is written into the comments. So it helps the teacher to identify, hey, they they came to class, right? But they were 10 minutes late. So that allows for that conversation as well to happen. Hey, I'm proud
036of you. I I know you weren't here for the first 10 minutes, but you made it. Good job. Right? And so you can further uh build those relationships again. So, those our first ones went out today to our teachers at North um and they'll continue getting those every Monday, Thursday. South's teachers will get their first one next Monday after they have their training uh this week and to go through that. >> So, for that the top the third box on the the very end where it says created by IC scanning module. >> Yes. >> Um does that mean they did not come to class at all that period? >> Okay. And then if but they do if they did come 10 minutes late it would just say 10 minutes fast. It wouldn't give like a
037came at you know 36 minutes in or something like that >> that would be in the system. We'd be able to look it up but it's not in that comment down. >> Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. It doesn't break it down. It just says past that 10-minute mark. Gotcha. >> And the expectation is that the teachers are going to take action on every one of these. >> Yes. And >> on on the unexc single period unexcused absences. Okay. For the tardies, the the expectation is that when the student gets to that third tardy that they will make a contact again, talk with the student and contact home. >> Okay. I just want to be mindful of the amount of work that we're asking the teachers to do. So >> after um after the first one, so the
038teachers are responsible I just want to clarify for the the teachers are responsible for the first one that that appears on this report. every other one after that really kicks to the dean's office because it's multiple um and the teacher can use professional judgment at that point too. So if there if they see again same as the first one that there's an impact in the classroom they can certainly call home but it is supposed to kick to the dean's office after that first. >> Sure. So the teacher's reaching out to make that first connection and Okay, that makes sense. So this is another example of uh data that we're looking at. So weekly attendance. Um so this is um for that same week that we just uh that we just reviewed. You can see this
039top is just for that week. Okay. So have the total student count uh by grade level there has the broken down the number of scheduled minutes the number of absent minutes and then the attendance rate that you can see that's broken down into that. Um as Hank alluded to you can see our seniors uh don't have as good of a of an attendance rate as our juniors and obviously our freshmen have the best in in looking at that data point. Then we also gathered um what are the unexcused minutes right? So about 24% during that week of our absences were unexcused which means about 75 76% were excused. So, we're tracking that as well because when we look at our attendance, what is that? What is that overall? Regardless of whether they're excused or unexcused,
040it still impacts the classroom, it still impacts our attendance rate. So, we're tracking that as well to see, you know, what is that? What's that really mean and what does it look like? So, then through 19 days, uh, where we were at, um, that's the 94.47% 47% that I uh mentioned and about 28 almost 29% of those um are unexcused. Have the report card data down below as an easy reference. We were at 92 and a half% as a district. Uh last year we'll see what that 25 data comes in. As soon as we have that, we'll add that to the the data sheet there at the bottom so we can we can look at that at that number. So that is um I don't know if you want to talk about how you're using
041that information to to >> Sure. I mean we're sharing that every week. The principles are also looking at it with their teams uh by building each week. Remember that the overall metric is chronic absenteeism, right? So it looks at the number of students that miss 10% or more of the school year for pretty much any purpose, right? Excused, unexcused, doesn't matter, right? So this is the data that is leading indicators to that larger overall metric that the board is measured on that also shows up on our school or is measuring us on that also shows up on the school report card. Right? So this how it all kind of feathers together into what you'll see. So when you see these the Illinois report card data, this is pretty close kind of equivalent to what that
042is, right? So, right now, I mean, if we if we were to end the year here, we would be back to kind of preandemic levels. That would be great. Uh, I would love to see at least our chronic absenteeism return to uh maybe some of those prepandemic levels. That would be great. Um, but we'll see how it progresses through the year. And at what point do triggers start kicking in here with more followup, more type of social probation interventions, those kinds of things to encourage changes in students behaviors. Um, but we'll start our next first phase here is really that teacher and school followup uh as we're heading kind of into that first month of the school year now and starting to see some definitive patterns that we need to follow up on. So the
043final thing and this is not the final thing we're working on right but this is what we're working on right now is as uh we are uh creating a monthly report for our department chairs uh by uh teacher uh with a sum of contacts for each of these types of things that are uh that they can uh note in our student information system. Um, again with our conversation surrounding attendance and grades and uh our different interventions that we're providing, these are critical points for us to be able to gather um uh to be able to understand, hey, what are what are we doing again for that support metric? How are we reaching students? And uh the nice thing is is uh if we have students identified, we can look at that contact log and see
044how many times uh we have made contact about attendance, about grades, uh inviting them in or andor having that uh additional intervention and support uh that we are providing to them. So we're really we're getting really close on this. >> This connects to the overarching goal with the board around our metrics, right? It's that we want obviously the the lowest level of chronic absenteeism possible, but we have that second secondary support measure. So you want the low the level of chronic absenteeism the lowest as possible, but you want for every student that was chronically absent, we show that we have these levels of support for them in some way that they didn't fall through the cracks and go unnoticed, right? So there's there's this higher level of accountability in this district than most districts do,
045right? Most districts just say work really hard to get that chronic absenteeism as low as possible. We have that secondary support level in this district of for every kid that is chronically absent, we expect that there was some kind of support offered. >> That's how we track it. Well, we you'll be able to see that teacher contact in probably infinite like in the program and then we'll be able to see those results of how many contact how many >> touch points. Yep. >> And again, that's what we're uh we're tracking that weekly to see how many contacts. I will say uh I think we sent out the report. It was uh around 9ish this morning and uh just in a in a short amount of time you can saw I think there were there were
04630 in that week or something along those lines there were like 10 by the time I got back to my office right so um we're that is that's one of the things um everyone has taking taken this on as hey we understand the importance and we're going to do our part right which is exciting to see and I'm excited to see what the what the outcome is going to look Um, ultimately, right, kids are in classrooms and they're learning. That's why we want them there. That's why we're here. >> Oh, any other questions? I know we took took them as we went along, but >> thanks, Travis. >> Yep. >> You're welcome. >> All right, there's your first month update. >> All right. Uh, a few other quick updates and returning items. Administrator and teacher
047salary benefits report. Um, we're required by law to post this and inform the board that we have done so we have done so. Uh, next one, grant allocations. Every year we bring this to you. This builds into the larger budget presentation the jury will have later. Uh, but the grant allocations have been presented to you. Uh, the board approves and acknowledges that they've received this and understand what these amounts are. Um there's the variety of different federal funds that were put on hold earlier this year that have all now started to come through. Right. So uh those are those allocated amounts for this year and those are built as I said into the budget numbers that J is using in the budget presentation later today. Any questions on that one? All right. And then uh
048we've got a a slew of them here from Travis to bring back to you is some some quick updates. So the first one uh this was a board request that we update progress on scoreboard advertising. So here is your first report on this one. >> Yeah. And just as a reminder again, I know not everyone was here when we entered into the agreement with scoreboard media, but last February after we tried to do this on our own uh and and we did not do a very good job because that's not what the business that we're in. But uh we gave it our our best shot. Uh we entered into this agreement. And so what Scoreboard Media does for us, right, they solicit advertising. They have a network. Uh they follow up on potential advertising leads
049that we hear about. I I share that. Um and and so do our our buildings. Um they manage the creation and scheduling. So they basically take care of all of that, the scheduling of it, the putting up of of the ads, and then anytime we have anything that we want to go up on the board at the district level to go on all four boards, they manage that as well. We can send them a picture, we can send them stuff, and they create that and and put that on our boards. We do have a 50% revenue share. Um, so that comes at two different times of the year, September 1st. Um, and again, that's for receipts in January through June that they receive. And then we get another one on March 1st for receipts July
050through December. So I want to share briefly some of those uh what that looks like. Um so we have one September revenue and that's uh with my eyes I can't see that far anymore. Uh Woody Buick. Um and uh that is for a three-year term. Uh and you can see they are a premier sponsor. So that first year uh is $20,000 and then year two and three is 17,500. Um and again that's the annual advertising amount. That share comes in. That's where we get 50% um of that. And then we have two additional three-year uh commitments. One with Dr. William Brennan Dental and uh one with Big Red's Pig Party. Again, those are each a three-year commitment. And you can see the amounts there uh for that. Then rounding out the rest are one-year commitments
051that we hope will continue. They'll renew. Uh but we have uh all of those are committed for uh one year. Um Illinois Bone and Joint, Raising Canes, ABT, uh Electronics, Culver's, Jeff's Bagel Run, and Patty Wllo Realy. Uh and so all of those um are up on the boards. They're running um and we appreciate their their partnership uh with that. So, what that means is, uh, in September, it's it's on its way. Um, we'll receive $10,000 in revenue. Uh, in March, uh, this is anticipated, and again, that's with the current agreements there. Uh, we'll get another just uh over 12,500. Um, again, that revenue goes directly towards modernizing our learning environments. Uh, so we're we're putting it right back into the into the classrooms. Um, and that's what we've said from day one when we
052started talking about that. and that's what we're we're sticking to. Uh we also have an additional potential uh just over $16,000 uh that of other entities that scoreboard media is working with that we are hopeful that they will land that uh that they'll receive that in that time frame. Um so that's uh again that's potential revenue um additional for us. So that's a brief uh run through. They've been a great partner and uh very easy to work with and uh have done a a good job of of getting that going. >> Questions on advertising. >> All right, Travis's next item, electricity and natural gas update. We've been talking about this for the last several months. >> Just appreciate again this is something that we uh we talked about earlier this school year. Um, great news
053is that we have uh for our natural gas, we ended up going on the same uh length of contract for both of them in a four-year. Um, and with our natural gas, concerning what we are currently paying right now, uh, we'll have just over $47,000 of savings over that four years. And with our electricity, um, just uh 256,500, right? So that's a a substantial amount of money in looking at that. So uh we we were able to uh hit when the market was right uh for that. Um but I also will say that is um all of those figures are with uh consistent annual consumption. So we are hopeful that our electrical goes down as we are doing more LED and energy conservation. Same thing with our natural gas. We're hoping that that um also
054goes down. Uh again remember that's on especially on our electricity that's on our supply portion only. It does not indicate or factor in delivery cost because comment can those those numbers are unknown at this point. >> So are you saying then we've locked in at sort of a level to how you came up with your numbers but if we use less we don't get dinged or charged for >> correct. Okay. Correct. It's just that that is those uh the annual savings and total savings is assuming that we use the same energy that we have been using. Okay. >> Um we still pay you know just uh over 5 cents per kilowatt hour um on our electricity regardless of how much we use. >> We're still encouraged to be more efficient. >> Okay. >> You bet.
055>> Especially on the delivery side. >> Yeah. >> Question. >> We could dim the lights if you want. We could we could >> we have been known if you come into our office during the during the day there's there's a lot of dimming going on. We're trying to do our best. >> All right. Any other questions on gas and electricity? >> Thank you Travis for your work on that. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Uh fieldhouse flooring. This is an action item this evening and returning from prior meetings. So um I have great news. I'll start off uh our the mercury levels in the floors came back at an acceptable level. >> Great. >> That's good. We were hopeful that we would hear that and uh that we would be able to share that news
056here. Um so these were some of the questions that came up and and that were unanswered from our last time. Um just talked about the existing floors. Um with the warranties, Mondo does have a limited 10-year warranty uh for manufacturing defects or excessive wear uh in those areas that that it shouldn't be. And then uh Kefir has a one-year installation warranty. So that's what the warranty uh information looks like. You've seen this. There's no no change in that. Again, that's not a final uh rendering, but that's again to to show the layout of the of the courts at North. Um and then that number uh the proposal is not 782. It is 678,280. So uh you can take off the alternate four. uh even though it's in the agreement uh the proposal, it doesn't mean
057that we have to do that, which we're not going to. Um unless something were to drastically change uh but I did share the report for the testing with uh Kefir this morning and got back that everything looks uh to be to be good. Um they do want to do the alternating line colors as we talked about last uh last meeting as well. So if we look at South's um that does look a little different than what you saw in the previous they gave two different options and uh South said we prefer the look of option two which that's what I'm showing here again but that's not finalized and what that will look like. Um and if you go to the the amount it is not that amount it is $666,800. Um they also are asking
058to do the alternating lane line colors as well. they being like the athletic director, who's >> they saw South as a as a school. So, they met and and reviewed the the different components with that. And then once we get into that that final design, then we'll be able to see, >> you know, fully what that what that looks like. So, again, our funding, just as a reminder, uh we'll utilize the remaining working cash bond that we have. uh we'll include that in the next fiscal year uh budget and no no borrowing will be needed to uh get these projects done. So asking for uh board approval uh tonight um then we'll sign the contract to make that initial payment uh and then continue and finalize that design and we'll have it done in the
059summer of 26. We'll make the final payment in the next fiscal year. Any questions? Good work. >> Thank you. >> This one returns from prior meetings as well. >> Short contin I didn't know if there's any questions. This is the third time that we've uh that we'll have talked about this. Um so I just wanted to provide an opportunity if there were any questions on either the A&E or the construction management. Any questions coming back from the last time we discussed it? This is up for action and final approval tonight. So, I know we've talked about it many times leading up to to this evening. All right. Uh, life safety financing. Uh, now we turn our attention to Jere and we're going to need a little straw poll here uh from the board as to
060uh your preference in this this next matter. So, I'll turn it over to Jury to talk through it. >> Okay. Well, the purpose of these bonds is for the life safety projects that we've been talking about. We plan to issue roughly $4.4 million in bonds to pay for those projects. We have approximately 300,000, I believe, left over from the current life safety bonds that we'll use for the projects maybe this fall. >> Yep. Yep. Um, so tonight the decision that we need through the straw poll is the repayment structure of these bonds. So, if you want to take a look at the chart up here, you can see that we've provided um some scenarios of if we were to repay the bonds in one year, a typical homeowner with a home value of $500,000 would
061be paying approximately $130 >> one time. That same home owner, if we did it over two years, would be paying $66 for two years. Three years, as you can see, it there's not much difference in in the repayment schedule other than it's a it's a much larger repayment for the homeowner if we did it in one year versus five years. So, we can structure this this bond repayment over one, two, three, four, or five years. The impact at the bottom chart you can see the impact for the levy. If we do it in one year we're the total repayment is roughly 4.6 almost 4.7 versus if we took five years to repay it it's roughly 4.9 million. So the tradeoff is the shorter repayment is the higher single year tax burden for the homeowner. The
062longer repayment is the lower yearly impact for that homeowner. Slightly higher cost because of interest. Any questions on interpreting the charts uh Jere we cover this through our levy for life safety. So if we chose option one of just doing one year we would have a substantial levy in that year. Is that is that what you're saying? would increase the levy by that amount. >> Okay. But it's not going to impact our cash flow because we're paying paying from our levy source specifically for this. >> Correct. >> So this has no impact on the district's cash, >> not the operating budget. No. So it's is it simplified to say scenario one is more short-term if we do it in one year impact on the community two would be higher costs to the district. Is that
063accurate to say that like we'd be paying more because does it does that make sense what I just >> more just the total repayment if you go out five years it's going to cost a little bit more because of interest. >> So if we feathered it out over five years we're paying more in interest. >> But if we did year one the two scenarios year one means higher cost to community members >> in that first year >> lower cost >> overall >> to the district overall. Oh, to everyone overall >> to to the taxpayers. >> To the taxpayer overall. Okay. It's both taxpayer. Okay. Got it. So, year one, you see the homeowner would pay $131. If it took five years to repay it, it would cost them $137 in total. I think I'm partial
064to somewhere in the middle like the two-year plan because that's not that's increasing our interest payment by not even 100,000 and it's cutting the burden on the taxpayer in half. >> It's not as big of a hit each year, >> right? >> I think I'm inclined to have the two two to three years kind of where I'm inclined to to kind of land if I'm in line with you. Same. >> We get a show of hands for those who are in favor of three years. One, two, three. Those who are in favor of twoyear schedule. >> One, two, three, four. >> Okay. >> Is that your straw poll? >> Is that what you're looking for? Well, do I have consensus that if we go with two, is everybody comfortable going with two? >> Is there
065anybody that would like to advocate for something outside of that now that we've kind of reached this point? Okay. So, direction of the board through Straw Pole would be to just go with the two-year payment. >> Okay. We will work with bond counsel to make sure it's structured that way. >> Yes. And then when we get everything worked out, we'll come back to you with all of those details. But we just need to know how to structure it with bond counsel. >> Yes. >> All right, >> Julie. I have a question on the other part of this tonight. >> Yes, sir. >> Will do we need to talk about the timeline later? >> President Runner is going to mention that at the end. Okay. I just wanted to make certain >> that's in his notes.
066Okay. >> He has a script to read. >> Okay. that that part that bond bond council wants to read. Yes, >> it's in your script. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh we're going to transition now to tenative budget. >> Okay. So, tonight um we're presenting our final operating budget. slightly changed from the um budget we looked at uh back at the end of July uh because we have some more information. For example, we received information about property replacement taxes and then we received our grant allocation so that we knew exactly what we plan to receive this year. So, our budget is Oh, we're looking at revenues. Um okay. Um start somewhere else. >> No, that's okay. I'll just say we're roughly balanced with the budget at about $122 million. So, for revenue highlights, uh just
067as we did last time, that's not nothing has changed there. Our property taxes are expected to go up slightly over 4%. Our replacement taxes are showing we're about $400,000 more than we were back in July. Um that 400,000 is being dedicated to purchase mini buses as soon as we're ready to make that purchase. The local revenues 550,000 of that is related to the if I want to call it the tiff from the village of Downer's Grove. That tiff has been extended. However, the village of Downer's Grove um will be um paying the school districts both 58 and 99 their share of taxes that we would have received if we had not agreed to extend the tiff. So that's an estimated amount from the village. They don't have an actual calculation yet, but that's the estimated
068amount that they provided to us. And then for state and federal funding, we're just a little bit lower due to various grant allocations and categorical payments anticipated from the state. We do anticipate those will be reduced. Those are the key highlights on the revenues. Does anybody know >> which line is the tiff item in? >> Which line? >> Other local revenues. >> And that's mo that's all of what that number is that you just explained. >> No. uh of the 4.1 million in other local 550,000 of it >> is the tiff money. >> Got it. >> So that's an increase that we've not had in the past. >> Why do you anticipate food service revenue to to be slightly down? >> Oh, it's just an estimate. >> Okay. [Music] That's all. Yeah, >> that's a
069conservative estimate. Okay. >> All right. The highlights on the expenditures, the salaries and benefits have not changed anything. Those were were set well before with the uh collective bargaining agreements for the most part on purchase services. The um we see there's a $990,000 increase over last year. That's just really driven mainly by transportation uh cost and insurance premium costs. Uh some of our commercial insurance policies took a pretty big hike this year. On the supply side, that's really being driven by software renewals and utility costs. Part of the software um is related to the business and HR software program that we have um we are purchasing this year. So that's an additional cost for one year. Then on the capital projects, we're looking to spend about $1.3 million more than we did last year. And
070that's uh for technology facilities and then the mini buses that's in that line item. And then as far as tuition, it's relatively flat. That's our for the most part it's our special education tuition, but we also do have some TCD tuition in there. So, we have a few less students this year that are attending TCD. So, that tuition line item was reduced. Any questions on the expenditures? So on this slide, we're just looking at what the estimated ending fund balance would be for the operating funds as of June 30th, 2026. And you'll see there's a a it's a shortterm drawd down that's planned um with rebuilding expected in future years for the fund balance. Um, we're still well above our 3% board policy minimum to have. Um, but over the next two years, we expect
071that to go right back up to the $9 million fund balance. So overall, this is pretty much a balanced budget um that we've been able to achieve despite um some of our expenditure pressures that we we planned on um relatively with the um you say mainly with the salaries. We have some strategic investments in technology facilities and in the minibuses in this budget. And um yeah, that's that's it. Oh, we did increase the transfer line item up to 702,000 because we did enter into um our lease agreement for the Chromebooks for this year. Um we did that in August where we didn't have that in July. So that was added into our projections here. >> Questions on operating funds? >> You expect the fund balances to go up because um if I recall correctly from
072the CBA that our salary and benefits um was kind of frontloaded. >> Yes. >> The first year. >> Yes. And we'll see some of the savings in the back end of the CBA such that we'll recoup our fund balances by the end of that cycle. >> Correct. >> Okay. Especially due to a large number of retirements over the next five years. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Actually by two years. >> Yeah. Within two years. within two years it'll all be >> and this is a requirement that we um provide the public and the board with our cash balances as of June 30th, 2025. So that's the cash that we started off this fiscal year with. >> All right, any questions for Jereie on budget? just just to topline it again. Thank you. I'm sure you
073um just just to appreciate it is essentially a break even balanced budget. I think the revenues are about 740k less or the revenues are about 740k less than the the uh the revenues. So pretty pretty much balanced. Um and it looks like the uh the increase in expenditures uh this year as compared to prior year outpaced by the revenues as compared to the prior year but they're explained exactly what as what Drew said the uh the front loading the increase of the the contract with DGA and some of the capital projects including the mini buses. So um yeah so it makes uh makes sense. I appreciate appreciate all your work and effort man. All right. So, there's a public hearing on this this evening as well as a request for approval. Freedom of information requests.
074We have received them. We filled them and they are posted on our website publicly. It's on to you. >> Okay. I'm going to open up the public hearing on the uh the budget. So, the school district will adhere to policy 4.10 or 4.10 and its public participation policy 2.23. 230. Members of the public will be permitted to speak for three minutes unless they request to speak longer. Members of the public must conduct themselves with respect and civility. There's no opportunity for cross-examination. And while members of the public cannot be prohibited to ask questions, neither the board or administration are under any obligation to answer questions from the public, especially if the questions are not respectful and asked in good faith. Um, Julie, do we have any anyone who would like to speak on the the
075proposed budget? >> They didn't not need to fill in a slip, but then they're just offered that opportunity >> that wishes to address the board about the budget specifically. >> Okay. Hearing none, then I would uh entertain a motion to close the public hearing on the budget. >> So moved. >> Second. Car moves. Chris seconds. >> Thank you very much. Cara Castton. >> Ka Espinosa. I >> April Fein >> I >> Michael Riskey >> I >> Katie Courtourtney >> I >> Ken Dawson >> I >> and Don Rener >> I motion carries public hearing is closed uh item seven the consent agenda before the board votes on the consent agenda. Is there any agend agenda item a board member would like to pull out of the consent agenda for further discussion? All right hearing none.
076I get a motion from the board of education to approve the consent agenda as presented, which includes A. Personnel report, appointment certified, transfer of position classified, appointment classified. B, personnel report retirement certified, retirement classified, resignation classified. C. August treasures report and financial pages. D. Resolution authorizing reduction in working hours of educational support personnel. E. Memorandum of understanding with Benedictine University. F. Student trip. G. Acceptance of donation EMS Fly High Foundation. H acceptance of donation John McNamera and I. Acceptance of donation Gary Ley. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Chris moves 10 seconds. >> Thank you. >> Chris Espininoza. >> I. >> Ken Dawson. >> Hi. >> April Fein. >> I. >> Michael Riskey. >> I. >> Cara Casten. >> I. >> Eddie Courtourtney. >> I. And Don Runner. >> I. Motion carries. And again, thank
077you for the donations for the various groups and individuals. Okay, moving to item eight, recommendations for actions. Can I get a motion of uh from the board of education to approve the final budget for the 202526 fiscal year is presented in the exhibits and the official ISP budget form and authorize its submission to the Illinois State Board of Education. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mike moves. Chris seconds. >> Thank you. Michael Riskey. I >> Chris Espinosa. >> Hi, >> April Fein. >> Hi, >> Cara Casten. >> Hi, >> Katie Courtourtney. >> Hi, >> Ken Dawson. >> Hi, >> and Don Runner. >> I motion carries. Um, item B. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the 202526 grant allocations as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moves April
078seconds. >> Thank you. Katie Courtourtney. >> I, >> April Fein, >> I. >> Michael Riskey. I >> Cara Casten >> I >> Ken Dawson >> I >> Chris Espinosa >> I >> and Don Rener >> I motion carries. Item C. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the proposal from White and Company for architectural and engineering services for life safety improvements as presented and authorizes the administration to sign and execute all necessary documents related to this proposal. >> Move. >> Second. >> Cara moves. Mike seconds. >> Thank you. Cara Casten. I >> Michael Riskey. >> I >> Katie Courtourtney. >> I >> Ken Dawson. >> Hi, >> Chris Espinosa. >> I >> April Fein. >> I >> and Dunrunner. >> I motion carries. Item D. Can I get a motion
079from the board of education to approve the proposal from Whit and Company for construction management services for life safety improvements as presented and authorizes the administration to sign and execute all necessary documents related to this proposal. >> So move. >> Second. >> Ken moves. Chris seconds. >> Thank you. Ken Dawson. >> Hi, >> Christo Espinosa. >> Hi, >> April Fein. >> Hi, >> Michael Riskey. >> I >> Cara Casten, >> I >> Katie Courtourtney, >> I >> and Don Runner, >> I. Motion carries. And then finally, item E. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the proposal from Kefir USA as presented and authorizes the administration to sign and execute all necessary documents related to this proposal? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Ken and Chris. >> Oh, I'm sorry.
080Ken moved. Chris seconds. >> Thank you. Just want to confirm. >> Apologize. >> No problem. Ken Dawson. >> Hi. >> Chris Espressoza. >> Hi. >> April Fein. >> I. >> Michael Riskey. >> Hi. >> Cara Casten. >> Hi. >> Katie Courtourtney. >> I. >> And Don Rener. >> I. Motion carries. Hank. Any old business? Item nine. >> Uh, no old business. >> Okay. And then on to new business item 10. >> Uh, we have many policies up for review under uh new business. Um many of them are just recommendations under press that are clerical changes and uh minor cleanup. Uh there's a few that we review on a regular basis as a result of administrative review. Uh and then uh we have two kind of major areas that are being addressed in this. Uh, one
081is some new or significant changes related to agency and police interviews that are related to new laws being pl passed or revised uh at the state or federal andor federal level. And then we have many policies that are being updated that are related to unifor uniform grievance procedures and or title 9 in combination. Uh the policy committee spent a lot of time reviewing those specific policies that are in there. Uh ones that stand out uh are 2.260 uniform grievance 2.265 265 uh title 9 7.150 which are agency and police interviews contact with students and 8.35 immigration enforcement activities by federal agencies all connect back to those changes in state and federal law. I would encourage as always board members to review through those. But those four uh definitely are ones uh that if you you
082might want to spend a little more time digging into and reach out to Chris, Don, or myself if you have questions, suggestions or changes in those. Um these will all return next month for uh reviewing and approval. Uh that being said, are there any questions I can address uh regarding any of those at this time? Can you say again the the four that you want us to >> Sure. 2.260 which is uniform grievance and I I'll follow up uh separate email to the board as well. Uh 2.265 265 Title 9 grievance 7.150 which is agency and police interviews or contact with students and 8.35 immigration enforcement activities by federal agencies. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions I can answer related to those? Well, I appreciate you're clearly noting what changed. It makes it easy
083easier to go through so many of them. So, thank you, Julie. >> I appreciate Julie as well. >> It is a a pretty substantial list that she has worked through this time for us. >> You're going to be missed, Julie. >> Okay, moving on to item 11, the second reception of visitors. Julie, do we have any visitors like filled out? >> I have no slip, sir. >> I didn't slip. Okay, that's fine. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. >> This is for you, doctor. This can be passed around. These are uh excerpts from books from DGS. All right. Please state your name and then you'll have three minutes to address the board. >> Absolutely. Hi, I'm Bobby Zato. My student goes to DGS. I want to address these three topics as respectfully as possible. So, the
084first topic is there was a staff member arrested last year for alleged rape to the student. Um my concern is are there other teachers out there? Uh Dr. Theal has the board and principal lip gone through like how did this happen? Is there anything else that we can address looking at that? Um I would like feedback on that knowing that maybe that cannot be shared at this time. And I bring that up because I ask um as I asked before, is pornographic books allowed at DGS? Um because as you can see here, the paper that's going around, there's a book that is given to students that is pornographic. So I did go to curriculum night at DGS. Miss Otto, I will remind you that props props are not allowed during >> So when you walked
085into curriculum night and if you walked through the library, the first display case what it had was a book on display of a girl smoking a cigarette. And I'm like, "Wow, that's I I walk right into the library. The first thing I see is the girl smoking the cigarette." Um, so it seems like that's what's being promoted, right? And then as I'm walking around the library, I see this book which is on the paper in front of you. Now, um I'm going to reach out to principal lip because in this book is pornographic material and it's on display, right? So this book I have in my hand is actually from DGS. Students can go get it and read it. You know, a book like this was not on display, but a book like this. So
086what message is DGS trying to convey to the students? Um I really like that we were talking about attendance and what is needed for the students. I look forward to the October results of lead reading literacy because as we know at DGS on average 34% of students can read at grade level. Well, why is that? based on my conversations with my own children and other of their friends, AP students receive textbooks. And when I asked the girl, "What do you think the regular students can learn from textbooks?" Like, "Oh, no, they cannot learn from textbooks." Which I disagree with. So, you've got your freshman coming in, you've got a lot of regular kids, and they don't have textbooks. they have in English novels such as The Kiterunner, which Highlight is about a child gay gang
087rape. There's Pipeline, which has 137 times the MF word, as I discussed last time, and other books. Thank you. I look forward to removing these books from the school. Um, I I just before we move on, I would like to correct the record with the board and that we do not allow pornography in anywhere inside of our schools and we do provide students with textbooks. With that, I'll turn it on to communications and announcements. >> Okay. Can I get a report uh on LEND? from >> so we just had our first meeting of the year in person meeting uh the highlight of that meeting was several state representatives and senators come to the meeting and we talked about the priorities for the year some of the committees that are being led on um a variety
088of topics um some of legislation we're kind of keeping an eye on and yeah overall a meaty meeting lot to discuss just kind of kicking the year off right I'll let you >> some of the more budget items like mandated categoricals and it was a good amount of time to meet with our local legislators as well >> yeah some more to come on the work of the committees >> where do we stand on that legislation about school districts serving as polling locations >> we talked about it it's a priority for lend this year. >> Okay. So, that it's still being kicked around down in Springfield. >> Okay. >> Well, I don't know if down in Springfield, but it's being kicked around at DuPage. >> Okay. We'll try to get it to Springfield. >> Okay. >>
089Yeah. Implementing the new dual credit law that Hank was heavily involved in. So, >> yeah, good meeting. >> It was a busy meeting. Yeah. >> All right. Chris, can uh we get a report from you on Sassin? >> Uh nothing new to report. We have another meeting in January, I think. Um, a lot of our day-to-day work with uh SAS is around staffing at the start of the year. Uh, as we've seen in many special education settings, staffing, especially pair of professionals uh and some teachers has been really challenging. So, the cooperative's been working on that a lot to start the year. And then our ongoing facility work, you know, trying to figure out the long-term uh direction for facilities in SASID, which I'm assuming will come to the board of recommendation in January. So,
090um, a lot of work going on over there. >> Okay. Uh, Katie and April, can we get a report from you on the D99 Education Foundation? >> Yes. So, we had a meeting last week and talked a lot about just um public outreach. So, revisiting their Facebook page, kind of updating everything, talked about maybe making connection with Instagram just to get more words out to the community. Um they were happy looking at their numbers that um they have raised funds of over $1 million during their time with 99 services. So, that's been wonderful. Uh, they're also very excited with the alumni contact list that um was going to be provided by Hank and the school. Um, they're working on a really nice brochure that's going to get mailed out to a group of both alumni,
091community members, and businesses that have provided funds to the education foundation. um that is their main focus right now and getting that out. Um and then otherwise, yeah, I think they had a countdown, maybe it was 12 days or so for teachers to get their grants um written and submitted for hopefully some really cool new projects that the teachers can be um looking forward to taking part in. So, it was a really good meeting >> and we've already started to receive some of those proposals, so that's great. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and Ken, can we get a report from my ASB? >> Well, we have the DuPage division meeting at the Carile coming up in October, October 29th, and hopefully we will all be able to attend. um happy to announce that we were one
092of 42 school boards that was which earned the designation uh for our school board governance. So that's out of 800 what you say 840 848 school high school boards in the state of Illinois we're in the top 42 um which is just fantastic. uh it's about effective government governance behaviors as well as our our commitment to effectively leading the district and I think we exemplify that both in these meetings and the dedication of the board and everyone every day starts in the schools goes through us. I personally want to thank Don for his leadership on this board. without his leadership, none of this would be possible. And I would like to personally thank Hank because your leadership has been tremendous. And between the two of you, you know, we have truly earned this award. The
093rest of us board members are all dedicated and commitment, have commitment in our own way, and it's really been a fantastic thing. So, what are we supposed to get? Plaques, >> pictures, news release, >> after the division meeting. So, the division meeting will be officially recognized and then >> all the board members there, we get a nice photo op and then we'll we'll send out an announcement to the community once we that's the official recognition. So, this is the early recognition announcement that it's coming. So, and and I'd like to offer my congratulations to the board. uh you know for this recognition from your own professional organization for effective school governance. Uh the it's pretty rigorous application to go through. Uh that ensures that you're doing things like you saw tonight, setting strategic plans and
094looking at data and looking at progress and holding the district to a high standard that you as a board are holding yourself accountable and are professionally evaluating yourself and growing and attending your professional development opportunities to increase your skills as board members. And I can tell you many superintendents I talk to are insanely jealous of the board that we have here in district 99. So I appreciate all of you and your volunteer work and everything that you offer to this district and this community. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um upcoming board meetings we have uh next meeting will be October 6 um as a workshop meeting here at the ASC at 6:30 PM followed later in the month October 20th for our monthly business meeting again at 6:30 here at the ASC.
095Um as far as the timeline for the life safety bonds, uh that timeline will be as follows. October 20th, 2025, we will hold a public hearing. On November 17, 2025, there will be a bond resolution subject to adoption or vote on adoption by the board. And then followed in December of 2025, uh the district will uh receive the bond proceeds thereafter. All right. Uh lastly, uh the board will be uh going into close session. Um, can I get a motion from the board of education to go into close session for a collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees and B for the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent
096contractors in a park, recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal council. for the district, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of the district or against legal counsel for the district to determine its validity. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Ken moves in. Katie seconds. >> Thank you, Ken Dawson. >> I Courtney, I >> Espininoza. >> Hi, >> April Fein. I >> Michael Riskey >> I >> Cara Casten >> I >> and Don Rener >> I motion carries uh and just for the members of the public the only action the board will be taking when it comes out of close session will be to adjourn. We'll take a
097brief break and then we'll get into close session. Thank you.