001Register 300 Board of Education. We would like to thank you for being in attendance both virtually and in person for tonight's board meeting. At this time, we would like to reconvene the meeting of the community unit school district 300 Board of Education for Tuesday, August 26, 2025. M secretary, please take the role. >> Burkett, >> present. >> Bentino, >> present. >> Lamar present. Lindmark >> present. >> Mckende >> present. >> Nia >> present. >> Zatler >> present. >> Seven board members present. >> Thank you. Please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America stands nationy and justice for all. Moving on to item three, approval of the agenda. There are no changes to the agenda. Agenda. Can I um Is there a motion to approve the agenda?
002>> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Madam Secretary, please call the RO. >> Tarantino. >> Hi. >> Mckende. >> Hi. >> Meia. >> Hi. >> Zetler. >> I. >> Burket. >> I. >> Lamarca. I Lindmark. >> Hi. Motion passes 70. >> Dr. Smith. >> Members of the board of education, community members, staff, and students, we would like to acknowledge the passing of a district 300 student. District 300 would like to honor Degan Kirchki, a sophomore at Hampshire High School who passed away Saturday, August 16th. Degan will forever be missed at District 300. And at District 300, we would like to offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends in Hampshire High School's full community. At this time, I respectfully ask all in attendance to observe a moment of silence in honor of
003Degan. Thank you. For tonight's student recognition, I'd like to welcome Mr. Adrienne Harris, director of student learning and development, to the podium. He will introduce the superintendent student advisory council. This is a super proud moment in district 300, including my superintendency as we launch um this council for this school year and we're happy to share with you who all our wonderful students are that'll be helping us out this year. >> So, good after I'm sorry, good evening, Dr. Smith. Good evening, uh D300 school board. So, here's how we're going to do this students. I'm going to call you up by school. I need you to come stand that way everybody that's in attendance that wants to take a picture can and then we're going to wrap around and we're going to shake all of our
004board members hands. All right. All right. So, for starters, we're going to start off with and I I don't know if I need any background. I think we've built them up enough before before now and so now I'm just excited to be able to introduce them. Uh so, first off from Dundy Crown High School, we've got Sasha Bozik. And I'm going to keep calling your name. We've got Yasmin Evans and come on up as I'm calling you. Yasmin Evans. We've got McKenna Fernstrom. We've got Fatima Lasano. We've got Kaylee Lewis. Riley Mhouse. And we have Emma Stoultz. So come stand people can take photos. A moment in the spotlight. Smile. Smile. >> Parents, you can come forward if you want to take photos. All right. Now, we're going to turn around and we're going to
005start with Mrs. Zetler and we're going to shake every hand all the way down to D. All right, next up we have our our Hampshire High School uh students. We've got Timlade Ayola, Riddmbbati, Hudson Copelan, Percy Jamie, TT Ruf, Adidi Seni, and Jayla Watkins. And we're going to come up. We're going to take a picture. And Frank pointed out, we're going to applause for him uh this time around and we'll get you on the back end. Dundy Crown, let's give him a big round of applause. [Applause] All right, now we're going to wrap around. We're going to start at the beginning and shake hands. And last but not least, we'll end with our Jacobs High School students. Uh, for starters, we've got Brie Ael, we've got Drake Flores, Som Kolera, Donv Patel, Ryland Sansbury, Maline
006Truang, and Bell Willard. [Applause] All right, break. Oh, couple more photos. >> All right, wrap around. And last but not least, I do want to announce one more group. There's a whole bunch of adults behind the scenes that will be helping to execute the uh this group this year. And so I do want to announce those people. And as we give them a round of applause, we can actually make up for Missing Dundy Crown uh in the very beginning. So we've got Eva Gutierrez that'll be helping out. We've got the good man Casey Defa in the background who will be helping out. We've got Kelly Mani who will be helping out. We've got Allison Kaminsky who will also be helping. And last but not least, we've got Data Joe Urban. And all of these people
007will be helping to execute our APSAC. So, [Applause] and I look forward to bringing you updates over the course of the year. >> Thank you. our group is already off to their first project and looking forward to um working at each of the individual schools then working here together and presenting to the board um before the end of the semester. So, we're really looking forward to the work that's ahead of us. >> Thank you to the team that has really spearheaded supporting me with this um as they have done a lot of work for us to get to this day. So, thank you. >> This is exciting guys. Um, Superintendent Smith has been working hard to make to make this reality and it's great to see all of you guys here and enthusiastic and we're
008looking forward to um all of your input and all the work you're going to do and how you're going to help us make decisions and things like that. Um, parents, thank you. Um, we all know, we're all parents, too. We all know that a lot of this can't happen without your support for their students and for the school district. We appreciate that. Um, it's just it's it's going to be a lot of fun. So, we're looking forward to it. So, again, congratulations everybody. And also, Crown, a lot of the applause that we gave just now were for you guys. Okay. Okay. Anybody else? >> Um, just want to say you guys, you are the future. You've got everything in your hands right now. So, make good use of it. Okay. It's your time. >> Thank
009you. Thank you. We don't want to keep you. So, if you all want to follow um Mr. Harry's out um if you work if you work for me, please take your seats to the front. >> Try to sneak out. Bear. For tonight's staff recognition, we will celebrate financial awareness day. On August 14th, District 300 celebrated National Financial Awareness Day, which provided an opportunity to recognize our business office staff. The dedication and expertise exhibited by these staff members helps keep our financial operations running efficiently and transparently, ensuring the success of our students and the district as a whole. Please join me in thanking our business office team members for their outstanding contributions to District 300. Thank you and welcome also to Dr. Frank Williams. [Applause] Before I kick it back over, I do just want to
010make a correction. During my um recognition of Degan, I misspoke as sophomore and should have said senior. And so we look forward to honoring him um later this school year as we go into all those senior activities. >> Okay. Thank you for making that correction. Um just real quick, I really happy you're here. Really happy you're here. And um you gave us you know you gave us a lot of information about the budget and stuff like that and it was done in such a way that um is very understandable which is sometimes difficult to do and stuff. So we are your team has been around for a while and they're great people. I'm sure you've already realized that but we're looking forward to you guys working as you know together as strongly as the team
011worked together before. So thank you Frank. >> Good to go. >> Okay. Um there is there is nobody here for public participation. So we will move on to um Dr. Smith's superintendent report. >> Miss Beth Gouty, if you could join me at the podium for an update about summer read 300 and who our winners are. Right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Good or good evening, Dr. Smith, members of the board and community members. My name is Beth Gaudy and I serve as the director of literacy prek8. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity tonight to provide you with an update on read summer read 300. This is my first time losing this thing. Okay. In his second year, summer read 300 provided all district 300 students from preschool through 12th grade with the opportunity
012to participate in summer reading program that encourages students to become lifelong readers. We partnered with all eight local public library districts that serve district 300 students. Alangquin area, Bington area, Kerry, Gail Bordon, Fox River, Grove Memorial, Fox River Valley, Ella Johnson Memorial, and Huntley area libraries. Student interested in summer reading could register with one or more of the library programs while also enrolling in summer read 300. Those who successfully completed their library summer reading requirements received both a certificate and a t-shirt provided by the district 300 foundation. In total, 98 district 300 students completed summer read 300 program requirements. So tonight, we're happy to announce the schools from each level with the highest participation. The elementary school winner is East View Elementary School. Our middle school winner is Alangquin Middle School. And our high school
013winner is Jacob's High School. These schools will receive a banner to recognize this achievement and will provide photographs of the students from the winning schools in an update to the board in an upcoming update to the board. I'd like to thank our local library districts for their ongoing support with this program as well as District 300 Foundation for their support and participation. In addition, I'd like to thank our families for encouraging your children to participate. This is a great opportunity for students to be involved in school and community while celebrating reading and enhancing their literacy skills. We look forward to offering summer read 300 next year. What questions might I answer? >> Thank you. >> 900 over 900 kids. That's >> 900. Yeah, >> that's great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Beth. Um,
014now we will have Mr. Anthony McIn, chief communications, chief of communications, give us our back to school highlights. Hopefully, you've seen a lot of those on our social media page. Um, it was an exciting kickoff to the school year. >> Good evening. Good evening, Board of Education and Dr. Smith. On Tuesday, August 12th, District 300 hosted a successful first day of school to kick off the 2526 academic year. On the first day, we proudly welcomed back 20,793 students, 1,681 teachers, and 364 PAR professionals, each of whom play an instrumental role in shaping our wonderful D300 community. Hosting a successful start to the school year is a result of months of preparation, planning, and teamwork, all led by Dr. Smith. And that preparation made possible an opening day where we had 848 bus routes safely transporting
015students to and from school. We had 44,755 meals that were served during the first week across all of our buildings. And as you'll see later in tonight's presentation, our team worked on a total of 24 major summer construction projects, ensuring that our facilities were ready to meet the needs of our students and our staff. Tonight, I'll provide a brief glimpse into these summer items that set the stage for a successful new year before highlighting the excitement and energy of those first few days of school. We'll conclude the update with a short video to reflect the pride that we all share in beginning another school year together in district 300. As we prepared for the first day, one of our key strategies was to ensure strong communications with our families. We recognize how important it is
016for parents to have timely and reliable information to start the new school year. This summer marked the second year that district 300 coordinated a comprehensive back- tochool messaging campaign by sharing dates of these messages in advance. In May of 2025, families knew exactly when to expect important updates, helping them feel informed and prepared for the new school year. In total, we delivered four primary summer messages along with a welcome back message from Dr. Smith. And these communications provided families with clear, timely updates and helped set a positive tone for the new school year. We've observed a current encouraging trends since launching this campaign. In the years before this effort, attendance rate for the first nine days of the school year were at 91 and 92% respectively. Since launching this campaign, those numbers have increased to
01796 over the past two years. While many factors contribute to attendance, this improvement aligns with the timing of our communication campaign, suggesting a positive impact. Our summer messaging focused on two main priorities. First, Dr. Smith's anchors amplifying student voice and leadership, enhancing professional learning communities, and strengthening partnerships. And also, Dr. Smith's commitment to safety highlighted through introductions and reinforcements of enhanced safety protocols from the I Love You guys Foundation. As this update will indicate, both priorities were evident throughout the first days of school. In alignment with Dr. Smith's anchors, our summer work amplified student voice and leadership strengthening partnerships. A significant milestone in this effort to amplify student voice was the formal launch of Dr. Smith's student superintendent student advisory council, who the board members had an opportunity to meet earlier this evening. And this
018council unites student leaders from each of our high schools, providing them with a platform to share perspectives and address important issues with their schools and with the broader community. We look forward to seeing how this remarkable group will use their voices collectively in the future. Perfect. An example of strengthening partnerships was District 300's participation in Project Backpack. At this event, more than 300 of our students received free backpacks, school supplies, and additional community resources at Elgen Community College. The day also featured a community resource fair and a family activity fair. We're deeply grateful to Elgen Community College for hosting and to our district staff who volunteered their time to support our families. During the first week of the school year, Dr. Smith and her administrative team visited 27 schools over three days. These visits continued
019to strengthen partnerships with students, staff, and families. Each morning began outside near the front entrance of the school where Dr. Smith and her team greeted students and families as they arrived. Once inside the building, the team assisted with helping students find their classrooms, open lockers, and set a positive tone for the day. Once the school day was underway, Dr. Smith and her team visited classrooms where we had opportunities to interact with students and observe them hard at work on their classwork. Other highlights included connecting with staff to show appreciation and support, being joined by board member board member Leslie Lamarca to reinforce the board's commitment to students and staff, and watching students on updated playgrounds play at Dundy Highlands in Meadowdale. We also had a chance to interact with preschool students at Tacy and in
020some cases help them put on their shoes when they fell off. And my personal favorite, providing support during kindergarten lunch where we have the opportunity to help students open milk cartons, bags of fruit snacks, and Capri Sun juice pouches. These activities help strengthen relationships and students and families and staff, ensuring a smooth start across all of our schools. As Dr. Smith has emphasized to her staff, students, the community, safety is her number one priority. We made sure that this commitment was reflected in our back to school efforts and throughout the opening days of school. This summer, District 300 formally introduced new safety protocols from the I Love You guys Foundation to prepare community for changes. We took several steps. First, we shared information about the safety protocols in our back-to school communications. We hosted a
021safety meeting led by a director of safety with local police officers and first responders, ensuring alignment across all stakeholder groups. and we conducted district-wide staff training so every team member was informed and prepared on the protocols. These efforts were clearly visible as we visited schools. We saw updated safety binders in every classroom. We saw signage posted prominently throughout school buildings. And most impressively, we observed our teachers doing an amazing job teaching our students about these new protocols. To conclude tonight's presentation, I'd like to return to Dr. Smith's welcome back message to our community. In her message, she wrote, "In district 300, we believe every child possesses a unique genius, something remarkable within them that is waiting to be discovered and nurtured. One of my greatest joys is watching our schools help children realize their potential
022and share it with the world." After visiting every school alongside Dr. Smith, I can confidently say that this vision is alive and well in our classrooms, in our hallways, and in the joyful faces of our students. The work that we have done to prepare for the school year through partnerships, through student voice, and through a deep commitment to safety has set a strong foundation for the school year. I'd like to leave you tonight with a brief video that runs under 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The video captures the energy of the students during the first few days of school, and it's a powerful reminder that the students are what makes District 300 truly great. [Music] Thank you. [Applause] >> Anthony, I have a quick question. Who took the photographs? primarily shot by Casey Defa. We
023also had assistance from an intern um Andrew Berkkey who is the son of Dr. Nikki Berkkey and Kathy Belgazar in our communications department. >> Awesome. Great job. Really great job. I just wanted to say um it was great looking back at that because so many days have gone by since then and um what is the favorite part of school visits for me other than being immersed in the kids is you get reconnected back to how hard our staff is really working to make it go dayto day right and in the beginning of the year you get that moment to just see them kicking it all off and how the energy was amazing. And so, um, I visit schools for sure monthly, a couple times a month if I can make it work. And, um, I'm
024just always super amazed at how great our staff is with making sure our kids have everything that they need. So, thanks for letting us butt in and be in the way, uh, to get some photos and have our cups filled for a cup filled for a couple days. I want to give a shout out to um Tom again's um group because I remember when I became a board member the infographics was something that we wouldn't making use of and I was like a big thing for me. I remember sitting in the room and talking to um him Anthony about it about us making um use of more infographics in our communication and whatnot. And I just want to thank you so much for doing that and now we're seeing the the the outcome of um
025doing stuff like that. Thank you so much. >> Else. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Summer capital projects overview. More great photos. So, and um update from Dr. Frank Williams and Mr. John Mikl. There he is. John, you're not in the back. I'm used to finding you over there in the back. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, good evening. And u that's a tough act to follow. Those kids are super cute. >> We'll just wait till John gets >> John and I are not super cute, so we'll do our best. >> Okay. Well, here it is. Our summer capital uh projects overview. So, good evening board members, Dr. Smith, fellow administrators, and community members. Tonight, we'll be covering the success of our summer capital maintenance projects. Thanks to our partners, Ala, Dubberry, Leget, and Lamp. And
026a huge huge thank you to our D300 staff members whose time and efforts helped to complete all of these projects. For the summer, we had a total of 53 work days. That's it. 53 work days from the end of the 2024 the 2425 school year to the start of the 2526 school year to complete 24 projects with an original budget of 28.4 million. We're still working on finalizing that. As you can imagine, we still have some invoices that are still to come in as we wrap up those particular projects. Here you see a picture of the new floor and that S walkway at Hampshire Ele Hampshire Elementary. Apologize. Hampshire Elementary. This new floor brightens the area and will save our staff time as it is much easier to clean and maintain. But just look how
027much brighter that space looks already. Here's a complete list of the projects that were undertaken. As you will see, these efforts span our entire 118 square mile district and impact every school, directly benefiting both students and staff. So, kudos to the board for its continued commitment to improving our educational facilities. Many of these projects have been funded through our cash reserves strategically built over the years. The district is financially committed to supporting all school buildings across the district, ensuring equitable access to safe, secure, and modern learning environments. While many districts are scaling back on capital expenditures, our board has chosen to prioritize and invest in ensuring that students and staff learn and work in modern, well-maintained facilities. But I do think it is important to recognize that reserves are also finite and the funds available
028today will not always be sufficient to support the larger scale projects that we continue to talk about in our master facility plans as we face those towards the future. As we continue advancing our master facility plan, our goal remains clear. Provide every student every student with a safe, supportive, and future ready learning environment. That's the goal of our master facility plan. This picture here you see is Dundy Middle School's cafe where the ceiling and lighting were improved to provide a brighter and safe environment. With that, I will now pass it over to John to discuss the projects in more depth and share some outstanding outcomes. >> Good evening board, Dr. Smith, community members and staff. I just want to thank you for uh having the opportunity to show you some of the projects we did
029this summer. I brought notes this time because last year I got so excited, which I am this year too, but I got kind of got a little off track, kept on going. I thought Dr. Smith was going to throw me out the side door after about 20 minutes. So, um first I want to take a moment and >> she wouldn't do that because she knows this is one of our >> I know she would. I know she would. I know. Um I think it was >> Mr. Herb was gonna do that. So, last year he was he wanted to go. So, anyway, I'm just kidding. Um, I just want to take a moment to thank my incredible team. Um, our facility manager, Rick Wger, our grounds manager, Paul Wilhof, and the heart and soul of
030our department. Makes everything go when we're out and about is, uh, Billy Dean, our department assistant. And I also want to recognize our building managers at the high schools. Dan Dole out at Hampshire, Steve Budnick at Jacobs, and Chris Whitib at uh, Dundy Crown. Um, and with with all that leadership, we still can't get it all done by ourselves, right? We have an amazing exceptional facilities staff of men and women that through communication and hard work were able to get these projects done along with our partners um in our 53day window span that we had. Um so I also want to thank our partners through with Bob St. Mary, our mechanical engineer uh designers, and then also Brian from Leit from sorry, Deubberry, and then Jay and Robin and Kelsey from Leit. And then we
031couldn't do any of this. They help us plan everything and then put it all on paper and then Chad Alexander, Jay Shack, and his team from LAMP help make it happen. Especially with our larger projects, they really do a great job working with all the vendors. And uh so we'll like we'll get started. I guess I'm running this thing this year. That's scary. Um, going back to my team, kind of started out on May 23rd, last day of school at about 10 minutes after school was out. We relocated supplies and furniture for 50 classrooms, 30 support rooms and storage rooms, three media centers, two gyms, and one main office in one evening. We had that all ready to go for our our contractors to get that done. Um, and then at the end, we had
032it all back as as our buildings were turned back over to us. I'm going to talk about some of these are some of our projects with our team. We'll talk about that as we go through pictures. And then our projects with our partners. Um here you see the uh Westfield Choir flooring in our bandwing. We did all new flooring with antimicrobial carpet um to help with that. Kind of same stuff we put in our preschool classrooms. So um let's get started on the pictures. So Hampshire Elementary, get to my notes here. 1962 is the original the this how old this building is. And six years ago, uh, we remodeled the original wing, the straight hallway that goes right down there, new flooring, lights, other other upgrades for the 1975 and 95 edition. We did that
033this year. 12 classrooms along with the media center. Um, you can see the old media center. Principal Nolan and her team, when they showed me the sample that they wanted to go with in the carpet, I wasn't thrilled with it, but they did an amazing job. When you see the large picture of that put in there, it is amazing. And as Dr. Williams touched on uh the notorious serpentine hallway really got a facelift going from carpet and dingy to the new VC tile and night nice and fresh. I keep on forgetting I got to do this new got a complete major facelift. Original part of the building is 1964. Um, we ended up doing 21 classrooms, eight support spaces, media center, main office, hallways, stairwells, a kitchen refresh, and we decided to throw a new
034roof on the building, too, since we were there. Um, so all new flooring went in there. As you see on the bottom left, the media center got carpet along with our uh main office. New stairwell treads and risers there. The hallway, if you had been in there, was showing some serious uh just starting to show the cracks and and the the wear and tear. So, we got an all new floor hallway. Um, our kitchen was complete original from 1962. So, they got a complete facelift. New resin flooring, new equipment, new steam table, new oven. We switched all from gas to electric. So, that was and that's uh two of our guys there. We did the kitchen remodel uh in house on that one. Westfield, three years Westfield. We've been working on 23 24 we did
035all the classrooms switched from carpet and then in all our classrooms districtwide a standard that has made a huge difference in our summer cleaning is switching from carpet or anything to LVT which is called luxury vinyl tile. You do not have to wax this product. You don't have to, you know, scrub it down, take the wax off and put new fresh wax on. This is you go in, you move everything, clean it, disinfect it, sanitize it, and put everything back. It has made a huge impact on enabling us to get classrooms turned back over to teaching staff and the buildings earlier every year which is which has been huge and it also enables our staff to do more things like paint areas and do other projects in the building. So Westfield this year we attacked
036the hallways um the 30-year-old carpet in the hallways is now gone. We actually discovered too some a bunch of cleanouts that were just covered by carpet with the original uh construction. So that our that made our plumber very happy because now he can if if there's any issues, he's got that taken care of. The PDC is on the left that got a whole new facelift with the carpet. And then the really uh the top-notch part I thought was the library. Uh we did uh working with our purchasing department. They got all new furniture, bookcases, everything, new carpeting. Our district painters spent a ton of time there making sure everything was perfect. Then our staff also updated to LED lighting. Um, also the stairwells, we did uh LED upgrades in the gyms, the cafeteria, and then
037all the exterior lighting. That was our last school that has LED that that was not LED lighting for the outside. So, Westfield is looking pretty good these days. A big change. Dundy Middle School, another three-year project. And we actually called our construction manager said, "Hey, you ready for phase four?" And he has not returned my call since. So, um, I think he's good to go. Uh, this is our geothermal system that we put in. This is a building was built in 1978. It was an all electric building if you're familiar with those from the 70s because electric was cheap then not so cheap now. So um we our equipment was 47 years old HVAC equipment. It was not supported by the manufacturer anymore. So it was failing falling apart. So we dug 96 wells about
038500 feet deep to the north of the building. Can't see them anymore. They're all underneath the surface. that brings in 50 degree 54 degree cool water that helps cool the building in the summer. We have a doaz unit which is our fresh air intake and also high efficiency boilers that heats that water in the in the in the winter to be able to turn over to heat. This is one of our only buildings where we can switch back now from heat and cooling. Instead of you know having a certain date you have to do it, we can switch over on the dime. So that's that's a plus there. Um you can see in the middle that's the cafeteria on the top uh when we gutted it all and then the bottom the nice new ceiling
039grid, ceiling tile and LED lighting. On the right you can see the duck work getting ready and going up there um on the top picture and then the finished product on the bottom right there. Duny Crown teacher lounge. Um this space was not really efficiently used or set up right for a staff lounge. It had kind of like the group bathrooms and it was very just very dark. There was no natural light in. So, we were able to one on the far right you can see we were able to create some wellness rooms areas. Uh those were kind of spread around the building in closet spaces that we could find. So, this is great all located in one location. Individualized lockers there in that middle hallway area. And then um the the main area with
040the food, it has a duplicate kitchen setup that you know on the side where we're taking the picture from. And then the best part I think we added there was some natural light through the uh through the hallway. Um every time I've been in there since then, staff seemed to be very happy with it. And then individual bathrooms as well. So if you have any questions, you can stop me at any time. District concrete replacement. This is an annual process where we go through look for failing concrete throughout the district. Um this year there was some the top left there that is East View Elementary the main entrance. Uh the bottom left is AMS. Bottom right is Dundy Crown main entrance and then the top right is Westfield near the PDC and then the teachers
041entrance door 4. We did 8,000 square feet of concrete this year. To give you equivalent that's a 4 foot wide sidewalk about five football fields long. So that's that's how much we were able to replace this summer. Jacobs High School and Dundy Middle School new tracks. The original uh the the last overlay or the last track at uh Dundy Middle School was 2002. It was showing some wear and tear along the tree line and on the north side. So we did a complete overlay there and changed some things with the uh shotput area making that more uh suitable for the students. at Jacobs uh in 2011 uh two track two lanes were added on the outside and then it was resurfaced again in 2018. We were showing some major wear there that was a complete
042gut redo. Uh we were also able to add some areas in the uh the high jump area as well kind of like crown last year for the students. See playground improvements. Oh. Um, we have a robust system that involves custodian, building custodians, maintenance staff, facility, and building administration that that um inspect the playgrounds, check the playgrounds throughout the year. We also annually do a uh one all big inspection with a certified playground um safety inspector. And then we also make replacements. We replaced a bunch of like the chain climbers, the clatter bridges, uh some decking uh in the playgrounds, but then also we were able to through a grant this year, we were able to get six shades as you see there. The top right that's the Lacy and then the bottom left is Liberty.
043We're able to add four ones at other schools that had prek programs for and make it a little cooler for the students and the staff. The bottom right is a picture of East View. We also this summer did two refreshes on our mulch. As the mulch gets deeper and deeper, it starts to break down, turns into soil. So, we removed a total between East View and Westfield uh 17 semi- loads of of old mulch. We actually did not know I mean I've been here eight years. I did not know there was a concrete barrier around East View. It's kind of like an archae archaeological dig when we found it. Everybody's excited and I think the kids probably thought the playground grew over the summer because we added about two feet to it that we took
044off. So, we got that going for us. So, playground replacement moving forward whenever we replace it, we're looking for a more standardized safe environment for the students that they can enjoy the same experience at Meadowdale, at Dundy Highlands, and anywhere else. So, the components are the same. They are just different colors um at the two schools. Uh this is Dundy Highlands here. We had a little bit of uh ADA um it was higher up on the the hill so we brought it down centralized location. So um make that a little more accessible and put in a ramp into the playground at Meadowdale. It's kind of a more I guess a drone view. Um we also had an issue there. Old old piece old pieces of equipment. one of the oldest in the district. Also close
045to Route 25 was kind of like look at that as a safety issue there. So, we were able to move that back against the the baseball field there. And um our surfaces now will also go from mulch to the port and place rubber. And I I will say this, everybody has a little kid inside of them. If you haven't been out there, go check it out. I It's so cool how like how squishy it is. It's kind of It's like I think they're making them extra squishy these days. I don't know. But um Anthony had some great pictures of students playing. Thought that was great. Uh that that made me really happy seeing the the the final product there with the kids on it. Uh Crowns tennis courts. This was not an overlay. It was
046starting to show start sorry starting to show some serious cracks and uh just some wear and tear. So complete tear out, new drainage instead of con the poles in the past. Um, and after you after the project was approved, we had that storm that came through that knocked part of our fence down. So, it's kind of like, ah, glad we picked the right one there. And but we also found that those poles were just jammed into the ground with concrete. Here, what we did was we put them inside the concrete barrier, so they're in sleeves, a lot stronger. Um, see the logo there in the middle, and it was open and ready for the first day of school. So, really excited about that. In fall of 2024, we engaged with one with a with our
047um traffic partner to come up with a new pattern as we had a queue that that was out onto Route 72 and a safety hazard. Uh we brought multiple options to the board. Uh you guys chose the one that that got rid of the least amount of parking spaces but was also the most conservative financially. Um, I am happy to announce I was there on day one and talking with principal Lebri, he's like, "We usually get in everybody in at 9:30 on an average day. Now, day one, everybody wanted to take pictures of little Jeremiah and little Amy, you know, where where can we take pictures?" And we were trying to move them through. We got everybody in the school by 9:10, 20 minutes better than their average. So, um, we're really excited about that.
048We worked extensively with the uh West Dundee park district uh the park the police and then also um assistant superintendent Burquette Berkkey sorry and also um Leo uh principal Lee did a great job with their staff getting them ready for it and also the community I guess he made a video driving through really cool classroom safety project uh along with the uh the top priority for Dr. Smith. And along with our new safety protocols, we did a consistency project adding um ident uh indicators on every uh classroom door in the district. It's hard to capture this project in pictures because there's so much behind the scenes. It's all electrical and infrastructure. I will say if you happen to go to one of the performances last year at either Jacobs or Crown, you really got to
049see what our project was going on here this year at Carp Carpentersville Middle School and Jacobs High School. When the show started, the lights came up, new high-tech LED lighting, new sound, new uh wireless microphones, new um new video enhancements. Um it really put the cherry on the top of our talented students and staff and their performances and we got a lot of great reviews last year. We're really excited. So if you're not doing anything on a Wednesday or whenever they do a performance, I'd say go out to Jacobs this year or any of our auditoriums now. And as we are consistent across the board for our lighting and and sound. So really excited about that project as well. Our HVAC and electrical projects. This was more in-house. Um on the left side we did
050we put two two new rooftop units in at Gilbert's and Crown. Um also the top the middle top picture showing some of our guys working on a unit over Lake in the Hills replacing some fan motors and coils. Um for the electrical side we did uh Carbonville Middle School asked us to put in uh electric hand hand dryers for all the bathrooms. So we did that. We worked extensively with the tech department with camera installs and upgrades. And then you see some lighting there. That's the uh library media center at Westfield and also the gym at Dundy Middle School. One highlight if you look on that bottom left, I wanted to highlight the conditions of some of our work staff when and the dedication on that extended heat wave we had that was brutal. Um
051that is 150 degrees.8 at 10 o'clock in the morning. So that's the surface of our roofs. Um, and our guys were up there making sure getting, you know, we had some failures in the beginning of some of our equipment, some some some breakdowns, and those guys were up there working hard getting those things fixed and and new parts in. So, just want to show you that. Uh, Golf View, Lakewood, and Oakidge got new intercom clocks, uh, an upgrade for the for the buildings. We we worked over spring break this year to get ahead of the game. Uh because in the past we were rushing the um the training and everything after the institute days like when everybody was back and need to focus on other things. So running the home runs and all the all
052the wires during spring break enabled us to have all these projects done early and they got staff trained before uh institute days. So it was great. We had them all in one classroom over at Oakidge learning about the system and uh moving forward on that. So, that was that was a huge success with that earlier project. Dundy Crown, we found some uh underlying uh water damage in the old main gym, which they kind of use as a cafeteria now. So, you can see there along the bleachers that was on the south side of the of the gym, we had to replace all that wood. And then the nice thing is the fi the final product product of sanding the whole thing down and repainting it really brightened it up along with new lights in the
053gym, LED lights. Other highlights. I got ahead of my notes. Give me a second here. Get caught back up. Covered all this. All right. Sorry, my hands are dry. Every summer, our ground staff refreshes and adds new amazing um designs. If you see in the top right, some of the schools come up with some really cool ones that they get for sensory and just for kids to uh be engaged on the playground. So, our staff goes around with work orders and paints them, gets them ready to go for the school year. Um, within two weeks of school starting this year, bottom left you see that's New Elementary. Every flower bed was trimmed, bushes trimmed, edged, and mulch was applied. Um, our team supported the installation also of the University of Illinois grant that funded the
054uh the new garden, the raised garden outside of Carpetville Middle School. They had a lot of fun with that one. This was our second year working with the 1833 Leadership Academy. This year we saw 45 team members go through an eight-week training on the pillars of leadership. Gotten some great re uh feedback from our guys wanting a second round. They're asking like, "Hey, when are you going to do round two?" So, we're really excited about that and we're looking forward to get more people involved in that. We're part of a a group called SEM, which is strategic energy management. Um it's a it's a free group that we signed up for through Commed and Nyore and they help us with um finding rebates, different ways we can save energy and then they also give us
055goals and this year we saved from our goals we saved 720,000 kilowatt hours which is the equivalent of powering 64 homes for one year. 64 average homes. Now along with that and setting our goals we we will be receiving the district a check for a little over $37,000 as a rebate for those savings. So, we're really excited about that. And it was our out of the four years, this was our best year as far as um you know, seeing those savings and then also getting money back. Um seal coating, we seal coated over 727,000 square feet this summer and striped. And for anybody that likes soccer, I think we have a couple board members that do. Um that's the equivalent of 13 FIFA officialsiz soccer fields. So, bigger than football fields. So um and I
056just want to thank you again for your support. Uh my department is an honor and a privilege to lead this team and work with our partners. Uh we are very proud of all the work we do under the leadership of Dr. Williams, Mark Wetzel, and Dr. Smith, our superintendent, and um the continued support from the board of moving our our district into the future. So we're really excited, and I just want to thank you. I want to thank you. I mean, you know that this is my favorite time. I say that every year because it's true. Um, just the amount of money just for the people at home especially for the the amount of money we saved by doing a lot of this with your crew with your with your people in house is is
057really good. And um, a lot of place a lot of the places would have wouldn't have bothered, you know, they wouldn't do that to go out of their way to save money for the district. Um, but you can always tell that they do they enjoy what they do. You know, they always seem to go the extra mile and you have a really really good team and if you could just tell them from us that we really do appreciate everything they do all, you know, every every year and all throughout the year, we'd appreciate that. But thank you, John. It's like like I said, it's my favorite my favorite meeting of the year. >> My pleasure. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Yeah, I I would add to that and just say John and team, you know,
058what you're doing to enhance the learning environments is is is palpable. You know, you you we see some pictures, but those of us that have visited know that we have aging schools and aging grounds and you all go out and identify them with our building leaders. And these summer projects take care of so many of those those issues. And to you know, Miss Zetler's point of we're doing a lot of it in house. We do a lot of it with our partners. But at the end, what it's doing is creating a better environment for both our students and our staff when they come in and walk in and see that picture at Newberg. And last fall, and I was visiting, I think with you all about playgrounds and we saw the weeds and things like
059that. There's a difference there. There's a difference for everybody to walk into a building that they feel um proud about. So, well done. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Just want to say thank you for everything. I think it's exciting times for the kids coming to school, finding out like all the improvements. I'm kind of excited myself just seeing all the cool stuff. I will share um I was sucked into the playground and the new flooring that is there and it's super bouncy. Um much better than mulch because I remember elementary principal days finding the mulch in your shoes need to dump your shoes out as the principal at recess and those new playgrounds and that flooring is amazing. The canopies are amazing. Of course, I've seen all of this up close, intimately,
060and so, um, the work that the team has done is beautiful. Um, staff are enjoying, uh, new spaces, uh, things that we've waited years to see improved in our district. Um, which leads me right into continuing um, to focus on all of the things that we need to work on at because as Steve mentioned, our buildings are aging. um we are after innovation for our students. We're after um what's next and the best. And so um we have to continue all those things. So I'll jump right into um talking about our master master facility plan community engagement program. As Mrs. Jennifer Vulk joins me at the podium. I will uh open us up to a little resetting about what's next with our facilities. And John, thank you again to you and the team. um looking
061forward to uh one of those breakfasts again soon to thank them for all the work over the summer. Good evening again. In 2024, district 300 engaged in stu um student staff and families and community members in a collaborative process to assess the condition of our district facilities and ensure um that we had a master facility plan that reflected the community's needs. With that, we also want to continue to reflect what we heard about expectations for the future of our district facilities. I thank everyone that participated in all that work in that previous year. Um, what we have today in our master facility plan reflects the time, insight, and commitment to the future of our schools. Tonight, I'm proud to present a formal charge sheet that align outlines the next phase of our work on the
062master facility plan. The next phase invites even more community members to join the conversation. The charge sheet before the board tonight enables us to continue strengthening partnerships with our community by empowering them to take the lead in supporting some uh in determining how we should progress next. Specifically, the charge sheet calls for the establishment of a facilitating team that is consisted of various community members, board members, district staff, and professional advisors. This team would lead the engagement process, creating space for everyone to provide input, share ideas, and shape priorities for the moving plan forward for moving the plan forward. Sorry, lots of talking tonight. This is a community-led effort from beginning to end and respectfully um we recommend to the board to approve the charge sheet later in tonight's meeting. At this time, I'll turn
063it over to Mrs. Jennifer Vog from Discovery Works Collaborative who will continue this presentation. >> Good evening. It's good to see all of you again. Um I'm here tonight to provide an update on where we are with the community engagement program and how we're going to get things rolling here in the next few months. So, I know you've seen this map and we'll come back to this um throughout the process just to provide an update with where we are. So, we are still in step one and the first step is really developing the facilitating team that Dr. Smith just mentioned. We're looking for 20 to 25 community members that are really going to help lead the community engagement process and to help us make sure that we're hearing from all of those diverse voices that
064make up your community as a whole to help decide what are the best ways to implement the facility master plan and what type of schools do we expect for our community. This group will help develop the community engagement activities and potentially some workshops and things like that throughout this engagement process. Um, I would like to note that the facilitating team is really in charge of process as I mentioned. So, they are going to be coordinating and facilitating and making sure that everything is open and authentic and that information is understandable and that the community is being heard throughout this process. the community that is participating um in the workshops and we're going to be doing building tours and things like that. They're actually going to help determine what is in that final report that is
065presented to you in June. When we think about developing that facilitating team, there's a lot of things that we look at. We want to make sure that we're getting a good mix of community members. We want differing people at the table. Um we often look at it as almost a microcosm of your community in one group. And so these are just some of the things that we look at to make sure we have a good mix. Um, as far as building that, there is an application process that will be opening tomorrow, provided that you approve the charge this evening and all of that information will be available on the district website and we would encourage anybody in the community that would like to be involved to apply. Um, that first meeting will start off in
066October and then that recruitment as I mentioned will begin following that charge adoption. The other thing that we have seen work well in other communities is nominations. And so that form um on the district website will also accept nominations for the facilitating team if anybody has ideas of other community members that might be good for that role. We are getting started on the online survey that we've mentioned a few times. Um, and that will be an opportunity for the community to provide some input on the district, where the facility plan is so far, and other ways that we can gather input and make sure that we're reaching everybody in the community. We look forward to presenting those results to you hopefully by the end of October. So, the next step as far as finishing up
067step one is that board charge that you have in front of you this evening. This really defines the purpose and the goal of where we're headed over the next year or so with this community engagement program. Helps guide the work and provides some accountability to that facilitating team as far as what their role is, what that timeline looks at, and what type of feedback you as a board are looking for as you plan for the future of your school facilities. Hey, any questions on that piece? Thank you. >> That concludes the superintendent report. >> I just want to step on your toes. >> I think that's the longest one since we came back. So, we're rolling. We're back. >> But it's been good. It was really good. >> Um, item 10, board discussion. Are there
068any updates regarding the following board committees um operations? >> Yes, our next meeting is Tuesday, September 9th at 4:30. I encourage people to attend and if they can't attend to watch the recording of the meeting as a lot of the things that we vote on in these meetings are discussed at that meeting in more detail. >> Okay. Uh superintendent evaluation committee. >> Um no updates. >> Okay. >> Um policy, no updates at this time either. And remember handbook. Nope, nothing else. But kind of took the summer off. Um, anybody have anything that they want to talk about or share? No. Okay. All right. So, then on to item 11, consent items. Consent items less than 35,000 are standard procedure items or items that have been previously viewed and discussed at the board operations committee and
069um meeting and need to no further discussion. Is there a motion to approve the consent items less than $35,000? >> Second. >> Um secretary madam secretary please take the role. >> Mckende I fantina hi. Burkett. >> Hi, >> Lindmark. >> Hi, >> Zeer. >> Hi, >> M. I'm sorry, Melia. >> Hi, >> Lamar. I Motion passes 70. >> Okay. Item 12, consent items over $35,000. Consent items over $35,000 have been previously reviewed and discussed at the board operations committee also and need no further discussion. Is there a motion to approve the consent items over $35,000? Okay. Madam Secretary, please take the role. >> Mckende. >> Hi. >> Meia. >> Hi. >> Zeer. >> Hi. >> Burket. >> I. >> Fearantino. >> I. >> Barka. I >> Lindmark. >> I. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank
070you. Moving on to item 13. Roll call action items. 13.1. Is there a motion for the approval of the charge sheet for the MFP community engagement program? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Madam Secretary, please take the role. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um, I just wanted to say, um, I appreciate the board supporting us hopefully in this next step of the process and really looking forward to getting more community engagement as we are at the last round before we make some final decisions about the future of our schools. >> Absolutely. We're all about community engagement. So, any other discussion? >> Madam Secretary, please take the role. >> Mckende, >> I >> Melia, >> hi. Lamar I Lidmark >> I >> Zeller >> I >> Theantino >> I >> and Burkett
071>> I >> motion passes 70 >> item 14 is there a motion to go into close session for the purpose of discussing one the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the P public body 2C1 number two litigation 2C11 number three student disciplinary Case 2C9 and four, security procedures, um, school building safety and security, and the use of personnel to respond to an actual or threatened or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees, students, staff, the public, or public property to C8. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Madam Secretary, please take the role. >> Lamar, I Mckende, >> I. >> Zeer, I hi. Burkett >> I >> and Lindmark >> I motion passes 70. >> Okay. Um we plan on no action to be taken after the close session.
072That's good. to see tomorrow.