001came in. All right. Now, is that one yours or is that the parents thing? Certainly. Cara Castton here. Ken Dawson here. Charerel Fuller here. Jenny Hagstrom here. Terry Pavisich here. Don Runner here. Rehan Hashim here. And Jason Trijo here. Thank you. All right, having quorum, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Turn over for students. All right, T99 is here and I think Lisa's going to get us started. Do you want to run the clicker, Lisa? Sure. Power. The power of the clicker. Okay. Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Lisa Baler. I'm the director of special services for the district. And tonight you have
002the special treat of hearing from some of our students at the transition center T99. So um you can see up on our screen here today we have student Ibette Bledo. Hi. Hello. Hello. Um Beth is not here with us yet. Um but also Tegan Shu. Hi. And um we have a couple of our staff members also with us. U Danny Baldderas is one of our T99 teachers and he's also going to be translating for Abette's family. Myself, Megan Keller, one of our teachers and of course Carolina Shenbeck, our T99 department chair. So whenever we talk about transition 999, we like to share our purpose because a lot of people don't know about a transition program. So we service students in the district 18 to 22 who have finished their four years at Danners Grove North
003or South High School or some of them return from a therapeutic day school. And our focus is really life after high school, getting them as independent as possible, getting them prepared for whatever their life will look like. So, a big piece of that is connecting families and our students to the Downers Grove area where they're going to live and vocational pieces. So, that's why we're going to talk about our volunteer opportunities. Fingers are too cold. So, our two main groups that we have at pro uh at T9 are life and our strive group. And right now we're just going to encompass what we do to kind of incorporate the life group out in the community. When some of our students are not ready to job train yet or they're not really ready for like real
004world instances, then we prep them. And then one of the main ways we do that, one of the biggest venues is through um through our community um experiences that we can provide that So, since we can't share everything, we created a little short video so you can see what our students do in action. Don't click it. Sorry. Is it that link? Yes. [Music] Transition our time where hopes collide. Building dreams with hands that strive together. We grow where hearts [Music] decide our purpose. Oh yeah. My dreams are bound. Growing slowing side by [Music] side with hearts of grace. Step by step we leave our trains building a future more than bricks in transition. My purpose found. Oh yeah. When dreams are bound growing, growing learning side by [Music] side, reach out, lend a hand. Together
005we rise, make a stand. Every smile, every brand new face, it starts with love in this space. In transition night, our purpose found. Oh yeah. In transition night, where dreams are [Music] bound by transition. [Music] So Jerry Powers, our administrative assistant at T99, used AI to create a song for us. We just gave her some words. It was really catchy. It is catchy. That was good. It is also helped with the slideshow. So I wanted to thank you for that. Thank you so much. What? What? Yeah. Crazy. Um, okay. So I'm going to talk about why we volunteer at T99. So, one of our main goals at T99 is to help our students learn how to give back to our community. Their communities do a lot for them. Um, and we want to instill in
006them that it's important to give back to their community and their community members. Um, it also provides our students with a lot of pride. The the work that they're doing, as you could see in the pictures, is very meaningful in many different ways, which they will talk about in a few moments. Um, and then one of our other goals at T99 is to connect families and our students with organizations that they can continue to volunteer at once they exit T99. So, because many of our life students are not going to be competitively employed, families are looking for places that they can continue to take their kids to that is meaningful um and that is also familiar to them. So, all of the places that we are going to highlight um does provide our students with
007that opportunity. And then it's also great because we spend so much time at T99 practicing our vocational skills, have an outlet, many outlets in the community to work on those skills, put them to the test, and then to be able to meet with students and say, "Here's what we're going to work on next." Um, and then some of the um the organizations that we are going to present in the presentation from the students. I'm sure that you all know about Meals on Wheels and the greenhouse. I wanted to share a little bit more about Sharing Connections and Project Cure. Sharing Connections is an organization in Downer's Grove that provides families who are in need with just any household item that you can think of when they need it. Um, our students will speak to what
008they do at Sharing Connections. And then Project Cure is um a newer volunteer site that we have found. It's in Woodidge. It's a very large warehouse which we love because it's accessibly physic it's accessible physically for our students which is great. Um but the work that we do there is we are um assembling and taking apart medical packs that are being sent to countries who are war torn. Um and so our one of the jobs that our students does is they have to sort what has to be reststerilized, what can be used in local hospitals and then what can be put back on the boats to be sent over to the places that that are needed. And then students receive emails with where the shipments the the products that they were sorting and reststerilizing where
009they go in the world. So they really get kind of that that turnaround several months later because we all know it takes a while to ship things. Um so it's always a great treat when the kids can walk in and ask where is our stuff going today and they actually have an answer of where in the world it's going. So it's been really great. So Avette, do you want to come talk about meals? Hi guys. Hi. Um I'm your speaker. Yep. You're good. Yep. It's right there. At MIA, we al we speak up for seniors deliver um deliver not doors inside in saying graded. My favorite part about me on wheels is making the senior smile. Good. And Beth, who I don't think ever arrived, she um one of the places that she volunteers is
010at the greenhouse at College of DuPage. Um our students do a whole slew of jobs at College of DuPage, but Beth highlighted her favorite parts were watering the plants, replacing soil, moving plants, pulling weeds, and she is a gal that loves to clean. So, she loves when she is able to clean the greenhouse, specifically sweep the greenhouse floor. So if she was here, that's what she would share with you. At private care, we cake apart and Samos my book bags short surprise that need to be surface for laundry sets boxes and for warehouse work for other members. I'm sorry. Um, mom, dad, teacher, um, sister, brothers and shash, we sort the house hunt items. Protest practice housekeeping is clean up before it's taken to people homes. Home people homes clean the showroom. Thank you. Does
011anyone have any questions? Thank you so much for coming and have a great day. Thank you. [Applause] As always, you're uh welcome to stick around. It's a public meeting, but if you'd like to head on out, you're also welcome to as well. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you. All right, our student board members, tough act to follow. Who's up first uh this month? All right, so it's been a while since we've seen each other. Um, so right now currently what we're looking forward to is actually tomorrow to celebrate culture week. We're going to be bringing about six different food trucks all filled with different cultures here at DGS where we can go outside um just right into the parking lot by the West event centrics. And uh we brought it back last from
012last year. And it's really fun for the students, but it's also really important to take into account that it represents all the different cultures that we have here at DJs because we do have a large variety of inclusion and diversity that we like to represent. Additionally, um right now it's kind of a celebratory phase in the school. It's like the calm before the second storm um when the finals are coming up again and then AP tests. So, it's just right now it's a really good time where field trips are happening, awards ceremonies, and just overall a positive time for donors go south. That's it. Diamonds food trip. What are what time are those food trucks? They're going to be fourth, fifth, and sixth periods. Okay, I got to look that up. All right. Uh, hello
013everyone. Um, I hope everyone's doing well. Uh, this school year is, you know, coming to an end and, you know, students are students are largely preoccupied with the end of the year festivities. So this spring, students at DGN are wrapping up the year with a vibrant mix of events. You know, the calendar is packed with highlights, including the spring art show May 5th through 9th, where student creativity takes a center stage and a full state of music performances, choir, band, and orchestra concerts. And you know, these people have been rehearsing for months to bring these to life. So, I'm pretty excited to see those. Um, seniors are especially excited with the senior award ceremony on April 30th, as well as many milestones like the cap and gown pickup and uh senior prom on May 3rd
014and an overnight trip to Six Flags on May 10th. And then graduation preparation is in full swing with the senior spotlight assembly and rehearsals on May 12th. Uh, followed by ceremonies on May 18th. Clubs like Latin X and uh, book club continue to meet, keeping students engaged strong throughout throughout the final weeks. And you know, final finals exams on the horizon May 19th and 20th and the last day of school being on May 23rd. Students are feeling a mix of focus, pride, and anticipation as they close out another school year. Um, another thing I wanted to add was um, you know, as as we know, we just went through the ACT uh, test week and a lot of things that I've been hearing about the whole ACT test. Um I I know we've switched over
015to the ACT, but um the ACT format, like for example, the SAT, the way they changed the the question format to the way like one paragraph is one question. So it's easier for each student to like read each question and answer one question. The ACT hasn't done that, right? So you're stuck scrolling through a lot of pages of questions and it becomes non-time efficient, especially on a screen. So that's what I've been hearing a lot. You know, people have been struggling with that kind of aspect of the ACT. I think you guys should know that. Um, so that's where, you know, like the differences between the format between the SAT and the ACT kind of come into play. So, and then that format will change again next year. We'll do new version coming next year.
016So, we'll see if that is improved or if that that remains, but that's good feedback. Thank you. So, it's still a time test, but you spend a lot of time scrolling. Well, so the ACT like has like you know how before on like a written um SAT test, you'd have you'd be given a big passage, right? You'd be given that big passage and they would make you answer a lot of questions about that same passage. Oh, okay. And the problem here is like it's on a screen. You're not on a page where you can like flip back and forth. You're like kind of like spending more time scrolling. So it's like kind of takes away time from, you know, actually doing the test. I'll definitely share that feedback though with Okay. Uh, it item number
017four, approving the minutes. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the minutes of the March 17, 2025 business meeting and the March 17, 2025 closed meeting? So moved. Second. Seconds. Thank you. Terry Pavisich. I. Ken Dawson. I. Sherelle Fuller. I. Jenny Hagstrom. I. Cara Casten. I. And Don Rener. I. Motion carries. Um, item number five, first reception of visitors. Do we have any uh No, sir. Okay. Item number six, turn it over to you. And I will turn it over to Jere. Okay. Good evening. Evening. This is our time of the year for our third quarter financial report. It basically just provides everybody with a an overview of where we are financially for the year. Um, we'll start off looking at revenues. We're basically right on target compared to like
018what we were last year. Um last year we were short on our replacement taxes. Um the state gave us that notice a little bit late in the year. This year they gave it to us a little bit earlier. So therefore we adjusted this year's budget. So where we are we're tracking right online to where we thought we would be. Um our interest earnings are a little bit higher. Other than that, everything else looks pretty much right on target for revenues. Any questions on the revenues, including state? Yes, sometimes with the state, they're behind on one payment of categoricals. Not all categoricals, just one. So, we're just a little short right now. Okay. Um otherwise, they've been keeping But you expect to catch up. Yes. Okay, on our expenditures, there's a few items I just want
019to point out. Um, this is just overall right here. This is all of our funds combined. But when we look at our individual funds, our education fund um is is is looking in the in the area of tuition, which is shown here on the combined funds. It's looking like we've almost expended everything we had budgeted and that's due to the fact that some of our expenses are a little bit higher this year for our outplay students. Um we've sent a few more students to our partner school in Addison and then our tutoring uh expenses have have been higher this year due to the number of students that we have hospitalized. We do expect this line item to go exceed budget for the year. However, we have some other areas that we expect to have some
020savings in. So, when we look at our operations and maintenance in particular, that would be the supply uh line item here. Again, this is all combined, but individually on O andM last year, our utility cost had skyrocketed. Um, we found that out I believe it was January, Travis. Yeah. Um, and so our consultant was able to give us a pretty good idea for this year the uh energy cost. So we look like we're staying right on target at this point unless Kameed decides to add some additional costs. Uh we don't expect that to happen um until possibly July. And when it comes to transportation, last year, uh, when we reported to you about this time, we were we were really kind of getting ready to exceed the budget, uh, because of all of our special
021type of routes that we have to provide. Um, we worked really hard as a team within the district. Then we worked with first student and we were we've been able to reduce those costs. We kept the budget up a little bit higher just in case that didn't pan out. But right now, it looks like we're going to have a significant savings. That savings will help offset the additional tuition costs. Other than that, we're we're tracking right online. Any questions on the expenditures? I just want to double down on what Jere just said about transportation. the entire team is really uh worked non-stop on that this year to drive those costs down and that that savings is really not only helping with outplacement. If you remember we expected a a pretty good deficit after replacement taxes
022came in and were much less 14% less than what we projected something like that. It was quite a bit uh uh less than expected in revenues. So that work in transportation is what's keeping us you know balanced this year. So J has led that work with the whole team and uh it's been great work for the district. Is that related to like our purchasing the buses from like what specifically has led to we've first student has a new division that we're using. It's called first alt and first alt is like a schoolbased Uber driver. So a drive one driver is then um designated for like one student maybe a McKenna Vento student who lives in Planefield and has to be transported to Downer's Grove every day. Their costs are significantly less than the other provider
023that we had been using. Um they first all just started up in Illinois this school year. So it's it's been it's really great. um the principles here. I don't know if you have any feedback from first alt. [Laughter] Okay, good. And and the other piece of first student was when um so first student hosts a barbecue every summer and then district 58 68 and 99 we all go down and uh spend the the lunchtime with all the drivers and we also bring in a ice cream truck that's a lot of fun. And so while we were there, we were talking with first student um managers about how how can we reduce the cost for our McKenna Vento students that live in homeless students, the shelters, McKenna Vento or homeless students that live in the the
024shelters nearby. And so the three districts pulled together and we have two school buses that pick all of those students up and transport them back. Um, and so that's been a great cost savings, too, because those used to be more like individual routes, right? And now they're they're combined. Yeah. So K through 12 could be writing together. So siblings. So it's working out really well. So that's our Yeah. Thanks. All right. Overview. Okay. the fund bal balances. Um, right now, as Hank mentioned, um, it looks like we may very well end the school year um, in a better financial position than what we had originally thought at the beginning of the school year last summer. Uh, we still have another quarter to go. So um you know there could be some unexpected expenses that pop
025up but um I I think we are going to end the year in a better position than what we had originally planned. Any any questions? Yeah. All right. Thank you jury. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh the next one is transportation also jury. All right. So, with Sunrise um transportation, they provide uh the daily transportation for our special needs students. Um and over the past couple of years, we've had a kind of a shortage of drivers. Um Sunrise has been able to attract and retain additional drivers for this past year. Um which has been a big help. Um, and so we started last fall into discussions with Sunrise to extend the contract. Um, we looked at a one-year extension, a two-year extension, and a three-year extension. The one-year extension was going to be
026significant higher cost than providing them with a three-year guarantee. So, we we are recommending that we go with a three-year contract extension with Sunrise. Um, and it's based upon the uh rates that they're uh providing to us, which is 4% per year. And also because they've been able to meet our needs this past year. Um, and we've been pleased with their transportation services. Any questions? Only question is is why don't we just create a three-year contract with them rather than try to do an extension? It's actually a you you it's can be like a 10-year contract in total. And so the first five years you have a contract and then after that it's it's a one-year renewal with the option of going with a multi-year renewal. So at the end of these three years we
027are required to go out to bid. Oh, okay. So, you're not going out to bid right now? No. You're just extending it as far as we can so that we don't have to do that. Okay. Yes. All right. I'm sorry. I didn't No, it's a good question. I understand that to begin with because I thought, why don't we just Yeah. And even though every school district has their own contract with Sunrise, it's really an overarching contract that SASID holds. Oh, okay. So, we if we broke off, we would be off on our own. So, we're we're with them and we also are probably with 58 or uh 68. Yes. A number of districts. And then we share we have shared rides. Okay. So, we could have a student and Lyall High School would have a
028student and they're they're both going to go to the same facility and so we split the cost of that route. Okay. All right. Thank you. Because that makes it a much clearer for me. It's a really complex contract. Yes. I these different districts, but it really does save money. But the special ed, you know, with the needs of each student, it's different, too. So, it makes it a lot more complicated. I understand. Yep. Okay. And we did go out for bid for regular ed transportation and we plan to bring that um information to you at the May board meeting. It's just been going back and forth between attorneys the contract. That's it. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. All right. Uh any other questions for jury? This one's an action item later on this evening. All
029right. Uh Rexort facility. Um this has come every year to the board since the board approved the overall one. I think we're getting close to the end of this agreement. Two more years. Yeah. It's about $32,000 this year of abatement. So, it's not a large amount. No, but it's enough. Enough. It's enough. Yeah. So, uh we recommend that the board approve this as they have since 2017. Uh and then this agreement will end in 2027 and then at that point, uh the abatement will end. Okay. Any questions? All right. Tax rate reallocation. And the one you've all been waiting for. That's so exciting. I love taxes. Did you notice Did you notice how close it was though? This time was a little too close. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that. Against those who love taxes,
030we've been closer, but this was pretty close. This is pretty close. Yes. That's That's pretty sick, though. So, this is just the just showing you what the the rates are. um compared to what the original request was. And we've already, as I mentioned in the memo, we're required to go ahead and send the information off to the county prior to when we can actually hold the meeting so that they can get the tax bills out to everybody. Oh, darn. Seriously, any questions on this? This is just formality. No. No. All right. Uh, next up is staff receiving tenure. Uh, Jeeoff, you want to just comment on this a little bit? Um, sure. Yeah. So, uh, as you there's also the memo that was sent to you prior to the meeting just, uh, recognizing all the
031staff that are, uh, officially once they start next year, the way the law is written, they have to start working with us next year, they'll be officially consider considered tenure staff members, uh, here at district 99. and uh these folks all took a few different uh pathways there based on uh the evolution of the laws surrounding tenure, but uh we're very excited to have all these outstanding folks uh continue on with us and next year officially in a tenured status with the district. So thanks. All right. Congratulations to all those earning tenure. Absolutely. All right. Uh the last one for this evening is I shared with at the beginning of the year the board started out by approving leadership events and opportunities uh for this year. I greatly appreciate those opportunities. I provided a memo
032to the board on reflections from those events and kind of big overarching takeaways. Uh you know really over the course of the year uh I think you're going to see a lot of the work in the next month that was centered around strategic planning. uh and long range planning for the district was a theme that went through all of those. Uh AI was a huge topic of discussion and how to leverage that. You're also going to see that how I'm utilizing that in some of those uh in the gathering of feedback and analyzing qualitative and quantitative responses. Uh some of these I I was actually a leader or a presenter. Uh there was multiple opportunities. Rob Lang and I presented on the morale work we're doing in the district and getting up in that and
033going. I presented a couple times on that as well. Uh and then of course throughout all of these just the the networking amongst other superintendent is critical. Uh both our partner superintendent, I spend a lot of time with them at these events. So our elementary partners uh just making sure that we're all on the same page for our larger community. But then superintendents in the state, you know, across the US and what are they working on, what challenges are they facing, what what ideas can I steal from them. So, uh, it's been a great great year of learning and I appreciate these opportunities. So, I'll take any questions if they're out there. I would just advocate for this board and future boards to continue to invest in um uh these types of opportunities for district
034leaders. I think it uh pays its weight in uh gold and far as far as dividends go. Um so I I just I hope that we continue to support these types of opportunities in the future. I do too. I think it's been well worth it for our district. Yes. And it it also shows what kind of a district we are to the state and nationally. So that is a huge plus for this district. So please keep up that good work. Thank you. Uh foyer requests. Uh we've received several. Uh they've been filled and they are posted on the website. Uh Jill has been busy this month. Okay. Okay. Item number seven, the consent agenda. Before the board votes on the consent agenda, is there an agenda item the board member would like to pull out
035of the consent agenda for further discussion? Uh not pulling out for further discussion, but of note, you'll see there up on the screen. Item D. Uh, the group that was here tonight, Lisa and Carolina, worked really hard on a partnership with Dwage County on an agreement for them to reimburse us for purchasing vehicles for T99, including uh a minivan that's uh wheelchair accessible. Uh, in your update on Thursday, it said that the county was going to reimburse us $50,000. We learned this morning that they have upped that number to $75,000. So, a huge thank you to the to Dwage County uh in doing that. So, your uh approval tonight uh the documents have been updated to reflect that change in reimbursement. And just thank the uh the donations that are up there. Um that was
036very kind of both donations. So, I just wanted to make sure that they get recognized. All right. Um, hearing no, I I didn't hear anyone as far as pulling any out. Okay. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the consent agenda as presented, which includes item A, personnel report, appointment administration, appointment certified, transfer position certified, leave of absence certified, appointment classified. Item B, personnel report, resignation certified, retirement classified, resignation classified. Item C, March financial pages. Item D, agreement between the county of DuPage, Illinois and community high school district 99 for vehicle purchase. Item E, student trips. Item F, resolution of appointment to DWP page Area Occupational Educational System Board of Directors. Item G, acceptance of donation, Downers Grove Roadrunners, Inc. And item H, acceptance of donation anonymous donor. So moved.
037Second. Moves. Jenny. Thank you. Terry Pavisich. I. Jenny Hagstrom. Hi. Cara Casten. Hi. Ken Dawson. Hi. Mr. Espinosa. Hi. Charel Fuller. Hi. And Don Rener. I. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number eight, our action items. Um item A. Can I get a motion from the board of education to approve the Sunrise Southwest Transportation Contract extension as presented? So moved. Second. 10 seconds. Thank you. Terry Pavisich. I. Ken Dawson. Hi. Custoa. I. Cheryl Fuller. Hi. Jenny Hagstrom. I. Cara Casten. Hi. And Don Rener. I. Motion carries. Thank you. I I think item B. Can I get a motion? Uh in that last one, Jenny moved. Jenny was the first. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry. Don't be sorry. Do we need to call that again or No, still got president accountable. Thank you. Uh item D. Can
038I get a motion from the board of education to adopt the resolution authorizing property tax payment for the Rexner 2024 tax year? So moved. Sure. I get really tricky. Jenny moves. Can I get a second? Oh, I'll second. Second. Thank you. Jenny Hagstrom. I. Terry Pavisich. I. Cara Casten. I. Ken Dawson. Hi. Chris Espinosa. I. Cheryl Fuller. I. And Don Rener. I. Motion carries. Item number C. Item C. And a motion for the board of education to approve the 2024 tax rates as presented. So moved. Second. Car moves. J seconds. Thank you. Car caston I Jenny Hagstrom I Terry Pavisich I Ken Dawson I Chris Tespinosa I Sherrell Fuller I and Don Runner I motion carries. Thank you. Dr. Fieldy, do we have any old business? No. Any new business? No. Uh second reception of
039visitors. Do we have any slips? No, sir. I have a slip. Oh, take that back. We have a slip. We have a slip. It's coming. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Otto, I'll remind you that props are not allowed during recept. These are textbooks. They're they're not allowed during reception of visitors. Thank you. Textbooks. They're not allowed during reception of visitors. Okay. So, um AP students receive textbooks. My students received no textbooks. This is a vocabulary book. Students can learn to read more words if they have a vocabulary book. Why don't students get any vocabulary books? AP students get books. This is an AP literature book. If you're going to tell me that students have a laptop and they can learn the same that they can from a textbooks, I humbly disagree with you. Since
040the time of Aristotle, Virgil, we have been learning from textbooks. That's why the students scores and ability to learn has dropped 10% year-over-year. Again, different visual cues. You cannot get this from a computer. Sometimes teachers for my students are nice and print them out black and white prints. That is not a textbook. In chemistry, if they have a textbook, they're able to learn. I mean, when you have something like this, raise your hand if you received a textbook in high school. Anybody here receive a textbook? You you guys all did you all receive? Yes. Uh Mr. Rener, I know your your daughter, you said one time I was in a meeting, she got a really good textbook. My sons received none. And I would really like the camera to zoom in. These are the kind
041of books that my students received. They received props are not allowed during they received books that had highly inappropriate articles that I am uncomfortable looking at. This was given to my 14 and 17year-old son. Arwin, do you know what movie Ryan watched today in social studies? An R-rated movie. I came home today and I said, "How was your day?" He's a freshman. My son's a freshman who's 15. And I said, "How was your day?" He's like, "Oh, yeah. We watched this movie." And I I thought to myself, "You watch that movie?" And I even had to look it up. The Motion Picture Association labels it as Rrestricted. And I understand, Dr. Theal, that you feel that these items are not pornographic, that they're not vulgar language, but the F-word and the MF word, if given
042to a student by a teacher, is deemed acceptable. I, as a parent, don't deem that acceptable. Again, my freshman, I had many emails with his teacher asking her, "This book is inappropriate. do not give it to my son. My son came home and the teacher gave him the book in literature. I I I get it. Teachers are going to do what teachers are going to do. Parents were not able to do that. Um when teachers give students these books, do do they have like a sexual feeling about that? We we know what happened with the arrest with the sexual assault and that's completely unacceptable when teachers give student I mean my children are young. Again I only show this to you expired because your time is expired. Thank you all for your time. Thank you
043for everything you do. Thank you. All right. Item number 12 and announcements. Um my first meeting. Do you have any update on lend? I do. Um the meeting was on March 21st, so it seems like a while ago and we're going to have another one on Friday, so some of it is probably already out of date. Um we had just some general notes from the March 21st meeting. Um there were there are just a lot of bills moving through the general assembly and you know they're trying to keep tabs on the ones that are you know most relevant to um the schools in our county. Um they're paying close attention to and continue to look at the bills that um address the schools as polling places, uh cell phone policies, dual credit policies, seat belt
044safety um and 403b plans for tier 2 employees. Um there was one sort of not noteworthy item about uh legislation to allow community colleges to offer four-year degrees. Um there was a lot of opposition from four-year universities um along with the House Higher Education Committee. It's so for now that bill is on hold, but just kind of an interesting development. Um and then we had a speaker who um addressed the English learner program effectiveness which is also something that um they continue to look at and is kind of a topic of legislation. Um there was a brief update on the effects of um dismantling the US Department of Education. Um in general the most affected would be students that are um in the IDA program. of students with disabilities, uh, students from low-income backgrounds in
045all all communities really, rural, urban or suburban that rely heavily on title one funding. Um, and then yeah, the next meeting is Friday. So, um I don't mean to put you on the spot, but um where where do we stand on the governor's um proposal about um having a statewide cell phone policy in schools? I'm not sure. Yeah. Still working its way through legislation. Okay. Okay. We're monitoring it closely as the board is aware. Any we've considered changes internally, but all of that's on hold until we find out the rules that come out from the state. But we know that's a governor's priority and something likely will come out uh from this legislative session. We're just not sure of the the details and don't want to get ahead of of whatever is decided. So monitoring
046closely, but nothing has been uh finalized or approved by the governor yet. Okay. Chris Sassin. Uh we've not had a meeting since the last board meeting. Uh Terry on the education foundation. Yes. Um uh not a whole lot um to report back. Um they're uh working on a couple committees for bylaws and fundraising and um we have um two offices that are going to be vacant and we are going to uh vote on those at the next meeting. Um and uh we've got a couple new uh board members. So that should be a very exciting time for us. And um our uh just FYI so that the next person knows the May 21st meeting is the next meeting. So you can put that for whom whomever the bell tolls. All right. Thank you. Um, can
047any report on IASP? No, nothing to report. Okay, Charerelle, likewise on the Downers Grove Plan Commission. Nothing to report. I actually wasn't able to make the meeting even though we didn't have a meeting that night. Okay. All right. For the public's information, our upcoming board meetings, uh, the next meeting will be May 1st, 2025 here at the ASC at 6:30 p.m. Uh, thereafter on May 5th, we will have a workshop meeting of the existing board followed by uh, organizational meeting and workshop meeting starting at 7 p.m. of the newly constituted board. Uh, and then later in May and May 19th, we'll have the regular business meeting at 6:30 p.m. C. All right. Item number 14. Um, can I get a motion for the board from the board of education to go into close session for
048a 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 item B, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the district or legal counsel 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 Council for the district to determine its validity. So moved. Second. Terry moves. Chris seconds. Thank you. Terry Pavisich I. Chris Espininoza. I. Cheryl Fuller. I. Jenny Hagstrom. I. Cara Castton. I. Ken Dawson. I. And Don Runner. I. Motion
049carries. Um, for members of the public, uh, the only item that the board will be considering when it comes out of close session will be to adjourn. Let's take a brief break and then we'll uh uh start close session after. Is this our last meeting?