Wilmette Public Schools District 39 Board of Education Meeting August 22, 2022

001i hereby call to order this public hearing on budgets for the board of education for wilmette public schools district 39 this monday august 22nd 2022 will the clerk please call the roll amy paling here john cesaretti here anne hart here bonnie kim here frank panzika lisa schneider fabes aaron stone here and the board and the administration will lead the pledge of allegiance thank you so i will turn it over to dr cremascoli for the budget presentations thank you and it's my pleasure to introduce corey boltemeyer who will present the budgets thank you tonight is the last step in our process to approve the fiscal year 2023 budget for district 39 i just wanted to review everything um as is our process we have a public hearing and people have opportunity for comment and then later

002on in the meeting we will ask the board to approve the e39 budget so throughout our process uh there were several changes from our tentative budget back in the spring to our final budget that we're asking the board to approve tonight some of the bigger line items that i've listed here on this slide include state aid the reimbursement for private facility tuition we realized that after we confirmed with with isb that some of the high dollar private facility costs will get reimbursed in fiscal year 24 not fiscal year 23 when we're incurring them we did see um a change in replacement replacement taxes during this previous fiscal year and then the illinois department of revenue confirmed during the month of august that that was anticipated to occur again interest revenue as the markets have increased

003we increased interest revenue a little bit and then as we worked our way through the summer projects that occurred this summer seeing where we were going to see that actual expenditure split between 22 and 23 fiscal years and then also getting some estimated costs for projects that we're considering for next summer we made an adjustment in the capital projects fund for the for those costs including the architectural and engineering fees we adjusted keep 39 fees based upon actual enrollment we moved that up a little over 100 000 to reflect enrollment as of the date that we finalized the budget under the federal aid category there was a couple of smaller changes but one of the bigger changes was as we submitted our application through fema for some reimbursement for some coveted expenditures we felt comfortable

004enough to add that into the budget on the expenditure side in the ed fund we had supplies and materials particularly in the food service department where as we got some actual cost data from last year and then knowing what our intentions are for this upcoming school year we adjusted that budget we adjusted the budget for transfer between funds particularly from the o m to the capital projects which is a primary funding method to fund those summer those bigger summer projects we added in some costs for short-term borrowing which we anticipate to be the result of cook county delaying the distribution of the second installment of property taxes this this counter year and then we also included the scenario for potential debt certificates refunding depending upon how the market shows when we get there so with

005all those changes that put our total revenues for fiscal year 23 and the operating funds at 70.7 million total expenditure 69.1 the projected surplus within the operating funds revenues minus expenses 1.58 then when we take transfers out for other uses we have about 5.3 million 4.3 of that is for construction and a million for the death certificates then that gives us a projected ending fund balance in the operating funds at 29 million or 42 percent so still above our our goal of 40 annually this slide shows that our local sources of revenue continue to be our dominant source with property taxes and other local revenue via fees um a variety of kinds making up over 90 percent of total revenues in the operating funds on the flip side expenditures it's not surprising that nearly 80

006percent of our total expenditures are tied up in salaries and benefits of our employees that's right about where we've historically been this slide shows revenue revenues versus expenditures in the operating funds we look back a few years and then we look again ahead to fiscal year 23 the nice thing we see on a slide like this is that our revenues exceed the expenditures by a little bit in each year and then this slide shows historically looking back uh five years of actual a year of estimated four years of estimated going forward um where our fund balance has been as a percentage of expenditures um and as you can see going out we maintain above that 40 threshold with that that is the end of the district 39 budget presentation i'll take any questions otherwise i

007can move on to the uxi budget presentation and i i'd say thank you corey i know we've gone over this many times appreciate it thank you all right so the wix c the final budget as well as the district 39 uh the e39 is the fiscal agent for the womack community special ed agreement they have their own set of financial statements and because they have their own set of financial statements they have to have their own board approved budget said we approve the which we'll ask the board to approve later on it's an agreement between district 39 and avoca school district 37 and the budget for wixie is is extremely simple we are seeing a budget of 206 000 of revenues 206 000 of expenditures for fiscal year 23 slightly above where we were in

008fiscal year 22 and one kind of difference between wixie and say like our v39 financial statements wixie does not have any fund balances at this point in time the money is purely in and out and so revenues and expenditures would match each other each year so that is the budget that is another line item that the board will be asked to vote on later in the meeting and similar to the d39 if anybody has any questions otherwise um open up the board discussion thank you preparing us so well board members okay i don't really have a comment about this budget i'm more concerned i know we've talked about this maybe we'll talk about it later but the um the delay in the property tax bills i think is really unusual and i don't i don't

009know how many people are paying attention to it um is that you know i think we're all we know property taxes we do know cory has been paid yeah just to clarify we've talked about it so i am i just carry can you remind the board and community who may be listening kind of what that means and what it means for our district sure so um cook county breaks up our property tax billings in two installments the first installment typically goes out february first with a march first due date and that is set to be 55 of the of each taxpayers prior year bill which they did do that they did that on time and then we have known since probably november december that there's some kind of internal departmental issues at the county level

010that they have warned us that the second installment as they finalize our each taxpayers bill in cook county you know they were supposed to get those bills out usually around july 1st so that then they could be due august 1st and we had been warned that we should expect that until like thanksgiving or winter break or possibly even into calendar year 2023 um where that becomes problematic for us and one of the nice things about you know having a policy or maintaining a fund balance is that if you're a couple months late we can withstand that if we're you know half a year late now we then become like many other districts or governmental entities where we would have to take out some short-term borrowing against those future tax receipts um i mentioned i had

011it in the budget you know there's from my perspective two big impacts to district 39 is if we had started to receive that money and say like july 15th to you know probably about now that would be the bulk of the second installment money we could have been earning interest on that all throughout the fall we're finally starting to see interest rates rise so on like the district 39 that would be good news um so that's one thing that hurts us is the inability to earn interest revenue on that for about half of this fiscal year and the other thing is if if this delay continues as long as everyone anticipates the district will likely incur some level of cost some level of short-term borrowing cost i'm hopeful that you know even with borrowing rates

012being a couple of percent that you know our total borrowing period might only be a few weeks or maybe a month or at worst two months maybe um but we do need to plan for it and that is something that could be in our future we'll work through as we get into the fall but those are probably the two big impacts to us as a district kind along this line out here follow up i suspect since it wasn't brought up in the past there's also been an issue of state payments being delayed or is there any forecast that that that revenue stream has any problems or is that no they've been um they've been on time like the probably the biggest amount of money that we get and many other districts get from the state

013right now is through evidence-based funding and going back i'd say four or five years when they switched to that model they made it a priority in springfield because so many school districts rely on that money to make sure it goes out twice a month on time there are a few other streams like say the transportation reimbursement money that we get that's quarterly um that's still a few months delayed but the bulk of the money that even district 39 received from the state has been coming regularly and i haven't heard of any anything along those lines um usually if they were going to be worried if that was going to be a serious conversation they would usually start with some level of probation um just so they could continue to make you know quick and on

014time even if it was a reduced amount seeing no further comments this brings us to the first opportunity for the audience to address the board in public comments and at this point if you'd like to speak it would be in regards to the budget hearing if there are any audience members that would like to speak on this topic please stand to address the board i would remind guests to state your name and community of residence and by board directive you are allowed three minutes to address the board okay seeing none having no further business i request a motion to adjourn to the regular meeting of the board of education i move to adjourn to the regular meeting of the board of education motion having oh may i have a second i second the motion a

015little rusty motion having been made and seconded all those in favor please indicate by saying yay motion carried by general consent and we are now adjourned to the regular meeting i hereby call to order this regular meeting of the board of education for wilmette public schools district 39 for monday august 22nd 2022 the time is 7 14. i think we should do it just to be safe i think i think so will the clerk please call the role amy palin here john c is ready yeah ann hart here bonnie kim here frank panzika lisa schneider faves aaron stone before we begin i just want to for our first formal meeting back say welcome back i know today it's just fortuitous that we meet on the very first day of students coming back and i know

016from the pictures on the district's website it was incredibly joyful and so i want to wish everyone a wonderful meaningful rich school year and i want to thank all of the people who worked all summer to get us here while families were off enjoying summer i know there were many many faculty and staff and administration who worked to get us ready to the start of the school year so thanks to everyone for that looking forward to the year ahead i seek a motion to approve the minutes of the june 13 2022 regular and executive session meetings i moved to approve the minutes of the june 13th 2022 regular and executive session meetings may i have a second second the motion has been made and seconded board members are there any comments errors or omissions to

017the minutes okay all those in favor please indicate by saying yay motion carries by general consent so this brings us to an opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic are there any audience members that would like to speak if so please stand to address the board i would remind guests to state your name and community of residence and by board directive you are allowed three minutes to address the board or one minute if you have previously spoken um oh okay hello all i want to thank you for your service to our community my name is mary rita croft i am a resident of wilmette i'm a homeowner and the parent of three former district 39 students and one of the building paraprofessionals at ramona school i have worked in the district

018since 2011. i love living in wilmette and working in our great schools the district has earned its stellar reputation through the hard work of committed stakeholders you the board representing parents that has over the years hired capable forward-thinking administrators who in turn have hired amazing and dedicated teachers and support staff and we all do our part in service of one goal creating the best possible teaching environment to nurture our kids we are dedicated to making students feel safe secure and ready to learn and our outcomes reflect the success of our shared mission over the past few years we have navigated the pandemic with all of these stakeholders stepping up and doing their respective parts i'm proud that we remained open when many districts were fully remote for teachers and support staff however doing our parts

019meant becoming front line workers it meant facing uncertainty and risk with professionalism and continuing to provide that excellent learning environment it meant dealing with the worries and concerns of our vulnerable family members for custodians tech people secretaries cooks and paraprofessionals it meant either a lot of additional duties or completely shifting the focus of our efforts we didn't have to pivot back to remote learning but we were constantly flexible in the face of changing conditions and protocols while you all seated here guided this mission with your decisions we are the boots on the ground getting it done we have heard in many meetings trainings and speeches that we are the backbone of d39 and while we appreciate the kind words i'm here to tell you this backbone is hurting unfortunately in our society the people who

020on the front lines who work with children are not valued in the same way that workers in other sectors are valued much lip service is paid to the sacred mission of nurturing kids and although we are fingerprinted background checked and professionally developed we are not paid a competitive wage the work we do in our schools serves to enrich our district through consistently high property values yielding a healthy tax base the financial health of our district is strong yet the backbone the front-line workers are suffering inflation has eaten away at our income we have six empty positions those who remain are working too much to cover what is missing we have had scores of pera's resign our neighboring districts have starting wages three dollars per hour above ours new trailers board proudly proclaimed last november raising

021the starting wages of nearly all their workers to 19 or 20 dollars per hour they acknowledge the difficulty of hiring salary when neighboring districts and businesses offering more i our district needs to get out of the antiquated thinking that pays small wages to frontline professionals who work with small children quality workers cost money and if you don't pay them they will go i'm so sorry it's just a terrible position to be in but if somebody has more to say we do have another period uh later in the meeting where you're welcome to address the board for another minute but thank you very much anybody else good evening members of the d39 board of education my name is cynthia sporn i am currently a secretary at wilmette junior high school entering my 16th year and i

022am speaking to you this evening in support of the wage increase as proposed by our support staff union since i started 16 years ago the secretarial position has changed due to modernization changing and safety protocol and the covet pandemic now we face a high rate of inflation and see higher wages elsewhere upon reflecting between my 2010 and current year contract my pay has only increased 5.32 cents an hour to which averages out to 42 cents a year i'm sorry 44 cents a year in 2010 i was paid 17.23 cents an hour today 12 years later i make 22.55 cents an hour i strongly believe that this rate of increase does not represent the increase of responsibility given me over this same time period i sincerely believe the wage increase proposed by the support staff union

023will create remarkable changes in our support staff not only for fiscal stability but for moral stability now the decision is yours please choose to substantially increase our wages as we are here not only to collect a paycheck but to buy provide a nurturing safe and productive environment for our precious students thank you for your time thank you good evening my name is anna gianni i'm currently a secretary at wilmette junior high school and have been at this position for less than a year i make 18 and 16 cents an hour in my very short time in d39 i have learned so much from the current support staff members from every school go out of their way to answer my questions or offer a helping hand while i'm still learning my new position when i was

024hired i assumed my wage reflected my newness and my experience level and i accepted that understanding that as i grew professionally in my position my wage would reflect my experience and time put in the district over the past few months i've learned that does not seem to be the case dedicated veteran employees who have been with the district 5 10 or even 15 plus years make very little more or in some cases less than i do because of this low hourly wage i do need to maintain a second job in addition to this position and d39 it's difficult to give 100 at this position when i have to work two jobs just to make ends meet i thought that when i accepted this job in such a prestigious district such as d39 i wouldn't have

025to string together 12 14 hour days just to earn a livable wage personally a wage increase for me would mean more time devoted for to this job which i want to grow and thrive in and more time spent with my family and my friends and taking care of myself and my mental well-being thank you for your time thank you i'm billy joyce i live in chicago i worked here seven years as a database manager and in the spring for the past two years as a cross-country and track coach at the middle school i'm the president of the support staff union in 2015 when i came to the district the board had just granted salary adjustments to nurses and technology positions that gave willmet the edge against my employer at the time but that edge has

026eroded for all support staff positions in wilmette every parapro and cook makes under thirty three thousand dollars a year last year seventy nine percent of our members made less than forty one thousand dollars which is the amount that the economic policy institute says that an adult with no kids needs to earn in order to have an adequate standard of living in cook county there are 190 support staff positions and since september 2017 there have been more than 200 resignations from those positions our last computer support technician at the junior high left wilmette for a higher paying job and more opportunity at another school district he responded to a survey i sent to members in june he wrote i work in a construction after my day job i worked the second job to maintain my lifestyle

027for myself and my wife that's not unusual more than 25 percent of our members leave school after working a full day here and travel to a second job during the school year one of those people is the head custodian at central school he's at his second job now so he asked me to read his letter he writes my name is jose maligon i've worked in the district for more than 17 years i started as a night custodian at the junior high in 2005. i became the head custodian at central elementary a year later i started working at district 96 kildir public schools in may of 2017 as a night custodian i get paid more money as a regular night custodian at killdeer than as a head custodian for 17 plus years in district 39. some

028of my colleagues have left this school district to work as custodians at other school districts because of the pay if we get a fair increase here i may be able to stop my second job i would be able to work more overtime in district 39 and spend more time with my family thank you jose m here in well met i've known engaged parents and community members industrious student athletes and effective committed administrators not to mention the dynamic teachers and unfaltering support staff this is a special place to work we are asking for a salary adjustment during an acutely painful time for wage workers our normal two to four percent raises won't ease the pain of this economic moment please make wages for essential support staff competitive with low skilled jobs so that the turnover can

029be stemmed and key personnel can be retained thank you anybody else like to speak thank you so much uh so we will turn to board reports at this point and uh we'll start with committee's mr panzika facilities thank you the facility development committee met on august 15th as part of the regularly scheduled committee of the whole the committee reviewed the summer construction updates of their first item a lot of work was completed this summer joe papa nicholas from nicholas associates updated the board on the projects at ramona harper and mackenzie including new windows and air conditioning work each of these products projects were substantially completed in time for school to start minor little details were left except for one item and that was the chiller at mckenzie for the air conditioning with lots of supply

030chain issues they they had a date that was early enough that that it would have been completed they got a new date at our meeting only a week ago we had a projected date in september and already the dates moved out to october so um they're they're working on that it when it does come in it'll have minimal impact on school in session but obviously the advantages of having the killer before then is that unless we have very warm days in late october i suspect we'll have to wait until next spring before we see those advantages the committee then heard an update on construction project proposals for next summer and beyond in particular the focus for those projects is adding air conditioning to our schools harper ramona central hms a brief update was shared again

031lead times is probably the most critical item on that so while we're working through what the estimates are and funding um we also have a parallel track to put in once we have definitive plans for what equipment might be needed to put in placeholders for ordering the equipment to get as much advance on the lead times as possible the board had a number of discussions on timing and we're moving forward with items in parallel so we don't have to commit to buying equipment until we've decided exactly how much um it's going to cost and how much we're going to spend so that was the update for this summer and for next year thank you great mr c ready school finance president school finance committee met on august 15th as part of the committee of the

032whole the board reviewed the district 39 fiscal year 2023 final budget as well as the wilmat community special ed agreement wixie fiscal year 2023 final budget both budgets were presented at public hearing this evening and appeared later on today's agenda for approval in addition the school finance committee received a brief update regarding the annual post tax compliance this annual procedure process is done to review compliance with rules and regulations or issuers of debt such as district 39 a brief update will be provided to the board that's it thank you thank you uh and i will turn it to dr premiscoley for strategy and then for um to start with her i have notes to share on behalf of member lisa schneider faves who serves as our chair of the strategy committee and is not able

033to be with us this evening the strategy committee also met on august 15 2022 as part of the board's committee the whole the administration presented the strategic plan action steps for this upcoming school year and sought feedback and discussion from the board these action steps will be reviewed and refined with input from the district strategic advisory team the dsat and will be recommended to the board for final approver approval excuse me at the september board of education meeting the administration also reviewed our reopening i'm sorry our reporting plans for progress related to the strategic plan action steps the board will receive regular monthly updates of progress relative to the action steps during each of the strategy committees at committee of the whole the board will also receive formal reports of progress at regular board of

034education meetings three times each year once in september to review the action steps and seek approval of those once in february for a mid-year progress update and then again in june for an end-of-year report and review of the key performance indicators we're hoping that this slightly revised structure will help to keep the board's discussion really focused during committee of the whole and then also make information readily available to the community as we monitor our progress during the strategy committee meeting the board was also provided with a review of the proposed coven not this available currently presented later on this evening's agenda focuses on implementation of the requirements of idph as well as ongoing practices that have supported our return to more typical school practices protocols and procedures so the plan aligns with the requirements of

035idph and cdc we know that both of those align with one another at this point and we as a district will aim to return to typical pre-pandemic practices wherever possible while maintaining the options and arrangements to allow for adjustments as circumstances warrant or as may be required by idph as conditions change so again you'll see that later on thank you so we will move to liaison reports and um sure well first up is our district strategic advisory team that team is scheduled to meet on thursday september 8th we also have our educational foundation meeting that is scheduled for september 21st 2022 and our wilmette village intergovernmental cooperation working group i'll let john or bonnie give a quick update on that group i don't think we have any well actually um okay we had spoke just

036before the meeting started and i recalled that there was a memo over the summer which you might jogging your memory now mr cesaretti that the village manager had um sent a proposal of um of um three different scenarios for a sustainability coordinator with with all of them no one's doing that thank you bonnie sure i actually just pulled up the email and um it was something that um i would like for the board to sort of think about and we can either decide tonight or sometime soon but there are three scenarios in the first scenario the village and park district would each receive 50 percent of the sustainability coordinator's time and split the costs under this scenario the coordinator would not work with any of the other four entities to further their sustainability goals and

037plans and those four other entities would be the library the district 39 district 37 and the township in scenario number two the village and park district each would receive 40 percent of the sustainability coordinator's time and the remaining 20 percent is divided between the other four entities somewhat unequally exact percentages borne by each government entity would be open to discussion and they sort of have um um an explanation of the allocation here um and then they say that in um and in that in scenario number two district 39 would receive 7.5 of the share of the coordinator and that is let's see 156 hours and that would cost us seven thousand two hundred sixty one dollars per year in scenario number three there's a bit of this is a hybrid between scenarios one and two

038the village in the park district would fund most ninety two percent of the sustainability coordinator position the remaining eight percent would be split evenly between the other four um entities um for a nominal yearly cost and in that scenario district 39 would have 45 hours or two percent of the coordinator's time um at a cost of 2095 so does anybody have a feeling about which of those three options would be best for mr 39 strikes me i don't know i'm just processing this but to me it feels like i don't know if the district has a need it doesn't feel like i have enough information to make that decision for the district if the district is feeling like that would be beneficial then i would certainly support scenario two or three i don't know that

039we have enough information to say i mean if you were forced to make a decision right now i'd probably say a because it hasn't risen to the surface to our strategic plan or other conversations as a need i certainly want to partner with them and it's an important priority but i don't know it feels yeah if i could it's all coming back to me now this is two months ago i can't remember yesterday so thank you i needed that um i recall in the meeting that the consensus of the group was that we should revert the decision to the administrations of the various governing bodies i think that's where it sits so let us know please yes for sure i mean it would be great to get your input i mean i the way that

040i was looking at it i've obviously had more time to think about it um than you have um is that i kind of liked scenario number three because i'm like well it's two thousand dollars and i think we might gain a lot we we don't know i mean i don't know a lot about sustainability and what the needs of the um of the schools are but um that it would be really great to have a resource when needed and also to um to be updated on what the other governmental entities are doing and you know sort of piggybacking on that but of course um i would love to you know hear how the school feels about it and what they think their needs are well and i'll share on behalf of our team in our

041discussions and i know i've heard a little bit from board members it sounds um it sounds to me like um collaboration and coordination across the village is always beneficial we do that administratively already so that is really helpful what i'm not clear on in this new position is if this position is hired by those other two governmental agencies and we don't the board doesn't choose to partially fund that even if it's a few hours does that mean we won't have that cross collaboration that currently exists which quite frankly happens from administration to administration i know that this board has already invested pretty substantially into sustainability in all of our capital improvement projects that is always at the forefront of the planning our architect really helps with that as well our core mission is education and

042so as we work through the curriculum and ensure that our teachers have the resources they need to teach about sustainability that is an element that we fund through one of our coordinator positions and then we also have tony de monte who has been really helpful in coordinating safety and technology but a piece of that really does fall in the realm of sustainability and one of the things i was going to mention a little later on this evening's agenda is the solar panels which has an educational purpose but also a sustainability purpose as well so we really have several people already working on this and the board has made a significant investment so i would i would uh struggle to identify enough work for us if we were going with option two we just that those

043kinds of hours would be more than we would be able to find significant benefit of but if we can coordinate either through option one or through option three just to ensure that we're staying apprised of what the other entities are doing and looking for um some shared opportunities where they might exist that certainly can be a benefit so it really comes down to how the board wishes to partner well and are you saying john it it also is hard for us to decide because we don't know what the other entities are deciding right so if it seems to me like if it is true that the administrators are meeting and intergovernmentally deciding that might make the most sense because we could say we love option three but the other entities might not decide to participate

044so i i don't know i feel if they are meeting yeah that makes the most sense i think um the way we got there was there was a lot we just didn't know about what each of the governing sorry each of the yeah the governing units are doing so i don't you know i'm on the board right i don't know everything that distributor is doing with sustainability but someone does so i think we all decided that that a better place for figuring out the details was was with the administration so to that end then i would suggest that the board gives us authority and it doesn't have to be through approval but simply the authority to partner with this position to work with the village representatives who may be working to hire that position and

045and i think if the need arises for us to coordinate or benefit from their consultation we can certainly fund that time through our budget it sounds like up to option three is what the board is comfortable with and so if we can kind of keep that in mind we can we can look at that i can express that board direction to mike bremen who's at the village and let him know that that we certainly want to continue to strengthen our partnership in this regard and remain committed to sustainability across our village that's right great it's exciting thank you great uh and mrs kim i'll keep it with you for iasb um i have nothing to report okay except for that i um i am going to the conference um in november and i hope some

046of you will too yay no uh learning opportunity terrific and anything legislatively why yes um actually there's not a lot but i just wanted to point out one one small item well it's not that small but small to me in july the department of education's office for civil rights and office of special education and rehabilitative services released new guidance intended to help public elementary and secondary schools fulfill their responsibilities to meet the needs of students with disabilities and avoid the discriminatory use of student discipline very familiar with the new resources reflect the concern that some students with disabilities are not receiving the supports and services necessary to address their educational needs including their disability-based behavior the resources include an intensive report on supporting students with disabilities and avoiding discriminatory use of student discipline under section

047504 of the rehabilitation act and help addressing the needs of children with disabilities and the individuals with disabilities education acts discipline provisions thank you but very important thank you great uh dr chris golly information items uh wonderful thank you [Music] in terms of written communication from community members the board received written communication from regarding at blue school ribbon status sorry blue ribbon school status and then we have several administrative announcements as you shared president haley we celebrated our first day of school today it was a fantastic day i had the privilege of visiting a few of our schools in classrooms and it really was such a joy to see our teachers our students our families all coming together again the first time in what feels like forever though it's really only been three years but

048at first it's it is definitely a milestone to have a more typical return to school and be able to welcome our students back and see their smiling faces and watch teachers as they start to build community within their classrooms and establish routines and and just get to know the students in front of them and help their students to get to know each other so it really was a wonderful day and i want to say thank you to all of our teachers and staff who helped to make it a wonderful day and our administrators who worked tirelessly to make sure that we had outstanding teachers and staff in our buildings and good structures in place to support all of that really fun work so we know that by the end of this week we're all going

049to be exhausted because a lot of times we start the school year with two days of institute day and then three days of school and this year we put all of our institute days last week and we're starting with a full week of school so by friday our students are going to be exhausted we're going to be exhausted but it's going to be a really good and rewarding sense of exhaustion so thank you for all of your support there in terms of institute days and pre-service training last week we had a jam-packed week we were excited to welcome our new faculty to the district for new teacher orientation on monday tuesday and wednesday we have some really outstanding new teachers and specialists joining our district this year i've been so impressed by their knowledge training

050and experience as well as their enthusiasm for their work they've just been really wonderful additions all the way through to our all staff welcome on thursday they certainly made their presence known and it was just really wonderful to have them we do have a new member of our team who's here this evening catherine macau if you could stand up and maybe approach the podium so we can introduce you to our community as a new administrator here for us we're very fortunate to have so many of our administrators returning this year thank you thank you thank you but we're really fortunate to have an outstanding new administrator joining us as well catherine is our new assistant principal at central school and joins us from the chicago public schools with a lot of great experience but also

051just a wonderful perspective on the work that we're doing so catherine would you introduce yourself hi i'm catherine macau i'm really excited to join district 39 in the central school community and thrilled to work alongside becky littman and the rest of the central staff and teachers so thank you thank you welcome thanks welcome welcome thanks for being here um so that led us into uh wednesday we welcomed back all of our paraprofessional staff and did a day full of training for them um that was wonderful and on thursday then we hosted our all staff institute day which really was a joyful reunion just as it was for our students and teachers today this was the first time in three years that we've been able to have all staff together inside of one facility looking out

052over the sea of blue shirts and joyful smiles it was just really really neat and quite frankly a little overwhelming for many of us to see that we had arrived at this moment where we could all be together again and celebrate our successes and our struggles too and recognize this important moment as we move forward so our teachers and staff had institute days on thursdays and thursday and friday and then we returned for school today so we're looking forward to a great week ahead summer construction i think we have reviewed that pretty thoroughly but we really celebrate a successful completion of summer construction projects and want to thank all of the dedicated support staff maintenance and custodial teams who worked tirelessly this summer to support myriad building projects deep cleaning building preparations uh thank you

053thank you thank you huge work accomplished this summer and our buildings really were sparkling today before our students arrived so it was a great way to welcome our students um in terms of our cobit planning the board was presented with our draft covered plan um for the year and as has been shared our focus really is a return to pre-pandemic protocol wherever possible while incorporating some of the important learning that we have benefited from throughout the pandemic so our plan is streamlined to reflect the most important and required elements from the idph and the cdc the plan is posted right now on on the board docs and and we're really looking forward to the year ahead we know that we have the flexibility to make adjustments as needed as required and yet we also know

054that um we're really excited to be at this moment where we're we're back to more typical protocols so um i welcome any questions or comments from the board in that regard okay well thank you then we'll make sure and share that out to the rest of our family and communities as well i mentioned uh as we were talking about sustainability mentioned the solar panels and installations happening at our schools we're excited to install a small array of solar panels at central harper mckenzie ramona and wjhs this fall highcrest does already have solar panels for educational purposes so these panels again are for educational purposes related to alternative energy and sustainability while also providing the added benefit of generating energy for our schools the program generously co-funded by the illinois clean energy community foundation and cook

055county solar schools grants is designed to raise awareness of alternative energies and support sustainability throughout our communities we are super excited to expand our partnership to support this important work and look forward to hosting our solubrations later this fall as we kick off the program and celebrate the installations of these panels our next step in the process does involve the village the village zoning commission we need to meet with them to ensure that our panels are being installed properly and that meeting is currently scheduled for september 7th thank you mr demante for representing our district in that presentation i also want to share we have parent education events as we have done over the last couple of years we have a wide range of topics we'll be covering through our parent education events this year

056our first one is coming up this week on wednesday it is titled feeling safe in district 39 schools and we'll host that parent education event at 11am we welcome our entire community to join us if you're able to live over zoom or to register and we will be sharing out the recording afterwards the event is a joint event with district 39 representatives the wilmette police department family service and family service center for discussion on safety and security in light of recent events and within our schools the presentation will be about 30 minutes and we're planning for some q a afterwards as well so thank you again to tony for helping with that to coordinate those into kelly jackson who also helps to ensure that our family engagement continues to be vibrant here in district 39.

057we do have several freedom of information act requests we always post those and announce those at these meetings as is required and so i'll read through what those are the district received foyer requests from matt hoffman who requested all secretarial custodial maintenance and i.t staff names titles full and part-time status budgeted hours and budgeted salary for the fy 22 year hourly rate higher date and union representation where applicable john klingner requested communications written in audio visual materials dates of training sessions during the 21-22 school year regarding gender identity as well as diversity equity and inclusion diane schnazembach requested map student growth summary reports for all schools with grade level detail from fall 2021 through spring of 2022 map student growth summary reports by grade and gender for fall of 2017 through spring of 2018 fall

058of 2018 through spring of 2019 fall of 2020 through spring of 2021 in fall of 2021 through spring of 2022 julie schmidt of wire points corporation requested any communications and or written material materials for the 21 22 school year regarding staff trainings dates and materials about teaching gender identity diversity equity and inclusion justin burwist of aig retirement services requested a list of all d39 employee names titles email addresses and work locations and the illinois policy research group requested the number of teacher complaints lodged with the district by parents each year beginning with 2016-2017 to the present also requested the process used when the district receives a parent complaint about a teacher again all of these requests have been responded to and those uh responses are posted here as part of the agenda materials and i

059think we're moving on to a strategic plan update would you like them to pursue yes please okay um under the strategic plan update the response to our community review committee this report is my response as the superintendent to the crc report from last year titled building responsive social emotional learning through strengthening parent-teacher communication and increasing parent understanding of and engagement in social emotional learning instruction every time we say that we acknowledge it's a really long title we'll encourage them this year to have a little bit shorter title that was presented to the board of education in may of 2021 this report shares that the recommendations were accepted and incorporated into the strategic plan action steps the board has already reviewed those and we'll be reviewing them again at next at the next board meeting and

060they will be part of the formal presentation to the board of education in september katie lee anything more that i need to share there no i think you've covered it okay wonderful thank you great to annual business starting with an enrollment update annual business enrollment update dr gowacky thank you this update is a reflection of where we left off last spring and the progress room we made throughout the summer a couple of things to note and highlight we added two sections of first grade one at mckenzie school and one at ramona school and we lost a section of first graded harper we had planned for for and enrollment um did not we actually lost a few more students than we had expected and so we made those adjustments accordingly we watch enrollment weekly we talk

061discuss it administratively and then make decisions as a result of that during the committee of the whole conversation last week a question was raised about how many of our kindergarten students are actually participating in our enrichment program and so i added that into the report for this year and we are approximately at about 91 of our kindergarten students also participating in our enrichment program which is better than what we had projected when in the early stages of our planning we have aimed to be about 80 percent and so this is um better than we had even hoped for so that's good news thank you for this report it's always good to see that our schools are maintaining their enrollments um what was the what were the fts for last year fte last year for homerooms

062was 148. board members any further questions okay thank you so much for preparing and sharing that uh the administrator and teachers salary and benefits reports thank you as is required the annual report detailing salary and benefits of administrators and teachers is presented to the board this evening this information is also posted on the district 39 website as is required annual tax compliance annually our business manager cory boltemeyer reviews the district's contracts and records to determine that the tax advantage obligations comply with the applicable federal tax requirements so this again is an annual requirement mr baltimore excellent thank you okay so then we move on to board policy review yes as the board has directed we have been um we i i really mean dr glowacki has been working really really hard with some input from

063all of us um on reviewing and updating the policies and making recommendations to the board um and again our uh our aim here is to review and update our policies in alignment with press wherever seems reasonable um and so we are presenting for first reading several board of education policies this evening these suggested revisions have been reviewed also by our boards as well we will have additional updates with our goal of getting everything updated um in alignment with press by the time we get to this function no i had a few questions maybe i'll just jump in and then see if anybody else does a few of mine are just tiny typos so i don't know if that's best to just email yeah they're just typos yeah please email us and we'll just okay i

064will do that um i had a question about the uh anaphylaxis section seven colon two eight five the first sentence i believe says school attendance may increase a student's risk of exposure to allergens that could trigger trigger anaphylaxis i guess i was just wondering as a person with allergies and two children with allergies is that is that true is that a required statement the school attendance increase and i don't know to me that just struck me as an unusual sentence for the opening of the policy i can um check to see if it is a required statement but so as a mom living this world um i look at it as though there are some things that i don't have in my home because of the allergies that exist in my children that will be

065present in schools right and so therefore the it does increase it does okay that that was my interpretation sure i'm reviewing that that's that's true and that that makes sense and it's perfectly fine uh i agree i think it's just an acknowledgement that that is in fact okay right right that's sort of where i was thinking uh that is great i think that was my only question of substance other board members questions or comments about the policy yes this is minor um on four colon six zero on page one so in the second heading that says standards for purchasing and contracting there are a number of places where where it previously just referred to state law it was expanded to include federal law but under the first heading purchases and contracts it just refers to

066state law i don't know if it should also say federal law or if the fact that in the second clause it says the standard set forth in this policy covers that i don't i'm not really wedded to adding it i just thought maybe it's just maybe ask the attorney okay i will share as we look forward to the next round of review we have noted a few policies that may benefit from a little further in-depth discussion and so in that instance we'll bring that to committee of the whole so that the board can have some discussion before it's even up for first reading um so one of those policies is uh public comments um i think there were some there was some specific language that seemed we're just having a discussion about before we drafted

067a first reading because it was a little more philosophical in which direction the board may wish to take so we'll try to pull those out as we learned through our discussions last year that when we see some variance there from what the board has had to what press is now recommending sometimes it's just a shift in in what press is recommending and sometimes maybe there's some some historical significance to that so we'll try to pick those out and raise those for more in-depth discussion during committee to home uh okay this brings us to another opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic are there any audience members who would like to speak we will continue with our agenda which is the consent agenda are there any items the board would like pulled

068from the consent agenda okay miss stone please proceed with the motions i moved to approve the personnel report dated august 22nd 2022 i moved to approve the accounts payable for bills listed between june 14 2022 through august 22nd 2022 in the following amounts educational fund 318 534.74 cents o m fund and twenty 183 dollars and seven cents transportation five hundred and seventy eight dollars capital projects two million six hundred and two thousand sixty five dollars for a total all funds of three million one hundred and four thousand three hundred and three dollars and eighty one cents i moved to approve the manual checks issued between june 14 2022 and august 22nd 2022 in the following amounts educational fund two million nine hundred and sixty two thousand eight hundred fifty five dollars and eighteen cents o

069m fund five hundred and seventy eight thousand four hundred and seventy dollars and seventy three cents debt service four hundred and five dollars transportation 161 439 dollars and 15 cents capital projects 1826 644.48 tort 121 361 dollars for a total all funds of five million six hundred and fifty one thousand two hundred and forty five dollars and fifty four cents i move to approve as first reading of board of education policies two colon 2-0 powers and duties of the board of education indemnification 2 colon 105 ethics and gift band two colon one five zero committees two colon one seven zero procurement of architectural engineering and land surveying services two colon two one zero organizational school board meeting two colon two six zero uniform grievance procedure three colon one zero general school administration four colon zero

070five system of accounts or colon two zero budgetary funds or colon three zero revenue and investments four colon four zero incurring debt four colon four five insufficient fund checks four colon five zero payment procedures four colon 55 use of credit and procurement cards four colon six zero purchases and contracts four colon seven zero resource conservation oracle and eight zero accounting accounting and audits four colon nine zero school activity and fiduciary funds four colon 165 awareness and prevention of child sexual abuse and grooming behaviors four colon 180 pandemic preparedness management and recovery and 7 colon 285 anaphylaxis prevention response and management program may i have a second second the motion has been moved and seconded with the clerk please call the roll john cesar ready yes and heart bonnie kim yes frank panzika yes aaron stone

071yes amy palin yes okay uh i need a motion to approve the fiscal year 23 budget i moved to adopt the annual budget for wilmette public schools cook county district 39 as presented in the report reflecting all anticipated revenues and expenditures for a period extending from july 1 2022 through june 30th 2023 may i have a second second the motion has been moved and seconded would the clerk please call the roll john c is ready yes ann hart yes bonnie kim yes frank panzika yes aaron stone yes amy palin yes motion carried uh i need a motion to approve the wixie fiscal year 23 budget i move to adopt the wilmette community special education agreement annual budget as presented in the report reflecting all anticipated revenues and expenditures for a period extending from july 1st

0722022 through june 30th 2023 may i have a second second the motion has been moved and seconded would the clerk please call the role john c is ready yes ann hart yes bonnie kim yes frank panzika yes aaron stone yes amy palin yes motion carried so for conference items we'll start with old business i don't see any under new business i have one little one which is that for our dsat committee board representation i believe frank is continuing on and i know erin you need to take a step back for the time being because of school responsibilities so i wanted to ask if there's other board interest in participating in those meetings i believe there's four uh plans or four and so if that is something of interest to you maybe email carrie and i

073in the next few days uh and do you know the times it's in the morning always in the morning and via zoom as well so we try to make it really convenient we know everyone is super busy so 7 15 to 8 15. so if you're interested uh let me know and if multiple you know board members are interested uh we'll decide from there but maybe let me know by the end of the week if it's something you're interested in okay any other new business hey good and welfare have a quick one before you make all other ones go for it so i i just um noticed in the revised for retirement as we used to call him mr vashana the head custodian mckenzie is a fixture there and i'm glad to see the date

074is still fairly far in the future um but i know over 10 years ago he was already someone that everybody knew and he knew everybody so i can only imagine that that's continued so i wish him uh well when he uh does retire and hopefully he keeps moving that data thank you thank you yes i have something in a second but building off of that i can just imagine i just remember all the high fives in the halls at mackenzie and he used to go on the roof of mackenzie to get the balls off and you wouldn't throw them off until all the kids were like cheering with gusto and it was quite a sight to see so um i'm with you there frank um so there was a weekday in july uh i was

075at the jewel on green bay road when it opened and um there weren't a lot of people there and their store was kind of getting going and there was you know some things i needed and there was there was a man there and he needed something so he and i started chatting and he asked me why i was there and i asked him why he was there and so he said he was there because he needed to buy a lighter in order to light some equipment i said oh where do you work he said he was working on the construction project over at mckenzie which was exciting um and then it got me thinking i was thinking about it all day about just that process of lighting a fire and um extending that across the

076work that everybody in the district does and i thought about you know people who light the proverbial lamp of learning people who are sparking curiosity and joy and the faces of the children are literally lighting up and i thought about another kind of light um or lighter which is um that i think that kids today are navigating childhood with more difficulty than in previous um time periods and just the appreciation for the um social emotional learning that goes on in our district and just the tools that um so many people are equipping our kids with to make their emotional loads lighter so i started thinking about all that and just thinking about how i um i'm just so so thankful for the work that everybody does every day to bring all that to pass so

077i don't i usually speak during this time but i really felt moved to share a comment that came from our institute day feedback so what we do after our thursdays we literally code all the you know messages and we look for representative statements and in particular as dr kerry kramaswali shared you know this was a really unique reunification of our staff and our community and oh my okay uh so the one comment that really stood out that i think encapsulates this i i wish all of you were able to feel um what we felt in that room for the welcoming uh back but harry and amy and ann bishop and billy joyce they were the highlight of our launch it was just unbelievable so this is a exact verbatim from one of the comments from

078one of our staff members that i wanted to share with all of you the welcoming ceremony at the top of the day that was their response to the best feature the best part of institute day they said the presenters were heartfelt warm genuine and vulnerable and it made me feel grateful to return to a great district so as part of this i just wanted to say thank you on behalf it was a really uh poignant morning it really was i was felt very privileged to be there it really was and those who were there know that i was cheering up there too and i don't typically yeah it was it was especially moving to see everyone together and the speeches um from each and every uh person were really meaningful and heartfelt and um i

079think served to unify all of us just really really impressive so thank you to everyone who supported the event those who spoke and those who helped out in all the other ways that are important to such a such a big event thanks for sharing that comment okay uh at this point i seek a motion to adjourn this regular board of education meeting i move to adjourn this regular board of education meeting yeah i have a second second uh will the clerk please call the role chance he's ready yes ann hart yes bonnie kim yes frank panzika yes aaron stone yes amy palin yes meeting adjourned thank you everyone