001all right Julie would you call the rooll please Cara Casten here Ken Dawson here Chelle Fuller here thank you Terry pavich here and Don Runner here thank you very much andal Mo than so excuse me now having a quum let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all find a park well Hank it's a special night so I'm going to turn it over to you for some uh special recognition of the students all right this is a wonderful evening uh one of the things that the board was focused on this year was getting better at celebrating our successes across the district we didn't expect to have so
002much so soon after we passed our new uh our new procedures uh so we have a few groups to recognize tonight and the school administration's going to uh uh call forward some coaches and sponsors and we'll work through there so uh principal lip good evening today is a really really special day I um was telling Mr movich in the hallway I've been looking forward to the Celebration all day and I'm so excited um to be able to share some of our successes with you um to start we're going to start with our tro sangs gymnastics team they as you know are our Shar District 99 Co-op gymnastics team um I am not going to spoil all the celebration I'm going to turn it over to coach Kristen Campos so come on up and we'd like
003you to just to share with us your successes so far or thus far the season okay um hi everybody those you haven't met I'm Kristen Campos this is ending my 17th year as the head coach of this program um we've been a co-op now five of those I think it is um but we had a wonderful season kind of rounding out um undefeated in conference Regional Champions sectional Champions uh and at the state meet finished second in the state in a really hard fought meet and had three of our varsity girls advance to finals um and from that uh jna haran was our beam state champion um with her teammate right next to her I think in addition to the things on the screen it's more important really to think about all T of them
004as a group we wouldn't be successful without all 10 of them playing a really important role whether they were a teammate that was braiding their hair or giving them the best pep talk of the Season or you know cheering the loudest from the stands it was really a nice environment at Palatine to hear all of them uh come together but we also had um um Kaylin landre was a beam State finalist as well finishing ninth in the state so really proud of her for that but to have six routines go in finals uh to improve our team score on the second day was something that was really quite amazing and I know it's not up there but Ed is a fresh who was the highest scoring freshman in the entire state of Illinois so she
005finished so I will um say we're very lucky because we are only losing one senior so we will miss Maddie dearly but this is just the beginning of more great things to come I think so can you introduce I can introduce uh geneveve is GNA come on up uh and say a few words awesome come on Jen with moral support of M can you um hi um first of all I want to thank everyone in the room for all their support this season um our team we just had so much fun this season I'm so proud of everybody and through all of us pushing through setbacks and coming together and getting really close as a team so yeah we have Christine can you introduce each of the players there okay so that was that was
006Jenna harion um Ed Condon can you stand up hi wave be embarrass Madison and Maddie Maddy will be representing um our district at the Illinois girls gymnastics High School National meet in May um which I'll will be accompanying her coaching uh in Fort Meers so she'll represent us nicely in Florida um kayin Landry Natalie Martin IDI [Applause] Schmid Alan Rez Lauren DC Emily C and then also uh Kylie Basco and Bill Norris as my trusty assistant I have to say just a shout out and I'm sure some of the other coaches will Echo me but our training staff here is one of the best in the state and um Steph and DJ have been a big reason for our success and I I think they don't get enough appreciation for what they do to keep
007us going uh and right along with us the whole way so without them I don't think we would have been as successful so I know they're not here but a big shout out to our training staff I was going to say um before you sit down Kristen was also recognized as Illinois High School Gymnastics Association Coach of the Year good congratulations to you to all right so so we have I have a few proclamations to work through so uh both the village of Downer's Grove and the village of Woodridge have offered proclamations towards our gymnastics team so for the trust angs um so I have a proclamation from the village of Downer's Grove that recognizes the hard work dedication sportsmanship talent and team chemistry of the 2024 trust angs as a serving as an exemplary
008representation of Downer's Grove to the sport of gymnastics and to the state of Illinois bringing pride and recognition to our community and inspiring all and uh mayor Barnett has declared today uh we're going to have a lot of day a lot of celebrations today as uh gy girls gymnastics day in the village of donor's Grove what uh mayor Cunningham in the village of Woodridge is recognizing uh the team uh for representing this region so well making both Downers Grove North and South High proud and for bringing the community surrounding Downers Grove high schools together during this exciting gymnastics season and has also named this day as Downer Grove Gymnastics Team day in Woodridge the village of Woodridge is also recognizing individually Genevie uh and her highlighting her commitment spirit and pride for the entire Woodridge
009community and is also declared uh the first day of March of 2024 as Genevie haran [Applause] day congratulations again to all of you all right so the best news is we get to keep this celebration going um because we also are celebrating our donor's Grove South speech team again I won't spoil all of it but the big news is we were state Runners up or number two in state which is an unbelievably exciting accomplishment for our speech team so with that I'm going to call up coach movich to share with you some of those celebrations from his end hi everyone if you don't know me I'm Justin Movic uh kind of fun for me to be standing here because when I was a student I got to sit there during this um I was a
010d Grove South alumni graduated was on the speech team and I've been a coach on the team since 2008 and I am very fortunate to have been able to keep our tradition of Excellence on our program through this entire time uh and really while I you know think the coaches have a lot of roles to it my my job would be far harder if it wasn't for the wonderful students that I get to work with um and really the support from the board and the district for our speech team is something that I'm exceptionally grateful for um but honoring our students I want to make sure that we uh have the students who are here honored so um we have seventh in the state we have Sabrina Crowley and Sebastian Blanco uh we have sixth
011place in poetry reading Lea Rosco um we have uh sixth place in info and fifth place in deck Naomi young uh we have fourth place an impromptu speaking Juliana coner um we have our state Runners up in humorous stward acting gaan capgro and Maya Flanery we have our state runner up in radio speaking Sebastian Blanco and we have our state champion in humorous interpretation Giana C and um part of our second place team as well I do want to call out uh will Elliott um who was part of our team in original comedy um as well as CLA rhods who was a state qualifier for our team as well part of our second place team um but the great thing about our speech team is that we don't just travel down to state with this
012group we travel down to state with uh 40 of our students um and they are involved in every aspect of the tournament from being in charge of the timers and room chairs and being the ones running the rooms to competing to our P um so this is something that the students are always at the Forefront of and I'm so proud of them and I'm so proud to be a part of this team um and I would like to call up uh gaan capgro to say a few words about her um thank you all for having us here today we really appreciate the recognition and I just want to thank Mr makovich um he is such an amazing role model for us and I don't think that any of us would have been able to um
013accomplish what we have accomplished this year without his hard work so I just want to say thank you to him and um being a part of the speech team for me has been such an amazing experience I came here as a transfer student and even doing speech online was such an interesting experience but it was honestly so welcoming and I have just found such a home here and being a part of speech has helped me in so many other aspects of my life it's taught me um confidence it's taught me resilience and um being the state champ was so amazing I got to perform in front of um every school that was there so that was a really awesome experience and also my parents were there to watch me so that was also really fun
014and just seeing um my hard work throughout the season because speech is kind of um parents aren't really as involved in it so them being able to see all of my hard work was really amazing so yeah our village Partners were also busy recognizing our speech team from the village of Downer Grove um they recognize there's a lot to this you'll see but uh we have a lot of recognitions this night so I'll get i'll get to the the highlights uh recognizing the hard work dedication talent and team chemistry of the 2024 Downers Grove South speech team serves as an exemplary representation of Downers Grove and the state of Illinois bringing pride and recognition to our community and serving as an inspiration for others and has declared March 4th 2024 also is Downers Grove South
015speech team day uh mayor conningham in the village of Woodridge uh thanks the competitors coaches students administrators parents and all others involved with the program for representing the region so well making Downers Grove South High School proud and bringing the community surrounding Downers Grove High School together during this exciting speech season and has declared Monday March 4th as Downers Grove speech team day in the village of Woodridge and also has recognized Giana CPP greo I messed that up you can tell I'm not a speech uh uh let's see uh recognizes her commitment spirit and pride of the Woodridge community and should be recognized and has uh named uh the first day of March 2024 in her honor [Applause] and the best part is we're still going oh so next um I'd like to introduce um
016our head wrestling coach Mr Loveless uh he's going to celebrate both some of the successes the team have but importantly we're celebrating individual MD laes tonight um but I will we'll have Sean come up and get us started thank uh thank you so much for for having us tonight I think this is I look back 16 years ago coming to Downer's Grobe in a community like this this is kind of the essence of Downers Grove and and District 99 um I think uh the essence of our school is in our Athletics and our activities and it it makes the student experience just just so much greater um and I see I I I see justce of kids working year round um hour after hour I see christen's um gymnasts working hour after hour um it's
017just an amazing part you know to be part of a community that supports their Athletics and um activities like we do so um thank you for the administration thank you for um supporting these these student athletes as as we do um I wanted to celebrate uh Maddie mattye leic is a is a senior two-time Captain uh finished fourth in the State this year uh earning All State honors it's the man part of part of mass journey is uh and in the eighth grade he he qualified for a state tournament that that didn't happen this this the senior this is the kind of the co class uh freshman year was was was was Rocky at best and even sophomore year we kind of limped along um and uh uh you know mty Matty has done everything
018uh that he could to put himself in a in a great situation um um he had a lot of adversity this year he lost his uh football SE senior football season due to an injury um actually missed onethird of the wrestling season and and for a while we we didn't think that he was going to get a wrestling season at all um but he never missed a football practice he never missed a wrestling practice um he was always there and ready and when he when he got cleared from the doctors um he hit the ground running so he had an amazing run uh finishing fourth place at 190 lbs for us again it's a two-time state qualifier um is a 4.26 out of a 4.0 GPA student um so he's getting it done in the
019classroom and and on the wrestling mat um he's he's been an outstanding leader um when I point to uh to to to our younger guys in the program or even our our kids at Jefferson or or Eisenhower or O'Neal or or Lake View I I you know I can point to Maddie and say you know this is this is what you want to be this is this is who you want to emulate um and it's it's easy to do so um I wanted to thank Maddie for giving me the opportunity to just kind of go along for the ride um I wanted to thank his his family as Mom's here a teacher in our our feeder feeder District um I wanted to thank our our coaches or wrestlers um you know for supporting Maddie uh
020we had a great team season we lost in our sectional final um won our third Regional R row a conference for 12 out of 13 years um but it's it's because of efforts of of individuals like Maddie that really really make it worthwhile right um standing here on a Monday night and you know you're kind of like oh man I just want to go home but now I'm looking at I'm like this is why I'm here right I mean this is why I do what I do um for guys like Maddie and and I know coach uh coach Campos and and Coach movich feel the same way um uh coach Rico is going to come up here and he's going to say the same thing so uh thank you for have letting us have this
021opportunity and celebrating the successes of these amazing kids um hi I'm mat la as um thank you all for having me here uh I just want to thank my coaches uh my trainers my parents and then my teammates um I truly wouldn't be standing here if they weren't pushing me mentally and physically past um my injury I didn't really think I was going to even have a wrestling season this year um so to just be on the mat this year was just phenomenal and it was a dream true for me cuz I was just I was hoping for the best and then just to go down to Champagne and wrestle my my heart out and then to place was just truly a blessing for me so thank you all mayor baret mayor Barnett from the
022village of Downer's Grove uh yes our our village Partners have been busy uh has recognized the hard work dedication and sportsmanship and talent of Maddie serving as an exemplary representation of Downer's Grove to the sport of wrestling and to the state of Illinois bringing pride and recognition into our community and inspiring others and he is declared Monday March 4th as Maddie LLC day mayor Cunningham in the village of Woodridge uh has also recognized Mattie's commitment spirit and pride to the Woodridge community and has recognized him and the coaches for all of his hard work and his named the first day of March is Maddie replacing all right hi everybody um I'm Ain lewick I'm one of the associate principles at North Hyde I'm really excited to be here tonight um to recognize the accomplishments of
023Kaye Lou um Kaylee is a member of our girls wrestling team and has some awesome accomplishments I'm so proud that I got asked to introduce her but I won't take the the stage away from Marcos Rico who is the head coach so I'm going to have him come up and tell you exactly all the things she got done this first and foremost I wanted to say thank you to the district it was actually two years ago I had the opportunity to come out here and work for District 99 so thank you so much for that um yes so this year um we had the opportunity to go down state and this amazing young lady uh young lady Kaye Lou uh who won the ihsa Regional Championship took first took first at the sectional and became
024the first uh sectional Champion um and it was our very first ihsa girls wrestling Placer for District 99 placing fourth at the ihsa girls wrestling championship this year finishing the season at [Music] and and again there was a few other tournaments in there I I didn't jot them all down but there was definitely a few other um it's been a privilege and I think uh as uh coach love ladies has mentioned it's all because of the work that's being done within the district right um and acknowledging some of the things that some of these amazing individuals are doing and and that's and that's what uh what makes us different from all the other districts out there um coach LL coach McGrath they've been a uh definitely building up the wrestling program here in Downers uh
025in District 99 so my head goes off to them they're the ones that gave me the opportunity gave me a call and I I definitely I still remember that that phone call we had uh so that thank you so much but Kay if you come up here say a few words I'm kayy Lou I'd like to thank like everybody um who's helped um with with uh my wrestling career and it's been great it's uh definitely a sport that pushes you as Madie said um yeah it's yeah it's just been great great four [Applause] years uh mayor Barnett would also like to recognize and he says that uh Kaylee persevered after suffering from an ACL te during her junior year overcoming this often career-ending injury and becoming the first female medalist in Downer grow drers Grove
026North's high school wrestling history also District 99's first medalist recognizing the hard workor dedication sportsmanship and talent of Kaylee serves as an exemplary representation of Downer's Grove in the sport of wrestling and his named Monday March 4th is Kaye Lou day uh mayor Cunningham in Woodridge uh recognizes that Kaye Lou has been wrestling since seventh grade while attending herck Middle School joined the wrestling team at Downers Grove North her freshman year as the only girl on the team and recognizes that kayle's win would not have been possible without the fine exceptional leadership of their coach Marcus Rico uh recognizes that kayle's work highlights the commitment spirit and pride of the Woodridge community and recognizes her along with everybody else involved in the program and has declared uh Monday March 4th is Kaye Lou [Applause] day
027well I just like to say that um you know the various accomplishments that we recognizing here tonight all of you should be just extremely proud of yourselves um but what the mayor said tonight which I I find to be really true is they both talked about inspiring others and not just the community but kids who you know are doing gymnastics when they're six years old 7 years old and they're looking up and seeing uh the tro stangs come home with the second place finish and stay Champion I mean that plays a huge role in inspiring a lot of young girls in our community to want to Aspire to do what you guys do and I that holds true with all of you but I I I think that's really important and is a takeaway that
028all of you guys can bring home with you tonight so congratulations on all of your accomplishments all right you're all welcome to stick around for the rest of the board hold on one second the spirit of Downers Grove Woodridge District 99 is on the table for the whole world to see thanks to you student athletes it's just amazing what you guys have accomplished thank you thank you thank you and thank all the parents that have taken the time to be here to support them and I know all the things you do on a daily basis you guys are the true Superstars as well so thank you thank you thank you I I believe we're going to try to grab some photos out in the foyer so uh chill Browning our Communications expert we'll grab some
029photos of you uh thank you for all coming and allowing us to bask in your glory a little bit this evening thank you thank you thank you right there [Music] did they spell her name wrong spell her name wrong several I thought about it and I was like I mean they're probably not going to come around do anything but I down the block I know I thought about going out and moving it but watch oh well my age kind of like at least I miss the presentation success very good two minutes did you say name that too yeah going to try to keep this show love um we are um going to keep the celebrations going um a little bit different through our um student perspectives so we just had celebrating all things Athletics and
030this gives us a chance to celebrate more academic real I'm going to introduce our librarian Stephanie Beck and student will um and they're going to talk about Will's willingness to lead at the state level in terms of literacy so I'm just as excited about so come on up I got it I got it as much as we want everybody else to hear I'll they can hear out there as well um we did provide a a handful of slides um for tonight so uh we can just kick it right off cuz I wanted to go ahead and give a little bit of background on the Lincoln award itself um so I'm Stephanie Beck I'm one of the Librarians um I started out at North I worked there for seven years I went to South America was
031the director of libraries I had an American school there for two years and then when I came back I came to South so this is now my second year at South so thank you for that leave and I'm happy to bring back like uh so much of what I learned and the opportunities that we have here that we are able to bring to our students because we have well staffed libraries um so the Lincoln award is the Teen Choice book award for the entire state of Illinois it is a list of 20 books and they are a variety of genres and every year um students can read four of these books and then vote for their favorite and it becomes the team Choice book award of the year it's sponsored by the Professional Organization of
032school librarians in the state of Illinois and really its job is just to like encourage reading for leisure right we do have teachers who try to do that this is like an added bonus for them and it actually becomes a pretty big go-to list for a lot of our teachers when they're looking for some books that are High interest to help students um develop a habit of reading information um I was on the nominations committee and uh last year Will's freshman year this kid was showing up in the library all the time right but not only did he show up he also was like have you read any good books lately and like any book any of the Librarians would offer he'd be like great sounds great I'll read it kid would come back next
033day we're like did you get your homework done you read this 500 page book overnight um he is a voracious reader and I thought this student would be perfect to be a reader on the panel but there is a process that he has to go through so I introduced will to the process and he will tell you about his experience uh hi my name is Will phalo um uh I'm a sophomore at D South High School um and I as Miss Beck said I applied to be on the uh the committee for the linkoln word books um which was really cool I she sent me a link and I filled out a Google form and it's asked me why I would be good to a good person to help select the books and I said
034that I've read a bunch of them uh because I had read a bunch of them that was usually the default recommendation if they hadn't read anything recently because I had maybe asked yesterday or something um I'm also very active in the Bandit down Grove South that play saxophone and Ogo um I'm working on my Eagle Scout project uh in Boy Scouts um and I love to read um about kindergarten I started reading chapter books and I just kind of haven't stopped since um that picture over there is me next to all the books that I've checked out from the DJs Library which I think is a really cool picture uh anyways so the Lincoln award I applied and I sent in the application and at the time I didn't know that they only accepted 10
035teens to be on the panel uh I thought there were going to be like 40 or 50 people you know I was going to be like surrounded by people um and I found out maybe 2 or 3 days before the the meeting that we had to discuss the books that there were only going to be nine other kids there uh which is pretty cool um anyway so I sent in the application and I waited for a little bit and then around mid November I got back the response uh yes you've been accepted woohoo um and they sent me a list of 15 books 10 of the books I was required to read and then fill out a little Google form uh saying what I thought about them do I think that they would be good
036books to be on the Lincoln word list and then I had five optional books that I could read as well and uh do fill out the same Google form except I didn't have to do like the full review write out everything that I thought about it um and so I read 14 of the 15 books uh all to of the required ones and then four of the optional ones um and one of my favorite books called little thieves uh I kind of uh thought would was a really good book and I ended up getting it on the list uh which was really cool to be able to do um and along with a couple of the other books that I read uh but all the books that I read really good they we started out
037with a list of 75 I read 15 of them uh or 14 of them and from that list of 75 the 10 of us students got to decide um what would be on the uh on the list um so next slide yeah all right so we had a uh Google meet uh at the beginning of February um and we kind of there was a spreadsheet that had the 75 and just kind of the preliminary rankings so whether like the students would rank it yes or no it would be would it be good and then we kind of had the them list uh and of the top books to the worst books or the least preferred books they all're all very good um and so we started off by all of us the 10 teens that
038were there we all kind of split off from everybody else all the adult Librarians and we just decided on the first book um and then we went back in and we did a round of discussion uh on the bottom 50% of the list and if anybody had any books that they really liked they could say something about them and then we went through some voting and based on what people said in the 45 minutes or so we had to talk um we could kind of choose whether or not we wanted the books to be on the list or not they're in still in the running for the list um and so then after that voting we got rid of of around half the list and then we did some more talking and discussion about books
039that people thought that they would like to see on the list and then we went into another round of voting and we uh we decided um on the the next eight books then we had the top nine books uh it worked out very well because it was books that were 75% yes rates are above and there happen to be eight of those which is great um and so then we had a little break time to go to the bathroom or get a snack or whatever and then we went back into the 10 teens went back and discussed the next two books that we' be added to the list uh one of them was little thieves which was the one that I wanted uh which was cool and so then we went back into talking about
040books and whatever was still on the list we had the first 11 by that point and then adding them kind of became a little slower it wasn't like two or three here and there because people were kind of like there's not that many spots left and I really want this book and I really want this book and I really want this book and so we did a couple more rounds of voting in a total it was about 5 hours there was a lunch break in there somewhere um but it was just a lot of book discussion which was pretty fun um yeah I don't know that was my that was my experience um I really like seeing how things go on behind the scenes um and so that was really fun to kind of see
041how the books were selected because that's kind of where I default to or where the Librarians suggest me to default to when I'm in there during lunch and oh I finished my book what should I do um so that was that was a lot of fun for me to be able to do and just one of 10 teens in the state yeah thank you then sh sophomore are you going to ask to be on the on the uh uh committee again I am going a request or send in another application and then if they don't get or if they don't find the right people and they'll they can add me again oh so you're kind of at the bottom of the list it's not guaranteed yeah because they don't want the same people for like
042yeah yeah yeah was it difficult for you to pick the books it it was pretty tricky for me to kind of decide because with how many books I read um I have like a really wide like range of books that I never really would have tried if it weren't for them being on the list to begin with and so um yeah it was pretty cool to it was tricky as well to decide which books I like one of others and I you know I sat there in my room with the books kind of spread out on the floor like moving them around here and there which ones do I like more no I like this one a little more um yeah do you have a certain genre that you like uh I really like fantasy
043and sci-fi those are probably my top two all right but after that it's kind of just what is the book more than the genre okay all right m Mysteries yeah I like Mysteries too thank you so much for all you do what I want to know is how do you find time to do that the band and boy scouts going for an eagle scout our son is a eagle scout and also graduate of downest Grove South so I know firsthand how much work it takes to climb the ranks of scouting from Cub Scouts all the way up to Eagle Scouts but for you to have excellence in all three areas as well as I'm sure your academics is just phenomenal as a sophomore that's just fantastic keep up the great work thank you yeah I
044will time management is all right sleep is overrated yeah sleep is overrated every once in a while it's a really good book you know I think down the road you may be able to write a book on time man we'll see about that I was going to say my son is in Boy Scouts and he's in the orchestra not at the band and I got to get him going on those books I'm like I'm liking everything I hear and I'm like got to tell him about you and the books more books he needs to read love hearing this so thank you yeah thanks congratulations thank you well thank you for your leadership and representing our district at such a high level at the state I we greatly appreciate that you're leading in that way and
045the amount of work that you're putting in and as an eagle scout myself I know how much work that all takes so well done will thank you thank you very much thank [Applause] you right more students it's [Laughter] hard all right so as you could tell there was a lot going on just in what we're in March right yeah so just in March especially February was like a huge jam-packed like funfilled month overall so like along with speech gymnastics wrestling and book reading there was also like our dance team getting 12th Place in the state and then also our swimmers going down state and swimming their best they can and then with that we also had the CBS News come so that was also fun and then you yes I got my debut my new
046debut and then um there was also which happened Thursday our Leap Day celebration so like I know our access leaders hid the frogs all around the school in the top 29 whoever got the Frog like rubber ducky frogs they um got like a nice prize for it so that really like lifted up the spirits of February especially since like so much got accomplished during February it was nice to end it in a way where we can like find frogs in the school and I don't know if there's any frogs still there cuz I know there's 129 like all over the scho we'll be finding them by the next yeah yeah yeah maybe like that's what we were talking about like in 10 years from now like maybe there'll just be a frog in the like
047in the cupboards or something we don't know and then with that we also had our spirit assembly recently and that was also fun to see how like the seniors were down by like 100 points by the spirit assembly and then all of a sudden they went up um like 150 points and then won the spirit jug for our spirit so like I don't know how that happened but it did and um seniors also I think this is the first time in history that they lost the tug-of war against sophomores so so like everybody was shocked there but it was still like that I feel like that really set the Vibes of the spirit assembly everyone is just shocked of all the different things that can happen and we also had our um seniors versus staff
048basketball game and that was also a cool experience because it was like a lot like a like a homecoming football game but like in in the stands for Access so there was just like the refs the the cheerleaders like everything everybody was involved in the halftime show so like it really set the experience for everybody to to see something like this and then we also had our spring Sports start I think last week so everything now spring is finally happening and our Deca also went down State this weekend and they also did really good for for Deca and then I'm in Deca too so there's that and then we also have our choir concert coming up so there's still a lot there we still have 3 months left of the year so let's see see
049where we can where Downer South can take it thank you it's very good Julie do we have any uh visitors no sir slips okay Hank I'll turn it over to you for item six uh that was for that all right Staffing process to Rob yeah this is just a preview for uh the next time that we meet um we have been deep the Weeds on this entire process uh just to remind you it's a it's a huge huge undertaking uh and um many many people in the organization uh feed into this puzzle and then the people who fit the puzzle together are our associate principles of instruction uh Jake Giblin and Keith Pals and uh they have their massive spreadsheets and then we gather together to figure out what this is going to look like
050uh really for tonight is just to remind you that that process involves what what we call sectioning FTE and so that is the course requests that students uh put in through their registrations and then um us working through that to determine uh which classes we can run uh depending on student interest and then we have the other uh FTE the non- sectioning FTE so those are our support positions uh some instructionally based positions also but they're not tied to course selections uh so you'll see the next time that we meet that those are broken out separately so you can see staffing recommendations that are in there and then uh at the next meeting we'll have that chart and then we'll go through um all the normal pieces that you see including the Personnel reports that
051are then attached to uh the staffing recommendations so that that will be the core of the meeting next time okay um I'd like to ask any board members if uh anyone has uh the need to go into Clos session um to talk about the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of a specific employee specific individual who serves as independent contractors a park recreational educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee specific specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer at the district or against legal council for the district to determine its Val validity does anyone have any grounds for going into closeup okay hearing none then we'll bypass
052item number seven uh item number eight recommendations for Action I need a motion for the Board of Education to adopt the resolution authorizing the July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2029 performance-based superintendent contract between the Board of Education and Dr Henry thely so moved second Terry moves and Ken second thank you T pavich hi Ken Dawson hi Char Fuller hi hi Jenny hagstrom hi car Caston hi and Don rener hi the motion carries um I just wanted to take uh just a brief minute to talk a little bit about uh Dr thy and um what we just voted upon and the impact it'll have on our district I want to focus on three main points that I believe are key to Dr the's tenure and impact on d99 um that's one Innovation two continuity and
053three fiscal responsibility um Terry and I were both um on the board of education uh when we went through the process of searching for a new superintendent after Dr McDonald retired we conducted a thorough search and whittel the field down to two candidates um the first was a seasoned superintendent who had go on to lead another reputable School District in the area and the second was Dr thy um I can remember the discussions we had as a board back then and the board was split honestly um because some of the board members were more comfortable choosing a a candidate who had proven that they could be a superintendent but we ultimately settled on on Hank because we saw promise and we saw him as a leader who could help our district grow and innovate um
054during the last seven plus years Dr thely has done just that he's overseeing major changes in in innovation in District 99 before Hank joined the district in 2016 the master facility plan was just a vision without direction under Hank's guidance we completely reimagined how our buildings could support modern learning we ask the community to approve the renovations and received it and our students will re reap the benefits for Deca decades to come as a result of the master facility plan beyond the complete physical transformation of our buildings Hank has championed numerous initiatives all of which ensure that students receive the support they need to succeed in the future um under Hanks leadership we have reformed our processes so that students who are at most at risk have a clear path to pass classes and graduate
055we expanded and keep expanding dual cred op options Hank even went beyond her own boundaries to introduce dual CR credit legislation that eventually became law here in Illinois knowing a Chromebook is only as useful as its internet connection we closed our digital divide in the district so that families in need could receive Wi-Fi at home impressively Hank spoke to the US Congress at the capital about this work believing in the benefits of professional development we have ample access to programs and opportunities for our teachers and staff to keep growing and learning Hank also helped to develop a comprehensive 5-year strategic plan based on input from our community the plan is both Innovative and practical giving the district courses of action to help us prepare students for college career and life and finally Hank helped to
056develop and Implement a hybrid block schedule to allow our students to have more out of classroom tutelage opportunities and to give them some autonomy over how they will meet their educational commitments much as they will post High School the list goes on and on and it shows a pattern of how Hank has positively impacted our district since 2016 we know and expect Han to continue to look for ways to innovate at d99 over the next 5 years I am especially excited about how Hank and his administrative team are using technology and metrics to address student issues proactively and to better identify students who may have previously fallen through the cracks that was Innovation two is continuity cons continuity of leadership is another major component of tonight's vote by the time Hank retires we will have
057had the same leader at d99 for 13 plus years when an organization as large as d99 has strong and consistent leadership it tends to thrive when we look at other area districts in DuPage County County and Beyond d99 is blessed to have sustainable and consistent leaderships from Dr the and his administrative team District 99 continues to be a destination district for top talent in the Chicago land area and much of that has to do with the level of leadership exhibited by Hank and his administrative team and finally I would be remiss not to mention the financial aspects of both Hank's contract that we've approved here tonight but also the health and well-being of District 99 as a whole the Board of Education before tonight's vote surveyed not only do paage County school districts but other
058Chicagoland school districts of similar size standing and stature and Dr th's compensation under his retirement contract will put him smack dab in the middle of other similar superintendents in the new pagean Chicago land area Dr the's compensation is well in line with his duties and overseeing 135 million budget two high schools and over 800 employees District 99 is a top five employer within Downers Grove and a top 10 employer in in the district 999 area Dr thely is a widely respected superintendent amongst his peers across the state of Illinois he takes on several leadership roles has testified both in Springfield in Washington DC on numerous occasions has presented all over the nation in regards to technology and education and was awarded the 2022 superintendent of Distinction in DuPage County during Hank's 10e District 99 has
059been a financially responsible taxing agency District 99's property tax rate has been relatively flat even with the passage of $136 million referendum in renovations of both high schools d99 continues to maintain its a uh doublea Bond or doua plus Bond rating leaving District 99 an excellent Financial standing should it need to issue Bonds in the future in summary Hank has been an Innovative leader for District 99 who will continue to provide continuity and Leadership ship over the next 5 years in addition this retirement contract and Hank's role in overseeing our budget has left District 99 in an inviable financial position for years to come thank you very much thank you thank you have anything to say just thank you Hank because you've done an excellent job so thank you thank you and as as you
060stated Han is a leader not only here in District 99 but across the state Across the Nation so it's truly a privilege for us at d99 to have someone as of his stature leading our schools so thank you Hank that's right thank you all for your continued support and trust it's an honor to be here and to serve this community thank you all right Julie do we uh second reception of buiness we have any nothing sir no okay then I think the last item is uh I need a motion to adjourn uh before that uh where can we see the basketball game ISS and uh as soon as we adjourn Miss P start watching it it doesn't start for another five minutes so I thought it started at 7 30 7:30 730 we're get you
061out in time you're okay yes I'm okay 995 on nfhs is that what it is okay I just wanted to make sure that everybody could find out where it is all right I I for updates I I wanted picture in picture in 10 seconds uh all in favor motion carries we are ajour great thank you and