001Oh. >> Oh. Oh. >> of 2026 regular meeting of the Board of Education of the CUSD 201 Board of Education. Roll call, please. Thea Canover. >> Here. Heather Franklin. Here. Rose Zavia. Timothy Orman. Here. Adina Hoover. Here. Kevin Marron. >> Here. Alexandria Mill. Here. Uh, stand for the pledge, please. I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, the chair will entertain a motion to enter closed session to discuss specific employee student discipline, superintendent evaluation, review of closed session minutes, and potential litigation. Do I have to say the five ILCS? Yeah. Yeah, you can. It doesn't matter. Five ILCS 120/2. So moved. Second. Uh, roll call, please. Dr. Hoover. Yes. Ms.
002Mill. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. Mr. Orman. Yes. Mr. Marron. Yes. Ms. Canover. Yes. Motion passes. We'll be back. >> Mhm. >> Do we have any public comments? No one gave me seeing none. Let's move on to our procedural actions at this time. The board can sign up for which committees they would like to be on which we just talked about very briefly. So the committee sign up here go to town it's pretty self-explanatory. around on each side just pass them around. Do I have to pass this around? Yeah. Okay, well everyone everybody's got one. >> Just give me one for Heather. Is there going to be an opportunity to suggest additional committees or how do we go about that process? We should that would be an agenda item we can talk about so we can't
003necessarily add these these committees are called out in their in I think the administration policies but from an ad hoc standpoint that would be an agenda item. Any other questions on that one? Establishment of board meeting dates, times, and places. The chair will entertain a motion that the regular meetings of the CUSD 201 Board of Education be held as identified on the notice schedule of regular meetings of the Board of Education of Community Unit School District 201 as presented. So moved. Second. Roll call. Dr. Hoover. Yes. >> Ms. Smell. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. >> Mr. Worman. Yes. >> Mr. Marin. Yes. Ms. Conover. Yes. Motion passes. Um appointment of IASB representative. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the appointment. Ms. Bacon, are we doing Kevin? Kevin, are you this is it? Is this
004you? Uh that's fine. Yeah? Didn't you Yeah, you did it last year, right? >> it last year. That's fine. Would you guys like to talk about Anybody else want to be the IASB delegate representative? >> process. It is super interesting. Carlos did it the year before. Great. So, um the I'm going to restart this motion then. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the appointment of Kevin Marin as Community Unit School District 201's Illinois Association of School Boards delegate representative. So moved. Second. Roll call. Ms. Smell. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. >> Mr. Worman. Yes. Mr. Marin. Yes. >> Ms. Conover. >> Yes. Dr. Hoover. Yes. Okay, approval of minutes. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the April 14th, 2026 regular meeting of the Board of Education as presented. So
005moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Uh April 14th, 2026 closed. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the closed session of the April 14th, 2026 regular meeting of the Board of Education as presented. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Um consent agenda. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Personnel recommendations: Caitlin Moser, social worker; Amelia Berta, elementary teacher; William McGee, summer temporary help; resignation, retirement, leave of absence. Approval of the May 2026 expenditure report. Ratification of the March 2026 regular payroll. Approval of the Saugus lease agreement. So moved. Second. Roll call. Ms. Franklin. Yes. Mr. Horman. Abstain. Mr. Maron. Yes. Ms. Canover. Yes. Mr. Avia. I'm sorry. Dr. Hoover. Yes. >> Ms. Mel.
006Yes. Motion passes. Okay, information and discussion. Summer school, Carla. Come on down. It's that time of year. It is. Okay, I can be pretty brief here because it is the exact same as last year. So, um I for elementary, the programming we have for elementary is June Boost, which is your traditional summer school math and ELA focus. Invitation only, incoming first through fifth. Um the initial invites have been sent out to families. Another round of invites will be sent again soon. Um to make sure that we have we're aiming for up to 90 students in that program. ESY is still finalizing enrollment. And that there's enrollment determined by IEP eligibility criteria for that one. Um that is pre-K through fifth grade, math and ELA focus. Um STEM is a really cool one. Um Steve Ritz
007does this program, and it is open to all incoming second through fifth grade students. There will be a second and third grade group of 25 kids, and then a fourth and fifth grade group of 25 kids. Um invites have been sent, registration is open, um and it's open until the first week of May or until all slots are filled. So, 25 for each group. Um and the question always comes up, "Can my child do STEM and June Boost?" And we usually work around that. So, we don't want children to miss out on STEM because it's such a cool opportunity. Um so, if that happens to anyone, we'll we can talk through it. So. Um Jumpstart to Kindergarten has been really successful the last couple of years. It's a couple of days in July, and it's
008for incoming kindergarten students. It's open to all of them, and it really just gets them a jumpstart into kindergarten, exactly what it says. Focus on academic readiness, kind of talking about school rules, how to be in school, um and it's really helpful for the start of the year. And then Salt Tadalante is a super fun program as well. Runs through July 20th through the 30th. Um this program's really fun, and um they do a lot of work with the community, and um they do songs, and it's just a really fun time. And it's open to current kindergarten through fourth grade students. There are 33 students in there, um and then registration has been extended to May 8th. So, it's already out there, um but it's just been extended. For junior high, uh reading and math
009rising 6th through 8th, which is um the same as the June Boost for elementary, essentially. It's a math and ELA focus, and it's for students who are in math and reading intervention. Invites went out on Monday, so yesterday. Step Up for incoming 6th grade, 2 days in July for our incoming 6th grade students. The date has been shared, but sign-ups have not happened yet. And then Compact 8CC Math is an online learning program um for students to make the jump from 7th grade common core math to math one for their 8th grade year. Um invites have been sent for that one as well. And just to clarify, math one is a high school class. So, they are they are essentially starting high school math in 8th grade. So, just just to just to put it
010in normal terms. And then summer programming for the high schools the same as it was last year as well. A lot of really cool options, credit recovery. And this is the gives kids the opportunity to recover credit for failed classes for incoming 10th through 12th grade students. Invites usually are typically sent after final exams in spring. Jump to AP geography is so much fun. Everyone raves about this. There's a classroom session and then a field trip session. And those field trips I hear are some of the best things ever. And it's for any students enrolled to take AP human geography. Invites haven't happened on that yet. That's coming soon as well. And team transitions in English and math. It's help for any student with literacy and math skills enrolled in literacy workshop and or math
0111A. Invites again haven't been sent yet. Those are coming soon. High school usually waits until after a lot of their grades and stuff in before they they share this. Freshman orientation, the date has been shared with families. That will be August 13th. And it's for all freshman and students new to 201. High school students new to 201. And then the summer bump honors math, pre-cal, calculus. It's flexible scheduling. And it's really for kids to so they can enter in and participate in more rigorous coursework for 9th through 12th grade students looking for enrichment. And again, the invites they're coming soon. So, what's really cool that we we love is that we're able to offer a variety of programs in our small district. So, for kids who need additional support in math and ELA, for enrichment,
012science programming, so that's always a fun for us. Does anyone have any questions? Before you leave Dr. Brown, can you go back to those three slides that outline the program? Sure, which one? The that first one there. Mhm. If we just scroll through, this is what we offer, like Carla just said, from the kids who are most in need to give them academic boost and get them ready to enrichment programs and everything in between. In the summer of 2012, 201 had no summer school. As in none. Now, if we go through this and I'm going to be done with after this statement, these are all the options as Carla said for a small district encompassing everything from supports to enrichment. But this is the one slide then the next one, please, once again. To this
013junior high program to the high school program, it's pretty incredible. And it's I'm just saying the history of this is from nothing as in nothing to all the hard-working teachers like Brian and Anna who are here today who are willing to make uh you know, work this and it's incredible opportunity for our kids that the district provides. Thank you. And then Carla, what you've done in the past year you're you plan to do again with usually in September you kind of give us like a feedback on what's happened over the summer, um a board report, um but what for the community. Absolutely. What our program is doing, who enrolled, and that's that's the kind of thing. >> I will definitely do that. Thank you. >> the Barhysa. Uh-huh. Make sure there's a note on for
014that board board agenda. Yeah, whenever notes. And to to your point, Carla, to your point as well, that piece of like I can remember growing up summer school was not it was like, oh, you're going to summer school. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and like that is not the case here. Like there it is you continue your education through summer. Like the beauty of this is that there's something for every kid. We have such a high turnout for it, which is like, just fills me up, right? Cuz we're always talking about, you know, that education is a lifelong thing, and we're trying to teach kids to be learners for life, and I think that it's such a important part of this. I think the community loves it. It's something super special that we do. So, I
015want to thank you. I want to thank the administration for continuing to focus on this stuff and um continuing to make things interesting and exciting, so please Thank you all. Could I just ask, are these programs provided at no cost, or is there Uh no. It depends on the program. It depends on the program. STEM is a a minimal cost, so that STEM program, um but the June Boost is covered by the district. So, yeah, it depends on the program. No, I think that is a cost. That's a low cost. I know the math that there's a cost. Mhm. >> Yeah. So, it's it's dependent on the program. Can you put the next uh slideshow up? It's three slides. Great. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Dr. Wright. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okey-dokey, our next discussion item,
016Dr. Boldman's professional development and his presentation. I only have three slides, and I'll be quick about it. It's the first board meeting I've missed in 3 years. I just want to be very clear. I think the board knows this for certain, and so do the taxpayers. There was no cost to the district except for my being at this learning event. So, it was 3 days in Puerto Rico. At first, I really didn't know that I wanted to go. Um I want to thank uh Mary Cassiere and Edith Corrington for getting me connected to Dr. Maria Armstrong who ran this incredible conference. There were about 500 people there, uh dignitaries from throughout Puerto Rico and seven other countries and it was truly an incredible experience. It was and I was a panelist. Uh I don't know
017if they vetted my resume before they asked me to be a panelist because I was talking on AI and anybody who knows me maybe like why the heck did they pick this guy for AI, but I did a lot of learning there. So, but it was really a great learning experience. They picked up the cost of the registration and my hotel and I paid for my own airfare and I will just say very briefly it was so worth the investment of time and I'll tell you why in a moment. The most memorable quote that I came away with and it really helped me to develop a greater sense of urgency that we have to address this was that AI will not replace you, but somebody using AI will. And I think we have to continuously
018look at if we're providing our students with the learning opportunities to be very AI savvy and knowledgeable. It's a place that all districts need to work on including us. So, it really I won't give you all the details of all the sessions I attended, but that really was um my takeaway and and lighting that fire within me. So, I just reduced 2 days to 30 seconds. So, now the best part for me personally was this amazing experience. The first speaker at the conference and to me the most valuable session that I attended was to Javier Aguiar. Amazing person. He's going to come visit our district in mid-May. I would like all you to meet him. I would love for any parents who are interested to come and meet with them. We've talked about some of
019our parents have met with Edith and Carla and talked about to all of us the need for more training in neurodiversity uh and neurodivergent learners. Uh Javier, I was born in Nicaragua. He His family lost everything in a civil war. He moved to the United States to the Bethesda, Maryland area. Fascinating story. He went to school. His words and his teachers' words, not mine, they said they they considered him to be mildly Uh he struggled in school. He ended up dropping out of junior college, going back and getting his degree from Washington George Washington University, then getting graduate degrees from Yale and Harvard, and he also taught at MIT. And he started this company called CogX, which is really about helping people understand the science of learning and brain research. And I was just very
020taken by him, not only his personal story and who he is, but uh what he offers. So, I'm going to personally take his online course that includes things like developing uh sophisticated learners, capturing student attention, addressing processing speed, leverage working memory, uh support executive functioning, teaching for mastery, foster metacognition, uh provide effective feedback, teach for belonging, emotional and rate relationships, engagement and motivation, and understanding cognitive diversity for equity purposes. And I would invite He's going to be out here on the 15th. We'll have a session for leaders to meet with him. We'll have a session for parents to meet with him. And I really would like to explore more about what he could potentially officer offer us in training, but I want to personally take the training first and then invite others through invitation, because
021it's a 38-hour course, um and it's not for free, to people who are interested to learn more about this. But, he's an amazing individual. I think what he's talking about is part of what we need to address in our district and that was the best part of the conference. So. Questions? Yeah, it sounds exciting. I think it's great to be a lifelong learner, continue to learn, don't be stagnant. I'm impressed that you strive for that. Um regarding AI, I attended a session at the tri conference and I agree with you that urgency to learn as a tool, you know, not to not to supplement but to as a tool, you know, I use it at work to kind of refine my writing and it's helpful. So, I like that idea of the urgency to bring
022it into the schools to use. Appropriate use of AI teaching them how to use it because because I think that truly is I utilize AI quite often but it is a tool. I don't ever use it as a final anything. >> No, it doesn't replace my thoughts. >> an ideation. Yeah, blind spots, it's Yep. It's somebody to talk to when I'm not quite sure what I'm doing and I'm too embarrassed to ask somebody else, I can ask AI, right? Like and it it does it helps me elevate my own work but teaching our students how to use it responsibly and appropriately because frankly it is here. It's not going away. So, let's teach them how to use it appropriately and be responsible users of it. I think that's wonderful. Yeah. Okay, as always Jack, thank
023you. Thanks for Thanks for >> letting me go. Yeah, thanks for going and you're it's very cool that you were invited. Super Okay. Um moving along to our action items, approval of December school plans for summer 2026. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the 2026 summer school plan as presented. So moved. Second. Roll call. Mr. Horman. Yes. Mr. Marin. Yes. Ms. Conover. Yes. Mr. Avia. Sorry. Dr. Hoover. Yes. Ms. Mill. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. Motion passes. Uh board action on closed session minutes. So this is a standard practice that we go through um every 3 months or so. We'll we'll see this on here. So just to reiterate that. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the board action on closed session minutes as presented. So moved. Second. Roll call. Mr. Marin.
024Yes. Ms. Conover. Yes. Dr. Hoover. Yes. Ms. Mill. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. Mr. Horman. Yes. Number three, the destruction of verbatim closed session minutes. Again, this these two um come together always. So and it's a standard process that we go through. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the destruction of the verbatim closed session minutes from March 1st, 2024 through August 30th, 2024. So moved. Second. Roll call. Ms. Conover. Yes. Mr. Avia Mr. uh Dr. Hoover. Yes. Ms. Mill. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. Mr. Horman. Yes. >> Mr. Marin. Yes. Number four, the approval of administrator contracts. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the administrator contracts for the following individuals for the 2027 fiscal year: Mary Cassiere, Adam Kordalewski, Samantha Sinovich, and Tiffany Teresi as presented. So moved. Second. Roll call. Dr. Hoover.
025Yes. Ms. Mill. Yes. Ms. Franklin. Yes. Mr. Horman. Yes. Mr. Marin. Yes. Ms. Conover. Yes. Approval of multi-year contract for administrator. The chair will will The chair will recommend a motion to approve the multi-year contract for the assistant superintendent of finance and human resources, Ronald O'Connor, from July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2030 as presented. So moved. Second. I think so. Wait. Hm? It is 2026 27 27 28 28 29 so it should be 29. Okay. So we'll do this. Three. Three. Yeah. Okay, that's sweet. We'll push this to the we're not going to take action on that. Then that would be June 30th of 30 not that following fiscal year. It'll be 29 then. If it's 3 years, let's do 29. >> We're doing three? Yeah, so we'll push it to the next. There's
026also some typos that I think need to be corrected in the agreement like 1.4 while like 1.4 says by the year 260. Okay, we'll get that. Make corrections table. We hope you're around that long. >> to come back to this. 27 to 29. Approval of multi-year contract for Manning Elementary Assistant Principal Principal. Yes. The chair will entertain a motion to approve the multi-year contract for Stephanie as follows 2026 2027 school year as Manning Assistant Principal and the 2027 to 2029 school years as Manning Principal as presented. So moved. Second. Roll call. Ms. Mill. Yes. Ms. Franklin. >> Yes. >> Mr. Foreman. Yes. Mr. Marin. >> Yes. Ms. Canova. Yes. Dr. Hoover. Yes. Motion passes. Superintendent's report. Are we going to what are we going to do about the Iran contract right now? >> It'll come
027back at our next board meeting. Okay. All right, we'll talk. >> It'll be on the next agenda. Um it's just two major items if you will. One is we had the April 28th today the meeting with the to talk to the community about potential options for building the building. And we have and we have a Zoom meeting tomorrow night that we invite everyone in the community to and then we have a May 13th meeting. So I would welcome any feedback from the board about tonight's meeting or how we're going to proceed. But I think it's I we really we had a good turnout tonight. And we'd love to have a great turnout on Zoom tomorrow. How can people get that website? Is that on our website to get the link? Yep. For the Zoom meeting
028tomorrow night? And then we have scheduled another session on May 13th. Can we add that link to like the pop-up or something for tomorrow? I think it is on there. Well, it's I think the message is on the pop-up but specifically the like to join click here. I I think it was a great turnout tonight actually. More than 50 people. Yeah, given um where it was. I also think that at the next meeting and I know this has to be an agenda item but I hope that we can structure it a little bit differently than the than the town hall format that we had today so that we can have some more back and forth between um members who might want to talk but can't talk at a meeting like that. So I know that
029we need to schedule that and put that as an agenda item uh on how that May 13th meeting will be structured but I would like to see if there's some way we could figure out how to structure it as a committee meeting instead of a town hall meeting. So I would can I just speak to that? I would actually push back on that. Well, as a We can't discuss it tonight because it's not on our agenda tonight. So but what Tim is asking for is that it's an agenda item on our next meeting for us to discuss. And and we will add it to the next agenda. Tim, if you can send Jack and I what you want it titled and a description for the board. And then when we get there, you'll it's it
030will be on the 28th. That Can I clarify that the next meeting is on May 19th in the >> Sorry. Wait. Which next meeting? The next in-person town hall listening Yes. >> presentation will be on May 19th. >> correcting me. You're right. >> Not here. Is that correct? We have It was tentatively scheduled to be here because it's the same night as a board meeting. >> Okay. Perfect. It I think the admin It's the administration's meeting and so if they decide that we were We were packed in here, so that might need to be something that the administration can but if they're going to adjust the location for it, then we'll adjust our board meeting location as well. >> Well, we're not going to have I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, I was just asking part
031of our ask as a board to have these meetings. Um I guess it's too hard to do that for that follow meeting, but the ask from the board is to gather information and and bring back feedback from those meetings. I know it's talking about timing, so I guess it's something maybe not an answer now, but to propose how and when we do that so the board can receive that and then discuss. >> You're talking about when the board receives the feedback from the administration? Right. For these like so just I'm asking that we think about or propose also like when um administration will be prepared to say this is what we've gathered. Yeah. The The outcome from all of this. So, yeah. Can we add that How about if we add that to the next
032agenda as well. And if you guys can be prepared to answer that piece. Will it Will you be prepared though cuz we just had the meeting? >> No, I'm not saying be prepared to deliver, but to tell us when you can deliver it and recommend next steps. Okay. Yes. So is this next meeting that's scheduled going to be right before the next board meeting? Mhm. >> So >> Same same situation we did tonight. >> So then our next opportunity to put some I mean we're going to have to agenda this after that meeting, so To We We do not have the time to change these scheduled meetings that are the administration meetings. They're following the direction from the board previously. The conversation that you want to have still valid because this is very This is
033almost certainly not the last of these. And so it's still So it's still fair to for us to discuss A, do we have more and maybe that is at the next board meeting, and then B, the structural piece. >> Okay. Okay. I I anticipate just like the last couple of years, um we had kind of rounds of town halls. Okay. Mhm. Second part of my I'm going to turn over to Brian and and Anna, Brian Roach and Anna Jakubowski, who are English teachers at Westmont High School. I Normally during my superintendent report, I try to highlight some of the great things that are happening in our district. And I just want to say that there's been some issues raised that I think are important about making sure that we are addressing the needs of all
034students. And we are definitely All of our kids are sacred to us. We're compassion first. All means all. That's partly why we have the success we have. And I'm not going to talk about all the numbers and the quantitative data and all the rankings and all the awards and achievements. I really want to address that our district, including these incredible two professionals who represent many great teachers in this district, we are just, if not more, dedicated to the kids who have the fit the greatest challenges in learning. And it's a continuous improvement process. We always have to get better. And I know Tiffany is working with Dr. Destiny Huff to talk about training for our teachers in neurodivergent thinking and learning. I talked about Harvey Ar- Harvey Arguello and how he could address these through
035training, but I just want to make clear that in addition to all the great accomplishments, including in my estimation, the students with IEPs and their growth sometimes is greater than the scores of some very high-power schools in the area. And that should that's not typical. But what I really want to talk about is the qualitative piece for a minute and not just all the accomplishments, the awards, the scores, the stuff that you can put into quantitative data. I want you to hear the stories just briefly from Brian and Anna as the rest of my superintendent's report because they really exemplify the heart of what we do that doesn't I think it shows up in the scores, but I want them to just talk for a couple minutes about the work they do with some of
036our kids who face the greatest learning challenges. So, I'm going to just turn over the rest of the time to Brian and Anna. They're going to take just a couple minutes and share some information with you. Hi, I'm Anna. It's nice to see all of you. Um I teach English at the high school and I'm an instructional coach in the building as well. Excuse me, Ms. Kayla. Yeah. Brian Roach, uh freshman English, sophomore English, and then our literacy workshop class that we co-teach together. So, um thank you for having us to discuss all of this. We appreciate everything that you all do. Um and thank you, Jack, for all the support always through the years. So, we were asked to talk a little bit about literacy workshop and this is a class that we teach
037together that is structured to support students with reading and writing and fluency difficulty in high school. Um you'd be surprised to learn that even in high school we have we are teaching discrete fluency skills to our students because there is difficulty in reading in a fluid way and so we spend a lot of our time, you know, doing those things and give the kids what they need and our class is 100% made up of atypical learners. So, students with IEPs, 504s, um and students who are ELL or English language learners. Um So, just a couple of stories though. I mean, you know, we do always hear about the numbers and how, you know, great our scores are and all that and it's all very true, but the uh more important thing is like some of
038the transitions that the kids are making in our classes are huge. I mean, we've had students who come to us like they hate English, they hate reading, I'm not doing this, not, you know, a lot of that kind of behavior and then I have one story from this year with a student um and he was like, "I'm not going to read any of this. Like, you guys, whatever." But, you know, now he absolutely loves us and whatever. But, so we had this really great moment though that I like I nearly teared up but I didn't show him cuz I was so excited. He came in in school he missed a day and he came back the next day and he was like, "Wait, you guys finished the book without me?" Like so upset with us
039and I was like, "Wait, you care? What? Oh my gosh, this is like amazing." You know, so I said, "Well, yeah, cuz you weren't here." And he's like, "Well, what happened?" I said, "Do you want to come at lunch and we can like read the book together like at the end?" He's like, "Yeah." And then I didn't have to like hunt him down in the comments and be like, "Where are you at lunch? Like come read with me." You know, he came and he had his book and he's like, "Let's go. I have to see what happens." And then he's like, "You know, it's kind of nice this author is like tying up loose ends, but I'm not really sure what happened with the brother." And like that level of critical thinking for a difficult
040and a person who has a hard time reading, who is a reluctant reader, who hates English, um but now tells us English is his favorite class, whatever. Um you know, that is like the change. Like that's what we see. We continue to have experiences like that, even though we're number 13 in the state out of 665 high schools, but whatever. That's beside the point for proficiency. But we really appreciate like all the support we get. We get a lot of independent reading books and things like that that we know our kids want to read. You know, we've been really Nadine has been super great. Carla has been super great by trying to provide us with those kinds of resources that we have to have to have stories like this take place and we're super lucky
041to have Kevin, who is like such a great instructional leader, but this is the kind of stuff that changes readers, that changes the trajectory of their life. And if they're going to spend time or weigh the opportunity cost that they don't want to do something. Yeah, we had one story that comes to mind. We had a student early in the year. We do a round of a lot of pre-assessments and one of the pre-assessments is a fluency assessment and it's called the multi-dimensional fluency scale. A lot of it comes from this researcher named Timothy Rasinski, if you're interested. I got a bunch of information I can email it to you. Anyways, we sit down with students, we have them read a little passage and then we can kind of evaluate their reading comprehension as well
042as their fluency. And we're going through students, we're going through students and then we get to one student and he's looking at it, you know, and we have to time it. So we start the timer and he's looking at it and we're kind of looking at each other and we're like, "Oh boy, what's going on?" And then he just kind of breaks down in tears. And we're like, "Oh, you know, let me just start talking." And I'm like, "What's going on? What's wrong with your mind?" And he just kind of tear looked at us with teary eyes and said, "I don't know what I'm looking at. I can't read it, you know?" And just it was one of those moments where you're like, "Okay, let's look at it and let's just kind of chunk it
043and do like a word by word." So at this point we're not even trying to get data, we're just trying to like, "Okay, let's stop that and let's just talk human to human for a second." Um and eventually he got through it, okay, did okay and then now not that he's, you know, super fluent now. I wish I could say my amazing teaching, you know, he's so fluent now. But, I will say the confidence has grown enough to the point where he is volunteering to read Macbeth in class, which is huge, okay? So, I think without that support class, these kind of interventions and stories and and successes would never happen. This is the other part of the story, and it's I present so much quantitative data. I think that's important. And this team, with
044their teammates, is responsible to be in the top 1% in the state for growth in Illinois for literacy. And as Anna mentioned, top 2 and 1/2% or 2% for proficiency. But, the kids who don't pass the state exam get as much love and attention from these incredible teachers. We have been pulling in students for our interventions way before anybody ever like wanted us to, because these students are definitely like our lowest-performing kids, you know? And when I became department coordinator, I don't know, like 8 years ago or something, I there was this like focus and and all the even all the research is like, "Oh, we make sure you're focusing all here, and we have this intervention class, so we don't need to do all these interventions." But, like we changed the whole game. We
045pulled in all of our students. The kids who were the lowest, we, you know, even had to spread ourselves thin sometimes with the resources. But, we wanted that growth, and we do track the growth for literacy workshop classes. We're super lucky that we teach English 1 and English 2, so that when we take this course and we have the time with the kids, it's like an extension of what we're doing, and we know the best the best way to go about it is to make sure the Tier 1 teachers are delivering the Tier 2 intervention at that level. >> Yes. That's not typical in some schools. >> It makes it a legit Tier 2 intervention. Correct. And now, the accountability metrics being what they are, how they're changing, this growth I think will will help
046us even more because it wasn't considered, you know, before it was just proficient. Who's proficient, who's not? And now it's not just proficiency, but also how many of our students are actually growing and improving, which I love. And we've been tracking since we started teaching this class. So we care immensely and our kids, you know, they they grow to love us and that rapport that we build is the most important thing we have because they will do anything we ask them to do. You know. And so we don't have to fight the fight. >> Because of the relationships and the true love they show their students. We care just as much about the kids who struggle, even more so in some ways. If they can't pass the state exam, that's not what determines their success
047per se. But they're going to get a tremendous attention and Brian and Anna are two remarkable examples, but they're not the only ones in this district who have that level of commitment. >> Absolutely not. It's not easy. I mean, there are days we are on our own phones calling students at home and telling them to get here. Like class has started and I'm like I need you here in 8 minutes. Like right now. Let's go. You know, we've had we've had moments where we've like left ourselves to go pick them up. Because as you might imagine, some students who are struggling are students who don't think they need to be there. So we definitely they think we're a little crazy. It's okay though. We're fine with that. We have to get better, always. We have
048to commit to continuous improvement. These two, after they won the Four Award and Blue Ribbon Award, and after we were exemplary every year and 10 out of 10 and all these awards, they were selected by the Illinois Principal Association to do training for other teachers in the state. What did they do? Literally went and read 13 books on assessment. So our that's the real hallmark of our team is they we have to do this, get better, keep learning, continuous improvement. But I just really need to say, beyond the awards and the scores, the dedication of so many of the teachers in this district to the kids who need the greatest support is incredible. I think it's I'm not going to say we're the only district, but there's nobody doing it better that way. And yes,
049we need to get better and we will through training and continuous improvement efforts. But there are examples of what we're really most proud of, and that is a commitment that every student is sacred, including those who are struggling mightily with their learning. Thank you. Westmont students are the best. They are the easiest kids to work with, so we're very lucky for that. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Any board reports this evening? I just want to bring up uh I went to Matilda Junior play Westmont Junior High School. Yes. Some very talented junior high students. Um very good play. I want to thank the faculty that guided the students who ran the play. Um very good play, so thank you. Okay dokey. Um close session,
050we do not have anything for a second close session. Um do we have any public comment? Okay, no public comment. We're going to move past that, too. Moving on to future meetings and events, our preschool screening is coming up April 29th at 8:00 a.m. Um also April 29th, it is a SIP day. Check with your building regarding your specific dismissal time, cuz they're all a little different. Um also April 29th, busy day. Um the Westmont High School Band and Choir Concert is taking place at Westmont High School at 7:00 p.m. And lastly on April 29th, we've got our facilities capital planning listening session via Zoom, um happening at 6:30 p.m. On May 4th, we have the Westmont High School Honors Recital at 6:00 p.m. at the high school. Uh our next What did Yeah. There,
051are you talking about the May 13th board meeting? That's a Wednesday. >> Down here is the 19th. Yes, the Facilities Capital Planning. I'm talking talking about the next one. >> Well, the Athletic Committee, that's what I'm the Athletic Committee is May 13th. >> May 13th, but this says there's a board meeting May 13th at Village Hall. That's incorrect. >> Oh. Is that yeah? It's the That's the Athletic meeting on May 13th. >> That's at the high school. Yes, at the high school. At 6:00 p.m. Okay. Um So, Facilities Capital Planning Listening Sessions May 19th 5:30 p.m. Scheduled for Village Hall. If the administration wants to adjust that, we will do um appropriate notice immediately followed by the next scheduled regular meeting of the CUSD 220 Board of Education at 6:30 p.m. And then on May
05213th at 6:30 p.m. we have our Athletic Meeting at the high school. It's It's calendared for 6:00 p.m., but I don't but Okay. I don't >> Is that good or no? Either way, if we want to stick to that 6:30 time slot is when all our meetings are. That's I mean We will clarify and update the district calendar. Great. Yep. Do you have a preference? No preference. Does anybody? We'll figure that out. Wasn't it previously publicized for 6:00 though? I think it should I think we should keep it It's on the district calendar currently at 6:00 p.m. >> Let's keep it at 6:00 then just in case people planned or something. Go for it. Um okay. There's no other current information, so the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn the April 14th, 2026 regular
053meeting of the Board of Education. So moved. Second. Uh All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Contract years 2026