001e e e all right it's 6:30 uh Julie would you mind calling the role please certainly Cara Caston here Ken Dawson here CHR espanosa here Jenny hagstrom here Terry pavich here and Don rener here thank you very much having a quorum uh let's stand for the pledge of alleg I PL Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right uh first item of business will be approval of minutes can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the me minutes from the December 16th 2024 business meeting the December 16th 2024 closed meeting the January 13th 2025 Workshop meeting with action item and the January 13th 2025 closed meeting so moved
002second Chris moves Ken second thank you Chris resinosa hi hen Dawson hi Jenny hagstrom hi ter pavich hi Cara Caston hi and Don rener hi motion carries uh Julia Adam for do we have any visitors no sir okay thank you uh item number five I'll turn it over to Hank getting there I'll invite okay Julia Beckman and the foundation Donna Dawson up to present uh Foundation checks to Grant recipients and hello we're very happy to be back here this and I'd love it if we came every two weeks but it won't quite be like that I'm I'm Julia Beckman and I am the I have the honor of being the president of the District 99 Foundation board and it's good to be back in this room again we are presenting checks that that actually were
003granted in the middle of last semester but what with the Christmas holiday Etc we're now presenting the the uh demonstration checks but these were really wonderful grants that we were that we produced but I also wanted to introduce you some of our board members who are here uh they're behind me Diane Richard is our Treasurer so she's really important and Steve ruffle is also very important because he's a retired District 99 teacher but we're very happy that they're here and I'm going to let Donna Dawson who is our grants chair tell you all about the grants all right we'll help her with the big checks bu is back there okay hi everyone as promised we're back again uh today and we have five recipients well actually four cuz one's um uh accepting on honor uh
004on behalf of some of the other members at North because tonight is I think freshman night at school so okay so we have five projects that we would like to um recognize tonight and we're going to start off with the attendance intervention mentoring program so if cath Katherine Kelly hi could come up we would appreciate it and so we're going to ask Katherine to just give a kind of brief overview of the wonderful project that you are heading and we're also going to big hon you with our um yeah so uh at South we are running the uh attendance intervention monitoring intervention it's a tier 2 intervention to support students who are in the building and getting to class it is an initiative through the Roe and so they provided the slides and they're in
005constant contact of who's working with you how many kids are you getting how effective is it um so a lot of schools in the area are piloting this project we're trying to take it a step further and provide incentives such as individual and group incentives to just build some more culture in a community within the attendance group to continue to Foster healthy decision- making um and and really build those connections similar to the relationship mapping so congratulations thank you so much okay next we have the sensory room Nicole can you please join us from D Grove South and Nicole requested for funding of a new sensory room at Don's Grove South for $1,500 can give us absolutely hi good evening I'm the occupational therapist at South building and our sensory room provides now a controlled
006space for those with sensory processing needs which is the way that we all take in our senses through our this environment through our five senses and the way we respond so now we have a controlled space for those individuals to go and get out their needs there it's a space for them to reduce their anxiety to reduce their stress levels to communicate in other ways what their needs are and for us to allow them their private space in a safe way for them to take a quiet minute and for us to teach them how to self-regulate because the environment of a school building can be so overwhelming for some of our individuals and so now they have a space that they can go to whether it be they request it or whether it be that's
007something we teach them to engage Eng in for them to get their needs met for them to increase their focus their attention their communication and for us to better be able to meet their needs within our environment and for them to increase their learning opportunities so thank you so much awesome okay now we're moving on to t99 with their entrepreneurship program candle making micro business Trisha so tiisha requested for $555 in order to start up this new program at t99 hi my name is cha Bry I'm the vocational coordinator at transition 99 we have a very robust micro business program where our students participate in all sorts of work and Vocational skills inhouse we make custom stickers dog treats mugs I'm sure I'm missing things and now candles um I had the opportunity when I
008taught at Downers Grove South to start a candle making business and saw how accessible it was for our students so I'm really excited to bring it here lots of lovely scents um and so we just started right before break and we'll hopefully have some out and running by Valentine's Day good how would we find out how can we Pur so we have a website I will pass on the link um I'll pass it on to Hank when I have it we're ready to sell and we will we'll pass on some candles as well so thank you so much okay so another really cool project is the disc golf club this is a new club that started started up at at uh North and I'll have Brian come up and actually it's Brian and a um
009some team members but Brian is representing his team here and they requested for $1,035 yeah so I'll I'll start off by saying that uh disc golf has played a major role Larry Baka and Tony s Lo Maya's life uh over the last five six years uh it the sport came to us in a time of need whether it's during the pandemic or life Transitions and I can assure you that you cannot find more passionate uh co-sponsors than the three of us uh we were graced with the opportunity to take over the club this fall and if you know uh Tony Calo whenever he has his mind set on something it's going to go big or go home so uh we meet on a monthly basis at the local uh and distant disc golf courses around
010the suburbs uh with our students we've seen membership close to uh triple in terms of outings uh we have parents play with us as well because they don't want to drive home and they it's great exercise most recent outing was at Shorewood and 2 Ines of snow uh your is beautiful your is beautiful and a great memory uh with this uh Grant we're now able to purchase uh 10 prati ice baskets that we'll be able to house and keep um at North to run clinicals on putting which is one of the most essential skills in disc golf because if you can't putt you're not going to win uh so we are uh really grateful for this opportunity to expand and grow our club thank you thank you sorry and Brian is also accepting uh this
011wonderful $1,000 check for on behalf of the engineering club uh where they are using the funds to purchase radio control parts so as I alluded to in my last uh Speech here is the sponsor of the engineering club he started this up last year with a goal in mind to uh spread uh the interest and enthusiasm that he shares in in being a maker and being a builder uh it started off with a handful of kids who who came to him and said hey we need to have a club well this year we meet every or they meet every Friday morning and you know a Friday morning to to be able to get 25 to 30 individuals freshmen all the way up to seniors wanting to participate and whether they are students of ours in
012our class or they are just someone who wants to get uh an idea of what engineering is so with this grant they purchased uh various components for uh a boat well N I think nine different boats and they are modeling 3D modeling and fabricating with our 3D printers and the ultimate goal by the end of the semester is for them to uh race them in our pool so right now they have uh gone through several iterations uh every group's boat looks different uh and and has its own unique sense of style but uh we're looking forward to seeing what The Alchemist thank you [Applause] okay that ends our presentation we will start back up with our grants for the spring semester they will kick off um applications will open up on March the 1st so
013we will be back later on thanks everyone thank you Foundation thank you before you guys leave I want to just um thank the foundation for the great work that you guys are doing I mean these great and bringing these creative ideas to fruition is just fantastic and to have the teachers here to tell them their own words what a positive difference this is making in the schools is priceless so thank all of you for taking time out and doing what you do and once again we appreciate the board's support too thank you thank you all for coming out it's a public meeting you're welcome to stick around the whole time I tell everybody you may have gee I don't understand they Shuffle to the door R they're running over each other to get out of
014do all right uh moving back to board business this evening uh jur is here to provide an update on our quarterly financial report I'll advance for you okay let me start with revenues okay well we're halfway through the year and our revenues just like always at this time of the year we've got a little over 90% collected because the bulk of our revenues are property taxes and so we've already collected the revenues there's no surprises at this time um last year at this time we were noticing that our replacement taxes were little lower than what we had anticipated and then later in the spring we found out from the state that uh replacement taxes were going to come in lower uh last year they did slightly lower than what we had anticipated then the state
015let us know that this year they were going to really reduce the amount of Pro replacement taxes that we received so our current budget reflects that reduced amount so we don't anticipate any surprises in that area for this this year interest earnings are are are still pretty strong and um Tammy and I believe that they might come in a little bit higher than what we had anticipated we were a little conservative we listened to PMA they aligned with our thoughts so um we might have a little extra there other than that it's everything's you know pretty constant any questions on the revenues okay on the expenditures as you can see we're pretty much on target like we were last year um with the amount that's expended uh the only areas that we're watching one is
016in the purchase service line item and that would include transportation services last year transportation expenditures were higher than expected so we uh formed a a team late last spring um to look at what we might be able to do to have some cost-saving measures we've implemented those measures and um as of now it looks like we we might have some Savings in that area that savings if we do have some will probably help us out in the tuition line it item because it's running a little bit higher than what we had anticipated um that's all related to student services and so if our students have you know a higher need of of specialized services our expenditures run a little bit higher than what we we had planned but there's no concerns at this point at
017all any questions and the last slide is just our fund balance just showing where we are you'll see the one uh transfer from working cash that's what the board approved um in December for us to transfer that money into the capital projects which paid for all the Athletic Facility improvements other than that it all looks just you know really stable at this point Hank do you have anything to add thanks to Tammy and Jer you know for all their work and then the entire team it's really especially those Transportation costs I know we're looking closely at electrical costs and printing costs there a couple of other areas across the district that we've really tried to make sure we're containing um otherwise the rest is as it comes right you bring up a good point on
018the utilities because last year at this time that's when we had a big surprise on the utility cost on the delivery costs that really increased um you met with the Travis met with the consultant and I think we have a pretty pretty sound budget amount do you agree for this year so we shouldn't have that large surprise that we did last year of about5 to $600,000 that was not anticipated yeah are the transportation savings that you referenced is that related to those activity are we seeing savings from those activity buses we we do see a small amount of savings from the activity buses yes we do um we have really focused in on the transportation needs of our any any student who is transported outside of our schools to different outplaced facilities and working with
019our transportation providers to come up with a more efficient way of doing that and ultimately saving some money for example we have a our our regular education Transportation contract is um with District 58 and District 68 to keep our cost down so the three districts met to see what we could do to reduce our costs for some of the students who live um at the uh the shelter on Butterfield Road and so we've combined we have two special buses who are doing that and so that's a pretty good savings for all three districts that's just one one idea any other questions for J thank you for no surprises yeah yeah yeah absolutely all right and also at this point of the year uh I know the time in which we've brought the board The Five-Year
020Financial projection has varied over the years I think we're pretty much settling in here at being uh end of January being our general time uh now and into the future we have an idea of what our estimated Levy is at that point we're halfway through this year's expenditures so we just feel like this is a a good time to start present to make this the tradition of presenting around uh end of January beginning of February on the updated finan fiveyear Financial projection so I'll let you retake it from here okay yeah just a kind of add to that there's a couple other areas that it really helps to wait until now one is capital projects so Travis and his team have a much better idea of what the plans are for the next summer um
021and then Gina's office has a a better idea of textbooks needs and such and those are pretty large expenditures uh so it it it does help to to wait until now along with already having a pretty good idea of how this year is going so with that we'll start with the very positive which is the very bottom line ending fund balance and you'll see the percentage of revenues our goal is to stay at 5% or better and so with this projection we're showing that we should be able to keep our fund balance you know above the 5% Mark um just a reminder of that 5 % is the number that jury and I have picked to try to stay above the board's policy is three three [Music] mhm um this projection um does take into
022account the um the negotiations that's currently going on with DGA and and possible projections with that um it also takes into consideration F any any retirements that are coming over the next few years which can be a a savings and a cost at the same time um it it the revenues are just based upon what we know is CPI and then an estimate of of CPI just based on history um and then we've kept state and federal funding flat which it pretty much has stayed that way the only outlier on that was during Co when the federal government did provide us with some additional funds but otherwise we stay pretty flat on the federal funds other than that there's um can't think of any large items to to to look at that's going to affect
023this other than the ones that we've already put in there the textbooks capital projects oh it's right one on the capital projects okay this one is just snapshotted but if if you look if you're looking at your computer and you see the the large screen on it the major Capital outlay mhm uh Travis and I met and we identified that some of the areas that have been categorized into major Capital outlay over the past few years has really been repairs and maintenance and we wanted to keep those separate so we' have a a better idea of what the true capital projects are costing and so you'll see that's a reduction but just some of the expenditures have been moved down to a different line the cost is pretty much relatively the same it's a recategorization
024it is and then we don't see a large expenditure in capital outlay over the next few years because we plan on doing a number of Life Safety projects there's one project that was noted in your memo that's still absent from this which is the replacement of the Fieldhouse floors um that's somewhere between 1.1 and $1.3 million estimated to do that project we have a little over 300,000 set aside right now for it um so we're going to get a little closer here towards the end of this year maybe into next year to look at which of these future years it either sits in or gets scattered between multiple Financial years you can see there is a surplus there that allows for that and allows us to stay above the 5% threshold uh we just need
025we need a stronger idea of finances in each budget year to determine when we come to the board for that actual project so um that that is a chunk that needs to come out of here we just don't know we know it's not this year uh so it's either it's probably in the next two years and we'll just determine when is the best time to come to the board with that final project would you do one school one year and one the next there's possibilities to put it across two or put it across to fiscal years yeah as well like you do it over the summer and one school's pay paid out of one fiscal year and the next one's paid out of the next fiscal year so there there's different ways you could do
026that either way we know there's about a million dollars of additional expenditures that fit into our budget some you know into our larger budget picture but we didn't want to reflect that in here until we were closer to get there so certain just important to note that that one is coming in some shape or form over this 5year period one other line in here that um you might wonder about the transfer to other funds line item we transfer money from our education fund every year into our debt service fund to make lease payments that's an accounting rule uh we didn't used to have to do this transfer but now we do so those lease payments pay for the Chromebook devices the staff devices the print devices that's all on a cycle and so those are
027just our lease payments so instead of coming directly out of the education fund we transfer from the education fund which is part of the operating funds into debt service but it is an expenditure any questions all right thank you jury for all your work on that all right this is the one that the board looks forward to every year just letting you know that we've abided by the rules and uh Raymond James uh files all the disclosures for us and they did back in December in a timely manner so it's just to let you know that the filing was completed repl all right uh the next one there's really I don't think need for a lot of discussion um the team is proposing that we do not increase athletic summer camp fees uh so for
028that there's no need for board approval no it's we're just informing the board that we're keeping that flat if the board wanted to discuss those more in detail we could bring them back at a future agenda um but at this point it's more of a FYI we're not planning on increasing those fees next year so um if you'd like to discuss them further let me know and we'll add it to a future agenda we can't reduce them no we do not believe we can reduce them so so last year um we met as a larger group with the athletic departments and um we reconfigured the way the fee structure was for the summer camp fees um and there was really good feedback from the parents um with the fee structure and so uh we would
029not recommend changing the fee structure but at the same time we also believe that the fees that we currently set last year should just flow forward for 2025 and then I would anticipate you know we'll look at it again for 2026 all right any other questions on fees all right uh next couple of things uh come to the board every year in the same format so summer school and esy compensation recommendation Rob it's just yeah simple we just take last year and multiply by CPI it's pretty easy so that's the recommendation it's an item this evening that you approve that annual increase in line with CPI Summer School uh calendar and summer calendar Rob also works on this as well presented a calendar that reflects what we've done in the last I don't know six
030eight years something like that long time long time so that's up as an action item for approval this evening as well discipline Improvement plan um because of the way that state metrics work pretty much each year we're going to end up having to present a discipline Improvement plan to the board Scott works on that uh Scott is giving you a preview of that uh this evening for well a view of that this evening for approval before he sends it off to isby um it's got anything else to add to that yeah I mean I I just would compliment our buildings and ter and um Kelly zerner and Karen Taylor have really done a lot with restorative practices and we have an outside consultant they've also um created with um a few other uh staff members
031that went through some of the restorative training with our outside consultant to create like a professional development opportunity to bring restorative practices into the classroom um and it's been pretty successful so we'll continue to expand on that so we're excited about that and then our most way and positive positive ly nor teams um continue to work on you know using the data from you know students that are bullied or harassed and try to build um prevention activities and we kind of have like a bystander kind of training that goes out to all students um to just you know be aware of it and how they can engage and stop it and you know so we're excited about that work um and I ask you how that I've just I've seen that in the workplace more
032that bystander training like is that it makes perfect sense but is like you see kids actually I mean it we started it last year so it's like kind of like we're we're we're continuing with it because we know through our different data points that obviously we need to continue to work on that um so it being fairly new we're trying to okay work on Baseline stuff and how we're going to kind of monitor it um I think honestly what I uh give credit to the district is that there is not a lot of schools that are actually implementing like kind of like a bander training so I do give a lot of credit to District 99 to actually you know do this kind of work um it is new and yeah there's a lot out
033there there's a lot out there in the universities and colleges as well as the workplace um so we're excited about challenging at a teenager age than you know an adult but that's great yeah so we're excited about that and and then obviously our path program is another piece that we you know we we expanded we have full-time staff members um we presented the parent teacher advisory I know the data in that are we keep looking at the recidivism of and and the data continues to you know last year we haven't calculated at all obviously for the this school year but um definitely is is a strong point that we know that we're making an impact on students um doesn't mean that we don't have our challenges and all that and like Hank said we'll we'll
034kind of have probably this Improvement plan um every year but I think it's a good thing to keep us accountable and really looking at the data and and what we can do to support students so I just want to point you know also thank you Scott for leading the team and for all the team members that are working on this unfortunately just the way that the the numbers are structured in the law a district with our size that is high school only with our demographics will pretty much guarantee that in because there's multiple ways that you could uh reach this list right and it is likely that every year based on just our size demographics and the fact that we have high schoolers only will make it so that the numbers work out that we'll
035continue to respond to the state mandated plan the work that Scott's describing is our work anyway right we would be doing work on improving our response to discipline issues and concerns regardless of this plan so um but Scott and the team do a nice job of formatting it and getting it in the way that isby needs it and so that the board can approve that work and move it forward so any questions for Scott actually just one other thought I'm thinking as I'm reading the bystander training that like another I don't know if you do any work with like the various clubs with some of these groups but sort of you know working through some of the minority clubs around by I don't know if that's yeah I mean we haven't um it's been out
036to just the all student body it hasn't okay so all students get the training CU I think some of those clubs are particularly focused on things like that being in La I'll I'll put a note down to bring it up to our team though because it's a different avenue of obviously just another way to reinforce it or groups that might be a little more receptive to a message like that any other questions or suggestions comments for Scott all right this is an action item later on this evening all right uh scoreboard advertising Travis brought this to you for first review last month he's back to answer any questions you might have this month I just don't like that there's no termination provision so it's a 5-year agreement um we can terminate if there was a
037breach just on a breach of contract claim but there's no there's no language in here about termination before the 5 years is up y unless there's the breach but yes yeah but that that goes with any contract so [Music] um are they sinking costs into their process of seeking I mean generally you wouldn't have a termination right if like you know entity's going to put upfront costs that mandate its ability to um its need for a 5-year term term but I don't know that that's really the case in in this Arrangement um I don't want to put a wrench in the deal um but I also don't want to put us in a situation where we get into this a year end and we don't really like how this firm is operating and we don't
038really have a way of getting out for another four years after that that's my concern sure they if they don't if they don't sell the advertising they don't make they don't make money so that that's part of the the draw with that also they're um I I completely agree with you that there's nothing else in there that you know we say if we're not if we're not happy or they don't reach a certain Benchmark you know there's nothing uh that's in there that gives us then that ability to um to go through so if you'd like me to go back I I certainly can and say hey we want to you know put in a provision for that um we're the only timeline we're on is trying to get this going so that we can
039start seeing some some Revenue maybe come at it say we'll give you 12 months but after 12 months if you don't meet like certain projections or thresholds of of generating Revenue then we have a we have the ability to terminate after 12 months and maybe that's a sliding scale during the 5-year period so that it it's you know if they're making any representations on hey we think we can generate this amount of Revenue and you you you say if you don't meet 75x of what you know you're projecting then we have a right to terminate uh and then maybe find somebody else who might be able to do a better job I just don't want to be locked in for five years that's all I'm saying would you like this us to table this tonight
040do you want to approve it I'm only one7 so um I'm just expressing my concerns if if you're asking me how I feel I would I would like to propose that idea um back um to uh scoreboard media and see if they'd be willing to uh negotiate on uh an exit strategy before the five-year term can you remind us I know you talked about but there's not a lot of options out there right because a lot of them are large National right can you just remind us like do we have other options like if we can't get them to do that like what else it is limited okay um they this company is also broader in the scope that they this is not all that they do they also do billboard advertising the it's a
041sister company if you will of that so they have the connection the national connections um and so but I I completely get where you're coming from uh from my conversations with them I feel that their their reputation they're local they're they're going to strive to get as much as they can cuz it's beneficial um with that um that being said I I also see where you're you know where you're coming from but there there are not as I mean this is not a huge uh at least right now right as more schools look at doing things such as this that may grow and there may be more companies that that come about but right now there's not a lot if he came back on February 3rd we couldn't approve it because it's a workshop meeting
042is that right no we could we just make it a workshop with action am I the only one who has this concern or is it I would I would agree with you Don now's the time that we iron out little details like that and I think it's very important that we do have an exit strategy if they don't meet our expectations we shouldn't be locked in for 5 years so I agree 100% yeah and if it delays it for two weeks or even a month it's worth it because we're talking about a 5year commitment here yeah I think if they're able to uh provide us with some sort of uh termination Clause um based on a metric of like you know x% of their projections that that'd be more comfortable for for me I think
043um and it's a Ken's Point like it an extra two weeks is not going to make a break uh if we're already not yeah we're not I'm not asking for just like a uh a no fault no cause termination right that would this would be you know you're just not generating you know revenues that we were anticipating or what you were representing is a possibility um yeah because that locks Us in for five years if we're yeah unhappy yeah and if we're not making any money then yeah then it's just sitting there and they have the exclusive right to sell and they're not doing a good job locked in so yeah I think um an exit clause is very important and based on what you're saying about that company and their reputation and their track
044record I don't think they'll have any problem making that kind of adjustment to our contract I can I can certainly do that I'll um I think the the part of the challenge is when you're talking about advertising like I get the the the component of they've said I think I I included that in the presentation they think about um 50 75 years 1 50 to 75,000 um in the estimated our our Revenue right so a certain percentage of of that um and I would think that it would give us cause to doesn't mean it's an automatic because as we investigate it that's that's how I would suggest that the language is written right gives us that opportunity it's a it's a may not a shall MH that's what I was yeah make sure that I'm
045you can I me I think I'd be comfortable saying we're not we don't have a right to terminate in the first 12 months you know because there's a rampup period right you know they've got to educate the market before they can sell it right all right we'll go go from here Travis you and I can chat after see what we can come up with see if the company is is open to that or not right it's it's a negotiation right that's right so that's right and then we'll table it for this evening and bring it back it depends on how how quickly we're able to to engage and alternatively Travis and Hank I mean if they're not willing to do any type of termination agreement then maybe we you could come back with a shorter
046term and instead of a five-year term we'll give you a two-year term with no termination but a 5-year term with no termination right I think is just a it's a long time it's a long time sure okay all right we'll go back to work thank you all right uh foyer requests uh we receed them periodically and respond to them promptly and post them on the website consent agenda okay before the board votes on the consent agenda is there any agenda item a board member would like to pull out of the consent agenda for further discussion okay hearing none can I get a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes a the Personnel report leave of absence classified appointment classified B Personnel report resignation classified C Personnel report
047termination classified D December Financial Pages e student trip F ihsa application for Cooperative team sponsorship ship boys gymnastics G annual comprehensive financial report and H review of closed session minutes and verbatim recordings so moved second Terry moves and Chris seconds thank you Terry pavich I Chris Dr Spinosa hi Jenny hagstrom hi Cara Caston hi Ken Dawson hi and Don rener I motion carries all right item number seven recommendations for Action um can I get a motion from the board of Education to approve the 2025 summer school and esy compensation recommendation as presented so moved second CH moves K seconds thank you Christ Espinosa hi Ken Dawson hi Jenny hagstrom hi Terry pavich I Cara Caston I and Don Runner I motion carries uh can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve
048the proposed 2025 summer school and summer calendar as presented so moved second Terry moves and Jenny second thank you Terry pavich hi Jenny hagstrom hi Eric Caston I Ken Dawson I Christopher Espinosa hi and Don Runner I motion carries can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the 2025 2026 discipline Improvement plan as presented so moved second Ken moves Chris seconds thank you Ken Dawson hi CHR Espinosa hi Jenny hagstrom I Terry pavich I Hera Caston I and Don rener I motion carries and then item d we're going to table for now y okay that's good uh any old business Hank uh not old we've got new how about new business uh policy committee sends the following report first reading of policies to the board uh Julie has done a wonderful
049job of as always presenting to those to you for first reading there is a combination of clerical changes um some subst changes but not uh so drastic that we feel like we need to outline them here at the board level they've been reviewed at the policy committee level and then we also I don't think it's reflected here but just so you know we reviewed a few policies that had been quite a while since we had some of them hadn't been reviewed since I had been superintendent so we uh went through and reviewed some that hadn't come to the policy committee for a while to just update that they had been reviewed by the team so uh here is the first reading of policies with changes uh they will come back next month for approval in
050the next month as you review these if you have any questions or would like to discuss them further please reach out to myself Don or Chris and uh we can either answer those questions or get them uh for discussion at the next meeting uh otherwise they'll come back for approval in a month at the meeting of the policy committee meeting it was very straight forward we didn't have much discussion so nothing or shattering in these policy updates all right that's it for new business item 10 Julie do we have any uh reception okay uh inviting shaas C ashown up yes sir thank you uh you'll have three minutes to address the board no problem my name is sha C ashtown and I'm a longtime Downers Grove resident I attended Downers Grove schools uh my whole
051school school year time and that was a long time ago um I want to thank you all so much for your service to our community and for this um this collegial atmosphere this evening um so um one thing that I'm really passionate about is cultivating an anti-bully in school culture and I was really happy to hear about the bystander training that you uh talked about today um in that ilk um you know that um we uh just got a new president who ran on uh a campaign of demonization of lgbtq people and um I'm a volunteer with youth Outlook um and I can tell you that um the kids are really um really suffering they're really scared um and um I happen to hear that um the Trevor Project which has um um a suicide
052hotline for lgbtq people um that after uh the inauguration last week uh they got an increase in calls by 700% so um you know um trans people gender Divergent people uh I include myself in that were generally that way from birth and all through our schooling years and so during this this period that's very difficult for them I just want them to be foremost in your minds um I'm also concerned about ice raids on schools um they said that they were just going to come after criminal criminals or some Republicans said that but um I know that uh an elementary school on the south side of Chicago um has already been visited by Ice uh they didn't let them in um and um you know I'm not um completely against any dis deportation but I
053think that um this kind of action is very traumatic to to children and um it can also increase absenteeism right because immigrants if they're unsure they're not going to send their kids to school yeah it's a lot easier to um round up people who go to work every day send their kids to school than the criminals um I have heard that funding for special ed will experience massive Cuts that's the end of my 3 minutes thank you so much for your attention thank you thank you sir okay attorne to item number 11 um Jenny any updates from L um yeah Hank Did circulate the slides from the meeting on Friday but we had our first meeting of the new year on Friday um it was just before the legislative session is getting underway which I
054think is today um so the kind of the key bills that they are focusing on right now are the Dual credit and the polling places uh legislation so um for dual credit they are hoping to present more of an appeal Pro process for credentialing of teachers um because I think they found Dage County um even amongst other counties in Illinois we don't have enough teachers that are certified for the Dual credit teaching and so they'd like to make it a little bit easier to get more teachers then and then in turn get more students um with regard to schools as polling places um right now if the Board of Elections requests that a school be a polling place a school can counter by um saying that the use of the school interferes with scheduled programming
055um or that the use of the school as a polling place poses a safety concern um and if that is raised then the Board of Elections and the school district can work to find an alternate location um if an alternative location cannot be found or agreed upon then they can appeal to the board of County Commissioners who then decide um the location of the polling place um so they're kind of pushing to you know I think less and less or try to avoid using schools as polling places um there is also a data collection component to the legislation um looking at things for example the percentage of people who participate in earlier mailin voting um the legislation would require that the Board of Elections would have to gather and provide this data um so that's
056kind of been The Works um there were a few other bills that they touched on um you can kind of read about in the um PowerPoint there's a mobile Panic alert system um a child placement bill which would allow parents to record meetings with their child's IEP team um there was a bill about student surveys um and getting parental consent if we're asking about protected personal information um another law about students who are found in possession of a firearm on a school grounds or school campus um sort of just a kind of generally law enforcement is immediately notified and it sort of becomes the law enforcement agency's issue to handle um but they would you want the bill to say that the principal of the school must immediately notify the school the students parent or
057guardian and coordinate with the law enforcement agency just so that there's communication between the school the law enforcement agencies and the parents or Guardians um they are still looking to make election day a state holiday which would be uh November 23rd November 3rd of 2026 would be the next one um that just for like school calendar planning purposes they put that out there um and then there were just a couple of uh bills about inner clastic Athletics um first that students who are in special education programs at schools that are they're there through age 22 that they are eligible to participate in inner Scholastic Athletics and then also uh students who are non-public school students um they attend a non-public school but reside in the district they can participate in extracurricular athletic activities sponsored by
058the district without being required to enroll or meet any coursework requirements um if certain conditions are met ex so that's kind of the gist of it and then the assembly begins this week so yep it will be a busy leg sure and then we'll have a meeting um the end of February next one so thanks Jenny Chris any report on sassin uh no we have a meeting on uh this upcoming Wednesday at uh the sassin center over in um ly so okay yep Terry any further update from the Education Foundation um just as you saw tonight we we gave out some checks and we will be giving those out again um towards the end of the year and um we're still um trying to decide what to do with the Mark McDonald fund uh we're
059thinking about maybe doing something with moose heart because he was um very passionate about moose heart and so we thought that would be a good place since we don't have a lot of money we are just you know trying to decide um we're just uh working on our calendar to um so so everybody knows what to expect kind of like what we do you know so um you know what what's coming up in February or March and so we're doing that and we're still trying to find someone to help us with the website so if you know of anyone who would like to work on the website and help us uh make it a better place to go um we would appreciate it so that's kind of what we're doing okay Canen any update on
060iasp next uh D page division meeting is Wednesday March 5th at Addison Trail High School so anybody that's interested and going let Julie know and she'll get you registered the topic is preparing students for a changing economy so that should be a very interesting and relevant topic so I'm definitely going to be there and hopefully some of you will have time to attend as well I'll be there good be there okay Shell's not here so I'll skip that on the Downers Grove plan commission uh item 12 upcoming board meetings our next board meeting will be here at uh 6:30 p.m. on February 3rd 2025 it'll be a workshop meeting followed by February 24th regular business meeting again here at the ASC at 6:30 p.m. um next next item can I get a motion from the
061Board of Education to go into Clos session for a collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees and B 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 volunteer PE of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the district or against legal council for the district to determine its validity so moved second Chris moves Ken seconds thank you very much Chris Espinosa hi Ken Dawson hi Jenny hagstrom hi Terry pavich hi
062Cara cter I and Don Runner I motion carries and then for the members of the public the only item that the board will be taking uh or the only action that the board will be taking when it comes out of Clos session is to adjourn let's take a brief uh break and then we'll uh adjourn or start close session thank you e